The candles and candle holders are from Designglut.com. This site is featured in some of my design magazines and never fails to "wow" me with unique items from home decor to jewelry.
I am totally in love (and have been for many years) with ornate or plain furniture with funky color and/or fabric combinations. This below is a shining example, but not necessarily a cheap one. This piece can go in a more modern setting or, dare I say, a traditional one? The table below can be found at williamswitzer.com and is called the Palazzo Caponi Console. Love it, love it, love it.
This here below isn't necessarily what you'd see in my dream home, but I thought it was really cool anyway. The picture is hard to see, but if you look closely at the glass, there is a tv screen embedded in the glass. Although it is super cool technology, I am not sure why we are pushed to the development edge on this one, or simply why there is a need to watch TV while scrubbing your pearls with the last of your Colgate paste. This puts me in mind of an old classmate in college. he was very "gadgety" and usually had this type of stuff in his projects. Good old Casey. This, and more information can be found at www.electricmirror.com
I should probably apologize to you ,my reader, for a few reasons.
1. I haven't blogged in ages. I realize that you aren't up in the wee hours (like I am now), wondering if I could pull together a few paragraphs on something feigning design blogging. But, you as my reader, deserve more out of me, so I will try harder: for you.
2. I couldn't sleep. For all I know, this is written in "wingding" font. And, if it isn't, it probably makes as much sense.
There is a light at the end of the long dark tunnel of tuning into my blog. I am getting ready to head literally half way around the world to Tasmania. I will have (hopefully) a series of blogs on my adventures with my new husband, who right now, is tucked warmly in our bed upstairs, perhaps even dreaming of sugarplums ('tis the season). Maybe he is awake though, and wondering where the "eff "I am.
(image from: www.images.pictopia.com)
Tonight???
(image from: www.en.wikipedia.org)
The tomb was built in the third dynasty in Egypt (the Early Dynastic period, if anyone cares) and was meant to be the final resting place for the Pharoah, Djoser. Well, this guy reigned north and south Egypt for almost 20 years, (some say 30) and gave the Architect, Imhotep, plenty of time to keep building and building and turning this tomb into a complex. This complex trumped any previous tomb to date in size. It is one of 97 pyramids found at Saqqara near the necropolis (City of the dead) Memphis, Egypt. It still remains, although its outer limestone shell has since disintegrated.
The final pyramid design ended up being 6 stepped levels above ground, built one at a time. Each level is called a mastaba. Or “bench”. As usual, there was a maze of chambers underground as well. It is believed that the complex, as a whole, emulates the kingship of Djoser over the North and South of Egypt. There are double courts and two mock palaces within the temple walls. Today a scale model is housed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. I know, because I was just there and I saw it!
(image from www.touregypt.com)
Ephraim Owen Goldberg is one of the greatest living Architects of our time. You may know him better as Frank Gehry, the Canadian guy who gave us edificial eye candy all over the world. He is one of the outliers of contemporary Architecture and is referred to as a “Starchitect” in reference to his celebrity status. (I didn’t make it up)
Gehry was born in Toronto Canada on February 28th, 1929. As a boy, his grandmother encouraged him to be creative. He built little cities out of scrap wood and anything that he could use from his grandfathers hardware store. He is now known as the ‘the apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding‘; Makes sense. His designs are in step with Deconstructionism or Decon Architecture.
With fame, comes judgment. He is criticized for his reuse of ideas and the similarity of his designs. His uniqueness is also mistaken for crudeness, but it has been proven that he is ‘a sophisticated classical artist”.
One of the most phenomenal aspects of his craft, to me, is that he is known for meeting budgets. Any building can easily go way over budget, but especially “show stopping” pieces are prone to it. It has been reported that the Sydney Opera House was over budget...just a little. (originally budgeted at $7 million, completed at $102 million) But, Geary’s come in on budget and on time. Bravo Frank!
Not only is he an architect, but he has a jewelry and furniture line as well. He is inspired by fish, and loves hockey. What a canuck.
I’ll leave you with some pictures of his buildings to enjoy!
Royal Canadian Museum
*I will see you soon, my friend. Inside and out.*
The Dancing House - Prague, Czechoslovakia
*Also "The drunk House" or "Fred And Ginger" *
Walt Disney Concert Hall - Los Angeles, California
*hard edges: shimmer in the SoCal sun*
Gehry House - Hanover, Germany
*assymetrical: yet orderly*
The Guggenheim Museum - Balboa, Spain
*snake like and brittle: perhaps his most famous*
Frank Gehry's private residence
*Gehry got acclaim : paper architect no more*
Kitchen at Gehry's residence
*oh my! This kitchen I do adore!*
image from www.wishlistnuwp/content.com
And you got this…. in a plastic tank
image from: www.regals.net
They were simply Brine Shrimp. Imagine if this guy had to pitch a High School Biology class to children?! They are supposedly “Sea Monkeys” because they are
1. in water
2. Have Tails
3. Are playful like a primate.....?
The secret formula for the revival of the “Sea Monkeys” was kept secret by the inventor and his wife.
Another product “invented” by von Braunhut was the Invisible Goldfish:
Come on! Only a child with a piggy bank burning a hole would actually go for this. The funny part about this one is that it was guaranteed!!!!
X Ray Spex:
The Ad should have said, “For the Pervert in all of us”, but instead was “see the bones in your hand and see through clothes.”
These were nothing more than a cheap pair of plastic glasses with cardboard lenses with a hole. In each hole, there was a feather, and it refracted images and gave the illusion of an X- ray. If a kid would have broken this down for a moment, they could have saved their money for the Johnny Bench rookie card. We are all required to put on ironclad suits to get an X-ray at the hospital because the rays are so dangerous. Adults didn’t have any type of X-ray glasses, and in hind sight, $1.25 wouldn’t have covered the cost per pair.
Now, a kid doesn’t think about this, especially one with raging hormones. This product was going to change his/her (most likely his) life. Now, he can see what are behind closed doors, and learn of the inner workings of a woman and her bra. He’d be a man. He’d know only what adults did, and at such a young age! Well, I guess some of that statement is true. He’d learn the very adult disappointments of life, and that not everything is what it seems at all.
Image from: www.3dstereo.com
So, what have we learned today? As children, our parents mowed grass, had a paper route and took out the trash in order to secretly buy gimmicks that would transform their lives. Instead, a piece of junk arrived and their money went straight to the munitions of white supremacists, or so it is alleged.
For more information about von Braunhut’s life, go to:http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=390
image from: www.wind-turbines.com
http://www.visualdictionaryonline.com/energy/wind-energy/wind-turbines
Image from: www.techenv.com
Last year, Jack Sullivan wrote an article for The Empire Page, detailing the dismal returns that the turbines have had. The energy output is too little and for too many people and suggests that this is an “Elaborate tax break” for the state. Money is being redirected from schools and hospitals to these turbines that are seemingly not very efficient. As we all know, New York State is full of upstanding politicians that are honest, loyal to their wives and great with money. Why would this project be any different? There is a plan to place turbines near Long Island and perhaps off shore in the ocean and Great Lakes in the near future. My opinion is that anything new will come up against conflict and resistance. I didn’t intend for my blog to be a negative “spin” on wind power plants, but in NYS, that is a prevalent theme in a lot of the articles that I came across.
Obviously, Upstate New York isn’t the only place with wind energy. They can be found in North America, Europe Asia and the Pacific. New Zealand has had turbines since the 1990’s (as opposed to UNY’s 2006 installation). New Zealand is a conducive place for this type of energy because it has a lot of coast line, and therefore, more sea breeze. Of course, Denmark has been successfully using wind power for decades and is arguably the PR agent of the windmill, or vice versa.
image from: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk
Just remember folks, even though wind turbines are found world wide, America is where we originated “Wind Turbine Syndrome”. Boo-yah!
For more information about Wind Power in New York, please visit: http://www.dec.ny.gov/
Thank you for reading my blog and have a nice day!
1. The front cover
2. an example of one page of 309
For all of you who don’t know what an Entourage book is, it is an ‘old school’ template book of various shapes, sizes of people, trees cars and birds for Perspectives and scene drawings; a tracing file, as the title suggests.
This guy I would envision this guy at the airport......at night......with sunglasses.
Henpecked, sweaty man is always good for a laugh. Perhaps coming out of a strip club...
Gymnast
Nude Sunbathers..or perhaps something else.
I also have one very dear to my heart. I named him Robbie. He was in a wheelchair and apparently loved and emulated David Cassidy. He was in a few of my renderings. He was wonderful.
The Entourage people were all wonderful. You could place them anywhere, any which way you could think. My friend, Sarah, had a girl being stalked once in a park in NYC by a guy with a trench coat. The Stalked was Polly Prissy Pants. I can’t remember the marauder, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. He is now referred to as #1240976 these days.
One time (of many) we all got ornery and ready to quit school altogether, until flaming bags of “poo” entered our lives. They were “original creations” that could not be found in the Entourage books. It is great when everyone banded together for one cause. We added a flaming bag of s*** into our rendering for a conference center that we were designing. I drew the front desk, and the employee was handing the guest my bag. Sarah, (same girl with stalkers above) had to render a guest room. Hers was on the table up front in the scene, with a light shining on it. Good times.
Trees in the summer and winter
Ah, what a trip down memory lane! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Even as I read this, I can see the stupidity of it all, and perhaps, that was the best part of design school!
(image from www.stadiumguide.net)
(image from: www.stadiatech.net)
Numbers:
The roof is 660,800 sf, 105,000 sf of which is a retractable roof. It takes 12 minutes to open.
There are 50,000 bolts in the arch spans of the roof, and are ¼ mile long.
Exterior façade has 800’-0” of glass exterior. Glass system is 86’-0” high.
Total length from end-zone retractable wall to the other is 900’-0”
The Architecture is different than the recent past stadium designs. Stadiums have tried to hit heavy on nostalgia with brick exteriors and retro dripped interiors. This one is more 50’s modern to some degree. It is cold, sprawling, and eye catching. The New York Times argues that it is not as modern or cutting edge as recent world arenas have been designed. The design was unveiled in 2006, so if you think all the way back to the good old days, you may remember that was a time of the “one up” and keeping up with the (Jerry) Joneses, and oddly, the Kardashians too. (What do they do anyway?) For America, the concept and design is….notable and good.
The Good things I have heard about it:
The space and suites are “column free”, and has the largest expanse in a room with no column obstructions.
Can seat up to 100,000 for special events; 73,000 regularly.
Doesn’t have a corporate name, yet.
The huge retractable roof was designed because, "They talk about God watching us at Texas Stadium," said Cowboys player Terence Newman after a miracle finish that ended in a Dallas victory against the Detroit Lions last season. It is retractable not to keep God and the Holy Spirit out, but to restrict the harsh weather that Dallas sometimes sees.
The Bad things I have heard about it:
The lower levels have a bad circulation pattern. The design routes the regular ticket holders around the suites of Daddy Warbucks and Richey Rich.
The sizes of the common areas are too big. The hallways are 65’-0” wide, and the food areas are “cavernous”. Perhaps too much square footage for such a stadium, like an 18,000 sf souvenir shop.
As stated before, the screen is too low over the field. New York Times Columnist Nicolai Ouroussoff says, “It’s a nice irony that for all the space, there may not be enough room at Cowboys Stadium to play a game.”
“Interesting” tidbit that I have heard about it:
David Flick’s article on http://www.dallasnews.com/ had a quote, "I've seen Wal-Marts smaller than this," said Linda Terry of Longview.
Guggenheim Museum:
Solomon R. Guggenheim
opened in 1959, New York, New York
(picture from Wikimedia Commons)
Johnson Wax Headquarters:
S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc.
Racine, Wisconsin
(Photo by Jeff Dean , located on Wikimedia Commons)
Julian Carlton
(image from news.bbc.co.uk.com)
No One knows the reason for the massacre, not even the killers wife, who was also employed by Wright. His horrific acts will be ever sensationalized and remain a mystery of exactly why he was driven to murder. Speculation swirled around rumors that Carlton felt he was underpaid and/or was driven mad by Frank Lloyd Wright’s affair and co-habitation with his mistress.
Taliesin
(image from koa.com)
Taliesin
(image from Taliesin Preservation, inc.)
(image from lincolnlogs.knex.com)
