Happy new year 2012! Another year's gone by, another NYE I've celebrated twice: first the central European and then the British turn of the year. This year something was different though: I felt the same as probably millions of Austrians and Germans are feeling on NYE while watching the Musikantenstadl, I felt 'Fremdscham'.

A Very Merry Christmas!

Frohe Weihnachten!

Joyeux Noël!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Vrolijk Kerstfeest!

People like buns, others like fillings. Some of them like both and a others believe it's the combination that makes perfect sense. But only a few people believe it's a puzzle, bun and filling, a mystery that must be solved.

There are loads of great people in this world but there are only a few extraordinary people who are doing remarkable. 

The most recent incidents in Oslo have been shocking the world. It's incomprehensible what drives a human to an act like this, killing 76 innocent people, mostly teenagers. Looking back in recent history of single assassins we might see a pattern though...

Who would have thought a brewer could bring Europe a little closer to the UK, especially when keeping in mind the relationships the people are having to their drinks on this island? I wouldn't, so I was quite surprised seeing the new Stella outdoor ads recently.

In all times art has been inspired by nature. Ancient wall painters painted humans in interaction with plants and animals. Monet's water lily pond is famous all over the globe and recent art installations are being displayed in forests, grain fields, even out in the ocean. Art can go a step further though.

Recently I read an article about regions in Europe that belong to countries to which they shouldn't belong to. And about countries that would need to be divided among other countries (according to some dodgy heads of state). Switzerland for instance.

Surprise, surprise London's not different to other cities when it comes to having it's own distinct dialect. But how come that THE London dialect hasn't got it's roots in the city or in one of the posh areas in and near the centre? 

So now it's done! I was time to leave the wonderful, (not too) quiet, posh Fulham behind. It was time moving up to the far north, up to a rougher London, up to Kilburn. So is this progress then?

Who said that Austria is an island (of bliss) in the centre of Europe, a tiny system on it's own? Nowadays Austrian companies and brands are going out for taking over the world. Doing that they're applying high sophisticated marketing and branding strategies, ain't they?

Another year's gone now. While people are bemoaning the end of this year because of its date they could articulate so fluently - twenty-ten (I still don't understand why they can't say 'twenty-eleven' now...), I've got to take an obligatory look back.

Recently I've been moaning about street art in London. A couple of weeks passed by though and I have to admit now that I was wrong. To some extent.

What's wrong with you guys, for fuck's sake? It can't be that difficult sending your two Overground trains per hour on time, can it? I mean it's only two trains...

I'm certain that the environment we're living in does change us, does change the way we're communicating, our attitudes and our behaviour. But is it the same vice versa? Do we, our communication, attitudes and behaviour change our environments?

Art could be defined quite narrow: paintings, sculptures, literature, music; all these classic ways of artists expressing their view on certain things. But nowadays art is more.

Coming from countries like Austria or Germany I was used to postcodes describing whole districts, villages and even smaller towns. That's different in the UK where postcodes have been introduced to locate single streets or even houses. That's grand when spinning this thought out!

I really like my employer! OK, I have to admit I have been working there for only three months and I know that everything might change as time goes by, still I really like them.

I am not a robot! I admit that I'm not like everybody else and that I've got serious problems swimming with the mainstream (in pretty much every sense). And I'm proud of that!

Usually it happens in France, sometimes in Italy or Spain and infrequently in Germany, Poland, Hungary, not in Austria. Generally it doesn’t take place in the UK but yesterday it occurred in London: a strike.

The other day whilst I got my make-up (I'd rather not spend another thought on this) I had a quite interesting discussion with the stylist about the best places to live in London. East, West? North or south the river? Spontaneously I'd say: SW - South West.

Creative industries have largely been transitioning from offline to online in the last couple of years. That's good in many respects. Fortunately the offline world doesn't entirely die off - there are still brilliant creative minds out there, offline. Blobitects for instance.

When growing up in Austria you very soon learn what Hausverstand is. When coming as Austrian to the UK you might have the impression that they haven't got an equivalent for Hausverstand in the English language. The British rather use common sense for getting along with each others. But let's hold on a second. What exactly are Hausverstand and common sense?

Where's the borderline between branding and art? What exactly means 'creating the virtual buzz'? And how successful are brands in attracting attention using artistic forms of communication?

I don't know yet. But I will, soon.

Here a few examples of branding art.

The other day I learned that certain things are not happening because they are stupid, no there’s another reason: It’s because they have special needs. In my defence I have to say that I wouldn’t have thought that they are stupid, not all of them.

When thinking of the English language then we inevitably think of internationality. When walking through London we hear loads of different languages and might tend to presume that the British are open minded for other cultures and consequently other languages. However I do believe that they’re mainly not.

I knew it from the beginning! The moment I left my hotel room I rented for the first ten days of my London experience on the weekend I realised what I'm going to be facing party wise: WBPB – Weird British Party Behaviour!

Since living in the UK I was wondering whether the UK are part of Europe or not. Or better whether the British consider themselves being part of Europe or not. Who else would be better to answer this question than people who have been living on the island for their entire lives: the British.

Recently I changed jobs. Yes, I hated my old job and the company where I was working! I hated the agency side and I hated the client.

I am back at home. Back in Styria. Austria. What a gorgeous place. A place of nature, peace and lots of other wonderful things. A place for living??

As the first worldcup week has gone it's time for a review. I'm not supporting one particular nation - I still don't know anything about football to be completely honest. But I'm learning.... And I've changed my attitude towards football slightly.

After losing another two Europeans to Australia I'm wondering what's so special over there? It can't be the language and it can't be the culture. It could be the weather or it could be the nature. Or is it something completely different?

After my last two journeys to Riga and Malta (in many respects both places are more alike than most of us would think) I felt a bit of taken back to the 70s. And this when I even hadn't left the aircraft...

…we don’t know. We only know that the tories have won most of the seats in Britain's parliament but not enough for being able to govern the country. We know that Labour has lost a big chunk of their seats and that the LibDems couldn’t hit their election targets. And we know that Nick Clegg is obviously the most powerful man in the UK these days. How come?

After living more than half a year in London and after discovering more plazes, cities and countries I was wondering if I could start measuring my own personal international competencies. But how?

Britain is paralized! says The Sun this morning. That doesn't mean that I'm reading The Sun but that it's the second day Britain's facing major air traffic disruption, because of a volcano in Iceland.

The other day I've asked the question 'Why leaving the place where I am?'. I haven't got the answer on this question yet but I've got at least a decision whether leaving Fulham or not. Even more, I've got the decision whether leaving the street I'm used to or not...

It's time to go! It's time to leave this place, my place, my urban retreat in London. It's been six months and that's enough. It's time to move forward, to find a new place to stay, a new area to live. But where?

Reading international press today I found loads of interesting stories: the Greeks probably could sell some islands for easing their financial plight, the tense relations of the Swiss to Gaddafi, the 'warning' of the Austrian health minister to completely ban smoking in venues. But WTH is going on in the Netherlands?

It seems that DIY gets more and more popular in the UK. Assuming that the economically regressive year 2009 played a major role in this development I would really like to know who did everything prior they started doing it themselves!

Obviously Google has become the most important online player, for consumers, advertisers and actually for everybody. So they must have done something differently.

The years I lived in Austria I never had 'Krapfen' on Faschingsdienstag because I hated this fat, sweet and way to big bakery. But now as I'm in England...

There are loads of things different in UK, especially in London: the weird post system, the queen and and the rubbish tube they call 'service'!

Back in the day when I read Austrian newspapers frequently I was constantly critisising Austrian media for their attitudes and their tonality against the European Union.

The other day I had a great time when I was spending a few days with friends from Austria visiting London. So I had to show them one of the most important institutions in London: the pubs.

So, after being in London for a few month we proudly announce that it's snowing these days. And referring to the weather man it won't stop snowing in the next few days.

After living more than one month in my London urban retreat and wondering why it takes them so long to send me my Nectar card I realised that there must be an other reason why I didn't get anything by post.

Standing in my new 'kitchen' this evening cooking my marrowfat peas and my 69p Sainsbury's salad potatoes I was asking myself: WTH is going on this year??

I've been asking myself  a fundamental question for a long time: Who dominates policy in Austria? Is it the ruling parties or the opposition parties? Recently I got the answer: It's the 'Krone'!

Since the elections for the European Parliament earlier this month the shift to the right, not only in Austria but also in other regions and countries in Europe, was confirmed by official figures. But what to do now?

So now it's over. I always thought I would at least feel a little bit different than before, but,... nothing. Nothing has changed.

Since world war II there have been right-wing and far right-wing fractions in Austria but in the last months and years there's an alarming trend in evidence.

At present I'm at little bit discordant with myself in terms of my own notion of art. In light of recent discussions it's time to talk about the art term inasmuch as art is discussible objectively.

Now that spring has come it's time to think about the place where I'm living again, think about Vienna. Vienna, with it's abhorrent and Vienna with it's gorgeous faces.

Recently the musician and author Christiane Rösinger engaged in her column 'Aus dem Leben der Lo-Fi Boheme' with societal groups like Dinkys, Yuppies, Wags, Bobos and Lohas. 

Recently we were talking about spending a lot of money and how to deal with such a large amount. Then I heard the phrase: 'This is more than 100.000 Schilling' and I was wondering and thinking beyond that.

After again visiting Linz due to Linz09, THE European capital of culture 2009, I'm once more impressed by the atmosphere I feel this year in this amazing little big city.

There are times in life where you love the place you live, where you can't imagine living in another place than in your city and your country.

Attentive visitors probably have noticed that recently I've been in the UK in the marvellous city of Manchester. During a quite long weekend I got to know the amazing architecture and the mostly friendly inhabitants of Manchester.

Funny things are going on in Brussels these days. As a part of the czech EU council presidency a quite sarcastic, critical work of art with the title "Entropa" has been installed in the council building which is probably the most discussed topic in the council these days.

I know, in the meatime it's quite late writing about this topic because the new so called law for the ban on smoking became effective more than two weeks ago but it's worth to talk about it, even two weeks later.

Welcome 2009!

We have been waiting for you so hard! 2008 has been such a bad year with financial and economical crisis, ecological, humanitarian and political catastrophys and all these ignorant and mercenary heads of state, politicians, CEOs, managers and people in general.

Isn't it weird that you could apparently erase all parts of your internet identity by deleting all the facebook, youtube, myspace,... profiles but that you can't erase all your traces in the world wide web?

This morning, while waiting approximately one and a half hour in the waiting room of my doctor I was listening to a discussion of three elderly people, a woman, a man who was observing the waiting room scenery all time long and quite proud of beeing able to help two patients out of an almost clash because they didn't know whos turn it was and a man who felt like sharing his malady history with all other patients in the waiting room.

Angst is not a Weltanschauung? Says Bernhard Fleischmann! If you listen to his song '24.12.' he recorded together with Marilies Jagsch you could indeed feel like flying trough another sphere, as if you could leave back all fear, apparently gliding into a whole new world.