new suit, festivus, jeff koons

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So...two years after being fired from Strand I am still (kind of blissfully) unemployed. Because of the odd circumstance with the negligent LL, and the ensuing rent strike, I have survived here in NYC with very little income or savings. Going through six months of unemployment benefits and about (six thousand dollars?) in savings. I am getting a little nervous now as I am about to empty my third bank account. So Last Friday, when I met Krishna at Union Square I splurged on a basic black interview suit. (We both actually bought the same suit.)

Saturday I walked from my place on 146th through the park to 59th street. The day was pretty much perfect. I wandered into a "Festivus" celebration (Socorro informed me, this is a Sienfieldian thing.)Saw thousands of people lining up for the free Bon Jovi Concert, and caught the tail end of a softball game. Sunday, Lindon and I hung out on the roof of the MET with Jeff Koons's Giant Balloon Dog and drank $12.00 mojito's (another big splurge. It was very hot up there and the Mojitos looked so cool and wet.)

Sigh...jobs aren't jumping out at me so if you have any suggestions...

durer

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This morning as I was walking down amsterdam on my way to school a very friendly guy held out his hand as if to dance with me...I kind of wanted to take it.

Came across these funny bolgs in the texan:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

http://failblog.org/

DC, NC, HI

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ok...anger management 101 continues...I decided to spend an extra night in DC figuring I could afford the $30-$35 dollars for a bed at the youth hostel. The guy at the front desk bumped up the price an extra ten dollars, saying that when they reach 95% capacity they charge more for the last %5. (Presumably the last ten people to register have more money.) Ihave never heard of HI doing this. It kind of pissed me off after tax and tacked on fees...it was almost $50 FOR A BED in a room with eleven others. Collectively, we paid $600.00 for the room. A bit high considering they seem to clean the bathroom on our floor (shared by 800 people?) once a day. The only way I could rationalize paying so much was to think of it as a donation. I guess it is a non-for profit.

arrgh!

If someone wants to open up a youth hostel here I guess business is good.

(Or would Hostelling International send someone to break the legs if they tried?)

reflecting on spring 2008

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Well...Now we are in June...I finished my study of architecture history with a book of poems regarding the 1893 Chicago worls Fair aka World's Columbian Expo her let me see if I can find a sample poem.



They Flocked to the Fair

Tenants, farmers, overseers
Laborer, dairy women, architects
Clergy, dentists, lawyers
Physicians, Authors, teachers
Artists, musicians, actresses
Managers, showmen, inventors
Bankers, bookkeepers, clerks
Copists, telephone+telegraph operators, manufacturers
Stenographers, packers, railway workers
Porters, messengers, butchers
Undertakers, metal workers, gunsmiths
Engravers, machinists, painters
Organ makers, pattern makers, paper hangers
Stone cutters, potters, blacksmiths
Carpenters, barbers, janitors
Saloon keepers, waiters, cooks
Tailors, paper box makers, nurses
Servants, dress makers, laundresses

Most of my information came from a book called FAIR WOMEN.

It kind of opened my eyes to the expansiveness and depth of womens organizations and was full of interesting details about who was pissing off who in the era of women's sufferage. I really enjoyed it.

In other news, I am determined to clean my apartment this afternoon, (I found a bedbug on my loft last night.) I put in my resume for a custodial assistant's job here at ccny. I met up with Dave and lindon the a community garden on e 12th st last week and ran into Will b. And Hannah. (they were both very happy. Their effervecent happiness overwhelmed my bitterness about being fired.)I went to PS1 on sunday and ran into Jeanette, the key lime queen. She also was in a good mood and it was good to see her. The PS1 show was odd+amusing. Our bathroom seems to get more disgusting daily. I am planning to hand deliver a letter to Jose GOnzoles with a witness so he can not deny knowing about the problems in our building. (arrgh!)Speaking of buildings, Hamiltons House is being moved. This process has been impressive. Oh and i think there is a ccny mfa grads opening tonight.

Gardens, Muppets and Weddings

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Send me an invitation to your wedding!!

I guess I've been thinking about Urban Planning, Urban Politics, and Urban Poetry lately cause I had this blog entry saved under some such title. CCNY's art department rejected me again this year.(Actually I am a little relieved. I'll tell you why later.) Maybe I will try again in 2009.

now I am studying for the final exam for this gut architecture history class I am taking with Marta Gutman, who BTW has a new book out.

Just now I am looking at the first review slides and they have to do with gardens...specifically Stourhead and Chiswick house in England. Gardens are a great subject. I hope not to get too hung up on the political aspects of the (increasing?) stratification of society in England in the 1700's. Maybe I can just compare these gardens to other gardens in the 1700's. Big gardens, smalls gardens, food gardens, flower gardens, herb gardens, factory farms, hanging gardens, terraced gardens, both romantically picturesque and less romantically picturesque.

Then there are essays to write for the following topics:

a)Neo-classicism in France and the U.S.

b)Nineteenth-Century Historicism

c)Architecture and Industrialization

d)Responses to the Industrial City

e)The American Scene

f)Victor Horta+Frank Lloyd Wright

g)European Avant-Garde Architecture in France

h)European Avant-garde Architecture in Germany

i)Postwar Modernism in the U.S.

j)Reactions to Modernism: Postmodernism

k)Reactions to Modernism: Deconstruction

(With the exception of Horta+Wright, all these headings sound alarmingly dry and terrifically academic.)

I am woefully behind in the reading/studying and the exam is on Monday so...you know...wish me luck!

p.s.

If you have been to the following places or have insight into any of the following time periods and/or builders please comment extensively. I need all the help I can get.

Guggenheim Museum
Bilbao, Spain
Frank Gehry
1991-1997

Vanna Venturi House
Chestnut Hill, PA
Venturi and Rauch
1962

The Guild House
Philadelphia, PA
Venturi and Rauch
1960-1963

Baker House Dormitory (MIT)
Cambridge, MA
Alvar Aalto
1946-1949

Guggenheim Museum
New York, NY
Frank Lloyd Wright
1956-1959

Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL
L. Meis Van der Rohe
1950-1956

The Bauhaus
Dessau, Germany
Walter Gropius
1925-1926

"A City for Three Million People" (project)
Le Corbusier
1922

Villa Savoye
Poissy, France
Le Corbusier
1929

Maison Dom-ino (project)
Le Corbusier
1915+

Ward Willits House
Highland Park, IL
Frank Lloyd Wright
1902

Horta's House and Workshop
Victor Horta
Brussels, Belgium
1898-1900

Plan for Chicago (Commercial Club of Chicago)
Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett
1909

Wainwright Building
St. Louis, MO
Louis Sullivan
1890-1891

Reliance Building
Chicago, IL
Burnham and Root
1889, 1894-1895

Red House
Bexley Heath (near London)
William Morris and Philip Webb
1859-1860

St. Pancras Station
William H. Barlow
and
The Midland Grand Hotel
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott
London, England
1868-1874

Crystal Palace
Joseph Paxton
London, England
1851

Altes Museum
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Berlin, Germany
1824-1830

Bank of England
Sir John Soane
London, England
1788-1808

"Monticello" VA
Thomas Jefferson
1768-1782

Royal Saltworks
Arc-et-Senans (near Besancon?), France
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux
1775-1779

Stourhead Park House
Colin Campbell
1720-1721
Stourhead Park Grounds
Henrys Flitchcroft+Hoare II
1744
Stourhead, England


Chiswick House
Lord Burlington (Richard Boyle)
1725
Chiswick House Gardens
William Kent
1736
Middlesex (near London)England






Stourhead, England

Portfolio 2008

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It's almost April Fool's Day and that means MFA Applications are due at CCNY.

In the pouring rain, one may say words reminding another of a time forgotten when snakes lived on the island and stones were carved with elaborate, symbols of hope, maps for the future from the past. Place something in the ground believing that three hundred and ten years later a leaf will fall. Last year, a t-shirt was silk-screened with the name of a small group of musicians who rattled a tune loose from the ladder everyone was afraid to climb. Words are spoken. Words are written down. Words are whispered and then forgotten, only to be remembered late one night in a dream. Carving something out of wood, carving something into stone, one remembers the rhythm of ancient songs. Sea Chants work, songs lift the soul out of poverty and carry the spirit along to places forgotten or unknown, real and imagined for battle or verse. Never before have the planets seen a fireworks show such as the one that will happen tomorrow or next week for every thing is slightly different now than it was. What remains constant? Earth is still rotating. Sun continues to burn, a baby is born but this one is not like any other. This baby is slightly different. A tree falls but the sound echoes differently than one that fell yesterday or last week or the ten that will fall tomorrow. Along a river, a person jogs, listening to the music of her footsteps. The sound of her breath is rhythmic and deep. In her breath one can hear dark stories of earth, and fire. In the water lurk transparent creatures that need little light. Has someone placed a turbine there? Canvas hangs on a wall in a gallery. The image presented is abstract, hewn from linen, linseed oil, and the finest ground pigments. Next door another gallery, with flat acrylic cartoons on wood hung on drywall, screwed to an aluminum frame. Aluminum is lighter and less expensive than wood. The artist lives a monastic life. He wakes early, meditates. He listens closely to the music of the street. He loses his identity and becomes a vessel for a spirit, the spirit of the city. Everyone works in harmony. The music of the city is an elaborate, spontaneous ballet. There are time honored methods for dealing with the inevitable. Death, taxes. There is truth in the belief that many heads are better than one. Cars come and go. People spend money they have been ruthless in acquiring on cell phones, wireless computers and cable TV. Space is treated as a commodity. Airplane traffic was non existent two hundred years ago. Languages have died and been re-created. Documentation is on the rise. Ahead, on the left is a large hole in the ground. Santiago is working here. Across the hole stands a tall dark tower, a graveyard and St. Paul’s Chapel. The chapel is painted pink and blue. The chapel is neo-classical.

architecture history marches on

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Nineteenth-Century Historicism: England, Germany, and France

Historicism
Gothic Revival
Greek Revival
Nationalism
"Battle of Styles" Eclecticism
Ecole des Beaux-Arts
marche
caractere
parti
esquisse

Sir John Soane
Sir Charles Barry
Agustus welby Pugin
Charles Garnier
Bank of England
House of Parliment
Altes Museum
L'Opera