Design The Details

Eye Heart Postcard

2009-02-06T19:07:00.003-05:00

Eye Heart Postcard
Originally uploaded by wrox

Iphone App Postcard

Guitar Postcard

2009-02-06T19:07:00.001-05:00

Guitar Postcard
Originally uploaded by wrox

Iphone App Postcard

Heart postcard

2009-02-06T19:06:00.001-05:00

Heart postcard
Originally uploaded by wrox

IPhone App Postcard

A Little Bit Of My Inner Showgirl

2009-01-28T02:35:00.001-05:00

Posted with LifeCast

Countdown to Obama

2009-01-19T15:28:00.002-05:00

I am getting swept up in the inaugural hype!
And very excited about the next chapter in American history!

Creatures From The Deep

2009-01-16T19:20:00.004-05:00

More creatures from the deep.

Visit the Florida Aquarium.

The Obama's New Designer: Michael S. Smith

2009-01-16T19:03:00.000-05:00

Beautiful and modern interior design for the Obama's and the Whitehouse

The Obamas have selected their new White House interior designer, Michael S. Smith. I just discovered Mr. Smith (no relation, that I know of) has a great book out on homes he has decorated, strangely enough entitled, Michael S. Smith Houses. His long list of celebrity clients, but more importantly, he has experience in family friendly interiors so I guess he'll be making the White House nice and comfy for the Obamas. A native of California, Smith studied interior design at the prestigious Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and apparently Mr. Smith a reputation for for mixing high and low, mixing rare antiques with custom-made and retail pieces. I imagine he'll have a plethora of rarities to start with at the White House. What a dream job for the 44 year old super talent.

I love this bedroom...Can I move into the Whitehouse?

this post originally appeared in SFGirlByBay - one of my fave blogs!

How Do You Say Good Bye?

2009-01-13T04:06:00.000-05:00

...I don't know.

Do You?

Vintage Window Display

2009-01-09T01:24:00.004-05:00

Passed by this window display in a vintage clothing store window Ybor city last night.

The sunset at Don Cesar

2009-01-06T16:47:00.002-05:00

Enjoying the day with my girls on Passe a Grille beach.

The Florida Aquarium

2009-01-04T18:43:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I haven't hone to the Aquarium here. I have lived in Tampa for 7 years and have really been missing out. What a great place!

More pics to follow

Treasure Hunt Pictures

2008-12-31T14:30:00.000-05:00

The other night I went out on my photo treasure hunt...

These pics were taken with my new Iphone and then special effects were added with the camera bag application. I love all of the little Iphone gadgets - makes wasting time so much more fun!

From Iphone& Camera Bag EFX

Elephant Tricks

2008-12-29T21:00:00.001-05:00

Still waiting for my dinner...
I love these salt and pepper shakers.

There is a little child here that is related to the restaurant somehow...
He is running in and out if the kitchen - the Thai waitress keeps telling him to go away, he is not listening. The place is pretty small and everyone is cracking up!

The Re-release of a classic on vinyl: G-N-R Appetite for Destruction

2008-12-29T20:47:00.001-05:00

My evening treasure hunt began at Bedt Buy in need of printer ink and blank CDs.

I am currently waiting for my Thai food dinner - then off to Borders...

Meteor Showers and Planets

2008-12-29T14:41:00.006-05:00

Last night I dreamed I was sitting on a short cement embankment with my Dad. There were a lot of other people there too, but I didn't know them. The embankment was in a grassy park area, sort of separating a sidewalk from a grass area.

Everyone was watching this incredible cosmic scene. There were planets in the sky that appeared as large as a full moon, only they were perfectly spaced like round tiles in even vertical and horizontal rows...it was nighttime.

Then everyone looked around in amazement because a meteor shower started pouring all around like confetti in Times Square on New Years Eve. It wasn't really a meteor shower, it was just known that it was a meteor shower. It was really pieces of singed newsprint paper.

People were scrambling to get a piece of meteor...like a catching a guitar pick at a concert.
But they didn't need to, there was a lot of the stuff. I caught a large piece. My Dad said, "now you have a souvenir to take home."

...and it was over

Thai Temple Built From One Million Recycled Bottles

2008-12-29T14:11:00.000-05:00

This temple is amazing. The amount of work to create this mosaic is incredible. I would love to go there to see the light play that the glass provides. Keep recycling!

by
Evelyn Lee

This article originally appeared on Inhabitat.com

The Wat Pa Maha Chedio Kaew temple has found a way to bottle-up Nirvana, literally. The temple, which sits in Thailand’s Sisaket province, roughly 370 miles northeast of Bangkok is made of more than a million recycled glass bottles. True to its nickname, “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” features glass bottles throughout the premises of the temple, including the crematorium, surrounding shelters, and yes – even the toilets. There’s an estimated 1.5 million recycled bottles built into the temple, and as you might have guessed, they are committed to recycling more. After all, the more bottles they get, the more buildings they are able to construct.

The bottle-collection-turned-building started in 1984, when the monks used them to decorate their shelters. The shiny building material attracted more people to donate more bottles, until eventually they had enough to build the temple standing today. Bottle caps are also integrated as decorative mosaic murals. Going beyond use of glass as a sustainable building material, the bottle bricks don’t fade, let natural light into the space and are surprisingly easy to maintain. So if you’re looking to find Nirvana in a bottle, you might want to consider making a stop at the Wat Pa Maha Kaew Temple.

How to Live Artfully

2008-12-24T16:23:00.000-05:00

Happy Christmas Eve

I like this article from Lifehack.org. With the new year coming
this reminded me of those New Year's resolutions that generally do not
get resolved.

But this is an easy reminder of a more positive approach to life.

I met someone recently who knows how to live.

You know the type: self-possessed, confident, the kind of person who energizes a room. The kind of person who is alive to everything around them, who makes everyone they focus their attention on feel they could do more, they could be more. A natural-born leader who brings out the best in everyone without any apparent effort. Apparently fearless, they inspire by example, making our deepest concerns seem petty in the face of sheer living.

There is, I believe, an art to living. An art of living. Like a great painter, some people approach life as their canvas, pulling together deliberate action and tight attention to detail here with a carefree sloppiness over there, creating a balanced and, in the end, entirely pleasing composition. Like the sculptor, they are always looking for potential form hidden under the seemingly shapeless mass of lived experience. And like a musician, they find ways of merging perfectly their own self-expression with forms that have been handed down to them and to others might seem formulaic and routine.

I don’t know if the sheer talent for living can be learned; it takes more than a few painting classes to develop the kind of spark we find in the work of Picasso, Vermeer, or Chagall. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything from them, just as the beginning artist learns from studying the work of the great masters.

Here’s what I learned from this recent encounter with a true artiste of life, and what might help us all bring a touch of artfulness to our own living.

1. Pay attention.

Curiosity kills cats, they say, but in people, it is what makes us truly alive. Look deeply at the world of everyday things around you, and wonder. When you face the world with open eyes, you discover mysteries everywhere.

Most importantly, pay attention to people. This is my hardest lesson, actually – as a college instructor, I meet so many new people every semester, and I have such a hard time keeping them all straight in my head. The outward manifestation of this is that I struggle to learn names, even after 15 weeks of classes; the deeper concern is that I don’t learn all I could from my students, and in the end that’s the first job of a teacher.

When we pay attention to people, really pay attention, it brings forth something in them that’s amazing. This is something I learned as an anthropologist – people love to tell their stories. All they need is someone to really listen to them. And when people give you their stories, it enriches your own story.

2. Surround yourself with inspiring people and inspiring things.

An artful life is a life that embraces creativity, and creativity doesn’t emanate pure and whole from within but emerges from our engagement with the world around us. The poet Ezra Pound said “the artist is the antenna of the race”, meaning that the “stuff” of art is not what is inborn in the artist but what they pick up from the society around them, the “waves” that emanate from their culture in going about its business.

There is a common saying that if you want to be the best at anything, surround yourself with people who are better than you. It is the constant challenge of striving to reach their heights that drives us to innovate, to create, and ultimately to master our field, whether that be art, invention, business, love, or anything else.

I know ‘tis the season to decry all things materialistic, but just as we’re inspired by people we are also inspired by things. For some, it’s fine art; for others, folk or indigenous art; for still others, the simple lines of modern design or of a Zen garden. In my case, it’s books – the sheer physical presence of them. I respond in an almost physical way to books, feeling in their tight bindings and crisp pages a kind of calmness that is, I suppose, the clean channel the artist gets his orher ideas on.

3. Capture your dreams.

I wonder how many of us go through life without ever reaching any of our dreams solely because we’ve never made an effort to figure out exactly what they are. That is, we avoid the kind of self-examination and purposeful imagining needed to pinpoint the things we want most out of life – and so we can never really chase after them.

I was chatting with a writer recently who, among other things, helps clients write profiles for personals sites. (That’s a niche I’d never even imagined existing, but apparently there’s quite a demand for it!) Writing profiles is, for most part, the most significant barrier to finding a good match, and if you think about it, that’s true all over the web, not just on dating sites. Take a look at the “People I’d Like to Meet” section of most people’s MySpace profiles – people just don’t know. “Cool, interesting people.” Well, of course, but what makes someone cool and interesting to you?

When this kind of ignorance of self infects even a person’s dating profile, you have to wonder. I mean, the choice of a mate is arguably one of the most important choices you’ll ever make in your life – can it really be true that the average person has absolutely no idea of what they’d like that person to be like?

Knowing what you want to attain is the first step to attaining it. That’s not to say you can’t be flexible, but if you can’t tie your goals to deep-rooted dreams and desires, you’ll never have the energy to attain them or, if you do manage to accomplish them, for them to have much meaning. And meaning is the fuel of the artful life.

4. Be appreciative.

In his later years, Kurt Vonnegut was fond of describing his Uncle Alex who, after a particularly fine meal or while watching an especially lovely sunset, would sit back and exclaim, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

That kind of conscious recognition of the comforting, pleasing, or otherwise satisfying moments in life goes a long way. It is, I think, what gives prayer its power for those who thank the powers that be, whatever they happen to believe in, for the little bounties that make up their day-to-day lives. (I say this as an entirely non-religious person – you don’t have to be religious to recognize the positivity that prayer brings to the lives of its adherents.)

Appreciating the world around you is the key to dwelling comfortably within it, even as you strive to attain your wildest dreams. Recognizing the value around you now is, in a way, the engine that drives our dream-chasing – for what is a dream except a desire to have more of the goodness we recognize around us? Which is perhaps why those who are driven by dissatisfaction with their everyday lives rarely find happiness no matter how outwardly successful they manage to become – they’re always running away from something worse instead of towards something better.

Originally featured on Lifehack.org

I {heart} PUMA (shipping container store)

2008-12-20T19:28:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows that I love Pumas. If you didn't, well... you do now.

If you want to give me some for Christmas - I'll take size 8.5 thank you!

This is an awesome example of repurposed shipping containers.
I must say thank you to Taryn (architect/teacher) for piquing my interest in the shipping container.

SUPER COOL!

PUMA City, Shipping Container Store / LOT

By David Basulto — Filed under: Building Technology and Materials , Retail , LOT-EK

Our green friends over Inhabitat just tipped us on a new project by NYC/Napoli based office LOT-EK, a practice that has been doing an interesting job by reusing containers.

The containers are put together to create a 3 story store with over 11,000 sqf, including a bar/lounge area and 2 decks.

The store is currently at the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, and it´s transported to each location and assembled quickly.

More pictures details after the jump.

Read the original article at: Arch Daily

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Obama appoints architect to head US housing department

2008-12-20T19:21:00.001-05:00

By Anna Winston

US president-elect Barack Obama has appointed an architect, Shaun Donovan, to the post of secretary of housing and urban development in his incoming administration.
Donovan, who has a degree in architecture from Harvard, has a background in affordable housing, and has been head of New York’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development since 2004.

“His background as an architect, his support for well designed housing, and his record in promoting energy efficiency and sustainable development show that he is committed not only to building but to building better.”

Read the full Article at: bd online

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Preserving China's Shikumen Architecture

2008-12-20T18:17:00.002-05:00

A vanishing aesthetic

ANANTH KRISHNAN

Lilongs, Shanghai’s neighbourhoods with unique architecture that were built in the 19th century, were once a victim of China’s war on its own past during the Cultural Revolution. With enormous commercial pressure on real estate, the city’s finding ways, some controversial, to restore the few remaining heritage sites.

Shikumen architecture combines Western and Chinese styles to create a unique aesthetic that cannot be found anywhere else in China. But few neighbourhoods remain today.

In the late 1990s, by when many of downtown Shanghai’s lilongs had been consumed by a wave of development, one very politically significant site came under threat — a site where the Communist Party held its first ever meeting way back in 1921. For once, the government did not turn a deaf ear to protests against the development. A Hong Kong-based developer, the Shui On Group, came up with a compromise to use the prime real estate: While the old shikumen houses would all be torn down, the developer agreed to reuse their tiles and replicate a 19th century lilong in the project instead of erecting yet another skyscraper in the heart of the city. The only difference would be that instead of local residents — who were all evicted — this new neighbourhood would house commercial establishments like Starbucks and boutique designer stores, to make the hugely expensive project commercially viable for the developer

After years of neglect, the Shanghai Government is now embarking on an ambitious Bund restoration project to help restore these forgotten buildings to their former glory. The Peace Hotel is also being renovated by the Government-owned Jinjiang hotel group. Many point to the success of Xintiandi as fundamentally changing the government’s perception of preservation, by creating a realisation that when done right, preservation too can bring in the money.

Read the full Article at The Hindu - India's online newspaper

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Bili's Yard

2008-12-15T14:42:00.001-05:00

Last night I went to dinner at my friend Bili's house.

His back yard is full of little moments or vignettes.

He has cool little pots and figurines every where you look.
But, they aren't just placed wherever, I can tell that when he finds something of interest,
care is taken to set it up in its own place to give the object its own sense of purpose
there.

His backyard tells a story. It is a wonderful place to find yourself in.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Untitled

2008-12-15T04:44:00.003-05:00

“If I never met you, I wouldn't like you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't miss you. But I did, I do, and I will.”

- a quote that I can only credit to this page

My best friend is moving away. I selfishly want her to stay because what will I do without her?

My best friend is moving away. I love her and know that her heart she must follow...and I think that she should and IT IS TRUE!

My best friend is moving away. The love of her life is waiting for them to finally be able to live out their days together, instead of apart.

My best friend is moving away. I will miss my best friend. I am so happy for her and support this decision. I love her and see the love, light and beauty of her path.

My Best Friend is Moving Away.

I love you- R.

My New Favorite Artist: Alberto Seveso of Italy

2008-12-13T05:03:00.002-05:00

I do believe I am in love.

I do not know what about this hybrid sensuousness of vector graphics and photography and whatever other techniques this artist uses to create these brilliantly modern masterworks, but they are a beautiful hybrid of our time and artistic philosophies that have come before us.

Enthralled.

Please see more: Alberto Seveso

Blogged with the Flock Browser

why do Humans kiss?

2008-12-12T13:35:00.001-05:00

Why do humans kiss?

By Kristina Fiore, posted October 2nd, 2006.

Of course, the simplest answer is that humans kiss because it just feels good. But there are people for whom this explanation isn’t quite sufficient. They formally study the anatomy and evolutionary history of kissing and call themselves philematologists.
Others believe kissing is indeed an instinctive behavior, and cite animals’ kissing-like behaviors as proof. While most animals rub noses with each other as a gesture of affection, others like to pucker up just like humans. Bonobos, for example, make up tons of excuses to swap some spit. They do it to make up after fights, to comfort each other, to develop social bonds, and sometimes for no clear reason at all – just like us.

Today, the most widely accepted theory of kissing is that humans do it because it helps us sniff out a quality mate. When our faces are close together, our pheromones “talk” – exchanging biological information about whether or not two people will make strong offspring. Women, for example, subconsciously prefer the scent of men whose genes for certain immune system proteins are different from their own. This kind of match could yield offspring with stronger immune systems, and better chances for survival.

Still, most people are satisfied with the explanation that humans kiss because it feels good. Our lips and tongues are packed with nerve endings, which help intensify all those dizzying sensations of being in love when we press our mouths to someone else’s. Experiencing such feelings doesn’t usually make us think too hard about why we kiss – instead, it drives us to find ways to do it more often.

A big question is whether kissing is learned or instinctual. Some say it is a learned behavior, dating back to the days of our early human ancestors. Back then, mothers may have chewed food and passed it from their mouths into those of their toothless infants. Even after babies cut their teeth, mothers would continue to press their lips against their toddlers’ cheeks to comfort them.

Supporting the idea that kissing is learned rather than instinctual is the fact that not all humans kiss. Certain tribes around the world just don’t make out, anthropologists say. While 90 percent of humans actually do kiss, 10 percent have no idea what they’re missing.

This excerpt from an article that appeared in scienceline.com
Check out the full article - some good useless information

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Triumph Of The Creative Class

2008-12-11T01:35:00.002-05:00

This article originally appeared in Forbes magazine on Nov.5, the day after the election.

I love it, I am the creative class that throughout my school years was shunned as an outsider by the regular preppy types, and am now the target populous of American society.

I should have caught on when Iggy Pop was trying to sell me a cruise vacation during prime-time television commercials.

I selected a few paragraph excerpts from the article,
Read the full article here at Forbes.com

Obama's triumph reflects a decisive shift in the economic center of gravity away from military contractors, manufacturers, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, suburban real estate developers, energy companies, old-line remnants on Wall Street and other traditional backers of the GOP. In their place, we can see the rise of a different set of players, predominately drawn from the so-called "creative class" of Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the younger, go-go set in the financial world....

The biggest difference between the creative class and the old business types isn't on cultural issues--few traditional CEOs embraced the religious right's agenda--but on environmental policy. Executives at places like Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ), as well as opportunistic investment firms, have become enthusiastic jihadis in the war against climate change. Conveniently, their companies don't tend to be huge energy consumers and, if they make products, do so in largely unregulated facilities in China or elsewhere in the developing world. And youthful financial firms looking for the next "bubble" could benefit hugely from mandates for more solar, wind and other alternative fuels....

Yet given the creative class' increasing domination of the media, and the inability of the GOP to comprehend the changing world around it, such a counterstroke may be years in coming. For the time being we will just have to watch to see if the new economic order can perform better than the now largely discredited old business establishment whose time in the sun, at least for now, has set....

Blogged with the Flock Browser

My Lionel Ritchie Spider

2008-12-10T04:14:00.001-05:00

He's Dancin' on the Ceilin'...

...of my bathroom!

My new roommate-

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Video Inspiration for Green Design

2008-12-09T20:02:00.001-05:00

This Video is full of Sustainable Design products for interiors...
And a Very Groovy soundtrack!

For more information check out:

Resource Design Lab

IPOD Touch - Now a FREE Phone

2008-12-09T18:06:00.001-05:00

This is such a cool article-

I had to share it. Very appropriate as today I was wasting precious research paper writing time looking at new phones that I am considering. The voila, like magic, I get this gem in my feedz for the day!

Ok, so we've been a bit obsessed with our iPod Touch of late. It's like there isn't anything it can't do. Hello, it can even get us to the gym! Well, now we've found one more thing it can do. Using it's WiFi you can now make phone calls.
With the free TruPhone software and a microphone headset, you can turn your iPod Touch into a VoIP phone that can connect to an other Truphone users...

Truphone also turns iPhones, Blackberrys and Nokia's into free VoIP phones.

Next up is letting the Touch make and receive calls to and from landlines at low cost and with Skype users for free. Seriously, is there anything the Touch can't do? Can it do my laundry? via Techradar
NOTE: Truphone is only compatible with 2nd Generation Touch units. Our 1st gen Touch rejected the app like a Blu-ray disc in a 1999 DVD player.

Article compliments of Apartment Therapy Unplugged

Blogged with the Flock Browser

If The Wig FIts

2008-12-07T13:06:00.001-05:00

I could not resist this picture!

This poor cat looks as if he would really like to kill the person that put the lovely pink wig on top of his head.

However I think that he has done this before...

Awesome art and illustrations
(not of wigs, except this one)

Are found at:
The House of Nazario Graziano

Saturday Bliss

2008-12-06T13:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday!

Downtown Tampa

2008-12-05T15:45:00.001-05:00

Carbon Neutral Christmas

2008-12-04T16:03:00.000-05:00

DICTIONARY WORD POLL

2008-12-03T00:55:00.005-05:00

If you could add a word to the dictionary...

what would it be?

Please Respond with the Complete listing as it would appear in the dictionary as your Comment to this Post.

Example:

ek lek'tiv

adj.

According to dictionary.com and Websters New World Dictionary
eclective is not a word.

I think that it should be.

example: He is eclective.
Or: They live an eclective life.

Include its meaning and an example of its usage in a sentence. If you can not think of both definition and example - at least one must be included for inclusion in the final poll.

(this word was invented by me on November 17th 2008 in a prior post and confirmed not a word at Dictionary.com)

LA LA LA... Fa La La La La.... These pictures have nothing to do with Christmas

2008-12-03T00:04:00.002-05:00

Because I can't look at the pig picture anymore....

Here is another fun batch from LA.

Top- Aardvark's Vintage
Middle - the famous El Capitan
Bottom - Johnson Motors (I love them)

Welcome to Publix!

2008-12-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

Walking up to my neighborhod grocery store to this vision of grossness!

Totally not vegetarian sensitive!

(RED)Wire.com

2008-12-02T01:54:00.001-05:00

Great Music Saves Lives

(RED)wire.com

Bono does it again - sign up and save lives!

Occultation of Venus

2008-12-01T19:27:00.003-05:00

This is a great sight in astronomy happening right now!

'The Occultation of Venus'

Brilliant Venus will pop out from behind the Moon on Monday night (December 1) in a spectacular display of celestial hide-and-seek over much of Europe including the UK. Britain is ideally placed for the rare event, called a planetary occultation, which occurs during the "rush hour" and so could be widely noticed by non-astronomers. In the darkening twilight, Venus will appear like a bright "star" emerging and detaching itself from the crescent Moon which will probably show "earthshine" on its dark side - a phenomenon known as "the old moon in the young moon's arms". The pair will then make a dazzling pattern with another bright planet, Jupiter, above the south-western horizon - itself a rare event called a conjunction.
The Moon's cover-up of Venus begins in daylight shortly after 3.45pm from London. Venus will then lie just to the left of the Moon and may be seen even with the naked eye as it is so bright. But the reappearance of Venus will be even easier to spot because of the darker sky. From London this happens at about 5.16pm. Times in other parts of the country vary slightly but you can check for major cities below. (Warning: Do not try to find it in binoculars or a telescope without first hiding the Sun behind a building and don't allow anyone else to risk pointing the instrument at the Sun and being blinded.)
The lunar cover-up is similar to a solar eclipse except that it is Venus being hidden instead of the Sun. A conjunction between these bright planets and the Moon is unusual enough but the occultation makes this event extra special.

Text: Popastro.com
Picture: Me

LA Dreamin...

2008-12-01T14:42:00.003-05:00

I took so many pictures while I was there... I will just keep posting them...

The last image is of the Hollywood Cemetery. Apparently, it is where a lot of old Hollywood is buried. I like this shot because it also has my favorite feature of the sun - Crepuscular Rays.

Blog Browsing

2008-12-01T02:04:00.002-05:00

I tried that next blog button on the nav bar for a while.... thought I would see where it goes , obviously down the winding blogger path.

Interesting and not so interesting bloggers. But this one is pretty cool and worth a look in imagery alone. The blog I gather is from Brazil, I don't understand the written language.

The blog's author has a thing for Jack Kerouac and has a great eye for undetected photography, or cam-phone pics...

I recommend it...
http://ramelas.blogspot.com/

More from Johnson Motors

2008-11-30T14:40:00.008-05:00

Johnson Motors on Melrose is a spot reminiscent of the days when Steve McQueen raced for them.

The interior cast an amber glow on posters, books and antique rally flyers. Look beyond the cash register and find the bike shop...adorned with helmets, bike parts, and memories.

The shop itself is still fully functioning. The top picture I shot through a mesh door. There had been a photo - shoot for a catalogue that day.

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters is a big fan...

More From My Trip

2008-11-29T14:41:00.004-05:00

Johnson Motors on Melrose

LA LA LA LA Angeles - my way

2008-11-28T00:05:00.003-05:00

My Best Friend from PDX got married last weekend. Hr new wife is a hot DJ...she was doing a gig at Girlbar the night before the wedding.
A few of my views from Girlbar

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T17:46:00.001-05:00

Sunset today in Florida

I Love LA

2008-11-20T01:08:00.001-05:00

I feel like I spent 27 days in 84 airports to get here , but it was worth it.
Really it was 3 airports and 2 planes, but squished like sardines in a small recirculated tin can!

Here are shots from the planes:

Leaving Tampa:

Flying In To Dallas:

And Los Angeles:

Day one has been full of excellent visions from windows; plane windows and many visions from the car window on the 405 - creeping along on the 405...

Goin' Back To Cali!!

2008-11-19T01:23:00.000-05:00

I am so excitedright now. It is 1:30 am; my cab will be here in 3 hours.

My flight leaves in 5 hours.

I am goin back to Cali! To see friends that I have not seen in 5 years!
Do a little architecture touring, and whatever else rolls my way.

Mobile blog will be in effect...
so if you read this, check often for new pics over the next 6 days!

ek lek'tiv

2008-11-17T14:44:00.001-05:00

adj.

According to dictionary.com and Websters New World Dictionary
eclective is not a word.

I think that it should be.

example: He is eclective.
Or: They live an eclective life.

A 21st Century Buckminster Fuller

2008-11-15T04:34:00.001-05:00

I am going to L.A. in 4 Days for a friends wedding...
Being stuck in Florida studying architecture and design leaves a lot of world to see.
Fortunately I have seen some, so I do know what I am missing...
I found this in my feeds...

Eddy Sykes is an architect by training. But he’s also ajack-of-all-trades, a cross between a mad scientist and a garagetinkerer. In “Yakuza Lou,” an installation that is on view until theend of February at Materials+Applications — an outdoor nonprofit spacein the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles — Sykes pulls out allthe stops. In exploring a new type of surface manipulation with a firmfooting in real-world materials and construction methods, Sykes beganwith something as pedestrian as a mailbox reflector:when deconstructed, it reveals a complex geometry of truncated pyramidsand faceted jewel-like textures. “Yakuza Lou” (don’t ask: the name isstill a mystery) consists of two parts: a ground-hugging element that,through robotics, becomes a geodesic dome with colored and grass-filledfacets; and a more ethereal (albeit made of metal) “cloud” that expandsand contracts overhead. To achieve the complex folded surfaces of thetwo elements, Sykes and his small team looked at lots of things — fromcrumpled paper to quilts to the pattern on a stick of chewing gum —until they landed on an origami tessellation (think of those foldedpaper fortune-telling games) that was developed in the ’70s by aCanadian mathematician. I visited Sykes in his studio during the lastweek of testing and was amazed to learn that the team had madeeverything from scratch, including the thousands of nuts and bolts andother parts that make up the piece. Visit M+A to see “Yakuza Lou” in action, and keep an eye on Eddy Sykes, who could well be his generation’s answer to Buckminster Fuller.

It is on my to do list while in LA - along with the Eames House.

This post appeared in The Moment Blog from the New York Times
by Brooke Hodge

Life Vest for Polar Bear Plight

2008-11-13T19:28:00.001-05:00

This is a great idea...if only it was feasible!

As the climate crisis mounts and Arctic icebergs slip away, polar bearsare suffering starvation, population declines, and drowning as theymust swim further and further to find food. Seeking to raise awarenessfor the endangered species’ plight, ADDI Conceptshas taken wildlife preservation literally by designing a life-vest fordisplaced polar bears struggling to stay afloat as their homes sinkinto the sea.

The design group has also conceived of a bulletproof vest for Bengaltigers, whose numbers have decreased by 95% since 1910 due to illegalhunting.

Thank you Mike Chino and Inhabitat for this post!

Back In Black - T Shirt Exhibit

2008-11-12T11:22:00.001-05:00

T-shirt Exhibit in St.Pete

Cool Stuff does happen here!

Here is a link to more info

Working Hard on Midterms

2008-11-10T11:11:00.001-05:00

As I am researching the inevitable research paper and trying to make time to blog. I was reading my morning feeds and
this little gem popped up...

borrowed from DESIGNFORMANKIND

Fall design Inspirations

2008-11-07T14:38:00.002-05:00

Posted in Apartment Therapy -

Inspiration for my next home - or this one if I ever get a moment ;)

Scenes From My Kitchen

2008-11-07T04:46:00.001-05:00

Testing out my new camera - decided to play in the kitchen!

JVC Bonsai Speakers

2008-11-06T18:30:00.001-05:00

These are so cool! I want a pair!

JVC recently unveiled a beautiful line of bonsai-laden Kirikabu speakers at this year’s Tokyo Designer’s Week. Created out of eco-friendly plastic, the conceptual series of speakers can be assembled into different shapes, and each contains a small compartment perfect for planting a tiny bonsai tree!

Black and White Missoni Home

2008-11-06T17:19:00.001-05:00

I Love this image from the Missoni Home Collection

So graphic and cool!

"Yes We CAN"

2008-11-05T00:58:00.002-05:00

I have goose bumps and tears in my eyes as the hope for America arises in me. My sense of American pride is overwhelming. One that I have never experienced before, but one that I saw in people of my age and mindset when Kennedy took office. I am proud to be a part of this time!

Welcome Barack! These are some of my favorite moments in the acceptance speech.

"Let us summon a new spirit"

"our stories are singular...our destiny is shared"

"This is our moment, this is our time"

"Proclaim the American Dream...Yes We Can!"

Vote Today and Be Heard!

2008-11-04T17:34:00.001-05:00

Poster courtesy of designer Brad D. Norr, AIGA Minnesota.

Do You Know What Today Is?

2008-11-04T04:40:00.002-05:00

Of course you do!!!!
Come on America - you can do it.............

Go VOTE today
Please..I'll give a surprise if you do...
:)

The Lizard is my Co-Pilot

2008-11-02T18:00:00.004-05:00

You gotta love Florida-
I'm driving down the road earlier today - about 35 mpg - all of a sudden this guy whips up onto the windshield....

And the quick camera phone action took over. He bobbed along for a ways and jumped around - I'm hoping he rode out the last bit to the stop light on the roof of my car! Then safely hopped off, hopefully!

OMA unveils design for their first residential tower in NY

2008-11-01T19:04:00.001-04:00

Located at at 23 East 22nd St, the 335 ft (107 m) tall mid-rise tower-which you can see on the second plane behind One Madison Park at therendering- features an innovative design when it comes to towers, anevolution of the OMA studies on new high rise designs. The buildingcantilevers 30 feet over its neighbor, a form that “provides anumber of unexpected moments that appear at each step – balconies atthe upper part of the building and floor windows at the lower part —providing a variety of unit types and features throughout the building”, in words of Rem Koolhaas.

This project is led by Rem and Shohei Shigematsu, a partner at OMAcurrently in charge of OMA NY. When we visited their office back inMarch to interview Shohei (an interview i recommend you to watch), we saw a lot of experimentation around new forms for towers, such at the Jersey City project and the Bicentennial Tower. I bet OMA will surprise us in the future with more innovative tall building designs.

The above rendering is the proposal for the penthouse. The ceilingheight and the view of the pool result on a dramatic space. I thinkthat those images are very related to the filming background ofKoolhaas.

This article was originally posted in ArchDaily.com on September 12 2008

iaspire...to be this talented

2008-10-28T03:49:00.001-04:00

OMG-
Every so often I run across a renderer that defies the laws of reality!
By this I mean talent baby!

These images were taken from the website's quick sketching section. I love these and this artist.
As a design student - I admire this talent.
I will be studying this artist's work.

Please visit irendering.com

Guavaween 08

2008-10-27T13:39:00.002-04:00

Guavaween 08 - this is of Theory of a Dead Man -
They ROCKED!!!!!
The rest of what I saw should not be in pictures! Mainly chicks wearing too little over the parts that should be covered!

Pad Thai, anyone?

2008-10-25T14:36:00.003-04:00

I could go for some summer rolls right now!

Need Assistance?

2008-10-24T14:49:00.001-04:00

I love this guy!

Crazy Banyan Tree House Diner in Japan

2008-10-24T13:38:00.006-04:00

From My Mobile Blog

Although this towering concrete treehouse isn’t really green, (unless tree imitation counts as ‘green’), we couldn’t help but be awestruck by its sheer craziness. We thought it worth a post, just for the picture alone. The Naha Harbor Diner in Okinawa, Japan is a life-size rendition of a banyan tree, also known as gajumaru. The aptly-named Banyan Town shopping center near the entrance of Onoyama Park features a twenty foot tall tree with a pan-Asian restaurant nestled amid its branches. Accessible by a spiral staircase around back and an in-trunk elevator, the restaurant specializes in locally grown and organic harvested foods fresh from the farm.

Overlooking the ocean, the Naha Harbor Diner claims to offer “farm-fresh vegetables, juicy chickens and pork” and “native salts.” And as we all know, native and local foods cut down on shipping and packaging costs, reducing our carbon and plastic footprints. In the end its hard to say whether dining in a faux tree will boost your sustainability points, but it sure looks exciting and native ingredients can’t hurt.

By Alexandra Kain
Inhabitat.com

The Zen Principles of Design

2008-10-23T13:55:00.005-04:00

Zen’s seven ruling principles are guiding lights of design. Once you read them they make real sense for an authentic design plan for your home.

Asymmetry (Fukinsei): Stiff, formal symmetry, suggestingfrozen finality and artificial perfection, can be fatal to the imagination. Asymmetry lets us be loose and spontaneous—more human thangodlike. It means we can get by with one—or three—candlesticks, and all the china doesn’t have to match.

Simplicity (Kanos): Zen eschews gaudy, ornate, and overembellished in favor of sparse, fresh, and neat. It’s the triumph of craftsman style over the cluttered Victorian parlor.

Austerity (Koko): Zen asks us to reduce everything to “the pith of essence.” Don’t love it? Can’t find a use for it? Let it go.

Naturalness (Shizen): Zen is artless, without pretense or self-consciousness. It’s bare wood, unpolished stone, and flowers from the backyard.

Subtle Profundity (Yugen): Within Zen lies a deep reserve, a mysterious, shadowy darkness. The hint of soft moonlight thorugh a skylight would be yugen.

Freedom from Worldly Attachments (Datsuzoku): The Buddhataught us not to be bound to life, things, or rules. “It is not a strong bond, say the wise, that is made of iron, wood, or hemp,” hesaid. “Far greater an attachment than that is the longing for jewels and ornaments, children and wives.” It’s the simplicity movement, notkeeping up with the Joneses.

Silence (Sejaku): Inwardly oriented, Zen embraces the quiet calm of dawn, dusk, late autumn, and early spring.
I borrowed this post from one of my favorite blogs Lotushaus

Florida skies

2008-10-23T02:19:00.001-04:00

I can never get enough of the beauty of the sun in setting glory

Test mobile

2008-10-23T01:56:00.001-04:00

Ultimate design

God is in the Details

2008-10-23T01:02:00.000-04:00

Welcome-

In the words of Mies Van der Rohe, "God is in the details"

This blog is dedicated to the details!