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communing w/ victor navaski


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Recorded at the Ponderosa Stomp at Damrosch Park in Lincoln Center, a rockabilly show like no other! New Orleans wild man Joe Clay, Sun Records legend Carl Mann and the out-of-this-world Collins Kids backed by Deke Dickerson and the Eccofonics. File under: In-freaking-credible!

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Julius Shulman, the legendary photographer who helped make California Modernist architecture famous around the world, died on July 15 at the age of 98. Shulman produced images of buildings — by pioneering architects like Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Pierre Koenig — that defined the postwar architecture of Southern California, among other places. The gregarious and seemingly tireless photographer continued to work until shortly before his death; in a 2007 interview in T Design, Shulman sang the praises of Arne Jacobsen’s classic Egg chair; the renowned architect sent him two as a thank-you gift after a photo shoot in the 1950s.

- the nyt



His career dovetailed neatly with the rise of residential modern architecture as a consumable art form -- a product to be ogled, and dreamed about, as surely as any model in the pages of a fashion magazine. He ought to be recognized as the man who made Dwell magazine and Design Within Reach possible. And maybe even the world-famous, globe-trotting class of designers known as starchitects.

Shulman's vision of modern, stylish domesticity was in many respects an airbrushed one. It's hard to believe anybody actually ever lived the way the carefully posed models in his photographs seemed to, carrying a tray out onto a poolside terrace, or sitting in perfectly pressed suits and dresses on the edge of a Mies van der Rohe chaise longue, city lights twinkling in the distance.

But his images were impossible to resist as a kind of mythmaking, even for the most tough-minded observers of life in Los Angeles. To look for any length of time at a Shulman picture of a great modern L.A. house is to get a little drunk on the idea of paradise as an Edenic combination of spare architecture and lush landscape.

- the la times

Schulman, born in Brooklyn on October 10, 1910, died just two months shy of his 99th birthday, and—with the exception of a short-lived retirement during the rise of Postmodernism (which he detested)—had been continuously working around the world until the beginning of this year, when his health had begun to decline. In his later years he collaborated with German photographer Juergen Nogai.

- the architects newspaper

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Of all English institutions, the one to count on would surely be the pub. Shelter to Chaucer’s pilgrims, home to Falstaff and Hal, throne of felicity to Dr. Johnson, the pub — that smoky, yeasty den of jollity — is the womb of Englishness, if anywhere is. Yet in the midst of this national identity crisis, the pub, the mainstay of English life, a staff driven down into the sump of history, old as the Saxons, is suddenly dying and evolving at equal rates. Closing at something like a rate of more than three a day, pubs have become scarce enough that for the first time since the Domesday Book, more than half the villages in England no longer have one. It’s a rare pub that still thrives, or even limps on, by being what it was meant to be: a drinking establishment. The old idea of a pub as a place for a “session,” a lengthy, restful, increasingly tipsy evening of swigging, is all but defunct.

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diddo wetsuits

thx robin
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perma pave (filtering pavers)
geo hay

thx vz
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A fan of Mel Brooks and Martin Short, [Dan] Graham is a devotee of punk rock (he played a key role in the formation of the band Sonic Youth) and country music, and an avid follower of pop culture and sports (he’s a Mets fan). With the possible exception of his pavilions, however, Graham’s art production has pretty much eluded the commodity-friendly consistency that is so often summoned to develop an artist brand.

Referring to his tendency to combine his diverse interests to arrive at something new, he claimed, "Everything I do is a hybrid. . . . Basically I get bored with what I’m doing and also I don’t want to do trademark work."

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small faces


the hound
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rip dash snow [link] [add a comment]

Despite having failed to learn the piano as a child, Zaha Hadid explains why she and her firm couldn't resist the idea of creating the perfect 'liquid space' to listen to JS Bach


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Last month the foundation that owns Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Ennis House in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood announced that it was putting it on the market for $15 million, potentially taking it out of the public realm. According to the Ennis House Foundation, a study it commissioned evaluating potential preservation approaches showed it didn’t have the resources to maintain the house on its own.

According to the foundation, the study confirmed that it “would need to generate significant philanthropy to operate at a sustainable level for future years, given the house’s ongoing repair and restoration needs,” with the foundation concluding that, “despite many conversations with potential funders, we haven’t found the resources required.”

Since the announcement the preservation community has struggled over the strategy, and some have even speculated that the significant work that went into saving it (The Ennis House Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the LA Conservancy helped fund a $6.5 million restoration of the house beginning in 2005 after it had suffered earthquake and water damage) would go to waste.

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The Times Agrees to Sell WQXR Radio


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paolo soleri wind chimes and bells via reference library


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corten bbq

justin found this one
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Donald V "Duck" Dunn (born November 24, 1941) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn is notable for the "feel" and groove of his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in Blues and Gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Wilson Pickett, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, & Roy Buchanan and many, many, many more.
michael shellly at wfmu devoted a whole show to the music of and interview w/ DD. archived here. next saturday he will interview howard kaylan of the turtles (and flo and eddie).


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barns foundation mystery plans for new home


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i was wondering if there had been any comparison of philip johnsons glass house to snow whites glass coffin. there were none that i could find, but that led me to a miesian reference from an exchange of letters between hugo harring and heinrich lauterbach discussing the farnsworth house.


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cold war modern designer dieter rams


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ferris bueller house


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fresh air - Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, talks about his new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson theorizes that businesses can profit by giving it all away on the internet.

nyt book review
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So Honda attacked with niceness. Honda’s larger Dream and Benly bikes couldn’t compete against the British alternatives, but the Super Cub (called the Honda 50 in America in deference to Piper Aircraft’s trademarks), faced little competition.

With its step-through design and molded plastic body panels, the Honda 50 looked too toylike to attract the socially maladjusted. Its quiet 49 cc (that’s three cubic inches) four-stroke engine claimed a modest output of 4.5-horsepower.

It was a product for which Honda could recruit dealers; by 1961 there were 500 across the country selling the $249 bike. And Honda backed them with a clever ad campaign built around the slogan “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.” Suddenly motorcycling was a hip and happy thing to do instead of a menacing ride along society’s margins.

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iwakeupsampling



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JB Lenoir (the JB doesn't stand for anything, the last name pronounced len-Or), was born in Monticello, Mississippi, March 5, 1929.


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last night on the waterfront was on tcm (again). it reminded me of this brilliant village voice report from 2006 which included the true story of tommy hanley.

"That's how it always was," said Tommy Hanley, 66, who started working on the docks when he was 17, three years after he portrayed Marlon Brando's young pal in the memorable rooftop pigeon-coop scenes of On the Waterfront.

"You say something," said Hanley, "and someone in the back of the room says, 'Sit down. You're doing all right. You're working, ain'tcha?' "

Last spring, Hanley, who for years lost out on hours and promotions because he refused to pay off the mob's henchmen, was elected a shop steward at Global Terminal, the local's largest employer, replacing a long line of mob-selected enforcers.

"It was the first legit elections I seen in my 49 years on the piers," said Hanley.

The unlikely revolution at Local 1588 began three years ago when U.S. District Court Judge John Martin was presented with evidence of massive corruption at the union and agreed to appoint a federal administrator to run the 450-member local's affairs. The judge's orders were to do whatever was necessary to rid the local of mob influence and set it on a path to self-rule.

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