Buddha Provides
Image
Reply
House on the Rock
We did a dawn launch this morning and headed north along the Mississippi River. Today’s attraction was a “house” in southwest Wisconsin called House on the Rock. Giving Chicago a wide berth, we ended up crossing the river three times. It was an easy drive that got us to our destination in seemingly plenty of time. The house was designed by Alex Jordan Jr. and as its name implies it was built atop a rock. He opened it in the early sixties and immediately began charging admission ($1 for adults, 50¢ for children). Jordan worked on the house for the rest of his life and work continued after his death. Promotional info indicated that four hours would be sufficient to see the house and grounds. We were about halfway through it, when one of the attendants buttonholed us and told us that if we didn’t get our butts in gear, we would not get to see everything. This complex is a maze, but running through it is a single path along with plenty of signage that one can follow and almost convince yourself that you have seen everything along the way. The site is packed with all manners of stuff. As we progressed ever onward, we were successively impressed and then more impressed again. The place is reminiscent of Saint Louis’ own City Museum and Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf.
One of House on the Rock’s oldest and most salient features is the so-called Infinity Room. Cantilevered 200′ and lined with thousands of windows, the room tapers to a point giving the illusion that it disappears into the distance. The story goes that Jordan once approached Frank Lloyd Wright with his plans for another building that he was working on at the time and sought his approval. Supposedly, Wright rebuffed him with the insult, “I wouldn’t hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop. You’re not capable.” Afterwards, incensed by the insult, Jordan vowed to show up Wright and said, “I’m going to put a Japanese house on one of those pinnacle rocks and advertise it”. That is the creation story told about House on the Rock. The story continues, Jordan’s advertisements eventually angered Wright, who built is own estate just a few miles down the road from Jordan’s. It is called Taliesin and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We plan on visiting it tomorrow.
My Global Navigator
Image
Missile to Wisconsin
Last month, when we went north to the cabin, we froze. Memorial Day may be the unofficial start of summer most places, but not on Lake Superior. This time should be different. A gigantic heat dome is forming that will engulf the Eastern United States. With our only choices being to remain here in Sweat Louis or flee north, I choose the later.
This weather situation triggered a memory of an old, cheesy, Sci-Fi B-movie that I had once seen. In this show men travel to the moon, where they find oxygen, a breathable atmosphere and women. All that I could remember about it was a sequence where a party of astronauts were walking across the moon’s surface. They had to be careful to stick to the shade, because when one of their number strays into the sunlight, he bursts into flame and is incinerated. Through the miracle of AI, this rather vague description was able to find me the title of the film, Missile to the Moon. This 1958 movie was actually a remake of the 1953 film, Cat Women of the Moon. Both movies sport the same plot; a colony of desperate women lure unsuspecting men into their trap. Let the misogyny ensue. Maybe next time they could just send Elon Musk?
All of this is merely preamble to our next rocket trip north. Eschewing our normal route, we are headed to the cabin via Wisconsin. Although, we are both retired and under no fixed schedule, our visit to the Badger state is time limited. The encroaching heat dome will soon engulf that place too. Consequently, we have limited our itinerary to three attractions:
- The House on the Rock – An eclectic, complex, crazy quilt of architecturally distinct rooms, streets, and gardens designed by Alex Jordan Jr.
- Taliesin – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Witches Gulch – This otherworldly gorge is a mossy slot canyon in the Wisconsin Dells.
House on the Rock and Taliesin are closely located, but supposedly Wright and Jorden did not get along. There’s a story there. The Dells is devoted to waterparks and while we have chosen a more natural itinerary, our motel is fully pool equipped. I hope we don’t get sunburned. 😉
Rainy Sunset
Image
Philippe Starck’s Teakettle
The Enigma of 1991—Although it made its debut in 1991, Philippe Starck’s teakettle represents an apotheosis of 80’s design. It’s expensive, hard to handle and calls attention to itself in an unseemly way. Which is why it seems like a weird curio, not a highly prized domestic totem, in 1992, when the Zeitgeist is tilting toward frugality, function and quiet simplicity. The $250 teakettle, made by Alessi in menacing black or California-mod aqua and silver, looks like an interpretation of a Viking helmet. Resting on a burner in the kitchen, it has an almost dangerous air. It makes you nervous to be in the room with it; you’re afraid it’s going to hurt you. Making tea with it confirms that impression: even after reading the lengthy instructions provided in Italian and English, the novice approaches the task of boiling water with trepidation. The whole thing is difficult to wedge into a small sink; water goes in the large hole in an unsettling way (you expect it to come sloshing back out), and to pour the boiled water from the small hole, extreme wrist strength is required to angle it backward beyond the perpendicular. “It hasn’t been a runaway seller, like the Starck toothbrush or the juicer,” said David Shearer, the manager of Modern Age in Manhattan. “Most people think it’s a light fixture. And the price is a problem for the ones who do realize it’s a teakettle.” If boiling water is the goal, Farberware may be a better idea. But the Starck kettle does provide entertainment, at least for the personnel at the stores that stock it. “People look at it, walk around it, pick it up and turn it sideways and upside down,” said Steve Freedman, the manager of By Design in Los Angeles. “It sells fairly well, considering that nine and a half out of 10 customers can’t figure out what it is. Although a lot of them do say that for $250 it should whistle.”—Liz Logan