Oh. My Gawwd....

I do not know why, but the first time I heard the word 'Gustav', I got the creeps.

I wish for my friends to be safe and not do heroics, just do what they CAN.

I wish for them to be safe.

And 'if' it messes up the Rethug convention, well... They fucking deserve it. I hope it is the August Surprise for them.

But not at the expense of people's lives.

This scares me.

You don't get sumthin' for nuthin'

as my late mother used to say.

So what do the Klintons get for backing Barack at the convention? Hmmmmm? Secretary of State? What. Besides saving their reps as the most right-wing side of the Dem party ever....

Tja, caught up with yesterday's speeches on my super-channel. Question? Why the fuck is this a Klinton convention so far? Oh, I know, they are gonna re-unite the party after nearly destroying it, and all.... And save their reputations. But WHY would they do that? They are very vindictive, so the story goes...

Nope. There must be something else.

I really dislike that pair, I really do. And when they come and want to blame the Rethugs for things they themselves set in the world, I see red. Export of firms to 'elsewhere'? With losses of jobs? Oh yeah, NAFTA. Which Bill created. Yes, that was one HELL of a good move....

And of all the speeches I have heard so far, yeah, they want equal rights for all races, women should earn as much as men, (which is good), and on and on. But once again, gender issues get ignored. Not surprising from the asshole who invented 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. That was so absurd, I can't begin to explain....

Joe Biden gave a good speech. I knew of him, but not much. I think he won some contour.

He was good.

Larry King is driving me insane. He gets panels of Repubes to comment on the days' events, and wants Dems to do the same next week. I can't stomach more than fifteen minutes of that trash, even though the panel seems to have kept from going 'below the belt'. I just can't look at their faces. Disgusting.

But at least they seem weak on the spin......

The Democratic Convention.... hmmmm...

We are very lucky here to get a sat channel that broadcasts the most important speeches with a very good simultaneous translator. Whereas the other channels take sound bytes out of context, they bring the entire speeches, and have a political expert from a university who knows his stuff, and analyses. So we have been watching the convention in Denver, oh yes...

Am I allowed to say I am 'underwhelmed'? Well, I am. Hillary's speech was, 'gotta do it or I can go home and learn how to run the washing machine, God forbid.' Too little, and waay too late.

From what I learned on the internets just now, it doesn't get better. And I was very surprised that the blogger 'Billmon' came out of retirement, and .wrote THIS

uh uh.... Nope. Sappy. No.

I would wish that people get elected for what they can DO, not what color their skin is, or what gender they are.

Ted Kennedy? Peter pipes up with, 'I heard these promises twenty years ago, and did they DO it?'

Bingo.

Dennis Kucinich? Now there would have been a really frightening candidate, although his message is good.

But with his boxing stances, and hyperness, ....

I thought, hey, the guy is on crystal meth....

And all this SHIT about 'I'm a good mother'. And fucking family values. Give me a fucking break, hey.

They tell you what you want to hear.....

Ohh, that was NIce!!! Really NICE.

Back from the movies... It was a long-standing date. With my ex-colleague, who enjoys musicals as much as I do. Her shift ended at three but she didn't get out in time for that showing, so we walked over to my square, to the Café Palermo, where she got fresh-made Sicilian ice cream, and I had corfee, and we just chatted about God and the world till it was time to go to the next showing. It was very nice.

Then we moseyed over to the cineplexx nearby, a very beautiful one, excellently conceived and carried out, and saw the ABBA musical, 'Mamma Mia!' I had always thought it was one of those horrendous revues with ABBA music. But nope.

It has a full story line, and puts the music into it, very naturally. So there is this mother, you see, and her daughter finds out shortly before her wedding that her mother had three affairs the summer she was conceived. So she invites all three possible fahters to her wedding. It begins the day before the event, and all arrive. Chaos ensues. Of course the daughter can't tell which of the three is her father, and she is trying to hide their prescence from her mother. Which doesn't work at all, of course, and from the get-go. It was very amusing. The mother has two wild women with whom she was in a band in her youth. One of them was Christiane Baranski, who can make me laugh tears, and can sing terrifically well.

Meryl Streep plays the mother. She has a very nice mezzo-soprano voice and was very, very impressive. Especially with 'The Winner Takes it All'. Raised the hair on my arms. Christiane Baranski had a show-stopping number. A clinging cabana boy she is with the night before, and wants more, which turns into 'Does Your Mother Know That You're Out'. (As in: not at home, chicky...) And she slaps him down. I was doubled over, laughing... If she doesn't get an Oscar nomination just for that turn, there is no justice in the world.

These are just first impressions. Pierce Brosnan should have refused his role. He's ok, but very thin voice. Otherwise: Lots of power, lots of energy, wonderful ideas in carrying out the choreography, not a minute of boredom, and of course, the music.

The Björn guy of ABBA, I don't know his last name, seemingly wrote two or three new songs for the musical I had never heard before. They were ballads, and beautifully done. It ends with a wedding, but not the one you expected. And an absolutely hilarious 'Take A Chance On Me' at the reception, and then a very quiet 'I Had A Dream'.

If you see it, don't leave then. The power ladies do two encores in 70's costumes, and it leaves you smiling broadly.

So yes, nothing heavy, but a hell of a good time if you grew up with that music. And Meryl Streep lights up any screen, it is uncanny. My brother hates her. All he saw was Kramer vs. Kramer, and she was so good, and it hit him so hard, am willing to bet he never saw anything with her in it again.

Sometimes you just NEED a 'feel-good' movie to take your mind off things for two hours, and that was soooooo nice.....

And fun to have someone to share it with.

Just sayin'....

Yeah, double 'Standards' once again....

As if the MSM had any...

In all the reporting on gold medal winners, they gave you every detail you never wanted to know about them, their families, their histories, diets, gawd knows what....

One of the most moving moments for me was this heavy-weight class weight lifter from Vienna who fell in love on the internets, moved to Germany, took citizenship there not long ago, and then his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident eighteen months ago. His joy at winning was indescribable to watch.

At the award ceremony, he held up the medal, and a photo of his wife, because he wanted her 'to be there, because she believed in me.' It choked me up, that gesture, and I don't want to know what he went through to get it. The media tried to turn it into a sob-story, but he wasn't having any. And he headed them off at the pass, and said, it was HIS acheivement, but she had believed in him, so he wanted her to be there, although he felt that she WAS anyway. Slap-down. So he 'brought her along', as it was.

The other side of the picture is in the link in the title. Remarkable story, especially as the meme goes, you can't be openly gay in sports and win a gold medal. And the homophobia there is so great, one of the last great bastions of, 'Oh no, not possible.' Well seemingly it IS. Why can't people just grow UP, hey. And what a role model for young people who get dumped on every day of their lives and made to believe they are inferior, and sometimes commit suicide? His acheivement shows 'you can DO it.' And that would be a good thing.

If it weren't for the ASSHOLES who make up stupid rules, and do the same on the side themselves...

There was a link to this at one am on the AP in Yahoo that I didn't follow, as I was having troubles with Lazarus, but caught it today. And that one went down the memory hole so fast, you can't find it any more.

Ok, enough for disgusted. Have to get ready for a date. Going to the movies.

Another odd week so far.....

The Olympics continue apace, the German moderators keep me in stitches for laughing, because they think they are the ONLY experts in the world, right behind the Americans.... And for whoever wins, do I have to say this AGAIN? It was their own personal ambition and hard work that got them to those medals, and NATIONS had nothing to do with it. But it is a hell of a lot of fun to see people whine live on tee-vee.

Personally, there were set-backs, and some surprising news I hadn't been told before.

Peter was Peter and let a time limit slip so he probably won't get the new apt. My foot was still hurting too badly to kick it up his ass and get him into gear.

At this point, I think I broke something small in there, and it still swells....

Which of course makes me more than irritable...

Today one of our former chancellors passed away. He never wanted that post, and was very unhappy with it. I felt bad about it. He did what he could.

And the press treated him like shit.

I had to talk to my former boss yesterday. Do NOT ASK.

And because of the last post, my Dad addresses me as Grazillan, which I found hilarious. Why didn't I think of that before? I would have named the whole blog Grazilla Meets Bambi.

It really gave me the giggles.

Tja. One day up, the next one down, hey....

Well, THIS is interesting.....

Lobbyists! Fuckers!

I was right to smell a RAT.

And FUCKING CONDI!

That ineffectual excuse for a human being.....

You will have to excuse me. But I get really off the charts for extremely angry when it comes to that stupid twit..

Just another corporate whore, hey...

Who gets an oil tanker named after her, HUH? An OIL TANKER.

And who gets to go shopping for one thousand dollar pairs of shoes at Ferragamos in New York, visit a popular musical (and get booed for it), and a grand-slam tennis tournament in Flushing while poor African American people are drowning in New Orleans? I threw up, hey, and will NEVER forget that insult to all humanity.

And NOW she is out there, threatening the RUSSIANS?

Give ME a break

Someties I think, this is what 'through the looking glass' is-----

But Mcinsane, oh he is one wonderful candidate.. If you want to set the fucking WORLD on fire....

Whatever..

My Dad just gave me the moniker Grazilla for this one. It makes me so proud I could spiti, but get out of the way.... it might be radioactive....

Some things leave you spitless... Yes, they do

I made the mistake of surfing the internets.

Sen. McInsane parroted the most incompetent Dumbya. In the 21st century one does not invade sovereign nations.

Whaa???

We DON'T????

WHAA????

Were mistakes made, or something?

Leaving aside the estimated two thousand Georgians who died the past few days, and displaced tens of thousands who had their existance ruined.... tragic enough...

Did they forget about Iraq? And what they DID there? And are STILL doing?

Oh yeah, got it now. There's this big oil pipeline that runs from Russia through Georgia, you see. Says our bitches in the media....

So what the hell.... What is two thousand innocent civilian dead compared to keeping the fucking OIL flowing...

Hypocrisy. Pure and simple. And disgusting.

There are a mess of people who belong behind bars, but we will never see it. But they make me literally SICK.

It is fun watching the Olympics....

Over here. Really.

I so hate the reporters, but this year, the Germans are OUTdoing themselves... nationalitstic? GIVE me a BREAK, hey...

And they whine so much... It is wonderful. I love it when they whine.

But this year, they topped themselves, really. Peter and I cracked up over the narration. There was the ladies long street race on bicycles. And of COURSE, the Germans were the favourites. It was hell in a pouring rain, and I said, 'Oh! look. An Austrian in the forefield!' They were off the charts for 'no, this can't be happenining.' She came in fourth. Which is horrible for an athlete, but those are the breaks, you know? And the GERMAN moderator was just off the charts for stunned, and comes up with, 'But she was BORN in Germany.' Uh-Huh. The German ladies placed 21st and 22nd place.

Any of youse guys want to do a U-turn and claim Hitler was born in Austria? (I have seen the house, btw. not remarkable in any way...)


Whelp, they are hungry for medals, the Germans are. At home I turn off the sound, and try to concentrate on what is happening.

What I hate is how they build up their athletes beforehand, 'we're the BEST' and then tear them down live on tee-vee when they don't do what they were expected to.

It is really disgusting.

Having been there once before, all I know is that it isn't about NATIONS. It is abo0ut people. People who have sacrificed a lot to train, and try to win, and it is an honour to even participate. That is how they see it, and I KNOW this. For them, it isn't about country, it is personal. I know that too. Anyone who gets that far is a hero in my eyes, and should get respect.

But the reporting.... oh my. You either laugh or throw up.

Mostly I laugh. They can be so absurd in their nationalistic ardour, I crack up.

And no, the Austrians aren't any better. I just can't get the channels because I need a new box since they went to digital. My ABSOLUTE favorite was the late Sigi Bergmann. He had me in paraxosms of laughter. He'd go NUTS over the physical qualities of men, that it was oh-ful. But it was never nationalistic...

The Germans had a woman doing the narration during the kayak stuff today, and she was so extreme., I said, 'ohmygod... That is Sigi Bermann's ghost speaking...'

So yeah, watching the Olympics can be fun.... From afar....

La Strada--The Finale

The last evening of La Strada was sort of weird. There were six things that looked like parabol antennas, and they were gyrating away. Odd static and music was to be heard. Then they tilted toward the audience, and projections came up on the dishes. Satellite images of cities on earth, and so on, and of outer space.





Then a soprano was wheeled forward to the lowest antenna in the center of the group.







What she was singing wasn't words, just tones.











Then she climbed into a globe sort of contraption, and began whirling away as if she were falling through space.









Projecions of her kept popping up on the dishes, saying things like,
'Why can't I remember what day this is? What day is it?' And 'They lied to us. Why did they lie to us?' And in the end,


The orb spun faster, she screamed loudly and long, and I guess she just crashed to earth. It was the oddest performance of the festival.

It takes TEN to Tango....

Am just going to let these speak for themselves. It was a great afternoon...

Brass!

Two days ago was out in the park. It was brass music, but very post-modern. The audience was fun to watch, however, as usual, so here are the best photos I took....


And by the way, I hate clowns! This one was doing those odd balloon animals....

La Strada for the kiddies...

Went downtown this pm to a court in the city center at the largest department store there, in a court. (The store is like nothing you have ever seen over there...) They had a puppet show for five year olds and up.... (Obviously, I qualify....) I didn't stay long, but it seemed to be about tolerance on the surface. So here are some photos of the puppets, but mostly of the enchanting audience....

Gawd, one should REALLY leave well enough alone, you know?

After seeing that stunning performance this pm, I should have left it be. I haven't walked that far in three weeks, and my ankle was hurting.

But NO, there were better things promised for tonight. So after the thunderstorm I limped down to the main square, and arrived too late for a good place to photograph. Whereupon I climbed up on the monument, which is easy if you have a good leg. And the view was dismal. It was still raining lightly in town, so I had to protect my camera under my shirt. Other people got seating tickets and blue plastic hoodies with capes to protect them, but they ordered them in adavance, you know?

So I was grouched out, and irritable.

It was a fucking comic strip. That was how they played it. A comic strip. (Not to get me wrong, I like comics, but I really wasn't in the mood....)

And it started raining a little harder. And every time I tried to take a photo, the girl on the step below me moved, and all I got was her badly cut hair, and after the third try, and it raining down there a little harder, I thought, 'Well fuck this'. And went home and got a hamburger to eat from the all-night stand out on the square to take out on the way....

(I was hungry... for a change....)

This is not to say that the troupe wasn't good. They were very good. But it was a bit too comic strip, and I watched twenty of the sixty minute program before I threw in the towel.

So nope.... not happy, but on the other hand, if you aren't up to par, comic strips do not take care of things. Really.

But the spanish group was wonderful.

Thursday there is another one from Spain on the Main Square. 'Les Noces de la Trottoir'. Also without words, and tells stories via Tango. That one I will take Peter to...

Pictures from all to follow tomorrow.

Too bad it wasn't what I thought it would be tonight. But what a performance this afternoon! That was brilliant.....

Tja, I guess we can't all be brilliant, n'est-ce-pas?

Am turning in, hard day, and my foot is demanding it.... the bastard....

Wonderful! Just wonderful...

As you see, the crowd was 'interesting'.....













Just saw the performance 'out on the square'. Except it wasn't really just there, we wandered all OVER the place. Will put in the proper name of the group when I look at the programme at Peter's tomorrow. They are from Spain. All I heard in advance was they did something with suitcases.... Said the people at the market....









But it was much much more. It was all pantomime, not an utterance, grunt or sound. A group of people with only a simple cardboard type suitcase each. At the beginning they were up on the trestles, 'having just arrived and astonished'.







I loved it right from then on. And then they started laughing at the crowd, because they looked 'funny' to them. And it was a good crowd, they started laughing back, not in a mean way. It was purely great. Then they came down and did a sequence where people are trying to be nice and give them italian ice cream.... while photographing them like zoo animals. Only they turned it around and shared with the audience and had their pictures taken too. All very naive on the surface. Then they waved at some 'nurses' on the second floor of the assisted living place on Lendplatz and got invited up, with some of the public. And hung out of winder with them and waved to the audience. Then the audience upstairs got a quick rehearsal, and sang out to the square, waving.












Then my foot hurt, and I thought they were coming back, but they went to the corner, so I didn't see what they were doing, there were hundreds of people crowded about, but it must have been funny.... I rested it for a minute on a pavillion.... Then they went on to the next square in front of a pompous church where there is this dinky little fountain. And they were staring at it, amazed. Water isn't so plentiful everywhere, you know. And then they ran through it, got the audience to run through it, and were so thrilled at the 'miracle' of that, they were getting their hands wet, and running them over the faces of people in the audience, as if to say, 'Isn't that MIRACULOUS?' And yes, I was so up front taking pictures, I got 'anointed', but it was pleasant enough. My synapses were in overdrive, hey.


















Then they opened their suitcases. Each had a photo, most of them baby pictures, and one of a grandmother. And they approached people in the audience, looking questionably at them, 'are you her, are you my lost child?`' At least that is how I interpreted it.... It was very poignant. And THEN...

they marched off that square to the main bridge. A pick up stopped at the light, and they all got in with their suitcases, but got off at the next one. It was extremely funny. And then they started ogling a big car at the intersection, and started piling in. And an accomplice was in back honking at the big car for holding up traffic, and the real ones went off the charts and started honking too, much to the hilarity of the audience. One guy was really pissed, and the audience was really INTO it, and yelled through the window, 'What's the problem, is the BABY coming? Because with THAT gut, I can't see any reason to be annoyed otherwise.' And everyone else was jeering and making fun and laughing so hard the tears were coming down.

And then the big car drove off, and most of the troupe were piled up on one another like a woodpile on the back seat. And drove away, and didn't wait for applause.

Which is too bad, because that was one of the very best things I have seen at La Strada.

Am certain I got some good photos and will post them tomorrow if I ask W. pretty please to use his computer, because Lazarus doesn't want to.

So an hour's rest and it is off to the next event.

Big one...

I love being made to THINK in a nice way, I really do.

This week is always fun in Graz... La Strada!

The link is oh-ful. The only one I could find in English, and one sentence: An international puppet and street theatre festival. Well, hell's bells, Preciousses....

All the links there go to German language sites, so what is so 'international' about THAT, huh? Ok, ok, am NOT going to get started here...

As in: 'are English speakers too DUMB, for this, or WHAT?'

Don't mind me, it is the Dog Days here.

That is why 'La Strada' is so refreshing. For the past five or six years, the city hosts this festival, and it is amazing. They invite the best of the best to perform throughout the city, and a few stellar ones to perform in concert halls and the Opera.

It was a stellar idea. Tourists without an inkling will go downtown, or wherever, and get confronted with post-modern theater, and the weirdest things. And it is so unexpected for them, and so delightful, well, stroke of advertising genius for the city, hey.

And if you are STUCK here during the doldrums.... it is a blessed relief to go to one of those squares or parks, and be entertained by high-quality people, and forget the dog days for an hour or so.

Have seen hilarious two-people performances who could charm you to death with magic tricks and the least of requisites. And spectacles that take your breath away. The most amazing of the latter were gargoyles who escape the facade of Notre Dame, get chased, and whisked up on this contraption that looked like the parachute rides in amusement parks, almost five stories above the ground. And then changed costumes on trapezes, and then did the most amazing act I have ever seen, which left the crowd spitless. And then their contraption started opening like a flower, and it was... just stunning. A heart-stopper. And I have the vhs to prove it.

So THAT is La Strada. Till this year, I only got to see one or two performances. This year will be different. They had a brass and percussion thing yesterday, just outside Peter's window, across the way in the park. But I couldn't get him out of the house. It sounded like cacophony, but the people went wild, clapping and whistling, and yelling, so they must have been doing 'something.'

This evening is a group from Spain. People with suitcases, strangers in a new place. Shall see what they do. Out on my square at five p.m. Oh, I hope it is good.... At nine, will be on the Main Square. Sounds kind of crazy from the description in the broschure.... People whose machines won't run any more, and they do crazy things to get them to go again, and then find a 'solution'. It is supposed to be slapstick. But thought-provoking. We shall see. I wanna take pictures again, and will report.

Today was the first day I was able to take Peter downtown, used the wheelchair as cane. My foot did not thank me for it. BUT.... At least I know I can do it now. So I can rest a bit and do it again, you know?

I know, I know... all this is trivial. And there are many things that anger me so much, they would shut down my blog if I REALLY said what I think about a lot of things.

So just forgive me for looking forward to a bit of respite in this terrible year, if I can enjoy myself for an hour or so. Because, whatever it will be, what I will see will hardly be trivial, and that is what I like about La Strada. Most of what I have seen is socio-critical, but can still delight you...

Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but isn't really. It's art.

Or better said, what I think art is. I hope to get some nice photos to show you all.

Well, it's about time....

Actually, this has been a 'favorite' topic for Atrios at Eschaton Blog. He kept asking, 'Why isn't anything happening in the OTHER terrorist attacks, the anthrax terrorist?' Well, now we know, and the guy they wanted to arrest is dead. Suicide. (So they say....) Well, now, isn't that fucking convenient, hey....

No, am not putting on my tin-foil conspiracy theorist's hat. But it is odd. And seeing as where he worked, frustrating not to know: what was the motive, did he get orders to do that seeing as all the targets were Democrats, was he a Repub gone beserk, WHAT?

Tja. Now we'll never know, but hey, the FBI 'obviously' got their man.

Uh-huh....

And the AP link is in the title.