Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
When most people are asked to name their favorite Austrian artists, they inevitably bring up Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, and I can see why, for they were both supremely talented, and their works are widely shared, especially on Tumblr. I myself much prefer the third most-famous Austrian painter, someone who died in 2000 and whose birthday we celebrate today, December 15th: Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
My family owned a beautiful Hundertwasser reproduction when I was a child. It contained wild and curvy lines and small mirror tiles that would reflect the afternoon sun shining into my home on Tunlaw Road. A delightfully radical architect as well as a painter, Hundertwasser might not have approved of my north Georgetown row house, for he was not a fan of straight lines, once writing that “Because of the straight line, the products of design, drawing board, and modeling have become sickeningly sterile and truly senseless. The straight line is godless and immoral. The straight line is not a creative line, but simply a reproductive lie. In it there live not God and human spirit, but a mass created, brainless and addicted to comfort.”
Hundertwasser himself was not addicted to comfort, once living in a New Zealand home made of bottles, and refusing to spend money even on haircuts. Hundertwasser focused on invention, rather than convention, believing that “No restraint should be imposed upon the individual’s desire to construct. Each person should be allowed to build (and ought to build), and would thus be truly responsible for the four walls within which he lives.” He confronted homegrown authoritarianism and totalitarianism with his art, and all of us who know his work have benefited.
So happy birthday, Friedensreich! We can only assume that no other pub quiz newsletter is celebrating you today, so I have stepped into the curvy breach, for all of us. Thank you for your artistic leadership, and for your swirls and your spirals. Thank you for helping the Dalai Lama escape Tibet. Thank you for your environmental activism. Thank you for telling the story of how you fooled Hitler as a youth. I’m glad you could die at sea, aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, rather than amidst the sterile right angles of a hospital. I hope someday to visit one of your buildings!
Regrettably, tonight’s Pub Quiz will offer no questions on Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Instead expect to reflect on your knowledge of toys and playthings, online photographs, newspaper headlines, Taylor Swift (for the youngsters), Robert Downey Jr. (for my wife Kate), David Letterman, holiday traditions for those who watch TV, Roman numerals, unwilling dog accomplices, handicrafts, unusual adjectives that start with the letter M, salt, mumps and bumps, world leaders who almost share a name, pictures, monosaccharaides, film musicals, income gaps, Irish music, funny actors, wars that matter, V words from “Santa,” Davis businesses, women who did a job more famously than any man, reds and redheads, hooks, lying liars, speeches from heroes, glands, the meaning of a touchdown, YouTube, and the scandals of Shakespeare.
I look forward to seeing you this evening. I shall wear black.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
- Internet Culture. The names of the fastest growing social networks (over the last six months) are an anagram for the common phrase REBEL MUTT PRINTS, which is, coincidentally, what I have requested for holiday presents from all my family. Name the social networks.
- Art and Art History. Salvador Dali was born and died in the same city. Name the country.
- Next Year. What awakens on Dec. 18th, 2015?
- Pop Culture – Music. Actress and Grammy winning musician Kelly Rowland rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of what girl group?
- Sports. EPL is the acronym for the UK’s primary football competition. What do the letters EPL stand for?
P.S. Have you considered giving a book of poetry as a holiday gift this year?