So Dubya’s gone, and I won’t even pretend I was any good at covering it. The relevant things about the visit have been said by others who are more articulate than me.
I’ll resort to showing you a picture (taken from here):
It’s a man’s world, and if you happen to be a lot taller than the leader of the free world, then goddamnit, cross your legs and hope the cameras don’t pick it up. Too bad they pick up everything.
From whitehouse.gov:
On Wednesday, June 21, the President will start his day by greeting the staffs of the various U.S. Missions in Austria, followed by a meeting with the President of Austria, Heinz Fischer. The President will then have a bilateral meeting with Austrian Chancellor and European Council President Wolfgang Schüssel. Upon conclusion of this bilateral meeting, the President will participate in the formal U.S.-EU summit meetings, and then have lunch with European leaders, Chancellor Schüssel, and European Commission President José Barroso. After lunch, the President will join the EU leaders for a press availability.
Later in the afternoon, the President will participate in a roundtable with foreign exchange students from various nations, to discuss with them the importance of freedom and democracy in advancing the future of their countries. The roundtable will be followed by a tour of the historic National Library, and a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir.
They fail to mention that being the supposed leader of the free world is so scary, that most of the inner city of Vienna will be inaccessible for the better part of Wednesday. They also fail to mention that sealing off and shutting down stores around St. Stephen’s Cathedral is due to Laura Bush’s intention to visit that very cathedral sometime during the day.
They fail to mention that apart from the apparent losses for museums, tourist attractions and the like, most of the commuters will have one hell of a time getting to work tomorrow, and will probably opt for taking a day off. For the president of the US.
And they fail to mention that even though they bring about 200 of their Secret Service agents, the estimated cost for sealing off and securing the area for the day will set the Austrian taxpayer back about 1 million Euros. For the president and his wife.
But hey, considering that the US have been entertaining a camp for “illegal combatants” for the last four years, and are scared shitless to let these people go because they could harm them from their war-ridden country somewhere in the desert, all these security measures seem way too subtle.
Since I’ve done my share of ORF bashing on here (for the uninitiated, ORF is Austrian’s national broadcaster), I’m glad to announce that I’ve had the opportunity to sign an online petition that demands better and less politically motivated programming.
The great thing is that the people behind the petition are actually members of the ORF. One of their main targets is their boss, Monika Lindner, who’s been the General Director of the ORF for the last four years, and is quite probably going to be re-elected for another five years soon. She’s already publicly declared her love for the ÖVP, our very own, very conservative, so-called people’s party.
While I’m not convinced that the awful programing techniques of the ORF are due to too much political intervention, I do feel that signing the petition SOS-ORF is a good step to protest whatever I feel is wrong with their service. If you feel so too, go and sign it here.
I met my parents in Graz yesterday. Graz is Austria’s second largest city, but it’s really a lot smaller than Vienna. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I hadn’t noticed the last few times I’ve been there (which, I might add, is a few years back), but Graz is actually a really nice, cozy little town. Especially in smashing sunlight!
I took a few photos; either click the above image to see them on Flickr directly, or click here, which will lead you to the same pictures, only that you won’t be leaving this website. Ahh, choices!
Austrian art-group gelitin will open their first large-scale exhibition tomorrow in the Kunsthaus Bregenz, here in wonderful little Austria. Avid Boing Boing readers will know them for their giant rabbit.
One of the highlight’s will be a free-of-charge installation on the ground floor. Here’s a snip from the official text on the Kunsthaus homepage:
On the ground floor, for example, the artists will be constructing a public restroom complete with balcony in the KUB Arena;
According to another source, that public restroom will be enhanced by a whole lot of mirrors, so you can actually watch yourself taking a dump. I never again want to hear anyone saying all art is useless.
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