Floors and Ceiling (and Walls) of LA

As I was walking about the public buildings of LA with Paulette last May, my first thought was to take photos of the fabulous floors and celings and then create a coffe table materpeice showing off these same floors and ceilings. In the meantime, life intervened and I ended up spending a lot of time fixing a water pump and all I have left are the photos.

LA Public Library

Griffin Observatory Rotunda

Union Station, Lobby

The Bonaventure, Lobby Ceiling

LA Public Library, Childrens Reading Room Ceiling

LA Public Library, Teen Reading Room

LA Public Library, Lobby

Union Station, Lobby Ceiling

Newman Lake Cabin Porch

Another photo by Tom that captures the essence of a place.

Guess where...

the coolest public library (that I've been to lately) is. The Moorish themed art deco tower is a hint.

HiFi

Since I am apparently an expert, how about another foray into ultra-nerdom…the world of the hifi geek. I enjoy a respectable hifi setup as much as the next guy, but…it is possible to go too far. If the photos weren’t available you wouldn’t believe it. Most of this stuff looks like lab equipment (basically is) and has an equivalent price tag.

This was the device used to animate the monster in ‘Young Frankenstein’…and it plays CDs too!

Hello!...now that is a horn…looks like an eardrum destructifier to me. No really, an over the top but beautiful piece of audio technology and I’ll bet it sounds great.

What planet are we on now? Check out the speaker cables-you could run about 230kV through those.

Many audiophiles have specially designed ‘listening rooms’…cool…if only I’d gone to med school.

Only in Finland

A church built within a huge rock—wow! The Temppeliaukion Kirrko or ‘Rock Church’ was built in 1969 out of a block of solid granite. I’ve never been but now I know where to go if I should ever find myself in Helsinki. It’s suposed to have great acoustics-think Laser Floyd on an aurora borealis kind of night.

The Lofty

Why sleep on the floor when you can recline on the stainless steel ‘Lofty’. They have got to be kidding, I mean, it looks great, but aren’t humans supposed to use these things for relaxation? Form follows….nothing? It's enough to make me lose faith in nihilism.

Window Drops

Window Drops-a great idea! Just imagine what you could do with a large window to make it more interesting, especially on those gray winter days. Each set includes eight drops of various shapes and sizes The largest drop measures 5" x 2.5"; smallest drop is 2". All for just $13.

P.S. They suck! They don't look like the photo and won't stay on the window.

La Evolución

Way cool lighting…when can I get it at Target???

La Evolución provides an exceptional lighting experience to enhance the ambience of a living or work space. These wall-mounted light panels measuring 50×50 cms can be used as single units or can be clustered together to create a striking strip of light. The panels are available in primary basic colors or bearing works of contemporary artists, designers and photographer to create distinctive panels. The light panels are hand-moulded and the surface is polished crystal-clear composite resin.

Fallingwater

Nice house, now it’s some kind of museum-I’ve heard the roof leaks due to design flaws-so what. A few pots and pans to catch the drips and some strategically placed Squirrel Trophy Heads-killer crib-I'll take it.

"Give me the luxuries of life and I willingly do without the necessities." -- Frank Lloyd Wright

The plastic building...

…is where I live during the week. Some people don’t like it ‘cause it doesn’t fit in with the historic architecture on West Riverside--they do have a point. Taken by itself though, I think it’s magnificent and very cool. A splendid example of 70’s architecture and a building Spokane loves to hate. My daughter Kerry took the second pic to contrast the dark exterior with the flood of light within.

Yesterday Kerry took me down the stairs to the west of the building that lead the way into Peaceful Valley, an old, quaint neighborhood on the river. There were homeless kids (actually young adults, I suppose) living in the woods along the stairway. When we went back to the plastic building it felt very peculiar that they were in the woods and we were ‘safe’ in this plastic citadel.