Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 7, 2019 8:07:02 GMT -8
This may be a funny way to start this thread, but I figured I ought to start with a general topic and then post from there. I found this to be a fascinating read: The Tragic Story of Guggenheim. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Secret Love Next. First off, kudos to the press-of-old for shaming an adulterer. We need more of that. If the idiotic “#metoo” movement could do something useful, it would switch from criminalizing women’s subjectivity ( “He touched me inappropriately.” “Well, ma’am, he was your message therapist.”) to the practical shaming of sexual libertines who know of no force over and above their appetites. It makes me think that the real problem with adultery isn’t the harm it does to children. It’s that it sets a person off on a deceitful and degrading path. Everything becomes a lie. I don’t believe Frank Lloyd Wright got some king of Cosmic Karma payback, but some do. But — geez — you’re out having breakfast on your patio and the cook then proceeds to hack everyone to death with an axe. You have to wonder what set that off. |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 7, 2019 8:43:58 GMT -8
In the revenge thriller/horror movie Theater of Blood, with Vincent Price as a Shakespearean actor avenging himself on his critics (I understand everyone wanted to play that role) and Diana Rigg as his daughter and accomplice, there is a scene in which Edward Lionheart (Price) is massaging a jealous critic's wife -- which the critic, when he sees it, interprets rather incorrectly -- and murders his wife as a result. (The scene is based on Othello, of course. Lionheart was killing the critics using the plays he performed as a template.)
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 7, 2019 9:49:31 GMT -8
Maybe it was just black rage a White Privilege. An early example. I don't have a Frank Lloyd Wright favorite. And I certainly don't worship the Temple of Wright. He certainly played with the form of the house. But many of his designs aren't very homey. I think they're meant to be museum pieces that get lived in. What Frank Lloyd Wright Got Wrong About Design |
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 7, 2019 10:09:48 GMT -8
I think they are a means of self-worship. Wright is an early example of that odd type, the architect as "great" artist. Too often, these types design more for the attention/renown it brings them than for the usefulness of their buildings. They are all about "form over function."
Of course, one can go to the other extreme and arrive at the Bauhaus philosophy where function is everything and as a result some very ugly buildings are thrown up. I like finding the golden mean.
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Post by timothylane on Oct 7, 2019 10:29:46 GMT -8
Howard Roark in The Fountainhead was based on Frank Lloyd Wright, whose work Rand admired. (She presumably didn't like his socialist sympathies.) The designs in the movies seemed nice enough, but I have no idea if they actually resembled anything Wright did.
Incidentally, another interesting book dealing with architecture is The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons, about a beautifully designed house carefully fit into the terrain -- but which destroys people who live there (or even visit). The viewpoint characters are a neighboring couple who eventually decide it must be destroyed, and set out to do so knowing that something will happen to them when they do so.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 7, 2019 13:42:01 GMT -8
One of the things it is written that we shalt not do is criticize the great dead artist. You gotta give the guy credit for some originality. And yet he does seem a bit tainted with sort of an Andy Warhol over-rating. 20 Most Beautiful FLW HousesHis stuff is too blocky for my test although he did construct quite a range of styles. I have to admit, I love the Sinatra house in Palm Springs designed by E. Stewart Williams in 1947. He built that when he was flush with money. I think he outgrew it rather quickly. It’s got style to it and yet it is not an antiseptic style.  Of course, it was made to Sinatra’s taste including a very modern (for the day) entertainment system.  [ Enlarged view....look at the cool hi-fi...probably some vacuum tubes, for sure.] [ Another view] Wonder if Ava acquired any rug burns there. |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 7, 2019 13:56:21 GMT -8
Following links I ran into info on the Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills. I think that’s that house where Bambi and Thumper roughed up Sean Connery pretty good.  [ Original] Julius Shulman is famous for publishing some outstanding books on architecture such as Julius Shulman: Palm Springs |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 7, 2019 13:57:23 GMT -8
One thing I noticed is that Wright was really big on overhangs. No doubt many served some purpose, such as a carport or providing a shaded patio or something. But there seem to be a lot of them, and some of them rather large.
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kungfuzu
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 7, 2019 15:58:12 GMT -8
The two Koening houses I looked at are structures reduced to the bare minimum required for habitation. The Stahl House is basically a view. It is otherwise not remarkable. But simplicity is sometimes (often) a great thing.
I wonder how much of Koenig's motivation had to do with experimenting with new building techniques, as the Wiki article said Koenig was someone who built homes on sites which were previously considered unsuitable for buildings.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 7, 2019 16:01:48 GMT -8
I like that system. Notice the speakers are about a foot off the floor. This shows the guy who designed the system understood something about sound. But given this was for Sinatra, you can bet whoever made the thing was a real expert.
Sinatra, or more likely his interior designer, certainly liked Buddhist statuary.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 8, 2019 8:35:44 GMT -8
Yes. Certainly that system had to be the best money could buy. In another part of the place there still exists his original recording system. You can see a walk-through of the house here: Peek Inside Frank Sinatra’s Home Recording StudioThat other system had the ability to record directly to vinyl. The records were good for only a few plays before degrading. But that was state-of-the-art technology. The guy who built it, Arthur Davis, went on to work at Altec Lansing. I don’t know which Rek-O-Kut model was built into that console. But look at this beauty:  [ Enlarged] This was back when machines were often works of art as well. There is much to commend the vacuum-tube era. |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 8, 2019 8:51:51 GMT -8
Well said, Mr. Kung. Indeed it is. And how interesting how so many of the minimalist modern artists had quite heavy and elaborate “baroque” politics of a big state. You’d think they’d be for a less-is-more very tidy and restrained Federal government. Bosch’s place in his novels overlooks the valley in Los Angeles. It’s based on a real (and quite small) place that we had discussed before. It’s all glass on the side facing the valley. But, I guess, because those houses are relatively remote, it’s a good thing to have as much of that glorious view as possible. Apparently none of them ever had to worry about a Gladys Kravitz neighbor. But perhaps they had blinds they could pull if they wanted to. I just don’t see hide nor hair of them in the Stahl House. Here’s that scene with Bambi and Thumper that I think (at least the exterior shots) were filmed at the Stahl House. If not, it’s certainly one based on the same design influence. Information at IMDB says that those scenes with Bambi and Thumper were the Elrod House: 2175 Southridge Drive, Palm Springs, CA. From that Google Map image, you can see the roundness of the place which seems to match what we see in that clip. But it looks like the swimming pool is either covered or has been drained. What do you think? |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 8, 2019 8:56:10 GMT -8
If that's Sinatra's Palm Springs home, then it's probably the one he fixed up to be a suitable place to put up the President. When JFK decided not to go there, it really angered Sinatra and he turned against JFK (for whom he had done a campaign song based on "High Hopes" in 1960). Culturally, this put Peter Lawford out of the Rat Pack, since he was allowed in mainly on the Kennedy connection. The political effect is less certain, though he supported Reagan in the 1980s. O'Reilly discussed the changes in Killing Kennedy, but I don't recall the details now.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 8, 2019 9:02:09 GMT -8
Call me an old sentimentalist (but don’t call me late for supper), but these old turntable designs from an age gone by are outstanding. This one is a Thorens TD 124 mkII with Rek-O-Kut tonearm.  What remarkable people indeed who take the time and have the skill to restore these items to museum-quality. |
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 8, 2019 9:09:45 GMT -8
Yes, that Palm Springs house was likely the one remodeled for a JFK visit. It makes for an ugly story. However, Judith Campbell Exner was quite the looker.  [ Original] Is that Liberace with her? |
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Post by timothylane on Oct 8, 2019 9:28:06 GMT -8
That might be Liberace, though as a homosexual his interest in her would be limited.
Someone once had the idea of Liberace on The Wild Wild West, probably as a guest villain. They were planning a scene in which he starts handling a player piano with a kerosene lamp on it. But because Bruce Lansbury was homosexual, CBS didn't want anything that might bring that up.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 8, 2019 10:25:33 GMT -8
If the swimming pool is at the same house, it is certainly covered up or filled in. Who knows, it may have been another swimming pool at another house which looked similar. They can do a lot of magic with film.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 8, 2019 10:29:38 GMT -8
Beautiful turntable. Notice how this one and the others were very solid. The truly good turntables were generally rather heavy to keep vibration at a minimum.
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Post by kungfuzu on Oct 8, 2019 10:35:09 GMT -8
That is a B-grade actor who was reasonably well known in the 1950s and early 1960s. As I recalled he generally played wise-asses of one sort or the other. I know he was in some Westerns, but I don't remember his name.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 9, 2019 7:40:04 GMT -8
Indeed. Given this physical process of a diamond needle vibrating to the grooves of the record, and the various torsional effects that were moderated by s-shaped tonearms and such, a turntable could be a very sophisticated piece of technology.
You were telling me (or someone was telling me, or perhaps I read it) that vinyl was making a comeback. And I understand you can still buy multi-thousand-dollar vacuum tube amplifiers. It is said by some purists that vacuum tubes produce a better sound. I’ve always put that down to a sort of prejudice against the digital. But then, maybe some ears are so refined, they really can tell a difference and it isn’t a psychological one.
What seems fair enough to say is that the “music experience” via a gorgeous turntable such as this, including the tactile experience of the vinyl record in a large picture sleeve, has it in spades over the clunky little cheap plastic CD players.
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