Peace Kicking Mission ... Styria?!
A crucial element of Linz's cultural life for more than a century, the city's football team LASK Linz (Linzer-Athletik-Sport-Klub, founded 7th August 1908) today travel to Styria where they kick off against SK Sturm Graz (1909!) at 6pm.
The match will take place at the UPC-Arena - which, as fans of movies and soccer will need no reminding, was formerly called the Arnold Schwarzenegger Arena. The renaming took place in 2005, during the controversy over the California governor's refusal to commute the death-penalty for San Quentin inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
No such dramas for Linz's home-ground, which has been called simply the Linzer Stadion since its construction in 1952. It is nicknamed Auf der Gugl, or sometimes Gugl-Stadion, "Gugl" being the hill upon which the 21,328-capacity stadium stands.
Champions of the Austrian League in 1965 - the first non-Viennese team to achieve this feat - and also winners of the Austrian Cup in the same year, LASK aren't exactly enjoying a golden spell right now. In fact, as of this morning they languish at seventh in the ten-strong Austrian [T-Mobile] Bundesliga, their 31-point tally less than half that of runaway leaders FC [Red Bull] Salzburg.
Relegation is also unlikely, as LASK are 11 points clear of second-bottom SV Mattersburg, so today's expedition to Graz is - unlike, say, my own team Sunderland AFC's crucial relegation-scrap with West Bromwich Albion at 3.00 BST - essentially an affair of honour rather than practical import. Let's call it the "Clash of Culture-Capitals", Graz having been the (sole) Kulturhauptstadt Europas in 2003.
This year's big Crossing Europe footy-movie was, of course, Peter Waldenberger's documentary Peace Kicking Mission Kosovo, which had its last screening yesterday afternoon. The "working man's ballet" does feature - albeit relatively obliquely - in Shane Meadows' lovely Somers Town, which I introduced to a packed audience at the City-Kino on Thursday.
The feedback I've received from attendees has been overwhelmingly (and gratifyingly) positive, and there's another showing on Sunday at 4pm in the same cinema. This does clash with Ruben Ostlund's outstanding Involuntary, 16.00 at Moviemento, but then again film-festivals should provide audiences with such pleasantly tough dilemmas. "Embarrassment of riches," is the English phrase; or, as they might one day say on the Gugl, überreiche Auswahl.
The match will take place at the UPC-Arena - which, as fans of movies and soccer will need no reminding, was formerly called the Arnold Schwarzenegger Arena. The renaming took place in 2005, during the controversy over the California governor's refusal to commute the death-penalty for San Quentin inmate Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
No such dramas for Linz's home-ground, which has been called simply the Linzer Stadion since its construction in 1952. It is nicknamed Auf der Gugl, or sometimes Gugl-Stadion, "Gugl" being the hill upon which the 21,328-capacity stadium stands.
Champions of the Austrian League in 1965 - the first non-Viennese team to achieve this feat - and also winners of the Austrian Cup in the same year, LASK aren't exactly enjoying a golden spell right now. In fact, as of this morning they languish at seventh in the ten-strong Austrian [T-Mobile] Bundesliga, their 31-point tally less than half that of runaway leaders FC [Red Bull] Salzburg.
Relegation is also unlikely, as LASK are 11 points clear of second-bottom SV Mattersburg, so today's expedition to Graz is - unlike, say, my own team Sunderland AFC's crucial relegation-scrap with West Bromwich Albion at 3.00 BST - essentially an affair of honour rather than practical import. Let's call it the "Clash of Culture-Capitals", Graz having been the (sole) Kulturhauptstadt Europas in 2003.
This year's big Crossing Europe footy-movie was, of course, Peter Waldenberger's documentary Peace Kicking Mission Kosovo, which had its last screening yesterday afternoon. The "working man's ballet" does feature - albeit relatively obliquely - in Shane Meadows' lovely Somers Town, which I introduced to a packed audience at the City-Kino on Thursday.
The feedback I've received from attendees has been overwhelmingly (and gratifyingly) positive, and there's another showing on Sunday at 4pm in the same cinema. This does clash with Ruben Ostlund's outstanding Involuntary, 16.00 at Moviemento, but then again film-festivals should provide audiences with such pleasantly tough dilemmas. "Embarrassment of riches," is the English phrase; or, as they might one day say on the Gugl, überreiche Auswahl.
Neil Young - 25. Apr, 10:29
