“So I love that summer song” – a few of the sounds of summer

Summer time, and the living is easy. Fish are jumping, and the music is fine. See what I mean:

 

Bix Beiderbecke – “Singing the Blues”

Louis Armstrong: “Lonesome”/”Summer Song”

Jimi Hendrix: “Long Hot Summer Night”

Herbie Hancock: “Butterfly” (Part 1 of 2)

Martha and the Vandellas: “Heatwave”

Alice Cooper: ''School's Out''

The Lovin' Spoonful: ''Summer in the City''

Martha and the Vandellas: ''Dancing in the Street''

The Kinks: “Sunny Afternoon”

Katrina & the Waves: “Walking on Sunshine”

The Stranglers: “Peaches”

Heitor Villa-Lobos: “Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 5”

Otis Redding: “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”

Lily Allen: “Smile”

Eddy Grant – “Feel My Love”

Too Darn Hot – Ella Fitzgerald

Louis Armstrong & his Hot Five: “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue”

Karita Mattila: “Il Bailero” from Canteloube’s “Chants d’Auvergne”

Luciano Pavarotti: “Volare”

Hello Sailor: “Lyin’ in the Sand”

Coup d’Etat: “Dr, I Like Your Medicine”

''All I Wanna Do'' Sheryl Crow

War: ''Summer''

Ralph Vaughan Williams: “The Lark Ascending”

Peggy Lee: “Fever”

Eddie Cochran: “Summertime Blues”

Billie Holiday: “Summertime”

Antoni Vivaldi: “Summer (excerpt” from “The Four Seasons”

Felix Mendelssohn: “Midsummer Night’s Dream”

The Other Side Of Summer - Elvis Costello

Yo La Tengo: “The Summer”

Violent Femmes: “Blister in the Sun”

Here Comes the Summer – Undertones

Ramones: “Rockaway Beach”

The Pogues: “Summer in Siam”

Canned Heat: “Going Up The Country”

Eric Burdon & War: ''Spill the Wine''

Beatles: “Here Comes the Sun”

Velvet Underground: “Who Loves the Sun”

Thin Lizzy: “Dancing in the Moonlight”

Robert Schumann: “Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen”

Sola Rosa: “Humanised”

Teenage Fanclub: “Ain’t That Enough”

Bruce Paine, playing Francisco Tarrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”

Buena Vista Social Club – Veinte Años

XTC: “Summer’s Cauldron”

XTC: “Grass”

Harry James: “By the Sleepy Lagoon”

Rodrigo: “Concerto de Aranjuez”

Renee Fleming singing Alban Berg’s “Sommertage”

Leontyne Price: “The Last Rose of Summer”

 

See, it is possible to have summer without it being polluted by the sounds of Grease, the Eagles and the Beach Boys.

So what else have you got?

'Man the Enlightened Being': - Frank Lloyd Wright's Christmas Message

I like to post this 1953 Christmas message from Frank Lloyd Wright every year around this time ... so it's probably a good time to wish all of you a great Christmas, a Salacious Saturnalia and a very happy and prosperous New Year -- that is, every single one of you who doesn't wish increased state bullying upon me and mine and on the rest of the populace of New Zealand who remains here.

Just a small number of you, then.

So as the offices here at NOT PC Towers begin to shut down for the holidays, I really do want to re-post architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s poetic message on “man the enlightened being” which he used to send out at Christmas time. “The herd disappears and reappears," says Wright's message, "but the sovereignty of the individual persists":

    Literature tells about man. Architecture presents him. The Architecture that our
man of Democracy needs and prophecies is bound to be different from that of the
common or conditioned man of any other socialized system of belief. As never
before, this new Free-Man’s Architecture will present him by being true to his
own nature in all such expressions. . .
    “With renewed vision, the modern man will use the new tools Science lavishes upon him (even before he is ready for them) to enlarge his field of action by reducing his fetters to exterior controls, especially those of organized Authority, publicity, or political expediency. He will use his new tools to develop his own Art and Religion as the means to keep him free, as himself. Therefore this democratic man’s environment, like his mind, will never be style-ized. When and wherever he builds he will not consent to be boxed. He will himself have his style.
    “The Democratic man demands conscientious liberty for himself no more nor less than he demands liberty for his neighbor. . .
    “Whenever organic justice is denied him he will not believe he can get it by murder but must obtain it by continuing fair dealing and enlightenment at whatever cost. He will never force upon others his own beliefs nor his own ways. He will display his social methods to others as best advantage as critic or missionary only when sought by them.
    “His neighbor will be to him (as he is to himself) free to choose his own way according to his own light, their common cause being the vision of the uncommon-man wherein every man is free to grow to the stature his freedom in America under the Constitution of these United States grants him.
    “Exterior compulsion absent in him, no man need be inimical to him. Conscience, thus indispensable to his own freedom, becomes normal to every man. . .
    “Remember the men who gave us our [American] Nation. We have ‘the Declaration’ and our Constitution because they were individualist. Great Art is still living for us only because of Individualists like Beethoven. We have creative men on earth today only as they are free to continually arise as individuals from obscurity to demonstrate their dignity and worth above the confusion raised by the herding of the common-man by aid of the scribes and Pharisees of his time—quantity ignoring or overwhelming quality. The herd disappears and reappears but the sovereignty of the individual persists. . . ”

Read on here for the full message: Man, the Enlightened Being by Frank Lloyd Wright, and remember to have a great individualistic holiday season.

And remember this useful advice about responsible holiday drinking: Try to schedule responsibly so you get it all done before lunch.

Organon Architecture’s 2009 Top 10

In the spirit of Luke Nicholas’s Epic Beer 2009 Top 10, listing the top ten things he and his fine brewery achieved in 2009, I figured I’d do something similar for my own day job, Organon Architecture:

1. The Waikato Times chose to publish my Van Oostrom house, calling it “an outstanding Hamilton home, surely the best [we] have featured.” Naturally, I agree. ;^)
2. After constant prodding by those who know their stuff, Organon Architecture’s new website is finally on the way to replace this old one which now has cobwebs on it.
   And I’ve finally started an Organon Architecture blog to better feature my projects. If only I can stop dragging my heels and start filling up all those pages as instructed. (Sorry, Paul!)
3. Still really enjoying my Kebyar membership, which keeps me in touch with like-minded architects overseas (since there’s few enough of them here locally).
4. Order books are still full, with some exciting new work and renovations going on—and not every architecture practice can say that this year!
5. My Design Consulations have been taking off. 
   It’s proved to be a great no-obligation way to talk about architecture with new clients, potential new clients, and good people who just want good architectural advice.
6. In the words of Paul Litterick, “Man is born free, yet everywhere is in villas.” And this year no one’s asked me to renovate a villa—folk are getting more excited instead by California Bungalows.
   A very healthy trend indeed.
   (I’ve always thought life wouldn’t be so bad if it was just spent renovating Auckland’s splendid stock of California Bungalows.) And no one—no one at all—is asking for “Tuscan” anymore. Thank Galt.
7. Spent some great times house-sitting, enjoying hospitality in and showing new clients around a few of “my” houses. I always enjoy seeing how the houses are enjoyed and experienced by those they’re designed for—and those I’ll be designing for.
8. I began posting Architectural Mini-Tutorials here at NOT PC, which I’ve discovered is a great way to communicate important architectural ideas—and was flattered to have artist Michael Newberry recommend them. (Note to self: Must do more.)
9. I was also flattered to be contacted by a photographer who photographs a lot of houses “to commend you  on a superb job” on my house at 43A View Rd.
   Nice to get that sort of praise from another professional, I thought.
10. I was delighted to be offered the chance to fix up a house I’d designed a few years back on which a client made a few too many shortcuts. And happily, it all worked out all round in the end.
      And delighted too to be asked by a chap who’s owned Claude Megson houses to help renovate his present residence.

Hope you had a good year too, and you can have a great break.  Keep enjoying the good life--and don’t let the bastards grind you down.

Cheers
Peter Cresswell