Category: Austria

Wow, 2007 is already 17 days old! I’d say a mixture of good and bad news so far for me, but nothing to really complain. I haven’t written a real blog entry… well, since September. I had many ideas, but something kept me away from putting them online. I wanted to comment on the death of Sadam, but so many others did, I felt that there was nothing to add. I have thought a lot about what is going on in the Middle East and in the United States, in my home country Austria but nothing wanted to evolve into a good story worth putting online.

This is about the mildest winter in Austria that I ever experienced. I work in the tourism business, which heavily relies on winter sports and is hit pretty hard these months. But what can I say? At some point someone has to pay the price for the pollution crimes of the past. And this is just the beginning; much worse is to come in the next decades for sure. If you haven’t done so already I would recommend to go and see the movie “An Inconvenient Truth“ by Al Gore. The movie pretty much sums it up what was done wrong in the past and what we tumble towards too. Another movie I would like to point out is “Who killed the electric car” – another interesting documentation on how the American car industry treats their own products and how they joined forces with the oil industry to make sure the people stick to gasoline and not seek out for cleaner alternatives.

But why not be a bit optimistic toward the new year? Maybe the US starts pulling out of the Middle East, maybe the region can find peace after a long struggle. Maybe more and more people realise that polluting the blue planet to make more profit isn’t an option anymore, not only because it destroys our future, but the future of human mankind altogether. A little bit more peace, a little bit more understanding and this could be a great year. We shall see!

And what about love? Well, we shall see about that too!

The idea for a german blog has been in my head for some time now, but I never felt the urge to start one until a while ago. Since I noticed that quite a few people from good old Germany and even Austria visit this Blog I wanted to let you know that I started writting in my native language too. Behold – my german blog! http://homebeach.blogspot.com/

Mozart was born some 250 years ago in Salzburg and I wonder how he would feel about the year 2006. Just yesterday I watched a documentation on Austrian TV that claimed to unravel the truth about the skull of Mozart. There was a lot of hype about the show as the skull has been in the center of speculations ever since it appeared and the big question always was “Is it for real?”. Well, the TV show promised to bring a final answer to the question in true CSI style.

I guess Mozart would turn over in his grave if he’d knew what they did to his ancestors for the sake of this “grave-entertainment”. Apparently that’s exactly what the forensic scientist did. The dug up a few of Mozart’s presumed relatives, only to find out that no one of the “Mozarts” in the family grave was related to each other, and they did not match the DNA extracted from the skull or the hair-samples from – did you know his full name – Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus – Mozart!

So finally, there is the ultimate answer, that we know nothing, that the mystery became even bigger and that we have to wait another 50 years till the 300 year anniversary.

Maybe that’s when the scientist get permission to dig up Mozarts sister, Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart (Nannerl) at the St. Peter’s cemetery (which did not gave permission of an exhumation of her body this time), take samples from her bones and share once and for all the truth about the skull of Mozart.

But I’m sure more money is made by not knowing the truth rather then having a final solution. So enjoy your Mozart liquor, your Mozart balls, Mozart beer and whatever clever merchandise products will appear in the Mozart year 2006!