Fallingwater, right, is the Pennsylvania summer home architect Frank Lloyd Wright built for Pittsburgh businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. It’s widely regarded as Wright’s masterpiece. Seeming to grow out of the very rocks upon which it is set, it was constructed between 1936-1939, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Now, the LEGO Group, working with Kansas State University-schooled architectural artist Adam Reed Tucker of Brickstructures, Inc., has recreated Wright’s landmark in a box, above, to play with, explore, learn more about Wright’s genius, and perhaps inspire your kids’ own. “Throughout it’s 50 year history the LEGO Brick has always been associated with creative building,” says the company on the Brickstructures web site. Now, through their new LEGO Architecture product line, LEGO “takes that initiative further by inviting children of all ages to build their favorite worldly architectural landmarks and structures.”
The popular LEGO brick, admits Tucker,
is not initially thought of as a material typically used in creating art. But as an architectural artist, it lends itself perfectly to my applications, just as paint to a painter or metal to a blacksmith. I first and foremost do not view my models as literal replicas, but rather artistic interpretations that capture the essence of their sculptural form. Again, my vision is to capture the essence of the architectural & artistic form of the given structure to where my translation almost becomes its pure sculptural form.
The LEGO/Tucker Fallingwater, roughly 4 x 6 x 8 inches when built, ships in August, and will be available at various museums, specialty shops, and LEGO Brand retail stores. $100.
How is it that even small children have a built-in notion of justice and balance? Why is my old employer—I briefly worked as a cashier for GMAC, now Ally Bank, in my 20s—playing on that sense of fairness in a series of new spots?
Beloved as the Emmy Award-winning Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood has been for decades—my sis couldn’t get enough of the show when we were kids—and rightly honored as creator Fred Rogers, above, was in his lifetime—he died in 2003—ya gotta admit that there’s something just a little…odd about his persona.
I mean, think about it: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is a show where, ostensibly, kids, unaccompanied by adults, go to the house of a single, middle-aged man, who is there, alone, on his lunch hour.
A guy whose middle name is McFeely.
That Rogers’ intentions were, of course, so honorable only makes writer/scholar/media critic/co-sponsor of my recent Iowa lecture Kembrew McLeod‘s disassembly of the TV host’s airy monologues just that more wicked. By isolating Rogers’ trademark, singsong platitudes (“I’m glad you’re my friend…I like you very much”), and adhering them to droning drum tracks, a kind of loopy hypnosis takes over…certainly Rogers’ nefarious intent. It’s long (9:15), but worth staying with to the final utterance.
Just when you thought that the dreamlike logic of white supremacy couldn’t produce any further absurdities, the Caucasians drag another one out of the cornfield: According to the Associated Press, a study, conducted by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, to be published in the September edition of the journal, Psychological Science, has concluded that
Black Fortune 500 CEOs with a “babyface” appearance are more likely to lead companies with higher revenues and prestige than Black CEOs who look more mature, an upcoming study says.
In contrast with research showing that white executives are hindered by babyface characteristics, a disarming appearance can help Black CEOs by counteracting the stigma that Black men are threatening….
As the AP notes,
A babyface is characterized by combinations of attributes, including a round face, full cheeks, larger forehead, small nose, large ears and full lips, the study says.
You know: The kind of visage typified by folks like American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, above; E. Stanley O’Neal, right, former CEO of Merrill Lynch; almost everybody in this 2005 list of Black CEOs; or by this famed board chairman, after the jump:
A children’s book about pot sounds pretty much like a non-starter. So, when I found out that such a text existed, I absolutely had to see it, meet the author, and ask what on Earth had moved him to create such a reader.
What most struck me about Ricardo Cortés, author of It’s Just a Plant, was his willingness to have the discussion; his reasonable, non-combative air; and that apparently he’d completely thought through his entire argument, and was generally able to address each question I had.
That, and a definite modicum of courage. Even as a person who has never smoked or drank anything mind-altering, not even a Coca-Cola, I thought the idea of doing such a book brave, perhaps even necessary.
Mostly, though, as opposed to backing away from tough topics, I believe the fact that a subject is difficult makes a greater case for books on it, and that such treatises are the reason we have a 1st Amendment in the United States.
Since that conversation, I’ve had Cortés back to talk about his counter-terrorism coloring book, I Don’t Want to Blow You Up!, also published by his company, Magic Propaganda Mill. As well, It’s Just a Plant has been translated into other languages, including Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and, of course, Thai.
But you can revisit our meeting, as Ricardo Cortés is the guest today on this repeat edition of my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, April 10, at 2 pm ET.
You can hear this ideas by tuning in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.
Marvel Comics’ MarvelKids.com “Create Your Own Super Hero” site enables kids—and time-wasting adults—to both invent and name their own power-packed comic book character, virtually from scratch. Using the editor, one can select everything from noses to mouths, legs, feet, hairstyles, weapons, and more, then color those features in any range of tones. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my protector, and the girl of my dreams, above: Soul Fashion Victim. Aargh. Now, I dare you to mess with me.
When I first saw this photo, I absolutely could not stop laughing: On the left is the packaging photo for a kiddie pool, a “water park,” it says. On the right is a picture of the actual pool once you unpack it. It’s almost like, it’s not a pool, but a fun way to teach kiddies about the concept of bait-and-switch.
I probably get asked this question more than any other one. “Harry,” a friend will say, “I’d like to dress my kids in FLDS clothing, but the group is so cut off from the outside world, I don’t know where to begin looking. What should I do?”
My answer? Go to their web site. Because of overwhelming demand for their modest, Western prairie settler-styled ankle-length dresses and rugged boys work shirts—due to the visibility created in the April raid by Texas authorities on the Yearning for Zion Ranch—the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is now selling a kids line, online.
Fallingwater, right, is the Pennsylvania summer home architect Frank Lloyd Wright built for Pittsburgh businessman Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. It’s widely regarded as Wright’s masterpiece. Seeming to grow out of the very rocks upon which it is set, it was constructed between 1936-1939, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Just when you thought that the dreamlike logic of white supremacy couldn’t produce any further absurdities, the Caucasians drag another one out of the cornfield: 
