Bruce Mau and Finn Juhl Face Off In Omaha.

Ah Omaha, you are so humorous. I took this photo Friday morning at my favorite coffeehouse in Dundee which is right next door to my favorite Belgian bistro and beer house, which is across the street from my favorite falafel and kabob parlor, which is down the street from Urban Outfitters where I like to watch Saddle Creekers strut their stuff, which is next door to the art film theatre, which is down the street from both my favorite scotch tasting room and my favorite live music bar. Omaha friends reading this will be both shocked and relieved that I didn't mention Nomad Lounge, for the benefit of everyone's health. I realized that this new setup going between Omaha and New York City - which by the way is the easiest airplane commute ever at a direct 3 hours - affords me an enjoyable social situation. Since I'm there every two months, I can schedule back to back outings for a few solid days in order to see and chat with everyone, business and otherwise. Coffee/breakfast, lunch, coffee, shopping, dinner, drinks, film, drinks, music. Fantastic!




The weekend began with a wonderful lecture by Bruce Mau - the first speaker in a new series I've helped start with a group of other design minded people. The lecture was held at the Joslyn Art Museum, a postmodern kick in the pants of a building designed by Norman Foster. Despite the ambivalence of the horrific exterior form built with beautiful material, the interior courtyard is actually a grand party space. Bruce's talk was well presented to over 800 Omahans in attendance. Good thing we printed an extra 300 tickets at the last minute as backup. I finally understand Massive Change after all these years. It's not just an environmentalist guilt trip in the form of a museum exhibition, but rather an optimistic commentary on the current state of the globally accelerated design and building trends as an impetus to keep up with the global population explosion. I actually found this to be tremendously encouraging - to 'keep on keeping on' trying to make places and spaces better. It may not necessarily be that the United States is one big bloated, gentrified mess of urbanization that is done and ready to be flipped over and poked with the fork, but maybe simply in a transition period that we don't know how to properly scrutinize because we've never dealt with these population numbers. The question and answer period of the lecture was also encouraging with the best questions I've witnessed in a lecture of this kind. Every question was asked by women and the discussion grew more and more intelligent as it explored issues of design and population control. Bruce concluded with a statement that the only way to healthy population control is through a commitment to the education and liberation of women. A woman that is educated and liberated doesn't want 15 children, and will choose when, where, and if she gives birth. This led my mind on a tangent of the contemporary issues that can compromise the liberation of a woman, including sexual health. Interesting to ponder.

So beyond Bruce Mau the weekend was typical with a frenzy of nonprofit development and fundraising. And of course construction experimentation. I have a little house on my family's farm that I've been experimenting with for years. It was built in the 1920's by my grandfather as a home for the hired farm hand. He built the entire structure from salvaged building scraps of a demolished bomber plant at the nearby U.S. military base. Yes, I live in a reconstituted bomber plant. I try to complete a small construction task during every trip to Omaha. I've taken the house through tremendous transformations in the last 10 years, with a long negligent hiatus while in Vancouver. This weekend I finally finished the demolition of a wall and it's replacement with a wood beam. My little Finn Juhl chair finally has a corner all it's own.