Day 004: To the dorms, to the discotek
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
4 — To the dorms, to the discotek
06-August-1971
(Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
Have been staying at Hotel Vindobana. Nice, but
slightly expensive. Will leave today.
New address: from 6-Aug. to 4-Sept.
Studentenwohnheim
A-1010 Wien 1
Johannesgasse xxx
Very nice rooms. Plenty of room and space.
This is where the instrumentalists of the Music
Academy stay during the year. Take lessons here, etc.
Will see if I can stay here during the year.
My German seems to be working very well. Mostly
everyone can basically understand me—and only fünf
lektion from Herr Schmidt.
Put away clothes. Suits too wrinkled. Found a
cleaner, bought hangers, soap, towel, etc. See what
responsibility does?
At dinner, TV was on. Americans shouldn’t complain
about commercials. There were at least 10 minutes of
straight commercials. Then the news came on, almost
as bad here in Europe as in the U.S.—P.S. The
commercials are just as stupid.
Lonely…walked around at night. Vienna just as
beautiful at night. At the dorm, saw a little of some
type of oriental dancing…interesting.
Since I was lonely, I went to my first
discotek—Voom-Voom. Unbelievable place. I had three
strikes against me: (1) Didn’t know German, (2)
dressed too neat, and (3) hair not long enough.
“Möchten-sie dance?” — “Nein.” Somewhat corny by
American standards. Dumpy place, painted weird.
American rock—slightly old. Only a few people seemed
to be having a good time. Seemed to be a “fad” place.
(1) Long hair–almost everyone; (2) dance weird; (3)
bra-less mädchens—practically everyone..I think I’ll
go back again sometime.
REFLECTIONS
Where
to stay? Well, I
finally mention the hotel I stayed in. I guess it
will be ok to leave in the names of real places. I
wonder if they are still in business. I can remember
a bit about the street that it was on.
I leave the expensive hotel to go to the student
dormitory. I will only be staying here during the
summer, that is for the duration of the German
language course. The school is where instrumentalists
stay during the year, and so you know, this is a
music school.
Learning
German. I mention
that I have taken a few lessons in German back home,
before I left for Europe. That was a grand total of
five lessons. That’s it. I don’t remember any other
prior experience with German. I took French in high
school. Thanks to Mr. S., my teacher in NJ.
So, I decide to go to Austria for a year of graduate
study, where they speak German, without having had
much experience with German. Remember, I’m a
graduate. I’m supposed to be smart. Well, I didn’t
remember much French either. So the question begs,
why?
Why
Vienna? Why did I
choose Vienna? Vienna was a city full of music and
music history—composers Gluck, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms, Mahler,
Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg were some of the
composers writing music in Vienna. The Vienna State
Opera, the Volksoper (Folk Opera), the Vienna Boys’
Choir, and the school where I would study, the
Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (The
Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) sealed the deal.
It was a great choice. It was the city of music. You
will see, that before long, I will fall in love with
Vienna.
As an aside, I met someone today, in the present
time, from Germany. I briefly mentioned my stay in
Vienna and the idea of this blog. He told me that
today’s Vienna is different than 36 years ago. Well,
now I’ll have to go back! Maybe it’ll be a sequel to
this blog. Wouldn’t that be nice! I suppose, after 36
years, all cities and places change.
Life's
little details. As you
see, this journal will contain a fair amount of the
little details of life. I’m the first to say that I’m
not interested in other people telling me what they
ate, how they burped, and their adventures washing
their clothes. So, skip ahead on these sentences.
36 years ago there are a large number of commercials
on TV per hour in Austria. That did surprise me. It
also surprises me that we now have 10-15 minutes of
commercials per hour on cable TV in the U.S. Remember
when the lure of cable TV was that it didn’t have
commercials? Surprise, surprise. Life is full of
surprises.
Disco fever. Bra-less fever. Back in
Vienna, I’m lonely. So what do I do? Hit the
discotek. Remember, this is after the 60’s but not
much after. My hair was always just regular, a little
long, but not hippie-long. Here I am chiding the
hippies with long hair, how they dance, and the
bra-less girls. How do you spell bra-less? This is a
theme that will repeat many times. I don’t suppose
you noticed my youthful male infatuation with girls
that don’t wear bras? Ah yes, the good old days, the
good old bra-less girls. Actually, in college back
home during the late 60s, I didn’t remember anyone
being a bra-less hippie-girl in my school. I had to
go to Austria to meet the 60s. So, I take it back, I
love the discotek. How many times did I mention
bra-less in this paragraph? 5
John
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