WILL OBAMA JOIN THE CLUB? SUNNYLANDS

MID CENTURY MODERN 
WEALTH & POWER

     The angles are stunning.  The history is as well. Sunnylands, the extraordinary estate of the late Ambassadors Walter and Leonore Annenberg, awaits a first visit by President Obama.  
      (UPDATE-President Obama used Sunnylands as the
sight of a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping June  2013))

      Every President since Eisenhower has visited or worked at Sunnylands.

   Built in the mid 60's the estate captures the essence of Modern architecture and style, worthy of study. It is now administered by the Annenberg Foundation.  Less than a year ago the first public visits began.

   The visitor's center provides an overview with superb large touch screen videos and history and a good orientation film. It also features a schedule of special exhibitions.

    The setting is majestic.  
    Sunnylands is now a retreat center for issues of critical importance. 
    Tours of the home are limited to 7 people and run on a limited schedule. It is worth the ordering of tickets.

    The grounds of the visitors center are a stunning sight. The Giacometti sculpture commands focus. 
     Some come to see to the visitors center and garden.

  Those fortunate to visit the home are offered a golf cart
ride over the Annenberg's 200 acre estate near Rancho Mirage.

    You are driven to the famous front gate that welcomed  Presidents, Queen Elizabeth, other royals and countless celebrities. 

     Extraordinary art and sculpture are abundant, including this from Mexico, opposite the front door.

    Photographs are not permitted in the mansion, decorated as it was when the Annenbergs lived here.   
    Included are digitally created replicas of the multi-million dollar art collection given to a museum. The furniture and interior decor have been studied and envied by professional decorators and collectors.

   The home is a masterpiece of the modern architecture  Palm Springs is known for.  
    The display wall inside this hall holds the world's most extensive Steuben glass and crystal collection.

   11 lakes were built on the 200 acres of desert, now an oasis extradordinare'. 

   A closer look at the pool deck reveals a piece of balancing art that reminded me of a raft.

   Ronald Reagan loved the place.  He spent 18 New Year's eves here.  Photos of those parties are a treasure of show business greats mingling with world power brokers.  The first State Dinner held away from the White House was held here.  

   The Chinese Pavilion was built on the golf course to provide a place for lunch.  The Annenbergs played daily.

   Leonore Annenberg saw a marble bench while traveling and had one created for the edge of the golf course. She thought it was "too white," so a hedge was planted to block it's whiteness from being seen at the home. Her choice of color for the home was a peach or pink.

   The sand traps on the course, built on a flat and arid desert wilderness, are deep.

     Eisenhower golfed here. The Kennedys were guests as were LBJ and Lady Bird. Richard Nixon withdrew to Sunnylands after his resignation. The Fords played here. Reagan and the Bushes worked and relaxed here.  Carter and Clinton were guests and partied or strategized here. 

     Frank Sinatra was married here.  Bob Hope was here often. 

     The photos in Walter's study are a collection of the famous and powerful, from the US and abroad.  The  Christmas cards from the Queen, the Duke, or the Queen Mum are alone a stunning display.  All of this has been available to we mere mortals for less than a year.  

      Sunnylands is now a foundation providing a high calibre retreat space for the world's more challenging political, educational or communication issues.

      This New York Times link provides a fascinating background.

      The Foundations hopes that President Obama will  use the calm, peace and beauty of the estate to tackle an issue before him.  Some have suggested it would be a great setting for congressional leadership and the President to deal with fiscal issues.  Maybe the vibe of all of those who preceded him would help.

       Sunnylands is a uniquely American experience. And you can't help but be dazzled by how the Annenbergs lived, out in their desert house.

       See and learn more by linking to Sunnylands here. 

       See you down the trail.

      

CURRENTS OF THOUGHT

OPEN QUESTIONS

     ARE THE DEBATES WRONG?

     These may not be original musings, but they are relevant.  Anything that gets the candidates thinking and talking in front of a live format is revealing and a lot better than packaged and paid advertising.  But--  I wonder if we didn't cross a Rubicon when JFK and Dick Nixon opened the era of television campaigning and debates.  Charisma became a factor in Presidential Campaigns. Looks, style, manner and "appeal" became "values" by which Americans rate and choose their chief executive. Though it is more sinister than that.

     I know 2 or 3 men, who have played on the national and international stage and who were involved in the presidential sweepstakes who could have made good presidents, but they lacked something- media gloss and sizzle. Probably brighter and deeper thinkers than most of their peers, their intellect and experience got trumped by media appeal.

    Jim Lehrer tried to open a format to allow Obama and Romney to present and counter with some depth, but still the rigidity of debate forces the contestants, and we viewers, into an artificial frame of scoring points by attack,  defense, or presenting a zinger. The goal is to beat the opponent, as if that determines how a man or woman would serve.

     Perhaps the evaluation and revelatory outcome helps us to better understand and to decide, but it all seems like it is spawned from the same mind set of a Super Bowl, or World Series-winner take all.

     The Presidency demands more than presentation or debate skills.  Perhaps helpful in some way, it is still an example of the disconnect between the business, and now industry, of elections and the real job of governance.

    We can count on the media yak hacks to be pumped up

on scoring the next rounds, as though it means something.

     THE SEASON HAS OPENED

   Today delivers the first measurable rain of Central California's "rain season." 

    After an extraordinary year in 2010-2011, last year was under average, so we celebrate each drop.  Though, this is a dicey time of year.  Grape growers and vintners are someplace along in harvest and too much rain at the wrong time is bad news.  Stay tuned for an update from Wine Country where

EVERY DAY IS NOT ROMANTIC

     We may romanticize the life of a winemaker, but do so

at the cost of overlooking how hard is the work.  Case in 

point-during harvest there is an endless list of things to do.

One item is just keeping the equipment clean.  Here we see

premier wine maker John Munch and a colleague doing just that. 

A PARTING THOUGHT

    I had a relative who used the old bromide "There's a place in hell for people like that!"  I don't want to open a theological debate or a discussion about judgement, BUT as I read about the Taliban attack on a teen female who had been an advocate for full educational rights for girls, that old saw came back to mind.  Along with words like, idiots, cowards, ignorant, stone age ass holes and evil.

    Truth is, full equality for women in Islamic nations could do more to remove those evil mullahs and imams and their influence of ignorant fundamentalism than anything else.  Oh, a lake of burning sulfur comes to mind as well!

     Really hard to bring yourself to forgive someone like that isn't it? A struggle!

    See you down the trail.

LETTING THE CHIPS FALL...

IN THE ARENA OF THE MIND

     "It may be different elsewhere. But a democratic society-in it the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may."

      John Kennedy said that a little less than a month before he was killed.  He was speaking at Amherst College October 26, 1963.

       "In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation."

       I wonder how many writers today concern themselves with such lofty concerns. Maybe they do in little pieces and then over time, taken in mass, it adds up.
        It's  harder to get your voice heard through the mass of signals that fill the public square. Digital media, social networks, cable, broadcast, the whole universe of film and print are choked with content, much of it simply trying to out pace the others.  In some cases outrage and anger get attention. Those may be genuine, but are they the visions of truth JFK spoke of?

       The more I watch Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom the more convinced I am he is serving his vision of truth. Here's why I think so.  
       The modern media, in all of it's iterations, does more to shape our sense of reality, expectations and vision of government than most people make themselves aware of. As consumers of the din we rarely give ourselves the time to ponder the impact of what we consume.  We think more about what we eat, than consider what we put into our heads though we spend hours a day consuming information flow.

        Sorkin's work cuts to the quick.  Some criticize the "preachiness" of it.  I don't see it that way.  I think he is offering a valuable insight into the media machine that shapes our attitudes and affects our sense of destiny. Yes, it is entertainment, but it also holds a mirror to a powerful element of modern life and Sorkin, as President Kennedy opined, lets the chips fall where they may.

DAY FILE

A FUN "SCHOOL"

     Each year, since our move, we make a point to attend

Coastal Discovery Day up at San Simeon.  The Discovery Center, joined by a host of other nature, environmental, park and educational groups hold a kind of carnival overlooking the Pacific.  It's for kids with lots of hands on activities, but each year we learn something and pick up a few interesting shots.  This year I learned about the hearing chambers and ear drums (bulla) of whales, elephant seals and dolphins.  Amazing technology at work in those sonar sensitive relatives.

  The Falcon expert had a couple of beautiful friends.

    An injured wing has grounded this Pelican, now in the custody of a rehabilitation specialist.  He eats 3 pounds of sardines or smelt each day.  He'd eat more if he were burning calories by flying.

    Here are a couple specimens of Elephant Seal skulls.

     In the frame below is the skull of a Dolphin.  The bottom piece, in the shadow, is the kind of sensor bone that transmits sounds from long, medium or short distances, using a different portion of the bone to do so.  The differing signals are then processed in a sophisticated brain.

      Skulls of native wild life.

  While it was sunny and bright up at the cove, south toward
Cambria, another micro climate existed, in the fog.

See you down the trail.