I walked down Rotenturmstrasse once more today and spoiled myself with a scoop of organic frozen yoghurt with pineapple chunks from Zanoni's.
I did not realize until then that I was standing right across the street from the first place and event in my life that had magic..the Lugeck. A streetcorner with a history. When I was about 7 years old, some of my relatives still lived in vienna- and I used to spend the summers at my grandmothers house in Eastern Pannonia. Close to the Hungarian border. She shared a big house with front and rear garden with my grand-aunt, a tailor. Maria (called Mitzi) entertained her own studio, and had spent much of her young adult life in Vienna, making costumes at Theater in der Josefstadt and Burgtheater (the two main theatres in town). I grew up toying with cloth, and haberdashery (and dressing up in costumes she used to make for me)- which is where my faible for fashion and craft comes from, most likely. ;)
One of her friends from childhood days from the same Pannonian village, Anna Novosel (the family runs the town hotel), was the then tenant of the Lugeck cafe/restaurant- and occupied the floor above as well- kept for private use. Mitzi took me to see her that day, and that was my first encounter with a Viennese society lady. One must not underestimate the position and status of that place- Ms Novosel knew all of the in-crowd of her times, and I was fascinated. I was too young to remember any of the Phantastic Realists or other artists my father used to hang with as a young man, and I did not know anything about the names the two talked about. But the atmosphere fascinated me. The woman was thin, as was my aunt, and talking erratically. She had slightly nervous, but somehow cosmopolitan (or, rather: people-experienced) vibes I remember finding very interesting, instinctively.
Ialso remember not liking the cigarette smoke so typical for many Viennese cafes of those days, and the whole place had some cloudy grey hanging over it. Might have been the smoke. Though maybe a memory of a heightened state of consciousness I find myself in sometimes these days..when all gets blurry, and melts into one. When you get the feeling u're navigating through some cloudy, mysterious fog around you.
London that day/night with Gifi Fields had something of it- which was no wonder back then. I wasn't impressed that time then,though, but as a child,Vienna impressed me. My brain is like a man's, I was told, filling in intelligence tests, but my orientation left me a couple of times that day. So many narrow streets, so many people! And eventually, we found the cafe, and I had some free ice-cream there. Mitzi and Anna had cigarettes, and coffee- if I remember correctly. I didn't like coffee back then. I also remember my uncle telling me their neighbour had bought a leopard he would bring out for a walk occasionally- but that was years later. Exotic animals seemed to be a fashion at that point. THAT intrigued me as well. Though I would have wanted a tiger or a black panther instead..^^..
I remembered the whole Lugeck scene yesterday, and almost cried. Not because it was so damn significant, but because of the fact that- a VERY long time ago- I liked the place.
I did not realize until then that I was standing right across the street from the first place and event in my life that had magic..the Lugeck. A streetcorner with a history. When I was about 7 years old, some of my relatives still lived in vienna- and I used to spend the summers at my grandmothers house in Eastern Pannonia. Close to the Hungarian border. She shared a big house with front and rear garden with my grand-aunt, a tailor. Maria (called Mitzi) entertained her own studio, and had spent much of her young adult life in Vienna, making costumes at Theater in der Josefstadt and Burgtheater (the two main theatres in town). I grew up toying with cloth, and haberdashery (and dressing up in costumes she used to make for me)- which is where my faible for fashion and craft comes from, most likely. ;)
One of her friends from childhood days from the same Pannonian village, Anna Novosel (the family runs the town hotel), was the then tenant of the Lugeck cafe/restaurant- and occupied the floor above as well- kept for private use. Mitzi took me to see her that day, and that was my first encounter with a Viennese society lady. One must not underestimate the position and status of that place- Ms Novosel knew all of the in-crowd of her times, and I was fascinated. I was too young to remember any of the Phantastic Realists or other artists my father used to hang with as a young man, and I did not know anything about the names the two talked about. But the atmosphere fascinated me. The woman was thin, as was my aunt, and talking erratically. She had slightly nervous, but somehow cosmopolitan (or, rather: people-experienced) vibes I remember finding very interesting, instinctively.
Ialso remember not liking the cigarette smoke so typical for many Viennese cafes of those days, and the whole place had some cloudy grey hanging over it. Might have been the smoke. Though maybe a memory of a heightened state of consciousness I find myself in sometimes these days..when all gets blurry, and melts into one. When you get the feeling u're navigating through some cloudy, mysterious fog around you.
London that day/night with Gifi Fields had something of it- which was no wonder back then. I wasn't impressed that time then,though, but as a child,Vienna impressed me. My brain is like a man's, I was told, filling in intelligence tests, but my orientation left me a couple of times that day. So many narrow streets, so many people! And eventually, we found the cafe, and I had some free ice-cream there. Mitzi and Anna had cigarettes, and coffee- if I remember correctly. I didn't like coffee back then. I also remember my uncle telling me their neighbour had bought a leopard he would bring out for a walk occasionally- but that was years later. Exotic animals seemed to be a fashion at that point. THAT intrigued me as well. Though I would have wanted a tiger or a black panther instead..^^..
I remembered the whole Lugeck scene yesterday, and almost cried. Not because it was so damn significant, but because of the fact that- a VERY long time ago- I liked the place.
