A Great Time in Vegas

In case there was any doubt, there is still lots of bling for sale in Las Vega$. David took this picture at some shop in The Wynn. The bling hasn't really come down in price either. Depression nothwithstanding. Do you recognize that person reflected in the Beyond-the-Sea's-Mirages Mirror? Yes, that's right, it's Jack Lemmon.
























Quiche for breakfast. David and Kevin have a fabu new kitchen, which we happily invaded.



















Steven is not nearly as good at bowling as he is at volleyball. But it sure makes him happy! The Red Rock Casino Lanes were extremely deluxe.



Thanks for the pictures David! Steven will post ours soon..

Packing Light

Look how light Mom pack for her trips!





We are all excited to go to the grand opening of my project at the Ohio Statehouse tomorrow. We have a full day planned, opening at 10, lunch at THIS marvelous place, afternoon at the Wexner to see the Coop Himmelblau exhibition. Oh la la.

Don Quixote, Updated

And other pictures from Saturday, courtesy the brand spanking new Nikon D90.

Don Quixote, lookin all fresh with his Elton John circa '74 glasses and OU girl pink hat. Forget that helmet, dude.

Look at what this fabulous camera will do!! If it could only trim nosehairs...

Laiyee gave us some fresh tarragon and thyme we used with this chicken yesterday. with some black sesame seeds and yum yum

teeny, tiny flowers

lunch leftovers of chicken, avec pasta, cream, butter, wine, and parmesan... and champers. for dinner

Wake up! *i could use a shave*

and so could this

Bob and Laiyee had made $700 by noon yesterday when we stopped by to see their yard sale. It was a scream to watch Bob in action driving hard bargains with the OU kids. Bob told us they'd already cleaned out the cash and stashed it several times as i was taking this photo.

Tin Tin wondering why all these strangers are showing up today?? What's all this fuss?

Washington Street, home of beloved Donkey Coffee

A Big Party, Some Old Classmates, and Couture!

So, the other day i joined Facebook (find me there by email address: trotsky64@yahoo.com ), so that i could join the Georgia Tech College of Architecture Alumni Association. Seems this year marks the 100th anniversary of the CoA's founding (Georgia Tech itself was founded 23 years earlier in 1886). Anyhow, on April 25, a HUGE PARTY is in the works to celebrate the past 100 years, and to toast the next 100 years of the Architecture program, and the entire art school that is the CoA at Georgia Tech. It encompasses Architecture, City Planning, Industrial Design, Building Construction, and, after I was gone, sometime in the 90s Music was added to the College. I can't believe i'm actually excited about an alumni event. Well, it's YOUR fault Dawn!! hehehe.

I really had such an incredibly great time at Georgia Tech. Physics, Calculus, Statics and Mechanics, and all the other horrible flotsam and jetsam required by the core curriculum aside, the experience of the studios and the process of being juried constantly was something so relevant, vital, and nurturing to me. Even endearing. I had the great benefit of being surrounded by alot of talent in my peers, and in the professors, many of whom are still there today, more than 20 years after i left the program. So many wonderful friends i made then, and it's hard seeing so little of them. I can't wait to spend a few days with them all.

In my work today, pin-ups are totally a part of the process, clients can and do question my process and decisions just as George Johnston or Alan Balfour did (however the clients do it in much less fabulous ways), and i still find that i gleefully grope my way through each design process in an intuitive--and yes, totally ADHD--way, hungrily and mercilessly looking for inspiration in the wierdest, wackiest, and most silent of places. And though no one i work with ever pulls a Jennifer Bloomer "why don't you just get a job in a department store?" the back and forth can often be, shall we say, lively. I love that. And i love coming up with wacky visitor experience ideas that just blows clients away. That is the real difference for me, between working in the museum world vs. the world of everyday architecture. The clients, generally, are not focused on function, cost, and blunt everyday exigencies. They more care about meaning, communication, and subtlety. Mostly they are curators and scholars, who have their entire lives--or at least very large chunks of it--invested in the subject matter that I am tasked with bringing to life in a one hour immersive environment or museum visit.

So, i've been reflecting on it all in the past few days. I pulled an Alan Balfour book (that Dawn gave to me years ago) off the shelf this morning to show to Steven and try to give him some sense of the wonderful thinker and communicator Balfour is, and out fell some essay i wrote on the Italian architect of the Fascist period, Guiseppe Terragni... which i proceeded to read aloud to him... poor guy! I have to say that i am so glad i moved out of architecture and into exhibit and interpretive design. I now feel like i am a thinker and a communicator first, and a designer second, and that is completely one hundred and eighty degrees away from my experience working in architecture. But it is parallel to my experience at Georgia Tech.

Steven will join me of course, and we have to figure out what the heck we will wear. These Beaux Arts Balls come with alot of pressure to be waaaaaaay over the top, out there, completely crazy and creative, and, of course, fabulous. Suggestions? Here is some precedent to ponder:




























































































Maybe i should just go for the Pats look?









I am really looking forward to going back to Atlanta for this. I've been in touch with sooooo many classmates on Facebook, and today, i scanned some photos from one of the Beaux Arts Balls I went to waaaaaay back in the day, 1987. Check it out:







And don't ask me what that costume was about... something about Thomas Jefferson, but i had on shorts too. Who the heck knows what i was thinking.

Goodbye City Life!

So, my fabulous, creative, beautiful French friend Marianne lives in this place. She sold her beautiful Paris Pad and moved here in the country to make art projects and live the beautiful, relaxed country life. It is in the beautiful (i'll stop with that word now) south of France, in the midi-Pyrenees, and the river has almost come to the door recently she reports. I had read about the horrible weather there recently, and a school that collapsed in Barcelona during the storm.

But anyhow, doesn't this place look inviting?? She says the work to make it livable is overwhelming, and that when it rains little pots must be placed everywhere. Boy of low culture that i am, I was wont to make Green Acres analogies, but, alors, I refrained.

For John Michael

I'm ready for Pats and Eddie to give me some dancing lessons in their basement:



Recently, in Montreal, Steven and I checked out a few screamingly loud gay bars dans le Village, but neither of us ever danced. In one place we felt too old (L'Aigle Noir), in another we were decidedly too young (the Stud), in still another (Gotha Lounge) we were just right, but spend all our time chatting... i'm reminding myself of the advice i just gave to john michael. It always works for me to pretend i'm someone else, like say, Edina Monsoon, channel that person, and then move as they would move (because the person I am just never dances anymore!). JM's got friends giving him dancing lessons in his basement! Doesn't that sound like fun?

It's Bloody Hell Being a Goddamned Domestic Goddess!

Nigella's Bundt Cake recipe, reinterpreted for baby shower tomorrow. Girlfriend's WORE OUT. Yawn. There'd better not be more than 23 at this clambake tomorrow, or we won't be able to let someone eat cake, Marie. That's counting the exclamation point dear.

Gee, I Love the Internet.

I went to graduate school at Georgia Tech with the red head in the above video... I haven't seen him since i bumped into him at a gay bar named the Heretic in Atlanta, more than 10 years ago. Apparently he is doing a gig in NOLA as a videographer/design critic/culture snob! I miss Brad, wish we hadn't fallen out of touch.

Fall & Friends

Last Saturday we went to Howard Ohio with our new friends
Jim & Ben to a small farm with a bunch of folks making apple butter. It was a BLAST! And we have some apple butter in our pantry now for later this winter. Have a look:

Our Third Annual Glasshouseworks Garden Party

We love all these Athens Folk!

Picnic in the Woods

While Mom & BC were here, we got to go to Bob & Laiyee's woods and have a picnic one night. We had lots of good stuff: Laiyee made potato salad, fresh pineapple, and some wonderful pesto deviled eggs topped with shrimp; and we made tomato, avocado and grilled chicken sandwiches and a yummy cheesecake.

L & B have a beautiful 16 acres that is right in town (they are just up the hill from us), so they can walk into town, but still have the beauty of the woods, streams, and all the moss-covered boulders around their cliff. Next time, we'll take pictures of the cliff too, it's gorgeous!

It's a Jungle Out There!

After our few days in Confluence, PA--where we visited two Frank Lloyd Wright chef d'oeuvres, Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob--we went to Pittsburgh for 24 hours or so. We happened to have dinner in the hotel hosting the 2008 ANTRHOCON. Mom, BC, and JingXia could not believe their eyes I think. Steven and i were ready to be outfitted with tails. Not.

Check Steven's blog shortly for pics of the trip.

The Berry Vest

We went to the Vest Farm yesterday with Laiyee and Bob and picked strawberries and peas. It was really fun, and a beautiful time to go, around 7 in the evening. The supertitle on the roadsign is "the berry vest" ... i'm not nearly that creative. Laiyee took some great photos! Comments are welcome on my man boobs. Aren't they coming along nicely?