Architecture Wednesday: Phoenix House

Brutalist architecture is characterized by minimalist construction showcasing bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. Brutalism  commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, steel, timber and glass, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochromatic color palette.

This brutalist masterpiece is in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, near San Diego, and is all of those things and more. Designed by Sebastian Mariscal and dubbed Phoenix House, the three-bedroom dwelling helped Mariscal win the first of three Record House designations when it was completed in 2012., While its façade appears bare and bleak, the 5,616 square foot home evolves entirely around expansive greenery and ocean views. Board-formed concrete interiors open onto outdoor spaces, from a rooftop deck with an outdoor kitchen to breezy balconies, a courtyard garden and a pool, most of which have views of the Pacific Ocean.

Mariscal’s use of tactile concrete walls and slate flooring softened by walnut and mahogany cabinetry and sunlight flooding in through skylights, clerestory openings and apertures that curate views and channel sunshine into the deepest recesses of the five-bedroom home.

The main living space overlooks Cardiff’s familiar but always beautiful Pacific Ocean while the master suite gazes into the peaceful yard and pool area. In the midst of it all, centered between the private walls, is an interior garden, a true focal point of the home.

I’ve always found Brutalism interesting, but rather bleak and institutional, but this house, the way it opens to the views and the greenery and the light, really suits me. Plus, it’s located in the heart of Cardiff's Composer District, on Brahms Road—the most undiscovered, tucked away street, parallel to Rossini Canyon—and feels secluded from the buzzing beach town but is within walking distance to shops, restaurants, entertainment and the beaches.

And it can be yours for $10M.

The Spaces

Meme Dump

My Two Cents: Lauren Boebert Can Fuck All The Way Off

In the wake of the shooting at the Club Q in Colorado Springs, Representative, and moron, Lauren Boebert is defending her past anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender tweets, but let’s first read her statement, where bigot, homophobe, criminal, liar Lauren Boebert says she is a victim of the Club Q shooting:

“I have been accused of just about every mass shooting there has been since the Left has learned of my name. Whether it’s Uvalde, or the King Soopers shooting in Boulder, Colorado, or the Buffalo, New York shooting, or even Paul Pelosi getting hammered. I have been blamed for all of that. I think the Left is pissed I won my election. And so they’re trying to find something to go after me about. I expressed my concern for the family, for the victims. And the way that they came after me is absolutely disgusting.”

I personally don’t care that she won her election by about 500 votes; that’s a cross for the voters in her district to bear. I care that Lauren Boebert, who was nowhere near Club Q that night when the lunatic was shooting strangers, thinks she’s a victim because her pro-gun stance and her anti-LGBTQ+ stance are seen by many as reasons for the shooting.

Your words are one of the man y reasons for the shooting, You spew hate and intolerance and then fight for the rights of anyone to own and carry a weapon, and what happens as a result of those two things is your fault,

The only thing Lauren Boebert might be a victim of is being woefully out of her depth, incapable of thoughtfulness, and following the line of rightwingnuts who put guns over people lives, especially LGBTQ+ people. She carries some of the blame for this latest mass shooting because she has failed to support any effort that might have kept guns out of this shooter’s possession, and might have allowed  Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump to go home safe and sound that night.

Lauren Boebert claims to be a victim of the Q shooting because of what she has said in the past about drag queens and LGBTQ+ people:

“I have never had bad rhetoric towards anyone and their personal preference as an adult. What I've criticized is the sexualization of our children. And I've criticized men dressing up as caricatures of women.”

She didn’t have “bad rhetoric”? Let’s just skip the fact that Boebert has no high school diploma, nor has she attended college and perhaps forgive her ignorance this one time, but … she also needs reminding that sexual orientation is not a preference, unless she can explain when and how she came to “prefer” men over women? But let’s also note that she thinks drag queens reading children’s story to children “sexualizes” those children and “grooms” the children.

Grooming? Not a new word, though a new word the right uses to describe the LGBTQ+ community and drag queens; but “grooming” is the word once used to describe how child molesters entrap and abuse their victims and has nothing to do with our community or drag queens, except as a tool of spreading lies, hate and misinformation.

Lauren Boebert has Tweeted that parents should take their kids to church and not drag bars, but she makes no mention at all of the pedophile priest scandal in the Catholic church, or the score of arrests, even in the last few months, of so-called “men of God” and “leaders of their church” who have raped little boys and girls. In the real world, a child is safe at a drag show than alone in the room with a priest or minister or pastor who may be grooming them. In fact, Boebert, who clearly has never been to a Drag Queen Story Hour, seems to equate those events to strip club:

“We don’t need 6-year-old children putting dollar bills in the thongs of grown men shaking and twerking in front of children … that is child abuse.”

That does not happen at a story hour, but Lauren Boebert is too busy lying and spreading fear and hate to know that, even though she continues to spew that garbage. She has even gone so far as to suggest that minor children “can be chemically castrated.” Again, this is a lie; minors can only undergo gender reassignment surgery after years of therapies and with the consent of their parents or legal guardians.

But Lauren Boebert is a victim because she protects gun rights over children in Texas, over shoppers in Buffalo, over people in nightclubs. Those lives, to Lauren Boebert, are meaningless because it’s the guns that matter, and the money the NRA funnels into her offices and campaigns.

Lauren Boebert claims she is as much a victim as Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump, or the kids at Uvalde, the concert-goers in Vegas, the worshippers at the synagogue, the shoppers at Walmart … and … and … and … Except Lauren Boebert is still alive and spreading hate and misinformation and lies written in the blood of true victims.

The Funny Papers

NYT, Michael de Adder, Mike Luckovich, Matt Wuerker,  Gary Markstein, The Daily Don, Marc Murphy, Darrin Bell, Deb Milbrath, Macleod, Clay Bennett, Kevin Siers