The experimental Viennese Mego label likes to see itself as “a platform for all kinds of infomation and communication carried via modern electronic media, whether it be a compact disc, MiniDisc, DVD, internet, video, live PA or a vinyl record release.” They state that it is their aim that “Mego releases and ideas should be collected and experienced for many years to come and not be seen as some fodder for hopeless fashion victimized disc jockeys.”
History:

Mego began life during the end of 1994. Founded by Ramon Bauer, Peter Meininger and Andreas Pieper. Ramon and Peter had previously been involved with the label Mainframe (one of Austria’s first techno labels with releases by Ilsa Gold, Kirlian and Elin amongst others). Andi is a Berlin based producer/developer who maintains the Mego Berlin studio. By 1995 Pita (Peter Rehberg) joined the crew and Peter Meininger left. The Mego Wien office is based in Meidling, a traditional workers district of Vienna.

Recent release:
Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori: Phantom Orchard (CD): “A gentle stylistic morphing from two major figures in the global realm of experimental sound and improv.”
Link / Mego

Meidling is Vienna’s 12th district.
In a tourist guide it says:

Generally speaking, this is an unattractive working-class suburb dominated by vast council flat buildings, ranging from the 1920s tenement housing to the huge council blocks type of the 1980s and 1990s.

Well, I love Meidling. I have lived there for some time in my life and I really like this part of town.
Today I went there. Mainly because I wanted to say hello to the Mego guys in their cellar office (Ruckergasse, Meidling).
This is a photographic impression of Didi Kern’s workspace shelves. He may be right.

The Megos gave me a wonderful present: the brand new Bulbul 12″ vinyl. It’s called “Drabule”, and it really is extraordinary stuff!

Located next to the Mego office is a small park-like green zone.
For the first time I have spotted a strange memorial stone there: “In Rememberance Of Austria’s Great Master Of Beekeeping, J. M. Freiherrn von Ehrenfels (1767-1843) / Dedicated By The Beekeeping Association Of Vienna (March 9th, 1893)”
Never heard of him. Never even heard about a “Beekeeping Association Of Vienna”. A google research about the association revealed: nothing. nada. zero. blank.

And if you turn around and walk back to the Ruckergasse/Schönbrunnerstraße crossing you can see a building. I’m afraid this architectural trash patchwork may haunt me in my dreams… a nice kind of pain. The first layer is a house built in the 19th century. The house is in really bad condition. On the left you can see the decay. Instead of renovating the building they decided to hide the facade behind a plastic structure … a typical 1980ies way to handle things. Now it’s 2004. The last company inhabiting the building was “Komet”, a furniture store, but they went bankrupt. Now “Sport Tiedje” is in charge of the dungeon. I wonder what will happen to the block in the next years.

Well, that’s Meidling. I mean, parts of Meidling.
But I’ll come back. At least when the next Mego release is out.

you guessed absolutly right, that’s the famous Hasnerstrasse, tagged with tire rubber and “wannabe accidents” all over. THE place for illegal streetracers and drunken joyriders. but beware my patrolling army of meelee cockroaches if you wanna test your new brakes beyond 4am…

you guessed right again! that’s me having absolutly no control over the focus features of my new toy. that’s of course no fishing for compliments, just plain weeeeeeee !

I have just learned that the 40th European Marine Biology Symposium will be held in Vienna in 2005.

The 40th EMBS will celebrate the 80th birthday of Rupert Riedl, who started to explore sea caves more than 50 years ago and since then has pioneered direct scientific observation and experimentation in the sea. The two Themes of the Symposium are a tribute to the work of this eminent marine scientist.

The themes will be
- Remote and inaccessible marine habitats
- Advances in underwater observation and experimentation

Remote and inaccessible marine habitats: From sea caves, oceanic islands, wave-beaten shores and polar seas to deep-sea hot vents.
Papers are invited which deal with the ecology, biology and adaptation of marine organisms living in habitats that require an extra effort by researchers to reach and study them.
Advances in underwater observation and experimentation: From SCUBA to submersibles, ROVs and subsea observatories.
Papers are invited that report on biological observation and experimentation in situ, with particular focus on recent technological developments to extend the spatial and temporal capabilities of researchers to observe and manipulate biological processes in the sea. Purely technical papers can only be accepted if time and space is available.

Vienna, Austria? A very ..hmm… continental place for such a symposion, isn’t it?
Well, I’d like to quote the homepage of the Department for Marine Biology (University Vienna).

History of Marine Biology in Austria
Austrian marine biology has its roots in the tradition of eminent biologists and important expeditions of the 19th century.
Material collected by the frigate “Novara” on her circumnavigation of the globe in 1857-59, by the Austro-Hungarian North-Pole-Expedition in 1872-74 and the Austro-Hungarian Deep-Sea Expedition on board of the “Pola” was elaborated by the zoologists Rudolf Kner, Emil von Marenzeller, Carl Claus and Karl Grobben. Josef Lorenz von Lieburnau published his classical paper about the distribution of organisms and their habitats in the Mediterranean Sea in 1863, and from 1875 on the k.u. k. Zoological Station at Trieste hosted many celebriies as visiting scientists, including even Sigmund Freud as a student. In the first half of the 20th century, Adolf Steuer wrote his classic “Planktonkunde”.
After the Second World War Rupert Riedl organized the first expeditions to the Mediterranean shores, where scientific diving was used to study habitats that were previously inaccessible. During the “Unterwasserexpedition Austria” (1948-49) and the “Tyrrhenia-Expedition” (1952) they were the first to visit sea caves using self-made diving gear and brought back a wealth of information, which Riedl turned into a monography “Biologie der Meereshöhlen”.
In the meantime, the charismatic Hans Hass had made diving popular through his underwater films including daring underwater sequences of sharks and whales. His expeditions on the sailboat “Xarifa” took scientists to what at that time were exotic locations. Marine Biology was institutionalized with a chair at the University of Vienna and Rupert Riedl - who in the meantime had published the standard guide to the diversity of this sea “Fauna und Flora der Adria” (later “Fauna und Flora des Mittelmeeres”) - was the first professor to hold this position.
Since 1990 Marine Biology was an independent section of the Institute of Zoology. Since 2000 the department is part of the Institute of Ecology and Conservation Biology.

Some running research projects of the Department of Marine Biology/Vienna are
- Hydrothermal vent biology
- Shallow water symbioses
- Benthic communities
Interesting stuff, especially the Hydrothermal vent biology.
Quote:

For the first time in Austrian history, we have received funding from the Austrian Science Foundation for renting a ship and submersible in order to carry out Austrian research in the deep-sea. This cruise is planned for 2005 and negotiations have been initiated. We are most grateful for this financial support and would like to thank all the people at the Austrian Science Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, Woods Hole Oceanography Institution, and the U.S. Ridge 2000 program for helping to make this dream come true.

A5-Block
im Original-Design des Expedition Österreich Tour Books.
4-fach Lochung
50 Blatt
+ Gratis ORF Bleistift
Bestellnr.: 2007861
€ 1,50
*Block = german for writing pad
Finally we can buy beautifully designed stuff from “Expedition Österreich“. Style: Kind of modern but still very down-to earth (O.K., the eagle is not THAT much down to earth, but still rather “native”). With this beautiful writing pad You will even get an ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation)-pencil FOR FREE. Praise the lord and thank him for his wonders!!!
Sorry guys and girls. I promise this was my last Expedition-Entry.

whenever you travel you find out that every city, every place, has its own psychos. mind you, psychos not always in a bad way. lets say, people that do not confirm and follow the rules of what we like to call society. those people, lets call them wackos, can make your day or do something that will leave you shocked, depressed, or anything else that is considered as a bad feeling.
I found a preacher that called me “Sister” on queen street in Toronto, who stole my lighted cigarette, jumping on it, telling me that “this cigarette produces farts of the devil.” you can imagine i didnt smoke a cigarette anymore. well. for the rest of the day. every city i went to presented me at least one wacko.
and here comes Vienna.
the reason i write this is to warn you folks. seriously. THIS IS A WARNING.
in “Floridsdorf” i encountered a very nice example of the creature line called wackos. or psychos. or insane people. you choose the name.
I was ready to get out of the train, one hand on the door opener of the good old S1. when i looked right, i saw an old woman. it would have been a rather normal situation if the woman wouldnt have had pink (one of the “omg, wtf?” type of pink) make up all over her face. no, not only on a few parts of her face. ALL OVER HER FACE. it was totally covered with it. her back was crooked, and she carried a thousands bags with her. (most likely less than 1000 bags. most likely less than 20 bags. surely not less than 10 bags. to be precisely.) Remembering what my parents told me, i wanted to open her side of the door when the train stopped at Floridsdorf. Boy, was i suprised when she hit me with one of her bags right in my stomach, screaming something like “you goddamn bitch, you … ” she kept trying to hit me until i got out and hurried away. downstairs she came after me, calling me a rat, and telling everybody that she hates rats, and that she wants to step on me, the god damn rat that i was.
Well. it was kinda funny though. it would have been more fun if she didnt carry bottles in the bag which she used to smack me.
so, cats. if you ever see that woman, RUN. run as far and fast as you possibly can.
err, yes first post. hi.

The history of astronomy is the history of dilating horizons.
(Edwin Hubble, 1936)
We will set off on a voyage to Pluto by bike on Saturday, the 31st of July 2004.
If the sun was 4 meters in diameter and the center of its gravitational force would be in the courtyard of the Museumsquartier in Vienna, then the planet Pluto would be about one centimeter in size and it would be located in Stockerau. That’s 24 kilometers away.
What monochrom is going to do is visit all the planets of our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto to provide for the visitors the instantaneous experience of do-it-yourself science.
Short intensive lectures in front of each planet will provide the visitors with the latest information in popular science about the planet in question. Reality we’re coming! Yet, we will not go all the way: since Pluto (its classification as a planet actually being questioned at the moment) is not the external frontier of the solar system. That would be the Oort Cloud and according to our scale it would be located 12.000 kilometers away from the Museumsquartier.
Well, our bike-tour will end at Pluto. That’s on the verge of experiencing the collapse of eternity.
We would be very pleased it you joined us on our trip. Please sign up under
astronomischeeinheit@monochrom.at
Info (cancellation due to bad weather, new date etc.) will be sent to you via email.
Meeting point: Sun, Courtyard MQ, July 31st 2004, 2 pm.
If you don’t own a bike, there’s a 24h/20€ rent-a-bike next to Fluc (Praterstern).

We are looking for a mate for our 6 year old chickin’.
We bought the tangerine-eyed watering pot in Austin, TX., just around the corner of the FringeWare bookshop (R.I.P., FringeWare).
But where can we find a carefully designed birdie buddy for our liquid-spittin’ chickin’ in Vienna? Any shopping tips?

Das Erste Wiener Heimorgelorchester (the First Viennese Consumer Keyboard Orchestra) was established in 1994. The group consists out of four members, namely Thomas Pfeffer, Jürgen Plank, Daniel Wisser and Florian Wisser.
EWHO released two CDs: Die Affen (The Monkeys) in 1999 and Wir haben die Orgeln nur von unseren Kindern geborgt (Our keyboards are not something we have inherited from our ancestors, but what we have borrowed from our children) in 2003. In 2001 the group presented its first vinyl single: Gemma Disco (Let’s Go To The Disco).
During EWHO’s first years the members mainly arranged cover versions of popular tunes — but the musicians soon shifted their creative focus. They started to write and produce their own songs… all of them in German lanugage or different Austro-German slangs.

But they still find time to rehearse cover versions and play them at live appearences.
So I’m proud being able to present you EWHO’s wonderful interpretation of the main theme of Fargo. Sends shivers down my spine.
This song was only performed once at a concert at the club B72.
Link / Erstes Wiener Heimorgelorchester / “Fargo”

Mit dem draußen sitzen in Wien ist das ja so eine Sache – um spätestens 23 Uhr hat der Spaß meistens ein Ende. Zugegebenermaßen bin ich selbst froh, dass beispielsweise das Café Desiré bei mir ums Eck seine Gäste des Nächtens wieder hinein pfeift, bzw. erst gar nicht hinaus lässt. Aber es soll auch Orte in Wien geben von denen man annehmen könnte, dass ihre Nachbarschaft nur aus Sehenswürdigkeiten und Bürogebäuden besteht und dass hier lange draußen sitzen und Musik hören möglich wäre. Weit gefehlt. Letzten Montag hab ich beim Club Pavian im Volksgarten Pavillon aufgelegt, noch vor 12 wurde die Anlage dermaßen runtergedreht, dass man vom benachbarten Tanzcafé übertönt wurde. Wer kann sich an so einem Platz in seiner Nachtruhe gestört fühlen? Die Saurier im Naturhistorischen? Die Bücher in der Nationalbibliothek? Ein ähnliches Szenario gestern bei einer sehr netten Privatparty in der Künstlerhauspassage (vulgo: star/o/mat): Um halb 12 wurden die Glastüren geschlossen, draußen angenehm lau, aber seltsam still, drinnen eher laut und heiß. Aber angeblich war 2 Tage davor um diese Zeit schon die Polizei da. Und apropos freitags in der Künstlerhauspassage: Seit sich herumgesprochen hat, dass der dort ansässige Club Icke Micke das Lieblings-Hangout für BoBos ist und dass diese nebst einer Menge sozialer Kompetenz auch gerne Digitalkameras und teure Mobiltelefone mit sich herum tragen, häufen sich dort die Geschichten von Taschendiebstählen. Also nichts aus den Augen lassen bzw. aus der Hand geben, was einem lieb und teuer ist…