Across the Pond

Chins and cheeks from catalogs: exhibition brochure Flawed chin? Albrecht Dürer, Venetian* Receding hair line? Albrecht Dürer, Male* Were Albrecht Dürer's models happy with their looks? Did the guy in green fret about his receding hair line? Did he find his nose too large? Did the Venetian woman long for a more prominent chin? If the two lived today: would they opt for plastic surgery? Simultaneous exhibitions on two continents inspired me to think about faces, honesty, beauty, and ideals; about how we deal with what is different - in us and in others. The one show, Dürer, Cranbach, Holbein - The German Portrait Around 1500, is on view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna  and will later travel to Munich; the other, Beautyculture, opened at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles  in May. I saw the portrait exhibition a few weeks ago, during a visit to Vienna, and was especially taken with Dürer's art, with the honesty in hi...

The other night, at a bar in Mammoth, California, I ordered a glass of tonic (with ice and a slice of lime). No alcohol because I do not drink alcohol. My husband went for beer. When it came to paying the bar tender wouldn't charge us for the tonic. Why so? "If you are driving nonalcoholic drinks are on the house." I was driving. Thank you! Can you imagine something like this happening in Austria? My friends in Vienna still find it hard to believe that somebody would not drink alcohol. Never? they ask. Not even wine? And what about beer? In bars in Austria I have heard of rounds of vodka or tequila on the house but never of free nonalcoholic beverages. International data consistently show that Austria is a leading country when it comes to alcohol consumption. According to the World Health Organization Austrians (age 15+) consume 12.7 litres of pure alcohol per year. That is 50 percent more than Americans (8.5 litres). Of the 189 countries listed in the WHO's data...

Question: if a gunman gets out his Glock pistol, goes on a shooting spree in a shopping center in Tucson, Arizona, kills six people, injures 13 others - who profits? Answer: a company in Austria. I find this ironic but first some data. According to a Bloomberg news article published last Tuesday "one-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent to 263 on Jan. 10 compared with 164 the corresponding Monday a year ago". This was the second-biggest increase of any state in the country. On the same day sales rose by 65 percent in Ohio, by 16 percent in California, and by 33 percent in New York. The nationwide increase was five percent. The reason for the rise in sales? Incidents such as last weekend's spark anxiety that gun laws could become more restrictive which in turn makes people want to stock up. Arizona gun dealers noted last week that semiautomatic fire weapons of the type gunman Jared Loughner used in Tucson - it was a Glock 19 - were among the biggest sell...

Americans are a crafty people. Home Depots and crafts stores sell DIY (do it yourself) books for every task in the world, be it minor or huge; TV shows supplement by offering tutorials on how to scrapbook, trim trees, and fix that nasty bathroom leak; and in a woodworking catalog I recently saw advertisements for a plan for a wood casket and for a manual titled Do-It-Yourself Coffins. DIY till you die! To be honest the ads surprised me. The one for the book promises instructions for creating "three coffins for pets and three for people". In Europe I had never heard of people constructing caskets for themselves or their loved ones, may they have two legs or four. I searched the internet for German entries regarding building plans for coffins but nothing useful came up. Austrians and Germans seem to prefer for pros to work on theirs. Would I want to build my own last box? Definitely not. I have two left hands and little patience for the details of h...

This afternoon, listening to the radio, I heard parts of an interview with the Austrian artist VALIE EXPORT whose 70th birthday is coming up in May. Here's a snippet from the program, a question the reporter asked: On milestone birthdays it is customary to ask the jubilant about the highlights of her life. I would like to turn this around and ask you about your lowest points... The question got me thinking: Why is it that we Austrians focus on the negative? Does it, in some weird way, make us happy? I doubt it. In fact, according to one survey Austria is among the more unhappy nations in Europe, ranking only 20th out of 30. (By contrast, it is number four for wealth, as measured by household income.) Anyone who has lived in Vienna for a while knows: people like to complain here. They moan and groan. Their glass is half empty. Ask a colleague or a neighbor how they are doing and the response will range from Terrible! to So so. Versions are: Don't ask! and Well, I've bee...