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.

Seat of Power

Magnet #463 - Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

I bought this magnet at the National Museum of American History - which they just reopened recently, after completing some fairly neat renovations.

This year we're celebrating Lincoln's bicentennial, and as part of it, they're putting on a special exhibition (you know I love 'em), Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life. If you've time, definitely check it out - it's pretty cool.

They have his beaver-skinned top hat!  Dudes, he was a giant, and he still wore that top hat that added several inches to his giant (ok, 6' 4"/5") frame.

But, I picked this magnet, because one of the tentpole events of the bicentennial is the rededication of the Lincoln Memorial today - with special speakers and the Marine Band (Love!) in attendance.

If you've never been, the NPS has a superduper interesting flash piece about the building of the memorial which was actually begun in 1913/1914.  Totally informative, as for some reason, I never thought about how the columns are in segments. I don't know why I may have thought that a really, really, really, really, really tall crane put that up.  (Don't even get me started on pyramids...)  But, seriously - can you even imagine the National Mall without the Lincoln anchoring it?

And, in case you haven't gone to DC - here's the tourism ad.  No, literally - my colleagues produced this DC tourism ad, to help drive traffic to the DC tourism site to start planning your own Power Trip.

It's one of my favorite ads to come out of our group - mainly because it shows the memorial in such a majestic and imposing light.  Truth be told, it's a little God-like. But I suppose that's another magnet altogether.

Happy birthday, Mr. President!

Magnet #462 - Kennedy for President

John F. Kennedy was born today in 1917. 1917!!! He would have been 93 today. Sigh. Still hot. Even now. I'da voted for him, too. I'm just sayin'.

Seriously. Also. Is it bad of me to post this Marilyn Happy Birthday vid, which (if you notice on the vid) she sang it 10 days earlier at his 45th birthday celebration.

Incidentally, even though I just bought that 50-president magnet set (yes, there were extras iconic picture magnets in the pack, in case you were wondering why I can't count, even though I really can't), this is the magnet I made out of the Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum entry sticker.

Don't worry, I bought two other museum magnets - one featuring the building, the other featuring his campaigns. Good grief. That makes four Kennedy magnets.

In one visit.

Indeed.

eta:
By the way, I've noticed there's a return visitor who has been spending inordinate amounts of time - seriously, hours, just this week - on joy magnetism. I welcome the visits, but am starting to worry that you're not human and it kinda freaks me out. If you wouldn't mind posting just a comment to let me know you're human, that would be fantastic. My interactive boys say that I should be reporting and/or blocking you, but if you're a magnet person, I don't want to do that. So please help a gal out? Please and thank you.

"I didn't need to see it...

Magnet #461 - The Who

...I lived it."

- Roger Daltrey, when asked if he watched Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who

When people ask me what kind of music I like, I tend to wiggle my way out of answering the question.

I won't lie - my music taste is deplorable.

I mean, really. I grew up on Duran Duran and 70s, 80s and 90s Top 40. (By the way, Duran Duran, as you should know by now, I will go to the mat for, so they're totally not included in that deplorability.)

That said, I think we can agree that classic rock is definitely beyond my ken.

Which is why when I went to the Paley Center last year to watch this Who docu, I wasn't really expecting to be overwhelmed. Nor was I really expecting Roger Daltrey to be there for the Q&A, either.

But, what I forgot is that I tend to love band documentaries - all two that I've ever watched. Duran Duran's Sing Blue Silver and Metallica's Some Kind of Monster.

But, Amazing Journey was fantastic. I learned so much about the Who - their beginnings, their music, their successes and failures, and in general, who these guys were. I seriously wanted to run out and get the DVD, without having listened to a full Who album ever. In fact, now I'm wondering how I didn't end up with The Who's greatest hits somewhere.

Of course, on the way home, I had to call my mom to tell her who I just saw. And this is what several someones overheard on the corner of 52nd and 7th Avenue.

Me: Mom! I just saw Roger Daltrey!
Mom: Who?
Me: Yes. You know, Roger Daltrey!!!
Mom: Isn't he that guy from that band you liked? Wham?
Me: No! That's George Michael!!! Roger! Daltrey! You know, from The Who!
Mom: Ohhhhhhh. I don't know them.

Witch way to the kitsch

Magnet #460 - Salem, MA

Love this superbien magnet, though I have slight issues with it.

On this day in 1647, the first execution of a "known witch" took place - this chick named Achsah Young was hanged. Fifty years later, the infamous Salem witch trials took place, where in the space of four months in 1692, 19 men and women were brought to Gallows Hill and hung - a mass hysteria that dissipated as quickly as it started. Freaky.

So the reason I have issues is because once again, we've managed to make a profit off of a horrible dark time in our history. Walk around Salem, and you see various museums (some serious, some not), a ton of gift shops with witchy memorabilia and several sites of witchy interest. I mean, I get it. We all need to make a buck. I just wonder how those executed witches feel about it. Obviously, that didn't stop me from buying this magnet, or a supercute sweatshirt with a pudgy bear in a witch outfit, sitting on a broom.

But all was not evil there. Out of my slightly freaked out about witches haze, there was a bright, shiny thing about that trip:

Pilgrim Diner, one of the original Worcester Lunch Car Company diners from last century. It's really called Deb's Diner, we just know it as Pilgrim Diner because that's what was on the outside - it's been written there since 1936.

This lunch car diner was the best piece of local color and local Americana, ever. In fact, I may have to retitle my post, because it was so authentic, you can't really call it kitsch.

Picture it - the quintessential movie scene, where our heroines walk in the creaky door, looking around shyly. And the entire diner - made up of the guy in the coroner jacket at the counter, the old guys drinking their coffee at their regular table, the cooks in the back, and the sassy waitress behind the counter - the entire diner looking right back at them, staring at the three little Asian girls who just walked in.

Two seconds of quiet pass, and poof! everyone goes back to their business, and the diner soundtrack comes back on.

We sat down - at this spot in the corner - and proceeded to have The. Best. Breakfast. Ever.

The scrambled eggs and bacon? Fantastic.

The toast? Perfect.

The diner coffee? C'mon.

The giantest, most giantest pancakes ever? They were the size of the whole entire plate, practically hanging off the sides. And? They. Were. Amazing.

Jeepers. Talk about a food epiphany.

(Thanks andyi for the flickr slide show down memory lane, and to Elizabeth Thomsen for the fun diner set.)

eta:
So that I remember, a note to myself. I bought my own domain name today. What? My sister just bought a condo, and I thought I should own something, too. Yay for joymagnetism.com!!!

Ohhh, Andrew Johnson

Magnet #459 - Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)

So, when I first started this blog, I figured I had enough magnets to last me a year to two years. Then I realized that I was inheriting and buying more and more magnets. And that still didn't stop me from buying a complete Presidents of the United States magnet set a couple of weeks ago. Oiy.

Now, like I do with the Kings and Queens of England, I'll be inserting these guys in as "This Day in History" deems necessary, or you know, whenever.

Today's fact, is that today in 1868, Andrew Johnson, our 17th president, was acquitted of impeachment charges - the Senate couldn't get the one vote needed for a majority. To learn more about his impeachment (and more), go here, because I'd like to avoid dredging up this long ago past here.

Nope. What I'm trying to figure out, is how Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I haven't been to his birthplace. Hmph.

Wish you were here!

Magnet #458 - Walker Evans Step Backs

The Met put on this Walker Evans postcard collection exhibit that ended yesterday. Yep. A whole exhibit on postcards. Well, the man did leave like his entire 9,000 postcard collection to the Met, as part of the Walker Evans Archive, and they've probably just been sitting around in a box somewhere.

This magnet from the Met is not one of Evans' postcards, but it is one of his photos. It's called Step-Backs, which shows how the building takes a step back from the base - allowing more light to the streets below.

Anyway, this exhibit was fantastic. Yes, I know I tend to love all the exhibits, but then again, I tend to go to exhibits I know I'll love, so there. You would think that there wouldn't be anything remotely interesting in postcards - and these days, there probably isn't, what with them being 5 for a buck on every street corner.

But, Evans collected postcards at a specific time in our history - and through his collection of train stations, state capitals, factories, main streets and curiosities, etc., you can literally see America grow - through the power of the automobile, the ease of travel, and as a society.

While the collection was really trying to draw a few parallels between Evans' art and the postcards, it really gave me a ton of information on the history of postcards and collecting them.

Apparently, postcards used to be considered slopmail, even if they were first class postage...and it wasn't for a while that the U.S. Postal Service finally relented on their rules about letting people write their messages on the backs of the cards (rather than having them write over the pictures on the front, and having only the address on the back).

Also, there used to be a company called the Detroit Publishing Company that used to have a fleet of photographers that they sent out to take pictures to be made into postcards. You could tell Detroits were a higher quality than the rest - they were like the Hallmark of their time.

And, for the love of a postcard, some of the companies used to take the pictures in black and white, but send them to Germany to have them color it in and then reproduce it on their color lithographs, and then send them back stateside.

I could go on and on about these postcards, but I'll spare ya'll. But, c'mon. You've now learned a few things you didn't know before 20 seconds ago. Walker Evans would probably be saddened to see the state of postcarding (or deliotology - which I think is what they call the study/collecting of postcards), but he probably would have loved the Met's exhibit, just as much as I did.

Of course, now I'm wondering two things. 1) What they call the study/collecting of magnets (I'm going with magnetology) and 2) Debating which lucky, lucky museum will inherit my magnet collection. Hahhaahah.

Hope all of you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend, and said thanks to someone in military uniform today. Oddly, after a weekend of spying servicemen and women around town, today, I didn't get to see any. Soooo, thanks very much!

Sailing, sailing

Magnet #457 - OpSail 2000

Here's a magnet from a long while ago...I was originally just using it for Fleet Week, but in doing a bit of research on it, it has naught to do with it. (See what I did there? Naught? Nautical? Hahahaah. Shut it, it's an early Sunday morning, give me a break.)

OpSail is a maritime event that they've put on five times - celebrating maritime history, and promoting goodwill between participating countries.

It was something that Kennedy helped developed, and it was finally realized for the 1964 World's Fair. It's basically a bunch of tall ships and other vessels that travel together from port to port, and then everyone can visit the ships.

I didn't actually go to OpSail 2000, but we did see them sail down the Hudson - super supercool.

Though, I will say that I'm not a sailor. There's something scary about being out there on the open sea, miles away from the nearest medical care. Plus, have ya'll not seen all those movies where the captain (or someone, usually hot) goes crazy and offs people in the middle of the ocean? Nu. Uh.

Hey, Beibei!

Magnet #456 - Beibei from the Beijing Olympics

Eeeeee! How. Adorable. Is. This.

She's one of the mascots from last year's Beijing Olympics. Yes. A keychain my friends brought back for me, now turned into a magnet. Yay!

Beibei is a fish (in water behind her) - the symbols of prosperity and harvest.

I just love her cuz she's blue and green!

There were five Fuwa (good luck dolls). They have a rhyming name (like the way Filipinos repeat syllables/words), so we have Beibei (fish), Jingjing (panda), Huanhuan (Olympic Flame), Yingying (Tibetan antelope) and Nini (swallow).

But, what I didn't know (or most likely forgot) is that together, Bei Jin Huan Ying Ni means Welcome to Beijing!

Superbien! Yep. My new word, totally stolen from my friend's blog - where she's totally having Adventures in Chile.

Our gang

Magnet #455 - The Little Rascals

When I bought this magnet last week from the (other!) magnet vendor at Union Square, I was all excited to find this little gem of a magnet, and I couldn't wait to write it up. But now, it has a little more meaning...

There was a summer where my sisters and I got hooked on watching The Little Rascals. So freakin' cute and hysterically funny and I always wanted to be part of their gang. I dunno why they're not on today.

Did ya'll know that a lot of the little ones were too young to read, so the director would just explain what was going on in the scenes, and then direct them via megaphone and had them improvise a lot?

Oh! And that apparently, this is where okie-dokie came from. Hee. I say that a lot. Like, a lot, a lot.

Yes, I'm trying desperately to be cheerful on an otherwise crappy week. It seems like this year, we've all had to say good-bye to many of our friends and colleagues as the ravages of this recession wage on.

Not to get too maudlin, but I'm learning as we move through life, we meet and make circles of friends with whom we share our daily lives. We come to depend on them, they become part of you, and hopefully, you become part of them.

And as we move on - growing up, moving away, leaving our jobs, or even just staying right where we are - those circles expand and contract, get closer and get farther, and sometimes even implode.

These days, obviously, it's easier to stay in touch - through Facebook and LinkedIn and various other SNS outlets. And, hopefully, we'll be able to do that - I'm sure going to try. Odds are, we'll lose touch. Which totally sucks.

I'm definitely going to miss our little gang of happy faces - hell, I'll even miss their mean faces - while I'm sitting here in offices that are much quieter with cubes much emptier...mirroring the sad little corporate America we've become.

eta:
Right. I was trying not to be maudlin. Ooops.

What's your sign?

Magnet #454 - OXOX or XOXO

Hahahah - yes, it's supposed to be XOXO, and after that season finale with the cutest Blair and Chuck ending ever, I should have used this just for Gossip Girl.

But, I've already done a Gossip Girl nod, and truth be told, I hate that the concept of that show is based on a gossip...because if there's something I hate just as much as rudeness, it's gossip. And hanging out with people who do a lot of it. Ugh. (Again, I'm no innocent, I just hate when people aren't around to defend themselves, whether I like them or not.) /endrant

But, I'm using this magnet, because we're on the cusp of the next zodiac sign, the switchover from Taurus to Gemini. And, for those of you that know me, I'm as Ploddy-McPlodderson a Taurus as you can get. I was born pretty much in the middle of Taurus, plus my sun sign is Taurus. And on top of that, I was born in the year of the Ox.

That's why I do believe my horoscopes are always true. Always. No, really. Sometimes, I like to read them at the end of the day, just to see which sentence came true. Oh, shut up. I don't know that I actually believe in divining the future or personality traits by the stars - Chinese or otherwise - but there has to be something to that stuff.

Although, my speech and debate teacher in high school would probably scold me for promulgating my horoscope-reading. He once caught me reading my daily 'scope in class, and sternly asked me why I bothered to read it...that I was better off reading the Bible. It's something I've never forgotten.

Yep. Public school. Yep. Well, they don't call it the Bible Belt for nothin'.

Roses on my table*

Magnet #453 - Speicher Bouquet

This painting from Eugene Edward Speicher isn't on display anywhere, which makes me curious where I picked up this set of flower still life magnets.

Especially because (in total ungirly fashion), I'm not a fan of flowers. Oh, I don't mind flowers in a garden, but it seems sort of sad that the flowers have been pulled up from the earth and shoved into a vase just for the short-lived benefit of some human to enjoy them.

Of course, the flipside of that is seeing people enjoy them. Dimly, I remember that incredibly silly movie called Bed of Roses where Christian Slater plays a flower delivery guy, and people asked him why he was doing that instead of doing something more. And he told them it was because everyone's happy when they see him. That's always stuck in my head - I mean, who isn't happy when they get flowers?

Some people, my mother, really enjoy flowers. A concept that's foreign to me. But, you know how I Eeeeeeee!!!!! over George Clooney or David Tennant? That's my mom with flowers. Doesn't matter if she's at a botanical garden or if she's walking down a random NYC sidewalk passing a bodega lined with their tall buckets of flowers. She. Loves. Flowers.

So happy birthday, Mom!

*From the quote: I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman (Yes, yes, Mommy, I know there are no roses in this bouquet. Go with it.)

Go ahead, punk

Magnet #452 - SoapNet's Punk

Rant ahead.

Of all the things I hate most in this world, it's rudeness. Lack of manners. I'm not claiming to be Emily Post, because I have my moments in the sun when it comes to uncouth, rowdy and altogether unbecoming of a lady behavior. I love this wiki definition though:

They are like laws in that they codify or set a standard for human behavior, but they are unlike laws in that there is no formal system for punishing transgressions, other than social disapproval. They are a kind of norm.

But honestly, we're not talking state dinners with full on social graces here. We're just talking about common courtesy. My parents taught us how to say Yes, Sir and Yes, Ma'am; and please and thank you, and how to watch ourselves in public and with our friends, and for goodness' sake, how to freakin' behave. Didn't everyone's parents (and teachers) teach them?

So, why, in the space of a couple of days, have I seen such utter rudeness? You could claim that it's because I'm in New York, and surrounded by New Yorkers. Except that it's not.

Graduation ceremonies up at Brandeis University. That's a Nobel Prize winner delivering the commencement address. Get your loud and chatty children out of the auditorium. And while you're at it - production person all in black with a headset - you're not supposed to be seen or heard. So. Shut. Up.

People who don't say please and thank you! Non-New Yorkers! I have a coworker who doesn't ever say please. (Don't worry, even as a courtesy, he doesn't read this blog.) He simply demands what he wants - via email, on the phone, in person. Doesn't even matter that he thanks the person - the self-entitled way he conducts himself has already done the damage.

And, really. How do you not say thank you when people go out of their way to include you in their activities? How do you not even fake offer to pull out your wallet to pay for your meal, not to mention offering to help pay for expenses when you're on a trip? What is that about?

Now, this one may be New Yorkers, but seriously. How do you not make yourself as small as possible whenever you're walking up crowded stairs, or when you're on a train, or just walking down a crowded sidewalk? Why must you fling your backpack all over the place, walk (slowly) up the middle of a staircase, or take up twice as much room than you really need on a bus or train? Why wouldn't you get out of the way when people are entering or exiting the train? Why wouldn't you scooch over to give up your seat for the poor pregnant chick?

And don't even get me started on the triple-wide strollers on playdates in the City - I fail to understand why the unsuspecting public has to pay for your decision to populate the world. Single. Handedly.

Miss Manners herself (and probably my mom) would be appalled at this magnetpost, I'm sure.

Don't worry - it's not any of you, dear readers. As I mentioned, these people don't read my blog. And, if they do?

Suck it.

Sorry, we're dead

Magnet #451 - Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University

If today's post title could have an image, it would be this piece of art (that I wish I'd taken note of the artist who created it - sorry!)

I picked up this pin/magnet on Saturday, while at Brandeis in Massachusetts. Since I first heard about the Rose Art Museum earlier this year from Richard Lacayo over at Time (my go-to guy when it comes to museum-y news), I've been wanting to visit.

There's a ton of controversy swirling around this museum - as of yesterday, in what's become a sad ending to a long storied history of amazing curators and exhibitions, the museum ended its final exhibitions.

I don't know what it is, but I'm starting to worry that I keep visiting museums and they keep closing. That's two so far. This year!

A lot of the melodrama started when they basically freaked the art world out by saying that the University was in trouble, and that they would possibly have to sell some of the museum's art to help them out of a financial crunch. And, I suppose the way they just announced it out of the blue, and what their release said, made it seem like the University was just going to sell off art assets to make a quick buck for the University.

I'm not gonna lie, that's exactly what it feels like - whether or not it's true.

Apparently, the curator had the collection appraised by Christies back in 2007, and the collection was worth something like $350 million. The poor guy was just trying to do something good by making sure that his University was armed with that kind of information. Little did he know that the trustees would see the dollar signs, and not necessarily the art.

And we're not talking minor artists here - there's a Lichetenstein right as you walk down the stairs, and a couple of Warhols off to the right, some Kandinsky work as well. Oh, and a Picasso, off in the corner.

So, if you read some of the statements on their homepage, there's something about how the Massachusetts Attorney General office says that they have to maintain the Rose Art Museum on some minimal level. How they'll do that without a director, administrator, education director, no funding, no exhibitions, and no curator is not quite clear to me.

You'll see by my FB public album, I'm personally in love with the building itself - it's a snapshot of 1961, the year it opened. It's kind of like the Brady Bunch staircase, even if the show was almost a decade later.

It's also quite fitting that the museum that was founded in the tumultuous sixties is now plastered with protest signs to Save the Rose - from the giant ATM sign above the entrance, to the plastic roses stuck haphazardly into a planter, to the particularly touching stones clustered at the front door - each with a personal plea. My personal favorite, just above the door says:

Warhol - $70 Million
Picasso - $150 Million
Hoffman - $13 Million
The Rose Museum - Priceless

There are some things money can't buy.
For everything else, there's Brandeis.

The only thing that I'm not really seeing in all of these protests - besides the big-ass petition list - is what people are actually doing to stop the closure. Or even a giant call-to-action to help lobby someone to help. It feels like nothing's going on, at this moment.

Granted, I'm not on campus, I'm not even in the same state. There was a part of me that was expecting a sit-in or a picket line. I guess with the students mostly gone, it just wasn't happening. Saturday's visit felt like a wake, if I'm honest.

I hope it's not too late, and some late-breaking news says that the museum's been saved. It's a shame, really, had the museum continued through to 2011, it would have celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Change of summits

Magnet #450 - Mount Everest, Nepal

Remember I went on that rant about how my sister was planning on visiting Base Camp? Of Mount Everest? Without telling our parents before she was planning to face possible death?

Turns out that even Mother Nature was against her, as all the flights (that were going to take her to where she'd be about a 14-day hike away from base camp), were grounded. So, (she says), she booked a fly-by of the mountain.

If you've read any number of posts here on joy magnetism - you know that's how we often roll - flying right by it Of course, I've never done a literal fly-by, so that's kinda cool.

I haven't a clue where she picked this magnet up, but yay for a Mount Everest magnet!

Today, she graduates from grad school, getting her Masters in Saving the World. Or, rather, her MA in Sustainable International Development, which means she'll be explaining to regular folk what that means for a good part of her life.

Well, you may not have gotten to climb the actual mountain, kid, but congrats on reaching several summits this year: Confirmation (oh, yes, there's a magnet for that one), grad school graduation (now I have to figure out when to use your alma mater's magnet), and then later on this year, a wedding (oddly, there's already a magnet for that one).

On the road again

Magnet #449 - Santa Monica

Annnnnd we're back on the road in a few hours, all of us on the way up to Boston to watch the youngest sister get her Masters of Saving the World.

Though we didn't have one of these Woodies, and we're certainly not blue dolphins, this magnet is totally us.

We spent most of our lives riding around in the back of a big blue/gray, blue or white van - asleep, singing at the top of our lungs, playing stupid car games, reading, fighing, pouting, yelling, changing clothes, noshing, etc.

Fun times.

Kirk vs. Wright. Who cares, it's pretty!

Magnet #448 - New Yorker Guggenheim

What? I said I had several Guggenheim magnets. Get thee there. Sometime between today (yay!) and August.

Ready. Set. Go.: Frank Lloyd Wright, From Within Outward.

Goodness, you'd think I was getting a commission or something for how much I'm pimping this exhibit.

But you have to understand - the Gug is like the only way we get to have anything FLWy here - from the looks of it, the Midwest is the place to be when it comes to FLW.

Though, honestly, I'm kinda glad. I bet I'd be soooo out of my demographic if I went to any of those uberWright events. At least out of my depth, anyway.

I can't see me intelligently discussing Usonian or Prairie style, Froebel blocks and sitelines, without resorting to just thinking something's pretty.

It's kinda like that Star Trek Showdown panel I went to earlier this week, where the panelists discussed who was a better captain - Kirk vs. Picard, Kirk vs. Janeway, Kirk vs. Adama, Kirk vs. O'Neill. Well, you get the picture. It was a fun thing to watch - I love watching boys get all excited about their ST or SW or their Flight Control or their comics, whatever. But, still, they were quoting Kirk speeches that I'm not even sure I ever saw. Meanwhile, I just think Kirk was pretty. Hot, even.

So, I guess it's probably good then that I'm in New York, and not with people who actually know FLW like these guys knew their Kirk.

(Thus endeth the FLW miniseries. For now. Until I actually see the exhibition.)

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.

What might have been

Magnet #446 - Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob

Good gravy - Kentuck Knob is only seven miles away from Fallingwater, in Western PA. Since I found out last night, I've wondering how we could have been in the neighborhood and not dropped by!

Instead, I think my sisters ended up getting me this when they went on their Pennsylvania rumspringa.

The Hagens had fallen in love with the Kaufmanns' house Fallingwater, and commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build it - it would be one of the last he ever built. Indeed, it was 1953, and the guy was busy working on the Guggenheim at the time. And, dude was 86 years old!!!

I picked this magnet for today, because the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that had I paid more attention to Mrs. Misenheimer's long division lessons in 6th grade, that I might have been an architect in an alternate reality.

More than Kirk's space travel, or the Doctor's time travels, or Sam Beckett's quantum leaps, or Buffy's Angel, or even Prue's astral projections, the concept of alternate realities has always fascinated me. The very idea that every single decision made on a timeline sparks a new reality of possibilities is just mind-boggling.

I will say that I'm betting J.J. Abrams has been living and breathing alternative realities for a few years at least - what with a SpUhura'd Star Trek and a non-9/11'd Fringe, and, I guess if you want to get technical, you can probably throw a bit of LOST in there, as well. My thing is that if you bother to think about it for too long, and you basically freak yourself out wondering about all other yous running around.

But, I'm of the mind that no matter what decisions you've made, or wherever those life decisions have led to you live whatever life you're living now, it must the life that you should be living. Otherwise, you'd be off living that other life. Or that other life. Or that other, other life. See? Trippy.

Oddly, Lord Palumbo, the guy who ended up buying Kentuck Knob kinda sort of agrees with me when he said (about buying the house), "Life, on occasion, becomes a matter of serendipity. When circumstances conspire to propel one in a certain direction it is best to go with the flow, or so I have found, even if the precise destination is at the time unknown."

Fearsome foursome

Magnet #445 - Philippines Fish

I picked this up during the last visit to the Philippines. Weird how I came home with two fish magnets, plus a seahorse. That trip was the last time I saw my last remaining grandparent, though - in a hurried welcome home at the airport.

It's funny what you remember about your grandparents...

I don't remember my dad's mom - I think she passed either before I was born, or when I was a baby. I dimly remember going to the cemetery to visit her, I think.

My mom's dad, I remember living with us for a little while when I was maybe 8 or 9 or 10. I remember going to some weird factory to pick up Linotype letter pieces for his printing press back home. For those of you that grew up with me, he's the one whose ghost used to stir his coffee at the kitchen table of the old house, in the middle of the night. During that rare sleepover, I remember at least one person trying to stay up to see if they could see him.

My mom's mom, I remember most, because she was probably in and out of the house the most and the longest before she passed. She loved hanging out with my baby sisters more, mostly because I had quite a mouth on me when I was younger. (Still do, truth be told.) Every morning before school, we'd play tug-of-war with the blankets, and I'd argue everything under the sun with her, right down to just a few years ago, when I tried to explain to her that the priest told us during the sermon that I didn't have to go to church just to pray.

And, as for my dad's dad, who passed away at 92 yesterday in the Philippines, there's a ton of stuff I remember about him. For instance, right about now, I'm craving one specialty of his that I've never been able to duplicate - no matter how hard I try. Egg fried rice. No, not the kind that you get at the Chinese restaurants, or even the supergood kind my dad makes...but just dropping a regular old egg into leftover rice and frying it up. I swear, it's the best thing you've ever had.

One tangible thing we have from him is this gorgeous Victorian dollhouse that he built from scratch. Two stories, with a wraparound porch, and a hinged rooftop for the attic bedrooms, and meticulously painted blue and white. I remember outfitting that thing with the best dollhouse furniture, lighted fixtures, carpets and wallpaper. It's quite simply fabulous.

Anyway, over the years, that dollhouse got filed away with time, a little bit like my grandparents, taken for granted, because it's just something we've always grown up with.

Now, the fearsome foursome are somewhere above, knowing every little secret in every corner of my life.

Hmm. I dunno how I feel about that.

*waves to Heaven*

Egg on the cheap

Magnet #444 - Faberge Egg #3, 1916 Steel Military Egg

The Internet's amazing. But, it's such a double-edged sword. You can find out copious amounts of information out there, but for a lot of it, you can't tell what the original source for any story is anymore.

Take for example, this Faberge egg from my magnet set. I pulled up three different sites - one not updated since 2001, another one from a random Faberge expert site, and the last from PBS.

All of them have the same information - in some cases, the same exact wording - but, none cited the other, or any other sites. Bizarre.

So, here I am, trying to tell you about this Faberge egg, but have only the three above sites to refer to. Consider them cited, but use this one for what seems to be the full story about this particular supercool egg.

Actually, there's a couple of cool stories about it. To put it in context, it's 1916, the midst of World War I. Russia was in turmoil, and at that point, Faberge's workshop was actually closed, because his craftsmen were off fighting. Materials were scarce, indeed, no way were jewelers allowed to work with precious metals. And, if you think about it - these fabulous eggs were most likely the height of disposable income.

But, Nicholas II wanted his egg for Alexandra, and so he asked for it to be made, and Faberge did the best he could with what he had, using bits of gold, steel, silk, velvet and a cheaper form of jade. The steel egg sits atop four steel artillery shells - which is a little discomfiting, seeing something so gorgeous and precious on top of four somethings so destructive. But, it's quite a strong piece, even in its lack of usual Faberge flash and dash.

The surprise inside is a miniature painting on ivory of Nicholas II and his son leading the troops at the front. There's like a whole story about how Nicholas replaced his cousin at the front, and how he got the Order of the St. George cross, which is also included on the easel of painting.

Alexandra was so enamored by the piece, she sent Nicholas one of her only happy telegrams, basically saying Thanks for the egg! Apparently, it's one of only 10 Imperial eggs that didn't get sold off - it's in the possession of the Kremlin Armory in Moscow.

Huh. I wonder if they give tours.

Tweet, tweet, tweet-a-leet aleet

Magnet #443 - Tweety Bird

According to my parents, I was a big Tweety Bird fan when I was little. Which I guess explains a hazy memory of a battered old plastic kids mug from Six Flags at home in NC, and why my mom got me a vintage stuffed Tweety for me to keep here in NY.

And, why I picked up this little guy - though I can't remember where from - Warners? Six Flags? Eh, who knows.

But, I'm picking this one for today's magnet, because on the many occasions when I'm wrong about things I've soapboxed before, I like to admit it. Usually with a caveat or two, of course.

So, here's what I was wrong about. Twitter. Or rather Celebretweeting.

Exactly one month ago, I sat here on joy magnetism and reviled the Twitterverse. But, because people and the press can't stop talking about it, I've been delving back into it for the past month, to see if perhaps it's changed since last year.

And, it has, somewhat. I still don't like Tweeting my own statuses - I have two accounts on Facebook for that.

But, how awesome is it that I can just RSS feed Twitterfeeds right into my Google Reader, which means, I never have to visit the twitter.com site. Which is just happy-making.

And, next, in a complete 180 from a month ago, I've discovered that don't really want to follow people I actually know. It's more fun to follow celebrities and my two favorite critics.

Odd, right? Particularly since I'm the one who totally didn't "care about their break-ups or opinions." And, I still don't, for the most part. But, what I've found, are that there are a select few folks who are actually entertaining - the ones who are just naturally amusing. And, as long as they don't tell me that they're tweeting from the john, then they really are just providing another source of entertainment for me.

Also odd, I know, are my choices for celebrities to follow - because it's not like I'm really huge fans of theirs, really.

• Jon Favreau is there for the Iron Man tweets - there's something fun about knowing that Nick Fury's on set. Or, that they're working long into the night with two camera units.
• Joshua Malina, whose feed my sister found - added to my list because he's just funny. Just like...
• Nathan Fillion, even though sometimes he really is a little too obscure for me. And, I've even got
• Scott Clifton, this soap opera actor who started out on General Hospital - and even if I'm not watching any soaps at all right now, he's still seriously a funny kid, particularly as he gets used to living on the right coast, rather than the Target="_blank" wrong coast. And, finally I added
• David Tennant even though I know it's not him, but sometimes it's really funny to watch David Tennant stalking his own tv shoots. Heh.

It's a weird list, and I'm always looking for fun people to follow...but I can't follow everyone. For example, I betatested Jon Hamm, and looked at Matthew Perry and even Wil Wheaton, but none of them came to live on my Google Reader. (Part of the reason I'm selective about my Google Reader, because I can see every @reply people respond to, and dude, that's more annoying than the concept of Twitter itself.)

Mind you, I still worry about where all this celebretweeting will lead. I have this whole issue about soap stars allowing too much access through their personal appearances and charity events, where they're becoming too chummy with their fans. And then, they turn around and worry about their own privacy. Dude, you drank and broke bread with them - once that line's been crossed, it's hard to resurrect it. But, now that it's so easy for fans to reply to a celebretweet, that's kinda scary.

So, I wonder if the fact that celebs can interact so much with their fans through this (and Facebook and other SNS outlets) will cause people in real life to cross the line, down the line.

But for now, as I said, these guys are just providing another form of pure entertainment for me. And as long as it stays that way, then I can get with the celebretwitterverse.

eta:
Apropos to nothing...have ya'll ever noticed that Tweety Bird's feet are the size of Big Bird's feet? Weird!

It's illogical

Magnet #442 - Angry Little Girls' it's good to be a space cadet

In less than 12 hours, I'll have woken up early, done a load of laundry and gone to see Star Trek/IMAX. You know it, baby!

And come noon, I better be one freakin' happy little camper.

I say this, because everyone I know has been buzzing about this movie, and have totally amped me up for it. So they best not be wrong.

Truthfully, it won't matter if they're right, or wrong. It's a Star Trek movie, and I would have gone if they'd picked the wrong director, and cast the wrong cast. It's what I do. It's who I am.

The funny thing is, as I've discussed before (and specifically about Star Trek, natch) - I love something, but I don't love, love it. I get obsessed, but I'm not crossing the line into true fandom. Just can't do it. And yet, I get a kick out of being surrounded by true fans.

What's not so logical is my hesitation in telling people that I was totally gonna see this movie opening weekend. I realized today that apparently, I'll proudly wave the (new) Doctor Who freak flag, and I'll status my heart out for every Siffy and non-Siffy television show out there, but when it came to actually saying it on either of my Facebook statuses, I was totally reluctant to do so.

Usually, I revel in my eclectic dorkitude - I mean, I have a freakin' magnetblog! What is it about Trek that makes me suddenly shy?

Eh, whatevs, man, it doesn't matter now, especially since I've totally outed myself for the space cadet I really am.

Go on. Click on the "dorky" box below. See if I care.

The angels have the phone box(es)

Magnet #441 - Red Telephone Box

Totally picked this up from a street vendor in Greenwich, England. Yep. I gots magnet vendors all over the world.

I love the red phone boxes dotted all over the UK! They started having them back in the 1920s - apparently, they used to be manned, and people would go up to the kiosks and someone would place the call for them. Fun!

They started out with all sorts of localized designs, until they started standardizing them. Yes, there's a whole history - scroll down to the bottom of that page, and you can see the different ones over time. Though, I'm quite curious to see this new kiosk with phone/internet capabilities. That, I might consider using - how handy would a walk-up outdoor kiosk be?

But sadly, as with many things vanishing with time, they're slowly decommissioning the red boxes across the UK. There are a number of petitions you can find at this Save Our Phone Boxes site. Plus, check out the gallery of images - they're gorgeous.

I can't figure out if it's a nationwide "OMG, they're taking our phone boxes!" effort, or if it's just a handful of people clinging to the past. (Honestly, were it me, I'd be clinging, too.) But, apparently, it costs them a ton to maintain, and think about it - when was the last time you actually stood at a payphone on the street?

Really, I saw someone use one a couple of days ago, and I was wondering what happened to their cell phones. There's almost a stigma now, in using those Verizon phones on the sidewalks here. Of course, there's a part of me that still remembers that time I picked up a payphone to use it, and someone had smeared shaving cream all over it and it got into my ear. At least I hope it was just shaving cream. Or, the other time where I got smacked silly by my mother because I couldn't understand why she didn't know how to use the payphone we were at when I was little. Yep, even for a payphone I got a trauma. Hahaha.

Truly, that these guys are disappearing is a pity. I didn't dig deep enough to find out, but I hope that they do something to recycle or reuse them, kind of like redbird trains in the ocean. (Even though that issue has a whole host of environmental issues of its own.)

It's a little sad thinking that somewhere in the backwoods of the UK, there's a red box graveyard.

eta:
Stop the presses! According to Mary in the comments below, BT is actually allowing folks to adopt a red box! Yay, that's happy-making news! How remiss of me not to look that up, but still, yay!

Unforgotten

Magnet #440 - Vietnam Memorial

On one of my DC trips, my sister and I did a memorials tour, whatever we could squeeze onto the docket in one day. So that included the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. (All of which I have magnets for - I know you're surprised. Also not surprising? That I could do a Memorials-themed week of magnets.)

I know it's weird, but while I don't particularly like visiting the cemeteries (like Arlington or Normandy), I really love seeing the monuments and memorials.

I love them for the history, the concepts and the values that they teach us. There's just something amazing how we choose to honor our fallen. Even more amazing, is the amount of thinking and controversy that goes into the symbolism of the design and quoted materials, the raw materials they use, the placement of each piece and the location itself.

Take, for example, the Vietnam Memorial which not only includes the Wall designed by Maya Lin, but also encompasses the Three Soldiers statue designed by Frederic Hart and the Vietnam Women's Memorial by Glenna Goodacre.

You can read much of the Wall description in Maya Lin's own words, but the short of it is, the design of the Wall is meant to show an open rift in the earth - loss - with one wall pointing toward the Washington Monument, the other pointing toward the Lincoln Memorial, supposedly to show Vietnam in historical context.

Her intent was that as you descend into the apex of the wall, the rest of the world disappears, and as you reach that point where the two walls meet, you're in a quiet, private place surrounded by 58,260 names, the overwhelming number of fallen engraved into the granite. That granite, where even as of last year, they are still adding names to the list, for all manner of reasons.

But, then, as you leave that quiet place and walk up the other side, you slowly rejoin the world, presumably with more knowledge and maybe even a tiny bit of hope.

The site itself is just powerful, and quite awe-inspiring. So when I was there, it was hard for me to believe that back in the day, so many constituents were opposed to the design, opposed to the placement, and even opposed to Lin. And, honestly, I've heard that story before, when it comes to these monuments. Of course, when you have that many people to please - veterans, the public, and government - it's nearly impossible to make everyone happy.

But what strikes me most about any type of memorial of this kind, is the feeling that people seem to get when they visit - what Lin calls universal loss. It tends to spawn that innate sense of hushed and honored silence. And there's something comforting knowing that at whatever memorial you are in the world, there's someone at another memorial for another war, for another set of heroes, feeling the same thing you are.

A horse is a horse

Magnet #439 - Kentucky

Yes. You guessed it. A friend of mine went to some focus groups and brought this magnet back for me!

In hindsight, I probably should have used this for the 135th run of the Kentucky Derby last Sunday.

For the last couple of years, the sister of a friend had a horse in the Derby, so we always had a heads up about Derby weekend. But, this one just ran under my radar. And apparently, I missed a big race - they're saying it was like the second-biggest upset in the contest's history. At a 51-1 shot, the payout on Mine That Bird was $103.20, second only to Donerail, who paid out $184.90. (No, I haven't a clue what the heck that even means. But it's big. And a longshot from the get-go, so I gather.)

I will say that the roster of contender names is likely to give Disney's paint chip colors a run for their money. There was Mine That Bird, Pioneer of the Nile, Musket Man, Papa Clem, Chocolate Candy (whom I soooo would have bet on), Summer Bird, Join in the Dance, Regal Ransom, West Side Bernie, General Quarters, Dunkirk, Hold Me Back, Advice, Desert Party, Mr. Hot Stuff, Atomic Rain, Nowhere to Hide, Friesan Fire, and Flying Private.

C'mon. Those are awesome names! I mean, who knew that horse naming was such a huge deal?

Anyway, the other reason I'm using this magnet for today is because it's my Kentucky-born and -bred boyfriend George Clooney's birthday. Yay, happy birthday, George.

I'm anticipating a million Google reader and Google alert notices every five seconds to remind me. Heh.

I go to pieces

Magnet(s)# 438 - Magnet pieces

Everyone has a set of these things, whether they're words, or poetry or just letters. In fact, I saw in Target this weekend, they were selling those block letter magnets for kids. Odd, because I don't think I ever thought of anyone having to buy those things.

But, if you look in the middle of this set, you'll see the word pieces. That's because this chick with an ezine called Pieces kindly included joy magnetism and me on her blog/ezine. I know, right? You're thinking there's someone who covers about magnets?

Actually, she has a really interesting ezine focused on the different materials we live with, and how they affect our lives every day. Supercool, huh? Her current issue is Cotton, the fabric of our lives. But, she's done quite a few issues - on wood, steel, etc.

I took a spin around her Magnet issue, and learned a ton about magnets that I didn't know. I won't lie, I'm kinda wishin' I was that guy who invented magnetic poetry.

This land is your land

Magnet #437 - New York

I picked this one up last week. Man, I just need to stay out of the midtown tourist traps. The newer gift shops have these magnet walls at the back with dozens and dozens of NYC magnets.

I mean, I live here, what the heck do I need with more New York magnets?

But dudes! They're so pretty! Look!

I particularly love this one for the design. Think about it: For every building, there's a company or organization or family inside. For every little window in every building, there's a person, place or thing behind it.

A million, trillion stories, here on this tiny island only 23 square miles big.

I can't even imagine what Dutchman Peter Minuit would say if he ever saw modern-day New York. He landed on the island today back in 1626, and it was pretty much all wooded area. Minuit was the guy who is credited with purchasing the land from the native Algonquins for the equivalent of $24.

Whoa, hello blue light special.

Auuuuuuggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

Magnet #436 - Comic shop locator

Auuuuuuggggggghhhhhhhh! *shakes fist toward skies*

Eeeep, we missed Free Comic Day yesterday, which was part of why I had this comic shop locator magnet with me. Oh well.

To make up for it, we did end up going to see Wolverine today. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, but wasn't as good as I was hoping.

Plot was a bit off, SFX were a bit up and down, fight scenes were ok - but, for gratuitously shirtless Hugh Jackman and pretty-boys Taylor Kitsch and Ryan Reynolds?

Yeah, I'll sit through it, sure.

Map is not to scale

Magnet #435 - Joy in Portland

I've been to Portland only once, as part of that cross-country train trip several years ago. It was literally a pitstop of a few hours, before we hooked up with the Cascades line up to Seattle.

Two things I remember vividly.

Forgetting a stack of my bills on the Amtrak train, freaking out over them, and finding out that the wonderful guys at Amtrak mailed them out for me. Yet another reason to love Amtrak. Love.

The other thing I remember is trying to walk up to the Pittock Mansion, "five minutes away" from downtown Portland.

Let's just say that the map we were following was most definitely not to scale.

Time to get serious

Magnet #434 - Ann Taintor's She Could See No Reason to Act Her Age

Every year around this time, my mother asks me, "How old will you be this year, joy?"

As I tell her, I can hear pained look on her face - the look of a mother wondering why her eldest child hasn't bought a new home, married or produced children yet.

Then, in that Mom voice, she says, "Ok. Tiiiiime to get serious, Joy."

And then I rapidly try to change the subject. Poor Mom.

Today is one of those get serious days. At work, anyway. We'll be having lotsa meetings throughout the day, where I'll be expected to be superserious. Which I hate. Like. A lot. But, it'll be just fine. I've got a workaround.

While I'm supposed to be putting on a serious face, just know that what I'll really be thinking about is how to celebrate all of the other holidays today.

Besides being my birthday, today is also:

• May Day
• International Labor Day
• Amtrak Day
• Law Day
• Lei Day
• Loyalty Day
• Mother Goose Day
• New Homeowners Day
• No Pants Day
• School Principal Day
• Space Day
• Silver Star Day
• Stepmother's Day
• Tuba Day
• Executive Coaching Day
• Keep Kids Alive - Drive 25 Day
• Festival of Saint Efisio Day