Werbung (Ad): We Love Jonesy

Wanna join the hot new trend sweeping the school? You too can be rocking a We Love Jonesy t-shirt by Danielle Arnon who not only "most creative" of the class of '06, but also won this year's IB Visual Arts Award. Don't be square, bring a t-shirt too school tuesday or wednesday, get it to me or Danie, and you to can show how much you love Jonesy (or try to be cool).

Patry Review: Franzi's

Franz's party was a pool party. A cool party. A not too full party. Not quite the one party to rule them all, but close enough. Now that a pathetic attempt at poetry has been made, Franz's party was one if you missed it you probably at least periferally heard about it. To quote Martini: "I missed a *censored adjective* crazy party last night". It was actually his older sister, Corola's Birthday party, but but I doubt many AIS people there knew that. I missed the swimming (how sad), so when I arrived there were alot of wet dripping teenagers, some not wearing shirts wandering around. I arrived sometime long after ten, soaking wet too from wandering around Poetzleinsdorf in the drizzle so I blended in pretty well with the wet dripping types. There was a poker game (i think) going on in the dining room, and some underclassmen were hogging the N64, but Ian swiftly dealt with them. They were so badly served by him in Mario Kart, that by the end of their race Ian was playing them backwards, only looking over his shoulder (kids, don't try this at home). When asked for a statement from the Mario Kart Meister he replied: "what a douche, messing with mario kart master". Might this be a lesson to underclassmen everywhere. Then a drinking game started, which finished the alchohol, but I missed much of that being in the "sober" room (we assume they were sober) being beaten by several people at Mario Kart. I mean the N64 really was where the party should have been, but Franz only had two controlers, which severely distorted the fun levels that could have been achieved. A fight also broke out between a muscle bound senior and... a good hair toting senior. Neither of them were available for questioning, alleging they couldn't remember. An (I asume) expensive table was broken, but it is unclear as to whether or not it was related to the fight. One drinking game invloved five people and having to take a drink everytime you lost a point. Other activities invloved very sober(er) ping pong, hooking up, smoking, very little dancing, singing along to Aretha Franklin, trying to use the bathroom, underclassmen group showers and opening expensive bottle of out-of-bounds alcho. The latter having ended the party for many AISers as it heralded a kicking out of quite a number of them.
On food, I guess it was good, as it was all but gone by the time i got there. Good crowd, not too many seniors went as they were insecure about being around so many non-seniors, but the usual mixture of party goers, with friends of Corola's mixed in. The music was not noticable, the setting very good as it was large and well utalized. Too bad the weather was bad as the yard would have enhanced this. Problems were related to the bathroom, as not everyone felt the need to use them from them to use the toilet. I recall being asked to vacate it so someone could check their hair on one occasion, and on another so that two girls in elenventh grade and a senior guy (all of whom will remain unamed) could get down to... whatever three people would do in the bathroom. People also did these type of things in Franz's bedroom much to the consternation of a worried relative, and in other dark and not-so-dark parts of Franz's house. If you had bladder control problems, this was not the best party for you. Overall Franzy and his help (good things can rarely be achieved without the help of friends) did a decent job, I give it four stars. ****

Exhibit Review: Summer of Black Brown and White Love

The Kunsthalle Wien at the Museums Quartier is currently showing a Photography Exhibit titled Black Brown and White which will run till June 18, 2006, and another exhibit titled Summer of Love which will run till September 17, 2006, both of which I went to see today. Neither of them was particulalrly great.
Black Brown and White is a photogrpahy exhibit, which I had to of course go and see in keeping with my obsession with seeing most everything that comes to Vienna from South Africa. I was somewhat dissapointed. Maybe it wasn't that great, or maybe I just cannot appreciate photography. It featured photography which presented a rather varied view of South Africa: during and post apartheid, different races and different socio-economic groups. Things that stood out for me were the photographs by Zwelethu Mthethwa of workers from KwaNdebele having a 2:00 am to 10:00 pm day in juxtaposition with photographs of a girl in her new tutu on her stoep (terrace/porch). Also portraits by Peter Hugo of HIV/AIDS corpses, "Chikin Bizinis" by Andrew Tshabangu and the final piece in the exhibit by Berni Searle titled "About to forget" which was an amazing audio visual experience.
Summer of Love was a lot more exciting than Black Brown and White, and more cheerful with greater mass appeal. It would have been fun to go to with someone who had lived through the sixties, but was fun nevertheless. It was very trippy, hard to describe but very sixties. Personal favorite included, „Phantasy Landscape Visiona II“ by Verner Panton (pictured right) which you can go into, and is trippy and nice spot to chill if you don't mind taking off your shoes and have some time to spare. It smells like feet, and what is missing is a little man smoking weed in the corner to make it more authentic. Others were "Glow" by Bernard Cohen; "Cosmic Orchid" by Isaac Abrama and "Shiva" and "Strobe Room" by USCO . There's alot of nudity, drug referneces, and anti-Vietnam War Commentary, so maybe not something to see with conservative grandparents or impressionable little kids. If the weather we are currently experiencing in Vienna is getting you down, Summer of Love is just the pick up you may need, because even though I didn't really like I left it feeling pretty giddy.

Red Cards (This has nothing to do with soccer)

So I could get up to more blog worthy activity, but don't forget that as I am eighteen and don't have a red card anymore I can be arrested. But "what is a red card?" most will ask. It's a diplomatic immunity card, that diplomats and their immediate family members (spouses and dependents) can use like a get-out-of-jail-free card in Austria. Riding public transport without a ticket and the Schwarzkappler* catch you? Whip out your red card. Caught urinating on someone's car on a drunken evening in a small Austrian town? Red card. Get caught setting off fireworks in the middle of a crowd on New Year's Eve? You guessed it, red card. (The previous examples have been taken from real life). For most kids my age the worst that can happen is your parents and embassy being told. Serious offences of course may incur the offender and their family being recalled and possibly then prosecuted by their own country. Also in Austria you have to do alot worse stuff to get arrested, as compared to the US where just this last acedemic year some an alumnus (who is over 18) was arrested for drinking. The smoking age in Austria 14 and drinking is 16, and in most cases it is illegal for the police to breathalize adolescents anyway. But there are so many situations where red cards come in handy, and I'd feel safer walking the streets knowing I had one. Because now I don't have it anymore, I realized there's nothing like knowing you're safe from the police, who after skin heads are probably the scariest thing around. And as the police can be pretty friendly, this tells you alot about crime in Vienna.


*Riding without a ticket costs € 60 in Vienna. The ticket inspectors are called "Schwarzkappler" in Vienna and make regular checks.

Firsts: You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

Most of the people who will read this won't know what MtombiMzansi means. I'm from South Africa (SA), and have lived there 7 out of the 18 years of my life. My Boelang means, we shall return home as I was born in exile in the USA, where my parents left SA for, to find higher education during apartheid. We moved back to South Africa when apartheid ended, and I attended First through Seventh grade there. Before I was to enter Eighth grade (when highschool starts in SA) we moved to Austria. I've been in Austria for five year now, and while here my jingoism was truly awakened by home sickness. It's true you don't realize how special something is till it's gone, etc. That all sounds very sentimental, and in future I will do my best to refrain from such gushing.
Now in keeping with the theme of First Time, there have been alot of first times in my life. Alot of them took place my senior year. I won't go through them all, as even though this is a blog... interestingly enough they were mostly firsts I don't want publicized. Either because they are incriminating or the opposite, and by opposite I mean I probably should have had some of these firsts before this year. But I can mention first time as a senior, first time living away from home, first time applying too, getting accepted too, and choosing a college, first time having to make my bed everymorning, take 18 hour international flights by myself, etc.
This censureship has made me realize how difficult it will be for me to keep this interesting if I don't ellaborate on anything particularly juicy and personal. I mean that's what people want to read blogs for right? To hear about someone making out with a taxi driver in lieu of payment when they forgot their purse at a club, or how they kidnapped their enemy who they got drunk, lit their hair on fire and pushed down a hill in a shopping cart. Right? Well I don't usually get up to that kind of stuff, and now that I've mentioned it, it sounds like fun.
An interesting first I've had is talking people into clubs and bars. I'm now eighteen, but some of my friends aren't so some places give them trouble, however I have learnt being sweet is the key. On my eigteenth birthday (it was a no good, horrible, very bad day) I eventually chose this pretty nice club to host my birthday. I rented out a table, which I had been assured by my peers, pretty much should have guaranteed all my guests got in. The bouncer gave trouble about some of my underage guests, and rather then being sweet I went fully anal on him. Weak strategy. I got so incensed I decided that none of us would be patronizing Passage that night. Hoever, this time I effectively persuaded to the bouncer to let my friend in, but she better hurry up and turn eighteen or I won't be able to talk her in anywhere very soon (they will eventually notice the same people showing up with the same story each time). Other incidences yesterday evening include in taxi on the way to my last stop, I had the driver and my friend in stitches doing an audable parody of how one of our companions that evening danced. However I didn't get a discount for being amusing, and my laughter was more out of mortification at how I sounded. All in all a pretty good night, I've had worse, but not particularly blog worthy.
If you feel your time was watsed in reading this, find something better to do.