Philip Johnson's Glass House

On my trip to New Canaan I was able to visit a local landmark, Philip Johnson's Glass House.

The house was built in 1949 on a dozen acres and over the years Johnson expanded the property to 50 acres and added several buildings, about one a decade, until his death in 2005 at 98.

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997. Johnson passed on ownership of the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opened it to visitors in April 2007. The trust expanded the size of the property, buying adjacent lots which extended it to 200 acres. You can now take a two hour tour for $45.

 

The tour begins in downtown New Canaan, where they have a gift shop and an interesting video wall that gives an overview of Johnson's life and the development of the Glass House property, with some fun pictures and videos of the great parties they had over the years. Then you board a bus and drive out to the property. The first thing you see is this interesting gate.It's an aluminum bar that raises up to let you in.

As you start down the path to the Glass House, it is obscured by trees and slowly reveals itself. The house is a lot smaller than you would think. It is a glass rectangle containing a round brick space for the fireplace and the bathroom. This pattern of rectangle and circle is repeated many times on the property. There are hardly any lights, no AC, and few drapes in the house, so you can see in from almost everywhere. Luckily he owed most of the property around him, so there were not a lot of people looking in on Johnson, he was mostly looking out on a beautiful vista.

 

Below the back of the house Johnson added a lake with a Pavilion and a spectacular water feature.  Behind the lake you can see the sculpture, the ladder to nowhere.

Across from the Glass House is the Brick House. We were not able to go inside it, due to sever flood damage and mold, but the pictures were saw revealed a very interesting space. There was a living room and two bedrooms inside and it was air conditioned so Johnson often slept there in the summer.

Because the Glass House has nowhere to hang art, Johnson built an art gallery on the property to display his partner David Whitney's amazing collection. While they were alive they owned 100's of their friend Andy Warhol's pieces as well as the work of other important modern artists.

The tour ends with a trip to the sculpture gallery. Again the building is as interesting as the art. We were luck enough to come a day with great sunshine so we could see the amazing shadows cast by the slats in the ceiling.

Sadly many of the buildings on the property are badly in need of repair. The Brick House is inaccessible and will take millions to renovate (a lot for a 1700 square foot space), the sculpture gallery roof is rusting, and the Glass House itself has a lot of roof issues too. That said, it is still an amazing place that you should visit if you are in the area, make sure you book in advance, tours fill up quickly.

New Canaan Visit

I took a business  trip to NY this week and amazingly I was able to parley it into a opportunity to see almost all my family members. My sister and her family recently moved to New Canaan, CT and Mom and Dad were there visiting for the weekend, so I flew to JFK on Saturday and took the train up to see them. Then on Tuesday night I came back into the city and had dinner with my brother who was there on a business trip.

This is the great new house they have moved into in New Canaan. It's on about three acres, has a pool, and most importantly lots of room for Winston the dog to run around on. New Canaan is a great town, with plenty of shops, a few restaurants and an easy commute to NYC.

 

While we were there we made a trip to Shake Shack, for some great burgers, and in my case a very good strawberry shake. You should also try the "concrete," it's frozen yogurt with dozens of options you can mix in.

I also had the opportunity to introduce my sports loving nephews to The NFL Red Zone, I don't think they will ever watch a full NFL game on Sunday again.

Shoes - Shoes Best

On the way to work today I was listening to a podcast of Fresh Air and pop music critic Ken Tucker was giving a review of the new Shoes record Ignition. First of all I was amazed to hear the band Shoes were still around, never mind releasing a new record.  In 1979, Shoes Present Tense was one of my favorite records. It's strange now to think that this power pop bad (think Big Star) somehow snuck into my record collection amongst the punk and new wave records that were more popular at the time.

The band was formed in 1974 in Illinois by two brothers and a couple of friends.  There are three bands they are often compared to, but I would say they were way cooler than Cheap Trick, not as formulaic as The Knack and not as "new wave" showy as The Cars. They released three great records in a row: Black Vinyl Shoes in 1977, 1979's Present Tense and Tongue Twister in 1980, then I never heard from them again. Turns out they released three more records in the 1980's and another two in the 1990's. I am sad that I missed out on them, but it was not for lack of effort. I have looked them up a few times on the music guides and checked the used record shops to no avail. Now that they have a new record out, there suddenly seems to be a lot of info on the band.

If you want to check them out there are a few options on iTunes. You can buy Present Tense and Tongue Twister as a combined record for $9.99 or better yet buy SHOES Best, 22 "greatest hits" for the same price. If you like what you hear you can fast forward 20 years and buy the new record Ignition. It's interesting to see where a group of middle aged guys goes when your way too old to sing about teenage angst.

Boke Bowl

Boke Bowl started as a pop up ramen noodle place in Portland and recently opened a permanent location on the east-side next to Bunk Bar, and Clarklewis restaurant. It is best known for it's ramen noodles which come in several flavors: pork, seafood, caramelized fennel dashi - Japanese eggplant, and miso black cod. I have tried the pork and seafood bowls and both were good, however I found the pork to be a little greasy. Be warned, they are very big, so you may want to consider splitting one if you want to try the other stuff. And I strongly suggest you try the other stuff, so if possible, go with a big group of people so you can share.  Also, it's family style seating, so if like me you don't like sitting by people you don't know, a larger group will insulate you.

The steam buns are like little sandwiches, with three to an order for $7. You can get fried chicken (by far the best of the group), miso mushroom (vegetarian), pork belly (again a little greasy/fatty - I wish they would switch this to pulled pork), grilled zucchini (vegan), ham w/tarragon mustard and pickles, and peanut butter and jelly ($6). The snap peas, pea tendrils, pickled radish, avocado, napa cabbage salad with a tahini miso vinaigrette is a great option as are the pickles for an appetizer.  If you are still in need of something sweet to close it out, the Twinkies are a fun choice.

On the website I saw that they host a weekly Koren fried chicken night. If this fried chicken is the same as the stuff they put in the steamed buns, then I will definitely be putting that on the calendar.

Boke Bowl
1028 SE Water Ave.
Portland, OR 97214
503  719  5698

Monday to Wednesday
10:30am to 3pm

Thursday to Saturday
10:30am to 9:30pm

ParaNorman at the Drive-In

 

In the spirit of doing new things we went to see a movie this weekend at the drive-in theater in Newberg. The theater has survived since the 1950's and is still in pretty good working order. It takes about 45 minutes to get there from our house but it was worth the drive. 

They were showing a double bill of ParaNorman and The Campaign starring Will Farrell and Zach Galifianakis. The picture quality is not as good as a indoor movie theater, but it is nice to be able to sit back in your car and watch a movie. 

The main source of income for the theater is concessions, so don't bring your own food, unless you want to eat healthy. The food at the concession stand would all be featured in a what not to eat advice column from your doctor. That said, the nachos are fine if you eat them fast enough (don't let the cheese cool) and the hot dogs were OK.

In between movies, they play a lot of old commercials and other funny clips. They had a trailer from H R Puff and Stuff that was pretty funny.

If you decide to check out the drive-in you should go early, the box office opens at 6:30 and it sells out pretty fast, and be prepared to wait. There is a long line to get in and once you are in, you have to wait until it gets dark enough to project the movie. It is a good idea to bring something else to help you kill a little time.