Ok, I didn't even bring a camera on this trip. I'm not big into that. I feel like we spend more time trying to document a moment that never really happens because we are trying to document it. It cuts into the real experience. Another reason that I didn't bring one is that I'm on my own and I tend to think that what makes pictures special is the people. Now I'm narcissistic so I'm not into pictures of just me. And lastly, I don't own a camera. So I've taken a few pics on my phone and those will have to suffice.
So far I've seen an array of London sights but here are a couple of highlight events:
1 - Wedding
My friends wedding was beautiful and the sealing was...no word to describe...I don't want to trivialize it by using words like 'special' or 'moving'.
2 - Lincoln
This is where I lived as a kid and stayed with my grandparents for a whole summer when I was 12. I was surprised how well I remembered the place. And the Lincoln Cathedral is beautiful. Then there were the family visits. Way better than I expected. This bit of the trip is really worth a whole blog. Might do that later.
3 - Wimbledon
That's right. Wimbledon. I saw several matches and ate strawberries and cream. I even got on Centre Court to see Nadal (number 2 seed) play. It was magical. After it all I met a family friend, 90 year old Dennis. We went and ate at a pub.
4 - Wicked
Yeah I was really surprised by this. I was kinda like...there's a decently priced ticket...people rave...not too excited about musicals right now...I'll go. It was amazing!!! So worth it. The girl who played the wicked witch of the west was so rock amazing. Drew you right in. You loved her right from the start. She brought down the house with her voice. Gave me goose-bumps like 3 or 4 times. Yeah. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.
Much more to come. I've still got 3 more days in London but I think that Wimbledon and Wicked will be hard to beat. Not to mention Westminster and St. Paul's.
6.29.2007
6.22.2007
Life Lesson # 4,392,671
Ok. I'm in England right. And I'm helping my friend get ready for his wedding. Not doing much. I've had chips and gravy once, KFC twice, and McDonald's 3 times. These english people love american crap. Well last night my friend's finance and her best friend were deciding best how to get home. Well they each had a car and were deciding whether to take one or the other, or both. It was a big dilemma where if they took one then the other would have to get up early and come back into town with them. Course if they took 2 then both had to drive. It went on for 20 minutes. Twenty. After they left I said to my friend, "How long does it take to figure out how to get home!?" Now's where I begin to feel like a blackguard.
My friend explained that his fiance's best friend has MS. This means she doesn't have much strength and so she was worried about having to get up early if she didn't drive home. He went on to explain that she and her husband are also really poor. So she didn't want to have to spend extra money on gas to get home.
How senseless of me?How unkind?How ungenerous? How critical? How presumptuous? I am absolutely ashamed of myself. So often I am quick to judge. Quick to place blame. Quick to categorize. Quick to write off. I'm so quick to think that I understand the situation and that I am smarter than they because I've got it all figured out already. I need to step back and give the benefit of the doubt, seek to understand, and seek to be humble.
My friend explained that his fiance's best friend has MS. This means she doesn't have much strength and so she was worried about having to get up early if she didn't drive home. He went on to explain that she and her husband are also really poor. So she didn't want to have to spend extra money on gas to get home.
How senseless of me?How unkind?How ungenerous? How critical? How presumptuous? I am absolutely ashamed of myself. So often I am quick to judge. Quick to place blame. Quick to categorize. Quick to write off. I'm so quick to think that I understand the situation and that I am smarter than they because I've got it all figured out already. I need to step back and give the benefit of the doubt, seek to understand, and seek to be humble.
6.14.2007
The Scientist
This is the song that converted me to Coldplay. I love this video. But you have to watch it all the way through for it to be good. So if you are bored and wish to spend 4:24 on some good music then click here. If you don't have the patience...wait for Idaho Part II.
6.06.2007
Idaho Part I
So Idaho….Most of you know that there is not a lot of love in my heart for Idaho. It's just not a place I would choose to be. I often wonder why people voluntarily live there. So this last weekend I traveled there under somewhat unfavorable circumstances, but it turned out to be quite valuable. I really don’t feel like delving into the more grave matters so I’ll stick to a couple of lighter ones.
Before I drove the Esperanza:
Before I drove the Esperanza:
I drove this:
A 1988 Ford F150, like this one but white and blue with no tailgate and not as shiny. It was a good truck. 170K miles and going strong. It was a standard transmission and had a stick shift that was about 2.5 feet long and had the bench seat so that you could have your girl ride center and put your arm around her. Amazing. The body was almost without blemish until I let my girlfriend borrow it to run errands :). It got about 10 miles to the gallon but was totally reliable.
When it came time to move out to Boston, I decided I needed to move on to a more fuel efficient and compact car. So I sold it to my old man as a favor for 500 bucks. I miss that truck.
This weekend we were doing a lot of home improvement and so we used the old Ford and I got to drive it. Oh, nostalgia. Malick and I drove it out to the old house I grew up in, to get some carpet one night. She still purrs. Once we got the truck loaded up with all the carpet we stopped for a moment to look at the stars. The old house is out in the boonies and the skies are so clear. The stars are brilliant out in Idaho where there are no people to detract from it with artificial lights. We just stood and stared into the night sky for 5 minutes and soaked it in. Maybe there are some things that I love about Idaho. I certainly love that old truck.
6.01.2007
Boredom Ahead
Ok, I know that there are many of you out there (cough, a;llias;dJulieakdli, cough) that aren't too keen on blogs that have to do with my area's of interest such as my posts about art and dancing (ie. "I must point out that copying and pasting someone else's work is still not a sufficient blog. We want to hear from you.") Many of you prefer to be informed about me and my life and meanderings. You enjoy blogs like the last one I posted. Ones that seem personal. Well let me tell you, there is only boredom and frustration ahead for you people.
Yesterday I was so bored at work that somewhere in the depths of my mind, a memory surfaced. It was a memory from a year or 2 ago when I went to an exhibition at the MET. An artist/sculptor/architect named Santiago Calatrava. He makes beautiful works of art and sculpture and then sometimes uses them in his architecture. Here's an example. He enjoys studying the human body and how it is built. He looks at how the head or rib cage is suspended off the spine through the complex system of ligaments, tendons and muscles.
Some of these studies lead too sculptures. Some of the sculptures have inspired his architecture, like this apartment complex in Sweden.
Or this apartment complex being built next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
I wish that I was thoughtful enough and knowledgeable enough to be able to delve into the theory and history of architecture. But ultimately I’m a bit of an ignoramus and all I can tell you is what I enjoy. I wish that I could inspire you by expounding ideas about the value, methodology, and psychology of architecture and it’s connection to the human race. But at this point I can barely postulate what seems inspiring to me. Architecture interacts with me and I with it. Humanity has the desire and power to manipulate its surroundings. From the earliest stages, man has sought to build and create.
From Giza to the Freedom tower, what drives us? Is it worth paying a few extra million so that we aren't just building another concrete box. Or is it worth a few extra million to build a concrete box and call it "modern"? Do the man made portions of our environment matter to us? Do they affect us? Do we value functionality, beauty, or perhaps an ideal? What makes something beautiful? Would I be as likely to go to the ICA if it was still in it's original nasty firehouse? Would the Boston skyline be as beautiful with out the Zakim bridge? What if the bridges in Cambridge, over the Charles, looked like the ones over the canals in Idaho? Would I be as excited to stroll down Mem Drive on that sunny Sunday afternoon? What about the NYC skyline? Does the absence of the WTC towers change something? Why do people love the Brooklyn Bridge? Would they love it as much if it was built like the Tri-borough bridge? And what about Paris? What value does the Eiffel tower hold? It serves no functional purpose. It was not built for business or for housing or for any practical purpose. What about the Colosseum? What feelings were evoked in those who saw it for the first time, thousands of years ago? The Parthenon? Do the buildings really matter? Do the aesthetics? Do the locations? They do to me.
I know that I wish Government center weren't so damned ugly. I know that I love visiting the ICA and gazing out over Boston from a glass corridor. I know I love walking the river Charles on a Sunday afternoon and appreciate the bridges and buildings. I know that I get excited when I go to the Getty, Guggenheim, or the JFK, if for no other reason than I love the buildings. I know I love being inside the Frank Lloyd Wright room in the MET. I know that I love Tim's night pictures of the Zakim bridge. I know that in 2 weeks I'm going to be chilling with Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral and I'm stoked.
So what's it worth to us? Is it all worth millions? Is it worth paying 12 or more billion to make a freedom tower that is not only functional, but inspiring and beautiful. Are the arts worth patronizing and supporting? Do we really give enough attention and appreciation? Does society show that it values art in more than it's words?
Well here are a few that inspire me:
Yesterday I was so bored at work that somewhere in the depths of my mind, a memory surfaced. It was a memory from a year or 2 ago when I went to an exhibition at the MET. An artist/sculptor/architect named Santiago Calatrava. He makes beautiful works of art and sculpture and then sometimes uses them in his architecture. Here's an example. He enjoys studying the human body and how it is built. He looks at how the head or rib cage is suspended off the spine through the complex system of ligaments, tendons and muscles.
Some of these studies lead too sculptures. Some of the sculptures have inspired his architecture, like this apartment complex in Sweden.
Or this apartment complex being built next to the Brooklyn Bridge.
I wish that I was thoughtful enough and knowledgeable enough to be able to delve into the theory and history of architecture. But ultimately I’m a bit of an ignoramus and all I can tell you is what I enjoy. I wish that I could inspire you by expounding ideas about the value, methodology, and psychology of architecture and it’s connection to the human race. But at this point I can barely postulate what seems inspiring to me. Architecture interacts with me and I with it. Humanity has the desire and power to manipulate its surroundings. From the earliest stages, man has sought to build and create.
From Giza to the Freedom tower, what drives us? Is it worth paying a few extra million so that we aren't just building another concrete box. Or is it worth a few extra million to build a concrete box and call it "modern"? Do the man made portions of our environment matter to us? Do they affect us? Do we value functionality, beauty, or perhaps an ideal? What makes something beautiful? Would I be as likely to go to the ICA if it was still in it's original nasty firehouse? Would the Boston skyline be as beautiful with out the Zakim bridge? What if the bridges in Cambridge, over the Charles, looked like the ones over the canals in Idaho? Would I be as excited to stroll down Mem Drive on that sunny Sunday afternoon? What about the NYC skyline? Does the absence of the WTC towers change something? Why do people love the Brooklyn Bridge? Would they love it as much if it was built like the Tri-borough bridge? And what about Paris? What value does the Eiffel tower hold? It serves no functional purpose. It was not built for business or for housing or for any practical purpose. What about the Colosseum? What feelings were evoked in those who saw it for the first time, thousands of years ago? The Parthenon? Do the buildings really matter? Do the aesthetics? Do the locations? They do to me.
I know that I wish Government center weren't so damned ugly. I know that I love visiting the ICA and gazing out over Boston from a glass corridor. I know I love walking the river Charles on a Sunday afternoon and appreciate the bridges and buildings. I know that I get excited when I go to the Getty, Guggenheim, or the JFK, if for no other reason than I love the buildings. I know I love being inside the Frank Lloyd Wright room in the MET. I know that I love Tim's night pictures of the Zakim bridge. I know that in 2 weeks I'm going to be chilling with Big Ben and Westminster Cathedral and I'm stoked.
So what's it worth to us? Is it all worth millions? Is it worth paying 12 or more billion to make a freedom tower that is not only functional, but inspiring and beautiful. Are the arts worth patronizing and supporting? Do we really give enough attention and appreciation? Does society show that it values art in more than it's words?
Well here are a few that inspire me:
Pantheon - Rome
Falling Water - Frank Lloyd Wright
Entrance to the Louvre - I.M. Pei
Tenerife Opera House - Calatrava
Alamillo Bridge in Seville - Calatrava
Chicago Spire - Calatrava (should be finished by 2009, click to enlarge)
So maybe I wasn't very personal in this blog. But maybe, just maybe, you'll find that even though I'm not baring my soul, you are actually learning more about me. Lucky you. Read on reader.
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