Thursday 31 December 2009

New Year's Eve


“New Year's eve is like every other night;
there is no pause in the march of the universe,

no breathless moment of silence among created things
that the passage of another twelve months may be noted;

and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights”
Hamilton Wright Mabie

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Sunset Over Vienna
Photographed
high over Parkring
31 December 2009
© by Merisi 2009

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Clicking on the
SkyWatch icon below


takes you straight to
Sky Watch Friday Headquarters
from where you can journey on to visit
hundreds of skies around the world!

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As Time Goes By


"Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Tim
e."
Edward Fitzgerald

K.u.K. Mil.-Geographic Institute
Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz

Michaelerkirche
St. Michael's Church

City Hall
and Votive Church

Rathausuhr
City Hall Clock

Haas Haus
St. Stephen's Square

Photographed
31 December 2009
© by Merisi2009

"Why won't they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, can't they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping - rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year's and Easter and Christmas - But, goodness, why need they do it? "
John Dos Passos, 1917


Prêt-à-Porter


A Sense Of Perspective Is Lost
with an overwhelming
quantity of information

"I like today
and perhaps a little future still,


but the past is really something
I'm not interested in.
So, as far as I'm concerned,
I like only the past of things
and people I don't know.

but the past is really something
I'm not interested in.

So, as far as I'm concerned,
I like only the past of things
and people I don't know.
"
*
Karl Lagerfeld
Oh Karl!

So, have you decided
what to wear
tonight?

Chanel Boutique
Kohlmarkt

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Photographed
28 December 2009
© by Merisi2009

While Waiting .For Godot.


Déjà Vu
Oh yes, they are back:
Puppenkrapfen
You do know
how to pronounce that,
do you?

Suggestions:
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
Try different keywords.
Try more general keywords.
Try fewer keywords.


Alright, here we go,
everybody pronounce
(poopp)(pen)(krap)(fen) -
why are you laughing???

While a Krapfen is a -
usually apricot filled -
donut without a hole,
a Puppenkrapfen is a
small Krapfen,
i.e. a Puppe's (doll's) size.
One of the cutest food names
I have encountered here.

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What are we waiting for?
For once,
the Blue Moon to appear,
the Old Year packing up,
Merisi to finally come up
with a last blog post
for 2009!


Puppenkrapfen
photographed today
at Demel's.
Where else?

Images & Text
© by Merisi


Wednesday 30 December 2009

Christmas in Vienna


There Are Days
when the city
outshines itself.
This past Monday
was one of those.
The white clouds sailing
in the blue skies high above
the Donau-Kanal only enhanced
the quality of that morning's brilliance,
illuminating even the façade of
St. George's Church to the left,
still in the shade,
by sheer reflection of the light
around it.
I took this picture from Hafnersteig,
at the corner of Griechengasse,
a part of the city so full of reminders
of the myriad contributions to the city's
commercial and intellectual growth
by Greek immigrants,
of people who came here
during the 19th Century,
looking for tolerance and
freedom of religion.

Illuminated
by midday's sun,
the Christmas lights
above Kärntner Strasse -
the historic center's shopping boulevard -
shine even more brilliantly
than at night when
artificial light is but a poor cousin
to the sun's power

A Few Stray
rays of sunshine successfully
travel down to the bottom
of Kohlmarkt -
a rather canyon-like narrow lane -
and alight the silver and white
Christmas decorations of
Berger's bookshop

The Gingerbread Angel
can only imagine the light
around her, what with
the silver star
in front of her eyes -
much to the delight of the
powderblue snowflake that
does not even try to conceal
her schadenfreude,
laughing so hard
she almost falls off the shelf

A Gilded Bauble
leans against a cookbook
singing of bratapfel and ginger

Christmas Tree
A Norway Spruce graces
the courtyard of the
"Böhmische Hofkanzlei"
designed by baroque architect
Johann Fischer von Erlach to house
the Bohemian Court Chancellery
during the first half of the 18th Century.

The Chancellery is long gone
and today the palais is home to Austria's
Constitutional and Administrative Courts.

*

Photographed
28 December 2009

Gingerbread angel and snowflake:
Kameel Pâtisserie
Gilded Bauble:
Babette's Foodie's Paradise
Am Hof

Glossary:
bratapfel - Baked apple
schadenfreude - Pleasure derived from the misfortune of others

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Images & Text
© by Merisi


Tuesday 29 December 2009

Vienna On the Fourth Day of Christmas


Giant Red Bauble
High above
Rotenturm Street

Süßes Mädel
Wiener Kindermoden

Sweet Girl
Viennese Children's Fashion
Rotenturm Street

Walking Up
Hafnersteig towards Fleischmarkt
Greek Quarter

Antiques Store
Wipplinger Street

Scherer Beisl
Restaurant
Judenplatz

Photographed
28 December 2009

Images & Text
© by Merisi


Monday 28 December 2009

Stopping by Demel on a Sunny Afternoon


"Whose woods
these are
I think I know."
*)
You do too,
don't you?

*
Snow-dusted
marzipan Christmas trees
and white meringue kisses
in cellophane bags
with golden bows
in glass cookie jar

Glass Vetrine
Rows of Viennese Guglhupf
on silvern footed cake stands,
gift-wrapped boxes
full of mystery

A Wiener Melange
Strong coffee that
pulls you out of your
afternoon listlessness!
*
See the plate of cookies?
Courtesy of the house,
melt-on-your tongue delicious
hand-made vanilla crescents!
I think I ate
three, no, four,
wait ....

The Demelinerin
Your Coffee Fairy,
keeping you
safe and in coffee ...

... or
hand-whipped cream,
if you'd rather go
onto that side of
the fluffy road -
not me,
I am of the
milk-foam congregation

These Guglhupf
sure look good!
Alright, move on,
we are on the way out,
remember!

'Til We Meet Again
And in the meantime,
we can dream,
can't we?

*

Photographed today
at K.u. K Hofzuckerbäcker
Demel Royal and Imperial Confectioners
CH. DEMEL' S SÖHNE GmbH

Kohlmarkt 14
Where else?

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Images & Own Text
© by Merisi


* Robert Frost


We're Gonna Need Some Coffee. Soon!


Yes, Coffee. Pleeease!
"Armer Hund"
"Poor Fellow"
Literally: Poor Dog

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Whenever I happen to run
from St. Stephen's Cathedral
along Rotenturmstrasse,
I look for this darling stuffed dog,
part of a varied collection
of stuffed bears and toys
of the owner of this exquisite
antiques and interior store.
I thank him at each and every visit
from the bottom of my heart
for his sweet and witty exhibition
of toys.
I also love his superb
selection of antique and new bentwood furniture,
including designs by Josef Hoffmann,
Adolf Loos and Koloman Moser,
manufactured by Thonet and Kohn.

Gone to the dogs,
not necessarily a harsh fate
here in Vienna!


Galerie Ambiente
Lugeck 1

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Images and Text
© by Merisi

Sunday 27 December 2009

Christmas Around Town


Christmas Tree
Café Gloriette
Schönbrunn Gardens

Looking Up
Window and
balcony decorations

Le Parfum
Unbound Fragrance
Petersplatz 3

Painted Tin
Advent Wreath
Christmas Market
Schönbrunn

Flower Shop
Stiftgasse

*

Images and Text
© by Merisi


Christmas Blues and Greens


Scenes of Scandal
behind the blue ribboned
Christmas tree?

Storefront Blues
Galerie Kovacek & Zetter
Stallburggasse

All Is Calm
Store entrance
Spittelberg
6th District

Reflections
Glass façade and
Christmas chandelier
Mariahilfer Strasse

A Lobby
near St. Stephen's Cathedral

Green Door
and festively decorated
boxwood Christmas tree
Spittelberg
6th District

Christmas Tree
Courtyard
Palais Harrach


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Images and Text
© by Merisi