I shot this brief video earlier today in a state of astonishment. I had just returned home and saw our cat, Gato, sitting out on our front stoop with a strange bunny. They sat as I approached. I hoped to get inside and fetch my camera. I did so, left by the back door and came back around front, expecting they’d be gone by the time I returned. But they were there, and they stayed for a bit, as you’ll see. This video, unedited, is a minute and seven seconds.
I cannot think of any way to relate this to architecture, except perhaps by a recent post of mine, “Duo vs. the style wars,” in which I interpret a line from a piece by Duo Dickinson as wondering “Can’t we all just get along?” If Gato and this local bunny can get along, maybe so can classicists and modernists. Although it might be fun, I will not attempt to suggest which creature most closely represents which stylistic model. (Not that I necessarily think it would be a good thing if the two architectural camps were to get along; still, it is hard to be against comity.) The video is below:
About David Brussat
This blog was begun in 2009 as a feature of the Providence Journal, where I was on the editorial board and wrote a weekly column of architecture criticism for three decades. Architecture Here and There fights the style wars for classical architecture and against modern architecture, no holds barred.
History Press asked me to write and in August 2017 published my first book, "Lost Providence." I am now writing my second book.
My freelance writing on architecture and other topics addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally.
I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002.
I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat Gato.
If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, dbrussat@gmail.com, or call 401.351.0457.
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- Nikos Salingaros, mathematician at the University of Texas, architectural theorist and author of many books.
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Funny, Peter, that you should happen upon that GIF (or whatever it is) of the rabbit attacking the knight in light of my post today!
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So, the bunny hopped off to architecture school where it learned to hate the cat.
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Probably! (But if you are riffing off Nir’s spellcheck error, he wrote Gato and it came out Hate. But that was an email reply to this post. Hmm.)
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I couldn’t resist! Indeed, most people do love their pets, and animals, its why so many commercials have dogs or other animals in them even though they have nothing to do with the product. Its also why art shows that actually seek to sell to the public (e.g. Wickford Art Show) rather than to please academic critics, there are many paintings of animals (and beautiful landscapes, seascapes, street scenes…) and not the meaningless abstractions that appeal to academics and adorn many corporate walls… (my attempt to relate to usual blog theme!)
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Very emotive! Barry, please send me your blog address!!
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All the rubbing and head butting…Gato certainly had affection for that very little bunny. When I lived on College Hill, there were numerous encounters between our cats and the local possums. Once our friendliest cat walked along the top of the fence and stepped over a possum that was napping there. Another time, a possum got locked in the house overnight. In the morning, he was asleep in the kitchen window with three cats sleeping in the same room. They weren’t buddying up like Gato and the bunny, but there was no hint of animosity.
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How delightful that we can watch nature’s beasts (including the domestic cat) commune so pacifically outside our own homes! Of course, Work, we don’t always see it, let alone film it, when they interact with less pacificity, as they are often wont to do.
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Love this
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