The soundproofed ascetic room; sleeping amid Wagnerian opera

texture · UNDATED (standing habit; filmed 11 Nov YDAU)

• When: UNDATED (standing); the footage is 11 Nov YDAU, 2100h
• What: Mario's documentary footage finds Schtitt asleep upright in a cane chair in his soundproofed Room 106 — "a big empty room, built for its stereo," hardwood floor, an army cot, no pillow, a pipe rack, "nothing soft to absorb or deflect the sound," acoustic tile on every wall and the ceiling. The window trembles "with Wagnerian bass"; a German soprano hangs on a high D "either shattered or ecstatic." Schtitt "sleeps only amid excruciatingly loud European opera," a habit he traces to the BMW-sponsored Austrian Akademie (event 2). He looks "very old and white and frail, yet also obscenely fit," knees spread wide "on account of his varicoceles," dead pipe hanging from his mouth. (His plainer room off the Comm.-Ad. lobby, scene 132, is similarly "overlit and there's no dust anywhere, not even in the very corners.")