Wise Words...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Listen To Your Heart ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via step into tomorrow ]

I don't believe in pessimism. 

If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. 
If you think it's going to rain, it will.

~ Clint Eastwood ~

A World Stage...

The new World Stage film: Principal of The Royal Ballet Lauren Cuthbertson dusts on the chalk for a balletic take on the beam event in a promotional film for the 2011 winter season - obviously under Olympian influence. 

 

Music: "Still Life" by The Horrors

 

[ via Royal Opera House ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

A healthy mind has an easy breath.  

~ Author Unknown ~

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Sorry but this is me! ]

Tea is a cup of life. 

And cookies, of course.

They warm your soul...

Ohne Worte...

[ via Stefan R. Falk ]

Hmmm... was soll man da noch sagen?!

Randomness...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Haha, that's so like me...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

[S]leep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.  

~ Thomas Dekker ~

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

There is a harmony in autumn, 

and a luster in its sky, 

which through the summer is not heard or seen, 

as if it could not be, as if it had not been!  

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Delicious autumn!  
My very soul is wedded to it, 
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth 
seeking the successive autumns.  

~ George Eliot ~

Mozart, queues and the art of sleeping with eyes wide open...

Yesterday my mom and I went to the Wiener Musikverein. We've got an subscription of the Wiener Symphoniker orchestra. Last night was the first concert of the new season. It was Mozart and Mahler. I especially admired the conductor, Lothar Zagrosek, who stood in for Fabio Luisi on short notice. I didn't know him before but he did a great job.

If it says Mozart on the program, you can be sure of a) a sold out concert hall and b) massive applause and c) lots of Japanese students in the audience (no offence, they just seem to love Mozart above anything else!). The Serbian pianist Jasminka Stancul played really well and gave an impressive encore. Applause didn't seem to fade for like 15 minutes - she had to come back on stage 5 times.

I usually spend the first half of the concert fighting against my body's urgent desire to fall asleep. It's just the time between 7.30 PM and 8.30  PM... What saves me every time is the program booklet and the latest issue of their monthly magazine. Reading those also highly adds to my classical music education - you'd be surprised what I know...

(I also realized I missed several really great concerts in September: the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra from Moscow, conducted by V. Fedoseyev, played  Tchaikovsky's Violin Concert No.2 and Piano Concert No. 1 (2 of my all-time favourites by one of my all-time favourite composers) among other pieces and also works of Shostakovich whom I really love, too. Must have been the summer break - I am so out of date...)

After that we had the coffee break. Meaning I spent those 20 minutes first fighting my way through the masses to the coffee bar (why do people always have to gather/stand at the narrowest places, like doorways?!), getting my coffee - getting to the milk wasn't so easy though. Sometimes I wish I could drink black coffee, without anything. I spent the rest of the break standing in queue at - guess where?! - the toilet. As much as I love old buildings, they do lack infrastructure sometimes... (Really, one toilet for so many ladies?!)

And then Mahler started. I do love symphonies. And there were some great moments in that one. But Mahler (like Wagner and Bruckner) just never ends. Or so it seems. And I'm not getting the idea behind. It sounded to me like several independent pieces, just performed one of another (unlike the Russian symphonies for example or Beethoven. I always "feel" the story in it.). You could really feel the audience getting sleepy AND uneasy after a while. Like they were just waiting for the end. The lady next to me was snoring peacefully while my mom was fighting her cold. Running noses in a place like that can be very frustrating. There's a tiny break after each movement... It's always funny to see how many people have to cough, blow their nose, sneeze or clear their throats at the same moment... As if they had all been waiting for just that moment! Always makes me smile... At the end, the applause felt more like a relieve - compared to the franctic enthusiamn for Mozart and his piano concert. (And I have to confess I was happy to go home at 10PM!)

Being Ill...

When tightness crawls up the nose,

Slime slips down the throat,

Limbs grow cold and mind is fuzzy…

Now’s the time to save those words,

Now’s not the time for mountain climbing,

Those distant cloudscapes are better saved,

For when red blood pumps adventures’ call

Now its time to crawl abed,

To huddle under warm blankets,

Hot water bottle for a stomach,

Ten thousand pillows for a neck,

Movies for eyes and music for ears,

A fantasy for life held in stasis,

And deep dark sleep,

Where the cave of healing brings relief

Till once again health’s bright morning

Creeps under eyelids

With new horizons for the soul,

But for now the King’s trumpets do not call…

Sleep on.

 

by Mark B. Williams

 

 [ via The Mirror of Truth ]

Feeling of the Day...

[ via chibird ]

I just hate being sick...

Coffee Addict...

[ via white love cat ]

Just something about my (recent) coffee addiction. Plus it's cute. And because I live in Vienna, the metropolis of coffee and coffeehouses. Yes, we do have like a hundred different types of coffee here...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Yes, summer is definitely over. Today I stored away my sandals and replaced them with woolen hats and gloves. Plus I've got a heavy cold again. The usual sign of autumn...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via Cornelia Wahlberg ]

It's officially the end of summer today...

Feeling of the Day...

[ via we ♥ it ]

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, 

and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  

~ World Health Organization, 1948 ~