The Collective & The Percussionist

A rainy day. I love it.

B's sister, R, had cataract surgery yesterday.

Today, we picked her up from the hospital, took her home, and got her settled in.

Now a momentary detour: I wish I could remember the name of that chuckleheaded American politician-fearmonger who rhetorically asked if Americans wanted our society to resemble "the European welfare desert." From what I've seen of Austrian hospitals, they're every bit up to par with American hopsitals, and the care seems to be every bit as good. Matter of fact, R has numerous health problems and she's still alive thanks to the "welfare desert" environment she's had to "endure" here, long after an American insurance company would have told her to fuck off and die.

R. lives in an interesting collective, built on the site of an old coffin factory. I've written about the Sargfabrik before. This condo-like living space also features a large meeting hall, a performance center, a kindergarten, and a nice restaurant. The website is in German, but click on the navigation links and check out the photos of the facility and imagine: this is how collective living can be.

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After visiting with R a while, we said goodbye.

On the way back to the car we decided to stop at the Sargfabrik's restaurant and there we ran into Peter Rosmanith, an old friend of B and R and one of Vienna's top percussionist. He also lives in the Sargfabrik.

Peter's an interesting guy. He works with other musicians performing live soundtracks for silent film screenings, and does a sort of spoken-word / music piece, among other projects.

I asked him if he had a Hang. This astounding percussion instrument looks like a flying saucer, or two woks placed top to bottom. In tone it's rather like a Caribbean steel drum, but because it's handmade in Switzerland in very limited quantities, it's extremely hard to get your hands on one. And when you do, open your wallet...wide.

"Yes, I have four Hangs," Peter said. And he invited me to come up next week and look at his collection of percussion instruments. Which I will.

Check out Peter's website here, in English.

To give you a taste, here's Peter playing one of his Hangs.