Gretchen Gatzke

The Marktachterl on the Karmelitermarkt used to be a worn and friendly Gasthaus that was a favourite for breakfast. Next door was a little fish market that too has since shut its doors, meaning an end to fresh fish in the neighborhood. It seems like a lot to regret.

Warmth! That was our immediate reaction to the Bombay interior. A most welcome warmth after a walk through the windy cold of Vienna’s seventh district, and the piquant aromas of capsicum, cumin, cloves, coconut and of course, curry. Even the walls were a fiery red.

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 in most places. We’re in Vienna. November here is not a month where people sit and wait for the holidays to begin. The celebrating has already begun.

On Sept. 3 the metro stations were crowded; boisterous groups, drinks in hand, laughing and calling out, voices echoing off the hard marble walls. Some sat on the floor, cross legged or legs stretched out, leaning against a pillar, pouring cocktails out of a thermos, sharing a pizza. It was one big party, everyone relishing the newly-anointed convenience of a 24-hour subway.

Over the loudspeakers, a woman’s voice boomed, “Die ganze Nacht gehört Ihnen!” – The entire night is yours! And this crowd didn’t want to miss it.

Social media are everywhere, but developing effective interfaces with traditional media still remains elusive. The digital divide must be overcome, experts said through crowdsourcing, citizen reporting and other tools that allow ordinary people to complement professional reporting, not replace it. “The media need to interact with the consumers,” Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Telekom Austria, added.

“Social Media have surpassed pornography,” said Errol Barnett, CNN anchorman and the panel’s moderator, acknowledging the increasing importance of new media outlets. “People are now more interested in playing with each other than with themselves,” he added.

Fifty-four journalists have been killed on the job so far this year, according to a media Death Watch maintained by the International Press Institute (IPI).

Calling it a ‘similarly grim toll,’ IPI interim-director Alison Bethel McKenzie, told the 60th annual IPI World Congress that the death rate in the first  eight months of 2010 is only four fewer than the same period last year.

“Journalists continue to systematically lose their lives to conflict, militants, paid thugs, governments, drug dealers, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous security officers and others,” Bethel McKenzie said.

When Screwball comedy became famous in the 1930’s, it opened a new chapter for theater. It created a female character rarely seen in the history of Western entertainment, one that dominates men and challenges the concept of maleness. It introduced unlikely situations between characters and brought in a fast-paced dialogue never before seen.

The chandeliers grew dim and the murmur of the crowd dulled to quiet whispers at the Presseclub Concordia on Apr. 21. It was the 100th anniversary of Samuel Clemens’ death, the man better known as Mark Twain, who had come to Vienna in 1897, coincidentally the same year as the opening of the Riesenrad. He came to study the ways of the Austrians as new material for his books, but mainly he came to acquire top-of-the-line piano instruction for his daughter Clara.