Hotty Toddy AGAIN!

My dear friend came over last night to help us watch the Cotton Bowl (Ole Miss 21-OSU 7) and exchange Christmas presents.

As usual, the talk turned to books and she informed us she was reading The Fellowship - which has nothing to do with hobbits or Gandalf. It is about the Taliesan fellowship of architects formed by FLW.

http://www.amazon.com/Fellowship-Untold-Story-Wright-Taliesin/dp/0060988665/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262520484&sr=8-1

She mentioned Victor Hugo (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables)

"Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book."

THANKS BRAINYQUOTE.COM

And, of course, the conversation wound up with The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. This is the bestselling novel based on Frank Lloyd Wright written in English by a Russian refugee from the Bolshevik revolution. (more about this later.)

I just wanted to get this down now, mainly to brag about Ole Miss and Dexter McCluster.

O,and before my brother notes it, the above picture is not from the Cotton Bowl where Mr. M. made a flying leap into the endzone, but from another game. I couldn't find the picture from yesterday's game on the web.

Hotty Toddy

Heading south for Thanksgiving. Rains for the past couple of days so nothing new on the house.

Will write more after we're more stuffed than the turkey.

http://www.olemisssports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=2600&ATCLID=204838053

For or Against?

For some reason, thinking about all these small organic houses makes me think of a hideously boring book I had to write a paper about at Ole Miss. AGAINST NATURE by Joris-Karl Huysmans was required reading in Dr. S___'s class.

There was probably more to it than what I remember but what sticks in my mind is this rich guy, decides he wants to play at being a monk. So he gets himself a cell, some monkish clothes, etc. But the cell, although it LOOKS like a monks cell is really a very luxurious room, his own bedroom in fact, made to look austere. He hangs expensive velvet curtains the color of stone to replicate monastery walls. His monk's robes, although they LOOK very scratchy and hairclothy are really very comfortable, soft, silken cashmere materials. He's pretending to be one thing, leading a spartan sort of life, set apart from the material world, whereas he's really taken all the goodies with him.

A Usonian is an honest sort of building. In the best of all worlds, it should be made with local natural materials by local craftsmen. It is different from AGAINST NATURE in that very simple things - simply by their arrangement- make for luxurious living. And, although the street sides of the houses are somewhat blocked from the world, step into any of the houses and you see all of nature, just on the other side of all those windows.

Here is a link to one of the most luxurious Usonians, Kentuck Knob which is in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania, home to Wright's most famous house, Fallingwater. O, what the hell, I'll go ahead and link to that one too, although technically that's too high cotton for this blog.

http://www.dgunning.org/architecture/Penn/hagan.htm

http://www.fallingwater.org/