Malibu morning picture of the day - Thursday, October 23, 2014

Dear family, friends, and gentle readers,

Thursday's picture is here. It looks pretty much like yesterday, except a few clouds seem to have been added in, don't you think?

This secondary picture makes the sky look like a pool of water with ripples emanating out from the right; so instead of the water reflecting the sky, today the sky mimics the water.
















And I had to put in #3 today. I like this one because I thought the orange highlights dappled in the landscape and in the leaves above just made the whole thing pop and placed you in a specific location.











Another piece of the Barnsdall collection from Tuesday. The signature architectural piece on that park hilltop is Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright.

An FLW interior,
very Apollonian, eh?

When I think of FLW works, I think "Art Deco" but with  more class and less kitsch. I think these leaded-glass windows are the bomb. If you like organic shapes, you will not like FLW stuff. It's all about clean lines, balance and order. However, I think inspired landscaping around such structures are required. The arch and natural latticing that this tree branch presents in this elevation is just fab!

Hollyhocks, ick...

An Art Deco motif

Hollyhock House, strangely, does not have any hollyhocks planted around it. There were some in the backyard of the house that I grew up in and I find those plants to be quite creepy. They are taller than people, they have big ol' leaves that small animals hide behind. They're one of those plants that have "hairy arms," and when you approach them in very dim light, they look like alien Sci-Fi creatures with many eyes watching you. A perfect planting for a Halloween house.

An aside: Wright's stepson, Rupert Pole, was my 8th grade science teacher at King Jr. High, he also managed the projection crew guys. The man was tall, ruddy, chiseled, and  looked like a handsome movie-star cowboy and all the girls admired him. He was also "married" (that's the word the other teachers used, but they were live-ins) to the famous erotica writer Anais Nin and I remember girls in class giving him copies of Nin's books so that his wife would sign them. I did not realize my connection to such a famous family of "freethinkers" until many years later. And what were my 8th grade classmates doing with Anais Nin in their backpacks anyway? Mr. Pole was a very inspiring teacher, not just a pretty face. I'm pretty sure he gave me a B though--probably deserved a C.

That's all for today.

Love,

Pops

PS: It just occurred to me that if you are the lover of a writer of erotica, you REALLY have to live up to the name "Mr. Pole" don'tcha? Yuk yuk yuk!