The Breakers
Ohhh to build a fire. to build a fire, to build a fire, to build a fire! I mean this in more ways that I can say here.
In other news, I rode over to Newport, Rhode Island with some fine film & theatre folk today to see the mansions. incidentally there was a 100% chance of rain in South Hadley today, so said Friday's forecast, and I suppose it extended over into Rhode Island 'cause mostly we just got a lost in tha rain and drove in circles laughing. Finally though, after our umbrellas had turned inside out and sprung back again a few times, we found ourselves some tickets and made it over to the Breakers, owned by the Vanderbilts (who gave birth to daughters Gloria Vanderbilt and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in the good ol' APPLE). We were hoping to see another but because this was Columbus day weekend, Columbus was Italian, and most of the inhabitants of Rhode Island are (straight from the mouth of a 20+ year resident) either Irish or Italian, the city was packed and we tippy toed along in line for an hour before our tour began and all the other mansions were closed by that time. The whole place was exquisite in the most extreme sense of the word, but also more subtle. There were gilt gold cielings, an ubiquitous family coat (sp?) of arms, lavish monograms of Mr. Vanderbilt sculpted into the wall out of marble here and there: the basics for any house that would, by todays standard, have costed over 1 billion dollars to build. However, it was also extreme in the most sublte senses of the word. Relative to Heart Castle, it was, so to speak, less like Xanadu and more like a breathing space.
And by the way...I would die or give my life savings to have marble porches overlooking the breaking waves of the ocean like they did. They were all I was able to photograph on the tour--images coming soon.
All this aside I'm ready to sack out. And glad to be back after a long day's--what narry feels like a fortnights--journey. October break, my friends, has officially begun.
In other news, I rode over to Newport, Rhode Island with some fine film & theatre folk today to see the mansions. incidentally there was a 100% chance of rain in South Hadley today, so said Friday's forecast, and I suppose it extended over into Rhode Island 'cause mostly we just got a lost in tha rain and drove in circles laughing. Finally though, after our umbrellas had turned inside out and sprung back again a few times, we found ourselves some tickets and made it over to the Breakers, owned by the Vanderbilts (who gave birth to daughters Gloria Vanderbilt and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art in the good ol' APPLE). We were hoping to see another but because this was Columbus day weekend, Columbus was Italian, and most of the inhabitants of Rhode Island are (straight from the mouth of a 20+ year resident) either Irish or Italian, the city was packed and we tippy toed along in line for an hour before our tour began and all the other mansions were closed by that time. The whole place was exquisite in the most extreme sense of the word, but also more subtle. There were gilt gold cielings, an ubiquitous family coat (sp?) of arms, lavish monograms of Mr. Vanderbilt sculpted into the wall out of marble here and there: the basics for any house that would, by todays standard, have costed over 1 billion dollars to build. However, it was also extreme in the most sublte senses of the word. Relative to Heart Castle, it was, so to speak, less like Xanadu and more like a breathing space.
And by the way...I would die or give my life savings to have marble porches overlooking the breaking waves of the ocean like they did. They were all I was able to photograph on the tour--images coming soon.
All this aside I'm ready to sack out. And glad to be back after a long day's--what narry feels like a fortnights--journey. October break, my friends, has officially begun.