A Rich Flavour? Meet the Makers of Fairtrade Coffee
Coffee is big business. Like oil, it’s often called “black gold” for the high prices it can command on international commodity markets in New York and London. In Vienna, coffee has shaped the cultural life of the city at least since the Armenian Johannes Deodatus opened the first Kaffeehaus in the Rotenturmstrasse in 1685. Today, [...]
Franziskanerviertel – Little City Downtown
Few can imagine living in the Franziskanerviertel at the heart of the 1st District, one of the oldest Grätzln in Vienna. It’s flanked east-west by Kärntner Straße and the Parkring, and north-south by Singerstraße and Himmelpfortgasse – the streets have stayed essentially untouched since the Middle Ages. In most cities, no one lives in the [...]
Nobody’s Business: Peeling the Blue Banana
When you’re moseying on home or up to no good, a hole in the wall is often just what you want to plug into, with a few other souls, kindred or otherwise. For years, my hole has been a dive in a crook of the Schnellbahn at Praterstern. Its sign – Blue Banana Café Bar [...]
Pub Klemo: The Civilised Drinker
Let us be clear, this is not your usual restaurant review. Because Pub Klemo in the 5th District is not your usual restaurant. We didn’t fully understand that when we walked out of the cold and into the wine bar and Magazin. Through the front room and up a few stairs, we were seated at [...]
Book Review: Global Austria: Austria’s Place in Europe and the World
Modern, Mobile and Poorly Understood There are people who consider that Austria’s future, like that of opera, lies principally in its past. However, the spate of refreshingly brilliant contemporary operas – think only of Aribert Reimann or Michael Nyman’s stunning achievements – are enough to ward us off such facile generalisations. So too with this [...]
After Dark: Fishing for Compliments
Attracted by its low-key profile, night crawlers are increasingly heading to Vienna’s latest underground hub in search of an uncensored, no-strings-attached time. Unlike a regular nightclub that thrives on publicity, Die Grelle Forelle (The Dazzling Trout) is best served in sworn secrecy. And that for good reason: Since its inauguration last November, it promises mutiny [...]
Book Review: Hedy’s Folly, by Richard Rhodes
Two-Part Invention When composer George Antheil first met Hedy Lamarr in Hollywood in August 1940, he agreed with Max Reinhardt that she was, indeed, “the most beautiful woman in the world.” His “eyeballs sizzled,” he wrote a few years later in his memoir Bad Boy of Music – the Austrian actress was even more beautiful [...]
The EU’s Fiscal Mavericks
This month, 25 of the 27 EU member states are signing a new fiscal compact to place effective limits on budget deficits. The era of running huge debt against anticipated export returns will be over. The compact will be one of the EU’s more successful policies, but 25 out of 27 is not consensus. If [...]
CommentaryMarch 24, 2012No CommentRead More