Thrift Finds

Posted on Sunday, May 13, 2012
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I’m always on the lookout for unusual items from the past and I love flea-markets. But most of the time they are either overpriced or you can’t really find anything interesting. So imagine my excitement when I heard about this house that needed to be emptied and where you could get things for free!

I’ve been part of a couple of groups on the internet where people post things they are giving away. I usually just use those to post my stuff I am getting rid of. Most of the time it doesn’t really make sense to travel all the way to Vienna just to pick up a few books. But a few days ago a woman posted that her grandmother’s house needed to be emptied (she had passed away a couple of years ago) because they were selling it. Mostly they wanted to get rid of the bigger furniture and I knew that as much as I liked some of the things they had posted, I simply was lacking room in my apartment. But since they mentioned they had some smaller items as well, I decided to go there and take a look. Plus this was outside of Vienna, only a half-hour car ride away.

Well, there was a lot of garbage (as expected) but I managed to find a few gems (click to enlarge)

First of all, this gorgeous mid-century “Junghans” wall clock (trust me, it was not in this condition when I picked it up, I had to spend quite some time cleaning it). It’s really beautiful but I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it yet because first of all I have 2 wall clocks already and secondly it is mechanical and missing the key to wind it. So I don’t even know if it works properly. But I think I’m going to keep it.

Then I found this cute mid-century stool/ plant-stand. Again, it had to be thoroughly cleaned (it had bad 80s pop-star stickers on top) but it’s in great condition and I love the color and pattern of the laminate.

 

Another gem is this mid-century fabric that I am probably going to sew into some sort of bag or purse (it’s not enough fabric to make any piece of clothing, unfortunately, or I would have used it for a dress, trust me!

 

 

Next an old, heavy steel balance, which was completely caked in a mix of grease and dust. Unfortunately the pans show some rust and there are no leads for the balance but I want to keep this for purely decorative purposes in my kitchen, so it’s fine.

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Still here

Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2012
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For those of you who have been wondering what happened, I am still here and I am not planning to shut this blog down or anything. Problem is, that a lot of what I’d like to write about shouldn’t be floating around the www. Also, there have been happier times, honestly… so I am waiting for the inspiration to be back. And it will, I promise :)

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Small adventures

Posted on Monday, March 5, 2012
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The pictures are just a preview of my absolutely memorable weekend in which I got to cross off one item of my list. Bonus points if you can guess which item it was. In any case: it was absolutely worth being on that list. I hope I’ll be able to post more about it within the next few days as I am trying to catch up on some sleep and work (since I took Friday off from work I have to make up for it this week by subbing more). In any case: totally worth it.

PS: In case you are wondering about the photographs: they are not from the 60s but were all taken last weekend using one of my Polaroid cameras paired with experimental B/W film.

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I can’t reach you

Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2012
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Came across this poem by Margaret Atwood today. I had not known it until she posted it on Facebook. I read it and it gave me goosebumps.

“Girl Without Hands”
by Margaret Atwood

Walking through the ruins
on your way to work
that do not look like ruins
with the sunlight pouring over
the seen world
like hail or melted
silver, that bright
and magnificent, each leaf
and stone quickened and specific in it,
and you can’t hold it,
you can’t hold any of it. Distance surrounds you,
marked out by the ends of your arms
when they are stretched to their fullest.
You can walk no further than this,
you think, walking forward,
pushing the distance in front of you
like a metal cart on wheels
with its barriers and horizontals.
Appearance melts away from you,
the offices and pyramids
on the horizon shimmer and cease.
No one can enter that circle
you have made, that clean circle
of dead space you have made
and stay inside,
mourning because it is clean.

Then there’s the girl, in the white dress,
meaning purity, or the failure
to be any colour. She has no hands, it’s true.
The scream that happened to the air
when they were taken off
surrounds her now like an aureole
of hot sand, of no sound.
Everything has bled out of her.

Only a girl like this
can know what’s happened to you.
If she were here she would
reach out her arms towards
you now, and touch you
with her absent hands
and you would feel nothing, but you would be
touched all the same.

I’m not sure which of the two I am: the one in the circle or the girl without hands. In any case, I wish the circle could be broken…

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The Exterminator

Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012
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This is how a 14-year-old girl imagines the entry of an exterminator who has been called to take care of a cockroach problem in a hotel room:

“The man said, “Hello Ladies. I’m the cockroach doctor. I’ve heard you had some of these nice animals” We let him in and do.”

Every time I read this, in my mind I see an exterminator saying, “Hello, ladies….” and can’t stop laughing…

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Dudes

Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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More dudes. And my love life still sucks.

Major crisis with the dude from Graz. Things were said that should have clarified stuff. Instead, everything got complicated to the point where I am pretty much like “Fuck it”. It’s not like this was going anywhere anyway but I would have liked to stay friends because I really like him.

Met a new dude on Facebook. Super nice guy BUT he doesn’t live anywhere near (like 2+ hours away) and what’s more important – I don’t think we’d work (very different personalities). In any case we’ve been spending quite some time chatting online and talking very honestly about our love lives. I am getting a lot of attention from him, which is nice, but I really would like to get the attention from someone else…

Speaking of… I’ve been pretty depressed about that particular matter and I don’t know if I am being ignored or what. In any case I am getting more “likes” on facebook by the former celebrity crush than by The Boy. Celebrity crush just liked something I commented on his wall on Facebook. And no, he didn’t like whatever anybody posted but he liked my post, which, I admit, was supposed to be funny (in a witty way). Can’t get over the fact he’s reading what I’m posting and actually finding it funny. So bizarre. I really wish I could talk to my old friend I. about this, because she’d just understand. She was the one who was there back then when things were oh so fucked up and I was the most insecure teenager out there… I can’t get over the fact that celebrity crush likes my posts. Who would have thought….

Anyway… remembering the summer of 1987…

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Uhm…wow, just wow.

Posted on Monday, January 30, 2012
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THIS, my dear readers, is completely bizarre:

Today, 25 years after I had my first major celebrity crush on an actor, well, today I just had a conversation with him on Facebook about the show “Portlandia” (he has nothing to do with the show he just mentioned that he likes watching it and so I replied and next thing I know we are talking like “OMG, love that skit where…blablabla” etc.). This is pretty freakin’ unbelievable considering I was ready to die for this man when I was 14 (and indirectly it’s his fault I moved to NYC years later, because it was his show that sparked an interest in NY and teaching for me). So much for believing in your dreams.

Yeah. Wow. I am speechless.

PS: This actor and I have the same sense of humor. Cool. Who knew? And without me being all like “OMG, I used to be such a fan of yours, thanks for changing my life” I started a conversation with him. HA!

PPS: BTW the show “Portlandia” kicks ass. Although I am not sure how much Austrians would enjoy it not knowing a lot of the culture that’s being made fun of in the show. I’ve never lived in Portland, but Brooklyn comes pretty close to it from what I can tell. Super sarcastic humor making fun of everything… just great!

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Posted on Saturday, January 28, 2012
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Just because…

Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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There’s no particular reason for me for posting this. Other than that it reminds me of the person who mentioned this artist on their Facebook page…

And… not related to the song either I am grateful for those people who have made me smile with their smiles or who have unexpectedly asked me how I was because they were concerned. Thanks for brightening my day in so many ways…

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Greek food and cocktails

Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2012
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I am totally running out of witty titles for my posts here.

Things have calmed down here and I have been sleeping like a baby for the past 2 nights.

Friday at school was tough because a friend complimented me on the way I looked that morning (which is quite surprising as I had only slept about 5.5 hours) and I almost started crying during hall duty because of it. Brilliant, I know. I’m blaming it partly on my lack of sleep but part of me was thinking also “Why can’t I get these sort of compliments from other people?”

I spoke to a small number of friends (including the friend I mentioned above), which turned out to be very helpful.

And while I am not all like “OK, moving on, next, please!” because that is just not who I am at all, I am feeling considerably calmer and am curious where this friendship might lead.

Saturday I spent all day correcting papers and later met up with Marion for some Greek food in my town. Delicious and totally earned… we later spontaneously decided to pay our old favorite bar a visit, where we hadn’t been to in about a year because it had started to suck more and more.

Well, coincidentally, the owner of the place (who has been neglecting it ever since he opened up a bar in Vienna) was sitting in the non-smoking room in the back as we got there and immediately started chatting with us. Not only did he tell us about the improvements that were going to be made (and we took our chance to make some suggestions), but he also gave us a new cocktail to try for free, which was pretty awesome.

They do have a a fireplace at that bar and he took care that there was enough wood and it all felt all warm and toasty and Marion and I just really enjoyed the evening (man, was she drunk!)

Today was more blah, but I started decluttering again and even did some work for school.

So, overall, not so bad, considering

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