The Heritage ... Bay x Laguna
The Heritage is currently in service as a high-end care home. It was designed by Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle and environs. Built on landfill, it is one of the few multistory brick buildings in the marina to survive Loma Prieta unscathed. The garden is in bloom, but the sun was so high and hot today that everything wilted. I suspect the plantings were chosen with an eye toward the usual fog.
Poodle / Baby Doll Installation ... SFMOMA
Sunday morning seems to come around once a week lately. Below are some links that caught my attention this week.Thanks to Laura and Henry for hosting the party yesterday. I enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new.
Jim (lower picture, middle) and Cindee (upper picture) stopped in Marin as part of their vacation. I spent the day with them catching up on this and that rather than preparing a proper entry. Some days are just too nice to spend a lot of time on the keyboard.
I was looking through Evil Mad Scientist and found out how to make edible googly eyes. Granted it's not something you use in the kitchen every day. However, like Micky Mouse pancakes and Oreo parfait, it might be good to keep in your back pocket for a kid's birthday party or Halloween. Instructions for making and pictures are here
Kyle Cassidy has taken photographs of the workspaces of several authors. Posted are the ones that I've read, many more can be found here, along with other projects. (Armed America, Warpaint, and American Rockers)
The Sentinel Building ... 916 Kearny
I have a little Canon pocket camera. After seeing Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, and Robert Frank at SFMOMA yesterday, I decided maybe it's about time I learned what the settings, other than automatic, actually did. So I got my pen and scratch pad, the camera, some change, and went to Happy Donuts. ( it was early, and I can barely form a coherent thought without a massive coffee infusion) I started to take pictures of the Sentinel Building across the street, changed one setting at a time, and recorded what I had done. I tried the artistic shots, extreme close-ups, the turn the camera on its side shots, artfully framing drunks by the building shots, monkeying with the color shots, the whole schmeer. About 45 pictures later it was time to go back upstairs and start on a proposal for work. Finished my cup, killed the donut, pocketed my stuff and thought, just one more quick one. Pulled the camera, didn't really bother to frame anything, pushed the button and went up. Of course, that turned out to be the best image. No mind wins again.
The Sentinel Building, or Columbus Tower, is currently owned by Francis Ford Coppola, housing the American Zoetrope company and café Niebaum on the ground floor and sidewalk. The flatiron building is a former home to Enrico Banducci's original hungry i, Trident Productions, (Columbus Recorders: early Dead, Kingsmen) and Caesars Grill.(one of those places during Prohibition)
Originally I wanted a picture of John Phillips, but the ones from the time period I'm going to write about reflect the fact that massive amounts of coke doesn't do your face a lick of good. The Mamas and Papas seemed to dominate the radio in the mid-sixties. John Phillips' songs, professional backing (the Wrecking Crew ), and a serious case of right time, right place. As did most bands of the era, they broke up for artistic reasons. (they french-fried themselves) Cass went on to try her hand at show tunes, had a hit with Dream a Little Dream of Me and was working her way toward a successful solo career. ( no, she wasn't a jazz chanteuse, sorry ) She died of an apparent heart attack in London. (no, not a ham sandwich, sorry ) Michelle, who's job was to look pretty and keep the big voice in check, went on to look pretty as an actress. ( see above ) Denny returned to Canada and worked as an artist. He voiced the harbormaster in Theodore Tugboat (PBS), made records,and sometimes worked with Phillips.
John Phillips became the poster boy for rock and roll trainwrecks. Brittany, et al. got nothing. He wrote a few songs ( Me and my Uncle: pace the Dead), helped Mackenzie with her career, and tottered about with various Mamas and Papas while trying to outdo Sly Stone as promoters' nightmare #1. The point of all this gossipy churlishness is the discovery of some old tapes of a play that John attempted in conjunction with Andy Warhol called Man on the Moon. The cautionary part? Don't snort your own PR.
