One often overlooked thing you can learn from classic sculpture:

…is stance, correct and beautiful poise. Why be content with merely having appealing physical features and tasteful accoutrements?

The best general/neutral stance to be used e.g. when waiting for the train, the plane, the conference to begin, for Godot (*spit*) or Ragnarök to commence is this one: Michelangelo’s David. Lower your left arm and instead of letting it hover over your shoulder, look at your stupid i-phone or something!

I was originally taught –amongst others by Elmayer- that neutral stance ought to be one foot forward, slightly upliftingly balanced on the heel (‘relaxed leg’) and the other (‘supporting leg’) straight and firmly planted to the ground like on this Demosthenes which is correct, certainly, but less elegant in my opinion. Then I’d rather prefer the half-striding stance as exemplified by the Augustus of Primaporta (now don’t say you don’t know it!) or- also excellent- the Doryphoros by Polyklet.

So next time you go down to the Musei Vanticani, the Academia or the Bargello, or even just your local glyptotheque, look at all the statues in this new way and learn from them!

Finally, here is my favourite ‘stance’.

The Wine of Liechtenstein

...is - 'naturally' (I'm almost inclined to say)- produced in Austria even though it is mostly sold over there.
It's quite good, too: a very decent table-wine.

The Ball-Season

A short run-down of the balls in Vienna and their present status:

Opera Ball: this is one of the few white-tie-only affairs worldwide but- apart from imperial times- has had its high during the Cold War especially in the earlier 70s when Vienna even more than now was the meeting place for spies, terrorists and diplomats of all couleurs. Then, also Seikhs and top politicians paid it a visit; today it's more concentrated on local entrepreneurs, the newly rich and on minor celebrities although the first row of the political intelligentsia of Austria will still be present.

These are the best or most fun ones:

Kaffeesiederball (Ball of the cafetiers)

Philharmonica Ball (Ball of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra held at the Musikverein), this is the most elegant and refined one; partly, what the Opera Ball once was in terms of visitors with status as well as prestige, has wandered off to this affair.

Jägerball (Hunter's Ball at the Hofburg) this is the most fun one and the only occasion when the 'No Trachten in town'-rule could be broken: it is the carnival-season, after all. Admittedly, even many who are no hunters get into their green or grey outfits or in case of the girls- their Dirndl-dresses- and get it on; throw in a good mixture of Kimonos, Saris and military officers' uniforms for a splendid evening. This has the best looking girls and is favoured and heavily frequented by the Golden Youth/Jeunesse Dorée of Vienna.

There is also the Kaiserball held at the Hofburg on New Years' Eve that is mostly visited by rich Americans and Asians (I once went there, too and got immensely drunk on champagne), and balls of the various professions, groups, clubs and segments of society like the tobacconists, the bakers' or the officers balls. As I mentioned somewhere in this spot, I am leading a more reclusive life right now and although I never was a great dancer I still went to a few in my time and had great fun. So, I'm passing the baton on to you- come over and visit one or a couple of them and enjoy the crazy festivities!

Dancing School

 Like any aspiring young man and woman in Viennese society I went to dancing school at the age of 15. In those days there actually only was one option and that was Elmayer. Recently the young Mr. E. has fallen a bit from grace due to his modernistic escapades but then it was the only school that with its main instructor, Mr. H., oversaw the Viennese Opera Ball whose debutants it trained; and it was the only one that held its annual ball at the Hofburg. Furthermore, it described itself as an institution that would teach not only dancing but also the higher forms of etiquette.

So two of my friends from school and I donned our navy blue suits, (mostly ugly) ties, white shirts and black Italian shoes, took with us our white cotton gloves that were compulsory, too and went off. Apart from commiting the slight faux-pas of playing with my dancing-partners' bra at the back of her dress the first night (not out of sexual desire but because I was concentrating so much on getting the steps right and absentmindedly fingered around there) all went well for the first couple of times.

We more or less learned the few standard dances and how to correctly hand-kiss but none of us went on to become a great dancer. I believe this was conditioned by the fact that we- after 4 weeks of our three-month course- instead of further attending class, chose to frequent certain unwholesome drinking-dens and night clubs.

K.u.K. Hoflieferanten Wiens:

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke who really is one of my favourite poets was actually so good at his art that he could make a verse out of any topic may it have been as quotidian or as banal as it could be (Ovid with his, well, boast of ‘whatever I wrote, it came out as verse’ comes to mind, right?)- and this using either a good rhyme or correct meter and an adequate rhythm and thereby elevating and sublimating it; but this at times had the effect that a few of his efforts seem inadvertently comical to me. And: of course I don’t have an example of this. Read him and find out for yourself! It’s quite pleasurable, too.

The Ideal

"If I could create an ideal world, it would be an England with the fire of the Elizabethans, the correct taste of the Georgians, and the refinement and pure ideals of the Victorians."
(H.P. Lovecraft in a letter to James F. Morton, April 1 1927)

An Old Picture:

I also have some other Japanese prints and paintings but this is an old heirloom from my great-grand uncle. Hanging above my writing desk it's a depiction of Mt. Fuji. Although it's already quite yellowed and stained, it can still inspire a feeling of grandness and remote, romantic longing in me and from time to time I lose myself in it and start to dream. (Note: the 'sun' is only the flash from my camera)

St. Jerome

In recent years I have been pursuing private arcane studies partly in solitary seclusion whereby one of my best and most trusted companions has been a person whose astrological sunsign is Leo...

Vintage Wristwatches:

...from the 50s and 60s in a simple, unobtrusive design are to my liking.

Kaisermanöver:

Alfons Walde's Kitzbühel

Iron Sky:

A Happy New Year!

The Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna

...sadly closes its portals but the gardens will still be open to the public. You can still visit on the 30th and get some free catalogues of past exhibitions. The collection is very ideosyncratic with a strong focus on the Baroque including not only paintings but also furniture and statues. The palais itself is also great with frescoes by Rottmayr on the ceilings...many concerts have been held there in the past, both lucrative for the artists and the audience.

Heiner

Merry Christmas!

I'll be away over the next few weeks and wish you all a blessèd Christmas. I'm off to some skiing, Alpine boozing with spiritual exercises and visting friends and family in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and elsewhere. All the best to all of you and yours and let's get together for a new round of internet craziness soon!

The Family Palais:

Romanticism

'To romanticize the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite.' (Novalis)

K.& k. Perfumer:

Over 200 years old, this shop has always been on the same address. Eau de Lavande, originally created in 1892 could make a good (last minute?) Christmas present.

The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson

"Adulthood came through with none of the pledges you'd been led somehow to believe in; the future still remained the future-illusion; a non-existent period of constantly-receding promise, hinting fulfillment, yet forever withholding the rewards. All the things that had never happened yet were never going to happen after all. It was a mug's game and there ought to be a law. But there wasn't any law, there was no rhyme or reason; and with the sour-grapes attitude of “Why the hell should there be”- which is as near as you ever came to sophistication- you retired within yourself and compensated for the disappointment by drink, by subsisting on daydreams, by living in a private world of your own making (hell or heaven, what did it matter?), by accomplishing or becoming in fancy what you could never bring about in fact."

 Especially in the last two years it was one of my past-times to enjoy books about drinking. I've read through Bukowski, Fallada and many others but compared to most this one was very good with a succinct and subtle psychology to it. I can recommend it; this could also very well mark an erstwhile end to my Sturm und Drang hard-liquored drinking career since recently and surprisingly even to myself it tends to bore me. From now on I want to read more philosophy again and today made this resolve: I will- as far as I can- drink half a bottle of red wine every day of my remaining life. Red wine is always a good investment be your future luck up or down, it will always satisfy you but only if you will drink it and never speculate with it.

Josef Weinheber

It was my grandmother who first introduced me to the poetry of Josef Weinheber. Then, in my early teens, I found it a bit too provincial and soppy but upon reviewing it recently I came to realize and appreciate its intrinsic quality. It surely sometimes has a pronounced local Viennese note to it, often charmingly so, at other times it is decisively anti-modernistic even classicistic, evoking old eternal truths. Oskar Werner reading a few of Weinheber’s poems.

Some Scarves for Winter:

 From the top: Boss, Barbour, Royal Country Sport (some obscure local- company), Gant, Daks (the cashmere version of course! I bought that over twenty years ago), N.N. (I cut out the label long ago), Mila Schön Cashmere, Franco Ferrari, Paul & Shark, Alpaca from Peru, Burberry. This post was inspired by M. Lacroix who posted some of his scarves the other year.

A Village Called Christkindl

No Trachten in Town!

This doesn't pertain to Japanese or American tourists who want to wear funny Tyrolean hats or buy traditional clothes and wear them in the city or to provincials who happen to visit the capital for a few days or participate in folkloristic musical performances on national holidays here in Vienna but to persons from the provinces who either work or study here for a longer time. I am aware that this rule is already some sort of an atavism though; it is a bit ridiculous to admonish those who say wear their Steireranzug to church on Sunday instead of a normal suit or jacket trouser combination (since hardly anyone wears either) but still: traditions have to be remembered by somebody!

Edward VIII

Not only paradigmatic for the whole of the 20th century in his style, Edward was also very popular with his subjects but Churchill and certain politicians as well as parts of the FBI opposed him. One wonders what would have happened had he not abdicated. Maybe there would have been no war between Germany and Britain (and the U.S.)...