Moderne

I was a shopping fool yesterday. I rode my other bike to the ever elusive Antikmarkt. Their opening hours are a bit difficult for me. I went in and had a look-see. It was mostly soft wood amoires and bureaus and naturally lighter in color. Most of it was in top condition other than some worm damage/character, depending on how you view this. It wasn't really what I was looking for. I said thanks and left.

While I was outside I decided to take a closer look at the stuff in the front window. I remembered seeing an art deco smoking stand with a small round table, for your martini no doubt. I saw that it hadn't been sold yet and also that there were actually two of them. One of them was complete with an ember holder. On the other the ember holder was broken off. I wasn't sure at first which one, but finally decided on the complete one. It will complement the seating that comes later. There were also various trinkets up front, then I laid my eyes on a theater lamp made of cast Iron. It must weigh about a hundred pounds. As it turns out, the proprieter's brother restores these vintage theater lamps for a hobby. He said it was functional and that the price was 380 euro. I'm thinking about it...The woman also told me that they have another store in Bickenbach. Mari had told me about an antik store there, apparently the same one, but didn't know where it was exactly. The nice woman told me that they have somewhat rougher condition and darker furniture at the other store. The junk! That's exactly what I was looking for. I'll probably try to go there next weekend on the way to Heidelberg with Bill and Sandi.

I left there and went to Lindberg. Mario the proprieter was sitting outside at Carpe Diem next door to his shop. I said hello and I went to look inside and look at what was still there since the last time I was there. The only thing that wasn't there anymore was the rolling doctor stool. I had wanted that for sewing, since I gave the one I had away. The other stuff was still there. I was still undecided on what exacly to purchase. Mario invited me for a coffee next door on him. I obliged. We were discussing design and what sort of affect the design has on the psyche. For me, Art Nouveau has a special charm to it, the flowing lines and especially the aire of darkness to it. I percieve the whole asthetic as stylized beauty that has an inherent dark mysticism. Other people may not get this feeling, but this how it makes me "feel" when I look the designs. I can draw a parallell to my like of Jungle or darker drum and bass music. When I look deeper at this, I am noticing a pattern of drawing pleasure visually and auditorily from media that is sort of dark and manacing. I'm not sure what this means yet, but at least this writing helped me to make this connection.

The Jungle music will have you on a beautifully electronic melody and then suddenly plunge you into a cavern filled with grotesque creatures, through which you must run to safety avoiding the danger. This is a rough idea of what my imagination feels when I listen and dance to this music. Art Nouveau can be very beautiful and visually pleasing to look at, but also it can be very eerie and creepy. I want to get a tattoo. An Art Nouveau tattoo. I will take a ride to the building that has a facade that I like and take a picture and post it.

Back to the furniture. We finished our coffee and design philosophy and went back inside. I had decided on the black leather sofa with two chairs, a two-tiered table, the italian sconces, the coffee table, and the coat rack. He gave me a price of 2800 euro. I thought that was a very fair price and therefore didn't haggle. We made an appointment for Monday evening for me to come and get it and pay for it all in cash. He also threw in two little stepstools. As I was leaving he said that there would be a surprise when I come to pick it up. I like surprises.

The sconces are really neat. They consist of a rectangular chrome base with four thick glass rectangles. The glass plates are arranged in parallel with the two in the middle being blue and the outer two clear glass. Although they are probably not antiques, they do have that moderne feel to them. I couldn't pass them up.

Afterwards I went to the Marktplatz to meet Fredi and Finnbar at the Ratskeller. Fredi was alone when I got there. Finnbar showed a bit later. I was drinking Apfelwein since I still wasn't feeling 100%. I ordered a half chicken with pan fried potatoes. Fredi is a character. I stayed there for maybe 90 minutes and then decided to finish my shopping mission.

I went to Karstadt to buy some bed linens. I had bought some crappy stuff at Walmart just to get me going. Karstadt had nice cotton sateen duvee and pillow cover sets. I bought one black and one red set. They also had matching sheets in microfiber cotton jersey. All this came to 153 euro. ouch! I also finally manged to find a dish drying rack for 8 euro. Score.

I got all this home and realized I still needed to buy some coffee. The only place that was still open was Walmart. I rode my butt to Walmart and bought some coffee. On the way back it started to rain. One of those sunny while it's raining things. I decided to watch a movie and chill out for the rest of the night. I watched Beat the Devil with Bogart, Lollabrigida, and Lorre. It is supposed to be a comedy, but looking at the cast, one can hardly imagine it would be. It was more absurd than comedic. The visuals were great though. Every time the front man for the bad guys would talk, the other two or three of them would slowly come up and stand behind him. It was if he always had three heads. It was similar to Maltese Falcon with the Fat Man, Lorre, and Willma. They would always be together as a subversive element against Bogart the sly good guy. Bogart was starting to show his age in this flic, or maybe he was made up to look that way. It was a good caper, and Peter Lorre was great as usual. His name was O'Hara. One ponders the image of Peter Lorre as an Irishman...A must see.

I spent a little time blog surfing and then went to bed. I'm not sure what time it was, maybe around eleven.

The weather is nice today although a bit windy. I think I will do some cleaning and then go for a bike ride. Maybe check out the Perilli exhibit on the Matildenhöhe? Sit in the park for a little while? Many possibilities. I think I've written enough for the moment. I will finally have real furniture next week!