You Can Buy Dave Brubeck’s House in Connecticut

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck’s house has eight bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, and at least four pianos. It’s not clear whether the latter, or the Nakashima furniture, is included in the $2.75 million price tag.

Brubeck East. Source: Larry Lederman/Town and Country Magazine.

Dave and Iola Brubeck hired an unknown young architect, Beverly David Thorne, to design their first house, completed in 1954, in Oakland, California. When they moved east, Thorne also designed their Connecticut house. He “often slept outdoors on the property in a sleeping bag while designing the house to chart where the sun emerged in the sky each day so he could best position the structure for maximum sun exposure during season changes,” according to Brubeck. The house was completed around the same time Thorne designed Case Study House #26 in California.

The adult Brubecks in their Connecticut house (the Brubeck children were required to stay outside). Source: Sears, Roebuck/www.jazzwax.com – Marc Myers.
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Ella Fitzgerald’s “Lost” 1962 Berlin Concert

Releasing this week: Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes. Not to be confused with her legendary 1960 Berlin concert, or her other, formerly lost, 1961 Berlin concert, this is a never-before-heard-on-record 1962 live performance.

In her 1960 show, Ella Fitzgerald famously forgot some of the words to Mack the Knife and seamlessly improvised new lyrics. In 1962, those lines about Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong are deliberately repeated, but there’s a different moment of “imperfect perfection” (or is it perfect imperfection?) as Giovanni Russonello describes in his New York Times review: “Ella: The Lost Berlin Tapes,” a newly unearthed 1962 performance. You can hear that song, and that moment, in the video below.

And here’s one more song from the ’62 concert:

The Rogers Ruin of Mercer County

J + R R: The John and Rachel Rogers Stabilized Ruin, with Radmini. Source: TCM

The Rogers House is a fine example of 18th century pattern brick architecture that unfortunately was neglected long enough that by the time funding was acquired, the only option was to preserve it as a stabilized ruin. Mercer County acquired the house in 1970; the preservation project was not completed until 2019. Still, a stabilized ruin is better than a collapsed house.

“Pattern brick” means that letters and numbers are built into the walls using glazed brick ends inset among unglazed brick stretchers. On one end is “1751” commemorating when the house was built (although there has been debate about whether the third digit is a “5” or “6”). On the opposite side are the letters “J + R R” for John and Rachel Rogers, the original homeowners. The rest of the walls are built a Flemish bond with alternating brick headers and stretchers.

The Rogers Ruin, Mercer County Park, NJ. Source: TCM
J + R R Gable End. Source: TCM
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Does a Radmini fit in a Jeep Cherokee?

Yes, although not that easily. One of the selling points of folding fatbikes is their enhanced portability. Folding them potentially makes it easier to carry them in a car without a bike rack. But the ebikes are still heavy, bulky, and take up a lot of space.

On the new (2014+) Jeep Cherokees, the hatch opening is narrow, compared to similar-sized SUVs, and the cargo floor is only 36.1 inches wide between the wheelwells. Even when it’s folded in half, it’s nearly impossible to fit the Radpower Radmini in without putting down the back seats. On its side, the bike takes up most of the cargo area. The low ceiling means you risk scratching the headliner if you put it in upright, although once it’s in, you could probably squeeze a second folded e-bike alongside it. Most of the scratches on my Radmini – and all the scratches in the back of the Jeep – are from loading and unloading the bike.

  • Upright
  • On its side

The official dimensions of the 2019 Jeep Cherokee cargo area are 25.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats and 54.7 cu ft with the second row folded down. That’s less than the otherwise similar-sized Subaru Forester, which has 28.9 and 70.9 cu ft of space, respectively, behind the second row and first row seats.

Dimensions of a folded 2019 Radmini. Source: Radpower

E-Biking the Forbidden Drive

As in, you are forbidden to drive a car on it, but you can bike, walk, or ride a horse on it. The former Wissahickon Turnpike, the main drag through Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia, was built in the 1820s and got its current name in the 1920s when it was closed to vehicles.

Wissahickon Creek. Source: TCM

On a pleasantly cool weekend morning there were a lot of people in the park, meaning we had to drive around a bit before finding a parking spot. The gravel path is wide and the people spread out so it was a leisurely 8 mile ride.

Some nice Parkitecture in Wissahickon. Source: TCM
Philly’s first public drinking fountain, built 1854 and shut down in 1957 due to water pollution. Source: TCM

Visiting the Historic Site of Woodstock and the Bindy Bazaar

As the plaque above clearly shows, the 1969 Woodstock Concert is legitimately a site of historical importance. While the rule of thumb is that only sites at least 50 years old are considered for listing on the National Register of Historical Places, Woodstock was placed on the Register in 2017, only 48 years after the three day festival of music took place on Max Yasgur’s farm near Bethel, New York.

The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and the Museum at Bethel Woods maintain the Woodstock site with the goal of preserving the historic landscape. The actual stage and seating area are now open grassed areas. Across the road there is a small wooded area known as Bindy Woods or Bindy Bazaar. In 1969, trails were cut through the woods and rocks were gathered and stacked to create simple foundations where vendors at the “Aquarian Crafts Bazaar” could set up makeshift stalls to sell goods to the concert goers.

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It’s Official: Honda Trail 125

2021 Honda Trail 125

After showing a concept vehicle and releasing it as the Hunter Cub in Japan, Honda is now officially releasing their on- and off-road-ready minibike as the Trail 125 in the United States. It has a list price of $3,899, semiautomatic transmission, antilock brake system, a pretty wide-looking rear luggage rack, and you can get it in any color you want so long as it’s Glowing Red.

2021 Honda Trail 125
2021 Honda Trail 125

the Trail 125 pays tribute to the original CT line while embracing the convenience and performance of modern technology, making it a great tool for riding around town or exploring the wilderness.

Honda Press Release

Outside/In on the Darién Gap

Here’s a podcast about the Darién Gap that’s NOT about somebody trying to drive through it (but also, tell me more about that drive north of Montreal) .

There are places on the map where roads end.

The Darién Gap, or el Tapon del Darién, is one of them. It’s a stretch of rainforest in southern Panama, right on the edge of Central and South America. From a globetrotter’s perspective, the Darién Gap might seem to exist mostly as an obstacle to tourists dreaming of a truly epic road trip from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego.

But, while a road is one way for movement, it’s not the only way to get somewhere. What happens, or does not happen, in a place without roads?

Outside/In produced by Sam Evans-Brown with Justine Paradis and Taylor Quimby.