Althouse: At the Dark Wright Café...

May 26, 2011

At the Dark Wright Café...

... are you feeling uneasy?

60 comments:

Toad Trend said...: Frank Lloyd Wright...we have some of those here in Buffalo.; 5/26/11, 7:22 PM
Robert J. said...: Abbotabad?; 5/26/11, 7:28 PM
Synova said...: That is a rather foreboding picture.

On a happier note... I got two dwarf sweet cherries at Wal-mart today. $40+ dollar trees that look in great shape for $20 and $18.

I'm pretty excited about that, though I did have to explain to my husband that it really *was* a deal I had to take or miss it forever.; 5/26/11, 7:38 PM
Scott said...: That would be cool to see the house as one of the three that some couple is looking at buying on "House Hunters" (HGTV):

"Wow, honey, look at this kitchen! Needs updating. No granite counter tops, and I really want stainless steel appliances."; 5/26/11, 7:46 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/26/11, 7:53 PM
chickelit said...: Rain's wrath wrecked Wright's wraith's reign.; 5/26/11, 7:54 PM
rhhardin said...: Thunderstorm coming in Ohio, over day-old scythe windrow.; 5/26/11, 7:56 PM
chickelit said...: Not to offend Peter, but those bushes really need trimming!; 5/26/11, 7:58 PM
chickelit said...: Also: lose the aerial phone wires: makes it look like the house is plugged into nature.; 5/26/11, 8:02 PM
victoria said...: are they going to lock all the doors, set fire to the house and kill us all????

Vicki from Pasadena; 5/26/11, 8:03 PM
chickelit said...: How can someone who can afford to live in a Wright home afford not care about aesthetics?; 5/26/11, 8:04 PM
galdosiana said...: Is that Taliesin? If so, you should definitely stop by the House on the Rock, nearby in Spring Green. It's always been one of my favorite places, and it's got enough to impress/entertain a wide variety of people.; 5/26/11, 8:06 PM
edutcher said...: Hey, at least it's not as grim as Michelle's hairdo.

But, yeah, that place looks like something eeeevilll is going on.

(name on the mailbox say, "Soros"?); 5/26/11, 8:08 PM
Anonymous said...: Uneasy?

Ha.

Indeed not.

Palin/Cain 2012: 53% of the popular vote.

There's no amount of money, no amount of corruption, no amount of crisis or lies that could derail the most powerful train to steam into D.C. since 1860.......................'s election brought about the Lincoln era.; 5/26/11, 8:08 PM
chickelit said...: That vertical utility casing leading down from where the wires attach is like a dueling scar on Angelina Jolie's face.; 5/26/11, 8:09 PM
Irene said...: galdosiana, I think it's the Gilmore House here in Madison (University Heights).

Here's a beauty that's for sale.; 5/26/11, 8:10 PM
chickelit said...: The House on the Rock, despite it's gorgeous view, is faux-Wright. It's just Wrong!; 5/26/11, 8:11 PM
Irene said...: Sorry; bad link for "beauty" now fixed.; 5/26/11, 8:12 PM
chickelit said...: are they going to lock all the doors, set fire to the house and kill us all????

Why do you ax?; 5/26/11, 8:13 PM
chickelit said...: My avi makes it look like a stone skipped across water down through this thread.

Later!; 5/26/11, 8:16 PM
gadfly said...: The Airplane House!

The Gilmore House was commissioned in 1908 and finished in January of 1909. From the first, a leading university professor said, “This place will be one of the showplaces of the city. I am sure.” History has born out his prediction. It is one of Wright’s last Prairie Houses, and it belongs with the grouping of some far better-known sites in Illinois, including the Robie House in Chicago, the Tomek House in Riverside, and the Coonley compound, also in Riverside.

The house has had only three owners. The Gilmores sold it to a medical student fraternity, Phi Chi, in 1923. The Depression soon forced the fraternity to sell the house to the Weiss family, and their granddaughter owns it now. The site for the Gilmore House is among the most spectacular for any Wright house, perched on the brow of the highest point of the University Heights subdivision in Madison.; 5/26/11, 8:19 PM
Triangle Man said...: President? Palin is able with Cain as Vice.; 5/26/11, 8:21 PM
JAL said...: Thunderstorms - big heavy ones - Western North Carolina, upstate South Carolina.

No tornado watch.

The lightening is cool.; 5/26/11, 8:23 PM
Christy said...: FLW houses generally give me feelings of unease. The horizontalness of it all distresses me - incipient motion sickness. Intellectually I appreciate Wright, spiritually and physically, not so much.; 5/26/11, 8:24 PM
Anonymous said...: You see,

I was never PC: until SP.

Now, not so much prescient as pulsating Red, White, and Blue, Palin/Cain is the new PC.

But better, more long-lasting, and right.; 5/26/11, 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Another Huffington Post sex criminal has pleaded guilty to fucking his own daughter.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/polisci/fac-bios/epstein/faculty.html

Still welcome at Columbia University, however, where no sex crime committed by one of the chosen few goes punished.; 5/26/11, 8:57 PM
CouleeLivin said...: the fore-head of the house is fore-boding of a Palin/Cain run. No Bushes!; 5/26/11, 8:57 PM
Anonymous said...: And the molester's name is actually Lester!

Holy cow. You just can't make this shit up.; 5/26/11, 9:07 PM
ricpic said...: Challenge Wright Made

The house stood against the sky
And the people passing by
Sensed that something there inside
Mundane life could not abide.

Made unquiet by the sight
They turned round and quick took flight
And they never did look back
Lest the house their sleep attack.; 5/26/11, 9:08 PM
traditionalguy said...: That landscape design needs a dose of Frank Lloyd Meade.; 5/26/11, 9:09 PM
AST said...: Yes. I feel like I'm in a Hitchcock movie.; 5/26/11, 9:11 PM
KCFleming said...: The house says, "Little did she know...."; 5/26/11, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Beautiful. In the late 70's I worked for Servicemaster and cleaned the Racine Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for S.C. Johnson - at the Racine campus located in the ghetto. Saw the large offices, polished a lot of brass and cleaned many a toilet. In the "Tower" proper, saw the samples of wax - never knew there were so many. Good times indeed...; 5/26/11, 9:24 PM
Simon said...: I have a martini. I feel very relaxed. I'm not thinking about 2012 or the primary.

What, you didn't know the cafe served drinks?; 5/26/11, 9:24 PM
Anonymous said...: My Uncle owned a house similiar - while not Frank Lloyd Wright - it was so inspired. By Colonial Park. Redwood siding!!! Rare stuff today. Absolutely beautiful. Signature flat roof.

During the 70's Racine was a hotbed of drug activity. My Uncle and Dad were on the Vice Squad. The stories I could tell... but won't.; 5/26/11, 9:30 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Rain's wrath wrecked Wright's wraith's reign.

I seem to recall an office building having water problems and of course the Ennis House featured in Blade Runner.. water used to leak in.; 5/26/11, 9:30 PM
Fred4Pres said...: There is nothing bad with a FLW house, although that one is not one of his best.; 5/26/11, 9:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Here it is - in it's glory. Also saw Sam's replica plane fly overhead. Thrilling, indeed!

http://maps.google.com/maps; 5/26/11, 9:35 PM
VanderDouchen said...: Patriot act renewed! God Bless America!

Dem controlled senate. Rep controlled house.

We are a failed system of government. Devolution began 98 years ago.

Ms. Lawprof, ma'am, how does it feel to begin learning that there is wide constituency out here who disagree with the model of law being created in this once great Republic?

WV: WGAF (not really):

WGAF anymore?; 5/26/11, 9:48 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: 'Wright is not what is wrong with America.. Wright is what is Wright with America'.

Benjamin Netanyahu ;); 5/26/11, 9:51 PM
Irene said...: I am one of the 44 million who fell for the Mishka "I love you" clip.

wv: mishisc. No kidding!; 5/26/11, 9:53 PM
galdosiana said...: @Irene: Thanks! I didn't even know we had a Wright house here in Madison.; 5/26/11, 10:21 PM
Patrick said...: I like FLW, more or less, I'm not big on architecture, or rather, I don't have time, or haven't taken it, to learn much about it. "I know what I like."

Seems to me, though, that it doesn't take too much effort to design something beautiful with great resources. I've been working with an architect on an addition to my modest home. With limits on money and space, it takes real creativity to build usable, and nice looking space.; 5/26/11, 10:43 PM
Irene said...: galdosiana, there are several Wright houses in Madison/Middleton. This is a good place to start for information about Wright architecture in the area.; 5/26/11, 10:49 PM
victoria said...: Did you all not read "The Women" by T.C. Boyle. Oh that's right, there are those of you who think he's a commie.

Fires, destruction all spelled out in there in a FLW house.

We have one here in Pasadena, The Millard House, La miniatura.

Lovely

Vicki from Pasadena; 5/26/11, 11:22 PM
chickelit said...: Did you all not read "The Women" by T.C. Boyle. Oh that's right, there are those of you who think he's a commie.

No reason to buy from a commie what you can get for free from the wiki.

After reading, do you know why I axed you at 8:13 pm? ;)
____________
wv = "porack"
Secret Service code name for Barack's wife.; 5/26/11, 11:38 PM
Penny said...: Frank Lloyd Wright could be the poster boy for self-directed child play. He credits Froebel Gifts with his lifelong interest in architecture.; 5/27/11, 12:58 AM
Almost Ali said...: I like the absence of flowers and other bright adornments. All the attention and drama is in the building, which seems to have grown into being all on its own.; 5/27/11, 6:12 AM
carrie said...: If you search Frank LLoyd Wright on Youtube you will find video tours of many FLW houses, including some in Madison.; 5/27/11, 7:49 AM
FedkaTheConvict said...: Why is Drudge making fun of this photo?; 5/27/11, 7:51 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm fairly certain Barack Obama's penis is not really that long.

Just normal media hype.; 5/27/11, 8:08 AM
FedkaTheConvict said...: Beautiful. In the late 70's I worked for Servicemaster and cleaned the Racine Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for S.C. Johnson - at the Racine campus located in the ghetto. Saw the large offices, polished a lot of brass and cleaned many a toilet. In the "Tower" proper, saw the samples of wax - never knew there were so many. Good times indeed...

I worked in the same building for several years. By the time I got there the entire Research Tower was unoccupied because it didn't meet modern occupancy requirements and fire codes. The building housing the Great Workroom leaked like a sieve. During the 1998 winter break there was a huge snow strom that dumped about 30 inches. When I got back to the office after break there was about 6 inches of water on my office floor and all my files were ruined.; 5/27/11, 8:09 AM
virgil xenophon said...: In the early 90s I was privileged to work in an ofc tower designed by Wright's protege and son-in-law. in Louisville at Dupont Circle on Dutchman's Lane--the Kaden Tower. (Wiki has a nice art. on it--go see!) As per normal, many quirky "Wrightisms" but a beautiful bldg--outside glass elevator, restaurant on top, etc.

I also grew up in an all-redwood Wright-team designed 50s ranch-style home in Illinois that my parents had custom-built from the original Taliesin-West Group plans. And, as fate would have it, I joined the same college fraternity as F L Wright, Phi Delta Theta. Wright, as Ann perhaps knows was a Phi Delt at Univ of Wisc. (Wisc Alpha); 5/27/11, 8:50 AM
David said...: Fort said:

There's no amount of money, no amount of corruption, no amount of crisis or lies that could derail the most powerful train to steam into D.C. since 1860.......................'s election brought about the Lincoln era.

Fort, Lincoln "steamed in" with 39% of the popular vote. His actual train came through Baltimore, where there were riots, and at the recommendation of his bodyguards he resorted to disguise to avoid attack.

Some said he disguised himself as a woman. This seems not to be true. At 6'-5" inches Lincoln would have passed for a woman about as easily as Cain would for Woody Allen.; 5/27/11, 9:13 AM
madAsHell said...: Why is Drudge making fun of this photo?

You're kidding!! She's demonstrating the size of the dildo she lost, and she wants Baracky to help her find it.

So....the DNC chair-person is supposed to solicit donations. Why would I gave anything to this shill shrew? .....well, I might pay her to go away.; 5/27/11, 9:25 AM
Penny said...: Today Wasserman Schultz says the GOP has an anti-women agenda because they want to defund planned parenthood. According to her, women are going to catch on to this, and that will be the end of any GOP attraction from women.

That's pretty funny in light of her comments yesterday about Obama and his Israeli speech. Confusing too? She was suggesting American Jews forget about that and to not make Israel a partisan issue. Almost as if she feared it might be the end of Jewish attraction to the DEMs.

I bet she plays a mean accordian. ha ha; 5/27/11, 10:05 AM
ErnieG said...: Frank Lloyd Wright, commenting on Louis Sullivan's line:

"'Form follows function' - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union."

Back in the '60s I lived a few blocks from Florida Southern College, in Lakeland. The campus was designed by Wright. It's a beautiful place, but the old library was full of head-knockers, as were the covered walkways between buildings. I commented at the time that Wright must have felt that one of the functions of architecture was to punish people for being too tall.; 5/27/11, 10:22 AM
James said...: I've only seen headshots of Wasserman Schultz previously but she could easily pass for Hillary Clinton's body double. I see pants suits in her future.; 5/27/11, 10:27 AM
Lipperman said...: FLW designs are impressive, and I really want to like them more. It's just that they're engineered for shit.; 5/27/11, 11:22 AM
Almost Ali said...: It's just that they're engineered for shit.

That's because his buildings are transformers. The structure pictured here, for example, could be a public library, a bridge, a government building. It could also sprout wings and become a wooden giant.

Wright's work was always in transit - never quite here, never quite there. Maybe if he had lived another 50 or 100 years...; 5/27/11, 4:12 PM