PDX finishLINE

Greetings Race Fans,

Sorry for the delay.

SO, when we last left off, I was singing the praises of Portland and The Monaco hotel in Portland.

Portland is a cool place with some cool architecture. Of course, we can start with Halprin and his fountains. Of course, when I was there, there was zero water in the fountains. What a shame. This was and is a very powerful civic space. When I lived in Portland in the late '80's and early '90's, the fountain was going quite a bit and it was absolutely stunning.

Then there is the Portland building. Michael Graves' single-handed tour de force in Post Modern Architecture.
It doesn't matter if you are a fan or not... this thing redefined

an entire generation of architects and architecture. Personally, I can appreciate the formal qualities as well as the oh-so-'80's cliche color scheme... even if the base of the building doesn't work.

Then there is the Koin Tower.

Truthfully, it has seen better days. I remember talking to another architectural guy in the late '80's who told me that the building was designed for a top lifespan of 50 to 75 years. (Who knows what the intent truly was towards lifespan.) It blew me away. It sounds silly now, but it was the first moment that I realized that architecture (without judgement towards intent or "good" or "bad") is mortal. I had never spent any serious time other than in a cursory sort of way thinking about a building as having a terminal point in a nebulous and undefined future. At best, there was an awareness of a crumbling building or decay -surely not a distinct yet undefined moment of rigor mortis. Thank you Koin Tower.

And then there is Pietro Bulleschi. Pietro did the Central Lutheran Church in Portland and the Equitable Building. Here is some commentary from Great Buildings Online concerning the Equitable building...

Equitable Building Commentary
"An ethereal tower of sea green glass and aluminum, is this building of the Equitable Savings and Loan Association. The skeleton outline is predominant and stresses neither the horizontal nor the vertical. The rigid window pattern allows for more interior flexibility than is apparent as result of arrangement of utilities and modular subdivision..."
— Jo Stubblebine, ed. The Northwest Architecture of Pietro Belluschi. New York: F.W. Dodge Corporation, 1953. p41.
"This trim, compact office building originally 12 stories high and later 13, set styles for hundreds that came after. It was the first to be sheathed in aluminum, the first to employ double-glazed window panels, and the first to be completely sealed and fully air-conditioned."
— from Sylvia Hart Wright. Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture: From Postwar to Postmodern. p11.

Pietro also did a fantastic church in Duluth, MN. If you get the chance, Google, or, better yet, check these buildings out. Sorry no photos this time around.

At any rate, I roamed around PDX looking at some of my favorite things. However, much like the Lakeshore Inn (http://www.thelakeshoreinn.com/) and my refusal to stay there so I will not ruin some perfectly good memories, looking at some of this stuff was slightly bitter-sweet and more than slightly stupid.

You really can not go back. You can revisit and make new memories, but you can't spend too much time thinking of the really good memories from the past ...or the present becomes pale in comparison. I realized recently that we even do that with the crappy memories. "Hey, remember that blizzard and how you lost a glove while trying to go to the bathroom outside of the car in whiteout conditions?" "Yeah, that was wild... that was so great." At the time you were probably hoping that at the most you would get frostbite on non-private parts. Oh well... I went back and received frostbite on the part of my mind that controls memories.

From PDX we flew to San Francisco to see a couple of our reps and then off to LA. Finally, we flew home.

There may have been a trip or two in between the PDX-SF-LA junket, but I do not recall at 12:05 AM in some hotel in yet another town. What I can tell you is that a couple of weeks later found me under the knife in the hospital and a week after that, on my way to Belgium.

Stay tuned race fans, there is more to tell.

-G

Back on Track

It has been crazy busy at work. I realize that we are in a recession and at times, (thanks to the media pouring its daily ration of gasoline on to the wide reaching and fear causing fire), it seems like we may be on the verge of something much, much worse. However, like my grandfather used to say, "You do the best that you can, and if that isn't good enough, the heck with it." -In other words, if we are on the verge of something worse, then, one, we aren't going to be able to control most of that and, two, the company I work for hasn't seemed to notice at the day to day, nose to the grindstone, sort of level. That's a good thing. (Count your blessings large or small.)


Today, this week (since Friday the 6th of February anyway) I have felt like the old G: Back on the road, celebrating architecture and life, hopefully promoting our company's products to an eventful and profitable outcome, and thinking... for the first time in a long time. What's that you ask, "You've been on autopilot, G?" Yeah, sort of. You know how it is. You get so busy that you stop thinking and just react. I call it the "Fire Dance," because all you are doing is putting out fires instead of putting in the time on the long term, more critical issues -like doing the right things business-wise in order to generate even more business when the Big Recession reverses and life is the Big Easy once again. (Please allow the cross reference to NO, LA. Thanks.)

I have also been thinking about some of my first loves: the art and architecture around the world, travel and the richly woven blanket of diversity that not only separates us into individual fibers and strands, but also brings us together, and you. Yeah, you. I imagine some of you quite clearly because you are my friends and family. Others I imagine as the merely curious and bored. At any rate, I have been thinking about what this blog was intended for and what you may like to know about what I have been up to, where to stay, good places to eat, etc. So, back on track. Here we go...


Friday I and a coworker drove up to Washington, DC for the AIA Gala presented by the AIA and the AAF. This annual pilgrimage comes courtesy of the fact that the leadership in our company has had the kind of long term vision to make us Cornerstone Partners with the AIA -the American Institute of Architects. Along with that partnership comes two tickets every year to this event. My understanding is that they do not bestow the AIA Gold medal every year, but they have at the last few I have attended. This year the Gold (AIA's highest honor) went to a plucky Australian by the name of Glen Murcutt. I wish you could have been there to witness this.





















Forget all the jokes about an Aussie getting an American Institute of Architects award. Ignore all the snarky comments coming from half drunk women falling out of their evening gowns at the nearby table. (The same women and their companions who would only shut their mouths long enough to swallow the food or wine that they were cramming into it.) Don't dwell on the fact that last year the table you were assigned to was ten feet from the podium and this year the assigned table was in the nether regions of the hall next to drunk women, falling out of their tops, making snarky comments about Tom Kundig or Glen Murcutt. And please try not to dwell on the fact that last year's event, at the table ten feet from the podium that, for a moment, that podium was occupied by none other than Renzo Piano, while someone you know, like and call a friend, was getting hammered and making snarky comments to the lovely head of marketing for a local DC firm. (No, not I.) Forget all of that. Why relive it or be bitter or even slightly amused? This year's event, like the one before it, was about passion. Not the, "Hey-look!-Half-drunk-women-in-evening-wear-falling-out-of-their-dresses-and-making-snarky-comments" type of passion. (That would be lust.) No, the type of passion that makes a difference in any field where it can be witnessed, felt and, above all, thought about.
















Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen received the AIA firm of the year award. It's easy to see why. Some of their work approaches the sublime. Take Chicken Point cabin for example: http://www.oskaarchitects.com/Projects/101/Chicken-Point-Cabin Unreal! Well executed and well thought out design. If you are impressed, there is a really nice book out about their work. It is not an inexpensive book. It is inspirational, though. http://www.amazon.com/Olson-Sundberg-Kundig-Allen-Architects/dp/1580930824/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234102621&sr=8-2 If you do not want to shell out that kind of quid for a book, then check out Tom Kundig's book instead. http://www.amazon.com/Tom-Kundig-Houses-Dung-Ngo/dp/156898605X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234102621&sr=8-1


When you see work like this, you know that the practioner is passionate and fully engaged in their work. "IT" goes beyond work to almost this, dare I say it, Zen-like quality of caring deeply about the outcome while maintaining a focus that is so laser like focused that the rest of the world fades away. In a word; Passion. I realize that this is a quality that can be found in any field of endeavor. When it is found, it is breathtaking.

Then there was and is the Aussie himself. Here is a guy who is so passionate about the ecology of architecture that when he was asked by Architectural Record's Bob Ivy about the work, (photo above of the two sitting beneath the big screen), he slipped into overdrive and started getting down to the minutia of what he does, why he does and it, and even how he does it. "I unbolted the whole thing... and moved it..." All of which is predicate upon a passion that was noticable -even in the back of the room. If you thought that OSKAs book was expensive, wait until you take a gander at some of the Murcutt books. Go to Amazon and do a search on Glen Murcutt. The about.com site has some nice stuff about Glen, albeit a little outdated. http://architecture.about.com/od/greatarchitects/p/murcutt.htm


I remember seeing a book about his work floating around the library at North Dakota State University. Even then people were talking about this guy and his ecologically sensitive work. He was green before there was a green. Interesting side note: He mentioned in his talk at the Gala that "greenwashing" by various industries and interests would eventually destroy the Green movement. I am not one hundred percent convinced that he is right, but I think that he may be close to the mark. None-the-less...


Both firms... Passion. Look for it, find it, and above all embody it.


Speaking of Passion... I am in Portland, Oregon today. Talk about a passionate place. This town is jam packed with creative types. I love this town. I almost have grown to hate it (more on that another time) but, at the end of the day, I still love this town.

When I was a younger man, I moved to Portland. Think Prodigal Son meeting a severe case of wanderlust. I had spent some time at the aforementioned NDSU and found, at the end of three years, that I had absolutely no inclination to study or sit in a classroom. Long story short, I left my heart in North Dakota (sorry San Francisco) and went, like all young men in the cliche, West.

I lived in Portland and surrounding suburbs for a little over three years. Prior to this, I had lived for a summer in Boston, spent a summer North of the Windy City with my good friend, the Navy, and had spent a summer North of Los Angeles in the coastal community of Oxnard. I like all those towns, but I flipped over Portland. I moved during November (the rainy season) and drove my little Datsun 280Z through the night into the Rose City. Some people hate the rain, but I am not one of them. I stayed at the Lakeshore Inn in Lake Oswego -on the lake... and dare not go back in the event that reality ruins one of my favorite moments in time and one of my favorite memories. The more it storms and rains, the more I like it. Portland's mild tempatures and constant gray was like a warm blanket to me and my twisted little mind. The greeness of the city amazed me. I fell asleep in the middle of my first rainy day with the sliding door open to the lake (it was a warm 45 degrees -warm for November to a kid from North Dakota) and knew that I had made a good decision.


When spring arrived I was blown away by the color and livlihood of the city. I was even more amazed by the budding scene in the industrial section and Northwest area of Portland's downtown. This was long before the Pearl district became the Pearl. At that time, people were just starting to convert warehouses into lofts. Oh that 20-20 hindsight, thing. But that's another story. Art was, and still is, rampant. I met architects who would go on to become famous in their own ways... like the guy who has his work splashed across the cover of this month's (Feb) Architectural Record magazine. People partied through the night when they weren't working through it. And I, well I was just too dumb -too null and void -to realize how young and energetic I was. At any rate...


This morning finds me in The Monaco Hotel ( a Kimpton property: http://www.kimptonhotels.com/) in downtown Portland. I came in early due to the crazy AIA gig on Friday and a heavy week of travel this week. (San Fran and LA to follow.) If you like things that are a little bit off the beaten path, the kind of places that are a little quirky, than some of the Kimpton propertis are for you. If you time it right, it will cost you about the same amount of money as a Hilton second tier hotel like the Hilton Garden Inn. Be careful though, it can be quite expensive if you are not getting a deal. In the case of The Monaco, you may take the light rail (MAX) from the airport to Pioneer Court House Square. Walk two blocks to the North and Voila! You have arrived. This is awesome. I have stayed at the HGI in or near Lake Oswego. Albeit nice, and a fan of Hilton chains, I did have to rent a car. The car rental was $300 or so for three days once I put fuel into it, etc. Not the case at the Monaco. Even in light of the recently dropped rates (based on occupancy) by the Hilton chains, the Monaco in PDX is a better deal. You can end up saving money by making your desicions based on mass tranisit. IF you are a pet person, dogs, I believe are welcome. I am not a dog person. I have not noticed any pet smells in my room. Also, the Kimpton reward program (In Touch) is nice. Like the Hilton chains, there will be a letter waiting in your room with a bottle of water and a snack. Smart.





The two drawbacks to the Kimpton properties are that there is a preponderance of buy this and buy that. Want a candybar out of the snack tray? $3.50. Like the stuffed animal on the bed? How much cash do you have? They even sell socks, and, get this, unmentionables. This gets a little cheesy and not my cup of tea at all. However, I did buy the $10 toothbrush and Toms of Maine toothpaste... somethings I forget when I am packing. My bad. At 11:00 PM, I am willing to spend that kind of money... no Target, Duane Reeds or CVS in sight. More importantly, after walking the three blocks from the light rail, I was in no mood to go looking for something to brush my teeth with. This is drawback number one: the "everything is for sale" thingy. Drawback number two is not a drawback in my mind, but it may be in yours: All of these hotels are different. If you are a McDonalds person -you want it the same way everytime, this isn't going to be your gig. I, however, dig this. Be warned that some of there other properties are too expensive -even without a rental car. But join their rewards program, look for deals, and you too can bask in the Kimpton sunshine. Kimpton, by the way, was just listed on Fortune's 2009 list of best companies to work for. I like staying someplace that treats their people right.


A quick note... if you are a Relais and Chateau person, the Kimpton properties may be beneath your standards. Especially considering the first problem outlined above. However, the Kimpton properties DO have some of that same charm without that R and C price point. (What other chain offers you a $50,000 Gift Card -32,000 + Euros? http://www.relaischateaux.com/en/gift-shop/newyork/5/gift-certificates-50,000-usd/18/)And, there isn't a R and C nearby that I am aware of... I may be wrong. http://www.relaischateaux.com/.

Last time I was here, I stayed at the Kimpton sister property: The Hotel Vintage Plaza. It was also nice and a little bit quirky. If you are headed to Portland, or PDX as I call it (based on the luggage tag at the airport), check it out. I like the Monaco a little bit more. Both are nice and I believe that the Hotel Vintage Plaza is a little bit closer to Powells- The bricks and mortar Amazon of the Pacific Northwest. Ah, to wax rhapsodic about long, long afternoons years ago wandering the seemingly endless aisles of Powells. "Holy crap! They have more than The Ginger Man by good old J.P.D. And look, a real row or two of architecture books instead of the four foot wide by 9 foot tall section you see in some national chains." Love Powells. (http://www.powells.com/) Definitely worth the drive from the wine country near Newberg -where I last lived, and even more so, the walk from either the Hotel Vintage Plaza or The Monaco.


This has been a very long post... and, daylight is burning. I will continue this tale in the next post... until then, race fans..

Take care and travel safe,

-G

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Personal view here, however, this is a personal site...

The problem with spoon feeding people is that at the end of the day all they know is the contour of the spoon. Giving government bail out money in the form of directly produced government jobs (like roads and bridges) is not a terrible idea, however it makes me reflect back to the idea of simultaneously preparing for and preventing war. More on this later.

The Gulliver Economic Stimulus Plan would forego giving money to those who have proven by past performance that they not only are adept at mismanaging those funds, but are also completely inept in the fine art of learning a lesson. If my kid is given a nice grand (ten bens, as it were) and he blows it on candy and Star Wars trading cards, I am surely not going to give him another grand to blow. And yet, this is exactly what our government has done with the automakers. Have you ever looked at a Pontiac Aztek? In addition, we are talking about people who do not want to make wage concessions or cut their hours –in reference to the original discussions with the unions. Instead, they would rather suck on the hind teat of John Q. Public. Well, enough. My nipples are sore.

From another viewpoint, isn’t it time we stop and ask “Who” exactly is handing out the bailouts? Yeah, very good. You’re right. It is the same miscreants who deregulated banking –opening the sub-prime door, the people who actually lived through the late ‘80s banking mess and learned nothing, the fools that comprise the largest group of working stiffs that have never held a real job, and the people who are now getting ready to lay down another trillion or so bucks on the debt ridden back of the public. Ladies and Gentlemen I give to you your ELECTED OFFICIALS. Shouldn’t we hold them to a similar standard like the one that we hold up for ourselves? Can you ignore your checkbook balance for oh, say a year of five and then ask for a “bailout?” Perhaps if the elected people of this nation were receiving the same retirement that the rest of us will receive from social insecurity, they may be a little more down with getting this crap right.

So, what is the Gulliver Economic Stimulus Plan? Or GESP or, if you prefer, G –ESP? Simple.

Give a tax moratorium for three years to small businesses… say under 10 million in revenues. Continue to tax the larger corporations and use the tax year BEFORE the stimulus tax break as the benchmark. In other words, don’t let people come in and say, “Hey! I’m a company under ten million dollars in revenue, too. Even though, granted, I was brining in 22 mil in revenue per year as of a week ago. You see, I restructured my business into three smaller businesses…” Sound familiar Mr. or Mrs. Banker? (The Bank of G announcements will follow this rant.)

Give a tax moratorium to the working and middle class for three years. I don’t necessarily need a new pretty bridge. I would like to keep more of what I earn, though. I promise, with all these flippin’ kids running around the Gulliver ranch and hacienda (five at last count), I will be spending that extra money. Enough said.

Keep the personal taxes on the wealthy and the “better-off” where they are at. Afterall, Mr. and Mrs. No Real Job Elected Official, these are the people that create jobs and WHOA!, pay the majority of the taxes. They are not going to be creating jobs when you tax the ever loving living piss out of them. They can go to Canada if they want that kind of a gig. They are going to be buying gold with whatever money they have left and hedging their bets against you driving this country deeper into bankruptcy, though. I promise you that. (Can I deposit bullion in a foreign safety deposit box?) Again, how much is the currently debated economic stimulus plan worth? Are we taking in a trillion dollars a year in taxes?

After three years gently start to phase in the tax structure and lift the moratoriums. Not a new, higher, brighter, tax structure, but the old one or, even better, a lower one. And, pay attention, tell people up front at Moratorium time that this is coming, what the phase in will be, how long, etc. Nothing pisses people off more than being lied to. I realize that elected officials get elected by living the complete antithesis of this premise, but I think that they can try really, really hard and get it right just once.

How do we pay for it all? Cut the fat.

When I was in the Navy Reserve, the US Government sent me and fifteen of my good buddies by DELTA FRICKIN’ AIRLINES to Japan for two weeks. I dug Japan, but come on, $1500 bucks a pop back then to fly commercial? WTH? When we got there, I was astounded to find a whole battalion of US Navy Seabees (Construction Battalions) on base sitting on, of all things, their thumbs. Yep, that’s right. They had their thumbs up their rectums and had nothing to do. We, my friends and I, spent two weeks making a nice new parking lot on base, cleaning up an old storage building, and touring Japan. (Ground zero at Nagasaki humbled me like nothing else.) We did not like the seating arrangements on base and opted in lieu of the rectal thumb thermometer for some work and sightseeing. The point being, I could have saved the public tax payers twenty-two grand and change in two weeks on airfare alone. And, I wouldn’t have had to try too hard at all on that one. I am going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this isn’t an isolated incident AND things have not changed since the early ‘90’s. I would guess that these types of incidents happen every day and are exponential. Let’s just guess a thousand times per day on the old Navy Seabee scale. That would be $22,500,000 dollars per day.

At any rate or scale, there are millions and billions in waste, corruption and graft going out the windows of various buildings all around Washington, D.C. –not to mention this once great country of ours. I would bet your social security check on it.

Please write, call or email your elected official and ask them to apply both the brakes and their brains. Ask them if they have ever heard of G-ESP. Urge them to spend less time with their conceited egos and more time with their dried and withered minds. After all, the problem with Washington, I think, comes back to the spoon and that old, well worn and very familiar contour. It's time to stop the feeding.

Disclosure: The Bank of G would like a bailout for the funds that I (er, I mean, we) have yet to receive. Thank you.

Rolling Stones

HEY! Check out the blog of old friend -The K-man.
Rolling Stones everywhere.

http://mnaviator.spaces.live.com/

Architectural Lectures

Check out the AIA TRIANGLE architecture lecture link. http://aiatriangle.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=34

For those of you from other parts of the globe... AIA TRIANGLE is the local AIA chapter for Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. Or, if you are flying in to the Triangle, RDU.

Happy Viewing,

G

ONE MORE... SEE POST BEFORE

http://www.ecodeephaus.blogspot.com/

Two Great Sites to Check Out

Thanks to Brother Rob and Brother Scotty G for the links below. Check them out... if you dig architecture and engineering displays of strength...



http://www.ccmht.org/?utm_content=Design+Notes+October08&utm_campaign=Design+Notes&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email&imm_mid=039c83

http://www.oddee.com/item_96489.aspx

-G

Disclosure: The Closest Exit blog wait staff and executive committee will not pay for tips to great sites. But we do say, "Thanks." Send all such sites to closestexit@gmail.com . Thank you. -The Mgmt.

long long long long

Holy son of a monkey! It's been a long time race fans. The G has been having a crazy, crazy time over the last couple months.

Allow me to give you a rundown of where I have been and what I have been doing.

AFTER Boise (previous post), I went to Philly to see one of our best reps. We cruised all over the place from Philly to Baltimore to Hoboken and then back to Philly. We stopped to see one of our favorite architects and the job he has been working on at his firm's headquarters. The substructure alone was riveting. The rep is as big of fan of architecture as I am. Not to mention other things. He invited me to stay an extra day (Saturday) and promised a couple of very cool things. He was right on the old monkey.

First, on Friday night, we went to see his daughter play at an open air restaurant. I won't tell you that she was fantastic, she wasn't. She was over the top fantastic! I won't tell you her name, but if you ever hear an artist with the first name of Jersey (possibly spelled with a "z"), you will know who I was talking about. The next day we went to the Barnes Foundation which has some of the best art in one of the nicest collections in the country. I can not recommend it high enough for all of you impressionist fans. That night he snagged a couple of tickets to Mark Knopfler -one of my favorite artists of all time. (Think Sultans of Swing more than the infamous MTV song when he fronted Dire Straights.) http://www.markknopfler.com/ It was a cool respite from the road. And I really enjoyed the Mann Center. (Not my photo below-blatant rip-off of the Mann site.) Thanks, MJ.

After Philly, it was off to the great white coast of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach for a regional AIA show with one of the reps. I really dig her and her husband. In spite of being hit by the hard times that have hit the five counties from WPB to Miami, they keep their humor about them and know how to relax. After a beautiful meal at a local restaurant, we headed back to their ocean front condo. We started talking cars. The reps husband (Pete) asked me if I liked older muscle cars. Um... affirmative, 455 CI with a 4-speed Hurst -like the one I used to own -wrapped in the shell of a 1975 Trans Am. Yeah! "Wait here," he said as he left me standing in the condo lobby. The rep retired upstairs as her husband vanished around a corner. The doormen looked at me as if they were looking at the whitest and most pale man they have ever seen. Lucky for them, they were right.

All of a sudden, THROUGH THE GLASS, I heard the loud rumble of a loud car. Bup-Bup-Bup-Bup. I turned to look out the window and saw a beautiful GT Clone Mustang of a 1966 vintage. Pete waved me out. I climbed in and said some sort of expletive. "Yeah," he said, "I bore her out. She's real fast." And with that he dropped the hammer. We flew into WPB. Then he stopped the car at a gas station and said, "Your turn." Well, slap me sideways and wipe the smile off my face. I was all for this piece of news. He yelled over the roar as I broke numerous laws heading back to the beach, "Speed shift it." I pseudo-speed shifted it because I was afraid of pegging the tach into the red line. "No, no, no," he yelled. "Pull over." Yes, sir. I pulled over and we switched sides. "You can't blow this engine," he said. And to prove it he set a new Palm Beach land record down a side street. We rounded a corner and he yelled, "We have to get off the streets now. The cops have surely been called." We rolled into his underground garage and parked across from a rolls. A rolls! I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING WITH MY TIME.
Thanks, Pete and Jean.

From WPB, the following week found me in Phoenix with one of the nicest reps in the business. This, of course, is where things started going sideways. It always does when you are hanging out with super nice people. I did get a great deal at the Hilton Squaw Peak Resort (or something like that) due to the off season (read "HOT!") timing of my trip.

About the second or third morning of the trip, I received a call from Mrs. G. Mrs. G, as I write this, is on modified bed rest with the newest little G still resting in the proverbial oven -he is due any day. So, when I answered the phone, I wasn't ready for the sailor drunk slurring of words that came out of the phone. She was in the hospital. Nobody knew what was wrong at that time, but something was definitely wrong. The rep showed up at this point -I was sitting in the lobby of the hotel swilling coffee. I got off the phone and made hasty excuses for ditching our plans and then ran back to my room for a quick pack and a mad dash to the airport. (Sorry, Dan H.)

Turns out that the old female body has a propensity to produce kidney stones when preggers. Or, at least it did in the case of my wife. By the time I arrived she found out what was going on. She told me that she had been crying and ralphing all over the place when this went down and that she would rather deliver babies over a kidney stone any day. I nodded sagely and stroked her hand and told her that everything would be all right.

A week or two later I was out on a pseudo-date with the now free from stone and pain Mrs. G. Suddenly I felt the need to ...um ...use the restroom. We went home because the G man suffers from a strong fear of pooping on rarely cleaned public toilets. (Wow! Good thing I don't travel a lot.) Long story short, I ended up on the floor in our bedroom two hours later writhing in pain from, yep, you guessed it, kidney stones. I didn't know that they were kidney stones at the time, but the next day at the local doc-in-a-box, I found out. The funny part was when they asked for a specimen. I went to the "room" and almost fell over laughing. Why? I looked over at the metal box for the specimen sample. I finished up and decided the only appropriate thing to write on the bottle was "IGOR."

Thanks to the Chi-town rep, Jim for the pre-season Bears game the week that preceded this Friday night discovery that I have been married way too long -my wife and I are suffering the same ailments. What's next. "Congrats, Mr. G! You're the first cowboy to get knocked up. You will be famous."

I really dig Chicago, even though it took me a long, long time to get over the summer of 1986 that I spent at Great Mistakes Naval Boot Camp North of the great city. For years, I would get a sinking feeling in my gut whenever I got near the Windy City. All this time I thought it was a visceral thing revolting against dark images of the longest summer of my life. Turns out it was kidney stones. "Your left, your left, your left, right, left kidney. Your left, your left, your right..." I told my wife, when we finally went in to the doctor, "At least I didn't puke and cry like a pussy." She laughed. She laughed harder a week later when I disgorged all over the grass of the old employer's North American HQ. "Baby come get me! One of the colony residents is trying to escape!" At least I didn't cry ...yet.

The saga isn't over. I have stones much worse than my wife did. She had one. And I indeed have a flippin' colony. Multiple visits and mucho quid to the old doc and it is still not over. FUN! But hey, race fans! You didn't come here to hear me bitch and moan about stones or the fact that I have renamed my manhood "Frightened Turtle, Hidden Stent."

Let's move on, shall we?

Two weeks later, I went to Boston and the Big Apple with the boss. Nothing like a road show with the man. WoW! I was heavily medicated, so I am sure that his overall opinion of me skyrocketed through the roof. I was in this gig due to the fact that my old East German boss split -flew the coop and went into the rep business. His boss is now my boss. Overall, though, it was a pretty pleasant gig. We took the train from Bean Town to the Big Apple. Nice way to fly. Then we ended up taking trains to the valley above the city. We called upon architects and installers. COOL! I dig trains. Not in the plywood-sheet-in-the-basement-pretending-like-I-am-three way, but in the kick-back-and-drink-a-drink-as-the-world-goes-by way. My favorite train ride is the Empire Builder from Fargo, North Dakota to Portland, Oregon. Beautiful ride. The trip was fine even though I was prone to the old 30,000 mile stare and slight drooling from time to time thanks to the Endocet and other meds for the stones. Thanks, Bill, Warren and Norbert for not nudging one another and saying things like, "Hey, hey! Check it out. He's going to drool again."

After a good three weeks or so after the Boston/NYC trip, I ended up in Birmingham, Alabama. IF you go... and I think you should ... check out the Hot and Hot Fish Club. Great food. Although the drunk middle aged woman who hit on me while I dined outside with our rep and his lovely wife, provided a little too much entertainment. I highly suggest you check out this restaurant. Birmingham is cool. Check out one of my first posts way back when.

After din-din, the rep's wife took off in her car (she met us there) and we headed back towards the Hampton Inn I was staying at. The rep suggested that I get a skyline type of view of the city and took me up near Vulcan park. (again, see the earlier post). I told him that I was going to put the drive in the old blog. "We had a nice meal and then our rep took me for a romantic drive." Just as a quick note... I don't play for that team, pal. Neither does he. Thanks, Randy.

I am going to stop here... it's getting late in Denver... where I am now and tomorrow is coming early. We can pick this up in a day, or week or a couple of months. However, I do promise... More later.

Thanks for hanging in there...

_G

(Sorry. No disclosure tonight. The old melon is fried from this mile high air.)

Rhapsodic Graffiti

They have a full body scanner at the airport in L.A. They have a Moxie Java coffee shop in the airport at Boise. Boise is where I am today and yesterday and part of the day before yesterday.
It would be easy to discount Boise if you have never been here or if you have spent your entire life in someplace like the Upper West Side, or Miami or, dare I say it, even L.A. Discounting Boise would be a mistake. Let's just leave it at that for now.

Since Seattle (the last post) I have been to Georgia, Alabama, yes, L.A., and Seattle again. In between all of that I went to France and Belgium. I will do a special post on Euro-G, advertisements for the rock band KISS, and all that superior attitude-thingy that seems to saturate the air over there. But, of course, I will do that later.

I am growing a little weary of the road. And, in truth, it is not the road that is making me weary, it is the lack of companionship on the road -namely the wife and chitlens. So, I am brainstorming ways that I can travel, get paid and have the wife and the traveling circus join me. A good friend said to me when I took this job, ..."you will eat some of the nicest meals you will ever have in your life, however you will either be eating alone or with complete strangers. It will start to seem", he said, "hollow." Very, very true.

I console myself with the fact that this job really IS a blessing. That I get to meet and shake hands with some of the best architects in the country -if not the world. I get to indulge my passion and this overwhelming curiosity to see new buildings, new art, new restaurants and to meet new people. I get paid to do this. I am blessed.

And then, on some mornings, I wake up and know that I am traveling to a place like Boise. The reps in Boise are eerily quiet. They don't talk much and one gets the sense that they feel like they don't have to. After the first day, long into yet another car ride to yet another architect's office on the second day, you find out that the kid (in a father-son team) had lived in Washington, DC for ten years. He doesn't look old enough to have done this. He looks like he's twenty, maybe twenty-two at the most. "I love DC," you say, "Why did you leave?" The response comes back and all preconceived notions take flight across the arid landscape.

"I was the chief financial analyst for a non-profit. The money was decent and the city rocked, but I made a five year and a ten year plan and I did not want to raise kids in DC."

It turns out that the son attended GW on a golf scholarship. So much for inviting these two guys to the course at some future date. The father has said very little lately and mainly just grins at the son. I feel (and have felt) like a schmuck! I realize that this is because I am guilty of the sin I can not stand in others: A Geographical Slur. I have assumed that Boise was a fly-over city... much like people assume North Dakota is a fly-over state. And golf scholarships or not, Boise is composed of people with amazing stories and history and predilections towards art and architecture and music and good food. Suddenly it feels a lot like home, just like 5th Avenue in New York can seem like home as you walk along on a brisk day, sipping coffee, and talking architecture with a rep who should have been an architect. Or how Miami can feel like home when you walk on the beach and realize that life is really good in the small moments and occasionally grand in the large.
I walk through the local mall, knowing, feeling, sensing and remembering that I designed a store for this place a few years ago -back in Fargo, working as a project architect for a small and good firm alongside my friends: Rich, Tom and Shaun; another lifetime ago. I find the store and the ceramic glass tiles look faded because the light sucks in the location, but the curved walls and circular layout of the dressing rooms still look good. I snap a couple of shots and get some long stares from some college girls. Yeah, that's right, baby, architect -kind of... okay, not really, not anymore. But this is cool. Glory days revisited and then I realize that I am creating new glory days every day.

I flip through the local independent paper and realize that Joe Bonamassa was playing last night at a place called The Knitting Factory here in Boise. I see that Candlebox is coming, as is Ani Difranco. Nugent will be here kicking up the great white buffalo in eleven days. Coffee shops populate the nearby streets. The Capitol building catches the eye as does the terrain of surrounding hills and mountains. The locals refer to the Treasure Valley. People are friendly and smile.

I am blessed.

-G

Disclosure: It would still rock to share this with Mrs. G and the little G's on a daily basis. If you would like to be a patron of a traveling fun show and daily mini-drama, let me know. Of course, we have to wait until our 16 year old daughter graduates in two years because she "ain't going nowhere." Don't use a double negative, honey.

IPOD FANS

For all of you Big Apple fans, check out:

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5010

Thanks to Mr. R. Flaherty of Indy fame for the site.

-G

Seattle Slew

Greetings and Salutations Race Fans,

It is I, the wayward one... it has been a long, long time. Sorry about that.
I have been all over the planet of late and will follow this post up with a couple of more posts.
I went to Seattle to hire a new rep and had a great, great time. I love that city. Only city in the states that I usually enjoy more is Portland. And, of course, the two are very similar in vibe and feel.

Seattle is one of those gigs where you can catch Steven Holl, the public library, and other notable notes. I did not make it back to The Chapel of St. Ignatius -kind of bummed me out. However, I will be returning to Seattle in a few weeks and hope to hit it then. If you get a chance... http://www.seattleu.edu/chapel/ ...check it out. For my money, one of the best by Mr. Holl.

The library has received it's booty in the press, so I won't wax endlessly about the brilliant play of glass and form and light and ... you get the idea.

Of course, you can always check out Uncle Frank's E.M.P. -courtesy of Microsoft Paul.

Fun town... I highly recommend it.

Stay tuned...

-G

Disclosure: I like architecture and I am not afraid to admit it.

Back at Stan and Frans

GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS RACE FANS,

It is I ...the wayward one. Sorry for the long silence. Check out the parking ticket on the seat of the rental car. Yeah... Actually this was a toll violation. So, a word of warning, TAKE CASH when you cross the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate. It's a $25 fine if you do not. "

"Excuse me, do you take Visa or Master Card?"

"No. But I will take your picture and give you a fine. Have a nice day." Fun.

Speaking of speeding and breaking the law, San Fran is the home of nice cars that people actually drive on a daily basis. Check out the Italian exotic cars seen on the streets of San Francisco. Needless to say, I left my envy in San Francisco.

The days were actually sunny. Seems like every time I am there it is overcast, cloudy or, you guessed it, foggy. (Think Scooby Doo meets the Creeper back in the day when you were a carpet crawler.) There were moments, but by and large it was sunny and nice.

We ate at McCormicks at Ghirardelli Square. My favorite wine store is located there in the square... 360 Cellar... Check it out if you go. The Square is undergoing renovations...I have been in San Francisco quite a few times over the last couple of years, but I have not been back to the square since 1992 or 1993... even though I have been to the Wharf almost every time. Wow! What a change.

The other big change is over in Oakland. Check out the "Cathedral of Christ the Light" by SOM... just finishing completition. This is a pretty cool project with an even cooler interior. Almost done... I will be going back. http://www.som.com/content.cfm/cathedral_of_christ_the_light I am sorry that the snaps are so crappy... better photos on the SOM site.

I will be spending more and more time on the West coast as our company brings some new reps on line. As time goes by, I will add to the architecturally superior work photo file. (See the last posting on Stan Fran's Disco from months and months ago.)

Until then,

Take good care.

_G

Disclaimer: (Actually more of a plea.) The author of this blog is Italian car-less. I don't know what I have been doing with my time. If you have any suggestions, I promise to hold you harmless in future litigation. Thanks.

ral-VER

Greetings and salutations race fans,

A good friend came to visit the G in his adopted town of Raleigh. One snap in this montage is of a Raleigh construction site. Wooo-whooo! I can sense your excitement. However, he is also of the architecture bent or ilk or illness, so... this is the kind of thing we did. "Hey Leap (no kidding... his real name), want to go check out some construction sites?" "Why yes, that sounds wonderful. I flew 1,500 miles to look at construction sites, which, let's be honest, is a nice break from watching how fast your four year old can disrobe after being dressed yet again. Where to?" So, we went to look at some of the cranes and construction elevators and construction in and around Raleigh. The day before we went to a couple of the famed North Carolina beaches where Leap, much to TSA's delight, snagged a crap load of dead crustaceans on the beach for his own little chitlens. (I hope I spelled that correctly... sometimes the old blogger spell check sucks. "Sucks," of course is a technical term. Of course, my own spelling prowess also "sucks!")

Anywho, Leap left soon thereafter for the lovely midwestern plains and subzero temps that all midwesterners know and love. Said something about neck strain from the fast Mustang we rented to see how quickly two middle aged children actually can get to a beach. Wow! What a fun car. But I digress, pony boy.

Soon after Leap flew the G coop and bid farewell to my unruly kids, I took the now familiar trip to the RDU Airport. Destination: The Big D. The Mile High Miracle of arts and life. Yes, race fans, I speak of course of that mythical land known as Duluth. Just kidding... though Duluth is equally as cool. (Take the drive from Duluth northwards along the lake. A good place to end is Swen and Ole's pizza joint. I will not tell you which city Swen and O's is in... make it a travel adventure and see if you can find it.) No, you silly snow goose, I went to Denver. Last time I was in the Mile High it was nice and temps were warm. This time, in the middle of February, the temps were warm and the atmosphere was nice. I stayed at ________ hotel and disco on Zuni. Nice hotel with probably the grossest hot tub I have ever been in sober. Just a caution note for those of you on line saying, "Well the _________ looks cool." (sorry. deleted on the advice of an _______ lawyer.) (Sorry. I had to delete the word "OVERPAID" from the last sentence.)

The next day I drove to Vail in the earth friendly Ford Expedition for a big meeting with a big group of big developers doing a big project for big bucks in a town known for big coin. I had a modest hotel room booked on one of the modest travel discount sites. However, alas, a night in Vail hob-knobbing with the rich and richer was not in the cards. Rumor had it that a big snow storm was coming in. Now I am a midwest boy. I love snow. And although I don't mind steering with my knees while driving over a mountain and snapping a picture of the Good Lord's creation, I do mind doing so when the mountain roads are loaded with ice and the chances of meeting the Good Lord face to face are, excuse the pun, elevated. So, after the meeting, I bailed. I crusied back to Denver and snagged a room at the Embassy Suites between Denver and the Airport. Speaking of the airport, if you want to know what it is like to be under the big white burkas, check out the crappy photo above. Thankfully, the hot tub in this Hilton Family Brand hotel looked and felt clean. Or was that the Koi pond? Darn high altitudes and thin air. It was a nice hotel -no kidding, and it was very reasonable in cost.

The day after that we had a nice little continuing ed thing with some architects in North Denver near, you guessed it, Zuni street and the petri dish hot tub. North Denver is really cool and coming around quickly. Think of the Pearl in Portland before it was the Pearl. Or, any quaint and cool neighborhood first populated by the locals, then the artistic types and then by the snobs. I personally am waiting to make the transition from the artistic class to the snob class. Hasn't happened yet.

Finally, it was back to the burkas and a quick flight on an oversold US Airways flight. Ah, fun!

Today, back in the South, I drove to Charleston, SC. Stay tuned.

-G

Disclaimer: Hot tubs sometimes only look dirty.