Filed under: Feature | Tags: Brown University, Four Seasons Restaurant, Glass House, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, New Canaan Connecticut, Philip Johnson, Seagram Building, Wall Street
INNOVATION IN ARCHITECHURE: PHILIP JOHNSON IN DA HOUSE
Philip Johnson is the only architect I know of fully willing to employ hip hop lingo on a whim. The building above is called Da Monsta for this very reason. Completed in 1995, this is last building constructed by Johnson on his home property in New Canaan, CT before his death in 2005. Johnson was 98 years old when he died.
This building is a nod to Le Corbusier sculpture constructed out of a wire mesh molded to shape with concrete poured over top. The middle layer is Styrofoam and the inside plaster. In essence, Johnson attempted to construct a building in a way formerly incomprehensible. Hence, in my eyes, a true innovator.
Does anyone else feel a little Beetlejuice vibe here?
Inside Da Monsta
Probably best known for The Glass House, Philip Johnson is my favorite architect. My life over the last 10 years has revolved around his buildings in some shape or form. I spent most of my university life in the philosophy building at Brown University located directly adjacent to the List Art Center, designed by one Philip Johnson.
The List Art Center in Providence, RI (completed 1971)
I moved to NYC a year after graduation and fell in love in front of The Seagram building (and yes, I can in fact attribute it to this exact moment as it was a discussion point at the time). Designers: Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson
The Seagram Building in NYC (completed 1958)
Soon thereafter, I had a strange cocktail outing with a couple of Wall Street finance dudes and one much younger early 20-something trying to fit in (c’est moi!) while doing something that can only be described as slightly shady in The Four Seasons Restaurant. Located within The Seagram building, this restaurant was also designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
The Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building
Years later, I nursed a break-up with Phish Food, my PJ’s, and a Philip Johnson documentary that left me entranced. The documentary was meant as a walk-thru of Johnson’s home in New Canaan CT, located on 47 acres of land, as guided by the owner himself. The aforementioned, Glass House, served as his home until his death. This past weekend, over one year since it has been open to the public, I got the chance to view the property for myself.
Johnson stated, “My place in New Canaan is. . .the diary of an eccentric architect.” Welcome home.
Outside the Glass House
Inside the Glass House
I had to throw in this pic of Alex in because it reminded me of the moment in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off where Ferris convinces Cameron to let him borrow his dad’s Ferrari.
The Living Room
Above on the left are Barcelona chairs as designed by Mies van der Rohe. A friend once asked me to help him move from his house in CT to NYC. I had no idea one of these chairs was part of the enterprise. Should this ever happen to you, back away slowly. It will undoubtedly give you back problems. The metal base is heavier than you can imagine.
Constructed entirely of glass exterior walls, the only room without a view to the exterior is the bathroom located in a oddly shaped room in the middle of the structure.
The Bathroom
Outside the House
To stand in the house is to awe at its uniqueness, and for me, to feel intensely uncomfortable. I have never been that exposed to my exterior surroundings and the resulting vertigo made me think that Johnson had served me with an after-death therapy session. Regardless, the house is a monument to innovation and to that innovation I tip my iPhone. . .
More Images of the Property
Click here.
To learn more and schedule a visit of your own in 2009, click here.
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Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Chris Matthews, Fox News Channel, John McCain, Keith Olbermann, NBC, NBC News, NBC Universal, Republican National Convention
Around the world, 4.7 billion viewers tuned into the Beijing Olympics which represents nearly 70% of the global population, according to Nielsen and based on data gathered from its partners in 37 international markets. The Beijing Olympics topped the 3.9 billion viewers by +21% from the 2004 Athens Games and the 3.6 billion viewers who watched the Sydney Games in 2000 by +31%. (Cynopsis 9/8)
20th Century Fox Television said it will halt production on the FOX series 24 for more than two weeks as of September 15. The show is taking a time out because executive producer Howard Gordon was not happy with the direction of the last six episodes of the season. Scripts will be rewritten and the show is expected to resume production by October 9. Season seven is still on target to debut next January. (Cynopsis 9/8)
According to Nielsen, the fourth and final night of the Republican National Convention last Thursday, which featured Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech, drew in a combined total of 38.9 million total viewers from eight networks offering live coverage from approximately 10-1115p: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Univision and Telemundo. Specifically, FOX News drew in 9.2 million, followed by NBC at 8.7 million, ABC 6.0 million, CBS 5.3 million, CNN 4.8 million and MSNBC at 2.5 million. The combined total from the eight networks among A18-49 viewers was 15.2 million. Total viewers for PBS from its coverage Thursday night between 8-11p was 2.7 million. (Cynopsis 9/8)
MSNBC is making some Presidential Election coverage changes. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will no longer anchor the network’s election coverage, but rather NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory will anchor the upcoming debates and election night. Olbermann and Matthews will continue as analysts. According to The New York Times, the change is a direct result of the network’s perceived partisan lean to the left, creating tension with its NBC Universal parent company. MSNBC has averaged 2.2 million viewers during the DNC and 1.7 during the RNC, placing it last among all the broadcast and cable news networks. (Cynopsis 9/8)
Disney/Hearst’s Lifetime cable network won’t debut the sixth season of “Project Runway” until January so it has more time to promote the show that it swiped from NBC Universal’s Bravo. The news comes as a lawsuit over the rights to the hit reality series continues to battle in court. (Iwantmedia 9/8, http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/09/project-runway.html 9/5)
The Florida Federation of Republican Women is calling for a boycott of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” following reports that Winfrey will not have U.S. VP candidate Sarah Palin on as a guest before the election. “We are deeply disappointed in Ms. Winfrey’s decision,” the group says. (Iwantmedia 9/8, http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/09/florida-republi.html 9/6)
FOX made several casting announcements for its 60m comedy musical project called Glee, tapping Broadway star Matthew Morrison as Will, an Ohio high school Spanish teacher who is asked to manage the glee club, reports THR. Lea Michele, also seen on Broadway, will portray the glee club’s female diva while Jayma Mays, from ABC’s Ugly Betty, will play Emma the high school guidance counselor and possible love attraction for Will. Glee, from Ryan Murphy, is produced by 20th Century Television and is expected to debut next March. (Cynopsis 9/8)
Jeff Bewkes, Sumner Redstone and John Malone are among the media titans embracing the strategy of breaking up their conglomerates in an effort to bolster stock prices. The move to become “more nimble” is seen as a 180-degree reversal of the media merger mania of the 1990s. (Iwantmedia 9/8, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6593656.html 9/6)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Andy Murray, Arthur Ashe Stadium, CBS Sports, CBSSports.com, Federer, Rafael Nadal, RealNetworks, Roger Federer
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
CBS Sports, CBSSports.com and USopen.org have partnered to bring tennis fans live streaming video of CBS Sports’ broadcast of the US Open Men’s Final, postponed until Monday, September 8, at 5 p ET due to bad weather. The match, between No. 2-seeded Roger Federer and No. 6-seeded Andy Murray, can be seen on CBS.Sports.com and USopen.org. (Cynopsis 9/8)
As anyone with a lick of tech knowledge knows, ripping a DVD onto your hard drive is, well, frowned upon by the “Powers that be” in the motion picture industry. Realizing that, RealNetworks has launched a new solution called RealDVD, which lets users copy DVDs onto their hard drives without facing legal troubles. Even better, it only takes about 20 minutes to do so. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/08/realnetworks-lets-you-copy-dvds-to-your-hard-drive-and-keep-the-drm 9/8)
HBO on Oct. 1 will debut “Hooking Up,” a 10-episode series that will play out solely on the Internet. The show, featuring online personalities such as Jessica Rose, the star of the “lonelygirl15″ Web series, will be offered at video-centric sites such as MySpace and YouTube as well as its own portal, hookingupshow.com. The Hollywood Reporter (9/7)
Marketers are continuing to step up efforts to get the government to take a harder look at the pending search agreement between Google and Yahoo, a pact that if approved will give Google control of between 80-90% of the search market. The Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) late last week, citing its objections to the deal. Advertisers fear diminished competition and increased concentration of market power will ultimately lead to higher prices for online advertising. (Cynopsis 9/8)
Twitter, the social networking and microblogging service, may get a big push into mainstream society, thanks to CNN. News anchor Rich Sanchez is posting a tweet saying that the Time Warner news network is launching a “Twitter show” called “Rick Sanchez Direct.” (Iwantmedia 9/8, http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/09/08/new-cnn-show-based-on-twitter 9/8)
Facebook is set to switch over to its newly redesigned user interface this week. The social network reports in its developers blog that over 30 million users have already checked out the new profile. Of course, not everyone is happy with the changes. One group is out to convince 1 million users to sign an online petition to keep the old Facebook in place. They’re about half way there with close to 560,000 members. (Cynopsis 9/8)
ABC is developing In the Motherhood, the MSN internet series produced by MindShare that acts out stories from real-life moms, into a weekly comedy series, per THR. ABC Studios has ordered up 13 episodes. (Cynopsis 9/8)
I’m not a mother nor do I usually subscribe to thoughts of motherhood, but even I thought this was an interesting cast molded into some pretty hysterical plot lines. Imagine that.
Phone-based movie showtime service AOL Moviefone will announce a joint venture with voice and visual mobile ad company Apptera today to monetize the more than 40 million annual calls Moviefone receives with targeted in-call ads. (Cynopsis 9/8)
CBS again registered as the most visited network website according to Hitwise on the strength of its Big Brother site that features 24/7 RealNetworks-powered video feeds from inside the Big Brother home. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars catapulted to 2nd place with a 13.2% market share of visits while FOX’s Prison Break site cracked the top 10 for the first time. On the cable side, Paula’s Home Cooking is the top visited show online, one of the 3 Food Networks sites in the top 10. (Cynopsis 9/8)
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending Aug. 30, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 CBS www.cbs.com 31.22%
2 NBC www.nbc.com 24.28%
3 ABC www.abc.com 22.64%
4 FOX* www.fox.com 16.56%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 4.87%
6 MNTV www.mynetworktv.com .41%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending Aug. 30, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 CBS Big Brother 9 15.14%
2 ABC Dancing With The Stars 13.28%
3 FOX American’s Got Talent 10.04%
4 FOX Prison Break 8.47%
5 NBC Deal or No Deal 5.62%
6 FOX America’s Most Wanted 3.88%
7 FOX American Idol 3.64%
8 NBC The Office 1.87%
9 NBC Heroes 1.58%
10 CBS CSI 1.56%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Top Visited US Cable Network TV Show Sites (Week ending Aug. 30, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 Cartoon Network Drama Island 14.96%
2 Cartoon Network Ben 10: Alien Force 3.97%
3 Nickelodeon Spongebob 3.52%
4 Food Network Paula’s Home Cooking 2.97%
5 ABC Family Secret Life of the Am. Teen 2.48%
6 Comedy Central South Park 2.47%
7 SciFi Eureka 2.07%
8 Cartoon Network Chowder 2.00%
9 BET 106 & Park 1.99%
10 Cartoon Network Naruto 1.83%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Top Visited US Cable Network TV Show Sites – Excluding Children’s Programming (Week ending Aug. 30, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 Food Network Paula’s Home Cooking 5.10%
2 ABC Family Secret Life of the Am. Teen 4.33%
3 Comedy Central South Park 4.32%
4 SciFi Eureka 3.62%
5 BET 106 & Park 3.48%
6 MTV The Hills 3.06%
7 Comedy Central The Daily Show 2.62%
8 Fox News O’Reilly Factor 2.46%
9 Food Network 30 Minute Meals 2.12%
10 Food Network Everyday Italian 1.87%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: AT&T, Flickr, Mobile Web, Web search engine, Web service, Yahoo, Yahoo-Mobile, yahoo-search
AT&T is set to begin featuring Yahoo search services on the Internet menu of mobile handsets used by its base of up to 70 million U.S. customers. AT&T plans to offer a collection of Yahoo’s oneSearch mobile Web services including links to news and Flickr photos. (Iwantmedia 9/8, http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0738248020080908 9/8)
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Filed under: GAMING | Tags: DRM, Electronic Arts, Financial Times, Games, GAMING, Sims, Spore, Video game
Electronic Arts, badly in need of a hit gaming title, on Sunday released its huge hope for the fall, evolutionary-based “Spore,” which was five years in the making. Made by the creator of EA’s “The Sims,” “Spore” — in which players develop single-cell creatures through the evolutionary and socialization process until they are building cities and colonizing space — is seen as giving users an unprecedented amount of creative tools at their disposal. Financial Times (9/7)
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Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Energy efficiency, IBM, Intel, Intel Corporation, Multi-core, Power consumption, Wall Street Journal, Xeon
TECHNOLOGY
Intel is preparing a new line of Xeon chips that will offer faster and more energy-efficient computing, according to this report. The fastest chip in the line will operate at 3.4 gigahertz and have an average power consumption of 120 watts; an increase of 0.2 gigahertz and 30 watts over its previous chips. The Wall Street Journal (free content) (9/8)
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