googie

This morning I noticed in the L.A. Times an obit for an architect named Eldon Davis. I'd never heard of him. He designed in the style of Googie. I'd never heard of that either. Turns out Googie is one of my favorite architectural styles and the main reason why I consider L.A. the architectural capital of the U.S.

What is it?

Googie style was named after the Googie coffee shop in L.A. designed by architect John Lautner. It doesn't exist any more; razed in 1989. I couldn't find a picture of it. The style is characterized by a sort of 50s/60s view of a futuristic sci-fi style. A Space Age bachelor pad style if you will. Unusual angles, roofs which angle up, curvy boomerang shapes and so forth.

It was born to some extent out of the car culture in California and was a natural progression from the late Art Deco style, Streamline Moderne. It's relation to car culture is interesting. Because businesses were starting to be built in the suburbs rather than on a central Main Street, business owners needed to find a way to attract potential customers' eyes. "Hey there's a store right here." Googie built on Streamline Moderne by incorporating two themes that were fascinations of the public at that time; nuclear energy and space travel. Most Googie architecture was done for drive-ins, movie theaters, coffee shops, and gas stations. Just driving around L.A. you'll see lots of them.

One of the first examples of Googie was McAllister's Bob's Big Boy in Burbank.

But the most iconic examples you will know are the Seattle Space Needle, the Theme Building at LAX, the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, and the Green Holiday Inn sign in front of the hotels.

L.A. Times Obit Eldon Davis
Googie Flickr Group
LA Googie Flickr Search

mark ryden

Of interest to some. A time lapse of one of my favorite painters, Mark Ryden, painting Pink Lincoln. It annoyingly doesn't quite show him doing the final details which would have been the most interesting part. If he's exhibiting in your town it's a don't miss show.

strongstuff

Some stunning design work over at strongstuff (warning it is hosted by tumblr which apparently is getting ddos by 4chan right now). Unfortunately tumblr generally doesn't have profile pages some I'm not sure what this guy's story is.

keo

Cool backyard mural by Keo at a birthday party my daughter went to. He's the younger brother of Jonathan Lethem. Crazy.

"and noodles..."

Syd Mead has designed a restaurant in New York - Bar Basque. Yes that Syd Mead. The one who did Bladerunner's set design. This place will be inundated with photographers for the next few months.

obiwankanobi

I thought this was going to be the big blogging news item yesterday but I didn't see it mentioned by any or the more prolific regurgitive bloggers out there.  Clever Japanese-style prints with Star Wars subjects.

Ninja Star Wars

morning art

Taken by bekka p.

ny photo sets by decade

Bookmarking some nice Flickr sets of NY organized by the decade they were shot.

New York 1900s
New York 1910s
New York 1920s
New York 1930s
New York 1940s
New York 1950s
New York 1960s

high line

For Father's Day we took a stroll on the High Line. The High Line is an old elevated railway that was used to transport cattle into the Meatpacking District which just north of the West Village. Very little meat processing is done there now. It's a gentrified into a trendy restaurant, market, and nightlife locale.

For years it's been a decaying edifice in the area. But starting back in 1999 plans were set it motion to renovate it into an elevated parkway. The southernmost third of the railway, starting at Gansevoort Street, just opened. Although New York has a lot of fabulous architecture, I'm always a little disappointed that a city so large has so few examples of really aspirational architecture. The High Line fits this bill nicely and I hope the city learns something from it.

New York Times article
Wikipedia Entry
Official Website
High Line Blog
Flickr Pool

architecture legos

OMG. I kind of smitten with this. Lego to introduce an architecture series of lego kits. Starting off with Frank Lloyd Wright (Guggenheim, Fallingwater, etc.). Not much more here.

we can help with your nemesis problem

If there is a cooler thing than Brooklyn Superhero Supply in the world it could only be bacon.  We grabbed brunch today in Park Slope and popped by this surreal store on the way back home.

The store in reality is a front for 826NYC, the NY branch of the nonprofit organization, 826 National, that fosters writing and creative skills in young kids.  In that sense the name of the store is a sly allusion to the real superheros who volunteer their time to that organization.  They have other store fronts like the Pirate store in San Francisco.  826 was founded by Dave Eggers; the same person who started McSweeney’s publishing and has written a few well received books such as A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.  I’m always fascinated by people who can be successful at starting a variety of enterprises.
There’s obviously no way the store can quite live up to the hype that your inner child creates when you see a store like this, but they have put enough effort into it that you are pleasantly surprised.
Much of that effort is in the design of the store and the products inside. There is a tremendous amount of attention to detail.  Instead of generic cans of antimatter or antigravity paste, the cans have been designed to the point that if the stuff really existed you could use these cans.  The backs have detail about the product and where it is made.  The store is heavy on humor to like the “Cocky Fighter Pilot” suit you can buy. It’s all quite cleverly done.

There are real things for sale here too like suction cups for climbing walls and see-in-the-dark glasses. Lots of capes and headwear. There are also a few ‘exhibits’; the devillainizer and a skeleton displaying cyborg enhancements that you can order.

My two kids were a little too young to fully appreciate the spectacle. I’m guessing that a 7 year old boy is going to go nuts in a place like this.  I suspect I will take them back again in the future.

strange fruit

Our local community does a good job of putting on interesting activities during the week in the common areas. Things like concerts and movies. This week we caught Strange Fruit perform. They are a cross between a circus act, a mime group, and a dance group. They perform on 20-30 foot poles and act out mini skits/dances to music. It's hard to describe adequately but I went to two consecutive shows they were so interesting. Unfortunately the bright clothing and the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge backdrop made the obnoxious photographers (myself included) come out in force.

light graffiti

More here.

banksy

Bookmarking a nice article on Banksy.

space invaders

Space Invader. Not the video game from the 80s but rather the graffiti artist, Space Invaders, from Paris. He recently tagged New York.

I love subversive artists like this. He reminds me of Banksy a little. Apparently there are two installations near where I live that I'm going to try and spot. Rather than make some garish paint spray graffiti he deploys small pixelated graphics of video game icons (typically from Space Invaders) in places that aren't easily spotted. The deployments are well documented and he creates maps on where to find them.

Here's one near me:



There's a short article here about him when he visited LA.

This guy does mosaics — really beautiful, intricate tiles of video game icons (Toshiro Nishikado’s Space Invader, 1978) — and they’re hidden all over the world. In fact, 106 of them are right here in L.A.: Nine of them live on the letters of the Hollywood sign and 15 more are planned around town before he concludes his visit.

the vertical hour

I love going to plays. It's one of my favorite things to do. And to be honest I haven't taken advantage of the great selection of plays put on in New York. I've only been to one as of a few nights ago (The Odd Couple). But my wife picked up tickets to The Vertical Hour yesterday. I really like plays because the performances can really affect you. Likewise some performances can really let you down. It's amazing to see which actors work well on stage.

The play was presented in the Music Box built by Irving Berlin. The play was directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame and starred Julianne Moore, Bill Nighy, and Andrew Scott. It was a play about the cultural divide between England and America, told using Iraq & politics as the vehicle. The writing was excellent. As an aside the theatre seats in New York are clearly built for the largely thin population here. I don't know how the average American from out of town could squeeze into those narrow seats.

Back to the performances - they were a mile apart. While Julianne Moore has had 4 Oscar nominations it is clear she has a very narrow range. She seemed like everyone else she's ever played. Which was appropriate in one sense as she played the stereotypical American. Slightly boring, monotone, and overly serious. Andrew Scott and to a much greater extent Bill Nighy simply blew her out of the water though. Bill Nighy has to be one of the best actors I've ever seen on stage. He was mindblowingly good. The NY Times agrees completely. It's amazing he's not used for more dramatic things - Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually being his big movies.

The play had lots of comedy inherent in the dialogue but it was subtle and required an actor with a comedic physicality to pull it off. This is why Ms. Moore falls flat. She has no body language. Mr. Nighy on the other hand could pull roaring laughter out of simple phrases like, "five [A.M.] is a good time for chardonnay" which aren't inherently that funny. But his little gestures and strange mannerisms and tics just fit the dialogue and his part so well. I really was almost more focused on his performance than the actual play.

Next month is a play with Kevin Spacey. I'm curious to see how he 'plays out' on stage.

ron mueck

I took the family to the Brooklyn Museum today to catch the Ron Mueck exhibit. I have to say it was one of the most impressive art shows I've ever seen. Ron Mueck uses either silicone or fiberglass to create ultra realistic sculptures. When I use the word ultra I really do mean ultra. The level of craftsmanship is almost impossible to believe.

He employs dyes on a multiple sheets of plastic to imbue the skin with a depth you don't normally see on anything trying to imitate skin. Individual body hairs cover the entire body and deep blue and red veins run under the skin making it hard to tell you are not looking at a real person. Take a look at the man below. That five-o'clock shadow is made up of individual hairs. Crazy. In fact when staring at the main piece, Wild Man, you find yourself wondering if he's going to twitch or blink. It really is that realistic.

The only giveaway that they aren't real is that he changes the scales of his subjects. The newly born baby on the first floor of the exhibit is about 20 feet long. Swollen, covered in blood and other residue, the baby serves as birth control for those who have never had kids. It's a frightening piece. Others are much smaller. In fact all his pieces are disturbing on some level. Whether it's a disembodied head or a replica of his dead dad or an extremely anemic looking lady lying in bed, his work is more than just a realistic sculpting of the human body. Worth a look if it rolls into your town.

phone sheep

No this is not a post about people addicted to cell phones. I just find these pictures very freaky.


More here.

battle of the bands

Very clever.

the new guthrie theatre

During a recent visit back to Minneapolis to see the family I discovered that the major theatre in the city had relocated. I'm not sure how I missed this piece of news. I must admit I was a little saddened by the news. The old Guthrie, even though I live in New York, is still the best theater I've visited. Seeing a play there was a deeply intimate affair.

What I didn't expect was that the new Guthrie Theatre, relocated from next to the Walker Art Center in the south-eastern part of the city to the north near the Mississippi, is stunning. I would even make the claim that the Guthrie and the new Seattle Library are probably two of my favorite buildings of all time right now (vying closely with the Bradbury Building in L.A.). Most impressive is the insane phallic cantilever coming out the back. It is simply awesome. I'll admit the blue color gives it an Ikea look (there are even a few spoof photos out there), but it's a bold color and it really works with the building. How did this news escape my attention? The architect is Jean Nouvel who I had never heard of. I've since done some reading and seeing. Very interesting work. Worth a look.

The most disappointing part of my visit to the theatre though is I stumbled on it while making a visit to the Mill City Museum (highly recommended) and didn't have my camera. Arghhh! This building is a photographer's wet dream as you can tell from the shots I stole from Flickr below. Note to self - must visit parents again soon.