Tag: Home Ground
God’s work: Frank Lloyd Wright, quintessential American modernist
The first time I became aware of the stunning power of architecture, I was 17 and walked into the terra-cotta cocoon of Grady Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ. The building sparked a life-long interest in architecture, “the great mother art,” as Frank Lloyd Wright called it. Wright used 57 shades of terra-cotta in the auditorium. He […]
HOME GROUND: The stories cookbooks tell
It’s easy to take old cookbooks for granted, easier still to think they have no value for other than a hot dish of nostalgia at the Thanksgiving table. But hidden within them are elements of culture, history, chemistry, politics, technology, economics, and fashion. Their recipes are part of the world’s autobiography. The 1933 Palatists Book […]
M.F.K. Fisher writer in residence in the neighborhood
The writer M.F.K. Fisher (1908-1992) seems to be best remembered as a “food” writer, known especially for celebrating the terroir and everyday triumphs of the gastronomy of Provence. But there is much more to her life, and much more to the writer about whom W.H. Auden in 1963 said: “I do not know of anyone […]
Cisco Kid ‘was a friend of mine,’ and other recollections . . .
The west side of Raleigh Studios, facing Bronson Avenue between Clinton and Melrose, never fails to fascinate. I walk by it in the early morning and admire its tongue-and-groove construction (though there is some stucco on the section just north of Clinton) and its intriguing fenestration: 31 windows on the upper story and 40 on […]
