There was an article on Liberace in this morning’s Sunday NYTimes, and it reminded me of a prank in 1954, when I spent the summer at my friend Buster’s house in Denver. There was a Liberace concert at Red Rocks out door amphitheater. Buster and I went early and climbed up to a ledge on the western cliff above the stage, where we were partially hidden. I took my banjo.
Liberace came out and before playing, was talking about a critic in the Denver Post who’d said something unfavorable about him. I starting played “Ain’t She Sweet” on my banjo. He stopped talking, the crowd was hushed, and he looked up and said, “Well, I guess she brought along her banjo.” Everyone laughed and I shut up. Respect for such quick wit.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
One summer day in 1975 I climbed up to that ledge. You have to go up a "Chimney" chute and certainly have to use both hands and legs to do it. You must of had your banjo strapped to your back. Oh, to be young and fearless!