ASLA, AFSCME, GMHC, and the skyscraper museum

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Here I am at The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), a Community Based Organization on 24th Street that (among other things) works with the NYS Dept of Labor to assist workers transition to better lives/jobs. The computers here are very fast.

There was some question last week when I went to the workforce center on 125th street last week to see about getting an extention on unemployment benefits. The question was to apply or not to apply, for public assistance that is. I applied. One week later I am here feeling pretty good about the decision. I won't know until next week if I qualify for anything, but I am pretty happy now with the "tough love" (for lack of a better term)I have recieved so far.

I am interested in jobs related to buildings maintenance and construction, as well as entreprenuership and the arts. I'm still planning on applying to CCNY's MFA program for fall 2009 even though my 2006 and 2007 applications were rejected. (Applications are due by the end of 2008.)This time my work will have to do with History (time+storytelling), Quilting, and Communication.

In addition to attending coffee and cookies at Redeemer, Erin and I have joined the choir at fourth UU (Landmark on the Park). THis has been a big source of joy, better than imagined. The choir director is amazing. The people are great company. Rosemary is great. Jill is great. All is good. On Sunday anyway. Tonight I am going to a R.E. leadership group meeting there.

We met a Photographer/videographer/screenwriter/director named Michael who lent me a copy of B. Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything and offered to let us collaborate on some projects with him. He is trying to digitally edit a play called "Blind Date". He smokes too much, but is otherwise a nice guy and a good mentor. He says I am wasting my time with this this Public Assistance Application/Endevour. I respectfully dis-agreed.

Last night I checked out a new museum called the Skyscraper Museum

History, Coney Island, SmArt

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It's Tuesday and I'm here at the mid-town library. Yesterday Erin and I went out to Coney Island looked at the ocean and talked to some people about the history of the area and the proposed changes. We met a rally nice person named Sal who showed us around. Then we headed up to Columbia to a (Bernard TShumi?)lecture that had to do with an exhibition called matters of sensation. The discussion was odd and difficult to follow, with an air of (bogusness?)je ne sais quoi. Mais afterwards instead of the usual offering of wine and fantastic salsa, there was one cup of yellow liquid and (a muffin?)with a note and smilie face attached that read something like: eat, drink and be healthy:)

leo castelli?
Richard meyers didia faustino felipa ferarria shernberg limits scaffolding and skeletons tweakyness, torsion, tom maynes?, materialism, plastics, the wigital,

gangs, tiling, scales, guilds?, selection processes, manufacturing, "they can afford it", "they work"...were some words that came up.

Earlier today I was at the N-Y (I'm not sure why it's hyphenated.)Historical Society. They have a good drawing/watercolor exhibit. (I recently learned that Teddy Roosevelt is responsible for the colour/color change in american english.)

I have been trying to read some books my former neighbor, Mark left behind and now wants sent to Persia. One of these is A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Mecca by Sir Richard Burton (the 1850's explorer--not the actor). Another is from the (1960's?)Flashman series...apparently based on Burton's books. These are alternately humour/humorously entertaining, educational and horrifically racist.

N.E.W., work, and capital

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Happy 9/11!

Quickly i am writing this before running to a special 9/11 forum on socialism tonight here at ccny. I was kicked out of the N.E.W. worker training program (for wearing the wrong shoes?)but I am hoping to write the most contrite letter and get back in because it really is the best thing since...well, ever.

My new roommate, Erin Dunner and I saw lecture at columbia last monday in which blue glass and steven holl's name came up. They had very nice salsa there. Erin liked the drawings the speaker spoke out (against sustainability?). Not an issue for him he says.

next thursday there is a radical women's conference and a lecture by (julie snow?)
here in Harlem U.S.A.


Julie Snow

fall lectures

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311, thyme, world architecture

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Back in NY dealing with a leaky ceiling, swarms of flies and herds of rats...this week is good because Patty J from Marta's class is staying with me while she is finishing up some school work, drinking loads of tea and getting ready to move to Oregon.

I am here at the NAC (North Academic Center)checking e-mail and trying to figure out what to register for for the fall.

Last weekend I met some people at the NY Historical Society who were really into Lafayette and La Rouche.

Today I discovered a very useful paper called the city record
That lists all kinds of public meetings. I wish I had seen this earlier.

Reese Carter, A high school classmate of mine is an architect and musician in Georgia (US, not the former soviet union). Apparently, the christian band he belongs to is competing in something and he is asking for some support. Vaya con Dios!

PF1, OSU, HPB, Cardwell

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For some reason blogger doesn't want to upload photos right now. I can't figure out why.

I have three zillion pictures from the last few weeks walking around and before.

anyway...I was in Long Island City last weekend and stopped at PS1 to see what was up. I got to see what was happening with all those thick cardboard tubes.

Now I am in Ohio, visiting family, the Wexner Center,and HPB(maybe); reading a book about the history of technology and thinking about getting a hair cut.

I'll try to upload these photos later I guess.

work, rose, lehrer, 145+Amsterdam

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Here is a picture of the health center at the corner of 145th and Amsterdam.
It could use some improvement...non?

Okay...so I am here in the computer lab at CCNY's North Academic Center (NAC)thinking about employment opportunities. About fifteen years ago, when I quit my job at Owen's Family Restaurant I swore off food service jobs. (Before that I had worked at Fuddruckers, Denny's, Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, and Stars Inn Cafe.)

Just now, I have made a list of all the jobs I have had since my fourth/fifth grade stint delivering the San Antonio Light (What a raw deal that was!! I think I made $35-$75 dollars a month and worked very hard for about 60 hours per month. Even worse than extra-ordinarily exhausting labor and ink stained hands was being a bill collector--stupid dead-beat neighbors...grrr.):

freelance: Architectural Researcher, Nanny, House-sitter, Photographer, lawn-mower,
car-washer, leaf-bagger, cleaner

volunteer: community organizer (UHAB, Mirabal Sisters, 545 Tenant Association), construction leader, roofer, painter, dry-wall hanger, landscaper (Habitat for Humanity), candy-stripper, maitre d'hotel (Hostelling International), layout editor, wire editor, arts and entertainment writer (Daily Texan), baby-bird feeder (B.E.A.K.S.), gardener (Serenity Gardens), advocate(MLT, Mirabal Sisters), cook prep-cook(Food-not-Bombs), correspondent (inside-books, rhizome collective)

retail: Long's, Cord Camera, Drexel Grandview Theater, Half Price Books, Strandbooks, Follette

teaching: creative play center, columbus public-schools substitute,scab-teaching in southern ohio (a lucrative if-not-especially-proud moment)
ymca after-school teacher (good-fun until a bi&*^&%^$$#@new OSU-education-grad became my boss and treated me like I had the plague.)

Places I would deign to work:
hospitals
schools
used bookstores
record stores
video stores
architecture firms
law offices (with good lighting)
design companies
government offices
abc
nbc
cbs
materials for the arts
pbs
charlie rose
wnyc
brian lehrer
wbai
universities
newspapers
hardware stores
anything related to sustainability
anything facilities maintenance
theaters
art students league


Places I would not deign to work:

food service
places with bad lighting/air quality/work environments
evil corporations
pvc manufacturing
Really sketchy small businesses

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

Rethinking Architecture in women's history month

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Last night I met Amayas at the Lion's Head Pub and got him to list his five favorite artists and architects. Here they are:

Santiago Calatrava

Daniel Leibeskind
Marc Newson

Wet Designs

Norman Foster

zdizlaw beksinski

H.R. Giger

Frank Freezette

Marcos Chin

Ralph Goings

Kevin Grass

I like the looks of Marcos Chin.

In other news the "Colisseum of Vagina" in in a ceramics exhibition here at CCNY.
The reception is tonight 6-8PM.

Elanor, rain, and homework

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It's a sad wet day.
My great Aunt died.



Ottoman,
Constantinople,
Byzantium,
Istanbul
Five Pillars of Islam
Waqf
Madrassa

Bezistan

Main Players
Suleman, the Magnificent
Koce Sinan (1491-1588)

Examples
Topkapi Palace,
15th, 16th centuries
Turkey


The Karadjozbegova Mosque, Mostar, 16th century (Bosnia)
Stari Most (The Old Bridge), Mostar, 16th century

For comparison
Hagia Sophia,
6th century

Ver...Verts...Versailles

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Dunlop, Mitford, Bryant
for the love Deidre...
evoke something reborn Verlet
exact lines so evedently important.

L'approach, L'autumn, the royal chase
First enlarge Louis XIV, party,
Nine porcelaine offshoots,
Marble everything, hearts too.

Clagny, add water, bring to 1701
redecorate. Now, le Chappelle:

Small cabinets, pompadour, of Berries
The Queen, M. Leszinska
Louis the XVI
Marie Antoinette and the game of make believe

Resurection
Le reine, Le Rhine, LeNotre
Fantasy flight night, Le Chambre
Rendez-vous

Alceste, The Enveloppe, the place of arms
Fireworks, flotillas, Grotte
Parterre du Norde, Satory in construction
Stables, windows, beds
Aerial photograph, furnature
reconstruction

lithograph machine, Aquaduct, ground
St. Louis King, Marley Chambre?
1701--Bull's Eye Salon

Duchesse now (private recollection)
Vivien Bourgogne Gobert and the cabinet work
Louis XV roofscape garden axis
Dormer of Bains, Stockholm
The stairs of ambessadeurs.

Try something small, garden front, Opera
Banquet Hall, le Juene
Le Bassin d'Apollon, the Canal
an illuminated wedding, Bust, le Compte
Bibliotheque

Vigee Mme Le Brun, scandal (1783)Houdon
Plantation (M. de V.)
Belevedere (Georges Saad), Temple of l'amour
Engraved by Nee

Chevalier de l'Espinasse
Try another...Grotto, Chatelet
Plan, block, floor
Small cabinets, endpapers
Archives, Musee, Bureau

Building, tree, organic growth
supreame glory
Tout les jours comedies
Gallery of colonnades
fountains, M. Dunlop, fountains
Le Frondes, le soleil

Historic tourists pantomime
strange oversight untouched
Daughters of France, odd bourbons seen
Madame de Sevigne
Charming centre of government seat

Pergola arbor disappeared
Great mouldering palace
conversation, a curious fact
Le Service de Batiments

Fond of close green thing
Listen she falls slowly, last
Cry rain fountain water

Batsford, Rainbird, Dauphin
there will always be difficulty
a certain point, a knoll of length
dominating three facades
gliding ornament, avenues above
one hundred steps, among the trees
Orangeries (of love?)
not yet arrived luxuriance
offered coup l'oeil
approach coming ediface
small mouth of excellence unrolls
Lytton Strachey

Birds search

delicate mist

tack tacking spring

abolotion
dead son
Artois
Abbe
lies
room encrusted diamonds
murmur mob

discontents
sea
humanity
at three o'clock
Rambouillet

eini, meni, minei, mo

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Time, Authorship, and Ottomans

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Okay I am back here at the NAC...Still my Campidoglio "piece" is not done. (Somehow I feel by renaming "papers" "pieces" i will be less prone to writers block. Go figure.)

With great relief, I found my flash drive was still here (Thank you, whoever decided not to take it. You are a saint.)

I just finished reading "What is an Author" by Michel Foucault in order to "assess authorship in Foucault's terms". I think it brought on an LSD flashback, effectively disabling my ability for rational thought for several days.

Professor Gutman's Architectural History class has moved up to Chapter 19...the Ottoman Empire Islam and the changing of Constantinople to Istanbul around 1453. I am trying to find out about what kind of calender the would have used and if the Persians told time the same way...you know 12 hours...Am and PM.

International Studs, Wastestreams, And Rome

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Hello.


It's a snowy Friday evening and I am here in the NAC computer lab getting ready to pound out a "piece" on Michael Angelo's Campidoglio (aka Capitoline)that was meant to be done last Tuesday(yikes! Please forgive me Professor Gutman, if you are reading this...Instead of working on this yesterday I went to an awesome producton of Harvey Firestein's International Stud put on buy CCNY's theater students)

Also new...Tuesday CUNY+NYC Dept of Sanity had a kick off event for 2008 Sustainable CCNY Committees.


Last night Mark brought over some awefully sweet wine and one of my all time favorite films. Amayas came over and we agrued a little about early civilizations and whether or not hunters and gatherers are "un-civilized"--well, Mark and I argued (comme d'habitude). Amayas got bored and left.

CCNY MFA Group Show

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Dennis Delgado

Filipa Farraia


Glenda Hydler


Jang Soon Im

Rachel Jobe

Seung Ae Kim


Sun Kim

Anthony Miler


Nancy Palubniak ak ak ak

Shani Peters

Patricia Reibesehl

Arthur Skowron

Miranda Small


Dessida Snyder

Erik Sommer

Mary Sweeney

Pei Chum Tsai

Priska Wenger

Yu Zhang

asl, Martini, Me Shell

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Last night Amayas and I met up with Krishna and Virgina and some of her friends at a hooka bar on the lower east side...the music was a bit loud and I began to wish I knew someASL which coinsidentally has the same acronym as the Art Students League.

Ok...i've spent a couples of hours (or days) at the Met
Checking out the Studiolo
of the Duccal(sp?)Palace of humanist Federico Montefeltro at Gubbio, an entire room panelled (sp?) in an elaborate, intarsia trompe l'oeil from the woodshop of architect Giorgio Martini (circa 14??AD).

http://12.151.120.44/explore/studiolo/studiolo_hmpg.html

http://www.jstor.org/view/00261521/sp050877/05x7277w/0

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300085167

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/f/francesc/index.html

http://www.le-marche.com/Marche/html/martini.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_di_Giorgio_Martini

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_da_Montefeltro

Art Collectives, Lexis, and Convertables

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Hello...I should be reading chapters 17, 18 and 19 of Kostof's A History of Architecture. Instead, I am researching art collectives on LexisNexis. Finally, I have access to this thing. It seems like it may have been outmoded by Google though.

Has anyone seen the movie, Three Kings? I had heard it wasn't that good but I saw it a few nights ago and it was WAY better than I expected.

Spain and the N. E. W. World

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Oh...Mon Dieu! It's the year of the Rat!!

There is so much to read (Now I wish I hadn't cheated my way through Coach Kirby's World History Class.):

Piazza San Marco

Basilica San Marco

Doge's Palace

Libreria


Loggetta

La Zecca

Vignola

Il Gesu


Pre-Columbian

indigenous

"reconquest"


Colonial


Absolute power

Syncretism

ceremonial city

zocalo


Neo-Platonic

Divine Beauty

ideal geometry

Fernando and Isabella


Carlos (Charles) V

Montezuma (Moctezuma?)

Hernan Cortez


Palace of Charles V



Huitzilopochtli

Tlaloc

Palace of Montezuma
Tenochtitlan

Mexico(D. F.)City

1500 A.D.

Mexico City Landmarks

Saturday in the Library

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I'm here at the Cohen Library with Richard Rojas, talking about volcanos and looking at Gallery websites.

Still way behind in the reading for ARCH 622/242:

School of Athens

Palazzo del Te

Porta Pia

Tribune

Palladio

thermal windows

tromp l'oeil

Jacopo Sansovino

Carlo Borromeo

Pallazzo Chiericati

Villa Barbaro

Villa Rotunda

Teatro Olympico

Church of Redentore

Florence, Bramante, and Mannerism

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Okay...I am taking a course in Architecture history starting with 1144 AD. Turns out, (quelle suprise)there is much I don't/didn't know.

Coliseum

trabeated

arcuated

De re aedificatoria

Brunelleschi

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo

Cosimo de' Medici

Ospedale degli Innocenti

Santa Maria Novella

Chruch of Sant' Andrea

Church of San Francisco

Santa Maria dei Fiori

Arnolfo di Cambio

Church of San Lorenzo

Spiro Kostof


Sir John Summerson

Vitruvian Man

Divine Proportions

Ideal Geometry

divine beauty

harmonic proportions

Neo-Platonic

martyrium

Donanto Bramante

Leonardo Da Vinci

Pope Nicholas V

Pope Julius II

Santa Maria della Pace


San Pietro in Montorio

St. Peter's Basilica

View of an Idea City

"Sforzinda"

Palazzo Caprini

Francesco di Giorgio

Mannerism

Council of Trent

Michealangelo Buonarroti

Giuliano Romano

Pope Paul III

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

Campidoglio

Letters, Brown and clay laments

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Okay...I'm back from Ohio where I spent some time being with relatives and failing (again) to lose ten pounds.

Today was the first day of classes here at the City College of New York. After some headache (I think) I found an interesting class for which (It sounds like)I can get graduate credit. I was hoping to take the Clays and Glazes class Sylvia had recommended, but that is looking unlikely.

Perhaps in error, I ended up in an architecture history lecture series led by a fairly entertaining speaker named Lance Jay Brown and taed by Camille Dunn. The course is called The built environment of NYC: Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design.

The assignments and readings are numerous, starting with:

turning Down the global thermostat
a conversation with ed mazria
and measures of sustainable design and performance

eat crepes in '08

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Well...today is the last day of 2007, one of the best years ever. I spent the morning taking pictures of an art project involving 100 postcards...then spent an hour scrounging around for change to buy stamps. By the time I got to the post office the time was 1:18 PM and the post office had just closed. So...I made some really delicious crepes and came to the library.

Happy New Year!

Women, Dewey & The Medium

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As preparation to writing my essay for my second application to CCNY's MFA program, I starting looking at some of the art/philosophy related books I have collected and not yet read. Here are four (not so random) selections:

Women Who Make Moviesby Sharon Smith

http://www.wmm.com/
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c681.shtml
http://www.brynmawr.edu/visualculture/wmmholdings.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2479/is_3_33/ai_n16100894http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=miranda+july&search=Search

This book printed in 1975 is a fun read. Stories about female filmmakers most of which I have never heard of are interesting and helpful in that many of the ideas and impulses I have as a female and an artist are represented in their stories.

Reconstruction in Philosophy and Art as Experience (I just now realize) are by the same author, John Dewey. I can only guess why I found both of these (Strand, 48 cent) books interesting enough to bring home. As it turns out Dewey is a major figure on influence in American educational philosophy. (Who knew?)I haven't really heard much about him.

I have yet to form much of an opinion. Hopefully, I will love or hate him and maybe mention him in my essay with the appearance some sort of informed intelligence.

The Medium Is The Massage: an inventory of effects1967 by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore is a fun, heavily illustrated book about society, the recient advent of "jobs", Government, education, and ever-changing technology. The Medium refered to is electronic technology.

blogging about books on book blogs

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Meryl Zegreb has sent me the most interesting book yet, The Bookaholic's guide to book blogs. The writing is not alltogether horrible and there is a list of blogs to check out in the back.

Salon

Spike

3AM

the millions

noam

jeanette winterson

me and my big mouth

front list

bookblog


N+1

litblog co-op


slushpile

straight from the fridge


underground lit

pinky's paperhaus

girl on demand

futureproof

grumpy old bookman

Ms. Baroque

Genes, Notebooks, Oxides and Fields

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t-minus twenty-eight days and counting...

Since I aquired a functional dvd player, I have been on a video watching binge... Sympathy for the Devil, L'Histoire du Cinema, Tie Me Up Tie Me Down, Gummo...I decided to take a break from it then, Mark and (Zubair?)came over with Motercycle Dairies and Flags of our Fathers...Motercycle Diaries was very pretty:)

Feeling kind of funky with a sore throat thing (the school nurse gave me some cough drops, I was rejected for metrocare/medicaid plus because I had $400 too much in the bank...sigh...this has to be a joke...I wish this were a joke.) Stumbling around in kind of a daze, I ran into Geronomo this morning...was planning on applying for medicaid and exchanging my TX driver's license for a NY one...saw a notice for a lecture on 2007 Nobel Prize winners and went to that instead...there were free mini quiches there so I knew I had made a good decision.

First up was Medicinechromosomes, dna, 20,000-25,000 human genes, same number as the c. elegans worm, Evans and his(knock-out)chimeric mice won the prize for E.S. Cells.\

Doris Lessing...parts not for children...not very nice but...she started a revolution.

Gerhard Ertl...chemical processes on solid surfaces...low energy electron diffraction...ultra-violet photo electron spectroscopy...h-index?...absorption of hydrogen...NO molecule...one defect in the surface created spiral patterns...nobody likes working at high pressures, but...amonia...for some reason ertl is associated with AL Gore who also won the prize.

then since there is no prize for Mathmatics we heard about Perelman who won the Fields Metal for...(n)dimentional manifolds?

Atame!

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Thursday...almost the end of November...I promised my self that this month I would purge the apartment of things I don't love or want...all the clutter that has accumulated over the years. So far I have only ridded the place of one not so large bag of clothes. The Hallway is full of recycling plus piles of direct tv equipment and broken things that I have a hard time putting in the trash.

Coinsidentally, There was a meeting here at CCNY to form committees to work on creating a sustainable campus. There are a number of committees: cirriculum, research, student affairs, procurement, facilities, planning+construction+renovation, transportation, waste management, auxiliary services+residence hall, communication+Public Education, and community affairs.

The hope is that each committee will have students
+ faculity involved...

There were three student clubs represented: NYPIRG, Sustainable CCNY, and green planet; pluspeople from Materials Exchange Developement Program (MEDP) which is funded by the city (through dept of sanitation?). Also, Carmelo Rodriguez from from the office of student services and (MIke?) from (?)who was running the powerpoint presentation.

On my way to this meeting Michelle stopped me outside the garden saying "I thought you were going to come through."
She and Geronimo were working moving dirt to raise the herb garden. I wished she had called me, cause I knid of want to help with that. Instead I spent the morning watching Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down which is my pick for sexiest movie I have seen this very sexy year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie_Me_Up!_Tie_Me_Down!

Later I talked with Jessica from NYPIRG about student events, Darfor, and congestion pricing.
Now I will get coffee and go see about taking out the recycling...sigh.

MFA St., Onions, H2O, AMA, Kerouac

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"I don't belong to an Onion, I AM Onion."

--Anon

Tonight CCNY MFA canidates are having an open studio

I am really looking forward to this.

I know some of the people from Sylvia's ceramics class.

Now I am Googling to see what their stuff looks like.

Here they are alphabetically by first name:




Dennis Delgado

Filipa Farraia


Glenda Hydler


Jang Soon Im

Rachel Jobe

Seung Ae Kim


Sun Kim

Anthony Miler


Nancy Palubniak ak ak ak

Shani Peters

Patricia Reibesehl

Arthur Skowron

Miranda Small


Dessida Snyder

Erik Sommer

Mary Sweeney

Pei Chum Tsai

Priska Wenger

Yu Zhang

Yesterday, efore going to meet Mitch at the Humanities Library for the Kerouac Exhibit, I was asked by someone from ICLA? ICLA? to volunteer to donate bone Marrow. I said I would think about it. While I was thinking about it and reading "The Paper"

I thought maybe I would try to reach and write an article about bone marrow in relation to me and things I care about (universal single payer health care, environmentalism, not losing my apartment, non-profit organizations that really help people, separation of church and state, etc.) The (really beautiful) young woman at the table was super nice and in about 2 minutes touched on about twenty good medically related topics.

Today I went to a meeting about environmental jobs. Speakers Mario Paula from the EPA, Dr. James Wang from environmental defense.org, Raphael Rodriguez from U. S. Geological Survey NY Water Science Center, and William C. Schwab from U.S.G.S. Woods Science Center spoke for an hour and a half to a packed room of over 80 people.


I almost for got to mention (drumroll PPause) After seen the (amazing) Kerouac show at the (amazing) Humanities Library, I went out and bought a paper shredder. (I've been thinking of paper mache)

Alreadly this has given me hours of entertainment and pleasure as I shred everything fromwatchtower handouts, toletters from debt collectors, to advertisements for Kohls and the MomA Design Store. When I made the impulse buy, I thought I was being all environmental PC...now I realize that it is yet another gulty, plastic pleasure that runs on electricity:( Please let me know if you need/want some pretty packing material.

jj

bokk book book!

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http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/bookseaohb.cgi?ISBN=1852429267&AREA=04

http://www.oxfam.org/

http://www.serpentstail.com/author_bio?id=10546

ok...A while back My friend and Strand Co-worker Karen McMaron signed me up a with this Meryl Zega-something P.R. group she was working for and started sending me frre books to review. For the most part, the books have been pretty bad. But I love getting mail, especially in bubble wrap-lined manilla envelopes with lots of cool looking stamps. So I feel like saying thanks Meryl Z. and at least saying something about some of these books...not all of which are horrible.

The Alpine Fantasy of Victor B, is a nice looking anthology of fiction by British artists. I am a HUGE fan of short fiction and I might actually read some of these. The little I have read has not repulsed me.

Kath Trevelyan a novel by Jeremy Cooper is pretty bad. I was optimistic after the first sentence but that is where the love affair ended:(

Winged Wonders A celebration of Birds in Human History I am keeping around as an amusing reference book. And we all know that reference books are the best kind of books to keep around. I don't think I would pay money for this but I guess one of the authors works with/for oxfam and the UN...those Ihave heard good things about.

Hunger Artist Joanne Jacobson this looks good...I mayactually read thisplus bonus it has pictures!

Crossing the Dark Heidi W. Boehringer and From May to December by Pat Mac Enulty...these are a good examples of the drivel I have come to expect from serpents tale press. They both have the plus bonus (caveat?) of very sexy young women on the covers!!

Fair Hikes?

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Looks like MTA is proposing fare hikes again...I am looking at this 2008 plan and trying to figure out how n...n..nine billion dollars annually is not enough.

Looks likethere is a billion dollar debt service(?)...a billion dollar healthcare plan, four million in overtime, and four million in "other fringe benefits" that the the the $9,853,000,000 in revenue+subsidies can not quite cover. Therfor, the proposed regressive tax/fare hike.

secretron postcard strain

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Today I slept in...made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...listened to the brian lehrer show...worked on the big watercolor drawing...schlepped over to CCNY to the sustainability club bake sale...went to the library to look at art books...went to another very odd physics lecture...read the NYPress while wolfing down French fries and a peanutbutter bagle...and cam down here to update the blog.

The lecturer was Chi-Chang Kao...apparently with the u.s. dept of energy...I didn't really understand much of what he said...I really have no better idea what a national synchrotron light source is than before the lecture...I wrote down some things to google...brookhaven national lab...photo cathode gun...leem/peem...far ir...thin films...resonance...platzman...tzoar...scattering geometry...moore's law...magnetic media technology...bell (telephone) labs...Neel's point...faraday rotation...magnetic circular rotation dichroism...www.timeline.aps.org

Yesterday Sylvia gave a slide show of previous work. I guess she is having a show in November...meanwhile...the coliseum of vagina has been fired...it had a few big cracks I am trying to fix with glaze.

While I was at the library, I looked at a book about william wegman..w what I didnot know about W.W. is that he went to the university of IL Champaign and he draws like David Shrigly.

Also I checked out a book of italian folk tales by Italo Calvino, Go for Beginners, and three books on Ceramics...Rawson, Norton, and Rhodes....er...Rhodes

Traumwerk, inside books+R.U.S.T.

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Officially now I am on vacation from being unemployed. This, i guess means that I am working, albeit not being paid.

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nine one one seven
discovered tunnel
from Art to Music

Fascists, Tempests, and Tambourines

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Things are picking up here. I've been spending time at City College, here in the Student Technology Support Center which is shaped like an amplatheater(sp?) that looks out on the entrance to the (NAC) North Academic? Center...I took a temp job at the bookstore which is a Follett store. http://www.follett.com/ It reminds me of Long's....But Much smaller (the branch , not the business) and with a more ethnically diverse staff. I like it because I can see what all the professors are assigning.

When I was working at Long's people would speculate about what would happen when Doc Long died. Some bets were on Follett taking over but I guess B+N bid higher. It also has the feel of the old Co-op Bookstore but apparently without the perks...at least for temp workers. It bears no resemplence to Strand. I find my self missing the easy-going-ness (for lack of a better word) of the cashiers at Strandwhile I am being "trained" by a Mussolini(sp?)-like young person who refered to me as "sweety" until she realized that I'm not that sweet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini

Sylvia Netzer has been a godsend. I got to spend some time talking to her about time-lines, birthdays, clay, love, painful losses and art while she contructed her organ...organic growth-like forms. Her insight and criticism has me thinking more three diimentionally. She leaves amazing examples around the classroom of better ways of doing things...other possibilities.

I've seen two good plays up here, off-off-off upper Broadway. The Tempest

http://www.harlemonestop.com/event.php?id=2626

and Tambourines to Glory

http://www.harlemrepertorytheatre.org/collegenow.html

Both were way better than RENT (in my humble opinion) and only asked for donations.

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I came to Bryant Park to meet up with Sam, the guy who was watching my place while I was in Ohio and my neighbor and his family who is visiting from England. They are showing Casablanca. It is so very, very crowded here I I gave up looking for them in favor of checking e-mail.

Dave says there is a free show at Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater tonight so I may head over there for that soon.

I heart NYPL

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It is so very nice and cool here. I got tired of sweating and came here to my local library to cool off and check my messages.

I'm listening to Le Show from last Sunday...Harry Shearer is talking about Something that happened in Saudi Arabia. I wasn't listening that closely because I was frustrated with trying to figure out why my skype connection isn't working. Now I'm trying to update it.

I had a really nice flight back. There was a beautiful sunset. The Pilots took their time which is good when there is what seems to be a Simpsons channel on the tv. They did some crazy big turns when we got close to the city, so at a couple of points my window was pointed directly at the ground. That was fun.

The apartment was a bit of a mess. The bathroom ceiling fell again...so...now we have to clean the debris that falls from the hole before taking showers.

I had a great time at the family reunion Sunday. (Is one of my mom's cousins on a soap opera???)

Darma, a magical talking horse plays the stock market

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Nostrand, no beach, no bank
sign says, "Rat Race, try harder, escape"
scape nape tape grape gape

this is a poem made up on the way home from the airport last night. It seemed like a brilliant start last night. Now, however, somewhat less brilliant.

Anyway...its good to be back here in Bryant Park people watching and listening to wfmu.

guten tag, mein(e) freund(in)

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Hello...I've been in Ohio for about a week now. I missed my flight and ended up riding with John Mc Cain...tres bizarre! Anyway...I made it and S. M. picked me up and wisked me off to hilliard for the best vegetarian indian food buffet ever...then we went to see Evan Almighty which was diverting...your typical freshman-senator-grows-a-beard-and-builds-an-ark hollywood formula.

since then I've been hanging out with my grandmother's and various relatives.
In my rush to leave, I forgot to pack enough underwear...so I went on a spending spree and got heaps of new bras and undies! Pretty exciting! And I bought some running shoes...I am hoping to lose ten pounds this week.

There is a new Half Price Books in the neighborhood...so I've been jogging over there and getting some books...One on the philosophy of law and one called Camp Concentration...by Thomas Disch

Yesterday my dad and his mom and I drove around looking at places they have lived and I got to see a house on S. warren that my upstairs neighbor's brother renovated. It is a really cute house for not too much $$...a short bus ride from down town. an especially good deal if you like shirtless, pot bellied neighbors:)

So Now I'm here at the awesome westerville library trying to order a fire hydrant adapter(or?)because Michelle says I am to blame for the loss of the garden's last one. Whatever...I just want to make sure I am ordering the right thing.

buena suerte, mon amor.

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Its friday the thirteenth...I spent some time in the garden this morning there hundreds of little caterpillers all over one of the trees.

Krishna wants to make a video for this bright eyes song:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=brighteyes+brakeman&search=

Sicko, Damages, Tenants and Neighbors

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Yesterday I put some air in the Huffy tires and rode downtown to the Housing Court to pick up an audio recording of last Friday's hearing. I am starting to think that a class action lawsuit is in order. According to the Pro Se attorney's office in the housing court, the court that a tenant's association in this situation would go to would depend on what is being sought. If, as a group we are asking for damages over $25,000 we would go to the NYS supreme court and make our case there. I believe this company 545 W 146th street, Inc. has been negligent in maintaining the building, has falsified records and lied to state agencies in order to unlawfully increase rents, and has harassed tenants.

I hope that as a tenants association we can get help from the legal aid society in pursuing this case. This evening I think I will sit in the lobby and talk to people about problems in the building and how forming a tenants association could help.

Last night I went to see Sicko with Mitch. I left wishing I could move to France. or england or some civilized country that recognizes basic human needs as the right of every citizen. Throught out the film europeans and canadians are laughing at michael Moore's questions. How many sick days do you get from your job in France? Ha Ha Ha Ha??

I missed the last RGB/Metcouncil get together at Cooper Union last night.

gene, genet*, genome

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Yesterday I went to the library to learn more about Factiva and how to search it for articles.

Today Judge Wendt dismissed the LL petition for Non-payment on the grounds that the DHCR registration was faulty. They had registered a second lease that apparently did not exist under the name of my roommate. Bernardo denied knowledge of the registration or a second lease. By law LLs are required to offer rent regulated tenants a renewal lease. It would be illegal for them to offer the lease to Bernardo and not to me as well.

Now I am back at 545 with my Neighbors, Sam and Jake hanging out till their mom gets home.

I feel pretty good about what happened except now I'm a little worried about going to Ohio for two weeks. I'm sure the LL will try to petition the court for eviction while I am not here to defend myself. I want to talk to tenants in the building about filing a class action suit as a tenant association. Maybe if we go on the offensive, with some help from legal aid we can get everyone's rents rolled back to what the should be and also get the building brought up to code.

I amused myself today during the long wait by trying to guess people's ethnicity. I think I am getting better at it.


On the way home a found out that Don De Lillo has a new book out.

Rent Guidelines Board

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Last night I went to a hearing of the Rent Guidelines Board where tenants and LL's were allowed to speak to ten members of the board. the board is appointed by the mayor and has raised rent stabilized rents by greater and greater percentages in recent years. most of the speakers were tenants calling for (pleading, demanding) a freeze in rent stabilized rents.A few LL's spoke in favor of rent increases.

Council member Jackson asked also for a freeze or failing that and small increase...but preferably a freeze.

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Work has begun again on the bathroom in apt 47. I am hesitantly optimistic that we will soon have a clean, non-leaky, non-moldy place to pee and shower. I and compromising on the tiles. E. Ponce compromised on covering the old marble with concrete and we both agreed that an all porcelain sink is way better than the particle board thing that keeps getting water damaged.

more on 545

SickO NOW!

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Oh My god...I am getting chills hearing someone make so much sense. PLEASE see today's Democracy NOW in which Amy Goodman interviews Michael Moore about his health care film.

Whatever you may think of Moore, he is making so much sense I am almost in tears with happiness that someone is finally saying these things and sadness that so many people have suffered so long needlessly.

I SO miss the good health care I had access to at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio. Finally, SOMEONE is doing a good job pointing out how barbaric the American (public? private? civil?) health care system is.

MY RECENT HEALTH CARE HORROR STORY

cell one, cell two

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Hi I'm here with Jake who should be asleep but in stead is bugging me about HTML tables so I'm going to try to put one here to show him what it is.

spider, man	spider, woman
ladybug, green	ladybug, yellow

feathers, healthy	feathers, placed
aluminium, round	aluminium, square

"I like spiderman and we have a cat named Derry." says Jake.

ice cream, bananas	ice cream, oranges
popcicle, grapes	popcicle, spiderman

Affordable Housing Rally

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Wednesday I Met Benn at MNN and went down to this place on tenth Ave where I had seen a sign for this housing rally. Benn had to go to work, so I joined up with the Westside affordable housing advocates and we all went down to 14th street where there were thousands of poeple all supporting the idea that people have a right to affordable housing. I love that here and in San Franscisco communities have taken control of their local governments and enacted laws that benefit average citizens rather than for profit businesses and landowners.

100 things

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I am sure at least one hundred important things have happened since last I posted here.Harmony had a housing court hearing...Samantha and I met with Mary Lighter in Queens...I found out I was NOT selected as an MFA canidate at CCNY this year...SOme big changes have happened in the garden including things sprouting and scaffolding going up against the wall of the old school. Blessing has fallen ill. I visited the Rubin and the MET...Our HTML class was canceled...I added a new table to the experimental hypothical website: http://geocities.com/jenufra/

Harmony quit her job. I saw yet another free film and then another one. I cleaned the apartment (sort of)...Dave and I went to visit Mitch and watch the 400th episode of the Simpsons...I made another coconut/chocolate chip cake and ate it...Socorro and I went to a book talk at bluestockings regarding Sassy Magazine and how it changed the author's life...Socorro moved...I bought some plane tickets...I hung out with Deb and Tammy...old friends from San Antonio at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens...Jake learned how to spell R-E-A-D-Y...They painted some of the walls in the building I live in...I got an e-mail from Sylvia Netzer...I bought some watercolor paints and started sewing again....is that 100?

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A few nights ago, Krishna, Lindon and I went to Cooper Union to see readings from Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's book, Voices of a People's History of the United States. This is where I heard the best reading ever of Howl. It really was impressive.

Yesterday Adi and I went to Housing court. I was surprised that Bernardo showed up and with pictures...all fired up to make a case against 545 W 146th St, Inc. The judge saw the pictures and took our complaints seriously. She seemed very reasonable and fair. We scheduled a trial date for May 29th.

Earlier today I went to the Municipal Archives on Chambers St. to get a picture of the building from the tax files taken in the (30's?). you can see it here.

Now I'm at the library catching up on the blogging and e-mail and listening to a recording of our housing court trial from last November...the one the the LL's attorney dropped.