The Straight Line is Godless

-- Friedensreich Hundertwasser
We decided to go to the Kunst Haus Wien today since it's half price on Mondays. It turned out to be both a rainy day and a Monday. In the past week we've had storms nearly every day at nearly the same time and they don't last too long and cool everything off. Not today's. Katie's lecture on Renaissance art was punctuated by thunder repeatedly (which she used to her advantage). The storm lifted for a little while, but by the time our two families started out, it was raining steadily. By the time we missed our stop on the streetcar, it was really pouring. Despite four umbrellas and six raincoats among us, we were all soaked (except Fluffy under his stroller rainguard -- thanks Liesl!). It turned out to be serendipitous that we missed the stop: we ended up in front of a shop I had shown to Katie on Sunday and she and Curtis managed to find a dirndl for a good price. I myself, am of Louise Plummer's opinion, that dirndls will be the uniform of hell, but then those gussets don't do anything good for my figure. Katie looks smashing in a dirndl, and if you've got it -- flaunt it! I nursed Senor del Fluff to sleep and Rob herded five kids over to the Hundertwasserhaus to see it in the pouring rain.

[click to enlarge, grandma, this may be the best one I get this summer] Eventually we did make it to Kunst Haus Wien where they just let all the kids in free (not Chloe -- she's not a kid; she is the secret weapon that means we actually have five adults to six kids, instead of four to seven). They actually all found something to like, whether it was the dark/bright colors (dunkelbunt) or the nosepicker picture or the Hundertwasser model village, which they schemed around for quite a while, deciding which house they'd live in and how they could make a golf course on top (Hundertwasser wanted grass and trees on the rooftops, with animals grazing up there too -- I think the cows might have created some problems for the golfers). I found a painting called "Flooded Dreams" which I had to show Maddie because she'd just had a series of three very different water dreams that she'd drawn pictures of. And we saw the stamps Hundertwasser designed and his distinctive hat and even his weavings. Will was blown away that there was a wall-sized weaving of a boy peeing on civilization; the original Calvin sticker.
During all of this, Rob stayed down in the cafe during Joss's nap, eating lox and enjoying a moment when he didn't have to be on his feet or leading students or wrestling Joss. He'd just been here last week with the students so the rest of us were playing catch-up.

[click to enlarge] Hundertwasser loved rainy days and the dark-bright colors that came out on them, that he added both of those words to his name: Dunkelbunt Regentag. So we felt it was very appropriate to show up at his museum on such a rainy day. We were informed that today is National Kissing Day in Austria. When in Rome . . .

[click to enlarge] More pictures from the interior and exterior. I had a reassuring talk with one of the students today who lived in Europe with her family. She said that her parents dragged all four kids to everything when she was Maddie's age and her youngest brother was one (sound familiar?) and that she hated it all and is now kicking herself and having to rediscover it all on her own. I'm going to suggest that she send an e-mail to that effect to her parents. If they're anything like us, they would appreciate hearing that it was eventually worth it.