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Thursday, September 28, 2006
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Mecca for Moderns
Category: Travel and Places
Frank Sinatra's lush pad
Driving into town one is greeted by a gas station situated beneath a massive outstretched wing, a flying wedge that offers protection against the brilliant sunlight and scorching heat of mid-day. Surveying the model of his future home not far from there, Bob Hope remarked that at least the Martians will know where to land. Welcome to Palm Springs, California--a mecca for moderns.
Last night my mod life crisis took me to the West coast premiere of Desert Utopia: Mid-century Architecture in Palm Springs, a PBS-bound documentary detailing the exemplary modernist architecture of Palm Springs. Focusing on the work of important architectural practices, the digital video shows the custom residential masterpieces of Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Shindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and a number of prolific local modernists living and working in Southern California. Also shown are a few great motels and gas stations, some inspiring tract homes and sporadic glimpses of a more generic ilk of banks, shopping centers and such. Perhaps most unique to the development of a style befitting Palm Springs is the rugged desert environment that dramatically informs and uniquely contextualizes the design response. We see buildings open to vast panoramic vistas of jagged landscape with uninterrupted expanses of glass while they inventively shield residents from direct sunlight.
This is the kind of program that inspires awestruck attention and drool inducing urges, where modernists lick their chops with a voracious appetite for new sources of jet-age inspiration. This is where one goes to celebrate and worship the glorious. Thus, it is particularly disappointing when a study like this is undermined by its cinematic failings. The production suffers greatly from amateurish direction and flat storytelling. Also, ready access to cheap digital cameras and editing hampers the rendering of line and texture that would be so appealing in a genuine film production. Mercifully the cut destined for television is slated as an hour-long production, while the running length of the program screened last night was closer to 90 minutes. The editing should do it good.
There have been many excellent productions over the years chronicling the architectural achievements of the world's greatest modernists. While a program on the Palm Springs built environment is timely and of significant value, I, for one, would hope for a production as well crafted as the buildings it depicts.
Desert Utopia--the documentary
Selling the sizzle, not the steak
1:08 PM
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Thursday, September 21, 2006
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Titans of Popular Culture, or lest we forget to praise the commercial arts
I don't follow baseball or football, but I'm a sucker for a good piece of ad copy. Today's ad roll-out, observed on BART--surely long and wordy--but I appreciate the audaciousness of these writers for floating it by us. Then again, maybe this is the idle outpouring of yet another group of frustrated novelists. At least they've identified a revenue stream for themselves.
Sunday is an NFL lollapalooza. It's pre-game, it's game, it's post-game, it's post-game highlights. It's the early game, the late game, the late late game. It's online, offline and on TV. It's in the bar and in the living room. By God, today is football day. Unfortunately, it's also laundry day, yardwork day, pay-your-bills and call-your-mom-again day. Yes, Sunday is a thing of beauty but also an exercise in balance. One day we will have the technology to clone ourselves, which will afford us the luxury of having our clone do the chores while we happily develop carpal tunnel syndrome, flipping from one game to the next. Of course, the problem there is, what self-respecting clone is going to fall for that deal? Unless they make clones that don't like football. But who wants to hang out with that guy all day. Chores aside, Sunday is still a glorious, glorious day. And the best part is that it's just a warm-up. A bone to chew on before the big day. The main event. Which, obviously, is only one day away. Close enough that you could literally hold your breath, however, as with the cloning theory, there is no scientific support for this claim. Is it Monday yet?By the way, a few weeks ago I sat next to a corporate ad guy on the plane. He told me he managed the New York City office of a holding company that controls something like half the world's ad agencies, PR firms, and the like. A real macher. One of his companies is San Francisco's own Hal Riney and Partners. But this guy was unaware of Hal Riney's work as the honey voiced announcer of saccharine platitudes like It's Morning in America. Okay. So I mentioned the creative work of my two favorite ad guys, the totally hilarious and ground-breaking Stan Freberg and Joe Sedelmaier. "No, don't think I have," accompanied by a blank stare. Dear readers, please, a moment of silence as we stand in reverence for two of the greatest ad producers, nay artists, anywhere, any time, and pity the guy who just doesn't know they exist.
Start here for Stan Freberg
Person of the Century Joe Sedelmaier
Speaking of ad signage, I recall a photograph of mine from some 30 years ago. Here it is, resurrected, an example of when I was very much into urban landscape. But wasn't everyone back then?
4:06 PM
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Thursday, September 14, 2006
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The films of Peter Whitehead shown locally
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
Sixties culture vultures will want to check out the first-ever American retrospective of the films of Peter Whitehead. According to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts:
An unsung hero of British cinema, Peter Whitehead is an extraordinary character whose films provide a fascinating and important window onto the late 1960s counterculture of both London and New York. Born in Liverpool in 1937, Whitehead went on to document the heart of Swinging London and its music and art scenes during the 1960s.
Read the highly informative and insightful review of Whiteheads films by Max Goldberg, in todays sf360.org:
Peter Whitehead's '60s
Schedule of Film Screenings
12:37 AM
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I'm Hip!
Category: Music
Great jazzman Bob Dorough--pianist, vocalist and composer--really delivered the goods last night to a packed house of 45--yes, 45!--at the Bird's Nest in Oakland. While you might not know his music (a prolific songbook including Baltimore Oriole, and Small Day Tomorrow), certainly you'll recognize the Dave Frishberg lyrics to the tune by Dorough.
"Oh man, do you believe that chick?
She has got no idea what's happening, no idea.
I am the one who's plugged in around here.
That's why they call me The High Priestess of Cool! Ha ha!
See, I'm hip. I'm no square.
I'm alert, I'm awake, I'm aware.
I am always on the scene.
Makin' the rounds, diggin' the sounds.
I read People Magazine.
'Cuz I'm hip.
Like, dig! I'm in step.
When it was hip to be hep, I was hep.
I don't blow but I'm a fan.
Look at me swing. Ring a ding ding.
I even call my girlfriend "man,"
'cuz I'm hip.
Every Saturday night
with my suit buttoned tight and my suedes on
I'm gettin' my kicks
diggin' arty French flicks with my shades on.
I'm too much. I'm a gas.
I am anything but middle class.
When I hang around the band,
poppin' my thumbs, diggin' the drums,
sqaures don't seem to understand
why I flip. They're not hip like I'm hip.
scatting
I'm hip!
scatting
I'm on top of every trend.
Look at me go. Vo-dee-o-do.
Sammy Davis knew my friend.
I'm hip, but not weird.
Like, you notice, I don't wear a beard.
Beards were in but now they're out.
They had they're day. Now they're passe.
Just ask me if you're in doubt,
'cuz I'm hip.
Now I'm deep into Zen
meditation and macrobiotics,
and as soon as I can
I intend to get into narcotics.
'Cuz I'm cool as a cuke.
I'm a cat, I'm a card, I'm a kook, kook, kook.
I get so much out of life.
Really, I do. Skoo ba dee boo.
One more time play "Mack the Knife."
Let 'er rip. I may flip, but I'm hip.
scatting
Bird's Nest Fall Schedule
11:09 AM
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Saturday, September 09, 2006
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Sorry, I've been away from my desk (yeah, right!)
Current mood:  mischievous
Category: Parties and Nightlife
I've been preoccupied . . .
While you're waiting, how 'bout a 2-minute cheap thrill . . .
Cheap Thrill Here
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Currently
listening
:
Dummy
By
Portishead
Release date: 17 October, 1994
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3:05 PM
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