Vladimir Kagan's Blog

Zaha Hadid’s London

 

Copyright October 31, 2011

 

Zaha Hadid and I have been friends for many years… long before she became an icon. I met Zaha when she was building the controversial Fire House for Vitra, (the Avant Garde furniture manufacturer located in Weil am Rhine Germany). I, at the time, was working with Alexander VonVeggesack, the director of the Vitra Museum. Vitra was my first breakthrough into the rarefied world of museums when they purchased a number of my designs for their permanent collection.

 

Zaha Hadid's fire Station at the Vitra factory in Weil am Rhine, Germany - 1994

I had always admired Zaha’s edgy work - her thinking outside of the box - her tenacity in sticking to her guns… She stood out as an uncompromising believer in the unlimited possibilities of architecture… Not the straightjacket version of the 20^th Century… but a vision of the fluid movement that is defining the 21^st Century.

Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art Center - Cincinnati, Ohio - 2003

 

Zaha’s career has been a tumultuous road to the top. Influential and groundbreaking, many of her designs were initially never built. Her work remained theoretical and mostly unknown except in the esoteric world of academia. Until 2004… when she reached the pinnacle of the architectural world: the first woman ever to receive The Pritzker Prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Noble Prize. Since then she has received many more awards, retrospective exhibits and was ranked 69^th on the Forbes list of “The world’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and ranked the world's 100 top thinkers in Time Magazine's 2010 list of the world's most influential people.  

          

Left: rendering for Abu Dhabi Performing Art Ceentre, UAE - Right: Spiralling Tower, Barcelona, Spain

Since Pritzker, she has become awash in major commissions around the World. Zaha runs a tight ship and her architectural firm – Zaha Hadid Architects - is over 300 people strong. She manages her time carefully, but in spite of this enormous success, Zaha finds time for old friends. She is an elegant lady that could well be on the Best Dressed 100 list. Our lunch with Zaha was certainly one of the great pleasures of our London visit and being in town for the opening of her latest achievement, the Roca London Galleries was indeed fortuitous.

 

The Roca London Gallery - opened last week - Roco is a Spanish manufacturer of bathroom fictures

 ••••

And finally, our luncheon with Zaha at Wollseys... a fashionable eatery on Picadilly in London

Lunch with old friends; Michael and Jenny Barraclough, Erica, my sister Tanya, Zaha and me

A special hug for old time's sake 

 

 

 

Two Museum Exhibits in London

Where Else But In London!

Copyright Vladimir Kagan October 2011

 

Only in London can you find two totally disparate art exhibits derived from the same subject: Art created by disturbed minds. 

One is low key and probably missed by 99% of the museum going public: THE MUSEUM OF EVERYTHING AT SELFRIDGES, (the clever upscale department store that is taking some of the wind out of Harrods’s sails).  This show is hailed as Britain’s only home for unintentional, untrained and undiscovered artists – (this is Exhibit #4), featuring 400 works from studios for artists with developmental and other disabilities. It is not simply an art show, it is a creative revolution led by some of the world’s most invisible makers, creating images both abstract and through perceived realism – some bordering on great – all expressing their inner disturbances.

 The other is at the vaunted V&A (Victoria & Albert) Museum, attempting to define POSTMODERNISM: Style and Subversion 1970 - 1990. Unlike the invisible creators of the EVERYTHING show… this exhibit is laced with celebrity names such as Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, Karl Lagerfeld, Ettore Sottsass, Jeff Coons, Charles Jencks, Michael Graves and many, many more.

 

Both shows see the world through a distorted lens.

 

Selfridge’s curatorial and decorating staff created a deliberately down-scale environment in a dilapidated setting reminiscent of the artist’s own working milieu; small stalls devoted to one or two artists, obliging the viewer to delve deeper into their complex expressions.

The V&A’s exhibit is a lavish affair meandering over many levels and into cubicles, some cavernous - others small and intimate. Some vividly colorful and awash with blaring music, others in subdued tones to fit the apocalyptic expressions of the artists.

 

Throughout the ages, art has transitioned through different mood-sets: The Renaissance following Byzantium, German Impressionism after the First World War and Abstract Expressionism after the Second War and. Each has left its impact and the world has moved on.

 

Postmodernism is no different. Itcelebrated disenchantment, but it ignited a creative spark - a laser-beam that shines into the future. These were the visionaries of the 70’s and 80’s but their impact is felt in the 21^st Century.

Modern: had become stale – infatuated with itself, drowned in its own abundance and self-aggrandizement. Creativity needed a jolt and the Postmodernists gave it just that. Their radical, often grotesque deformation of the accepted (a German world best describes it as gewolt – belabored) moved us into a more creative free-spirited interpretation for the 21^st Century.

 

I have been an early devotee of deconstructionist design. It has obliged me to think outside of the box - stimulating new solutions and aesthetics. My first encounter with this new philosophy was Frank Gehry’s edgy Vitra Museum and Zaha Hasid’s Fire House for the same complex.(It was also the begining a wonderful friendship with Zaha.) In Prague I saw the exaggerated treatment of The Dancing House named Vltava, by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic. It is the most striking, and famous, modern building in the Czech capital. In Vienna we discovered Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who started as a painter in the early 1950s, however, increasingly became focused on architecture. In 1972 Hundertwasser created a controversial housing complex advocating “natural forms of decay”. He attempted to demonstrate his ideas of forested roofs; he called "tree tenants" and the "window right" of every resident to embellish the facade around his windows. In these buildings Hundertwasser developed new shapes, such as the "eye-slit" house and the "high-rise meadow house"… Interesting, provocative and an eye to the still to be defined green movement in building. He was a visionary…. albeit a crazy one. In the same timeframe I met Charles Jenks in Scotland and saw his magnificent manipulations of the landscape.... these were all eye opening moments for me.

 

I still live by my dictum that if a design is to be good, function must be its driving force… I am not a devotee of change for the sake of change!

P.S.

Sadly we barely had time to see the delightful little chez d’oeuvres titled THE POWER OF MAKING,at the V&A... a wonderful gem celebrating craft, materials and technology…. We'll allow more time -Next visit!

 

 The neon sign that welcomes you into the V&A's massive exhibit of Postmodernism

Grace Jones' Maternity Dress

Super Lamp by Martin Bedin

Disrupted columns by Hans Holleims

The Memphis gang carousing for a potrait

james Wines deconstructed architecture for Best Products in Houston, Texas

Multi-media display with Grace Jones andLaurie Anderson accompanied by the blaring music of the time

Magis Proust's parody on two Vivtorian chairs for Capelini - Ettore Sottsass' playful bookcase for Memphis

 

 

The Museum of Everything at Selfridges

  

A melange of images from the Everything Museum at Selfridges

••••••••

 

MY CONVERSION TO DECONSTRUCTIONIST DESIGN

Frank Gehry's Vitra Museum - inside and out

 

Zaha Hadid's Fire House at the Vitra Museum

 

The Dancing House in Prague                        Hundrertwasser's controvercial nature houses 

  

Charles Jenks' manipulated landscaped

A Mid-Summer’s Tale

 

 

Thunder – Lighting, Hail and Brimstone

Copyright Vladimir Kagan October 26, 2011

 

Reprinted from the October issue of the Nantucket Yacht Club magazine" Soundings"

 

A lone Cat Boat before the storm

Nantucket sailors are a hardy bunch… nothing will deter them. To close out the July One Design Series, a full quorum of Alerions, Indians, Rhodes, Marshal Cats and Beatles went out to the starting line under a heavy blackened sky. Our beloved P.R.O. (Professional Race Officer) Mark Beal took us to his favorite corner of the racecourse, down between second and third point.

 

Frequent thunder and lighting was heard and seen out to the North…far, far away… (Or was it?) We were sure it would bi-pass us, and so, obviously did the Race committee. “Get at least one race in before the end of the month!” But they were wrong. The weather bore down on us with vengeance. It came in from the North and the West and converged over Coatue.  

 

A wild dash to the beach

On the beach trying not to see the lightning

The Alerions had a head start and safely made it to the bar before the sky opened up. The Cat Boats had their reunion up harbor away from the first brunt of it… but could not escape to safe ground. Some crews just ducked under the safety of their cozy cabins a-waiting to be fried by the first lightning strike. (John and Jonas Everets had the sagacious foresight to ground their aluminum mast by wrapping their anchor chain around it and dropping it into the sea.) The Indians, Rhodes and Beatles were not as lucky. Illya and I finished the race, (it was on our way home so lets at least go through the finish line.) It was a light wind drifter, winds coming out of the Northeast with Spinnaker out in front. As the sky blackened, I suggested we douse and moments later the wind turned 180% and blew thirty and more. Our mast, though of wood, is emblazoned with a bronze track and steel cables to lead any lighting bolt down upon us. I have always been in terror of Thunderstorms; Illya said, in a serious tone, that in his 42 years he had never experienced anything like it. “We will either survive or perish: a 50/50 chance”. We made a dash for the Coatue shore; I drove the boat hard onto the beach, not bothering to anchor. Though I can barely walk, Illya said that I dashed off the boat like a gazelle and dove into the sand as far away as possible. Soon afterwards other boats started to beach next to us, exponentially increasing our chances of a lighting strike. Jotham Tausig stepped off a Rhodes and stood there in his full 6’ - 6” height, gaping at the spectacle that was playing out all around us. I nearly had to tackle him to get his lanky body flat onto the sand. First the rain and then the hail and finally a continuous cacophony of deafening thunder with lighting in instant succession. I lay on my belly, burying my head to avoid seeing the carnage, Illya, Gregory and Annabelle Fowlkes, who followed us ashore, lay facing up and marveling at the “son et lumier” show unraveling in front of their eyes. As quickly as it came it blew over. Within fifteen minutes all returned to normal. Although wet, cold and shivering, I declined a quick ride home and happily steered Korduda back to homeport and the non-existing “Kagan Cheese” delights that usually await us after a Saturday race day. (I guess Peter Meacham thought we were lost forever). Miraculously, no one was hit and from a near tragedy, the event became an experience to relate and embellish for the cocktail party circuit for years to come. “The Day we nearly perished on Coatue!”

 

 

Airlines

Copyright Vladimir Kagan October 21, 2011

 

They nearly always get it right…. Don’t they? Well, nearly always? Or do they? …What NEVER?

Well hardly ever!

 

(It’s all about passenger comfort)

 

In fact they haven’t gotten it right since the days of the old Constellations …. That beautiful four-engine prop plane with a tripod tail and sloping nose. In those days all they did was replicate a Pullman Sleeping Car with bunks - two tiers high, enclosed by a sliding curtain. You could sleep fully stretched out, without the nonsense of gadgets.

 

A Constellation in flight - jet flights were still eons away 

Airlines “wanna” charge more for less. That’s O.K… in these troubled times… making a buck is fair game. Obama wants to harvest the rich, so why not the airlines! Nowadays more people, bigger planes, higher fuel costs translates into design teams concocting more ways to jam people into the least space. How do they go about it? Simple: make it less comfortable for the common folks and over luxuriated for the willing to pay.

 

Today you are cursed if you do and cursed if you don’t. If you can’t afford an upgrade, you sit in steerage: cramped into narrow seats 10 abreast -  no leg room and perhaps 3% reclining possibility. For overnight flights it is a night in hell. But don’t envy the upper classes…. they get their money’s worth in gadgetry and are at the mercy of high "faluting" design teams who just can’t seem to get it right. (In recent years we have fallen into the second category, as both Erica and I, with our infirmities, find it is impossible to fly steerage…. In hindsight, steerage wasn’t all that bad; flights were half empty and if you didn’t mind sitting in the back of the “Bus” you often found three or four seats in a row to stretch out in)…. It was better than any Business or First Class seats. Now a’ days with airline alliances (if you believe their diatribe, they are there to enhance the experience of the flying public…ha, ha!.... just try to find that empty row of seats!)

 

So what do they do to make you feel loved? They’ve added extra leg and shoulder room. They gave us concealed trays, pop-up TVs, phones with complex push-button systems for selecting your favorite movie, sit-com or sports program. They have placed these gadgets in obtuse locations, (Just like the toilet paper roll that is placed directly behind the seat to conceal an unsightly necessity.) You must be a contortionist to reach them….They have contrived to serve cafeteria quality meals with real cloth napkins, stainless cutlery and china. The booze flows freely to make you forget how much you are paying for these trivial pleasures. But don’t pity us up front… it’s not all bad… We had generous views out of the windows; We were within handholding distance of our spouse and you really felt good reclining in your electrically activated armchairs.

 

 But good was not good enough. This luxurious seating configuration provided only 85% reclining, which slanted downhill so at the end of the flight you had slipped closer to the floor. Then God’s anointed design teams got into the act. Now things really got screwed up… Privacy became the buzzword. Passengers are given their own cubicle. To these they’ve added automotive styling… the more curvaceous the better (they really must think streamlining the interior will give better millage.)     All amenities are molded into this cocoon (just like a prefab bathtub and shower enclosure). Everything that was once conveniently located is now crammed into this space with total disregard for human ergonomics.

 Virgin Atlantic's cocoons for sleeping... Can you see a single passenger to talk to? neither could I.... the little stools are foot rests... however, if you want to talk to your wife or friend, that is where you must sit to face them!

As you, my readers already know, this week we flew to London (on Virgin Atlantic), the super chic airline that Richard Branson created. Mr. Branson, not to be outdone in the world of aviation, recently initiated Virgin Galactic, a division that offers the first private shuttle flights into outer space.

Virgin Galactic's space shuttle in flight

(He and his designers think that we are all potential space cadets and is prepping us for this ultimate experience.) Instead of his lumbering 747’s where Upper Class meant climbing up the steps, a little closer to heaven, he has acquired an efficient fleet of Airbus 340-300’s where Upper Class alludes to the diagonal cattle stalls (complete with “milking stools” that ingeniously convert into a flat beds replete with sheets, duvee, pillows and pajamas) This sounds luxurious. In Actual fact, it feels like being strapped to a hard surfboard in a straight-jacket for five hours, unable to see anything but the ceiling lights and the television buried into the side wall. He has eliminated the windows. All seating faces inward (perhaps avoiding vertigo in the outer space experience.) Lighting dims smoothly to naught and at its peak is the equivalent of a luxury restaurant (you still need a flashlight to see the menu). In these cocoons, no one faces each other…(Heaven forbid that there might be eye contact between passengers) “Spouslings” are thus separated as strangers.

 

Sleep? What’s that? If you happen to snooze for a few moments, the kindly flight attendants tiptoe through the cabin assuring that your seat-belt is properly fastened… this is generally enough to wake you…. if you are not strapped… this action whips you up with a jolt....

In spite of this, it’s not all bad… the flight attendants were kindly, attentive and helpful and the pilot’s smooth landing kissed the ground…. Mr. Branson really knows how to innovate!

 

 

Crafting Modernism

The MAD Museum’s new show 

 17 years in the planning

 

A tribute to the 

Heroes of Post-Word War II Modernism 

 

Copyright Vladimir Kagan October 15, 2011

 

 

As Memphis was the catalyst for Post-Modernism in the 80’s,…. the 40’s and 50’s swept away the cobwebs of the depression and pre-war era doldrums in design.

 

Design was not a criterion in the America of the 20’s and 30’s. We were enmeshed in flappers, speakeasies, and gangsters…. Germany and Austria, in the same period fostered the Bauhaus, it’s incisive impressionist art, the Deutche and Wiener Werkstätte creating cutting edge objet and crafts. (They also found time to create Hitler.)

 

This vacuum of creativity abruptly changed when America emerged out of a torturous World War II. It was The Spring for a new era. Creativity abounded everywhere. (This was not the product of a single group of likeminded, talented designers and architects sipping warm Italian wine in a studio in Milan – dreaming up a new design movement that became the media event called Memphis.) The American Post-war movement was a grassroots happening that permeated the country coast to coast. Artisans, woodworkers, ceramists, weavers, glass blowers, painters; worked independently, motivated by their enthusiasm for change. This was the awakening that fostered the new post-war modern…. Some wanted to change how the world lives and created Life Style concepts, others were motivated to bring good design to the public through mass production, still others wanted to express their exuberance through hand crafts and individualism. This was a phenomenon that meshed together in an exuberance of color, textures, materials and blossomed into what we now call Mid-Century Modern.

 

The MAD MUSEUM (The Museum of Arts & Design) previously named The American Craft Museum and prior to that the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, had been germinating the theme of this exhibit for over 17 years, as the fourth in a series of exhibitions that looked at the history of craft in the twentieth century. It took the curatorial team of Jennifer Scanlan and Jeannine Falino four years to assemble the treasures exhibited in this show. What gives this exhibit a lift from all its predecessors is its all-inclusiveness - capsuling all the arts into one glorious exhibit: Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design.

 

The show occupies the 4^th and 5^th floor of the newly rebuilt MAD Museum located at 2 Columbus Circle. There are 195 objects on exhibit, from the iconic Charles Eames leather and plywood lounge chair, to Wendell Castle’s sculptured music stand, George Nelson’s Bench, the team of Gertrud and Otto Natzler’s delicate lava ceramic bowl, fabric by Dorothy Liebes, as well as Irving Harper, paintings by Henry Pousette-Dart and gouaches by Alexander Calder. Silver vessels by Hans Christensen, exquisite one of a kind hand-made cabinets, (one cleverly incorporating a rocking crib) by Tommy Simpson and Sam Maloof, a mass-production wire and fabric Chairs by Harry Bertoia and a bentwood easy chair by Eero Saarinen and there is a sensitively carved rocking chair also by Sam Maloof. And finally, a mosaic tile table that I designed in 1955,… the list is endless and impossible to illustrate in my Blog. Fortunately, Abrahams has published a magnificent catalog that is a must for all Mid-Century aficionados. This is a show not to miss. (And if you are a Kagan fan, be sure to visit the hip restaurant Roberts on the 9th floor and sit in all of my luscious sofas!)

  Harry Bertoia's 1952 Lounge Chair for Knoll is a typical example of high style for mass produced furniture

Wendell Castle's delicately carved music stand is the antithesis of a mass production design 1964

Sam Maloof's 1968 exquisite infant's cabinet is a typical example of fine studio furniture

George Nelson's bench for Herman Miller was the quint essential design for a mass market 1946 - 67

Dorothy Liebes managed gracefully to hurdle between being a custom loom weaver to designing textiles for major fabric companies... she wove many fabrics for my 50's furniture combining lurex line, wool, and cotton freely in her designs. This is a sample board representing fabrics from 1948 - 68

I have always admired the works of silversmiths... originality, sensitivity, precision. this coffee pot by Hans Christensen 1960 is a perfect example (still, I'm not certain how well the handle works in pouring)

Gertrude and Otto Natzler worked in California, but I carried their bowls in my shop on 57th Street. This is an exquisite example of their earthenware crater bowls 1956

Surrealist art was just taking off, this is a gouache on panel by Richard Poussette-Dart painted in1950

Surealism didn't stop with painting, furniture makers took up the concept and made mad crazy furniture. This two legged cabinet by Tommy Simpson was created in 1968

While I was best known for my amorphous sculptured chairs and tables, this trim architecturally inspired  mosaic coffee table represented the flip-side of my design philosophy and has been in my home ever since 1955

 

The MAD Museum 2 Columbus Circle, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. Thursday and Friday from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
.

Closed Mondays and major holidays

 

A brief History of the new MAD Museum

15 years ago, Holly Hochner, the energetic director of the Museum, had a vision – A museum that not only celebrated crafts, but the craftsmen and women not always seen, the designers, the broader spectrum that make up the Arts and Design. She campaigned tirelessly to take over and rebuild a derelicts Landmark building that housed the defunct Huntington Hartford Museum and lay dormant for the past 30 years.) It was her vision and vigor that oversaw the mammoth transformation of the Edward Durrell Stone’s mid-century façade into a slick modern marble clad building, much better suited for a museum’s use. The renovation has provided the museum with much needed additional space. (It was a controversial achievement in the face of severe historical criticism and it is somewhat ironic that today, in the museum’s new show, it is celebrating the same midcentury spirit that inspired Mr. Stone). While many lamented the loss of the pierced concrete screening, it is clearly evident that the building is a new landmark on one of New York’s most significant sites: Columbus Circle. It is a statement for the 21^st century…. The MAD museum opened three years ago and has changed everyone’s view of how to look at Art that is Craft - that is Design.

 

The original Huntington Hartford Museum by Edward Durell Stone 1964

The rebuilt MAD Museum on Columbus Circle 2011

 

 

 

 

My Irish Roots

 

 

(Or how I kissed the Blarney Stone)

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, October 11, 2011

A report on

The Second Annual Art and Craft Exhibit at the

American Irish Historical Society 

 

   Like our president Barack Obama, I am herein establishing my deep Irish roots researched via bona fide genealogical resources.

 This all came about because last Thursday night was the opening of a most prestigious exhibit titled “dubh / dialogues in black” originated by STUDIO Practice and hosted by the American Irish Historical Society: An exhibit of contemporary objects featuring works by Irish designers and artists in dialogue with their American peers.

 

…. It was established that generations ago, my father’s family landed on the Irish shores via the Spanish Armada… these people were referred to over the centuries as Black-Irish…not for the color of their skin but of their hair. Our name originally was apparently Keegan and it became bastardized to Kagan with the Irish migration to America. Vladimir started out as Laddie, a nicely acceptable boy’s name, but became confused at Ellis Island where so many names of the refugees were Eastern European and were unceremoniously shortened: first to Lad, then to Vlad and finally to Vladimir. I kid you not…. This is all in the records! 

 **** 

Well, now you realize why I have been invited to participate in this important show. The exhibit, as last year’s, included a wealthy mix of media from textile, paper, wire, ceramic, glass, and wood, high-tech materials, such as carbon fiber down to Fiberglas.

The mysterious title of the exhibit “dubh” is a Gaelic word describing black or dark…. This theme was freely interpreted in the works exhibited.

It is a small compact show worthwhile visiting, both for the beauty of it’s setting and the elegance of the works. (If you time your visit wisely, you can have lunch at the Metropolitan Museum before or after! 

 

Here are some of my favorite works…. (The photos scanned from the show’s beautiful hard-cover catalog are exquisite… my iPhone photos fall short of expectation but give you a flavor of the show.

There was less furniture and more decorative art; being a furniture maker myself, I love Joseph Walsh’s work; a magical ribbon table created out of figured ash and carbon fiber. We saw his chair last year, but this time the Enignum Chair II was reinterpreted in a combination of ash with a black graphite finish and with a silver coated copper textile for a very tactile seat and back.

 

Joseph Walsh's magical bent-wood coffee table of figured Ash and Carbon Fiber

Walsh's 2011 version of his Enignum II chair

Jury Smith’s sculptures are always a favorite of mine. Her gray and red ceramic river stones shapes called Scope are made of coiled ceramic. 

 

Jury Smith's sophisticated ceramic "stones" titled Scope

A computer generated necklace by Douglas Bucci (the process is called rapid prototyping)

 

Kevin O’Dwyer created a fascinating glass bowl… a cycle he calls the Below Sea Level Series

From our side of the Atlantic, I fell in love with Kate Cusack’s imaginative use of common zippers into exotic jewelry.

 

Zippers plus a fertile imagination are the only ingrediants of these jewels by Kate Cusack

An old friend, Nancy Koenigsberg, turned out to be the creator of some intricately woven pigmented steel mesh into a semi-mobile table-top sculpture titled Zig.

Renewing a friendship of forty years ago, Nancy Koenigsberg deomstrated her delicate mesh weaving

Rebecca Yaffe and Laura Mays (Yaffe Mays), a partnership of two women furniture makers showed, what I call a great sense of “black-humor” A chair best suited for a Ghost emerging out of a coffin at Halloween. If you want to take this chair seriously, it is call Personhood, assembled out of slabs of American Black Walnut.

Rebecca Yaffe and Laura Mays showed a great sense of humor in a chair inspired by a coffin... the haloween ghost is about to jump out of the seat any time now!

My humble contributions are two designs: one, a limited edition Fiberglas Chair titled The Annecy Chair, designed for Ralph Pucci International, in an anthracite finish and an original vintage floor lamp called The Signet Lamp sculpted in Black America Walnut. These two designs represent my work, separated by a fifty-two year time-span. The Lamp from 1957 - the Chair 2009.   

 

Me, admiring my Fiberglas Chair for the Ralph Pucci Collection

A more glamorous photo of my Annecy Chair in Fiberglas designed in 2009

My Signet Floor Lamp is 54 years old and still cuting edge modern

So much for the exhibit!…. If you believed my Irish Heritage story, I am certain that I can interest you in a bargain: The Brooklyn Bridge has often been for sale, but this time it is true! The recent Wall Street Protests have shown the vulnerability of the bridge; the planned tollbooths are no longer viable; maintaining security has become very expensive for the NYPD. The city, trying desperately to raise funds for needed projects has put the bridge up for sale… here is your opportunity to pick up a bargain. Trust me, I make no commission on this transaction!

 

A parting shot.... Erica and I with Mark Bench, the leprechaun God-father of the show
 

dubh; dialogues in black

October 7th to November 13th, 2011

American Irish Historical Society

991 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10028-0101

(212) 288-2263

Hours: Thursday - Sunday 10 AM - 5 PM

Wednesday by appointment only 

 

 

Memories of “The Upper Peculiar”

Memories of “The Upper Peculiar”

Copyright Erica Wilson-Kagan October 2, 2011

 

An essay Erica had written over forty years ago…Vladimir

 

 

It’s taken me 20 years, but after traveling with snake oil in the form of needlework lessons to all the main arteries of America such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Cleveland and Atlanta, at last I am beginning to penetrate the smaller veins…. places like Great Falls, Montana and Burt Lake, Michigan.

 

This is the world of O’Henry characters and rambling houses just like Mark Twain’s. Glimpses of the blue lake between birch, maple and pine and the chief preoccupation of the natives is how to keep the bats from nesting in the roof – an obviously impossible project, they’ve nested there for the last seventy years and no amount of sulfur candles or aluminum sidings is going to keep them out permanently.

 

The local postmistress is a knitting instructor who moved here from Detroit years ago. Since customers only come once every half hour or so she has plenty of time to concoct knitted dresses, evening skirts, Afghans and sweaters to send to craft magazines who sagaciously know the fashions their customers will like are those which were the dernier cri in the 30’s and 40’s.

 

Her friend is simply known as “He” – and “He” is the head of the Chamber of Commerce. “Hi He” she says as she picks up the phone, her dachshund “Terpie” barking excitedly round her legs when she comes home at sunset. You can appreciate the imaginative romanticism of Victorian architects when you look at the house, a dark silhouette against the northern lights. It stands on a knoll overlooking the lawn, the lilac trees and the lake. The round columned porch with its pixie-hat roof and various gables and angled windows were all designed with an appreciation of the beauty of the setting. The house may creak and crumble a little, but not its owner. Tall stalwart and grey, with the demeanor of a lion and heart of a lamb, she is like to “Petoskey” stones, those coral fossils you find on the lakeshore – granite hard with soft spots all over.

 

When she lets her hair down it falls, as her grandson says “to the bottom of her back” but she secures it firmly in a bun with large hairpins. She’s strong as an ox, and early American as the portrait labeled “Caroline” in the bottom of the big square wooden clock which sits on the mantelpiece.

 

You arrive in this “back of beyond” by way of what the young affectionately call “Pterodactyl Airlines”. Old shuddery prop planes that bump you down in what was once the largest airport in the United States (that was really before planes were invented, of course). Then you drive in the postmistresses’ equally venerable Cadillac through one small village after another. Looking on the map you see places like Sault St. Marie (pronounced soo Saint Marie) Traverse City and Wee-kwi-ton-sin with visions of log cabins, moccasined Indians making portages with their canoes. You drive over the new bridge toward Mackinaw Island where there are no cars…. only horses and buggies. This bridge leads to the Upper Peninsula, that part of Michigan known as the “Upper Peculiar” by those living down south. Someday I’ll go back and explore there…. It sounds intriguing. Meanwhile in the hustle and heat of New York City I’ll pause sometimes and pretend I’m a duck dabbling in the cool shade of the Indian River as it winds lazily down to the quiet shores of Burt Lake.