Forever bicycles forever!

Vienna is relatively bicycle-friendly - that is, when you have previously lived in a city like Oslo, full of steep hills and completely void of real bike roads (not to mention St. Petersburg, where conditions for bicyclists in the fierce traffic equals the conditions for sheep in a wolves' lair). Viennese roads, or at least some of them, have a carefully invented and painstakingly marked-up bike road system. This is good of course, but it also carries an obligation - as a bicyclist, you are at risk of being fined for cycling on the pavement or the zebra crossing, whereas mingling in the road with the cars might get you killed. As identlity searching always seems to be a difficult thing for a cyclist, one here seems to be more in the vehicle category than in the pedestrian one.

Finding used bikes is not too hard, as the trade seems to be popular in the city. Bike shops and fleamarkets sell used racing bikes and mountain bikes of 1990s vintage for prices circling around 100 Euros. For the more aestethically oriented, however, the search for a decent ride can be more complicated, and a little bit of Austrian bicycle history was needed in order to find the hidden two-wheel treasures called Waffenrad.

Litterally translating as "Weapon-wheel" or "Weapon-bike", Waffenrad is actually a word describing every ancient, black and heavy bicycle, but in particular the name refers to bicycles produced by the Austrian weapons factory located in the city of Steyr from the beginning of the 20th Century until the 1980s. Waffenräder are still a common sight in the streets of Vienna, along with Puch, a more modern variant from the same factory. Most of them, however, are in a poor condition.

Luckily, there are people in the world who care to keep tradition and beauty alive. A Viennese gentleman named Alfred Dittler works with restoring, rebuilding and maintaining old collector's item bikes, and seems to be concentrating mainly on the Waffenrad. Living and working in suburban Vienna, Dittler sells his bikes for prices up to 1000 Euros, and every bike seems to be a piece of art, containing as many pieces as possible and complemented with self-made parts. Taking a walk in Dittler's messy yard, you'll see up to a hundred bikes standing in line, every one of them different and unique. The most expensive ones are kept inside, and some of them are presented on this page.

Being a keen vintage bike fan, I ventured out to Dittler's house to find him in his yard, surrounded by friends and smoking self-made cigarettes. Not being able to pay 500-1000 Euros for a bicycle at the moment, I explained that I need a bike that is primarily a means of transportation, and only secondarily a piece of pleasure to the eye.

I was presented for the Forever bike, and somewhat wryly told that I could have it for 90 Euros. Why, to me it looked just as beautiful as the shiny, refurbished Waffenräder, only a tad more worn down. Black and heavy as a siege cannon, it has golden letters on its frames saying "The Forever bike - made in Shanghai". After a test-run in the neighbourhood, I fell in love with the Forever and gave Dittler 100 Euros - for which he sent with me a tool kit that has come in handy at several occations.

As it turns out, the Forever company of Shanghai was founded in 1940, and has been producing "healthy and environmentally sound products such as traditional bicycle, mountain bike, folding bicycle, children bike, electric bicycle and their related parts" (quote from their home page). As I have been told by the two mechanics who have undertaken repairs on my bike since I bought it tree weeks ago, the quality of the steel used in manufacturing this bike is poor, compared with the sturdy Steyr. Notwithstanding loose pedals and strange noises from the front wheel, it is a comfortable and maneuvrable thing, and the remarkable vintage design attracts much attention. As one of the mechanics said, - It's a bit like riding an old Trabant: You have to make some sacrifices in order to enjoy the feeling of it.

Caucasus photos

This just in from various sources: Italian photographer David Monteleone has won the Emergin Photographer grant for 2010 with his stunning pictures from Caucasus...

And my DJ-colleauge Zuzu just sent me a link showing true colour pictures taken by Russian photogapher Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii a hundred years ago, most of them also from Caucasus and Southern Russia.

this is exciting

The process

It is always fascinating to follow the process of creative work, om the first sketches on to the result. Here is an illustration I made some weeks ago for Norwegian student magazine Argument: The illustration was made for an article discussing war films and how they rather work as therapy for the film-makers than the intrinsic problems of war. As examples, the author uses among others the film "Waltz with Bashir" (2008), an animated documentary portraying a middle-aged Israeli man trying to find out why he seems to have forgotten everything about his army service, where he participated in the Israeli-Lebanon war in 1982. Written and directed by Ari Folman, the film won several prizes and worldwide approval for being an interesting view from the side of a young Israeli soldier trying to come to terms with his personal trauma. The author of the article, however, seems to mean that the film (and also Lebanon, the other recently made war film made by an Israeli director) lacks the discussion around the wars and atrocities themselves, and turn out too subjective.

Interesting as it is, I leave the discussion to the reader. You can find this particular number of Argument Magazine through this link. argument.uio.no/utgaver/argument3_2010_ferdig.pdf (Norwegian, pdf file).

The old drawer

Georgian food!

Georgian food!
The Russian cuisine is not renowed for its tastefulness and variety. Although Russian food can be good, it is very northern, and thus very similar to traditional Scandinavian food: Boiled fish/meat, potatoes, peas and carrots. Shops sell half-fabricated and frozen products, everything is meaty, salads are drenched in mayonaisse, and there is extensive use of innards.
Luckily, Caucasian food is very polular in Russia. In the bigger cities, the most poular restaurants offer Caucasian cuisine and specialise in certain types and regions of this mountainous area. It can be said that Caucasian food is similar to both the Mediterranean and the Middle Eastern cuisine in the sense that meals are often simple, but represent a richness only found in areas of the world where the fat of the land is at its fattest: Fresh fruits and vegetables, fish from the sea, meat from the plains, and a rich combination of spices and tastes. A typical visit at a Georgian restaurant (most of them are known as Georgian, although one Restaurant Georgia recently changed its name to Restaurant Abkhazia) should include fresh salads, Khachapuri (baked bread with melted cheese), Eggplants in walnut sauce, Lobio (red beans stew), Adjapsandali (squeezed eggplants with red peppers and tomatos in oil) and copious amounts of Georgian red wine. Caucasian food is a filling treat for veggies but if you prefer meat, khinkali (large gnocchis) and shashlik should be tried.
It`s quite simple to make at home, so if you click on the link above, you`ll get a list of recipies and a more filling description of the Georgian cuisine in creative English.

How long was Kropotkin in Haparanda?

This blog is undefined. As for now, it is as much a project of my own to categorise own works and things I find on the internet. Maybe it develops, maybe it will be abandoned. In the meantime, it is up to us all to find out what Kropotkin did in Haparanda.