Art Hill and the Lemon

There is a little story I used to enjoy telling years ago which I only yesterday recalled. I had not thought about this in many years but the relevance within the tale is very poignant in today’s world. I think more and more people speak  now about enjoying the small things in their lives and are trying to appreciate simplicity. I used to call this story Art Hill and the Lemon.

My first semester out of high school was at Sonoma State University in 1971. (wow) I was a wide eyed aspiring hippie with no particular agenda but I had a history playing, and an affinity for music. I was taking a music theory class from a middle aged professor named Art Hill. Art was a graceful middle aged gentleman with a full beard and a braid down to his waist. He wore the same thing every day I saw him: a green plaid pendleton shirt over a white button down and green khakis. He made a big impression on my youth as he was articulate, brilliant, and kind. One class he told us about a situation he had recently been in. A friend of his had a teenage son who was becoming increasingly disengaged, unsocial and disinterested in life. His friend asked Art if he could help and spend some time with the boy. Art often reminded me of an ancient philosopher.  His first session with the youth Art brought out a lemon which he placed before his subject.  Art  then asked his friend’s son to describe everything he could about the lemon. The young boy began by stating the obvious; it is yellow, it is round, etc..The session thus ended with the boy assuming he had completed his task. The next week Art returned for another meeting with his pupil and pulled out the same lemon. Again he asked for a description. The young man tried again. How much is there really to say about a lemon? Its lumpy, it smells…..this went on for four of these sessions. Finally, depleted of adjectives or any more to add, the student threw up his hands in perplexed exhaustion.  At that point Art took the ubiquitous ball point pen from his breast pocket and drew a small square on the side of the lemon. “Now” he requested, “describe what is just  inside this square”.

 CARMELA’S CORNER

The Myth Of The Lineal Life

One facet of our common thinking that I often observe is that our lives are, or should be, lineal with the passage of time. I think this belief is cultural in origin and I suspect that elsewhere in the world one does not find this train of thought so pervasive. I also believe this is a misconception which can be the source of much personal anguish. The lack of substance within the idea that things should always get bigger and better each passing year has been painfully forced into our view as the world economy cracks and sputters.  We bring a lot of pain upon ourselves grasping at the notion that our new car should cost more and be “better” than our previous one, or that our stock portfolio should increase each year, or we should get a raise, have a bigger house, or an easier life as time passes.  I can not say this way of  judging progress is solely an American mind set, but it is certainly common and fundamental in the difficulties we experience accepting events and conditions we don’t care for. I am not so much speaking of simply the materialism that we have come to recognize as a major global ailment. I am trying to address more so the frame of mind that prevents us from seeing what is taking place simply as it is- without the usual judgements influenced by our expectations. Again, not just in relation to “things” getting bigger or better, but coming to terms with the realization that later in life we may feel less certain, steady, or secure as we did when younger despite our plans.

Creative Problem Solving is one of the redeeming elements of my job that I truly enjoy.For better or worse, this occupation leaves no shortage for such opportunities. Lots goes wrong. We know this shift in vantage as “thinking outside the box”. A few years ago we completed a beautiful project in Healdsburg called Puma Springs Vineyards. The owners grow their grapes bio-dynamically and have prestigious contracts in that select field. The house, adjacent buildings, gardens and vineyard capture the Tuscan spirit replanted in Sonoma County. I had the pleasure of revisiting this project recently under rather unpleasant conditions. I was notified that there was a major break in a copper water line under the house slab. There was no way to easily access where the leak was believed to be located. There was a lot of staring at our shoes while we contemplated possible solutions; one of which may have been jack-hammering up part of the tiled kitchen floor to get to the buried lines. Not a happy day. However, after opening up two walls across the room from each other where we knew the water lines to run between ( thanks to excellent photo documenting!) it occurred to me that we could possibly fish half inch pex tubing through the three quarter inch copper. Bingo! It worked. In a matter of hours the leak was stopped and repaired and the house system was back functioning as it was intended. I went to sleep that night with quite a little smirk on my face.

My education and one time trajectory was in urban planning. I read with great interest recently an article by Bill Reed and John Boecker (Jan-Feb 2010 Green Source Magazine) wherein they refer to planning as a process of  “urban acupuncture” not a series of isolated interventions. When they state: “The act of building can be an act of healing, regenerating the community and web of life in each unique place”  I think of the opportunity in Haiti as well as those less poignant moments of rebuilding. They further remind us that ” humans have a role to play in co-evolving with other species on the planet” and that the term ‘development’ should not always be viewed in a negative context but actually means “to create new potential”. I have a humorous antidote about my own preconceptions of the meaning of development: Ten years ago Suzi and I had planned a rather ambitious project where we ended up building our more humble current office. The plan was to tear down the existing ramshackled bungalow (which we did) and build a two story office complex with a meeting tower and two apartments. The project was approved by the planning and building authorities and picked up in the local press. When I inadvertently was then reading the news one day I saw an article about a Developer planning a big project in downtown Glen Ellen. I was horrified! How could they?? This was terrible! Imagine my surprise when I realized it was ME they were talking about. I had never imagined myself labeled as something so awful as a “Developer”.  Another preconception shattered…………………….

THE BOX, THE BOWL, AND WABI-SABI

I have known of the term WABI-SABI for years, going back to my early carpentry days and my initial affection for Japanese woodworking and the art of timber joinery. Like a lot of westerners, I probably misused the phrase if and when I did  use it.  I am reading a great book these days by a man named Leonard Koren called: Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers.  Mr. Koren is a trained  architect who has never built anything conventionally recognized, and defines Wabi-Sabi as “a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete….a beauty of things modest, humble and unconventional”.  Within the text he compares Wabi-Sabi and Modernism, both similarities and differences. In common they both eschew any decoration that is not integral to structure. However, modernism is seamless and smooth, whereas Wabi-Sabi is raw and variegated. Modernism uses the box as metaphor and Wabi-Sabi the bowl. I have included two photos that strike me as interesting examples of Wabi-Sabi. One is of a pottery vase our son gave us. The other is of an urban building wall in downtown Seattle where passers-by stick chewing gum. As I study older buildings that I walk through or pass by I like to look for the signs of wear, what has worked and what hasn’t; is the building a closed box or an open bowl?

You would have to be living in a pretty small world right now to not be aware of how hard the construction industry has been hit this past eighteen months or so. We have seen several large and small companies unable to sustain themselves,  fold for a variety of reasons. For me it has meant some difficult partings and some humbling moments as all aspects of the building and real estate realms have tunneled in. And I think we, at MBI, have been lucky. Our current projects include a solar powered equipment barn on a large estate in Sonoma, as well as constructing Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen where we have been in the excavation and foundation phases since last August. Just this past week we began setting the steel frame which provides the main structure. Jessie Whitesides, of A2 Studio, is the architect and Summit Engineering has provided the civil, structural and electrical engineering involved. We are working with some great subcontractors on this project. Contact me for more information if you are interested. We are also working on a massive underground utility project to carry photovoltaic and fiber optic cables. The photo voltaic project is a ground mounted 362 KW system!!  Also, in my last blog I mentioned our cottage project in Glen Ellen. The photos are now on the website so visit the Cottage tab to see it.

Carm asleep with her snowman in her mouth

The finished product

OK. Here it is. My mussel stew: Start by buying a mix of fresh mussels from a good seafood department. Try and get a mix of black and green lipp mussels. The combination looks nice and the green lipped ones are little sweeter. I figure twelve to fifteen per person. Get them home and in the fridge quickly and be sure they are uncovered from any plastic bags. Keep them on ice or in ice water until later. You can clean them first or later before cooking, just get their debris and beards out. In a deep heavy pot heat some olive oil and four or five cloves of diced garlic. Before the garlic browns ( if it does it gets chewy and weird) add a large can of diced fire roasted plum tomatoes. Do not use sauce. Add a half bottle of a good quality crisp white wine. Pinot grigio works well. Then add a little coarse sea salt, lots of cracked black pepper, and a small palm full of red chili flakes. Simmer until the alcohol blows off, twenty to thirty minutes. Then add some chopped flat leaf parsley. Lastly add all of the mussels to the pot, stir and cover, checking every few minutes. The mussels should all open in just over five minutes. (toss any that don’t) Give it a big stir and serve in large bowls with a crunchy rustic bread. An alternative is cook a pound of fresh linguine while the stew finishes and add the pasta to the mussels for a excellent wonderful pasta course. Buon apitito!

On Tuesdays Suzi hosts Yoga Night at our office.

Music Suggestion: I’ve been a big fan of Charlotte Gainsbourg for years for probably all the wrong reasons. Her just released second CD is produced by Beck and most of the songs are written by him. There is a mixture of some hard edged French pop sounding songs with even some overtones of her father, French 60s pop icon Serge. There are also several of her wispy poems to music numbers. Not for everyone, but check it out.

Blog Is MY Co-pilot

Salute! Welcome to my first blog. This is the time of year when I am often drawn towards the cliffs and sands of California’s coast for inspiration. A favorite place to romp, when the crowds have dissipated for winter, is Carmel and the surrounding environs. Inspired by the village architecture, Suzi and I recently recreated a Carmel styled cottage here in Glen Ellen. With the help of MAD architecture we designed and built a  transitional version of a classic cottage found throughout hamlets and towns in this country and Europe. The photos aren’t yet on our website but should be soon. Keep checking. This being my first blog, I have many  ideas and thoughts I want to introduce and share. These writings will be a forum for passing thoughts on building, design, culture, and sundry personal insights. I am very pleased to be participating in some of the events this week of January 25th with the organization Citta Slow Sonoma Valley. I have long held an interest in various aspects of city planning. Actually, I graduated from UC Berkeley in 1976 with a degree in Environmental Planning. My real interest was what was then called Utopian Planning. When I first heard about the slow city movement I wanted to get involved by creating a base here in Sonoma Valley.  My intentions were ahead of my efforts, though, so I’m glad someone else got it going. Check out the website to learn more. I would like to integrate the philosophies from the Slow Food and Slow City movements into a new organization called Slow Building, but I am not so sure it will be embraced by the world we inhabit where speed seems to be king. The basic premise behind the movement would be to recreate the craft guilds of the past and preserve the techniques of fine workmanship which are so quickly being lost. Imagine a collective of trained master carvers, masons, joiners and carpenters who could pass on these heritage traditions to the younger generation. What if this movement could help encourage people to give higher value to smaller but better built and longer lasting real buildings? Is this Green Building? Frankly, I loath that term and would have a hard time seriously defining myself or my company as “green builders”. Nor would I advertise “quality construction” like I have seen people do. Shouldn’t both of these attributes be assumed? When completing my Build It Green certificate the facilitator referred to this kind of work as “smart building”. That I like. That’s what we, in this industry, should all be striving for. Smart building. Let’s all think about that. Slowly.

By the way, I was talking to my pup the other day when she pointed out to me that “blog” sounds a lot like “dog”. A little further discussion and we decided that there will be, in this venue, something I’ll call Carmela’s Corner. Look for it soon. Also, next time, I’ll update everyone on some of the work we are doing.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a hip new music tip check out the most recent CD from these guys: THE KINGS OF CONVENIENCE

Till next time, ciao, Mark