Today was great. I went with Sam to the Musikverein (which means "The Society of the Friends of Music") and saw the Berlin Philharmonic play pieces by Messiaen and Bruckner. The Messiaen piece was written sometime in the 1970's or 80's and was very good, though unconventional. There was this big ass gong which was rather imposing. At one point during the performance the gong player (is there a technical term for them?) crescendos and it's the loudest thing I've ever heard. This lady near the front gets up holding her ears and leaves. LOL (I couldn't think of a better way to express myself). All in all, a very good performance and a very good concert. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but for standing room tickets you have to line up very early and then race to bar to get a good place. I mean, you literally have to run, push people out of the way. Sam said he's seen fights break out. It's quite the experience. Oh, and this is the Musikverein.
After that, we went and got a kebap, which was delicious, and then we went to the Wien Museum. The cool thing about the Karlsplatz station is that you can go to so many different places underground. And when you walk to get to the Secession building, you pass a mirror wall and on the mirror is written π out to some many digits. Very cool and Iori's gonna luv it. You also have to walk past a McDonald's to get there.
Anyways, the Wien Museum houses the history of Wien, from when it was Vindobona all the way until now. It's got some great models of the city, mostly of the first district, and it was fun to go through and see all the places I knew from a bird's perspective. There was a special exhibit about Emilie Flöge who was a clothing designer and "wife" of Gustav Klimt. They were never married, though, and it was more like a partnership. She wore jewelry made by the Wien Werkstätte. Honestly, it was some of the coolest jewelry I've seen. Much better than anything in Macy's or where ever.
Sam and I then decided to go to Haydn's house. We walked there and stopped by Sam's place. He's lives on the penultimate floor of a rather old arpartment building. It was actually a really cool place besides the lack of an elevator. The stairs went in oval spirals and looking down the middle was very cool. Almost like out of a movie. So we left there and trudged onward, looking for Haydngasse - the street where Haydn lived (go figure). It was called Kleine Steingasse during Haydn's lifetime, and that translates to little stone street. At least I'm pretty sure it does. Anyways, we got incredibly lost and had to go to an Ubahn station to look at a map.
We finally found the place, and it was worth the trip. I learned a lot about Haydn and a lot about Wien. Apparently, where the house was located was the suburbs at the time and was surrounded by fields. Today, it's surrounded by buildings. And it took an hour to get from the city center (Stephensplatz) to the house. Now, I live farther away from the city center than the house is, and it takes me at most twenty minutes to get to Stephensplatz. A few things change over two hundred years. It's exactly two hundred years since Haydn died, by the way. May 31 is the exact day.
We left and I came back to my dorm at 6ish and made supper. Then a few other guys who'd made some food invited me to eat with them. That was how I met Tom, the only other native English speaker in my building. He's from Scotland. I got back to my room around 9ish and messed around till 10 when I went to play football. I brought my roommate with me, and luckily there was another Turkish speaker there because Erkel's (my roommate) English isn't so good. I think he had a good time. I hope he did, because it didn't seem his day was going too well. He didn't have much to do and he's alone in a big city. For him, it's like getting dropped off to college for the first time - except very few people speak your language. It makes it a little rougher.
So that was my day. Good times. Oh, and the title refers to a shop - a "video erotic shop" - Sam and I passed that advertised Anaconda wrestling on the window. What the hell? And the website was www.extreme-pervertosity.com or something to that effect.
3 comments:
waiting, racing, and fistfights...an alternative allocation method to prices!
What a day!
The gong in the photo makes the Musikverein look like a shrine to a sun king.
Does Zack's Dad mean that the monetary price of the standby ticket does not reflect the scarcity of the commodity?
I am gonna luv the π mirror wall. The Wien Museum and Hayden's house sound very nice as well.
"Does Zack's Dad mean that the monetary price of the standby ticket does not reflect the scarcity of the commodity?"
I think it means that, since the places by the rail are worth more and they only sell standing room tickets at one price, the race is an alternative allocation method. They could sell tickets that are on the rail at a higher price, but that would be hard to monitor. Instead, they just let the people race.
On another note, The people sitting just in front of Sam and I paid about 67 euro. We paid 6 a piece. So if showing up early and waiting and then racing to get a railing spot and then standing the whole time is worth less than 61 euro, then those people sitting in front of us are chumps. I think they are, but they are mostly old folks so I don't think they could handle the rigor of standing in the cold and then fighting for a spot.
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