Life Ball

There's a big party called the Life Ball. It's an AIDS awareness thing. They've been holding it here in Vienna since 1993. This year Bill Clinton showed up. 

The ball is a formal event. Tuxes and evening dresses. But there's also a fun freakazoid element of costumed folks who strut around and enjoy posing for the camera. This year's theme was Seeds Of Solidarity so all folks were wearing nature-centric stuff.

In a day or two if you do a search of Vimeo or YouTube you'll probably see some great footage of the thing. I'll share some shots with you, below. Click on any pic to enlarge it. But before we get to the costumed folks, here's something we saw on our way through the Volksgarten:

Tangled up in blue. A couple at the Volksgarten.

A woman in the Volksgarten learning about Vienna.

Ketchup and mustard.

Goldfinger? Gold everything!

I like this old Citroen truck.

Write your own caption.

A merry man from Sherwood Forest.

Meat watching meat. Caption written by B.

Before...

...after.

Your assignment: write a short story based on the people in this pic.

Went Swimming. Then Drinking.

About noon we headed here:

This is the Badegrund. It's an old gravel quarry that's been filled with water and is used as a nice getaway from the city hustle and bustle (and these days, the heat.) B.'s parents have a tiny plot of land here on which they've parked a trailer. During the summer months, the family comes here to cool off with a nice swim.

We arrived to find B.'s parents, her sister, and a family friend already there, in their swimsuits. Took a couple of swims, had nice snacks to gnosh on, had interesting talks. The family helped me with my German, which I appreciate. B tried to read her newspaper but we kept interrupting, me asking how to say something in German and her family asking how to say something in English. She should have told us to buy a fucking dictionary.

We stayed about five hours. Even though it wasn't as hot and stifling as yesterday was, it was still pretty hot.The water felt good.
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We dropped the family friend off at the subway station on our way home, then drove up into the vineyards behind the house to a Heuriger. Had a great view of Vienna in the light of the setting sun, and the breeze on top of the hill was fantastic---cooler than lower down, and no mosquitoes!

We had a glass of half white wine, half mineral water, and ate this:

A nice hard bread with three interesting spreads.

A leisurely day. Tomorrow evening: into the center of town to watch a big parade of gay folks, all dressed up in wild costumes. Stay tuned.

Vienna, Louisiana

B. had been telling me on the phone for about a week: "It's hot in Vienna."

Yep. It's been in the 90s here for several days. Unusually hot. Add to that the fact that air conditioning in vehicles and buildings isn't too common, and you get a sticky situation.

Add to that fact the fact that there were some big rains before the big heat and you get Vienna, Louisiana. Complete with hungry mosquitoes, as I found out when we strolled down to the Mayer for a drink and a couple of bottles of wine to take home. We sat outside in the beautiful patio with a hundred or so other people. The wine was fantastic (it wins lots of awards) and the food looked great (we didn't eat) but the air was dead and the mosquitoes weren't. I took a kind of delight in swatting them, insulting them as I did: "Motherfucker!" SWAT! "Asshole!" SWAT! "Taste death!" SWAT!

I told a woman friend once: "Only the female mosquito bites."

She said: "While the male mosquito stays at home watching the game and ignoring the kids."

Well, possibly.

We walked back home, me toting the four bottles of white. We poured a couple of glasses and B. turned on the TV to watch an opera, broadcast live on an elaborate outdoor stage on the shores of a big lake near the Hungarian border. Pretty impressive. A big production.

While I wrote the previous blog post and B watched the opera, a storm brewed up. Pretty soon the rain came and it was magical. The air cooled off immediately and the wine tasted even better. I joined B in the living room, stepped out on the balcony to feel the rain. We watched the rest of the opera and finished the first bottle of wine.

A good first evening back "home."