vienna: the view from my window

So after stumbling out of the long flight from Taipei and finding my way to the hotel, I found I had this view (click to enlarge).

Spires ranging from gothic to baroque.  A constant building height across the city, with me just a hair above it, signifying an intensely controlled urban form.  And there in the middle, on that black tower immediately to the left of the crane, something that looked like a billboard, but much larger.  It said, in English, in plain block letters

SMASHED TO PIECES (IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT).

This eruption seemed so out of place in this very self-satisfied city that I could only take it as expressing another kind of self-satisfaction, that of the avant-garde, as though it were there to ensure that I'd remember Vienna as "edgy" if I needed to check that box.  In fact, with this photo, all the boxes seemed checked, so I smiled, fell into bed, and slept.

Comments

[Teresa]

Jarrett, your title says Vienna, but your first sentence implies Taipei. Which story are you going with? ;-)

Teresa

[Jarrett at HumanTransit.org]

Sorry. Vienna. Fixed.