Arthur Erickson is a "gem"

Alright. I had a bit of a hate-on for Erickson. I saw him in an interview once and he was so pompous. And, because he is Canada's architectural claim to fame he can do no wrong. One guy at the lecture called him a "gem" last night and I almost fell off my chair retching. Interesting side note (and please realise this blog is going to be all over the place because I'm kind of scattered and in a hurry because Big D is going to be here shortly and I still haven't changed out of yesterday's clothes), the lecture was held in the room where they council of North Vancouver gets together and decides important things. So the mayor's chair was there and I said to Michael, "I will pay you five hundred dollars if you go sit in the mayor's chair and loudly declare 'I'm the mayor!'" and he wouldn't do it. Five hundred, tax free, Canadian dollars to shake it up a bit.
At any rate, the lecturer was Nick Milkovich who has worked with Erickson (who is now 85) for years. He was a good speaker and when he was taking us through some of the photos of the houses that they had done he had a certain nostalgia and reverence in his voice.
I am only familiar with SFU, the Waterfall building (which I've been in), the Law Courts (which I will no doubt be in if the fucking Conservatives get in again), the MacMillan Bloedel building, and of course the Museum of Anthropology at UBC which is really a beautiful building. It was good to become acquainted with the houses that he had done earlier in his career which were very West Coast and original. Unfortunately, one of them in West Vancouver was recently demolished. It reminds me of the Case Study houses that were done in LA, some of which are also being demolished (and it's the architecturally significant house and furniture that really appealed to me in the 7 For All Mankind ad in my recent Vanity Fair because $300 jeans are for assholes, unless you are contributing a proportionate amount to charity to make up for your materialism). I have totally lost my train of thought.
The lecture was being recorded and I would say there were maybe 50 or so people there (and we got cookies and coffee at the intermission!) and, as Milkovich was explaining the design of the university that Erickson built in Lethbridge I mused, "Huh," rather loudly and everyone turned to look at me. Whoops. Can't wait for that bit when this gets aired on local cable.
Anyways. Erickson. He went bankrupt in the 80s or 90s (personally and professionally) and his big come back was the Waterfall building, and I kind of felt that he was selling the use of his name in order to claw his way back into our good graces, but then Michael and chatted about pompousness and having to sell your product and I guess if you're not a good sales person and you're not aggressive and you're meek, well, probably no one's gonna hire you. So, Frank Lloyd Wright he is not, but I have more respect for him.
Then we went for a late dinner and watched the "Shallow Seas" segment on the BBC Planet Earth series. We saw great white sharks jump entirely out of the water and all but swallow seals whole. It was amazing. Terrifying, but amazing. Like sex with Michael. Ha!
Speaking of which, I totally need to get changed and put my Unibomber hat on cause my hair is kind of a mess.