{"id":54563,"date":"2025-04-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54563"},"modified":"2025-04-27T14:23:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T13:23:54","slug":"the-pied-player-of-steinplatz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/?p=54563","title":{"rendered":"The Pied Player of Steinplatz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Copyright CC0 Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The weather\u2019s fine, and the fine particles fair. The Mathematician and I grab a picnic blanket and head to the park. We find a spot between two Linden trees not being used as goal posts by the local children and sit down to read.<\/p>\n

Well, she does.<\/p>\n

For me, being in the park\u2019s like being on the train \u2014 I can\u2019t help looking at stuff. Even if I\u2019ve seen the place a hundred times, there\u2019s always a new cloud, a jazzy slant of light, or a kid who just can\u2019t catch a ball.<\/p>\n

Bowap Bowap Bowap Bowap uzz uzz uzz uzz<\/em> Bowap \u2026<\/p>\n

I look at the silhouette of a man balancing a hula hoop on his head whilst spinning two more on his arms. He\u2019s got a portable speaker for mood music (the mood being 90s Berlin techno) and a gathering throng of children.<\/p>\n

He sets down the hoops, picks up some balls, and starts juggling. I try to count how many but I\u2019m distracted by two metre-high, ultra-blond girls who\u2019ve taken to running around him in opposite directions. Every time they pass in their orbits, one says \u201cHello!\u201d as if meeting the other for the first time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an inevitable collision. There\u2019s a moment of tense silence. (Between the girls \u2014 the music plays on.) I expect tears, a shove, or a slap \u2014 one of them clearly looks stunned. Instead, they both burst out laughing and set off again.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you see that?\u2019 I ask The Mathematician.<\/p>\n

\u201cHm?\u201d<\/p>\n

I try and read. The sun\u2019s at that lovely angle where, if I hold the page just right, it glows golden.<\/p>\n

I glance up. A young boy\u2019s joined the throng. I think he\u2019s dancing, or think he thinks he\u2019s dancing, but it looks more like a T-Rex dreaming its little arms are wings.<\/p>\n

The blond girls want to play with the hoops. The performer lets them. They each take one and run off screaming, past the hedge to the playground area. He keeps juggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not coming back,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cHm?\u201d<\/p>\n

Two older boys are kicking a football across the field behind the performer\u2019s back. One\u2019s a really crap shot and I wonder when the juggler will have more balls than he bargained for.<\/p>\n

The girls come back, running with the hoops around their waists, straight across the path of the football and under a spinning green triple-bladed frisbee. They return to the juggling man.<\/p>\n

He catches most of his balls, kicks the dropped ones towards his bag, and takes up his third hoop. He starts to hula. The girls try to copy him but their hoops don\u2019t even make it around them once before falling.<\/p>\n

They get frustrated.<\/p>\n

The man gives them a lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you spin the hoop clockwise \u2014 this way \u2014 you have to turn the same way. And anti\u2014 left, you go left. Hey, that\u2019s it. Well done,\u201d he says, as one girl manages two full turns.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very generous,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe performer. He just showed these girls how to hula.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh? That\u2019s nice.\u201d She looks up. \u201cWhat\u2019s that boy doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDancing. I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are his parents?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are any<\/em> of their parents?\u201d<\/p>\n

The juggler gathers up his balls again, changes the track to something more bassy, and begins sending five balls gracefully through the air. The girls giggle and slam onto their knees to watch. Right at his feet.<\/p>\n

He hastily catches the balls.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo back a bit please, in case they fall. At least a metre. Back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girls laugh.<\/p>\n

The Mathematician laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs if they know what a metre is,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The juggler takes a step back.<\/p>\n

\u201cStay,\u201d he says to the girls.<\/p>\n

He resumes his juggling. Other children come over to watch. Soon, I feel like a giant at a munchkin circus.<\/p>\n

The sun dips behind a building and my page grows dull. I\u2019ve read maybe two paragraphs.<\/p>\n

The shadow over the park breaks the spell. Parents appear, say \u201cOoh,\u201d and scoop up their kids. Dancing boy vanishes. The juggler stands alone. He stops, stretches, kneels by his rucksack and produces a cloud of cherry vapour. He swigs from a bottle and sighs contentedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting a bit cold now, isn\u2019t it?\u201d says The Mathematician.<\/p>\n

\u201cWant to go back?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. I fancy reading.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A minstrel moves among us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-54563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cf"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54564,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563\/revisions\/54564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanmole.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}