Dinner Tonight

Today after class (MA and Maddie) and another wild performance (Rob; he'll have to report on the 'U-bahn opera' that he experienced today), we needed to do something for the kids. We decided to take the scooters and roll down the Donaukanal bike path. Yes, we packed the kids' scooters this summer, and though I was skeptical, I'm becoming a true believer. The collage has a few of the things we saw: exciting graffiti, and even an artist at work, the river rolling by, three guys honing their rock climbing skills, a rose garden, and phooey, I forgot to take a picture of the swimming pool boat this time around. We stopped and had a picnic which was beautiful, but nervewracking without any guard rails and four kids. Then we decided to go home a different way. Once we got there, we realized how close we were to the . . .
Hundertwasserhaus! (click to enlarge) So we took the kids there and let them run around. Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was born in Vienna in 1928. His name was Friedrich Stowasser, but he changed his name when he was about 20 to Realm of Peace Rainy Day Dark-bright Hundred Water. He painted, invented shoes and clothes and a composting toilet (we aren't letting the kids in on his 'humanure' treatises yet, and we'd appreciate it if you didn't either . . . ) and had strong opinions on nature and the way that humans and nature should coexist in what he termed "the third skin" (the first being your skin, the second is your clothes, so the third is your home or buildings you dwell in). He railed against the "dictatorial reign of windows" (that they all had to be in a straight line) and he would occasionally go naked "to protest rationality in architecture" (and we'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the kids about this one either -- we're just barely keeping them in clothes as it is). He was wild and eccentric and a perfect foil for Vienna. The kids loved it.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Looks like he was a friend of Gaudi with the tile mosaics--like Parque Guell, right?
5:24 PM
Curtis said…
I've seen Hundertwasser's works in Katie's Humanities texts and really liked them. This is also going on the list. Have you been to the Hundertwasser Museum?

Sidenote: You know how you have to type in the word verification to post a comment? It's now asking me to type "web girdle." What the heck?
8:27 PM
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