[2 posts tagged “Homes.”]

These hard-drinking newsies are here to tell you to read my articles

My byline cropped up a few times this week, first in Manhattan magazine, where I profiled a couple ace interior designers, and then in the The Globe & Mail (the New York Times of Canada, as we can it in the biz), where I reviewed the hotel SLS in L.A., which I wrote about last month. Take a looksy! And, as always you can see more of my work by clicking Articles at the top of the page.

Clapboard homes in Fordlândia, circa 1930

Last night, Evening Music host David Garland brought my attention to Fordlândia, a new work by Johann Johannsson. The Icelandic composer/producer explores the utpopian town that Henry Ford built in Brazil in the late 1920s. Determined to control a major stake on rubber, which he needed for tires for his endless parade of vehicles, Ford created a little slice of America in the Amazon, replete with hamburger lunches, square-dance parties, and prohibition laws. The project turned out to be a big ol' wreck: the rubber saplings didn't grow (but mosquitos did) and machete-wielding local workers revolted, chasing managers from their white clapboard houses. Just when Ford thought he'd nailed it, scientists perfected super-economical synthetic rubber. But there's one good thing to show for it--a stupendous album that invokes the triumph of nature over the machine.