Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Took another excursion on Sunday to Taliesin West, in Scottsdale. Taliesin West is a campus (or camp) or even a bit of a commune that Frank Lloyd Wright created to teach architectural theory and practice to his proteges.

It still functions as a school of architecture. There are no grades, no tests, and no set period of education, yet it is a fully accredited school of architecture.

Here's the man, himself:

and here are some pix I took on Sunday of TW:

mystery castle

Hello!


On Saturday we took an interesting excursion to the Mystery Castle at the base of South Mountain in Phoenix. Read the story. Look at the pix. The old lady in the fur is Mary Lou and she lives in the house. Even after living there for 63 years, she still finds little treasures and surprises left behind by her eccentric father.

nog, nog, nog, nog....

Carole gave us these snowmen, er, loving snow couple (who am I to judge?). Dawn can't get enough of 'em. Especially the nog part. Watch and learn and hopefully laugh a bit.

the day.....

the earth stood still! egads!

So, a couple of nights ago, we rented the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.

I never actually saw the whole thing before. It was pretty terrific.

Then, today, we ventured into civilization and saw the re-make with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. Keanu Reeves must be brighter than he looks. He's gotta know he is a far cry from a brilliant actor. So, he leverages his pretty face into roles where he can play it cold, inhuman, stonefaced, etc. And makes millions doing it. Kudos, Keanu, Kudos.

Dawn liked it. Carole liked it but thought the ending left a bit to be desired. I liked it far more than I expected, but I think Carole has a point. The ending needed a bit more fleshing out. All told, however, pretty good stuff. Good effects, reasonably good screenplay, and a nice mix of the original, a little War of the Worlds, and some Close Encounters. Fun!

Xmas 08

Pix from Christmas day... a rainbow, a well-lit house, and a visit to the Mormon Temple.

Dawn's New Outfit

Here's Dawn trying on a swell new outfit given to her from her Mom! Check it!

decorating

OK, so we finally decorated the house a bit. Tree, Xmas cards, stockings, gifts. And its only Xmas Eve! Anyway, here are some pix.

Rawhide, hee-ya!

Carole, Dawn, and I visited Rawhide Wild West Town today. Oh, its kitschy, but ya gotta do it. Sunday also involved a visit to Scottsdale and a terrific burger at Tempe's ChuckBox. Here are some pics.

Here the ladies met some nice fellas. Nice fellas with six-shooters!

Dawn met this bald guy. Just another shiny bald guy....

Carole posed with a friendly cactus. We were told we had to get a picture of Carole with a cactus and we figured that is had to be a saguaro cactus.

I did some prospecting for gold, but as you can probably tell from the look on my face, I only found fool's gold. I guess that's just about right, ain't it?

Then we visited old towne Scottsdale where, much to our surprise, Santa was driving a trolley!

L'ecole

Went out for a fancy-pantsy dinner last night at L'ecole. L'ecole is the training restaurant at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute (where Merry-Berry went to school). Basically, it is a terrific way to get a five star meal for a no star price. When you add all the dishes together, you get full, but one of the dishes was this single stuffed grape tomato. Ha!

Guess who's in Arizona?

Dawn's Mom flew into town today! And the airline lost her luggage! Oh no! But it's all easy sailing from here on out!

some swell ideas....

Nothing particularly new here, but I think this video nicely sums up the way some folks believe Christmas should be. Except for the rampant comsumerism and commercialization, I'm a big fan of Christmas. Take a look:

a little under the weather...

Well, Dawn and I are both dealing with colds. Not the cold, mind you. Just colds. She's had it for over a week now. I'm just getting started. But I'm shooting for a quick recovery. Unlike this poor shmuck...

and the cotton is high

about seven feet high!

Have you ever seen what happens to cotton when it gets harvested? They smush it into giant rectangular shapes about the size of a semi-truck and cover it (to protect it from the rain we almost never get!).

Then, I presume it gets hauled away eventually. I'm gonna keep on eye on all this cotton!

jane, stop this crazy thing!

Saturday hit the Chandler parade of lights. Kind of a bust for shooting as bright lights in the dark on moving floats is not the most conducive situation.

However, I did like this shot of a little girl on a pony ride. No weird lights here.

Dawn and.... Santa!?!?!?!

Dawn's school had some fundraising events on Friday night and Saturday morning and I had the opportunity to take pictures of kids visiting with Santa on both days.

Here's one special kid who got to share her Christmas list...

santans

random desert image...