Christmas Culture
November. A grey, wet and depressing month in most places. Nothing happens in November, just people walking briskly, bundled up in down jackets and scarves that wrap practically around their entire head. Wind blowing, light, stinging drizzle and, to make it even worse, ominous clouds that seem permanently draped over every rooftop. But we’re not [...]
Demise of the Celtic Tiger
As I write the finance ministers of the EU have approved a complex €85 billion package to rescue the Irish economy from the effects of the recent global recession. The extent of this is perhaps more striking when written as €85.000.000.000. Problem solved. Or is it? And what is the problem? How did it arise? [...]
An Ode to Love and Longing
The spilt tears run down the windows that cover my heart, Tonight I will play without worrying, Tonight I heal my wounds singing songs, my brother, Why do we have to hate each other because somebody wants it? These struggles and successes, eloquently captured here by rapper Haris Alic, are still part of daily life [...]
The Truth About Being Modern
The Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (RSO) was nearly sacked last year. Now they are securely and legally part of the ORF, with the express purpose, among other things, to play and record contemporary Austrian composers. But they are not leaning back, with a sigh of relief – pressure off, business as usual – as others [...]
A City on Two Wheels
More and more Viennese are choosing to hop on a bike rather than use any other means of transport, according to a study by the City Council that came out this September. The number of cyclists in Austria’s capital has risen 40% over the past four years – a result primarily of government efforts to [...]
Greens Join Red Vienna
Spirits were high among Green party members when long-time mayor Michael Häupl announced on Oct. 22 that the Social Democrats would enter into coalition negotiations with the Green Party following the Oct. 10 elections to the Vienna City Council and District Councils in which the SPÖ had lost its absolute majority only for the second [...]
Arigona Back in Austria
Arigona Zogaj (18) returned to Austria on Nov. 24 with her mother Nurije and her younger brother and sister Albin (11) and Albona (10), four months after the family had been deported to Kosovo. The return of the Zogajs marked the end of a three-year fight to stay in Austria, bringing them back to Frankenburg [...]
Getting Who You Deserve
We know that Mozart was a genius, but it is good to be reminded of it once in awhile. He wrote La finta giardiniera (The false garden maid) shortly before his nineteenth birthday, at a time when his father realized it was about time his son started doing something serious. The cute child prodigy was [...]
Book Review: The Film Club, by David Gilmour
No School. No Work. Just Three Films A Week This little gem of a book about film came up in a conversation in the Filmmakers Lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival (“Testing Ground for the Oscars,” Vienna Review, Oct. 2010, p.29), a father’s memoir of a three-year pact with his teenage son, Jesse, going [...]
