What I am reading

This year I decided that I wouldn't read as much as last year, but as I am almost done with my 12th book of the year, maybe I have the inability to keep that promise. Last year I read 24 books.

Book number 12 is the Great Gatsby, which I have never read before. I feel like everyone read this in high school as well as the Scarlet Letter and the Grapes of Wrath, which I have also never read. I am reading it now because I am excited to see the Baz Lurhmann 3D spectacular spectacular! that is coming out on x-mas. Hopefully my parents small town will be ready for it.

I also just finished Blink by Malcolm Gladwell which is a book about intuition, thinking and snap judgments. Although the examples are super interesting in general I found it to be biased.

Before that was Galileo's Daughter which has been very popular in the book club circles. I found it to be more about him than her and thought it should have really been called "The Cursed Family Galilee", but no one asked me. I  think that this should be supplemental to the book click here which is her work and letters digitized.

If you are interested in what I am reading you can "friend" me on goodreads. Which is social networking for book nerds. It is an addiction. If you have a goodreads account send me your email address to eyemheer2@gmail.com. If not and you are an avid reader you should get an account.  It isn't as annoying or intrusive as facebook.

Also, I just learned about this new profession that started in England called bibliotherapy where a patient describes how they are feeling and the bibliotherapist prescribes books to them to improve their well being. I might give it a go.

blue print for the perfect dome of sound

The desert is a mysterious place with a lot of arrows, filled with paradox, where New Age meets Good News in strange ways. It is lonely beautiful, alien, harsh, and surreal. This is why I love it so.

I had read a little about the story behind Integratron summarized in my last post. This was re-told to us as we were laying face up on yoga mats interrupted by odd interjections of laughter by our host. Which made it just a wee bit awkward. I decided that if I continued to listen to him I would laugh too and no one else was laughing, they were listening intently excited for the healing properties that would enter us through the symphony of quartz bowls that would soon be played.  I played my own la la la track in my head as he told us the story behind the kind gift given to us by aliens.

Our experience was through a pop up sound bath, which you share the experience with strangers, well those who are not in your group. They do not do pop up sound baths often because of two things and they said these rules as a warning, that if this happened, they would re-think ever doing a sound bath again and only do sound baths in group form.

1) Turn off your cell phone
2) no snoring, because it ruins other people's experiences by interrupting the pure sound of the quartz bowls.

My friend and I have differing views on whether or not you can help sleeping or snoring, but I feel like if it is going to ruin others experiences, I don't want to be that person. The ruiner. Not other people feel that way. Like the bear shaped man who fell into a similarly bear-like slumber during our session.

Determined to not be that person, hell, I don't even know that I snore, I found another way to experience integratron, with my eyes open. I stared up in the skylight and as those bowls rang out and filled my body that needed saving with sound it shook my right side. I watched the clouds drift by changing shape, turn into lines and dots, pull and compress.

I am not sure that I will live 50 more years, those things we can never tell, but I may remember at 130 years old what happened to me on Easter 2012. What I did leave with was a higher sensitivity to sound, voices, water trickling, shuffling of feet on the rocks of the parking lot louder. When we ate lunch at Pappy and Harriets and when a child lost their crap because they were leaving the in restaurant stage, it was one of the loudest sounds I had ever heard.

Forever young

A long time ago, but within the last 50 years, a man who happened to be a tesla scientist was kidnapped and given a mathematical equation by the Venutians to help save the human race. This equation formed a blueprint, a blue print for a perfect dome of sound. The sound played in this space would fill the human body prolonging that human's life by 50 years.

I will now live until I am 130 years old.

To Be Continued......

Case Study

(or a blog post in which I try to sound smart)

A couple friends and I set out on a Sunday afternoon to find the Eames House or Case Study #8.  I say find because one of the things that are annoying about this city is that on one side of the street the street has one name and on the other a totally different name. (In this case Vance vs. Corona Del Mar.) And once you run into the PCH you are completely screwed for a quick turnaround. So be alert if you want to find this hidden place.

The Eames house was part of the Case Study House program sponsored by Art and Architecture Magazine. The Case Study program houses were designed by major architects in the 40s-60s as experiments in residential architecture that used inexpensive and efficient materials. (See more information on wikipedia) There were quite a few of these in Southern California, the Eames House is neighbored by two or three. Very few are open to the public and even fewer are being lived in.

The Eameses were purveyors of the guest/host relationship. What you notice about #8 is that the house, separated between studio working space and living space, is that it has a flow and takes you from kitchen to dining to this spectacular view of the meadow and the Pacific. Perfect for dinner parties, cooking-dinner-after dinner drinks and sunset. This place really showcases nature, as is true with most glass houses. The Sunday I went the meadow was full of Monarch butterflies.

The day I went the living room was on display at LACMA as part of their California Mondern exhibit, so we were only able to peer in on an empty room.

In addition to being architects of this house, this husband and wife team designed furniture and other interior pieces. Their pieces are asthetic and functional. I am sure some of you have seen their furniture and the Eames Elephant Chair has seen a bit of a revival as of late.

For some reason you cannot take photos of the inside, which is very difficult when it is basically a glass house. So the photos are the best that I could do. I think actually I am not supposed to have these pictures up, but I guess when they ask me to delete this post I will.  My main reason though for this post, as is true with all of my art related posts is that I think you should go and support places like this.  Los Angeles is so keen on erasing its history. As I mentioned in the LA Conservancy post.

The cost to see the Eames House is only $10 and viewings are by appointment. Go to the Eames House Foundation for more information.

As a bonus, the one friend we were with happened to live in case study 18A designed by Rodney Walker. Which was also amazing and very true to its original state. The 1994 earthquake made some changes to the house and sent about 30 feet of meadow down the side of the hill, but still the view of the ocean is spectacular. This was great once in a lifetime opportunity because this house is not on view to the public.

There are very few Case Study houses available for public viewing. Stahl house being next on my list, if I can find a willing participant.

If you are interested in any of what I have written about there is a couple of great documentaries on netflix, which are currently streaming:

Eames: The Architect and the Painter
Julius Schulman: Visual Acoustics

In slightly over an hour: Butterfly Pavilion

in slightly over an hour: California Science Center

top 2 are from a video

Even in LA the nature likes to pose for the camera

in slightly over an hour: Rose Garden