Oh yeah, I was keeping a blog...

Oopsala, as they say. So what have I been off doing? I'll show you what I've been doing...

Even the cherub knows this is serious business.

I've been doing my best to take advantage off all that Vienna's music scene has to offer, from Maghrebi/Viennese jazz fusion to opera to chamber music. I saw three operas last week at the Staatsoper, which is a beautiful space and, just like the Musikverein, much more intimate than say, the Met or Disney Hall. I'm thinking this weekend it's time to go back to the jazz club, Porgy and Bess. Maybe I'll even sneak over to Adolf Loos's American Bar for a cocktail afterwards. One needs to do these things right.

This is not to say that it's all been fun and games here in alte Wien. I am just about halfway through my grant period, which runs from March 1 to June 30, and so I am increasingly aware of the research deadlines. Having come a month early and hit the jackpot at the Festival archives in Salzburg, I've got a nice cushion. Truth be told, if that's all I went home with, it would be enough for an article or two and supplement the book project nicely. That said, I really want to have a better idea of Bernstein's impact in Vienna.

So, it would be nice if the Vienna Philharmonic Archives would step up like their counterpart in Salzburg... but no dice.

My coping strategy? (Besides Eis Greissler?) The Österreichische National Bibliothek... librarians to the rescue, again. Nothing beats hands on work--like looking at roll after roll of microfilm (of newspapers and other periodicals)--for making your feel like a real reception scholar. Hopefully I'll eventually wheedle the official programs and performance history out of the Vienna Philharmonic/Vienna State Opera, so I can have the other half of the story. And there will be institutional documents from the Wiener Konzerthaus, which was actually the place Bernstein first conducted in Vienna anyway (with the Wiener Symphoniker, not the Philharmonic). Nothing beats a good connection from a colleague and an institution that wants you to do research there.

This is all to say that I've not done much sight-seeing since the Sisi Museum (the ever so slightly creepy shrine to all things Kaiserin Elisabeth) and the Schatzkammer (which houses the Crown of Charlemagne... no biggie). I have, however, made time to snap some photos of interesting architecture as I bounce between the Hofburg complex (which houses the ONB) and my two universities.

These are from a walk in the sixth district, back toward the Ring.

One of many, many public housing buildings, only this one is from the 80s rather than the 20s or 40s.

Jugendstil doorway

Hause des Meeres (the aquarium, built into an old anti-aircraft tower).

On Mariahilferstraße, at the intersection of Baroque religiosity and modernist capitalism.

And spring comes to Minoritenplatz (which is where I get off the Ubahn to head for the ONB).

I think this is supposed to be Vienna and the Danube.

I have no idea what the two spires are, though.

Spring also means lots of biking and strolling around the city...

In the Volksgarten, a fake Greek temple with the neo-Gothic Rathaus behind.

The gate to Hundertwasserhaus on the Donaukanal Radweg (the bike/walking path along the Danube canal).

 And proof that I just can't stay away from the Secession building...

And this is my version of traffic on the way to work... this flag is up on internal courtyard of the Hofburg because that's where the Bundespräsident greeted the Prime Minister of Palestine today. Which meant pomp and circumstance... circumstances being it was impassible for an hour or so.

There are three different university holidays this month that fall on a Wednesday or Thursday, so I've got three weeks in which I only teach one class or the other. That, and my folks are coming to visit, so you can expect more tourist-type pictures soon.

For now, here's a bonus pic... statues in the Hofburg fountains on Michaelerplatz making "derp faces."