You Didn't Build This, FLlW Did

After several months, I finally finished Meryle Secrest's Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography, a dense, well-researched, mostly engaging 564-page doorstop of a book.

I put the book on my wish list after reading T.C. Boyle's The Women, a fictional account of the world-famous architect's tangled web of romantic relationships. Boyle's a gifted writer, and I've read and enjoyed many of his books, but while I was reading The Women, I found myself wanting to read a biography, wondering, "How true to life is this stuff? Were Wright and his wives and mistresses really as crazy as Boyle makes them out to be?"

Turns out, they were.

I'm not going to write a review of the book, because it's too damn long and I'm not a real strong critical writer. But I want to talk about a few things that I learned about Wright (who often signed his name "FLlW"), and discuss some of his amazing buildings, a few of which I hope to visit in my lifetime.

Wright was a complete and total narcissist, arrogant and too quick to judge and fight back against any perceived slight. He was absolutely terrible with money, often refusing to pay everyone from local grocers to building supply companies, and other times insisting that he be given things such as cars simply because he was famous, and the retailer would gain more value from being associated with him than they could if he paid them.

He fell easily for those who flattered him. It was not difficult, especially if you were a woman, to manipulate him.

Wright insisted that nobody had influenced his use of open floor plans, cantilevered roofs and non-traditional materials in the houses he designed, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Many of his buildings, especially houses, suffered from leaky roofs, drafty windows and poor heating and cooling systems.

Still, there's no denying Wright's incredible vision, and his tenacity in getting projects done the way he wanted. He is one of the most well-known architects in the world, alongside I.M. Pei, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Gehry.

Many of his most fantastic projects were never built, such as Washington, D.C.'s Crystal Heights apartment, hotel and shopping complex, and of those that were, many have either been torn down, or destroyed by fire or natural disasters.

Just last month, a house that FLlW designed for one of his sons in Phoenix was saved from the wrecking ball.

But, thankfully, so many great houses, office buildings and museums that he designed still stand.

I've been to New York City with my family each of the last three Aprils, but somehow have never made it to Wright's Guggenheim Museum. The next time I go to the Big Apple, I'm definitely checking out the museum.

Taliesin West, Wright's second home, is located in Arizona. I haven't been to the Southwest since my brief time living in New Mexico in 1988. It's time for a return, with the family.

Wright's primary residence for decades was Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. This building fascinates me for its architecture, of course, but also because the home was the place where Wright spent much of his adult life, where he designed so many projects, where he mentored architects and others in the building trades, and where tragedy visited his family on too many occasions (fires, murders).

Finally, I have to visit Fallingwater, the amazing house that Wright built over a river in western Pennsylvania. Just take a look at the video above, and at the pictures at the house's web site and you'll understand why I want to go.

NYC Three Times

For the third time in as many years, we took the train from Boston to New York for April vacation. And despite one minor setback, I have to say this trip was the best we've done.

The trip down was relaxing, as usual, and the weather was terrific. Owen juggled my laptop, Beth's iPad and her phone, while Amelia listened to Wild Flag on my iPod and just hung out playing with her stuffed animals. I spent most of the time looking out the window, trying on numerous occasions to snap some pictures.

While I still struggle to get the right aperture and shutter settings on my camera, I did a better job than I did last year of taking pictures while the train was in motion. Here's a shot of Bridgeport, CT.

After checking in to our hotel and meeting up with my sister, who joined us once again this year, we followed Owen's lead onto the subway up to Times Square. He was an unfailing tour guide for the whole vacation.

After riding the Ferris wheel inside Toys 'R Us, we had dinner at Carmine's in the Theater District. I figured the place had some fascinating history, but it turns out it was started in 1990 by a guy named Artie Cutler, who had in mind a place that "looks and feels as if it has been around for a very long time."

Regardless of its artificiality, the food was excellent.

To round out our first evening, Owen and I went on a short subway trip. He loves checking out as many lines as he can while we're in the city. He looks at subway maps online and figures out the best way, then commits the route to memory. We follow blindly; he's never wrong.

We had to go above-ground for a short time, and found ourselves walking past the Hotel Chelsea, where Beth and I stayed with friends a few years ago.

The next day, of course, started out at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. We went last year, so this year's trip was a bit shorter. I was glad to see that, in addition to lots of old subway cars and some transit bus cabs (which the kids can sit in, as you can see below), the museum has added plenty of interactive features to hold kids' attention.

After lunch, we hit the Central Park Zoo. The kids were excited to see the penguins, because they love "The Penguins of Madagascar," which is supposed to take place at the zoo. We were all a bit surprised that the penguins were inside, behind glass. Still, they were cute.

While I was impressed by the polar bear, I also felt a bit sad for him. Shouldn't he be frolicking in the snow?

After the zoo, we hit FAO Schwarz, before meeting my sister for dinner at Bill's Bar & Burgers near Rockefeller Center.

Afterward, we went to the Top of the Rock and caught the sunset. It was beautiful.

My sister and I did another subway excursion with Owen while Beth took Amelia back to the hotel. Below, a common scene throughout the trip.

On Wednesday, Owen was under the weather, so he and Beth stayed in the hotel most of the day. My sister was off doing her own thing, so I took Amelia to the American Museum of Natural History. She had a good time checking out all the stuffed animals -- from elephants and giraffes, to rhinos, tigers and water buffaloes -- but we didn't stay all that long.

After lunch, we went to a playground not too far away in Central Park. But it wasn't just any park; it was the Diana Ross Playground. Amelia had a blast!

I was happy to see when we got back to the hotel around 4:00 that Owen was feeling better, and up for going out to dinner, and then on to "STOMP!" The show was a lot of fun -- cool percussion of all sorts, from hand clapping to body slapping to brooms and drums and old kegs and barrels. The kids loved it, as did Beth, my sister and I.

On Thursday, we went (for the third time) to the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier that holds lots of old planes and helicopters, and which this summer will be the new home of the space shuttle Enterprise.

As they have each of the last three years, the kids enjoyed the big ship. There's so much to do and see both inside and on top of the carrier. It's quite impressive.

Later that day, we trekked as far north as we've gone on Manhattan, to The Cloisters, "the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe," as the Met's web site puts it.

While the kids had a good time there, I have to say, The Cloisters is the one place we visited during the week where I thought to myself, "I wish Beth and I could be here alone and take our time." The building is like a castle crossed with a monastery, and the architectural, religious and cultural artifacts within are amazing. Next time Beth and I go down on a grown-up adventure, I'd love to go back there.

Here's the museum upon approach:

Here's one of the many stained glass windows at the museum:

Here's a view of the courtyard:

As Thursday was our last full day in the city, we weren't done after The Cloisters. We met up with my sister back at the hotel, and trekked (on the subway, natch) to Little Italy for dinner. Owen had requested pasta, so I figured we might as well do the touristy thing and check it out.

After getting turned around a bit on Canal Street, we found our way to Mulberry Street, the heart of Little Italy. Well, Mulberry is basically the entirety of the neighborhood now. I wish I'd seen Little Italy before Chinatown expanded its boundaries.

Regardless, it was cool to walk past so many Italian restaurants, and to have a few hosts/owners/barkers try to flag me down and wave us into their places of business. I'd looked online at a few places beforehand, and stuck to my guns. We ended up at a perfectly fine place called Da Nico.

On its web site, Da Nico claims to be a favorite of movie stars, New York Yankees and former mayor Rudy Guiliani. We didn't see anybody famous. I saw Chazz Palminteri's picture on the wall.

After dinner, we walked a few blocks to the subway. I was trying, once again in vain, to get some good night time pictures. As we walked on the sidewalk into Chinatown, I had my camera up, trying to capture something (I forget what) when I suddenly walked right into a small, old Chinese woman who had stopped in front of me. Lesson learned: pay attention to your surroundings while trying to be a camera dork.

We took the train up to Times Square, where we wandered around, bought a few t-shirts for the kids and enjoyed yet another beautiful, warm evening.

Friday morning Owen and I went on one last quick subway trip while Beth and Amelia hung out at the hotel. The train trip back was fine, after a hectic boarding. Beth and Amelia had sat together in one car, while Owen and I hoofed it up two cars to find seats across from each other. Eventually, the nice guy next to me offered to switch so Owen and I could be next to each other.

Here's the last quality shot I got of NYC. This is Canal Street.

Will we go again next April? I'm not sure. I'd like to get down there for a weekend around Christmas time, although I can only imagine how expensive and hectic things will be at that time of year.

The Big City

I'm pretty good with directions when I'm driving or walking around town or in the woods. But for some reason, I get turned around in New York City. After several trips there over the last decade, I've gotten better. But when we arrive on Monday for our third April vacation in a row in the Big Apple, I'll rely on Beth and Owen to steer me in the right direction.

I guess this small-town boy just gets a bit overwhelmed by it all. I've lived in and around Boston for the last 20 years, and feel comfortable in the city. It's big enough to find new places to explore all the time, but small enough to hit a lot of spots in just a few hours.

Even though Manhattan's laid out on a grid, I get confused. I don't take the time to study the layout enough ahead of my visits, so I mix up the avenues and the streets, and lose all sense of east, west, north and south. But I love going there, because there's just so much cool stuff to do and see (duh...).

And of course I love to take pictures there. I'm still trying to master my camera, nearly two years after buying it. I don't read the manual enough, preferring to just wing it and fix things up in the (virtual) dark room later. I plan to read a bit of the new photography book Beth and the kids got me for my birthday, which I hope will result in some cool shots.

I'll post stuff on Facebook during the week, most likely, and will wrap the trip up here afterwards.

In the meantime, here are a few pics from our last two trips.