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Springtime At Filoli

If you are of a certain age you may recognize this grand, 1915 Willis Polk designed estate as the Carrington mansion from the 1980s prime time soap "Dynasty".

Today, however, visitors flock to Filoli, halfway down the San Francisco Peninsula, to wander around the gorgeous grounds and admire the gardens.

This is the time of the year you'll find the gardens the most spectacular.   The tulips in particular are in full bloom and you'll catch the fragrance of Hyacinths, Jasmine and a few Daffodil variaties.

The mansion itself is very "old world" with an über-formal interior.  The kitchen, with its own safe for all the silver, was the most fun for me to see.  It has a certain "Downton Abbey" feel.

Oh, I almost forgot!  While enjoying your surroundings, try not to think of the fact that Filoli was built right on top of the San Andreas Fault Line...

Alexis: [to Krystle] "I just can't wait for the day when I see you walking out of this house carrying the same two cheap plastic suitcases that you walked in here with".

Traveling Tuesday - Crazy About Otto

Vienna has many churches.  Like in most ancient European cities, some churches go back 1000 years.  You’ll find gothic cathedrals, and baroque basilicas, but I have a soft spot for Otto Wagner’s, “only” 104 year old Kirche am Steinhof, the church built exclusively for the patients and staff of the psychiatric clinic by the same name.  

Wagner was a city planner, building public edifices like subway and commuter train stations.  He rejected the opulent “historistic” (Austrian “victorian”) style and joined the “Vienna Secession”, an artistic group that shared his believes, creating the Viennese “Jugenstil”.  World famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt was a member as well.

The Kirche am Steinhof is considered the first “modern” church in Europe. 

Open to the public on Saturdays from 3-5PM. Holy Mass on Sundays and Holidays at 9AM.

                  

“Art has to fit the living and the mistress of art is necessity” Otto Wagner

Left in the Dark - Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres

Originally published January, 2011. - While browsing through Green Apple Books the other day, I discovered R.A. McBride and Julie Lindow’s wonderful book about San Francisco Movie theaters; the old kind, with single screens, built between 1910 and 1950.

McBride’s photos capture and chronicle the lore of these old theaters, no matter the condition.  From the restored Castro Theatre to neighborhood theaters in desperate need of some TLC.

Lindow assembled a number of  fascinating literary essays about the movie theaters as structures, and the cultural impact they had and still have.

After flipping through the pages, you will never look at these old theaters the same way again.  

I just wish the book was published in hardcover as well.

All photographs are courtesy of R.A. McBride. 

 “If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.”.  Tallulah Bankhead