So great to see our cottages being advertised on the Oak Alley’s Facebook page.
Fun design detail: the cypress fireplace surrounds found in each cottage are antiques salvaged from homes found across south Louisiana. They were, along with many other salvaged items, being stored in a barn on the Oak Alley grounds and the selection process consisted of us running up and down the barn grabbing candidates until we settled on the 3 winners!
This home is an interpretation of a Middle Eastern courtyard house which features multiple courtyards separated by a covered terrace designed for a couple who had previously lived in Egypt.
The design was influenced specifically by the Suhaymi House in Cairo, an Ottoman Era residence built in the medieval quarter of the city, which features multiple courtyards separated by a covered terrace - a form designed to funnel the breeze - a useful strategy in Cairo or coastal Florida.
The home also features a Mashrabiya, or wooden screen, at the second floor street elevation which both provides the house’s most prominent design element while shading the house from the strong western sun.
I’ve always enjoyed slightly odd, irreverent holiday music. This is probably a result of growing up overseas during my childhood years. Our family collected lots of offbeat music some of which migrated into our holiday traditions. The preference for odd versions of holiday music has stayed with me into adulthood. So I have compiled a list of songs of what it would be like if you came over to my house and I played for you all my old favorite holiday songs and a few new ones.
A perfect example is Frances Yip - an artist I’m thrilled to subject a new audience to. My folks found her Christmas cassette tape in a store in Hong Kong in the early 80’s and it became an instant family classic. Long before most Americans were introduced to Chinese Turkey and “Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra” in ‘A Christmas Story’, we were already cultivating a love of East Asian Christmas songs. I’m a newcomer to the K-Pop, that’s Korean Pop (thanks Gangnam Style). I imagine these random Seoul pop-starlets being dragged out of a Myeondong Department store to belt out ‘Silver Bells’....a whiff of kimshi still on their breath….
My enduring fascination with the music of New Orleans and the Caribbean is also reflected in several of the artists showcased here.
Please enjoy but lest you judge my taste in holiday music I say, 'Let him who is without a love of Claymation throw the first Burle Ives album.'
Happy Holidays,
Tim Tricker
