New York City

In case anyone was worried that I never made it home, I am here to trounce that thought.
New York City's a strange place that seems to not have changed at all in the past four months. I'm not sure if I changed - everyone that has anything to do with study abroad is always saying "Oh man...the real transforming aspect of studying abroad hits you upon arrival in your home town/city." I've definitely had lots of amazing walks since I got back but I'm not so sure that I can say I'm a different fellow. I must give a wee little recap of the last few days in Vienna because, my oh my, were they eventful.

Other than saying all the necessary goodbyes, I got pickpocketed by a nice and drunk Turkish man, waited in Vienna's gross airport for 8 hours, got to my home in New York City without my luggage. To this day and very moment, 5 days after landing, I am still without that very luggage. Ouch, you may say. Ya. OUch. OUch Ouch. I blame the Austrian airline people, the Iberia airline people, the Swiss air people, and the intolerant Viennese. Ugh to all of them. Give ME BACK MY SON (LUGGAGE). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lztwjgD10Yw

How can you not love Mel Gibson? He's so dreamy and sooooo sweeeeeet.

It's over ladies and gents

I'm coming back ya'll.

On my way to Vienna (in JFK), I wrote on a piece a paper the following:

 ***

The journey begins!
As I sit in this moderately comfortable airport seat I wonder where I'll be 24 hours from now, a week from now...a month from now.
I stare at the many families walking and gliding to their gate. Hebrew, French, every language is spoken in airports.
Oh...sure hope I don't get a stomachache on the airplanes.
That's all for now, ladies and gents.
Take care of the United States for me,
Daniel

***

The next morning (on the plane from Zurich to Vienna), I wrote:

***

Boarding Austrian flight to Vienna. Made a few (fellow IES folks) ((the trio and Drew Bernard)). Guess what's being played as I write...Johann Strauss' "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" Waltz. How fitting, eh?

Viddy well and talk to ya in Vienna!

Danieljreilkasd;a

***

Little did I know I'd have to listen to that piece of crap every day on the way to schooly wooly in the U-baaahn.

Alright. I'm on the plane in 5 hours. Good night, good morning. See ya'll sooooooon

Crazy Dayz (daze)

I've been eating lots of mmm mmm good food, playing poker, getting the best hands and winning poker,  making latkes, seeing and hearing some jaZz - lying to trumpet players about who I study with, watching the Vienna Philharmonic rehearse as I sat next to retired Vienna Philharmonic french horn players, "studying" for finals, "preparing" for the final days, being a die-hard IES student while hanging out with all of IES in Australian bars in Austria, almost taking a train to Bratislava in the middle of the night, wandering about the many Christkindlmarkts running into Viennese people that I met in September, recording otherworldly percussive, improvised music in strange recording studio/houses in creepy neighborhoods, and of course watching some African men play pool at the local drugfront, Taste and See.

Yah, that's about it.

See ya Americans reaaal soon.

No more time

I believe that any blog posts I write in the next week or so are going to be rather brief. I've got a mere 9ish days left in this fair city so I don't plan on spending much time documenting my final days. So much time, so little to do...strike that, reverse it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTEh1A9Ur8E&feature=related

Shosta Wosta and oh so much more

Three nights in a row at the Konzerthaus...four Shostakovich symphonies, two of which were mighty creepy and depressing (last night) and tonight....Earth.....WIND......AND FIRE.

I had no idea what to expect seein' some funky dudes in a concert hall famous for classical music.
What I got was about 1500 fifty something year olds dancing to their favorite tunes from the 70s and 80s.

It was pretttay prettay different from Shostakovich's 14th and 15th Symphonies, I'd say.

D-D-D-Dmitriiii

Our second-to-last weekend in Vienna happens to be a Dmitri Shostakovich concert series at the Konzerthaus with the most Russian orchestra in the world: the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra with Mista Valery Gergiev conducting.

After a fantastic day yesterday, with the LaRosa-Schweppe Concert and a hoppin' after-party at our Taste & See residence, a slow and easy day was definitely in store. The evening, though, was devoted to Shostakovich's 12th and 7th Symphonies. Simply ridiculous they were. Booming and bombastic.

I'm going to attempt to wake up early tomorrow to see his 8th Symphony. We'll see what happens.

See ya folks soon

Mr. Tchaikovsky

Hey, hey...don't get me wrong. I love Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in E minor. It's great. I played it in high school. It's all great. However...

A little less than a month ago, the dudes and I went to see it performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. Who knew? New Zealand's got a pretty good orchestra. The only problem with the concert was that it was completely sold out. Like true music lovers, we waited outside until intermission to sneak into the standing room. We met some nice British folk whose brother was the timpanist of the orchestra. Quite nice.

Tonight was a concert of a Weber overture, some songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. I got Lil Bare "Schweppe" to tag along. We had things to do before the concert so we decided to get there in time for intermission...yah, so we could sneak in. After a little confusion with a coat check lady, we made it up the stairs to the hall. Schweppe was pretty set on standing for the Sixth. I, on the other hand, was not. I had scoped out some seats that I saw on the video monitor in the lobby. We sat in those seats for the usual, uncomfortable 20-minute long intermission praying no one would kick us out. But our praying worked wonders. The ticket folks closed the doors. The orchestra came out on stage, and the long-haired conductor followed. We got ready. Tchaikovsky Numba Sixxxx. And the downbeat.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3ifmdPPJE&feature=related

Schweppe and I immediately exchanged befuddled looks. We had snuck into two different concerts at intermission and saw Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony both times without trying to (the second time). Not only that, both orchestras were unheard of. Tonight, we saw the Resident Orchestra based in the Hague (somewhere in the Netherlands). We both wanted to see and hear the Sixth, but were fine hearing the same piece within a month in the same exact hall. Yeahhhh oh yaaaah...they also played an encore. Of what you might ask? the last two minutes of the the fifth's finale. We heard those two minutes played three times.

Tomorrow's our big, big concert at IES.

Happy 2nd night of Chanukah,
L'Chaim folks