Florian Keller

By Robert Farley (cl_kaulana) | cl_kaulana@oocities.com | Vienna Strasse/7000

Anyone who knows Florian Keller knows why he is called "The Entertaining Salzburger." From singing to playing a number of instruments to acting, Florian's entertaining character runs the gamut of art styles. A native of Austria who retains strong ties to his homeland, Florian added writing to his list of entertaining activities soon after becoming a community leader. His Vienna Online column, "Austrian Insights" has quickly become a favorite with readers, no doubt due to its authenticity. Florian is always ready to solve a problem, improve a solution, or just make conversation, a true goodwill ambassador for GeoCities.

CL Florian in lederhosen with wife and daughter

User Name(s) by which you are known in GC: saintflori
Real Name (at your discretion): Florian Keller
Geographical Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota
URL(s): http://www.oocities.org/saintflori/
Email Addy: (hover here or click)
Birthday/Age: June 22, 1956 (200 years after Mozart)
Neighborhood(s) you are a CL in: Vienna/Opera
Family (i.e. spouse, kids, and/or parents, siblings, significant pets): married, one daughter (9)
Job and/or School Situation: freelance musician
Favorite Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Favorite Composition: Die Zauberflöte
Instruments You Play: Piano, guitar, percussion, opera singer; but I'm mainly a conductor now

Kaulana: Welcome to the Zineterview, Florian, tell us a little bit about your GeoCities experience -- how you found GeoCities, how long you've had a page, how long you've been a community leader?
Florian: I stumbled onto GeoCities 10 months ago and am a CL for eight months.

K: What made you decide to become a CL? What's the most important thing you've learned or done as a CL?
F: CL Josh coaxed me into becoming a CL. I enjoy helping people to solve all kinds of problems in a creative and meticulous way. And I'm having tremendous fun writing for Vienna Online.

K: What advice would you give someone trying to decide whether to apply to become a CL?
F: That's very simple. If you have some spare time, are patient enough to listen to people's problems, and like to be in the thick of things, you should go for it!

K: You're a singer, pianist, conductor, entertainer -- did I miss anything? :o) -- and you come from a musical family. Any advice for young men and women wanting to follow the same path?
F: Just read my [recent] Vienna Online article, not enough people did. ;o) But to sum it up: first you have to figure out where your talents and desires lie. Do you want to concentrate on a single task or do you opt for versatility? Then you have to work hard on an all-around musical education and later on keep a close connection with your audience. In my case it helped a lot having the strong support of my family.

Florian at the piano

K: How do you see your homepage growing in the future? How does it help your career and your life goals?
F: I want to keep adding the fun stuff: new sounds, new photos; but also new informational content for the general surfer (like always updating my HTML help page). I just finished redecorating my German site with professional graphic sets. [My webpage] helps me get connections to musicians around the world. I might have a concert in Iceland next summer through a homepage connection. And it helps my goal of keeping a dialog with my audience: my URL appears in all my program notes, and it already pays off.

K: Speaking of program notes, you've just finished directing a brief run of Snoopy, the musical. What's next for the Entertaining Salzburger in the surprisingly vibrant cultural mecca of Minnesota?
F: Snoopy was actually my longest run in many years: 15 performances. And it was in neighboring Hudson, Wisconsin. Next is an operetta concert with the Voices of Vienna at the huge Capitol New Year event in Saint Paul.

K: Two out of three ain't bad. =] Those New Year's plans sound like a blast. What's the most exciting or most awe-inspiring place you have ever performed?
F: The famous Stone Theater (Steintheater) in Hellbrunn near Salzburg. It's a permanent outdoor stage on a hill formed by rocks, including a giant backdrop.

K: That reminds me of the outdoor theaters in Ohio, where I'm from. Go see Tecumseh in Chillicothe, if you're ever in the area. Enough for the serious questions. What kind of stuff do you like to do for fun? Do you have a Playstation or Nintendo?
F: No video games anymore. My playstations are the tennis court and my very own sauna (outdoors). I'm an addict at both.

K: Winter in Minnesota must be hard on your tennis. I would recommend golf as a hobby, but then winter doesn't work for golf, either, does it?
F: The last two winters were mild here for a change. I played tennis outdoors until mid November. And there are enough indoor courts to play all year round. You'd have to go to Hawaii to play golf all year. Oh, come to think of it, that's what you DID...

K: Yes, it's a high price to pay for the game... You visit your hometown in Austria each year, as I recall. Is this business or pleasure, or a combination?
F: It's a combination. I'm part of the Salzburg Advent Festival, doing solo work in many different capacities for 35 years. But it's also nice to use the free airline ticket to visit my parents and the extended family at the same time. They even paid for my wife's ticket twice. Don't tell anyone.

K: Uh, no, that's just between you and me. ;o) With this being the December edition, are there any Austrian Christmas traditions that you have brought with you to your home in the US?
F: Singing Christmas carols before opening presents. Teaching Americans the original melody of "Silent Night." Having a live tree. Using real candles. Butter cookies…

K: Glad you reminded me of the butter cookies! Besides "Silent Night," any other favorite Christmas carols? And are your wife and daughter also bilingual? I can't imagine you don't sing at least some carols in your native German.
F: Many. My father published a book entitled Christmas in Salzburg folksongs with native carols from all five Salzburg regions. My daughter is totally bilingual. My wife still resists.

K: If we read your "Austrian Insights" article this month, we'll know what town in Austria you are from. Do you hold dual citizenship now?
F: No, that would be illegal. I'm an Austrian "Resident Alien" only. You'd have to qualify for dual citizenship at birth, like my daughter did.

K: How difficult is it to go from thinking in German to thinking in English?
F: Actually I'm taking the easy way out (or not). I mostly think in German when I talk English ;o) Doesn't make sense, right? On the other hand I live in the US for over 10 years now. I'm on automatic pilot.

K: Oh yeah, makes some sense. I recall from my high school French and Latin that sentence construction can be very different in different languages. I can still hear my French teacher telling us to "think like a Frenchman." Never happened. If I should win a free airline ticket to Minnesota, what places would you recommend I visit?
F: The Mall of Amerika (biggest mall in the US), the Metrodome, some of our 10,000 lakes and the Mississippi River, our beautiful farm country (little house on the prairie), the Science Museum, and the Minnesota zoos.

K: We're there. What would someone never in a million years guess about you?
F: Nothing, sorry. I'm an open book. Comes with an entertainer's territory.

K: Right, and politicians' too, I guess. How about favorite sports? Hobbies? Activities?
F: I mentioned tennis; also ping pong and soccer. I'm a home improvement guy and a stamp collector. I enjoy supporting my daughter in her many activities. And besides music being my business, it is also my most exciting hobby.

K: A true renaissance kind of guy. One last question: Where do you get the membername "saintflo"?
F: First, I live in SAINT Paul. Second, there lived a SAINT Florian in Austria about 500 years ago. He protects houses from fire and extinguishes fires. So he is the saint (mascot, symbol) for all firemen. Firemen are actually nicknamed "Florianijünger" (apostles of Saint Florian). There is also a town called St. Florian in Upper Austria with a famous basilica and monastery.

K: Ah. I knew there must be a rhyme behind the reason. Fascinating as always. Well, I see by the number of kilobytes in this file that it's time to call it a zineterview. Thanks very much for sharing, it has been a pleasure, as always. Auf Wiedersehn.

Robert (cl_kaulana) is an Ohio native who appreciates the fact that he lives in Hawaii presently, even though a white Christmas would mean he'd have to journey to the white sands of Sunset Beach, where you might find him valiantly trying to build a sandman. Throw a snowball for him, if you get the chance.