June 6, 2009

I was a caryatid for Frank Lloyd Wright.

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In case you were wondering where I was all day, I was serving as a docent on the 2009 Wright and Like Tour in the morning, at the Jacobs II house....

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... and touring various houses in Madison in the afternoon. The photo at the top of the post was taken at the John C. Pew House.

74 comments:

Michael Haz said...

Althouse, you are a pillar of the community.

Meade said...

Such a goddess really.

Curtiss said...

Is that a docent skirt?

Trooper York said...
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Michael Haz said...

Hoo boy. Big trouble's a brewin'

*Pops popcorn, waits for Althouse to find out.....*

Jason (the commenter) said...

That's probably the most subversive thing you can do to a Frank Lloyd Wright building.

Michael Haz said...

That's probably the most subversive thing you can do to a Frank Lloyd Wright building.

I think finding and stopping the leaks may be worse, but that is a never-ending effort.

Anonymous said...
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chuck b. said...

You look fabulous.

XWL said...

I'm pretty sure caryatids are traditionally dressed in more gossamer-y stuff, but nice, anyway.

(and with a high in the 50s today, I'm guessing gossamer would be a bit nippy)

(or nipply, even)

Anonymous said...
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Palladian said...

Underneath that skirt, Maria Callas is warming up for act II of Norma.

Trooper York said...
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Michael Haz said...

Theo: Should we be listening to some Wagner this evening?

Anonymous said...
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ricpic said...

Prairie shmary. All that horizontality (is that a word?) depresses me.

Anonymous said...
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Michael Haz said...

Theo - Good choice. The evening need some funk.

Plus, I thing a toying belly scratch would work.

Michael Haz said...

And, as you may have discerned from the typos in the comment above, the first bottle of merlot has been readied for the recycling bin.

Anonymous said...
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The Dude said...

That is a funny photograph.

And better a docent skirt than an indocent one.

Michael Haz said...

Look at the house in the first photo again. Althouse, who is what, five feet tall, is standing at what appears to be the entry to the carport. Not many cars, then or now, could fit under that roof height.

Michael Haz said...

And look at the water stains on the cedar siding above the cantilever. No drainage issues there. Sheesh, and the uncaulked bevel edge corners.

save_the_rustbelt said...

Great structure.

The house is nice too.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm 5'5 1/2".

Christy said...

Ricpic, horizontality! Exactly! It makes me exceedingly uncomfortable!

Curtiss said...

Frank Lloyd Wright was 5'-8 1/2" tall. That was the human scale he used. Himself.

That's the way he rolled.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm 5'5 1/2".

That means its not up to code.

That house is a teardown candidate ;)

traditionalguy said...

You are a nut bearing a smile that Frank Lloyd Wright would have fallen for in his time.

Jason (the commenter) said...

We're all the same height laying down.

traditionalguy said...

Michael H. :Maybe that garage was for an Indian Motorcycle owner.

Meade said...

"Frank Lloyd Wright was 5'-8 1/2" tall"

Coincidentally, that is exactly the height of the average adult Canadian male.

Anonymous said...
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Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Genius doesn't need no stinkin' code.

Look if you want a barn, a low barn at that, Wright is your man.

chickelit said...

FLW disliked lesser people, not little people. He didn't pay his bills either.

J. Cricket said...

Are docents required to wear frumpy skirts?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm pulling your theo ;)

Wright was good, but I just don't think he was a "genius".

Tibore said...

We had a curtain like that skirt hanging behind the proscenium of our campuses opera house. Was the same color, too!

TitusworkdoutinMaine said...

Love the skirt you diva.

Kev said...

Theo--great video at the link. I had no idea the Alpenhorn had quite that much range (the fact that she's doing all that with embouchure alone makes it all the more impressive). I was in Switzerland for the Montreux festival in '99 and saw one of those horns on the wall--quite a bit of the wall, mind you--in a store I visited. If there'd been a way to get that thing on the plane, I would've bought it in a heartbeat.

And while on the subject of jazzy sounds on unlikely instruments, check out this video of a guy playing John Coltrane's "Blue Train" solo on the recorder. And a left-handed recorder at that!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Speaking of 'genius', iTunes is just downloading a new version. Hopefully this new genius wont suck as much.

Jordan said...

Trackback: Sunday Morning Linkage 2

Jason (the commenter) said...

Althouse should have her wedding here.

Palladian said...

An online wedding!

Hey, how about a bloggingheads segment with Bob Wright officiating?

Jason (the commenter) said...

An online wedding!

I meant at this building. It may be hard to maintain, but it would be neat to tie the knot in. Plus, she could redo the photo in her wedding dress!

Michael Haz said...

Althouse - Sorry about the height misunderestimation.

rhhardin said...

A reason to stop at Burger King next trip.

via Tim Blair

Unknown said...

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright.

That hammerin' sound you hear is the owner fixing a leaky roof . . . or banging his head against the wall for buying the house in the first place.

Love,

I. M. Pei

Unknown said...

A caryatid's headache. The worst kind.

Cedarford said...

Meade said...
Such a goddess really.


Awwwwww! That was sweet!

And accurate, really.
Godesses were favorite caryatids of the Romans and Greeks.

Althouse as Athena, not just a docent (love the word and the title - sort of a person in a temporary position of intellectual trust, enriching other's knowledge and appreciation of what the see...)

In the interest of accuracy, I do wish to point out a more bona fide caryatid would be entirely begowned, perhaps with one or both breasts bare, and wearing a head ornament.

For other posters, my "intellectual" question of the day...which Goddess was topless more in statues and depictions? Diana or Athena?

Hucbald said...

Good, God. I'm certainly no fashion maven, so if your outfit freaked me out, it has to be a real travesty. Are those antique drapes wrapped around your waist? Looks like something from the Addams Family household. Combined with a blue and white horizontal stripe tee and a... whatever that sandstone colored thing is? Dissonance and cacophony.

But hey, thanks for the laugh.

Anonymous said...

Hucbald: You forgot to address Ann as "girlfriend".

David Pinto said...

I learned two new words in that post.

paul a'barge said...

Never mind the historical architecture, how antique is that skirt?

wow. just wow.

Palladian said...

You know, I actually like the skirt.

Meade said...

For other posters, my "intellectual" question of the day...which Goddess was topless more in statues and depictions? Diana or Athena?

Lady Justice?

Ann Althouse said...

If you like or don't like the skirt, the brand is Surrealist and it was bought in a stylish shop within the last year. I have it in 4 colors and I have jackets and shirts from the same designer.

It's a solid color. The fabric is ruched. If you don't know what "ruched" means, you need to watch "Project Runway" more or stop mouthing off as if you know what is fashionable.

You can see me in the black version of the skirt here and here.

Roger von Oech said...

If you're looking for a good read, check out T.C. Boyle's (Drop City, Tortilla Curtain) new one: "The Women." It's Boyle's vibrant imagining of Frank Lloyd Wright's complex (and stormy) relationship with the four women in his life.

I'm a third of the way through. Boyle really captures the era: mid-20s and mid-30s.

Good descriptions of Taliesin.

Also, according to Boyle, Wright was more like 5'6" or so than his "advertised" 5'8"+. So Ann fits right in.

Wince said...

Do caryatids get carotid aneurysms holding all that weight above their heads?

Anonymous said...
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reader_iam said...

I like that skirt and, more generally, I think it's cool that Althouse wears (or at least appears to wear) skirts so often.

IIRC, Althouse shops locally, but here is a site featuring Surrealist skirts, among others that I like, too.

[All that said, I'm trying to remember the last time I wore a skirt. I think maybe at a wedding last August? And before that, maybe January 2007?

When did I stop wearing skirts? I used to wear them all the time, especially in summer.

Yet another of life's small, inexplicable mysteries.]

Fred4Pres said...

Althouse Shrugged?

Fred4Pres said...

Or with a Wright house perhaps channelling Dominique Francon?

Ann Althouse said...

@reader Long skirts are super-comfortable -- nothing grabbing at you between the legs (as with pants) and nothing to pull at and arrange (as with short skirts). It can be very cool in the summer, and who knows whether you have panties on?

Ann Althouse said...

@Roger Thanks. I'd heard of the book and, after reading your comment, I found and downloaded it from Audible.com for our trip back to Ohio today. Took just a few seconds to do.

Moose said...

Sorry, Ann.

Given your propensity for criticizing men's fashion choices - such as shorts - I think that that Hucbald's comments were right on the mark.

If you don't want people to criticize your taste (?!) in fashion, don't post pictures of youself. Glass houses, etc.

Palladian said...

"Sheesh! Were was Hucbald last night when I was expecting 97 comments along those lines to make an Althouse "Go Fug Yourself" thread."

I do believe I made the funniest caustic criticism of the skirt in this very thread, which was ignored. Hucbald's criticism was pedestrian.

Palladian said...
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Palladian said...

"@reader Long skirts are super-comfortable -- nothing grabbing at you between the legs..."

Is Meade back in Ohio?

"and nothing to pull at and arrange."

You definitely wouldn't enjoy being a man...

"It can be very cool in the summer, and who knows whether you have panties on?"

Presumably and hopefully you know.

Anonymous said...
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Jim C. said...

Blogger Fred4Pres wrote, Althouse Shrugged?

Fred wins the thread. :)

Moose said...

Palladian:

Yours was indeed more erudite and pithy - however Hucbold's was to the point and didn't require looking it up in Wikdipedia.

However I do apologize for the oversight...

Unknown said...

My husband and I went to the Wright Plus tour in Oak Park, IL. Loved it, especially his home and studio and the Robie House.

Granny said...

Say... I just noticed your subtitle. I'd drop the ALTHOUSE - looks redundant. (What would Mr Buckett say if he were let go?) Until then, consider Taliesin West, Wright's wintertime retreat (now much encroached/surroonded) and pupilatin' devotee parsonage. (Were Rand and he "involved.") Nice place. Go on a weekday. Hit the clubs on the weekend. Be careful; they're out in force. Then you'd need Rumpole.