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Bumpers Oast is an odd house, to be sure. My first thought? Box of Crayons. But, no, the architects designed the house as a 21st century riff on the local oast houses used to dry hops as part of the beer-brewing process. To that end, four shingle-clad towers create a single family home that uses very little energy and yet appears to be a very bold, modern, innovative home. The home was created for a family that moved to Kent 10 years ago and almost bought an oast house at that time because they wanted that sort of intimate, idiosyncratic, circular living space. The proportions of the tower roundels were based on traditional oasts and stand slightly apart from one another, creating views inwards and outwards, and housing private functions such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and service spaces. The towers are connected to a triple-height central space that forms the heart of the house. Kent-style tiles were used to create an exterior ‘skin’ in six shades, slowly fading from dark red at the base to light orange at the tip; every tile above eaves level was individually cut, with over 41,000 used across the whole facade. The interior of the roundels is clad in plywood, as a continuous surface for the cylindrical parts, with overlapping plywood shingles used for the roof cones. Curved furniture is built into rooms where possible to make the best use of the space. All bedrooms are on the first floor, and each one with its own private staircase to an upper level in the roof cone that can be a play area now, and a study zone later. The master bedroom is designed with a dressing area in the upper space that opens onto an en suite bathroom. The downstairs bathroom uses mosaic which echoes the grey tones of the concrete, with matte and gloss finishes used to play with the reflection of the north facing windows. In fact, all window openings have reveals formed by the walls folding into them, which increases the light refraction coming into the rooms. I still get Crayola, but it’s interesting to see this more organic shape, based on a local traditional of drying hops, used as a home.                Click to emBIGGERate …    |
Wednesday, October 07, 2020
Architecture Wednesday: Bumpers Oast
An Open Letter To Clarence Thomas
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Dear Clarence, I saw the good news from SCOTUS … that the Court decided the
lawsuit against anti-marriage equality Kentucky Kounty Klerk, Kim Davis, who was
jailed in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,
to continue. Davis had argued that a legal doctrine called qualified immunity
protected her from being sued for damages by couples David Ermold and David
Moore as well as James Yates and Will Smith, but SCOTUS said ‘No, ma’am.’ Good news, no? Maybe not, because then you wrote, for yourself and Justice Alito,
that while agreeing with the decision not to hear the case, it was a
"stark reminder of the consequences" of the court's 2015 decision to
legalize same-sex marriage case. You wrote: “Those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in society without running afoul [of that SCOTUS ruling] and its effect on other antidiscrimination laws.” And then you said: "Davis may have been one of the first victims of this Court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision, but she will not be the last. … Since Obergefell, parties have continually attempted to label people of good will as bigots merely for refusing to alter their religious beliefs in the wake of prevailing orthodoxy." I have two words for you, Clarence … fuck off. Wait, I have
two more … fucking hypocrite. You see, Clarence, you, a Black man, married Virginia, a
white woman, in 1987 … a mere twenty years after the Supreme Court ruled that laws
banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process
Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. At that time
peopled argued that interracial marriage was against “God’s law” and should therefore
remain illegal. So, you see, Clarence, but for a 1967 SCOTUS ruling, you could
not have married your wife because people believed God wanted the races to be separate.
And now, you want to make same-sex marriage illegal because people believe that
God wants marriage to be only between one man and one woman. And don’t get me started on which religions rules we’ll
follow, Clarence, though it’s clear you only listen to the bigoted anti-LGBTQ+
faiths, while ignoring those religions that have come to accept and embrace same-sex
marriage, as well as those who are non-religious and think faith should have no
place in our laws. And that leads us to that whole idea that this country was
founded on a Separation of Church and State, which clearly means that religion
has no place in making law in this country. So, Clarence, kindly fuck off, Clarence. What might you say
when a group of religious bigots decide they want to roll back the legality of interracial
marriage, and who knows, that may well happen when you let faith dictate law, I
hope you won’t mind giving up your wife. I, however, will not give up my husband, nor will I give up the
right for members of my community to marry the person they love. So, again, Clarence, kindly fuck all the way off. |
Tuesday, October 06, 2020
Monday, October 05, 2020
An Open Letter from Jack Mackenroth to _____
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Jack Mackenroth is an American swimmer, model, gay pornographic
film actor, fashion designer, AIDS activist who has something to say to the
current President:
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Sunday, October 04, 2020
Saturday, October 03, 2020
I Ain't One To Gossip But ...
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So Kathie Lee Gifford’s daughter Cassidy Gifford is married to Ben Weirda, who is the nephew of Betsy DeVos, but this isn’t about that. It’s about Kathie dragging her offspring and their spouses to take part in an episode of Celebrity Family Feud but it looks like the only feud was between Ben’s dick and his pants, as his not-so-little Ben fought to get free of the trousers.  Somewhere Jon Hamm is smiling now that the talk will turn from the Hammaconda to Ben’s Moose Knuckle performance on a gameshow. |
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It’s sad when they turn desperate and thirsty, amirite GOOP? For her 48th birthday Gwyneth Paltrow got naked for
Instagram because there is no career and no interest in her so, drop the
clothes and strike a pose. It’s sad, and pathetic and desperate and
cringeworthy and looks like she has one of those thousand-dollar Jade Eggs
stuck in her cooch. |
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First they act like they’re quitting their show, until we
learn that E! canceled it, and now the mother of that klan, That Woman, finds
herself at the center of a lawsuit brought by Marc McWilliams, a former
security guard, who says she was all kinds of handsy with him, even after he complained
to his bosses. McWilliams claims he was the victim of “a pattern of
unwanted and unwelcome advances and other harassing misconduct” at the hands of
That Woman, and that her lesser known daughter, Kourtney, retaliated
against him when he accused Mama of being touchy-feeley. That Woman stands accused of “massaging [Marc
McWilliams’] neck, shoulders, arms and back without consent, causing her hand
to rest on [his] thigh and groin, causing her pelvis to rub against [his] back
and/or rear-end without consent or approval, causing her hands to come into
contact with [his] rear-end without consent or approval.” McWilliams also
claims That Woman exposed “portions of her body to Plaintiff in a lewd
or suggestive manner.” I would call that assault with an ugly weapon. McWilliams says he “expressly informed” That Woman
that he didn’t consent to her advances, and ended up taking the
issue to the security company’s HR department; he claims his bosses did nothing
about the situation, but began to punish him for made-up infractions like being
late and having a bad attitude. He was eventually fired on September 12th,
2018. That Woman, through her attorneys, denies she ever did anything
wrong, but, remember, this is the woman who found her daughter’s sex rape and sold
it to a porn distributor to make a few coins and get her family a TV show, so I
wouldn’t trust a word that slithers from her forked tongue. |
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Maybe she really doesn’t know her? Apparently Mariah Carey—who famously responded, “I don’t
know her,” when asked about JLo—also has an aversion to even writing the other
singer’s name, and instead refers to Lopez as “another female entertainer
on [Sony] (whom I don’t know)'". Wow. |
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Well, after years of trying to make us forget her face, Khloé
Kardashian—who has had more faces and more surgeries than Cher, Faye Dunaway,
and Jocelyn Wildenstein combined—has unveiled her newest mug … and it’s Beyoncé. Cue Beyoncé Lawsuit stat! |
Friday, October 02, 2020
I Didn't Say It ...
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Seth Meyers, Late Night host, on the “debate”: “Last night we all watched a petulant psycho debase himself on live TV. Actually debase is not the right word; it was more like a collective brain hemorrhage. It was like watching democracy get a lobotomy. Watching that debate was like hotboxing a Porta Potty with crystal meth in Phoenix in July. It was like being hit on the head with a lead pipe in a room filled with nitrous oxide. It was like watching a two-person performance of 12 Angry Men where one actor played one part and one was mad enough for the other 11. … Wolf Blitzer could show up in full BDSM gear screaming the lyrics to ‘WAP’ and it still wouldn’t have been the crudest thing to happen last night. [FOX News anchors] … watched that debate and saw an apex predator and gladiator-warrior fighter? Because he didn’t look like a predator to me. Most of the time he stood there with his head cocked like an old dog who just heard a twig snap. He held onto that podium like my grandma holds onto her walker when they’re reading the Powerball numbers. _____’s behavior last night was perfectly emblematic of the modern GOP, right-wing media, and the conservative movement. The Republican mascot shouldn’t be an elephant. It should be a possum being cornered in a garage by a rake. They’re all like this: deranged, petulant children, constantly aggrieved, making excuses. We got a closeup look at just how odious and grotesque the president is. His only goals are chaos and nihilism. He thinks that’s the path to power. And now it’s up to us to show him he’s wrong, and restore our democracy by voting in overwhelming numbers to repudiate him and everything he stands for.” It’s comedy, yes, but it’s also entirely true. And sickening because it’s entirely true. |
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| Tom Ridge, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, on his choice for president: “I will cast my vote for Joe Biden on Nov. 3. It will be my first vote for a Democratic candidate for president of the United States. But it is not the first time I have said “no” to Donald _____. I urge my fellow Pennsylvanians to join me.” Another Republican, who says he will stay Republican, voting for Joe. |
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| Bridget Hallahan, commander of the Louisville Metro Police Department, in an email sent to her colleagues: "I know it is hard to keep our thoughts and opinions to ourselves sometimes, especially when we, as a whole or as an individual, become the target of people in the public who criticize what we do without even knowing the facts. These ANTIFA and BLM people, especially the ones who just jumped on the bandwagon 'yesterday' because they became 'woke' … do not deserve a second glance or thought from us. Our little pinky toenails have more character, morals, and ethics, than these punks have in their entire body. Do not stoop to their level. Do not respond to them. If we do, we only validate what they did. Don't make them important, because they are not. They will be the ones washing our cars, cashing us out at the Walmart, or living in their parents' basement playing [Call of Duty] for their entire life.” This bitch. She is exactly why police departments need to be reformed; she is why there needs to be more training . Bridget Hallahan, and every police officer like her, is the problem. |
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| Eric Swalwell, Democratic Congressman from California, saying the House of Representatives is ready if _____ refuses to concede the election: “If he’s going to play games and encourage people not to send electors, well, the House of Representatives then would determine who the president is. As long as we win in the House, we can counter [_____] corruption. This is what a democracy looks like when you have a president who will go to jail and face criminal charges if he’s not re-elected. He’s going to test us and it’s up to all of us to not let ourselves be paralyzed by fear but to move to register to vote, to show up and vote, and then have agency and make sure we hold our leaders accountable after the election. We have an army of voters. Women who marched the day after the inauguration. The March For Our Lives generation that came out of Parkland, the people who won in Virginia in the off-year, who won in Kentucky. We have an army of voters. So the best way out is to overwhelm the ballot box because [_____] is a coward and he will vanish if the result is so overwhelming.” If Joe Biden wins by a decisive margin, you can bet your ass _____ will demand the results be held until all mail-in votes are counted because he’s a lying hypocritical pig. So, to make sure he’s sent packing, CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!!!! |
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| Robert Cardillo, former director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, deputy on the National Security Council, who managed, edited, and delivered the President's Daily Brief to several different presidents, , spending hundreds of mornings in the Oval Office with different presidents, and the current Occupant of the White House: “I have briefed him up close—and I have seen and felt the effect of his faults on our nation's security.... He has little patience for facts or data that do not comport with his personal world view. Thus, the conversations are erratic and less than fully thoughtful. … [A]s damaging as his faulty leadership has been, four more years would be devastating. We must elect a thoughtful, moral, responsible, respectful leader on Nov. 3. Our current president is not that leader.” Of course he isn’t because if whatever is happening isn’t making him or his crime syndicate family some coins doesn’t concern him. |
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| Michele Bachmann, former GOP Representative, and longtime crazy-eyed homophobe, proving someone needs to commit her: “So could you have a more perfectly framed scenario for fraud? So in this kind of scenario, it’s entirely possible that you could have ballots already filled out. In fact they could be printed in China. They could be routed through various countries so you can’t detect them. Make their way into Minnesota, be in a barn somewhere. Until after the election day is over, you count up the ballots and you say, ‘Gee, how many more do we need? Oh, we’re short 48,000?’ No problem, you go out and you haul the ballots in.” Oh my, so much to unpack here. And I ain’t talking Chinese ballots in a Minnesota barn. |
Thursday, October 01, 2020
Bobservations
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The other morning Carlos and I were taking some yard debris and recyclables down to the local Recycling Center. It was a quick trip, and as we were leaving Carlos asked if we could go by the UPS store to pick up some sheet music they had enlarged for him; my response was:
These were his shorts that he wanted to wear in public.  Help me … |
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Tuxedo has discovered Twitter, and really enjoys finding peoples’ Tweets and sharing them. This is one of his Favorites … |
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| In Good News … in addition to the Democrats raising over $100 million since the passing of RBG, it appears that voter registration has also surged. It looks like change is coming … as long as y’all CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!. |
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| Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi—and ______ lapdog—is defending that 17-year-old Illinois double murder suspect as a “little boy” who was merely “trying to protect his community” when he crossed state lines and went into Kenosha and murdered two people on purpose with the guns he carried illegally. Typical GOPer, though had this shooter been a Black teenager she would have had an entirely different reaction. |
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| I don’t eat at fast food places, and though I don’t need another reason for continuing to do so, if anyone else needs a reason, try this one … The Irish Supreme Court has ruled that the “bread ” surrounding sandwiches made by the fast-food chain Subway has too much sugar to meet the legal definition of bread, and so therefore cannot be legally called bread. Now, Subway will ask if you want your sandwich on their nine-grain multi-seed, Italian white bread, Italian herbs and cheese, nine-grain wheat, hearty Italian, and honey oatbread-like substance. Yum. |
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| I didn’t see the debates because, well, _____.I cannot look at him, I cannot listen to his voice, so I caught some recaps the next morning and, for me, the most telling was Chris Wallace tried to get _____ to denounce white supremacy. _____ said: “I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing. I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace. Chris Wallace: “Then do it sir.” _____: “Do you want to call em? What do you want to call em? Give me a name, give me a name. Who do you want me to condemn? Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing, this is a left-wing problem.” Stand by. Stand.By. |
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| Former football player Eric Decker really knows how to promote his wife, country singer and cookbook author, Jessie James Decker’s latest cookbook, “Just Feed Me.” In the buff … with the caption: “It’s bigger, better and tastier than what you could ever imagine……I’m talking about my wife’s amazing new cookbook ‘just feed me’ It’s officially out now! I’ve tasted everything and I can tell you it’s damn good. Enjoy!”  Funny, I wasn’t thinking cookbook at all. Bigger, better, tastier indeed. |
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| Another telling sight at the debate was at the end when the spouse came onstage. Jill Biden went to Joe, hugged him and kissed him. Melanie walked to ____ and then stood at his side; no kiss because perhaps the check hadn’t cleared. Now, _____ did take her hand and this time she didn’t swat it away, but to me, if there’s zero affection from your spouse, well …. |
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| A few weeks back I posted some photos of hottie men from the sequel to the Starz show Powe, called Power, Book II. Those mens were reason enough to watch but then there were more hotties making out with one another and dropping their pants, like … clockwise from top left: Bradley Gibson, an out Broadway actor and singer, who plays out athlete Everett Neal; Lovell Adams-Gray as drug dealer Dru Tejada who gets really busy, really quickly, with Everett Neal. And then there’s sultry Shalim Ortiz as bad cop Danilo Ramirez, followed by Method Man, who plays shady lawyer David MacLean. Method Man didn’t, um, pique my interest until last week when he dropped his pants and revealed a spectacular ass. That brings hotties on Power, Book II up to seven … just sayin. |
