King Gook 1948-2015

Death always comes at the wrong time or moment, mostly unprepared. I am by no means a psychologist nor am I overly faithful. King Gook aka Danny first crossed my Hashing path in Vienna in the later 1990s when I joined the still to be labelled World's Worst coming back from a foreign assignment in Paris.  There were these, well, strange figures running around the Hashtrails of Vienna such as No Mercy Master (left to the Middle East 14 years ago), Wankshaft (the most Viennese German I have ever met, sorry King Ralph), Smelly Cheese (still around somewhere) and the hard core folk like Munk (not yet Cardinal), Glo-Balls (not yet a Lord), Stormin' Norman (still awaited his sainthood back then), Richard Kopf (for a week I thought that this was his real name!, not yet XX for years) and of course this odd Philippino looking Austrian named Danny "King Gook".

During my first full Hashing year here in Vindobona in 1997 this Hash and its representants grew on me and then cameth that fateful weekend in late 1998 in Mönichkirchen (the Viagra Weekend, look for the old Rehash in the respective Section of the VH3 Website), duly being organised by No Mercy Master, Munk and King Gook, who wore prisoners clothes during the registration. (Munk was dressed as a Jester, mind you).

 A short excerpt from that writeup:

"Slowly but true all those participants started to arrive and there was a Highpoint of the weekend when JR, our Golden Great Hash Cash and Webmaster, was paying his fee to King Gook.  "A DREAM CAME TRUE! JR's PAYING ME!!" (Quote King Gook). "

At the following AGM King Gook actually candidated against LGB and wanted to take over Hash Cash, we all know the outcome.

King Gook was a great character and a real pleasure to be around with, for years and way before I started doing so he was a regular at all the Schweizerhaus openings and closings and he always amazed me on how quickly he could sneak away from table and company.

Once his illness made him too weak to turn up even occasionally I was still pleased and privileged to hear news about him through Cardinal Munk.

Dear King Gook, Rest in peace. Thank you for having been a friend.

Wiener Beerfest

The latest edition of the Wiener Bierfest is coming up later this coming week.

Viennas first district seems to hold lots of different attractions throughout the year, such as the Stefflkirtag which currently goes on until the end of May right next to othe Stephanskirche.

The following musical piece has got absolutely nothing to do with the above, but I find it really cool.

The Beauty and the East - "I can't complain "

"after all i have organised this". Said one of the - organisers. :-) But let's just first start with some weird Elvis facts.

1. Elvis was a black belt in karate. He took up martial arts under the shotokan sensei Jürgen Seydal, while fulfilling his military duties in Germany in 1958. He was awarded his black belt before he returned to the United States, in 1960, by the chito-ryu instructor Hank Slemansky. Elvis’s love of martial arts continued throughout his life. His favourite form of fighting became American Kenpo.

a) Despite running with the World's Worst Hash (yes, some things seemingly never change) for nearly 20 years, I learned that in 1992 there was already a first weekend in Senec which must have prompted Richard Kopf (no, I won't call him XX!) to join the VH3 two weeks after that event. Our erudite Masthead decided in due course that it was time to revisit that location more than two decades later.  Elvis was the theme and I counted no less than 7 different Elvis impersonations, a Karaoke contest was about to follow on the Saturday evening.

Hunka, Hunka Burnin' Love

Arriving with the family on Friday early afternoon after a slighlty chaotic drive thru Bratislava (sloppy D-Erections!) the first way after dropping off our luggage in the hotel room was the pub next year that loosely translated to "Zur weißen Maus", meeting up with those who already got there a little earlier (MOM, Lik'mmm, Weens Schnitzel etc.) and enjoying good and inexpensive beer from the East.

2. On 21 December 1970, Presley met President Nixon at the White House. Presley had initiated the meeting with a six-page letter to the President, in which he had spelt out his desire to be made a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. During his meeting with Nixon, Presley denounced The Beatles as being ‘un-American’ for their open drug-taking and anti-Vietnam politics. For his part, Nixon reminded Presley of his need to “retain credibility”. Nevertheless, he is said to have given Presley a ‘Special Agent’ badge.

One after the other all 69 (!) partakers of the event arrived, Fallen Angel succesfully tried out her waveboard on the nearby skating area and by 7 p.m. dinner was about to start, of course supported by Slovak beer on tap.  The suqsequent pub crawl happened without us, yet I heard from a small group that went astray (Rowed Runner, Hitman, Cardinal Munk (OVH)) from some serious drinking.

If you make your first eleven...

The next morning featured a bus ride to a castle called Cerveny Kamen (Bibersburg), easily 20 kilometers away from Senec. Initiation was given in form of Borovicka Schnaps shots, the "stuff that made St.Norman drunk at Senec more often than anything else". Point A on one of Free Willies infmaous main runs on these weekend events.
To give that gent minor credit, he was only responsible for the first half of the runners trail, with Fyling Dutchman being the Main Hare for the second part of that runners trail. (POINT OF CORRETION HERE: Free Willie pointed out that it was rather Mind the Gaps turn for the seconc half of the runners tral, with Fliying Dutchman acting as sidekick.) A walkers trail was being offered too by St.Norman , with the addition of a "walkers plus" trail neatly set by No Balls Prize after an extended drink stop somewhere deep in the woods. 

3. Elvis’s first radio play was on Memphis station WHBQ, on the Red, Hot and Blue Right”, Show, in 1954. DJ Dewey Phillips played “That’s All and, a week later Sun Records had received 6,000 advance orders for the single “That’s All Right”/ “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

Point B at the end of the run/walk was a Gasthaus, hidden away somewhere in the forest with more beer on tap. Everyone was in for a treat in due course when Goulash with lots of garlic was served so everyone could happily stuff their faces. The highlight of a long circle with different RA's handing out drinks to each and all was the Hash engagement of GrandMeister Multiple Entry with Feel My Meat from Moscow, with a wedding date due sometines later this year.

Multiple Entry won the Elvis Karaoke via Appplaud-O-Meter (personally I thought that Septic Yank was doing an ever greater job) with the 6 others all finishing 2nd.

The same time that the Hash function was on downstairs on Saturday night there was a local wedding fest happening in the main room, intially quiet. Later in the night, back in our room I had problems to distiniguish which party group was about to rip the hotel to pieces, the loudness level at 4:30 a.m. was by all means impressive.


4. The King’s entourage were known collectively as the Memphis Mafia. All members of the Memphis Mafia sported diamond and gold rings, given to them by Elvis, on which a thunderbolt and the letters TCB had been imprinted. TCB stood for “Take Care of Business”.

A mild hangover walk into the town of Senec and by loop bacl to the hotel concluded a sunny weekend event with lots of good strong local beer. Thank you is to all the orgnaisers Hares and all who made it to Senec.

More to come.

He likes to watch

When the moment is right

June 25. This years date to come back, albeit once a year, to Wiener Neudorf. By breaking the tradition we did not start at the old faithful Figurteich like we always do but rather moved down the road a couple hundred metres to the carpark of the Kahrteich with adjacent Restaurant Oase. All my beloved wifes idea of course. Maybe it is some kind of a deeper truth that guys principally hold onto an idea for a looong while while those beloved females are more spontaneous and - volatile, maybe. But that's just my personal little theory.

Well, the change of the start showed in full glory that there ARE poeple who do NOT read the Hashschedule but much rather rely on something like :"Oh, it's these guys setting their run again so I know that run will start automatically at point X!"! Our own superhero MOM was the one that got completely lost and was seen strolling aimlessly down that secret road in Guntramsdorf where the larger part of the KUNT family is residing. But I digress.

Down the old Old Plank Road

The goal this time was to find out a slightly different route thru Wiener Neudorf. so the route was along the infamous B 17 (Triester Straße) for a showt while and then down along the Mödlingbach and the old part of Wiener Neudorf. After a loop on over a bridge surpassing the A2 it was on back across the backgardens and, eventually back to the cars along a long straight path in that Industrial partk where we once hold that Saint Valentine's run that all the partakers loved so much. Short circle and On After at the restaurant Oase.

See no evil, drink no evil?

On Out.

Zig-Zag our way

And then on June the 18th  it was time for that annual sensation somewhere in the 22nd district at No Mercy Mistress's Sauna and Swimming pool, cleverly disguised with and preceded by a more or less shortish Hash run, this time  duly assisted by Marathon Man and family.

Waiting Room Only

As the Marathon family has recently moved in the near neighbourhood it seemed to be natural to incorporate a beer stop at their new home. All said and done, some 40 minutes into running on a hot day, the beer stop garden was merrily reached and duly enjoyed. Finding the right trail after the beer stop proved to be a minor problem as the marks were not clearly visible at first. But that may have been the influence of the liquids consumed right before.

Three Gentlemen

The way back to the OnIn was mostly straight all the way back, giving us all a well deserved chance to enjoy the flat surrounding scenery that Hirschstetten is well known for. Before the circle even started the usual suspects took to the sauna and afterwards for a lenghty swim. Down Downs at the circle were prominently awarded by (ab)using a comfortbale garden chair the belonged to our host. More swimming and a barbeque afterwards.

On In

On Out.

Even it up

After a short holiday break in May it was back to business up at the romantic scenery of the Krapfenwaldbad that is located somewhere in Vienna'S 19th district on June the 11th. They say that the prettiest girls drop by there in the summer. Well, up to you to find out if that is more than just a rumour.

Two real flowers

Due to some traffic related problem I reached the car park half an hour late with everybody long gone. Really wanting to wotk for my circle beers I decided to take a chance and see if I could catch up. On my way out I briefly met Glory Daze and Lopsided Backside who were late as well and decided to go for a short walk.  Catching up with the pack seemed to be no big as after half an hour into casual jogging I caught up near the Cobenzl.

No thanks!

Multiple "I belong to live on Vienna" was here as well as Sinex and The Bag and Merry Marugoto, all on their way back from a weekend chez our good friends from the Zagreb Hash. What seems to be a large part of that forest has been covered it was back into the car park. Circle was being held a little further uphill near the grill area. A neat little goddie style down down routine from Zagreb was once performed, only never to be seen again in subsequent circles.

The Hares of a Dog

I can only dream in Red

Better late than never they say so here is a late summary of last years annual Red Dress Run on New Years Eve, as always once around the Ringstraße in Vienna. After a span of more than 10 years of participation in these events (okay, it is officially the Silvesterlauf of the LCC around the Ringstraße on Dec.31 each year, but who cares about these minor details?) one begins to see Red Dresses floating all around when one contemplates about it. But that seems be the case with new born babies, freshly grown moustaches and - the cool Pints (not you, My Pint) in the Pub.

Ignition!

Meet as always in front of the Cafe Schwarzenberg at Vienna's Ringstraße, raise considerbale attention from Japanese and Italian tourists and then it is On Off once around the trail, some 5,4 kilometres, as has been the custom over the last years, by holding on to a long climbing rope. This time by inspiration of King Ralph a slight deviation has been taken over the ramp of the Parliament building, much to the amusement of the local bystanders.

Beer delivery!

The rest of the run showed that this Hash Chapter is slowly turnining geriatric. Richard Kopf should be mentioned for not holding onto that rope but rather tried to hold the rest of the red dressed runners (?) back from what seemed to much exercise on that day for him. At the end of the run the crossing of the finish line happened in all glory as you can tell by the pic.

The circle inside the Ringstrassengalerien prominently featured copious amounts of Bloody Mary, generously provided by Glory Daze. I learned only later that she used a mixing ratio of 50/50 for Wodka and Tomato Juice. OUCH! Belated thanks for that hangover! On Out.