observatory mansions essay

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In episode 27, we introduced a new segment at the end of our book discussion episodes: Mike And Tom Recommend, aka The MATRs. This segment, probably the most beloved segment in show history, is our attempt to improve your lives just a little bit via the power of suggestion. Suggestions range from essays we think you should read to foods we think you should eat to ways to conduct yourself in public places. Scroll down to browse the archive of our past recommendations, listed in chronological order, and be sure to actually listen to the episode so you can hear the rationale for our picks: EPISODE 27 Mike: Pitch Perfect, a movie Tom: New Girl, a sitcom EPISODE 28 Mike: ESPN 30 for 30 (particularly the episodes “Once Brothers” & “The Best That Never Was”) Tom: BRING THE NOISE: The Best Pop Culture Essays From Barrelhouse Magazine EPISODE 29 Mike: “Pregnant Girl, Smoking” a short story by James Boice Tom: Grilled cheese sandwiches (specifically apple-bacon-cheddar grilled cheese and a goat cheese & red pepper pesto GC) EPISODE 30 Mike: Corn dogs Tom: Faithful Man, an album by Lee Fields & The Expression Guest Matthew Jakubowski: Dorothy, A Publishing Project EPISODE 31 Mike: Indie Game, a documentary Tom: Manna, a Philadelphia-based charity EPISODE 32 Mike: Phosphorescent, a musician, and his album To Willie Tom: Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles, a novel by Ron Currie, Jr. (here’s Tom’s review of it in the Philadelphia Review of Books) EPISODE 33 Mike: A TV Guide article about what ever happened to the actors who played Jethro and Elly May on The Beverly Hillbillies Tom: Jill Talbot’s Lost Paragraphs book project Guest Kevin Greway: A variety of suggestions from that week’s TV Guide EPISODE 34 Mike: Battlestar Galactica  Tom: “Babydoll and the Ring of Chastity,” a short story by Katie Chase EPISODE 35 Mike: Anatole Broyard’s memoir Kafka Was The Rage Tom: Green Flash (aka.
Views of the James Lick Mansion, Superintendent's Cottage and the Granary Photograph by Judith Silva, courtesy of the City of Santa Clara The James Lick Mill a complex of buildings reflecting the varied uses of the property over its history. The major historical constructions are a brick granary and millpond from the original mill built by James Lick around 1855, the large house built by Lick around 1858 and a late Victorian-era office building. James Lick was born in Pennsylvania in 1796. He came to San Francisco in 1848 after a successful career as a piano builder in South America. From San Francisco Lick went to Santa Clara County. Lick built this Italianate mansion between 1858 and 1860 next to his flour mill. The mansion is constructed of native redwood featuring marvelous woodwork and imported marble fireplaces in each of its 24 rooms. This property was once part of the RanchoUlistac grant, a square league reaching from the Alviso shoreline southward and encompassing all the land between the Guadalupe and Saratoga Creeks. His farm background helped him realize the potential of the site for agricultural production. Around the mansion and mill, Lick developed a highly successful orchard operation and pioneered the introduction of new fruits and horticultural techniques. Imported specimens include the impressive cork oaks on the property planted by Lick himself. One of the large oak trees planted by Lick Photograph by Judith Silva, courtesy of the City of Santa Clara Shrewd real estate investments at the time of the gold rush made Lick the richest man in California by 1873. When he died in 1876, James Lick left an estate of over three million dollars for various public projects, a major part of which went to establish Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton where he is buried. Lick generously gave his estate to benefit charitable and scientific organizations. The Home.
Observatory MansionsBy: Edward Carey full review at: “You’ve never heard of Observatory Mansions or Tearsham Park? Where’ve you been?”Once upon a time there was a man. He was thirty-seven. He lived with his parents and worked at the Wax Works museum as a living wax- figure. He wore white gloves, always. His name was Francis Orme. Francis and his mother and father live in a flat at Observatory Mansions. Observatory Mansions is a large estate that was once Tearsham Park, and was owned exclusively by the Orme family. The Orme family is no longer the exclusive owner of Tearsham Park. Tearsham Park had to be separated into flats and turned into apartments, which is now Observatory Mansions. Seven people live with the Orme family at Observatory Mansions: Miss Claire Higgs, Peter Bugg, the Porter, Twenty, Francis Orme (the son), Francis Orme (the father), and Alice Orme. Anna Tapp comes later. “They are a rare group of individuals, bizarre creatures, who seem to have walked out of strange, dark fairy tales, but they are real enough, they are about, they are to be found amongst cities’ Coca-Cola signs, evening paper stands, waiting for the traffic lights to change with the rest of us.” Miss Claire Higgs: lives in a land of fiction. She cannot be separated from her T.V., ever. The people she watches on her T.V. are the only people she cares about. When they are sad, she is sad, when they are happy she is happy. The only time she is ever separated from her T.V. is when the electricity goes out, and Francis Orme (the son) and Peter Bugg take her out for a walk until the T.V. comes back on. Miss Claire Higgs once loved a man, a real man, but he died. Peter Bugg: is always sweating and always crying. He has the smell of 100 different smells. He was once a schoolteacher, and he was very cruel. He was cruel, because his father was cruel. Peter Bugg.
InstagramYouTubeGoogle+TwitterFacebook Essay, Photos Highlight Fascinating Family, Estate HistoryJohn Foreman, who writes the regular “Big Old Houses” feature for the online New York Social Diary, recently visited the Museum to explore and photograph the Vanderbilt Mansion. Foreman’s photo essay and accompanying article take the reader on a guided tour of the 24-room Spanish Revival mansion, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Read Full Article.
Your debut novel, Observatory Mansions (2001), garnered the following praise from The Times (London): There are no ordinary people; everyone is a seething mass of repressed desires, murderous impulses, and obsessive-compulsive tics. While this view of human nature might sound disturbing, it is conveyed with so much sympathy and acute observation that it is hard not to be beguiled. This same bit of praise can similarly describe Alva & Irva: The Twins Who Saved a City—a book filled with entirely different characters and with a unique storyline. You obviously have the rare ability to create eccentric roles AND to make us feel sympathy for these peculiar beings. Is there something about downtrodden, socially rejected, and supremely bizarre people that invites your observation and veneration? Yes, they stand apart from the world and look at it in an entirely different way; sometimes they complicate life, and sometimes they simplify it. They just have a very different way of doing things, and the more different they do something the more they make you think about the ordinary way of doing it—and to consider it in a fresh light. I can remember reading a truly wonderful essay by Diane Arbus, in which she discusses those people that stand apart from everyone else, and being painfully moved by it. I haven't forgotten it, or her astonishing photographs. In the book, there is quite a bit of descriptive detail of the streets, the buildings, and the people of this imaginary city of Entralla—and we understand that you too have constructed a model of the city. Was building Entralla a compulsive effort on your part—in keeping with the model-building activities of Alva and Irva? Did you construct this model in advance of writing the book, or after? Building the miniature city that I was writing about was essential to me, firstly so that I could really understand what it looked like.