wow \\ remember the days of cheap plans in the back of Popular Mechanics? Okay, you probably don't, you young whippersnapper! Well, heck, why do that when you can download the autocad files, rather then pay the big bucks for designer tables? When I saw this in Wired, I wigged out man!
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March 2009
March 31, 2009
free boats, water craft anyone ?
ah, the times, dumpster diving for pleasure craft!
March 30, 2009
the incidental environmentalist. . .
Okay, here's a first : a post that I can't link to! Really! I'm not kidding. In the April 2009 Esquire, Ben Affleck on the cover, page 66: The Incidental Environmentalist. So there's the usual, like manual lawnmowers but I truly feel vindicated when, a major mag mentions Dr. Bronner's soap as the Soap For Everything - and they are so right: hair, body, hands, dishes, babies, dogs, what have you! Esquire like most others prefer the traditional Peppermint. Me, Almond! Check out Dr. Bronner, didn't I see him last in Repo Man? Other honorable mentions: no VOC milk based paint and refillable beer jugs!
Hal, open the OfficePOD door.
Boy, If I am taken to the woodshed, I hope it's something like the OfficePOD. What a great idea! Specs look good, but I wonder how planning commissions here would deal with it? Hunch: it has such a small footprint, it's under the radar if you conform to setbacks?
Visit the Ruins!. . .of Detroit!
A few years back, someone wrote a book, the premise being that what makes America so striking is that we have no ruins, much less ruins based tourism! Yes, there are old decrepit structures, but like Rome? Astute architectural writer Incredible Hulks :: Exploring Detroit's beautiful ruins. It's awe inspiring, educational with a nice dollop of sorrow.
March 20, 2009
Le Corbusier's Mediterranean cabanon comes to London
Okay, I've wandered from the design-architecture path for a while, but I'm back on assignment with the help of my pals. We can now virtually blither (I sure do) to each other. My brother never looks at aggregating sites. Why?, he has me to fire hose him with links and intellectual cheezits. This one is a good one; a reconstruction of a Le Corbusier personal domestic project. What I really liked was this allowed me to bookmark the Guardian Architecture section online. In the good old days (re:paper) my favorite weekly that I subscribed to was a combo of The Guardian, The International Herald Tribune and Le Monde. wow, the 'good old days.'
s ur vvi v ng on beer 'n cigarett ess
dude, that was the U.P. [Upper Peninsula] in the 70's, but it's Zimbabwe now, but really just taxes, but I would say, the materials too. . .ah, the rich pagentry of life. . hey, I can get dissy as I grew up there in the Queen City no less, Marquette, first a company town to the lumber/fur interests, then the mining interests and now Northern Michigan University, my alma dura mater, hey, I went about 5 years so I can get dissy abou that too. . .
March 15, 2009
Language Of Birds
oh, brother - I moved from San Francisco (Portrero Hill) in the early 90's, but I still walk by night the streets of North Beach, Chinatown, The Avenues, The Richmond District, Russian Hill, The Marina, etc, etc. How, unBuddhist, constantly readjusting yourself on the lumpy futon of past attractions to the detriment of the riches before you right now ! So, a pal who is still toiling in the vineyards of local news there (KPIX) sent me this link - I cannot wait to see Language of Birds with my own eyeballz. A truly freaky thing I remember was being surprised the first time a flock of the legendary parrots (the subject of a great indie documentary) swarmed in trees over my head and then. . .the sounds fading as they flew. . off.
Stand Up Philosphy
SInce we have now entered the age where political comedy has been totally justified as one of the hard truth mechanisms left to us (see The Onion, The Daily Show, The Colbert report, etc) - we can go further down that path. A few decades ago, I thought it would be a reasonable gimmick to use Mark Trail comic panels to rework poli-sci-philosophy arguments.(Hey, how about Mary Parker and Judge Worth too!) Well so much for follow through, but here is a great effort in the same vein, go check out the Nietzche Family Circus. Trenchant axioms and comedy, all in one!
