Blog
Dr. Edith Farnsworth in a state of repose at her weekend home in Plano, Illinois
A PHYSICAL FILE CONTAINING PHOTOGRAPHS AND PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE EXISTS. FAME, IS NOT A PART OF THE CRITERIA, IN FACT IT CAN REMOVE ONE FROM THE SYSTEM. INCLUSION IS BASED ON CONTRIBUTION, SOME WOULD CONSIDER IT CULTURAL CAPITAL. IT RANGES FROM A WOMAN WHO DROVE TO HER HOME TO GET A WIRE COAT HANGER WHEN KEYS WERE LOCKED IN A CAR. THE HANGER WAS THE TOOL THAT WOULD OPEN THE LOCK. THE FILE ALSO CONTAINED A LETTER FROM JULIA KRISTEVA AND JOHN CAGE ON ROBINSON CRUSOE. I WENT TO THIS FILE YESTERDAY TO FIND A PHOTOGRAPH OF DR. EDITH FARNSWORTH THAT WAS TAKEN BY MIES WHILE SHE WAS SLEEPING ON HER DAYBED IN HER HOUSE IN PLANO, ILLINOIS. IT IS NOT A PARTICULARLY FLATTERING PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY MIES, BUT IT GIVES ONE A SENSE OF HOW SHE LIVED IN THE MASTER WORK AND THAT SHE HAD THE INTELLIGENCE AND UNDERSTANDING TO COMMISSION MIES VAN DER ROHE TO DESIGN THAT HOUSE. THE CLIENT WAS AS INSTRUMENTAL AS THE ARCHITECT. (more…)
Nov 02, 2011 | Categories: Random | Comments Off on REPOSE
Image by Chang W. Lee/ The New York TImes
A few weeks ago there was an interesting article about the amount of trash we create in NYC and the ways in which our recycling program lags behind other cities. “Environmental advocates call recycling the weak link in the city’s green agenda, even after legislation was passed last year to overhaul the 1989 recycling law that made New York a 20th-century leader, not a laggard. How far behind is the city? A survey by the Natural Resources Defense Council this year found that more than two dozen large and medium-size cities in the United States recycle all kinds of plastic containers, while New York takes only bottles and jugs. Another study this year, sponsored by Siemens AG, the global electronics and electrical engineering company, ranked New York 16th among 27 cities in its handling of waste, though it was third in overall environmental performance.” Fortunately the piece does more than point out the ways the NYC system is behind—it also highlights programs that have been successful in other cities such as San Fran and Seattle.
—Lunch, Landfills and What I Tossed from NYT
Nov 01, 2011 | Categories: New York City, Sustainability | Comments Off on NYC Trash Talk
At the annual Blackie’s Halloween Costume Surf contest in Newport Beach, CA surfers are judged on their technique and costumes. For more great photos—and last-minute costume ideas—check out SolSpot Surf and the Guardian slideshow.
Oct 31, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, Surfing, Travel | Comments Off on Happy Halloween
Sometimes surf shops come with a certain cliqueish ‘tude that can feel unwelcoming for non-tribe members. When I visited Buenos Dias—a new surf, art and vintage clothing store—in Montauk this summer, I was ready for some Ditch Plains ‘tude but instead met the sweetest people. Yaan Pessino, the surfer, photographer and vintage clothing collector who owns the store, is super sweet and enthusiastic. Totally worth stopping by to say “hi” and check out the collection he’s curated including Drug Money Art tees.
Oct 27, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, New York City, Surfing | Comments Off on Buenos Dias
New York has been delivering of late. The service laden city has been providing narrative(s)—the best of which hover over fiction, but in fact are real. A well occupied truism, that is in fact, true. People can be classified in this manner as well. Practitioners or objects themselves that maintain a position along this precipice may suspend our ability to engage with them. When works appear to be too universal or populist we can be dismissive of their presence. Until…
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Oct 25, 2011 | Categories: Random | Comments Off on Fiction & Non-Fiction (People who live in glass house build another house in brick to sleep in.)
Image from the NYT by Stuart Westmorland
“A horrendous slaughter is going on out here,†said Peter D. Ward, a biologist from the University of Washington, during a recent census of the marine creature in the Philippines. “They’re nearly wiped out. The culprit? Growing sales of jewelry and ornaments derived from the lustrous shell. To satisfy the worldwide demand, fishermen have been killing the nautilus by the millions, scientists fear. Now marine biologists have begun to assess the status of its populations and to consider whether it should be listed as an endangered species to curb the shell trade…Catching the nautilus is a largely unregulated free-for-all in which fishermen from poor South Pacific countries gladly accept $1 per shell. Scientists worry that rising demand may end up eradicating an animal that grows slowly and needs 15 years or more to reach sexual maturity — an unusually long time for a cephalopod. (Its cousins include the squid and the octopus.)â€
— Loving the Chambered Nautilus to Death from the NYT
Oct 24, 2011 | Categories: Nature, Sustainability | Comments Off on Nautilus News
Oct 21, 2011 | Categories: New York City, Surfing | Comments Off on Waiting for Waves
“I know of no other artist who wields insight, emotion, and intellectual heft—not to mention gorgeous technique—to examine the environmental ills besetting us today. Gail Potocki‘s landscapes are catastrophes unfolding before our eyes—in the sea, in the air, and on the land. Yet her human subjects, shattered and vulnerable, are creatures of exquisite hope… precisely because of their melancholic awareness of their plight. I asked Gail to tell me about each of these paintings. Of Icarus (above), she wrote:
‘Influenced by Icarus ignoring his father’s warning and flying too close to the sun; I saw similarities in this myth with nature’s warnings of our own possible self-destructiveness. In the case of Icarus here, his wings have been stolen from the dead bird that he has slung over his shoulder.’
—from Mother Jones
Oct 19, 2011 | Categories: Creative Culture, Nature, Sustainability | Comments Off on Gail Potocki
