As we drift into the second week of 2008, we finally come to the end of "list" season; that time of the year when anyone with a web presence and a pet obsession posts their list of the top 10/20/50/100 examples thereof from the year just past. (As I’ve been asleep at the wheel for much of 2007, I’m going to refrain from doing one of my own. Indeed, I’ll probably be spending much of the next month catching up on and posting about stuff from 2007 that would probably go in that list if I had one.)
Among those who would nominally be listed in the community of those obsessed with music are the contributors over at the WFMU blog, who produce some of the more interesting end of year lists. Partly that’s because they don’t necessarily limit themselves to enumerating their favourite current releases. In this year's batch, for instance, there’s a list of top ten “imaginary sound events”, top ten 90’s singles and, courtesy of Clinton McClung, a top ten list of places visited in the US in 2007.
At the top of that last list is one of the most inspired pieces of professional petulance in architectural history, The House on The Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. When budding architect Alex Jordan was spurned by Frank Lloyd Wright, he decided to build a house in the style of his cranky former mentor on a pinnacle not far from Wright’s home. His version, however, became a virtual wunderkammer filled with rooms devoted to Victoriana, dolls, musical automata, a carousel, and a 200 foot sea monster battling a giant squid. In an effort to capture the insane splendour of the place, Clinton has put together the above video of just a couple of the rooms; the soundtrack of which would definitely top my list of field recordings of 2007 (if I had one).
PS: You can see more photos of the rooms in The House On The Rock here
PPS: That screaming you hear at the end of the video is a visitor completely overcome by terror at the sight of a 200 foot sea montser suspended above her head.
Posted by Warren at January 8, 2008 10:34 PM | Videos