Last friday, I joinded the Critical Mass Graz. It was by far not as critical as I expected, but I was told there were normally more cycling enthusiasts joining the monthly ride. There was a demonstration scheduled for the same time, and the not soo nice weather probably did the rest.
Peoples reactions are mostly big smiles, but also (especially car drivers) occasionally call you a stupid jerk.

If you have never heard of Critical Mass, you may want to read the wikipedia article:

Critical Mass is a bicycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. While the ride was originally founded with the idea of drawing attention to how unfriendly the city was to bicyclists, the leaderless structure of Critical Mass makes it impossible to assign it any one specific goal. In fact, the purpose of Critical Mass is not formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and traveling as a group through city or town streets.

The next Critical Mass in Graz will be on the last Friday of October, wich is the 31st!

The Fourelements festival is back, with the 4 ingretients: Rap, DJing, Graffiti and Breakdance, presented on 7 spots in Graz.

I was at a live performance of MC Klumzy Tung, DJ Dero and drummer Dr.Pheel yesterday at the Parkhouse and I loved it.

fourelements.at calls it:
packed with live turntablism, fresh lyrics, freestyles and energy loaded hiphop, mixed with oldschool, funk and drum’n’bass mashup(…)”

Their first CD will be presented on September 19th at the Postgarage, Graz. You better be there!

Check foruelements.at for a timetable of the upcoming events.

Yesterday was Austria’s chance to beat the Germans in soccer. Unfortunately they didn’t make it, although they did play a great game.

As expected, the two public viewing areas in Graz were crowded. What I didn’t expect was, that they wouldn’t let people in anymore, more than an hour before the game started. Since the Public viewing areas in Graz are commercial events, organized by newspapers and sponsors, they have blinds on the fences, which make it nearly impossible to view the game from the outside.

A few stood on trashcans and some even climed onto trees to get a clear view. The mood was great however. Too great to go watch the game at home with some friends, so I joined some hundred people, Austrians as well as Germans, sitting in front of a single TV, not far from the videowall we couldn’t see, but close enought to hear the outcry of thousands of people, when Michael Ballack shot the goal.

After a little over 90 minutes, the game ended, with lots of disappointed austrians heading into the city or back home. On the other hand, there were also some laughing germans, that celebrated the victory of their team.

We’re not the best in soccer, true, but after all, people seem to get in the mood for the UEFA Euro 2008. Especially after yesterday’s result. I guess everybody is looking forward to the match Austria vs. Germany!

A little delayed, but still worth mentioning, a few impressions of the Synthesizerpark Presentation during the SpringEight Festival.

Countless Synthesizers from all decades, open for everyone to play. Loud and Fun!

this weekend lend is different…

you have to see it.

www.lendwirbel.at

today was a great picnic in the stadtpark,
it was called Vappu like the finish holiday….

it was so nice meeting with people and chat a little,
sleep in the sun,
eat something, chat again, looking for more friends……

or just play a little boccia through the whole stadtpark………..

today ist the first day of the 10th DIAGONALE at graz…

it´s the festival of austrian film. during this week the city itself seems to be the cinema.
from tomorrow on i´ve to work four days in one of the cinemas where they show the films,
let´s see what will happen……..

now the time had come,
the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are chirping, the air smells of flowers…
and it´s sunday, so what should you do…….?

just go to the parkhaus, it´s in the middle of the stadtpark and the good thing is…
you can spend the whole spring, summer and autum there, sitting around drinking coffee
meeting people or just watching……………….. i love it.

first meeting at the karl-franzens university

we are the future….

on the way…

to the “hauptplatz”

yesterday 2500 students went on the street to fight against the new goverment resolutions…