GERMAN WORLD MAGAZINE » Sonia Laszlo

“Pearls and Presence” 30 years Austrian-American Council

Sonia Laszlo — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:55:23 +0000

Elegant celebration of 30 Years of Austrian American Council in L.A.

On September 17, 2011, the Austrian-American Council West (AAC) celebrated its 30-year jubilee in a splendid ceremony at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Country Club.

The elegant affair was attended by more than 120 guests who celebrated under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Christian Prosl, Austrian Ambassador to the United States and The Honorable Dr. Karin Proidl, Austrian Consul General of Los Angeles.

The “In Recognition of Extraordinary Service” awards were handed out in a special presentation. Lena Strauss and Dr. Robert Ward were honored as 2011 Members of the Year. Guests were then entertained with a musical tribute to Walter Jurmann performed by soprano Monica Schober and tenor James Carlin along with the enchanting music of Professor Laszlo Cser’s Quartet on a Blüthner piano generously made available by Helga Kasimoff.

More than 30 years ago, Austrian-born Professor Fritz Molden, of Molden Publishing house, whose mother wrote the lyrics for the Austrian anthem, conceived the idea of combining the Austrian societies in the US under one umbrella organization, the Austrian-American Council (AAC). Six regional councils were proclaimed during an official visit to New York by Austria’s President in 1981. The AAC facilitates and promotes friendship, cooperation and outreach between Austria and the United States.

One of the greatest successes is the recognition of the Council’s tremendous contributions by President Bill Clinton, who proclaimed September 26to be Austrian-American Day in 1997.

The proceeds of this year’s event benefited a renowned charity: SOS Children’s Villages founded by the Austrian Hermann Gmeiner in 1949, and one of Angelina Jolie’s favorite charities. – By Sonia Laszlo; Photo: Tshombe Sampson.

For more information on the Austrian-American Council West visit www.aacwest.com

Have fun browsing the photo gallery below. All photos by Tshombe Sampson for German World.

30 Years Austrian-American Council North America The evening will be organized by the Austrian-American Council...
Austrian American Day WILLIAM J. CLINTON XLII President of the United States: 1993-2001...
German Community in Los Angeles helps Japan Gesture of Friendship and Compassion from the Los Angeles Turners...

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The Three Penny Opera

Sonia Laszlo — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 18:34:11 +0000

One of the historic Three Penny Opera Posters

A milestone of 20th century musical theater, The Three Penny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) rolls on unstoppably into the 21st. In their opera “by and for beggars,” composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) transformed saccharine, old-fashioned opera and operetta forms, incorporating a sharp political perspective and the sound of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. Weill’s acid harmonies and Brecht’s biting texts created a revolutionary new musical theater that inspired such subsequent hits as Cabaret, Chicago, and Urinetown. The show’s opening number, “Mack the Knife,” became one of the top popular songs of the century.

Austria Got Talent

Sonia Laszlo — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:27:17 +0000

Fashion Design from the Alpine State Make Its Mark in the U.S.

By Sonia Laszlo

Austrian crystals by Swarovski have become a staple in the fashion world. Yet the Alpine country has so much more to offer when it comes to fashion. Up-and-coming Austrian designers whose work span from apparel, accessories to jewelry are And_I, Anna Aichinger, Drozdzik, Edith A’Gay, Florian Jewelry, MILCH ecofashion, Rosa Mosa, Schella Kann, Ute Ploier and Wilfred Mayer.
Most of these young designers have spent time in New York and other fashion capitals and have worked for established brands such as Viktor + Rolf, Marc Jacobs, Helmut Lang and Marc Bohan. For example, Claudia Brandmair interned at Marc Jacobs before founding Brandmair in 2003. She typically presents her collection in Paris and London.
In vogue with the green movement is Cloed Priscilla Baumgartner, who launched her eco label MILCH, which specializes in clothes made from recycled fabrics. Also Emil Gampe – featured in the GW Issue Spring 2010 – has not only won Bravo’s “Launch My Line” show, but also successfully worked with major labels and celebrities for several years before starting his own line Emil Couture.

Well established in the fashion scene is Devi Kroell. Her handbag line was picked up by Barneys New York, featured in Vogue, W, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, worn by celebrities and is even being sold at national retailer Target. The successful designer founded her company of stylish handbags in 2004 and gradually expanded to footwear in 2006 when she opened a retail boutique in East Hampton. In 2009 she unveiled her first ready-to-wear line and opened a Madison Avenue Flagship store. She left her successful namesake company as CEO and creative director, but still owns a portion of the company and will remain on the board, while having severed ties with day-to-day operations.

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Tony Curtis is dead

Sonia Laszlo — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:43:22 +0000

Tony Curtis was born June 3rd 1925 in New York City as Bernard Schwartz to German speaking immigrants from the little Hungarian town Mátészalka

He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1958 for “The Defiant Ones”, but will probably be remembered best from the timeless Billy Wilder, an Austrian immigrant himself, classic movie: Some like it hot.

With Roger Moore he teamed up in a TV-Series “The Persuaders” which was not as much of a success in it’s original, but had such genius German translations improving the series, making it even funnier, that is became a hit in Germany and is still a beloved classic.

Via our reader Inga Bowyer: I remember him as a heart-throb in the 1950s who was married to the beautiful German actress, Christine Kauffmann: http://www.bz-berlin.de/leute/christine-kaufmann-ueber-tony-curtis-tod-article993213.html

Let’s take a trip down memory lane:

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Das Kriegsspiel

Sonia Laszlo — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:47:18 +0000

The word “Kriegsspiel” is obviously German, as is its inventor a military writer from Schleswig, Georg Vinturinus, who in 1798 invented War Games on actual terrain. It was based on the “Kings Game” invented in 1664 by Christopher Weikhmann of Ulm, Germany, and on a game Helwig, master of pages to the Duke of Brunswick, developed.

Not until 1811, when a Prussian father-son team, moved it to the next level, rulers took serious notice of war games as tactical training and not just a form of entertainment. Baron von Reisswitz, was a civilian war counselor to the Prussian court at Breslau, during the dark days of Napoleonic domination. In 1824 Reisswitz’ son, Leutnant George Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz of the Prussian Guard Artillery, updated the rules and wrote them down in “Anleitung zur Darstellung militarischer maneuver mit dem Apparat des Kriegsspiels” (Instructions for the Representation of Tactical Maneuvers under the Guise of a Wargame).

In 1882 U.S. Army Major W.R. Livermore started the War Game tradititon in the US, when he published the book American Kriegspiel.

In 1940 400.000 soldiers fought a mock war in Louisiana to prepare for WWII.

In 2003 the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division conducts a live-fire Kriegsspiel on the border of Iraq and Kuwait to prepare for the invasion of Iraq.

Today it is hardly possible to think about army training without war games and hopefully being prepared for the worst keeps soldiers from never having to experience it. Like George Washington said: To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

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You will never eat salad without thinking where it came from again

Sonia Laszlo — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:53:29 +0000

Whether we like it or not, we all know that part of the American wealth and our cushioned lifestyle is based on a huge workforce in foreign countries like China as well as immigrants within the US doing jobs most Americans won’t do. Not only won’t do for the small wages they pay, but probably would not even be able to physically endure.

It should not be a surprise to us that the actual grease that makes the wheels turn is hard, physical work, it has been for centuries. From the middle ages and before farmers worked hard to feed their own, if they were lucky enough to own their own land, but mostly worked for the landowner who could choose without any labor laws to be more or less humane or later on in the industrial revolutions where millions started to work in factories, rather than in fields. Yet it still does, somehow we have mollycoddled up so much, that we really think that our chicken comes from the fridge the electricity directly from the outlet.

Enter a dedicated journalist who decided to start a little experiment: He will spend a year doing jobs most Americans won’t do, among the ample choices he picked: harvesting lettuce in the fields of Yuma Arizona, working in a poultry plant in Russellville, Alabama and delivering flowers and food in his hometown New York City.

The author finds out first hand what is it like to do the back-breaking work of immigrants and describes his experiences working alongside mainly Latino immigrants who thought that he was either crazy or an undercover immigration agent, in a light and entertaining way.
As one co-worker explained, “These jobs make you old quick.” – and probably even older if you grew up in the pampered US American society and not in harsher conditions in other countries, more used to physical labor. Back spasms occasionally kept Thompson in bed, where he not surprisingly suffered recurring nightmares involving iceberg lettuce and chicken carcasses.

As entertaining as his book is written, the author always remains the alien in a foreign world who always has the option to quit and above all knows that this is a temporary experiment not something he will do for the rest of his life. What stays with us, as the cushioned consumer, is that we have a choice, every single time we buy something, to consider all the elements of the chain that was necessary to bring this product to us.

Gabriel Thompson writes for New York magazine, The Nation,The Brooklyn Rail and In These Times. The author of There’s No José Here, he lives in New York City. Go to the Author’s Blog

Working in the Shadows, Nation Books (January 26th, 2010), 320 pages, English

BOOK TOUR DATES:

ARIZONA

February 19th CHANGING HANDS BOOK STORE (Tempe)

February 20th – UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA BOOKSTORE (Tucson)

February 21st – BARNES & NOBLE (Yuma)

CALIFORNIA

February 22nd – BOOK SOUP (Los Angeles)

February 24th – REVOLUTION BOOKS (Berkeley)

February 25th – CAPITOLA BOOK CAFÉ (Santa Cruz)

OREGON

March 2nd – POWELL’S BOOKS (Portland)

WASHINGTON STATE

March 3rd – ELLIOTT BAY BOOKS (Seattle)

WASHINGTON, DC

March 28th – BUSBOYS&POETS

NEW YORK

Tuesday, March 16, 7:30
Greenlight Bookstore
686 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY
http://abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/
(sponsored by Pratt Area Community Council)

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Scorsese, DiCaprio and Classic Films

Sonia Laszlo — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:23:56 +0000

On the occasion of the director’s fourth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island, which hits theatres this weekend, he let the LA Times know which movies he let his cast and crew watch to set the mood of this dark picture.

Come join us for film school with the master! Out of the six movies he suggested two have a German connection:
1949’s “Laura”, directed by Otto Preminger and Orson Welles’ 1962 film “The Trial” adapted from the Kafka classic “Der Prozeß”

The others are:

Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 “Out of the Past” and his 1942 “Cat People” 1945 “Isle of the Dead” produced by Lewton. As well as two short documentaries commissioned by the U.S. Army: “Let there be Light” and “The Battle of San Pietro”

Another connection of the outstanding filmhistorian and filmprotector Martin Scorsese is that he accepted to be honorary president of the Filmmuseum Wie n. An institution led by the very dedicated Alexander Horwarth.

Read Scorseses’ comments on all the filmes at the LATimes website

Shutter Island is currently at the Berlinale:

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Grammys for 3 Austrians

Sonia Laszlo — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:52:08 +0000

A Grammy, was posthumously awarded to Austrian jazz legend Joe Zawinul for his album “75″ in the category “Best Contemporary Jazz Album”.

One day I heard a pianist play `Honeysuckle Rose,’ … and I was hooked. I said, `What is that?’ He said, `jazz,’ which was a word I had never heard, and I asked him to spell it for me. My life was changed after that. – Joe Zawinul

Stefan Sagmeister, from the Austrian State of Vorarlberg, received a Grammy for “Best Recording Package” for “Everything That Will Happen Today” (avid Byrne & Brian Eno). The artist was born 1962 in Bregenz, Austria, and is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer currently living in Bali, Indonesia. He has his own design firm, Sagmeister., Inc in New York City. He has designed album covers for Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith, and Pat Metheny.

Sagmeister studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He later received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in New York.

He began his design career at the age of 15 at “Alphorn”, an Austrian Youth magazine, which is named after the traditional Alpine musical instrument. Read More

AKG, the manufacturer of microphones, headphones and audio electronics headquartered in Austria, was honored for contributions to audio recording at the 2010 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles’ Staples Center with the Technical Grammy Award. They are in good company, recent recipients include: Universal Audio, Yamaha, Bell Labs, Apple and Sony/Philips.
This Special Merit Award is presented by vote of the Recording Academy’s National Trustees to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

German Press Release:

Am Samstag, den 30. Januar 2010 bekommt ein berühmtes österreichisches Unternehmen eine Auszeichnung, die sonst nur Größen wie Aerosmith, Joe Cocker, Peter Gabriel, Quincy Jones oder Rod Stewart in Empfang nehmen dürfen. AKG wird für seine herausragenden technischen Leistungen im Musik- und Studio-Bereich mit dem TECHNICAL GRAMMY® Award 2010 ausgezeichnet. Damit wandert die begehrte Trophäe in Form einer Grammophonskulptur in teils goldglänzendem Design ins AKG Headquarter nach Wien. Die genannten Künstler sind nur einige von vielen prominenten Musikern, die bereits erfolgreich mit den weltberühmten AKG Mikrofonen und Kopfhörern gearbeitet haben.

„Der TECHNICAL GRAMMY® ist eine einzigartige Auszeichnung für unser Unternehmen. Es ist eine große Ehre, dass unsere Produkte und Technologien diese prestigeträchtige Anerkennung erhalten“, freut sich AKG Geschäftsführer Stefan Gubi. „AKG sieht den GRAMMY® für seine technologische Führerschaft und seine Innovationskraft als klaren Auftrag für die Zukunft: Wir werden auch weiterhin daran arbeiten, bahnbrechendes Equipment für Tour und Studio zu entwickeln, um den Größen des Musikgeschäfts den besten Sound zu garantieren.“

Innovation für internationale Musikgrößen
Dieser AKG Sound wird von den ganz Großen der Musikbranche geschätzt: Musiklegenden wie Peter Gabriel, Joe Cocker, Quincy Jones oder Rod Stewart und auch Superstars wie Aerosmith, Alejandro Sanz, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Sepultura oder Candy Dulfer haben seit Jahren AKG-Equipment im Einsatz. Aber auch österreichische Musikgrößen wie Falco Christina Stürmer oder Russkaja schworen bzw. schwören auf den innovativen Sound des Akustikspezialisten.

Der Preisträger für den Technical GRAMMY® Award wird in einer geheimen Wahl bestimmt. Wahlberechtigt sind das Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council und dessen Komitees sowie Bevollmächtigte der Academy. Der Award wird an Einzelpersonen oder Unternehmen vergeben, die einen herausragenden technischen Beitrag von besonderer Bedeutung für den Recording Bereich erbracht haben. Die Verleihung erfolgt während der GRAMMY Woche am Samstag, den 30. Januar 2010 und wird auch während der Fernsehübertragung der 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards genannt.

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Wonderlust at the new W in Hollywood

Sonia Laszlo — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:27:06 +0000

	“Wonderlust” - as the W Hotels printed on their CDs located in every guest room and on some banners at the newly designed building – has reached vibrant, glitzy Hollywood in the process of redefining itself. The impressive complex comprised of the W Hotels and the W Residences, apart from pretty much any hotel service you can think of, features something unusual for Los Angeles and maybe for most city center hotels: a subway station. Maybe not that surprising since the 10 years in the making 15-story, $600-million development, is built on land owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The result of this marriage is a dazzling mix of W’s signature chic lounges, impressively designed residences (ideal of partying and being glamorous) and a subway plaza complete with cops arresting people and workers waiting at bus stations. On January 29th, 2010, Gatehouse Capital and HEI Hotels & Resorts (W Hollywood’s Development Partnership) gathered with city leaders, project collaborators and LA tastemakers to celebrate the completion of this iconic $350 million Hollywood property, and christen the beginning of a second Golden Age at Hollywood & Vine. Late Night Host Jimmy Kimmel played Master of Ceremonies, Singer/Songwriter Robin Thicke sang, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Gatehouse Capital President & CEO Marty Collins, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, HEI Hotels & Resorts Chief Investment Officer Clark, Hanrattie Legacy Partners Vice President Ed Kirk, MTA Chief Executive Art Leahy, W Hollywood General Manager Jim McPartlin, MTA Board Chair Ari Najarian Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky were presesent for the event.
Lobby

Lobby Bar

Wonderlust

Guest Rooms

Residences	Residences

Tons of plans for the unfinished root top club with pool and spectacular views	Glam in a box

German/Austrian American icons: Heidi, Arnold and Leonardo all on one wall surrounded by other celebrities.

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Leonardo DiCaprio in NRDC PSA

Sonia Laszlo — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:06:50 +0000

Leonardo DiCaprio in the NRDC PSA

Unlike the US, Germany has been a forerunner in striving to become the world’s first major renewable-energy economy. Scientists from the University of Kassel have proved in an experiment called Kombikraftwerk that Germany can power itself entirely by renewable energy!
Austria, granted a considerably smaller country than the US, has been going green for years and does not even own an atomic power plant.

It’s time for the US to step up and to seize the chance to become a leading country in this field and to depend less on foreign oil. At the moment there is a comprehensive, clean energy bill in the senate and you can do your part. Know who your senators are, email them and voice your wishes. Watch the PSA, make up your mind, do some research, but most importantly send that email to make your opinion known.

German American Leonardo DiCaprio, is not only the leading actor of his generation, but also a continuous fighter for our planet. Alongside other celebrities: Emmy Rossum, Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker, Justin Long, Felicity Huffman, Jason Bateman and others, he lends his celebrity and his voice to NRDC (National Resources Defence Council) latest PSA

Watch it here and don’t forget to use your own voice and send an email either with the suggested content or whatever else you feel like letting your Senators know.

Watch this on Al Gore’s blog: Robert Kennedy Jr. recently debated Massey Energy CEO and climate crisis denier Don Blankenship. http://blog.algore.com/2010/01/a_great_debate.html

Leonardo DiCaprio on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonardo-dicaprio/its-time-to-stop-talking_b_444388.html

http://www.nrdcactionfund.org

http://energy.senate.gov

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