Fun!

The most enjoyable part of my daily routine this summer is biking to and from work... so here's the map! I desperately wish this service had been available while I was in Europe, plotting out trips would have been easier back then. I might go back and try to do a few; we'll see. Portugal blogging will happen! Soon....

Oh yeah - Portugal...

Hehe - actively procrastinating. anyway, heading to Portugal on Thursday. Final presentation on Wednesday, blah. I should be anxious and a little frantic, instead I'm just bored. and irritated. Way excited about Portugal though, all the descriptions sound tres lovely, and I don't think I know anyone who's been there (silly criteria, but an intriguing one). Flying into Lisbon, have tickets to see a concert at Rem Koolhaus' Casa de Musica in Porto... it's supposed to be an amazing building, I'm excited. Also feeling like I blogged this already. Oh well.

Overly touched up photo courtesy of the Rodin Museum and procrastination, do you like the style? Fun to do anyway.

Decent weekend, Sat unproductive mostly, Sun looked to be the same so I did some catch-up tourism... saw 'The Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries at the Musee de Moyen Age, the Picasso Museum, Carnevelet Museum, Place de Vosage in the sunlight so i actually got to go in, Cimetere Pere Lachise (Oscar Wilde's grave, amother other famous people), Parc de Belleville, Butte Chamont again, a few random churches - a good half day ;). Think I walked about 10 miles. I'm going to miss wandering and having new things to see every time SO much. Chicago isn't terribly wander-able, the well-planned streets, the density, and much better parks make Paris infinately better for a walk. Sigh. hmm i should work.... 

Mmmm Paris

Warm lovely week, finished beautifully at the Rodin gardens and then a Cinco de Mayo celebration. 4 days till finals now though.... sigh working :P. 

Weekend w/ Brandon Low

I had a friend visit me yay! Fun weekend, beautiful weather, bones and skate rally and wandering and funness. Working on finals right now though so you can check out his description of the weekend instead. won't forget details because... he wrote alot. And took a lot of pictures.... even videos on the last page, quite shaky as they were taken on skates.

Giverny and week

Another boring Paris week.... or as boring as it can be in this city.... Mon Tues just chill/work, standard Paris lovelinesses like pastries and cheese... Wednesday out with a group of American students in another group to get cheap Pho (indonesian?) soup, asian noodles anyway delicious, way out in the 14th - haven't gotten out there in a way, we got to eat outside! makes Paris even lovelier - green trees too?

On Thursday our teacher successfully planned and implemented an outing to Giverny. Education value was provided on our own however - it was the house and gardens of Monet, so I got to see the Japanese bridge and all the spring tulips, really a large wonderful garden in a cute little old French town. Did some sketching there, haven't scanned yet.

The coolest part was riding bikes - classmates ducked out, and it was cloudy, but I keep meaning to rent bikes (amsterdam and berlin particularly) and it hadn't happened, so I still did. Left Kober in the dust unintentionally, sometimes hard to remember I'm more fit then other people (besides unbeatable walking stamina I haven't been exercising much here). Amazing time bike riding though, Giverny is on the edge of a tall-hill ringed French valley - I made it up to the top of the hill on almost unrideably steep pavement - then gravel - then tracks through grass - then singletrack hehe.... Amazing views rising up above trees, calm fields, little villages, ring of trees. No pictures - I was almost glad not to have a camera, not like you can take pictures while biking, and they'll stay in my head pretty well. Headed down the hill - ha i'm rather of the opinion that the challenge of muscling through to the top of hills is more fun then the slightly uncontrolled decent.... interesting to realize when I mountain bike and ski and skate and other fling-yourself-downhill sports :P. oh well, should be good at both right? through the town, tried to go up another direction but time ran out. Biked past a Huge flock of sheep - lambing season done and there were adorable lambs honestly frolicking around. Bells on the neck, and black sheep too - so cute!

Fin de Rotterdam

More wandering, this was a really cool building, theater thing, 'old Rotterdam' I'll find the name later. Wander up to find OMA's office, disappointingly normal ugly office building. Stopped at a Pannekoken house on Pannenkokenstrasse for my last taste of dutch pancakes, a really cute, comfortable place. Reminded me of a 50's diner somehow, brown floor and red structure and furnishings. Amazingly nice workers. Amble through a street fair, knock a few more buildings off the list, then back through the shopping district to the train station and gone. Was a lovely calm wandery day by myself. 

Rotterdam Day 2

Woke up early, none-the-worse for a late night, had a really lovely walk around an empty city. Nice weather, hazy-morning in an industrial/developing part of town - Rotterdam's docklands. Aldo Rossi lighthouses, Rotterdam's version of the space needle (The Eiffel Tower got it right. Nothing else really does). 

Crazy Lamps

This was Rotterdam city fabric, actually odd that there wasn't more people, they were fairly swarmed other places. You could apparently play with the lamps and move them like robot arms, but they were not on when I visited the plaza. Had an enjoyable night, bar and club with people from the hostel. Late, because that what Rotterdam is known for.... 

I WAS HERE!

Have seen this place in so many postcards - was exciting to see the real thing. Saw lots more too.... 

Rotterdam S'more

Not matched up with pics - this is the erasmus bridge, famous and pretty deservedly so - it was impressive.

after the museum i considered wandering but decided to knock of the other major thing on my way - koolhaus' kunsthall in rotterdam. i think i have officially been to more kunsthalls then art museums now, interesting... i was sorely disappointed by the building, it was put into perspective by randy saying that it was literally supposed to evoke a crate for art - in the graphics at least, and it was followed through with the badly-aging fiberglass barn tin siding badly cut and detailed, an excess of plywood in the interior, and the overall sloppiness in detailing. Artistic maybe, but i'm sure it was still expensive and a little distasteful for sure...
toulouse-lautrec exhibit i missed in Chicago - interesting to catch those, i think i had earlier too... i was not too impressed - he obviously did know how to capture people, but they were allways caricature-ish, the men were all lumps and the women always sharp-faced and peevish. Never overtly sexy, the lines to nervously drawn for that, it was hard to explain the draw. He did have a very effective way of putting enough contrast into even the pencil drawings - often one character would be simply lines and the other darkly shaded - light/dark the theme. Interesting Art Deco record covers, interesting to see them in an art museum when you see that style all the time in garage sales of old music - might be good to start grabbing some. 

LONG!

I actually rambled about rotterdam, wasting time on classes, so here's some unedited ramble... i'll remember how to do ljcuts in here soon

Rotterdam was a strange experience, hard to grasp and hard to communicate. I think travelling with someone does help - lets you express thoughts instead of having them ruminate around in your skull taking up space that could be used for more useful observations. It was definately fun though, and I definately prefer travelling by myself to with any but the best of company. Arrived at Rotterdam rather sleepy at 10:30ish, left the train station to take in the huge pit of a construction site ringed with very tall skyscrapers (at last!, and if rather undistinguished) and disappear underground to the metro. Simple metro lines, just two, a n/s and an e/w the one transfer and 4 stops were accomplished quickly. Chicago needs to get on the ball with the displays of times as well - unbelievably helpful for delaying anxiety and allowing that wait to be added to useful minutes of your day. Found hostel seemlessly - i do hate waiting in lines, especailly for petty people but... ha.
Out the door and 3 blocks to the Nederlands Architecture Institute touted by tony. Well deserved, a fun basic museum in form, beautiful exhibits. The top floor exhibit on urban space-making was fun - had some very copy-able graphics and interesting ideas, the monograph (er what's that called as an exhibit) on a 30s utopian was beautiful, and the most scholarly exhibit on amsterdam and rotterdam housing projects over the decades was rather informative. Fun old drawing and watercolor renderings - i think we need to get back to that level of artistry in architecture projects, 3d models just aren't as wonderful at conveying nuances of the aura we mean to portray.
Had a nice write in the basement cafe of the NAI, an interesting thing to do - so self-absorbed, but i'm always happy when i sit down and do it. Even sketched a bit, interior sketches are something i need to work on. The bookstore there was equally inspiring - I wish there was someplace in Chicago other the Prarie Avenue like it. Not that there's much wrong with Prarie Avenue, but this was intelligently sorted and thorough and had design books as well. Design makes me drool - to the extent that I think about doing that instead of architecture - but only briefly. I was very charmed by all the screenprinting or stick-ons on the walls of the museum, and a DIY (design it yourself) book in the bookstore proved that it'd be pretty easy to do myself - and i think i shall. rather against modern cleanliness - but if the trend is towards more ornementation? and if it's easy to take them off, who loses? now i just need to have a space of my own i care enough about to do this for.... 

Rotterdam 22 Apr 2006

This weekend was for Rotterdam - cheapish to get to, fun to be in, fit theme from Berlin - was totally destroyed in World War 2, so lots of new architecture and post-WWII planning. Kinda gritty-scary, i was there for a day and a half, just about right.

Rem Koolhaus detail from the Kunsthall - rather appalling building actually 

Paris week.... boring....

or actually quite delightful. not terribly eventful, studio supper group supper fun. friday afternoon was LOVELY though! :) walked all across paris, Jardin des Plants, sat on the Seine and lounged for a good while, found my park for landscape class and enjoyed that, nother skate rally to talk about.... whee! 

Berlin Street Fair!

Here's me. yes, there was beer in germany - constantly... good beer. sigh, it isn't nearly as good or as acceptable to have a beer with every meal in the states (don't tell anyone, i was actually getting a little sick of it.... by the end) 

Sunshine!

And more wandering - good times. More museums.... 

IM Pei, blah blah blah ;)

Another museum, another geometrical glassy form attatched to an old building with beautiful concrete and stone. (the louvre pyramid was him too) 

Easter Monday = Communist Wanderings

and the AEG Turbine Factory! Inspirational piece of architecture out in the Berlin boonies... was cooler in books. Peter Behrens 

Supper w Helmut Jahn

Berlin's all about the architecture and architects - it was really fun. Supper in Helmut Jahn's Sony center, ritzy place, fun. A good Easter. 

Opera - a new easter tradition?

We saw Strauss's La Rosenkavalier - it was splendid, beautiful music and theater. 

Easter! In Berlin

Starts off with me hugging Karl Marx. Don't read too much into it.... 

Sat 15 Apr 2006 - Reichstag

Norman Foster finally! Cool dome wedged on top of a US-style capitol building - good views of the city, could see the different architecture East vs. West. 

Berlin - Jewish Museum

Being Easter weekend, we thought Saturday was the only day we'd be able to attend museums, so we made Daniel Liebeskind's Jewish Museum the one. It was as advertised, the outside worked a bit better then the inside. It was nice that it was more a Jewish culture museum then a Holocaust museum... 

Dinkelsbuhl Good Friday.

In which stuff happens slowly and nicely 

Window Frames!

Modern art in a Frankonian factory 

In which: Rediculous neglect of blog ends

Whoo... not doing so great keeping this updated. Briefly: last week in DKB not too interesting, tours of window factory and furniture, tour by night watchman, presentation of our work to Dinkelsbuhl community.

Friday lazy with cool family. I have this all typed up somewhere else better, it'll be in here soon. 

Goodbye Prague and bones

in which the night train gets us agreeably back to dinkelsbuhl. i <3 sleeper cars.