An Email from the American Cancer Society

"Next week, President Obama will sign the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. "

The highlights of the bill according to the email are these:

- "Tobacco companies must reveal all product ingredients to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and seek FDA approval for any new products."

- "Our nation's children – potential first-time smokers – will no longer be seduced by flavored tobacco products, including candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which will be banned."

- "Consumers won't be misled by cigarettes labeled "light," "mild," or "low-tar" as healthier choices. These terms have also been banned." (Who's stupid enough to actually be fooled into believing that one cigarette is less healthy than another type? They're still bad - I always thought it was some sort of taste thing.)

- "Warning labels will be clearly visible, taking up at least half of the front and back of cigarette packages." (They aren't clearly visible now? Seriously? I didn't know smoking caused blindness.)

- "No more public cigarette vending machines in places where IDs haven't been checked."

- "Children will be further protected from tobacco advertisements and sponsorships, which will be banned near schools and playgrounds and at sports or entertainment events. The law also restricts colorful store displays." (I thought we were already "protected" from tobacco ads. They aren't anywhere. The only tobacco ads I still see are the old "Mail Pouch" chewing tobacco ads that are painted on the sides of barns in the country - and better not be taken down anytime soon. They're part of our national heritage, as far as I'm concerned.)

What's more is that these people - the American Cancer Society - writes that "it's not easy to stand up to an enemy like Big Tobacco." Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that the tobacco industry has already been very well regulated. I know that tobacco companies, if they want to get their name out in the open, they have to take out anti-smoking ads by government decree. Now they can only advertise in black and white?

Now, this is a little crazy, but I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before. Maybe educating folks on the negatives of smoking might be, not necessarily a more efficient way, but a more morally correct and, in my opinion, a more American way to deter would be smokers. It leaves the choice up to the people and to make a choice for someone like that seems a little, well, presumptuous. And killing the rights of a company to advertise the way it sees fit - especially in the case of the restrictions placed on the tobacco industry - is utterly against the free market ideals which the US was founded upon.

Don't get me wrong, smoking is definitely unhealthy. I just think that it's bad form and sets terrible precedence for future actions to take place. But we do live in the age of Government Motors...

Let me just say that I will no longer contribute and time or money to anything that has to do with the American Cancer Society.

It's Been a While

I really haven't been writing too much on here. There isn't really any reason for that, either. I actually have a lot of non-Vienna related posts I want to write so I'm going to write a few points so I can remember to write something about them later, possibly.

- The Donauinselfest: I saw a Russian ska type band called Russkaja, Razorlight, and Snow Patrol, among others. I also got hit by a Police truck. To quote N.W.A.: Fuck the Police!

- Since the concert at Schönbrunn, I've been salsa dancing, to a museum housed in an old sanitarium which is now part of the University at Schottentor, to the Haus der Musik which has an exhibition on the Wiener Philharmoniker and a lot of interactive games and exhibits on sound, to the Lange Nacht der Kirchen which is the night all the churches in Vienna are open and there are special concerts and other programs happening, and I walked up the Kahlenberg.

Other things that are going on here are that many people are leaving - Erkal left a week and a half ago - so I've been in my room alone for a while now.

In family news, my grandma Eunice died on Wednesday and I wasn't able to attend the funeral. While my family was in Dallas at the funeral there was a big storm and our basement flooded. That's the basement where I had all my stuff stored. My couch, desk, chair(s?), books, guitar(s?), amp, etc. I haven't asked for a damage report yet because I don't think I really want to know. Fuck water.

So that's a very quick summary of my life. I suppose I should also mention that I'm finished with all my classes and am just waiting to start my travels. That is probably why I'm writing this at the moment - to avoid cleaning my place. And tomorrow will be a busy day with a John Scofield concert to look forward to as a way to end June on a positive note.

At Schönbrunn

Last night at Schönbrunn there was a concert. The Wiener Philharmoniker played some Mozart, Strauß, and some Manuel de Falla. My favorite pieces, by far, were the ones by de Falla. The first one was called "Night in a Spanish Garten" and the sound really fit the tone of the night - at least for me. I went with a pretty large group - or it was supposed to be a large group - but there were thousands upon thousands of people there and I wound up sitting with only Zinaida, Tom, Ozan and Arno, which was fine. It's also cool because within those five people, three different continents were represented and five different nationalities (Bosnian, Scottish, Turkish, Austrian - I think - I'm not quite sure where Arno is from, and the US). We waited for the concert to start for about three hours, but at least we didn't have to stand. They had about 250 to 500 free seats - maybe more. Tom kept making origami and Zinaida and I, mostly Zinaida, read the program they gave us. They also played some music over the speakers to keep us entertained. And there was a couple from Nevada that we spoke with a bit. Actually, Tom mostly spoke with them. I didn't find them all that interesting.

The palace gardens were spectacular. Everything was completely decked out for the concert. At the start, I was hoping there would be some fireworks and, at the end of the concert while they were playing "Wiener Blut" by Strauß, there was a nice little fireworks display to accompany the music.

It was quite a night. I only wish I had remembered my camera.

New Hampshire

This state just became the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage, according to the NYT. Though, even though Bill Lynch, the governor of New Hampshire, was one of the few (maybe only) Democrat to entertain the idea of dismissing the stimulus funds, he has been accepting the waste.

Still:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Three Cheers for the Tenth!

The Canadians are Coming! and Starkbier

I met Danimal in Munich. It was a very... interesting weekend. I had a lot of fun - hanging out with Dan is always a lot of fun - but some pretty strange/annoying things went down.

For example, I was on the train to Salzburg - I had to switch trains there - and about two hours or so from Vienna I remember that I had completely forgotten to bring my passport. That was great. I spent the whole train ride worrying about how I would check into the hostel. I actually had a whole plan worked out where I could buy ticket for a night train to Vienna, grab my passport, and make it back to Munich by 10:30 the next morning. Luckily, I didn't have to enact this plan because the hostel let me check in using my driver's license number. That was nice of them. Also, when I arrived at the station in Munich, I couldn't find Dan. We had planned it out so that we'd get there at the same time, but we didn't plan out a place to meet. After about an hour of looking for him, I went to the Hostel. He arrived at the hostel slightly after I did. We spent the whole time looking for each other in a train station that is not that big (relative to other large cities.

Dan and I wondered the city for the first night. We saw some nice churches and the Rathaus, which is nice - it has a Glockenspiel with some folks doing a traditional dance - but I think the Wiener Rathaus is better. It's more imposing and has a park in front of it. We also found the Hofbräuhaus. We wound up that night sitting up with a couple of Canadians, an Irish guy, a couple of Germans and a Swiss fellow. The Swiss guy told us how to say kitchen drawer in Swiss German which basically sounds like you're hocking a loogie three times in a row. One of the Canadians, Nathan, was nice, but the other guy was a complete tool. He was always saying something like "Go big or go home." He was completely wasted and was staying there with his family. He was only 18, but come on. He should be old enough to know that the way he's acting is complete bullshit. Anyways, I told someone something about the Turks and one of the German guys erupted and said something like he hates the Turks. This makes sense, since the Turks in Germany don't learn German and don't care. Though all of the Turks I know are learning German and they're all good people. I told this guy that as well, but he seemed unconvinced. Later on we I bought all these people shots of Feiglings or something like that. It's some type of schnapps where you put the cap on your nose, the bottle between your teeth, and down it. This older dude walked in about this time and we invited him over. I was easily the most sober of the crowd and I moved over to talk with him. His name was Joshua and he's from Israel. I asked him about a number of things, like what he thought of the war in Iraq. He said at first he thought it was a good thing, but now he's not so sure. Iran and Iraq used to keep each other busy and now they really don't have that quarrel so Iran might become a little too powerful - or something like that. He also told me a little about Turkey in the region. He said it was a very nice place to vacation because the Germans decided to offer the Turkish in Germany jobs in their homeland so they'd leave Germany.

I then tried to get into my room. No matter how hard I knocked, I wasn't able to wake up whoever was in there. I thought this weird since the room was supposed to have six people in it. I even went to the desk, and the guy there was very cool and tried to help me get into the room, but the key was still in the lock on the other side so he wasn't able to open it. I stayed up all night talking with him. His name is Sebastian and he is a very big Star Wars fan. He collects the actual movies because he thinks the action figures are stupid. He also said that German teens start drinking and getting drunk on liquor at about 12. The liquor salesmen in Germany don't care about age restrictions and sell to just about anyone - which seems to be the case in Austria, as well. I also met some Americans from Cali, Virginia, and Missouri. They were cool. I finally got into my room and slept for about two hours.

At 10 in the morning, I meet Dan and we go out walking. I was so tired this whole time that I don't quite know where we went. I know we wound up in the city center and went to a museum. The museum had an exhibit on the history of München and an exhibit about the history of nude photography (which was the ad that drew us there in the first place). I liked the museum because I took a nap there. We climbed the Alte Peterkirche afterwards and saw the whole of München. Afterwards, we walked around the Englischer Park. For some reason there's a giant pagoda in the middle of it surrounded by one of the biggest Biergartens in the world. It made no sense to me, unless there's some connection between München and China which there seemed to be.

Then we went to the Hofbräuhaus. We took a seat and waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour of being ignored, Dan got so pissed off he left and took off for McDonald's. I convinced him we needed to go back to the Hofbräuhaus. We went for a free beer tasting and I met some guys from Colorado and a girl from Canada in my room, then Dan and I took off for the Hofbräuhaus. Neither of us felt like eating in the really crowded downstairs so we went upstairs and had a nice quiet dinner. There was still music from an accordion and baritone so we got some of the experience. And the food was delicious.

The next day we went to Salzburg, so I'll write that up later.

After we got back from Salzburg we went to the hostel for the "happy hour" which was €1 shots of Jägermeister and played cards. We met a Quebecian girl who told us that in the larger cities most people spoke French and English and out in the country everyone spoke only French. She knew English because she wanted to get a decent job. I swear, I've met more Canadians in Europe than any other nationality - I'm almost positive.

On Monday we were both leaving so we went to the Englischer Park one last time. We went to the Biergarten with the pagoda and I bought some food. We both bought beer. It was Hofbräuhaus Urbock, and might just be the best beer I've ever drank. The mug of beer, and it was a liter HBhaus mug, cost €7.60 and there is a deposit on the glass that was an extra Euro. Now, Dan and I were both looking to buy one of those mugs from the HBhaus, but they were a little expensive. They were €8.50. So we thought that since there's a Euro deposit for the glass, then if we wanted to keep the mug it would be fine. So we sat and drank about half of the glass and then decided to go for a little walk with our beer, conveniently not returning to the Biergarten. We now have a HBhaus mug apiece and a helluva good memory. I view it as only "kind of" stealing. And the beer, the Urbock - a Starkbier, was incredible. And, since it's a Starkbier, as Dan said, "This beer.... it's full of alcohol."

We spent so much time in the park that we actually had to run back to the train station for Dan to catch his train. It was a really good little excursion there. And I also must thank Dan for coming up with the stealing-the-beer-mug idea. Pure brilliance and balls on his part.