The A-Frame Up

Suddenly the A-Frame is back in vogue on my favorite architecture blogs - you know, that icon of 60's affluence and leisure. I sorta shrugged but then I watched Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire last week, (mainly because Michael J. Fox voiced the protagonist Milo).

Lightning hits the tower

We note that the media always writes "ATLANTIS" with an upside down V - a pyramid or chevron - a masculine, egoic, upward thrusting archetype. The A frame of the kings.

Say what you want about all the pseudo-scientific, conspiracy-laden theories about Atlantis, but I say Atlantis is a metaphor for human consciousness. The myths are not to be taken literally, but as a window into our own collective soul. Admittedly, I am as much a fan of the Atlantis myth as anyone. Hidden knowledge, massive power, unbridled ego, all undone in a single day of woe and destruction! What's not to like?

The only aspect of the Atlantis myth I have issue with is when people go searching for a literal submerged kingdom with their sonar and subs, and it's like... come ON! Dudes - it's a fucking myth. The myth is about the hidden kingdom submerged in your own sub conscious. You want to go diving for treasure? Go diving there.

Reese House

I wondered, who "invented" the modern A-frame? It was Andrew Geller. He designed a number of playfully geometric summer cabins in the fifties, the A-frame caught on, and was copied over and over. The curious thing about Andrew Geller is that he also designed the "Windows on the World" restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center, RIP. So, not only did he design iconic A-framed vacation cabins, but also he designed the pinnacle or crown of the most infamous modern "pillarmid".

Oh wait.... that recent pillarmid, undone in a single day of destruction and woe... it actually existed, and that day actually happened.

We note that at the top of the pyramid is to be found a restaurant.

The USDA Food Pyramid

Oddly, Geller was also involved in the famous Kitchen Debate:

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and United States Vice President Richard Nixon debate the merits of communism versus capitalism in a model American kitchen at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in July 1959.

Geller designed the exhibit, which was promptly nicknamed Splitnik.

"There is no more truth in showing this as the typical home of the American worker than, say, in showing the Taj Mahal as the typical home of a Bombay textile worker." ~Nikita Khrushchev

This strikes a personal sync chord, because our constant mantra in deciding what we will and will not pay for is "We're not building the Taj Mahal" - it's our little joke. But seriously, Our tired 1967 kitchen in Kirkland is quite a bit better than the best kitchen in 99% of the world, and so it actually IS a Taj Mahal.

We recall that the Taj Mahal is a tomb. A nice tomb, but still...

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Dining out and Jesus go pretty much hand in hand, since he's the bread and the wine of which he commands us to eat. So this restaurant atop the pillarmid mountain is sorta freaky. Also, the collective union of ego and Id (the Second Coming) is described as the Wedding Feast - and this implies consuming, eating, and dining. Maybe Alice's Restaurant will finally be open for business.

Derek "Deek" Diedricksen is one of my favorite bloggers. Here, in his latest post at Relaxshacks.com, he is "Messin' with an A-Frame model", and also displaying obvious illuminati symbolism.

Temporarily tacked together just to see..... headroom under the collar tie is about 6' 6"

Derek stands within the A frame, in an "as above, so below" or "Baphomet" posture. His hand holds the "collar tie" that defines the cap of the pyramid - the all seeing Masonic eye. He calls out the head room as 6'6", or 66, the number of man, and the BEAST.

Careful there, Deek... you might just bust out of the frame up.