Distractions

I could not resist the London Review of Books at Borders. I was taken in not so much by the piece on Stephen Spender, but by this lovely sketch on the cover:


pleasant imagery 

Well of course, once I picked it up, I had to read it (good-bye productive afternoon at Borders). I spent far too much time on it, including on the last page with the listings of “personals.” I actually don’t much read personals, but recently I’d looked at those in the New York Review of Books and I was curious how these might be different.

For instance, in the NYRB someone had posted this:

IF LOVE TAKES, we’ll keep one NYC co-op and sell the other to establish a B & B upstate. You’ll garden, I’ll cook, we’ll write more books, play backgammon, embrace each other’s grown children. I’m a woman (62); you’re not.

That is some ad. It seems more of a quest for a lifestyle than for a partner. I wonder if there’s room for his input. Wouldn’t another game do, for instance?

So then there’s the LRB. More sedate perhaps? Well, consider this posting:

Not everyone appearing in this column is a deranged, cross-dressing sociopath. Let me know if you find one and I’ll strangle him with my bra. Man, 56.

Or this:

An inspired calligrapher can create pages of beauty using stick ink, quill, brush, pick-axe, buzz-saw or even strawberry jam. Pangrams of delight, but the worst sex you’ve ever had with a dumpy kibitzer (M, 41)…

Good grief. Suddenly the NYRB “wants to open a B & B” ad is looking like the winner of the lot. I suppose if there’s a guy who’ll go so far as to agree to sell a New York co-op and to dig trenches in some run-down B & B, he wont much mind a game of backgammon now and then, if it’s absolutely essential to her happiness.

About rabbits...

I rarely do Net quizzes. But something about Ann's post (here) tempted me. So what state am I? Never mind -- too many true insults lay burried in the result! Slightly less insulting and perhaps, therefore, less truthful is the result from "What book are you?" quiz, on the same website (here).

What am I? Blue Pyramid tells me:

You're Watership Down!by Richard Adams
Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits. (have they been reading my blog  here??)

Taliesin

I remember the first time I saw the houses of Taliesin (Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin residence, some 30 miles west of Madison) some years back. It was humbling, it really was. The scope of the project, the vision behind it – all a revelation to me. What did I know about architecture after all?

Organic architecture. It’s a term I heard quite a bit today as I once again walked the grounds of Taliesin (it’s a great place to take out-of-town visitors and this is indeed was the reason for a return trip there).

Of course, when you visit Frank Lloyd Wright places, you often find yourself asking the awkward questions – like, why is to damp and dank at Falligwater? Or hot in Taliesin West? Or, presumably, cold in the winters at Taliesin in Spring Green?

I do not really follow the discussions that would lead one to firmly articulate a position on the success (or lack thereof) of F.LWright in the arena of architectural innovation. But I can say this much: on a day such as this, nothing can beat a walk through Taliesin. The paths that work their way through fields of flowers bordering the corn rows, with undulating hills and patches of forest framing the scene, are a place of such breathtaking loveliness that it almost hurts. The FLWright houses are never a disturbance to the natural beauty here. That in itself is no small accomplishment.

Organic architecture: house meets tree