Hearts of Iron...

 Note: I've written this posting about a week ago, so I'm happy to inform you that I've survived the bronchitis and I am back at work...

Howdy folks!

How are you?? Well, I hope you're doing better than me. I am sick. Stuck in bed since last Friday when I thought I had a bad cold. Over the weekend it deteriorated into a pretty bad bronchitis. Today I saw the doctor and she prescribed me antibiotics and some more time in bed. :(

I hate to be stuck in bed and not being able to do much. I'm a very active person usually, so being sick feels like prison. I sleep most of the time if I can, but reading and watching too many movies give me a headache, I lack motivation to play guitar because I can't sing properly and generally I get depressed when I can't move and do stuff...Lonesome...that's what I am too since most people are working and I get few visitors except for my friend Andy, who provides me my daily dose of movies and Lachgummi (wouldn't get better without them!!). But I better stop wailing, there are people in this world that are in situations much much worse than mine...

I actually wanted to tell you about my visit to Milan a couple of weeks ago. Time flies by so fast, sometimes it shocks me a little.
Well, I went to Milan to visit my ex-flatmates from Rome, Gerry and Simona. This lovely couple has made my stay in Rome very much fun as we spend the evenings eating, chatting and drinking cheap red wine as all of us were sort of broke at the time. They're now getting a master's degree in Milan and so I decided to visit them in the financial capital of Italy.

In my opinion, Milan is not as pretty as Rome. It's a nice city, for sure, there's more going on in terms of music and contemporary culture than in Rome. But it lacks the warm historic incredibly impressive charm of the capital and well, I have always considered myself more a Roman girl since I spend half a year there...

On the first evening Milan, Gerry and Simo had prepared a great Italian dinner for me, with some fish (yes, I made a fish eating exception because their food taste just soo good!!!) and a Parmigiana (melanzani gratin) and salad. The thing I love about Italian food is that most things are very simple - you don't need to buy strange ingredients you don't get at your local store. But it's the quality of the ingredients and the way they are prepared that makes the food soo damn delicious!!
The breakfast was also remarkable - Simo had made a chocolate cake that you eat with mascarpone and some perfect Italian coffee!! I get hungry when I think of it. It was the perfect preparation for my goal on that day.

The timing for my visit in Milan was perfect as I was able to get an appointment for a new tattoo with Sarah Schor (click me) at the tattoo convention! The convention was huge and I was lucky to be there half an hour before they opened the doors as the queue outside was really long. I stood in line with some guys and chatted with them in Italian. I was so proud when a guy asked me if I was from Rome!! He said I sounded so Roman...he was amazed when I told him I was Austrian and only lived there for a while. When I finally found Sarah Schor in the huge hall, she showed me the stencil she had prepared and I liked it, so we immediately went to work.

It was my first convention tattoo and I have to admit, I don't like being tattooed at a convention. I felt like I was sitting in the window in a shop and all the time people were staring at me and Sarah, taking pictures, filming...I prefer the quiet and privacy of a tattoo studio. However, after 3 hours of being looked at, the tattoo was done and it came out really good. I am so happy and thankful for Sarah's great work. Here a pic of it. It's the muse of music - as music has always been a driving force in my life.

I checked out some other tattoo artist like dear Miss Arianna (click me) (she's THE queen of traditional tattooing for me and an amazing person) and Davide Andreoli (click me), another great artist from Italy. I'm sure to be back in Italy for some ink!

After that, I went back to Gerry and Simo who took me to a birreria (beer bar) where we meet some of their colleagues from university. We had a couple of beers and chatted about life, love and relationships, the usual important topics....but I was soo tired from the tattooing, so we went to bed.

Next day, we went for a walk in Milan, I took some pictures with my Lomo (I haven't developped them yet) and I had the first ice cream of the year with Simo. It was soo delicious! Italians know how to do it!! In the evening we had some more food and laughs and were generally silly...I enjoyed my time there so much. But it was too short, as it always is when you're having a good time. Sunday morning I had to leave really early and went back to Vienna...

I also have to tell you about a great concert. My friend and great musician Pascal Briggs (click me) came to Vienna again, this time with his band The Stokers. And they brought incredible support musicians - Sean Wheeler (Throw Rag) and Zander Schloss (Circle Jerks, The Weirdos, Die Hunns) who played some amazing tunes. In the end the whole bunch was on stage and performed some songs together...everyone was having a great time!!
Pascal asked me if we could take Zander for a walk in Vienna as he likes the architecture - so yeah, I played tour guide in the centre of Vienna for Pascal, Zander and my friends  - on a freezing cold Sunday night at 2 o'clock! But it was fun!

End of February, we also held our first AaAaArRrRtnight - a night dedicated to doing something together, I think I have mentioned it before. So 7 people met in my apartment on a Friday night and we worked on stencils. My friend Andy showed us how to do them and then we worked together. It was great fun and some made really nice stencils...and sprayed them all over my apartment. But I wanted to paint a wall there anyway, so it was ok....

 

 

 This year, my friends and me also dressed up as 80's rock band for the carneval party in our home town. We looked great! I could run around like this all the time :P

From carneval to a more serious topic - the situation in Japan is really scary. I'm speechless. It makes me feel helpless.
I get angry when I see the comments in newspapers about the financial situation, insurance questions and stock market issues - do they really matter in a situation like this? And then you want to watch a video about the tsunami and what you get is a one minute commercial before the acutal video starts - WHAT THE F**K?? I got angry. I got really angry. This can't be true. Business as usual?? Is that what we want?? And people still care about the latest celebrity gossip...WHY??
My mum told me that my little sister doesn't watch TV at all at the moment as she freaks out every time she sees pictures from Japan - she starts crying and asks my mum "Why does this happen?"....it seems as if we grown-ups have numbed ourselves...

Well, enough for today. It's time to go back to bed...and watch amazing "On the Waterfront" again. I adore old movies, especially with Marlon Brando - ahh, I start drooling when I see him acting :) He was the man!! Here's one of my favourite scenes from On the Waterfront:

So good night and take care, y'all!
S


PS: At the moment I listen to Handsome Furs a lot. My friend Corina introduced me to them. They are a married couple and tour the world together - one of these romantic stories us girls like to hear! And they actually make good music. Here's the song I like most at the moment, it's called Hearts of Iron