Frank Lloyd Wright is Art Deco?
Today the sun shone bright. I wandered down by the beach before
wanting to deal with my trailer attachment, and showed up just at the
right moment for the Art Deco tour. I decided to pay the big bucks for
the guided tour, rather than just the brochure, because I was feeling
sociable. The guide had lived all his life in Napier, and his mother
had, too, so he seemed a good choice. He was fairly informative and
well-spoken, but not brilliant. Of course, I forgot my camera, but I
decided I could go back later and get the photos, since we were only
about three blocks from the tour. Of course, the light was never as
good as it was right then, so I only ended up with two photos the next
morning on my way to the bus.
Art Deco Napier is a result of an earthquake in 1931 destroying the
town, and it all being rebuilt in the middle of the Great Depression,
when construction labor was cheap, so a bit more could be spent on the
design and implemenation. The ziggurat, the simplfied classical,
Spanish Mission and a bit of Prairie style from my own backyard,
Taliesin East, showed up along the tour. In addition, a few of the
decorations incorporated Maori symbols, making the buildings even more
historically valuable. Apparently Napier is compared to Miami, but I
haven’t been to Miami, so I wouldn’t know.
I really prefer Art Nouveau to Art Deco, it turns out, though I do
have a weakness for the Prairie and Arts And Crafts movements, which
are all related. Art Deco seems like a version of Art Nouveau in which
only the initial curve of any design is used. All extraneous curves
are removed. I’m sure there are plenty of other differences, but that
seems to be the one that matters to me.
After the tour I sat on the roofdeck with some bread and cheese and
internet for awhile. I finally was chased off by a young man
practising his English on me FOREVER. Also, he may have wanted to
marry me for American citizenship.
So it was time to deal with my trailer connection. I really wanted to
get it fixed in Napier, since getting my bike and trailer to and from
the bus in Napier and Wellington would be a pain without it.
The Home Depot equivalent in the center of town was tantalizingly
close, but closed to make way for the MEGA Home Depot equivalent a few
km away. I finally tracked that down, but was told by a helpful
employee that I needed a real hydraulics place, since it was a
pressure fitted collar on the hose. Luckily, he said, there was one at
the next corner. I went in, explained what I wanted, and they started
taking the ripped hose out to replace it with a new, longer one. I
realized that I could take apart my trailer frame so I could bring in
the bit that the hose was bolted to, so I made the 30 minute roundtrip
bike ride again to go get it. It turned out to be a totally necessary
thing, since it took two guys with tools and a vise a long time to get
the hose in the aluminum tube, and then they could easily drill a hole
for the bolt. And then they didn’t even charge me at all. I wished I
could buy them a beer, but it didn’t quite seem right.