I'm back?

Magnet #1318 - Change Your Life

So, I took a break for a month to figure out whether or not I was quitting on joy magnetism. The answer is, I don't know.

I bought this magnet from a dude outside of the Guggenheim (during a trip to the gift shop, not the museum), because it's definitely indicative of the last year for me.

I've been talking about the #funtimejoy initiative for a while, which is to make sure that I take advantage of every fun thing that comes my way, in order to make up for the lost funtime years of my late 20s and early 30s.

The trouble is, between architecture class, ziplining, the ballet, haunted houses, accidentally stalking Samuel L. Jackson, trips upstate, shopping trips, and just general carousing, being #funtimejoy is totally wearing me out! And all of the above? Was just in October. Oiy.

Anyway, I'm debating on whether or not to start tumblring joy magnetism, but for now, blogger will do. But here's what's odd...I've been blogging since February 22, 2008, but this October, even as I haven't posted a single magnet an entire month? Site traffic (which has never really been that high), has actually doubled.

What up with that?

LEGO Buildings and Lions - Escape Home to NYC, Part 2, Day 4

Magnet #1185 - LEGO

While I love LEGOs, I'm not like the hugest LEGO fan out there. I didn't really grow up putting them together, and played with them only once in a blue moon. In fact, I think that's why I have so much more fun with them now as an adult.

I inherited a LEGOs set at my old office, so when the kids come in, they'd playdate with me on my cube floor, and we'd build fun stuff. The box wasn't a full-on set, just randoms, so we'd really have to get creative with what we built.

Lemme tell you, if you think advertising creative folks are hard to get along with? Try getting in the way of a 4-year-old's LEGOvision.

If you've read anything from this blog, you know that I'm a big architecture buff, so of course, I'm loving all the architectural sets LEGO's released over the last couple of years. Naturally, my two fave sets are Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim and Fallingwater. I had so much fun putting them together - even as friends and family sat and wondered how old I was. Still. C'mon. They're superduper cool!

My other LEGO fave is the touring Towering Ambition architecture tour that we saw in Chicago. It's currently at the National Building Museum in DC, so if you get a chance to go, you must. It's a cityscape of tall and taller famous buildings from all around the world, all made of LEGO blocks. Freakin' fantastic. And don't even get me started on LEGOLand - I just walk around for ages looking at all of their outdoor diorama displays!

It's been a LEGO-filled weekend, too. Today, I finally braved the Rock Center crowds again to visit the store - they have a new tiny Andy Warhol display, which is superdupercute.

And this weekend, I basically hung out at the New York Public Library for their Centennial Celebration. They commissioned a LEGO artist to put together half-sized Patience and Fortitude, the library lions. Even with 60,000 pieces, they were a tad bit on the small side, but still, damned cool.

I just love my shot below of the awesome Library Lion, reading @MichelleKnudsen's Library Lion, flanked by the LEGO Library Lions. So funny.

It's like the Best. Shot. Ever.

The fourth dimension

Magnet #725 - Kandinsky's Several Circles

Last year, the Guggenheim did a pretty great retrospective on Kandinsky's work, and I learned a great deal more than I ever knew about his work, and the man, too. Good stuff.

One thing I didn't know was that Kandinsky was on the faculty at the Bauhaus in Germany, so he's included in the great, albeit crowded, exhibit at the MoMA.

My favorite of all his work, though, are his illustrations, his geometric drawings. They're amazing, and the closer in you get to the drawings (without having security breathing down your neck) the more details you can pull out. I could seriously spend hours looking at them, they're very cool, and make me want to break out the protractor and the ruler and some colored pencils. My drawings would never come out this way, but whatevs.

I picked up this magnetic bookmark the Guggenheim - and yes, I'm very afraid that we're branching into magnetic bookmarks, because all the museums have them, so I'm totally gonna have to start collecting them. Anyway, this is Kandinsky's Several Circles, which was prominent in much of his work. He just liked circles. And circles.

Here's why, according to the Gugg site:

“The circle,” claimed Kandinsky, “is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.”

Mind you, I haven't a clue what it means, I don't want to think about it, he lost me at synthesis. Oiy. Especially because I thought time was the fourth dimension.

Of course, that could be because I spend too much time watching Doctor Who.

Abstracts of visual vocabulary

Magnet #666 - Georgia O'Keeffe quote

This Georgia O'Keeffe quote magnet is one of that supercool artists quote set that I picked up from the Met earlier this year. It's a photograph of her taken by the love of her life, Alfred Stieglitz (yes, this time it's really by him) - which I saw in person today! Very cool.

I hung out with DCsister's godmother today, running around the Upper East Side, taking in the Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim, a French lunch at Demarchelier, the O'Keeffe exhibit at the Whitney, and a Rooster at Vosges. Fun day!

I know - I keep going to museum after museum, and there hasn't been an exhibition I haven't really enjoyed. But honestly, if you're good enough for me to recognize your work on sight, to see it in multiple galleries around the world, and you're truly masters of art, then, really, who the heck am I not to like it.

Who doesn't love learning more about the art and the artists, and seeing the master works of art in person. Even though I have magnet after magnet of these great works, there's nothing quite like giving security guards palpitations by sticking your nose five inches away from the canvas to investigate the brushstrokes, and dodging your head around other people's heads, standing five feet away to begin grasping the gestalt of each artists' visual vocabulary.

Yeah, that's right. Today I learned the term visual vocabulary - both the audio tour at the Gugg and the tour guide at the Whitney mentioned it. I won't lie - I'm completely untrained artwise, no classes, no seminars - so hearing the term visual vocabulary was new for me. For Kandinsky, it's his horses and geometric shapes. For O'Keeffe, it's her multifaceted layers of color and bold, sweeping shapes.

Today, Georgia's art - and the tour guide - made a lot more unknown known to me today - wandering around, I learned more about O'Keeffe's art, her life, her relationship with Alfred Stieglitz and her relationship with the public and their relationship to her art. If you get the chance, check out the guided tour of the exhibition - you get more out of that than the audio tour (something I rarely say).

Although, I don't mind saying, they have these superfun O'Keeffe toolboxes for kids to carry around, with crayons and flowers and a drawing notebooks. I would have rather plopped down and grab one of those toolboxes out of the cute kids' hands and start drawing - though my art of smiley faced suns and grassy with rainbows would be a far cry from Georgia's work hanging up on the Whitney walls.

Isn't that nifty, look who's 50!

Magnet #608 - 50th Anniversary of the Guggenheim

Huh. I'm wondering if Guggenheim New York is the title holder of the Most House Museum Magnets Owned By Joy.

Sooo, yesterday the Gugg was free, in honor of its 50th anniversary! I didn't get to go, but a friend of mine did, and he picked up this (of course) niftily-designed magnet. LOVE. From what I understand, the lines and the crowds were insane. I'm not surprised, the admission's pretty steep, so every time they open for free, the lines are literally around the block.

I'm sad not to have gone up especially to see the new Kapoor. And the Kandinsky exhibit, which is supposedly one of the few multi-piece exhibitions happening nowadays.

I read this article in Crain's New York Business that talked about how grand museum exhibitions are slowly falling to the wayside. It kinda makes me sad. It's great fun being able to see several works from one artist or oeuvre, all in one place. It's condensed knowledge and culture and genius in the confines of a few rooms.

I suppose I get it. The costs are prohibitive, indeed, several thousands just to insure one painting from one museum, let alone multiple pieces from multiple museums. And frankly folks aren't as willing to pony up the $20 for admission, and the extra $7 for the audio tour, all to have to wade through cramped spaces of humanity to squint from afar and between heads.

Ok, ok. I do get it. But I will miss it.

In the meantime, I can totally make do with seeing Vermeer's Milkmaid (twice!), and others of his oeuvre. Totally planning to do the MoMA's Monet exhibition - which is just their own Water Lilies in a while new room. And then, totally back to the Gugg, for the Kandinsky. I swear!

Frank's for the memory

Magnet #607 - The New Yorker Visits the Guggenheim, by Charles E. Martin

Oh, yeah. That pun was just for DCsis. And also, because it was just begging to be said.

Today in 1959, Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim opened for business!

To celebrate, admission is free! All day! Woot!

It's a work day! Boo!

Sigh.

Happy birthday, anyway, Guggenheim New York!


eta:
Actually, reading that article I linked to above, I totally have to go at some point, because they're unveiling Memory, a new work from Anish Kapoor - he's the guy that did the reflecty eggy in Chicago's Millennium Park, and the reflecty disc-y thing in Rockefeller Center a few years ago.

"Note: We are now in the domain of virtuosity, romance & symbolism."*

Magnet #526 - Frank Lloyd Wright's Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers

Picked this one up at BEA, again from the Pomegranate folks, and using this one for today, since we had a pretty good Frank Lloyd Wright day in Oak Park.

We spent the morning at the new Modern Wing, and then we booked it through an hour traffic to finally arrive at FLW's house and studio by 3:35pm...only to make our way toward the back of the gift shop to see the sign above their heads say, "Next Tour: Tomorrow" and hear the cashier explain to several people that they were sorry, but there were no more spots available.

You have to hand it to the guy - he was incredibly patient with the huffy visitors there - to the folks ahead of me, and to at least half a dozen more people asking for the tour while I was browsing the gift shop. I mean, telling people who traveled from states and countries all over that they couldn't see the one thing they had come for can't be an easy thing.

So, we didn't get to take the tour. And that's fine, that'll give me something to look forward to on my next trip out.

I did get to visit the little shop - though it was supertiny, they did carry the Gug and Fallingwater lego sets. And, shocker! I did walk out without them. The Gug is priced out at something like $45 - which would normally be ok for something like that, but the darn thing is seriously not taller than my hand! Crazy. And, the Fallingwater is also pretty cool, but priced at $100 and not all that much bigger than the Gug, I just couldn't justify the cost.

In the end, I picked up even more Pomegranate magnets, and an Oak Park area map that plotted the houses of FLW and his ilk, plus other important houses, and created our own drive-by tour.

*A handwritten note from a Louis H. Sullivan ornamental drawing, which really has nothing to do with this FLW magnet, or day, other than I just liked the lyricism and thought behind the turn of phrase.

Is FLW the new Monet?

Magnet #464 - Frank Lloyd Wright's City by the Sea

Here's one of the many (many, many, many, many) items I purchased today (at wholesale, thank God).

It's the City by the Sea design that FLW originally created in 1913 as a mural for the Midway Gardens in Chicago. Almost 50 years later, he brought back the design for the Music Pavilion at Taliesin West. It's supposed to be geometric forms abstracty image of a city skyline, complete with balloons and confetti of color.

Yes, I know - superbusy, huh. I bet it's even more awesome when you see it in person, as that guy did. (What a great Flickr photoset of Taliesin West!)

Anyway, this weekend was almost as busy as this magnet! Another weekend with terrific friends in town. Aside from visits to Burgers & Cupcakes (which I think has the best frosting in the city) and hanging out with fun friends, the Guggenheim and a trade show were my little highlights.

It feels like lately, more people have jumped aboard the FLW bandwagon, as his work over the past few years seems to be enjoying the same attention Monet did back in the 90s. Am I the only one to notice this?

Yesterday, I finally got to see the Gugg's FLW: From Within Outward exhibition. Words can totally not explain how terrific this was. It's their 50th anniversary, and this is the largest exhibition of his work - and is a fabulous tribute to his work - both built and unbuilt.

You basically start at the bottom of the rotunda, and wend your way upward, with separated out galleries for other segments of his work. The drawings are amazing, and coupled with slideshows of the works in real life. I'm totally going to have to go back, so that I can be that obnoxious person dwelling over all the drawings and models.

The models are amazing - particularly for the unbuilt works. Though, they had a model of my holy grail of buildings - the SC Johnson Wax headquarters. Yes, yes, I know all I have to do is go to Wisconsin to see it, but really, when was the last time you up and went, hey! I need to go to Wisconsin. So, sorry, Wisconsin, it'll have to wait a little bit longer. But, seriously. How cool is this lily pad great room? According to the Guggenheim audio tour, they almost didn't let him build it, because they didn't think the columns would hold. So he produced a test column, and put something like 60,000 tons of weight on it to prove a point, and they finally relented and let him build it.

And, yes, I could keep talking about this exhibit. But ya'll should all go. I'm just sayin'.

So, the other big highlight this weekend, was BookExpo America, which is just a big publishing tradeshow. That was fun, because I could pretend I was back in the industry, caring about books and literature and pub dates and distribution, and authors and backlists, etc.

Plus, on an advertising/marketing level, I do love trade shows, seeing the booths and displays, how people laid out their floor plans and foot traffic, and seeing which booths had great stuff. And even if they're all saying that there wasn't great swag out there, I beg to differ. There just wasn't as much as previous years, from what I hear. But then again, I was happy with fun pens and bags. So silly, but a great bag makes a booth. Chronicle Press had the prettiest damn bag ever - and at least a handful of people asked me where to find it. Now. Easily the hit (bag) of the show. What? I said I like trade shows!

Today was the best day, because while I love the free stuff, a lot of the stuff in the booth I wouldn't have minded buying. And buy, I did. You know how when you go into gift shops, and they have those supercool postcard books, or those wonderfully designed and packaged notecards? Or, even those fun decks of knowledge cards? The mousepads with the artwork on it? Or, those coffee table books that you love in the store, but feel too extravagant to spend on just yourself?

Umm, yeah. They come from a company called Pomegranate.

I LOVE THEIR STUFF.

I buy it everywhere I go - and ya'll know I'm in gift shops, constantly. Their stuff is in every nook and cranny of my apartment and my cubicle at work. And I bought a bagful of stuff from them today, from notecards and knowledge cards to notepads and mousepads, and of course, a handful of magnets.

No lie. In fact, I was chatting with one of the ladies at the booth, and I said, OMG, I love your stuff. I should own stock in Pomegranate with as much of this stuff that I buy! And she laughed softly and said, well, it's privately owned. And later, I found out...by her and her husband.

Good grief, how in the heck do I end up fangurling over the most obscure stuff - ever? With the people I'm fangurling over? Sheesh.

Openness indoors

Magnet #447 - FLW's Guggenheim

Yep. I think I've firmly established that I'm a Frank Lloyd Wright fan. Love his work - maybe not so much the guy behind the drafting board if the stories are to be believed, but what are you gonna do.

I also love my FLW magnets - and the Guggenheim gift shop purchasing person. (I hope other gift shop purchasing people learn their lesson. To wit, I used this pin/magnet for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular because they had no magnets in the shop. Ohhh, the horror! But, two days ago? I walked by their little gift shop, and I spied a little board at the cash register with at least a couple of magnet designs. Heh. Nice. I can't wait to see them up close.)

This one is supercool - it's taken from the bottom floor of the atrium, looking up to the skylight.

I think one of my favorite parts of the museum itself is the part where Wright intended folks to zip right up to the top in the elevator, and slowly work their way down the sloping walkway. They say it's like the inside of a nautilus shell with open spaces and the curvity-curves. I just think it's nifty.

I picked this magnet for today, just to help countdown to the exhibition I've been waiting for: Frank Lloyd Wright, From Within Outward." It starts tomorrow, and runs through August. According to the write-up, the exhibition is supposed to highlight one of the hallmarks of FLW's work - openness in interior space.

Well, I'm telling you, if the Guggenheim NY isn't the prime example of openness in interior space, I haven't a clue what is.

Of architectural merit

Magnet #354 - Guggenheim New York

Ya'll wouldn't believe how many Guggenheim NY magnets I have. And I bought them all in one fell swoop. In my defense, they were packaged as sets, so it's not like I set out to buy six Guggenheim magnets all at once.

I visited for the first time late last year. I'd been to the shop (of course), but once they started renovating, I wanted to wait until it was complete before I went.

Waiting was well worth it. I love it. Seriously. It's gorgeous - you can see my one pic here, or do a Google Images search for it. I couldn't tell you a thing about the stuff on the walls. (Not quite true, but since it was my first time, I just wasn't really paying any attention at all to the artwork housed inside.)

And, of course I'd love this building - it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whom I've written about a ton here on joy magnetism. It was completed in 1959, and sadly, FLW himself didn't live to see the final result. Indeed, he got the call for it in 1943, and then spent the next several years fighting everyone over it - clients, public opinion, etc. It was 1956 before he delivered the final design.

You know, I'm always wondering about the longevity of FLW's work. It's gorgeous, but I've often wondered if he thought they would last forever, his imprint on this earth. Or, if, because he built with mostly natural materials and had that closeness with the land reflected in his work, he thought his work would naturally wither and decay.

Case in point - the Ennis-Brown house that we visited years ago. I think they do periodic tours there, but it was totally deserted and fairly in disrepair when we visited years ago. But that was built in the 1920s, so it's to be expected.

The Guggenheim's a bit newer, and though it's been just over a half a century since, it still needed a ton of restoration...where according to Arch Record, the renovation team took off 11 coats of paint! Dudes! Then, when they got down to the concrete, they discovered hundreds of surface cracks. Which then meant they had to evaluate the entire building for its structural integrity. Whoops.

It actually turned out to be fine, and they were able to fix whatever they needed to fix, and made sure to paint it with an appropriate protective paint coat. Which then meant they had to decide what color to paint the building. When they got down to the first layer of paint, they discovered that it was a brownish-yellowish shade. And thus began the controversy, that was finally resolved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Hah. There's a part of me that thinks that maybe we should have remained true to FLW's vision (if indeed that's really what he wanted). But honestly, that means that there would have been an upside-down Pooh Bear beehive sitting up on Fifth Ave.

In the end, they decided to leave it the color that everyone had gotten used to - depending on who you ask - it's gray or off white or whatever. (According to the NYTs it's really Tnemec BF72 Platinum - goodness, J Crew was nowhere near that color, huh.)

So now, $29 million later, they're back open for business. I'm so happy the building's lost its scaffolding, and that it's back. I've superexcited, because in May they're mounting "From Within Outward", an exhibition for FLW's work. Seriously can't wait.

Oh, I could go on about FLW, but I'll stop. After all there are several more magnets to get through. Hah.

One last thing that I'm sad about is that FLW didn't heart NYC - according to the Guggenheim site, "the city was overbuilt, overpopulated, and lacked architectural merit."