VERMEER

 

VIDEO ALERT

Artists! “The jig is up”.  I know how you did it! I just saw Teller’s (Penn & Teller) documentary of the expose of the method of Johannes Vermeer, the Dutch painter of 1632 (Remember the Girl with the Pearl Earring?).  Tim Jenison,  who made zillions designing computer games (I think) was inspired by David Hockney’s book that Vermeer had some technological method of painting.  He noticed that all of his paintings were about the same small size.  Tim built a Camera Obscura, refined it and showed how Johannes could copy exactly what the ‘Camera’ showed. Tim had never done a painting before (I think he painted his house once) but proceeded to build a replica of Vermeers room, then projected the image onto a small board. This guy was motivated! He spent about five years, about 180 days, painting his picture. He even had to see it in person in the4 Queen’s palace in

England. You’ll be amazed at his painting. I couldn’t have done better myself.   

 

 

 

THE CHAIR

Every real Designer has to test his mettle by designing and building a chair. I had the opportunity during the mid-‘60s’ and the current owner of the house it was designed for had a German Craftsman, Kirsten Keifer build a couple of replicas as I still had the drawings. (at $2000 each). These were featured in a show I had at the Laguna Beach Art Museum a few years ago.  The real challenge was the chair was adjustable from Lounge to Dining by a very simple wing-nut turn on the base. Recently, Kirsten (from his shop in Germany)  made another but upgraded the materials from mahogany & fabric to Rosewood and Italian leather, plus his excellent craftsmanship.  The photos here are of his latest version but also show my table, with extendable top (+ five feet). $3000. 

 

THIRSTY?

How bad does our ‘Drought’ have to get until we realize we are not utilizing a massive source of potable water in our back yard? Our Santa Rosa Waste Water processing facility alone purifies about  20 million gallons of water a day, but we can’t use this except to water farm land. Water that comes out of the plant is clear, drinkable H2O!. If you put that water into reservoirs used for drinking water, you would have to reprocess it to be clean enough to be drinkable again as reservoirs contain too many contaminents due to birds, run-off, etc.. We have to alter our attitudes regarding the use of this water. The astronauts drink water that is distilled from their sweat (water vapor) and urine as well as the urine from their lab animals (Like rats). Let’s get real and begin utilizing the tertiary treated water from our Sewer Treatment Plants.

 

MOVIE HYSTERIA

When last in Italy, I sent friends on a day trip to Rome . I gave them an itenerary of the usual Tourist Traps ( Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, etc) but all had to see the Treve Fountain. Now, the fount in itself is pretty amazing, as it kind of morphs out a the large adjacent building with the pool in a small kind of ampitheatre. BUT. The tourist crowds there are some of the worst in Rome, and only due to a movie of 1954 “Three coins in the Fountain” an “undeniably Sweet “ movie. It’s a fairly small area but with the throngs of Americans, Brits & Germans it is a madhouse. So everyone has to toss a penny in the water as good luck or whatever they remember from the movie, but the Romans have to clean it up every night as it is full of coins. Maybe they should fund a re-make of it using dollar coins (or dollar Euros, a coin) in order to boost up the rent.

Mob at Fountain

 

 

 

 

April 21, '15

April 21, ‘15

BEYOND GAY

  like myself, most of you have read about people changing their sex. I've always been a little confused about what that really meant. I remember the first one, Christine Joergenson, who changed from a guy to a woman in some scandinavian country.  I always wondered exactly what did He?she do ?  Recently, it has come up due to Snowden or some whistleblower and someone associated with someone famous. So you can imagine my excitement when I was reading "Bangkok 8" ( by John Burdett) and it was a principle part of the plot,  This may not be true but you might as well take my word for it as it sounds realistic. There is a the Charmabutra Hospital, twenty stories high, in Bankok that specializes in this procedure. 

   The author claims Bangkok is the capitol of penis transplants due to the many jilted wives in Thailand who feel that cutting off the wayward dick will solve that problem (Looks like it would to me!).  Anyway, the bottom line is that it's easier to change a penis into a vagina than the other way around as the reconstruction of that Vorpel sword is still in it's infancy. He claims that they do 1000 changes to every one hundred in the West. (And I thought only a few did this over the year). South Africa does a lot of dick reconstruction due to a plethora of botched circumcisions.

  So vaginoplasty  begins by cutting off the penis & balls, turning the correct skin into a hole so that it might function like a normal vagina. He claims all men have the space for it.  I find this hard to believe!   Anyway, that' s not all of it.

They have to be treated with drugs, psychiatry, hormone injections, et all to get the full effect. A women's voice has to be higher, therefor the Adam's apple is shaved a bit to tighten it up. Don't forget to slip in a couple of perfect saline inserts for your perfect breasts, (No silicone, please). Learn how to sashay around a bit and you're good to go. I think you can get this done for about $6,000 in Thailand,

MR NATURAL

  Let's talk about Natural drugs. From my early days of experimentation with Halucigenics,  I came to the conclusion that if you kept to “Natural” drugs, e.i. Peyote and  Mushroom , you would be better off in the long run. My theory is this; With natural drugs, you pay (read ‘ hours of major nausea’) before you get high or an  altered consciousnous, but with chemical doses (LSD, etc) you bypass the sickness part, but wait!  You make up for it afterwards, but unknown to you, it affects your poor brain in ways you don’t notice. The AmerIndians didn’t seem to have many mental problems after using Peyote for hundreds of years, but how many nut cases have I seen due to a long usage of LSD? (You can  check my first wife, for one).  Some people are going to have a bad trip, but at least they are working it out at the source, and not later on, unbeknown to them, as they don’t relate their problems to earlier doses of a chemical.

 

THE BEAUTIFUL KRONER

  Designed by the Norwegian Architect, Snohetta, One side consists of brilliant colors in a  wonderful abstract form, while the other side contains photos of various activities that are extant in the country.

VIDEO ALERT

  Being an old Beatnik/ Hippie/ my Jazz roots go way back and I certainly remember Clark Terry, an outstanding trumpeter, among other talents. As he grew old he began teaching other young Jazz men, such as Quincy Jones, and was certainly influential to Jazzmen like Miles, etc.

This documentary revolves around a young blind piano player who became tight with Terrry as he was dying of old age. Justin Kauflin  was a contender in a Theolonious Monk contest in New York  but but failed to win. However, there is enough piano by Justin to satisfy us all as he is phenomenal. Terry died in 2014 at the age of 93, but before that happens, you'll experience the great love between the two musicians, and maybe, even a tear or two may escape from your hardened heart.   

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THE

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APRIL 9

MR NATURAL

One of my role models has been Crumb's 'Mr Natural'. You younger folks probably don't know of him. Early in my professional career I became enamored with him and consequently have acted on some of his principles. The first inkling my friends had that I had come out of the Unnatural Closet was I wanted to grow my beard and forever (it turned out) never to feel the razors edge on my facade. Now that every guy model in Vogue and on the courts and diamonds of major sports has a Micky Mouse rendition of facial air, it may not sound so radical, but in 1960 I outraged the Laguna Beach social circles by such out behavior.Come to think of it, my morals were pretty close to Mr. Naturals also, Zero!

THE GREAT POSTAL SERVICE

The USPS is currently getting bids from major auto manufacturers to design & build a upgraded version of their current vehicle. It seems it is too small, doesn't have air bags, etc. (How many air bags do you need for a rear-ender?) . They have set aside $6,000,000,000 ((That's BILLION) for a fleet of 180,000 mini trucks with big clutch and right hand drive. I hope they do better with the design than Grumman did with the current one. If anyone asks me, I would contract out to a Italian Industrial Designer for a design first, then put it out to bid. Electric drive would be a no brainer here. Maybe they could also just stop printing new styles of stamps every week, forget about the serrated edges (these are not tear off anymore.

GREEN REVOLUTION

Recently we had a new hospital (Sutter) built here in Santa Rosa and they are spouting their new 'Prestigious energy and environmental' rating from the U. S. Green Council. As you must know by now, I am a rabid opponent of these wonderful awards. but wait, lets take a closer look at this one.

First of all, you have to hire a 'Green LEED Consultant’ to the tune of several thousand dollars , mostly to fill out a bunch of bull-shit forms required by the government. And maybe you don't have to do anything special (Other than hire this guy) so let's take a look at the details.

1. They had to upgrade all the plumbing fixtures to low-flow units. Well, the Building Code requires this so what's the big deal?
2. 2. They got some credits because there was a water well on the site.
3. They did use some kind of Fuel cell technology, (I have to look that up).
4. Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by stopping all vehicles that were idling more than 10 min. How much did they pay someone to monitor all that?
5. They used some recycled content in flooring as it reduces impact on landfills. All that takes is use a more expensive floor.
6. They controlled rain run-off into Swales (Landscaped) before dumping into the storm drain. WOW!
7. This probably took about a thousand pages of documentation to accomplish all this, that by the way, was mostly required by the current codes.

SPORTS

The comedians Key & Peele - Broadcasting a Sports program. (Football, baseball, basketball, hockey)

“ Welcome back to another few hours spent watching adult men play a simple child's game, all the while being paid more than the President”

MARCH SA

CLEANING CATHEDRAL

DAYTRIP TO REIMS         

JOY and  I always take time to do a day trip to a nearby town  when we are in Paris. The Champagne area & Rouen are only about an hour  by train, so we have done that a few times. The first time, we nearly missed our stop as the conductor was hollering "Rhon'" until we realized what he was saying, On latter travels, we huddled with a friend in Graton who is fluent and reviewed all the names of towns we were to stay. It's no problem in Italy as pronunciation there is what it really looks like, but France? There id no correlation between spelling and pronouncing,

HOLIDAYS

This is one of the problem with holidays in the Us. Here we are again, it's Lincoln's birthday.  But today is Thursday and all County offices are closed, but everyone else will be closed Monday to celebrate 'Presidents Day' .  Next thing you know, we will be celebrating 'Al black folks who got themselves assassinated.(King)  And is there really a holiday for Cesar Chavez? Who's in charge of all this bull-shit? What did Chavez do? Just got a bunch of poor farmworkers organized into a Union to get some relief from hard working conditions?  I guess we had to give Lincoln a day since he got shot. Well, we shot a lot of our Prezes, but only Lincoln got a day  almost in perpetuity).

 HISTORY

I started this blog about 6 ears ago. It was really a vehicle for me to be able to rant about all the stuff that bothers me but doesn't seem to affect most other folks. I've been labeled a "Curmudgeon", which means I complain a lot, but actually present solutions to these problems, occasionally. It isn't like I do this to gain support or a following (Nobody in their right mind would want to agree with me). My miserable voice is heard regularly all over the US as well as a couple of European countries. Since I only notify you intellectuals when I have a new blog up, (all 45 of you!), I am certainly not looking for a mass market. As a matter of fact, it is the "Unwashed Masses" that I am usually anting about.

 CAPITOL PUNISHMENT

   With all the brau hau about how to kill some of our citizens who have shown deviant behavior, let me add my two pence worth.  Recently, ISIS Inc. have been outraging the Christian world with a few beheadings of their prisoners who may have thought some carnal thoughts of some woman covered head to toe in a 'burkha'. The horror of it all!  It takes me back to the French Revolution and the clever invention of the Guillotine, that lethal, efficient, machine of final retribution. We Americans, in all our benevolence, have been working on the final solution and finally came up with an overdose of Heroin in order to snuff out a life of no good.   Somehow, this is not working out like it was supposed to, I'm not sure why. Is it due to the contented smile on the face of the victim?

   Given these problems, allow me to ask a few questions; What method would you choose to end it all if you had a choice?  There are an infinite number of ways to snuff out life, so lets look at some. Historically, crucifying has always been in favor if you want to extend the suffering for a few days. Putting one in a small iron cage hanging out in the elements for a month or so was very popular with the Catholics priests in Middle ages (and you thought boy abuse was bad?). But burning at the stake was more popular, especially young girls, like Joan de Arc. Then hanging became de riguer in England in the last few hundred years as it provided some real entertainment for the unwashed & un-TV'd masses. But lets not forget drowning by our overly zealous Protestant priests . Currently, ISIS has upped the ante by burning Kurds to death in an iron cage but documented the whole thing with their iPhones so it can go viral on the internet. What have I forgotten? Firing squad? That may be a hit or miss situation (pardon the pun) as the human body sometimes is pretty damn resilient. Electrocution! To keep up with technology, this should be a no brainer, but no. The small gallery didn't like the smoldering head of the convict.  I guess the only thing left is The Greatest show on Earth; Evisceration and dismemberment by four horses, all rolled up into one. 

   So, please pick one of the above  and we'll schedule you in for an interview.

VIDEO CRITIQUE

  The western, 3:10 to Yuma , written by Elmore Leonard, was made into a movie in 1957 and unfortunately re-done recently with Russell Crowe. Not remembering the book, I was rather put off by the stupid ending of the latest movie  version as all the townsmen were turned against the poor  starving cattleman, resulting in a running gun battle to end all gun battles, where Russell and the Good Guy were able to get thru to the train station.  I therefore rented the original 1957 version (Van Heflin & Glenn Ford ) to see what Leonard had actually in mind.  Well, what do you know! The latest was "Loooosley" based on the novel, while the Good Guy got killed in the final shot and the Bad Guy allowed himself to go to the hoosegow as he always escaped from there anyway. But in Elmore's original, the town folk kept out of all the action and Mr. Good Guy  lived to tell about it to his little family back on the ranch.

 CRITIQUE 2

   While were on the subject of messing with 'Based on ' how about the new flick "The American", with Clooney as the Bad Guy Assassin. The title said it was based on the book "A very Private  Gentleman"  by Martin Booth but the word loosely again takes precedence here.   The plot got kind of fuzzy towards the ending and Clooney died, as he should have by American moral standards, just as he was getting the girl. However, curiosity led me to read the book to find out, firstly, he was modifying a Spanish version of the Israeli Utzi for a better weapon for some unknown purpose .  But here in the book,  the Bad guy gets to live happily ever after with the beautiful young college/prostitute.  Although  I did like the idea of the main character getting offed at the end in the US version.

 SAFARI

   My friends, the Dodsons, are going to Africa on Safari to hunt big game but only armed with cameras. I believe they are on a catch & release program of lions and rhinoceros.

BURNING QUESTION OF THE HOUR

  How did the Jews escape from Egypt? How many of them made up 12 tribes? what were they doing in Egypt anyway?  Where did they come from before Egypt?  Who was living on the land they took over in the desert?  Aside from asking my Jewish friend, I'll have to Google it. Just asking.

NASA

   They have decided that there are about 1000 worlds similar to ours in the Universe. Why are they called "Goldilocks Planets"?  Probably because the temperature is Just Right for Life to exist on them.

HOLIDAYS

OUR BARGE ON MIDI CANAL
 

  As each Federal Holiday rolls around, it gives me a chance to rant a bit  as that is the prime purpose of this blog or essay.  We now have one called 'PRESIDENT'S DAY as we just can't  seem to make up our mind of who to favor.  Let me help out. First of all, if you're black, Mexican or been assassinated recently, you qualify for your own daywhere all Federal workers get another day off.  I spent my President's holiday  celebrating Mr. Nixon's scams in office, as well as how the Bush's have got us in a couple of un-winable wars that eat up more than half of our budget as the world's Warlord.  But if it's between Lincoln & Washington, you have to go with Lincoln due to his demise as a assassinate. Jefferson doesn't seem to count with anyone but Señor Chavez has his day, if you can believe that. I mean, he was probably drinking decaf lattes in  Starbucks in Salinas all the time.

 

 

 

January

January

FASHIION POLICE

Whenever I visided Italy and noticed how suave  the Policia looked, I soon discovered their uniforms were designed by Armani.  No wonder they look so cool. Who thought that up?  It brought to mind the concept that someone in San Francisco actually had a designer create a nifty outfit for the Cable Car operators, with their cool berets and all.  With that in mind, let’s consider the plight of the miserable Postal employee.  Unfortunately, someone did give some thought to their outfits as they are the worst uniforms on the planet.  They couldn’t even get the short pants right, as they look really weird. I do have to give a nod to the Pith helmets they sometimes wear, but it is the only item that works. Any chance we could call in Versach or Armani  to dress them up a bit before the entire Post Office goes broke? Better hurry.

THIS OLD EARTH

Each year astronomers find more potential planets that could support life like ours so we could make a really long distance call to discuss the “Meaning of it all”.  But I wonder if they are considering  what stage of life the planet in question is in? Look at our Earth (The planet Dirt); It’s already about 4.5 Billion years old, but life didn’t occur until about 650 Million years ago, and thinking beings,(with free will) only about one million years ago. However, with all our technological know how, we will probably be able to survive the next ice age in 15,000 years. But lets face it, when the earth dies in about another two billion years, we will have to give it up long before that.
   What I’m getting at, is just where in a planets life are these newly discovered ‘Goldilock’ Planets in their life cycle? Just born? Old age? Or just right for humanoids or thinking folks to be shuffling around as we are?  If they are all like Mars, not much chance for a meaningful discussion, is there?   There might be in a couple of billion years, though.
  Speaking of stages of being. If we look at a planet as a living entity,e.i., it is born, matures to foster life forms, then dies of old age , kind of sounds like one of us doesn’t it? Give or take a few billion years. Consider; How does a fly think about the incredible life span of a human/ Also, we can ask; ”What is the purpose of life on other planets?  They could be all Muslims, for all we know.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

We seem to have a real problem ending the life of really de-ranged people  , so when I was re-reading some of my East Indian chronicles I came across a memorable chapter in the British Military in dealing with the Indian mutineers after the” Great Mutiny”around 1850.  They assembled all the soldiers and civilians in a large field, tied several ring-leaders of the mutiny onto the muzzle  end of large cannons, and blasted them into oblivion.  There were no call backs, in fact, there were hardly any bodies left, except for pieces of body parts ending up on some of the civilian crowds. ( But that’s what we would now call ‘collateral damage’).  It’s time to stop coddling our criminals and really get serious about the end game. Let’s be sure to use the old fashioned , muzzle loading cannons so the ‘End of Life’ is fully experienced as the culprit gets to watch as the match is lit to light the fuse.  You won’t need a doctor to see if the fellow is dead, even if you could find a body.  However, you will need a large field as the ball may travel hundreds of yards.

UNCONDITIONAL  LOVE

On a lighter vein, I enjoy the comic cartoon of Bizzaro and when he did a number about a couple looking for all the great reasons for a mate, then happily walked out with a dog and a cat for each of them.  And why do most Americans and all Frenchmen have pets? Unconditional love!   What that means is love is extended from one being to another, but without any reservations.  As you have experienced, love is a great circle with the other side hatred. It can change from one to another in  an instant. “I love you dear, but I just had an affair with this beautiful person” and bang! It’s all over.  Hatred rears it’s ugly head instantly, and is not easy to completely erase the event.  Of course, this is an exaggerated event, but even small things can be a real problem for a while, and eat away at us until we say “I love you more than anything in the world, but we’re getting divorced, you bastard!”  then the two love-birds jockey for position over the dregs of a long and convoluted union, or maybe one of them just shoots the other .
   But….a liitle puppy or kitty will forever love you no matter how you treat them, at least if you feed them on a timely basis.  I’m beginning to understand why our super markets have as much food as for your cats & dogs, You’re just feeding them along so you can kick them around whenever they crap or throw up on your carpets. Why, you will spend a tremendous amount of money to keep the little shits alive, therapy, operations, chirpopractic, you name it, no amount of money is too much to spend keeping them alive, especially when they get older.  I know, I’ve been there.
   My first wife (May she rest in peace with her 11^th husband) had a red tomcat named ‘Red’ . We lived near enough to Highway 1 that Red got run over and we took him to our Vet for a repair job. He had broken both back legs and ended up with a plaster cast on his entire rear end except where hid tail protruded.  It wasn’t long before he could run around walking on his front legs, balancing the rest of his body in the air.  Pretty resourceful little sucker, I’ll admit.  That’s when I should have divorced Joyce, but I had to wait another few months before she ran off and married my best friend.  Best thing that ever happened to me, got rid of the cat , too.

 

 

 

 

 

December

                                                                    

EBOLA SCOURGE

  We've al seen a lot of news about the Ebola plague  in the recent outbreak in West Africa, but have you read about what it actually does to you?  Maybe I can throw some light on this gruesome subject.

It begins with a runny nose, headache, flu symptoms. Then, probably you die. (50 to 90%).

The first outbreak was in Marlburg, Germany in 1967. The Behring Works , a pharmacetical company, imported monkeys from Africa,and killed them for experiments. but two workers were somehow infected. Thirty one people eventually caught the virus, but only seven died. (one in four kill rate). The virus ran it's course, then died out. They named it :"MARLBURG VIRUS".

   1976.  Southern Sudan. Mr. Yu G. , Contracted the Virus (no one knows how), Days later his co-workers started to die. Massive hemorrhaging from all orifices, of the body. It jumped from person to person in Sudan. When it got to the major hospital, with all the hemorrhaging going on, the entire  staff left it, which was  the best thing that could happen, as they were using dirty needles over and over.

Some of the patients suffered from major mental derangement. Some tore off their clothe, ran

 into town, looking for their homes.  This SUDAN EBOLA Ebola kills 50% of patients, Then thee virus disappeared, after about 300 people died.  a few months later, however, the virus erupted in Zaire. virus attacks every organ and tissue small bloodclots appear, the blood thickens and slows, this shifts the blood supply to various organs, such as liver, kidney, intestines, testicles breast tissue. Every opening in the body bleeds, The tongue surface sloughs off and is swallowed or spat out. eyeballs may fill up with blood, you may go blind. the liver bulges up and turns yellow, begins to liquify, then dies. the kidneys become jammed with blood clots and dead cells, and cease functioning. The intestines may fill up completely with blood.  The  lining of the gut sloughs off into the bowels and is defacated with large amounts of blood . Naturally, this makes the patient go into seizures and convulsions as he dies, spreading blood all over the place. Who do you get to clean it up if you know it is Ebola?

  The next outbreak was in Jan. 1980.  A Mr. Monet was brought into the hospital in Nairobi after flying a commercial flight from his town. You didn't want to be his seat-mate as he was throwing up part of his intestines and handed it to the stewardess (this was 1980). He was examined by a Dr. Musoke, during which, Monet threw up all over the doctor with a black vomit.. Not good!

However, contrary to everything you have heard, with everyone walking around in sterile space suits, The doctor survived.!   This has become known as the MUSAKE strain of EBOLA Virus.

  the next outbreak was kind of peculiar, as it did not kill any humans, only thousands of Rhesus monkeys. in 1983 in Reston, Virginia, an  another pharmaceutical co. who use these close friends of humans (along with Hamsters) as they are the closest to humans.  A shipment of a couple of hundred monkeys from the Philippines came down with a disease, which turned out to be Ebola virus. This naturally freaked out anyone involved with these monkeys.  Of course, research showed they came from Africa, near Lake Victoria. After the Army was called in and all the monkeys were killed, it was determined  that (1) they transmitted the virus thru the air. Good! , (2) This strain of RESTON EBOLA was not transferable to humans. Whew!.

  Okay, you've got a headache and  you begin to feel listless?  Don't call me!

 

 WINDHAM RESIDENCE, Forestville, CA

              

MAIN FLOOR PLAN

   A few years ago,  I finally got a job that would be my 'Piece de Resistance, my '"Swan Song",  I was pretty excited, to say the least. They were a middle aged couple, from Silicon Valley reserves, who wanted a creative house. But I should have known, he was a Texan, she from Britain. But they had purchased a good site, with room for about 5 acres of grapes.  overlooking Dry Creek Valley.  Design and contract Documents went smoothly, and we had a good General Contractor (Calletti) , under contract with a negotiated cost (His bids of all sub-contractors plus a percentage of construction cost for his Profit & Overhead. ) . I even designed a separate building for the racket-ball court, something all executives had to have at the time. This house had three kitchens, three bars. A secret door in bookcase to a floor safe, to mention only a few of the goodies.  Construction went well until the "Inferior Desecrator" turned up along with a young Landscape Architect.  Ms Green had some really 'swell' ideas about how to finish the interior of this 4,000 square foot “ essay of triangular space”. After I had already spent a great deal of time already doing that. We did not get along. We did not need her. I did not like her. Much to my dismay, the owners wanted her concepts (Zero) over mine (magnifique!) for the entire house. Example; The kitchen and Dining Room floors were to be black, split slate, except the area under the dining table and chairs, where the slate would be smooth in order to have a level place for chairs. She used  the current fashionable  bamboo flooring, but worse, stained it all dark!   Okay, enough about her, I'm getting ill just thinking about it.

POOL-SIDE

       

  Meanwhile, on the exterior , Mr Balcerak, is wreaking havoc with my hardscape design on the site. Unbeknown to this guy, the entire project was a carefully considered design of 45 degree angles ,naturally extending out to the gardens, walks, pool, etc.  Added to the mix, there were a lot of steps giving off to various levels.  In other words, what I had envisioned as a Tour de Force, was turning to a Tower of Shit!  In my past projects, I would always guide the Landscape Architect in the selection of planting material, but they usually understood the concept of my hardscape design. Although we're talking about a 3 million dollar house here, the owners also opted to dismiss the General Contractor and hire their own carpenter to finish it, fortunately after the steel and EIFS exterior wall was finished. I settled my fee with them in Arbitration, the first time in my 50 year career. And I have not been inside since it was finished (or trashed?) I am a sore loser.

    

ENTRY

                    

THE LITTLE REVIEW

“To express the emotions of life is to live.

 To express the life of emotions is to make art”.

 They don’t make them like that anymore. In the nineteen twenties, two brilliant women published a monthly intellectual magazine called “The Little Review” which published all the really Avant Garde writers and poets of the time.  We’re talking  T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and the likes. Jane Heap and Margaret Anderson (I am no man’s wife, no man’s delightful mistress, and will never, never, never, be a mother),   concentrated on publishing what its editors found worth publishing.

On one occasion when the editors decided that literature was temporarily moribund, there appeared a sixty-four page blank number prefaced by an announcement that there was nothing fit to print.