Sunday, November 27, 2011

Austrian mountain village!

Totally gratuitous. Happy Sunday!


Austrian mountain town of Hallstatt, population 800

Of course I still think of you

It's like breathing.




Find the common link and it will solve this annoying little riddle. Annoying because it will still be keeping you up at night three days hence.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Lisbon was magic

Thanks for asking.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Calvin without Hobbes

Being in a whiny mood, I'll stop short of saying depressing, I have returned to the blog to share a snippet of my youth, one of those slow summer Tuesdays where I'd flip through the compilation of Calvin's revels with Hobbes, and I will share that, amongst the lunacy and the hallucinations, I glimpsed a moment (or many moments, every moment) of my future.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Sex Swings and Misplaced Baths

The descent of a designer's mind into the darkness of utterly suicidal, in three parts-


Part 1-

Part 2-

And the coup de grĂ¢ce-


Or, more explicitly put, "It's those little touches that let you know that this was a troubled interior designer's last hurrah. Probably opened his wrists up in the bath after getting a flunky to fill it with buckets from the hot tap."

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Wedding Fever

I suppose this is a bit of what Paul's been going on about:


Simon Detrey-White, from Time's "The World Watches the Royal Wedding"

Nic Bothma, from Time's "The World Watches the Royal Wedding"


Although, on a lighter note, lol:

From Today's "Royal wedding's 'Frowning Flower Girl' rules Internet"

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

obscenely attractive doorways

Whatever period of design we're in, one of its most notable characteristics is the illusion of space, or openness. I suppose it strikes a new chord in human mentality. Instead of the feelings of warmth and protection that were once craved in abodes, we're now a nation of exhibitionists and voyeurs. We want to see and be seen, and our houses don't for a second hide this need for attention (paid or received).

And, well, what else... It can be beautiful.






A lot of this is compounded by the need for these homes in traditionally "private" environments - they're either located on in the middle of vast property, or on the edge of "unadulterated nature" (although the latter concept certainly hasn't existed since Manifest Destiny was invented).

It's just a lot of having one's cake and eating it, too. And eating it surrounded by glass. But located far enough away from the proles that no one will be watching YOU, certainly.

As a remedy, I suggest we return to underground bookshops and cramped quarters that make you feel like you're being swallowed alive. Where's the harm?


They think they've thought of everything (the OED)

British Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher, the first person to use "O.M.G" in print. Wherever his grave is, let's immediately amend his epitaph.

I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!

The letter was in his Memories, published in 1919.

The OED has used this as historical context for adding OMG to their latest addition, along with other internet speak that I can't be bothered with recalling at the moment. Probably something like "fIRSt!!!111one1!!!1"

Monday, March 7, 2011

Which is my favorite picture of Julia Gillard and Barack Obama?

A: All of them.

I don't know what "mateship diplomacy" is and I certainly don't advocate that Obama eat anymore vegemite (WHERE WAS MICHELLE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE SODIUM CONTENT IN THAT CRAP?), but I do know that Barack Obama and Julia Gillard are my favorite political alliance of all time. Look at them! You just know they're telling stories about how Malia wants to become a marine biologist and summer at the Reef, or about that cheeky relation Julia has that keeps taking her clothes off with the Australian flag in men's magazines. I wonder if anyone brought up John Key, who is finally having his day in the limelight as he single-handedly fixes all of the earthquake-ravaged buildings in Christchurch. Seriously. Has anyone seen Superman around recently?


Gillard (Aus.), Obama (US), Key (NZ), Medvedev (Rus.)
OH MAN, THANKS GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH. From the good old days, with the Russian President that I would crop out if I weren't so lazy:



Best. Best ever.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Modern Architecture 101

Here is a thing that's been making its way on the net. Honestly, other than Le Corbusier who should be in every architecture 101 mention, it's pretty complete. Has my main guy Zumthor (more well known for the baths, but I guess those weren't able to be made into a little pithy contraption?), Mies Van Der Rohe (whose surname is not Rohe, but I suppose all in the name of pith...), and Foster of Gherkin fame.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

An Elephant on the Underground

Saturdays are for fun:


Adorable.

Friday, March 4, 2011

R.I.P. Suze Rotolo


Your legacy was a face. 
You were a political activist, an artist, a force of the stormy Queens streets where you grew up, tuning in  to your Philco to absorb the music and the heartbeat of every era. You moved to Greenwich when you were still a child, at 17, holding only your wits and your secret of your parents' Communism with you. 
And this is your legacy. A face, a body clutching on to a more important body, being looked at by important men. 
I hope the things that you pursued were wonderful. But I'll never know about them now.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Draw me a song...

A rather interesting approach to the always controversial notion of what one sees when one hears pop lyrics. 


Images which can unequivocally evoke a song in one's memory, almost instantaneously. That is the internet. That is design. 



All images © Nour Tohme, a French-Lebanese designer and illustrator out of Paris.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Americanized. Religiousized. Demoralized.


Thomas Birke photography via.

Google finds


Touche. Yours, Hamlet Neckline.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Dixon House

Somehow marvelously over- and under-stated at the same time. Color me impressed.
They may have more sheep than people, but they haven't let that stop them from making a mark on rural living.


Via. Design: Designgroup Stapleton Elliott. Location: Martinborough, NZ. 

you could have owned unfinished london

but you missed out, you sodden cads.


oh well, there's always... uh... nope. got nothing.
never gonna get another chance, are you?

Saturday, February 5, 2011

European Infrastructure


Kudos to the Danish Parliament for a 7-1 vote allowing the construction of an underwater tunnel connecting the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The proposed tunnel was voted over a proposed bridge that would span the 11.6 miles separating these two islands, both with connections to the mainland. The tunnel, it turns out, will be cheaper and more ecofriendly than an 18-km bridge. After completion of the tunnel, estimated around 2010, journey times between Hamburg and Coppenhagen will be reduced to 3 hours.


Denmark's decision to back this project will cost them around 7bn$ US, or 5.1bn Euro as they will be taking on most of the cost of the project. Germany will contribute somewhere between 800 million- 1.7bn Euro to connect the tunnel to their infrastructure. Denmark expects to recoup their investment in about 30 years in tolls, not to mention the tourism and travel it will undoubtedly incite.


As seen in the photo above, the tunnel will house both rail and motorways for tourists. A very cool piece of design, and some great news for European development. 


Via Business Insider.



Current German countryside where the proposed tunnel will begin. By 2020, the development here will be astronomical.




Monday, January 31, 2011

Minimal Melbourne




All photos Tom Blachford. Via German and Portugese.


Friday, January 28, 2011

Are All Ryan Gosling Movies the Same Movie, A Perspective

Hey, #protip to anyone with a comcast ondemand subscription: All Good Things, that Ryan Gosling movie, is available for only $5, a pretty nice discount from what you'd pay for a theatre ticket. So because of that, I got to watching it yesterday, and then I found Blue Valentine online for streaming (thanks Harvey Weinstein screeners!) today, and.... I must ask you, as a blog readership, if these were supposed to be two different movies. Because they weren't. Here we go-

Ryan Gosling is dapper-looking young man who meets a sweet young blonde girl. They look very attractive together.

 



Next stop, the chapel!

                                    

That Ryan Gosling, always getting married.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the inevitable abortion clinic visit.




Whoops! But lest you think everyone's just running around killing babies all the time, do note that there are times when everyone takes a nice, long break and just bums around the country in that quaint way that country folk do. (To add to the morbidity, there's also a dead dog featured in both films.)




Oh, and have I mentioned what these lovely ladies do for a living? Because it seems like different incantations of Ryan Gosling have managed to find the only two attractive, blonde ladies who happily pursue the study of medicine. Yes, with the blood and the guts and stuff. That medicine.



And maybe this is a demand that Ryan insists on for all of his characters, but DAMN does dude smoke a lot of cigarettes and/or weed. Just constantly smoking, that guy.




But good thing he's got the comfort of a good lady.




That is until he brutally murders the one and gets divorced by the other. I would say "oh spoiler alert" but both of those are pretty much the entire movie plot summary, so what's the point.

The last similarity happens to be that you get to see both of these women topless in the shower with Ryan, but I won't repost those pictures here because c&uw doesn't need to carry a NSFW tag.

So, I'm not going to review these movies. There's enough people doing that. Needless to say, Michelle deserves her Oscar nod and more. She's exquisite and heartbreaking. Ryan, on the other hand... Does he even have to show up to set any more? The boy is undeniably good-looking, but we (the viewership) need to demand that he choose some variety for his next project. I suggest a bromance movie with Andrew Garfield and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Who wouldn't buy a ticket for that? No one. That's who.

Let's just hope that The Goss manages to age slightly better than his characters. A shiver-inducing sign off-


Saturday, January 15, 2011

Mid-January Update

I had an application due yesterday, which meant I spent most of it completely procrastinating and learning a lot of interesting things that were completely irrelevant to the task at hand. First, via Gawker, some excellent images and history of the now-abandoned North Brother Island, "closer to the Empire State Building than much of Brooklyn," and, for historical buffs, the once-home of Typhoid Mary during her quarantine and eventual site of the beached PS General Slocum. The island was used for quarantine hospitals for many years as well as dormitories for GIs coming to New York to study then finally recovering addicts. It has been abandoned since 1963. Pictures and captions via.

An iron spiral staircase on the eastern tip of the southern wing. 
This room was originally a screened-in porch.
A former childrens' ward was converted to a library when Riverside became a rehabilitation hospital.

An old phone book found in the maintenance building.

Some more odds and ends that should consume your thoughts: 
The largest maritime disaster in US History: SS Sultana
If you're feeling just a little too good about the world, the Australian government didn't issue a formal apology for the 'Stolen Generations' until February of 2008. As late as 2000, during the Howard Government, the term 'Stolen Generation' was debated, since, according to John Herron, "only 10%" of aboriginal children were taken, and that didn't constitute a "generation." In matters of public, civil discourse... I can't even make this a logical argument. It's illogical not to get it. Anti-racism, anti-formalized racism, anti-genocide. Good?
Good. Now, need a cheery film rec