Webby Connectedness

spent studio today linking myself up even more with the web.... zactlymyself is my user name for close to everything now... if you're interested in what music i listen to, http://www.last.fm/user/zactlymyself/ is my audioscrobbler account - will have it posted in my blog eventually, i think it's a fun thing to have and like seeing other people with it - plus the radio function is supposed to be pretty awesomely tailored and works with launchcast and stuff.

del.icio.us is a program we were told about in the web tech class which is turning out to be very useful - it's a link sharing site, kind of like a bookmarks folder except shared with everyone on the internet and a tagging function that makes it a lot easier to find exactly what you were looking at again - and what other people look for on that topic. http://del.icio.us/zactlymyself is all my links - a ton of fun futuristic architecture stuff, it'll probably become pretty crowded with hostel reservations etc pretty soon, but it's easy to search around those. and the firefox extension to use it is amazingly easy. i like the internet.

go web 2.0.... off for some non-nerdy, real life experience in Switzerland! (Geneva and Lausanne, more posts o'course when i get back on monday)

oh - pic is another from sagrada familia, climbing up the tower - fun fun fun.... picture of Marche Cadet to come soon :)

Cloudy = crypts? Thurs Feb 2

Woke up fairly early this morning, cloudy for the first time since last week - decided going to the notre dame crypts would be the appropriate thing to see before studio at 2. took a while wandering there, stopped in a few stores, nothing to buy particularly. they have VERY cute shoes here, and the sales only last until Feb 21... haha maybe I will determinedly go shopping at some point. Wandered into Notre Dame des Victories, a nice little church. Very stripped-down facade and matter-of-fact interior, I liked it. Side chapel archways were paved in donor stone, gave a nice feel of people. Crypts were rather disappointing, I was thinking grave crypts and creepiness, but instead they were archeological digs in this one particular spot... cool, just not what I expected. Neat to be under a huge plaza and see the actual previous foundations and walls on the original levels, some from the third century ad, preserved and built over. Evidences of the island ending at that point - kind of crazy. Also walked through Notre-Dame again, got some big-picture shots I'd forgotten to get last time. This pic is the front modern altar with the traditional one in the back - so this is about 3/4 up the nave.

grocery shopping on the way to studio, baugette, Camembert cheese, hardboiled egg sandwiches. fun to pick things up at their own little store, bread and cheese, meat if I was going to do that.
I think I've official switched boulangeries - our delightfully crabby french lady in the red store makes comparatively small and crusty baugettes with useless pointed ends... the blue one with the friendlier but english speaking lady has cheaper, bigger, softer loaves, earlier on our walk to studio... we have the option of 5 bread shops on the way, these are on the fun market street though. hehe so it goes ;). we thought maybe the red store lady had connections with the apparently mob (men in suits outside at very late hours, hmmm) building on the marche cadet as well... sigh. ha I should work on studio... too many details writing about the current day

Wed Feb 1 - Ew

Hmm Wednesday was not a very good day. Sparing details, finances in general, rent, and studio were all huge hassles and didn't turn out too well, very bad mood all day. Got better when finally a little of the money I had pending was deposited... being un-broke is a fantastic feeling.

Was in the mood for a movie after ughness... watched one of Kober's, a Czech New Wave film from the 60's - very psychedelic/trippy, message about the boredom that comes from decadence, a little blunt I guess, fun ways of showing it though. interesting. projected it on the wall in the studio room with a couch - yay sitting on a couch :P confined to my pad on the floor mostly at home, or folding chair in front of desk at studio (kitchen is only occasionally warm enough to sit in, more folding chairs.)

Anyway, finally a picture with me in it! at the Barcelona pavilion (um, in Barcelona..) feeling at home on the familiar furnitures, maybe not so much with the gorgeous huge marble slabs... silly hat was very practical, it was quite rainy the first day...

Cup o' Meat tu jan 31

 


The rail line (la Petit Ceinture, to be exact) was a little of a let down after the walk, but still pretty enchanting. Got up through a closed but not locked gate, had to scramble nearly straight up a story or two to get on the track itself, pants with slightly thinner knees now, no worries... This portion of the line was further above the street level and even more unworldly then the section in the 19th. It was SO quiet up there, lots of trees and birds and leaves crackling audibly underfoot. i got nervous every time i walked above a street crossing because the auto traffic would sound like a train coming.... it was a pretty cool walk, maybe a kilometer or so. the line opened up a little towards the end (a gated, long tunnel) and there were tennis courts on the side, very charming. had to ask to be let out onto the street, nice obliging and slow moving old Parisian lady.

was going to pick up the line a few blocks ahead where it appeared to come out of the tunnel on the map - but it was dug into the ground about 50 feet at that point, and i'd had enough scrambling. Instead I layed down in the sunshine in the little park i found myself in.... probably fell asleep for 5 minutes again, very refreshing :). it really was quiet enough that i felt safe - i looked around at a pigeon walking over leaves.

rather whiled away the rest of the day in studio posting barcelona story... went home with tony for blt's: very respectable even with our questionable stovetop. we didn't want to cook all the bacon, and bags are something we're lacking... thus the cup'o'meat of the title... ew! haha. evening reading and brainstorming and sleeping...mmm.... 

Statue of Liberty - in France tu jan 30

 


After I had seen enough of the Maison, I walked across the 16th and the river to find this other hidden piece of railroad. Sweet walk - residential streets, could see the Parisian Statue of Liberty from the bridge (nothing too impressive, just like ours only 1/4 of the size maybe... I actually thought it was just fine in it's smaller form. Beautiful day for a walk, tad cold, as it is here.... not at all minnesota cold, and only occasionally chicago-cold, but it's just warm enough to feel like you should be able to be out for hours at a time, and cold enough that it's not the most pleasant....

Citroen Park after the river, beautiful park in the middle of the car maker's office park - fantastic comparison with the park Monday, which was deliberately natural. This was determinedly artificial, concrete follies and lines and diagonals - i rather liked it though, it wasn't pretending, and had some great spaces. Grassy pavers too! ha. There were two large greenhouses with appealing tropical plants in them - got to go in, interestingly minimal structure, huge wood doors and beams in an otherwise suspended glass building. 

Tuesday Jan 31 - more Corb?!?

Being given a free day to um work on studio and not being terribly impressed with the area of our rail section, I went off to find another to compare it to and hit up a few sights on the way.....
My first stop was the pair of Corbusier houses who's visiting hours i'd missed the last time I stopped by.... Maisons Roche and Jeanneret. They were in a sleepy-quiet part of the 16th district, hidden away down a private alley. I got there a little before visiting hours, so I sketched outside in the cold - i'm getting better at it, fingers were still quite stiff by the time i was done. wanted to show a little how clean the corb buildings are compared to the more frilly Parisian houses were - perspective a little off, shrug.
Could only get into la Maison Roche - it's the corbusier headquarters for Paris besides, um more just a table full of information, at least it didn't detract. Interesting house, designed as a house/art gallery, bright lit spaces and indeed a fantastic promanade through the house. Door open into a large open room, one story at the entrance but opening up to three stories on each side, with openings - one side more private and the roof terrace, the other side the living room and libraries, with a pass connecting the two right above the main door. You could see so much of the rest of the house from any one point - appropriate for the art gallery aspect, and the house too i think. the interior sketch is of one staircase drawn from the top of the other side. fun house to visit, i was by myself at first, so cool, when more people came they really cared about being there so it wasn't so bad. lots of people sketching. 

Monday Jan 30 - Hobo Park

j/k... train got in just 45 minutes late this morning. Met studio at a cafe at 2:00 for a lecture and the revealing of our site... an abandoned rail line that winds around Paris. Kind of cool, kind of inconvenient and wierd for a resort hotel, which is what we're designing... we'll see, reserving judgement. fun walking around the area, the beginning of our section of the line was a tunnel in a gorgeous romantic-style landscaped park from the 1830s (Butte Chaumant) in an old quarry so there was bluffs and waterfalls and caves - it was very obviously artificial pretending to be natural, but the effect was pretty stunning. the lake/moat was iced over, wierd to see an ice fishing hole with green holly and other leaves around :)

the line was it's own little world, backs of all the houses too it, above and under streets without interfering. Good grafitti - i thought Paris's couldn't hold a candle to the vandal artistry of Barcelona, but those tagging this area were obviously more artistic.... very fun.

hmm grocery shopping... tony made potato salad....mmmmmm :) 

Barcelona - Gaudi Day continued

Aquainting ourselves with yet another Barcelona hill/mountain, we rode the metro (and had to walk a mile uphill) to Gaudi's Parc Guell. Fun park, way too crowded with tourists though - clambering over the hills was delightful. got to leave the paved paths a little into mini-sneak through woods paths... refreshing to feel somewhat away from the city. only could get away from the scottish boys singing the beatles for a little while though. Great views of that hill and last night's glowing church again, and Norman Foster's sattelite tower. Another fantastic Gecko in the park... the crowds really did take a lot of the wonder out of it, i think i would have been more spacially impressed without masses of people in the way.

Casa Mila was the next Gaudi find, first tour i've done an audio tour with - don't quite like it. I read too much faster then I hear, and it made me miss most of a fantastic sunset on this crazy roof of the building. Also was quite propagandized by the audio and swelling music - yuck. crazy roof though, was crazy... everything had the functions though - these are the ubiquitous chimney pots, done up lovely-like... they're about 8 feet tall... inside was cool, murals, openish floor plan cool... hmm was seriously so annoyed by the talk over that i don't remember being very positive about it while i was there, though in memory the spaces seem cool. i will opt to not listen next time i have the option i think. Also was quite tired at this point 6,7 o'clockish.... this trip was a ton of walking.

Saw the Casa Batallo just down the street - crazy monkey skull railings and a fairy-tale sparkling facade, all we got to see of it. long subway transfer, but we got close to the train in enough time to peek into the church of Santa Maria del Mar - so refreshing - a Gothic church structurally without all the decorations - very solomn and grand without the distracting frillies. Also picked up a bottle for cava for the uneventful ride home... made for a pleasant start and a good sleep home :). Yay Barcelona!

ha missing big picture overview.... will add shortly

Barcelona - Day 2

So - Sagrada Familia was as mind-blowing as promised - not nearly as done as expected, but a beautiful piece of work already containing more effort then most other buildings i've seen -
huge towers that everyone knows were less exciting because of it, but the sculptures around the opening were quite nice, told the Nativity story with more expressive emotions in them all then i've seen. the addition of geckos was also key.

inside was a bit of a wonderful mess with scaffolding all over - no idea what the ceiling of the nave is like... but the entire transept is nothing but wonderful. sunburst corduroy texture concrete shaping roof above multiple rose windows (bare now, i dont think they'll be quite as good with stained glass, but still cool) and a nearly-literal forest of columns ending at more concrete oculi suns... awesome to see it less then half-done.

the glory facade with sculptures in a half-cubist style was more intriguing to me then the other - simpler and less gothic, more effective inho... previous picture from there. the brass doorways were inspiring - made me want to try that kind of collage/scuplture.

climbed the steps up the front facade - highly recommended, the lift would be so much less interesting, and there's stops to rest and look around the city pretty frequently. the sun came out while we were up there, cool, and seeing the detailed decorations close up was unbeatable.

ok, done with that.... walk to the miro museum copied the triumphal walk to the pavillion last night, being able to see the gardens in the sun was very lovely (i feel like i'm running out of positive descriptors...) and that museum was fantastic in every way the picasso was not. go there first, or only.... great overview of modern art with most major movements well represented with prime famous pieces, and then miro is much more impressive then i knew. the building was also lovely, the white curves and sun and city view.... wee... picture is with a miro sculpture.

Barcelona Evening one

Hmm continuing walk here... castle at the top turned out to be a modernist restaurant, with a gorgeous view over the nighttime city.

We got lost after this and took off on a road at the elevation of the restaurant that ran along the coast - SO beautiful. dusk/dark sky that was actually a purple-red due to the city, contrasted with wild lush vegetation (lit very well by street lights) and then the sea... it felt like it could have been hawaii. we weren't really in a tourist area at that point, just a sidewalk beside a highway, and eventually the wonder wore off and we realized we were in no way going the correct direction. headed through a scary freeway tunnel through the mountain, 18 inch sidewalks, but it turned out well.

we had to head out of the park into the city to get our bearings, walked through some 'real' barcelona neighborhoods, which was nice. Not so preserved-touristy, still very much a metropolis, 7 or 8 story apartment blocks or buildings.

The approach to the Barcelona was more... impressive then I anticipated. the current Museum of National Catalan Art was obviously an old palace with a huge street promenade with fountains aiming up a huge waterfalled and fountained and gardened hill to the vision of glory itself on top, complete with spotlight-ray halo. was a little over the top, actually.

we were treated to a enormous fountain light&music show on the way up, would have been better had it not been wonderful American music being played - Destiny's Child was not what i wanted to hear at a glorious Spanish monument... the barcelona pavillion was off to the side, we got there 20 minutes before close (our adventure had taken awhile). It was Mies, very spacially interesting although simpler then I had anticipated. Courtyard with statue and reflective water and marble lovely, homey meis chairs.... felt like being back at crown, with more expensive stone. good to have seen.

obliged to finish the walk up the hill to the palace/museum, rewarded with a different glorious view of the city. a glowing church seeming to float on the top of a distant hill was enchanting.

um - long walk home, half sketchy though cheap and volumous meal with good sangria, saw the Placa Reial with it's yuppy-ish bars (apparently was the place where Columbus met his king with the news of america). walked around a lot looking for a bar with the right ambiance, the one we found ended up being just a block from our hostel. very chill, sweet eclectic decorations, and excellent cava (spanish sparkling wine) cocktails. then to bed :)

pic is of sagrada familia.... and i'll tell about that in the next post, or rearrange them so this works. don't want to put too many pictures/posts in to keep loading times down, don't want to have so solid of text blocks... oops too late...

Barcelona Day One

Well, initially getting into Barcelona was less fun then it should have been. Due to a crappy train station error, my ticket was for the wrong day, so i had to buy a new one while on the train, and only got half of that money back. frustrating. And the train was 5 hours late getting in, due to a huge snowstorm that apparently just stopped everything in southern france. meh.

First stop picasso museum... because it was raining and we wanted to not be outside. got quite intriguingly lost on the way... didn't realize how small it was and how not-far distances on the map were, we made it across the old downtown to the Ramblas before figuring out where we were. Had to buy shoes on sale, happy cool real leather euro shoes, cheap :P. Wandered path the main Barcelona cathethdral on the way, had to go it. It was cool - in the cloister there was a large courtyard with palms trees and geese - very lush, intriguing with the frilly gothic architecture. otherwise, another gothic church, and the steps up to the top were closed due to the rain. meh. but we saw plenty of amazing views over the city later on - i don't think we missed too much.

cool interior market with sweet arcing metal and wood structure - much smell of fish and meat, probably 15 each of fruit stalls, fish stalls, butcher stalls, and food/salad stalls.

The Picasso museum (now third stop) was something of a letdown - covered his developement very well, and just when you're expecting it to open up and give you a huge outpouring of his real work.... it's over. i don't think they had enough money to buy any pieces of importance, or many from even the time of his importance. And the explanation given with the exhibits meshed poorly with the work shown, and didn't give you any sense of his place in art history or reference works you might have known... eh. i'd go to the miro museum over this one, and i'll check out the picasso museum here - apparently it had a larger collection. The bottom of the houses were sweet arched bricks - i would just visit that and skip the museum - and check my bags in the free luggage check before heading out elsewhere ;).

decided to find a place to stay - the hostel we had picked out right by the Arc d'Triumph turned out to be closed, we wondered the old streets where we had seen a few hostels, picked one called Hostel New York. It was fine, unremarkable (although we did get a good breakfast), fifth 10-foot story - sigh. double room for 30euros though, cheep. on our wanderings we went through an amazing park and saw the Parc de la Ciutadella with it's oversized folly monument - all the tropical plants were soothing after austere Paris. very nice spaces.

So - decided the walk wouldn't be too long to the Barcelona Pavillion from the hostel.... but... got a little lost. fun walk along the sea shore, really developed, large swooping/jumpy structure/sculpture impressive. Got to a large hill we assumed was the park on the map, and of course had to climb it to the tantalizing castle-thing on the top.... the hill we climbed is the one in the picture - this is about 3/4 of the way there from the hostel - i guess we're really used to walking by now, it didn't seem too far at all

Barcelona - in summary/list

Barcelona was great! fun to be in a new location, appartently 'vibrant' is the impression everyone takes away from it, so i'll be repetitious and say that it was indeed vibrant, and colorful, and beautiful, and a very fun town.
it's about time for class already, so i'll just post this until i can write up more... simply a list of what sara and i did from noon saturday until 8pm sunday... hehe we did end up fitting a lot in...

I took a fairly huge number of pictures, some really good, a lot marred by cloudy weather - couldn't choose just one for now, so this is a painting miro did of barcelona, i believe from where the current back facade of the sagrada familia is... it did a good job of capturing the impression the city left with me, even in dreary January weather.



Barcelona:

Train
Big Street
Wandering little streets to Las Ramblas
Shoes
Picasso Museum
Hostel One - Parc de la Ciutadella
Hostel Two - New York on Carera d'En Gignas
Aborted walk to Barcelona Pavillion
-Arcing Statue-sculpture
-walk up hill - Jardins de Miramar
-Getting lost in tropical wonderfulness overlooking Mediteranean
-walking under tunnel
-indian quarter
Placa de l'Univers
Water Fountain Show
Barcelona Pavillion
MNAC castle
long walk back - food
Placa Reial
Milk
sleep

Trip to Picasso Museum 2
Sagrada Familia
Stair Climb
Placa de l'Univers 2
Jardins de Joan Maragall
Fundacio Joan Miro
Funicular down
Parc Guell
"forest wandering"
Le Pedrera (Casa Mila)
Casa Batallo
Endless subway transfer
Englesia de Santa Maria del Mar
wine shop
Train 

Presentation and Spain!

This was the map I presented today for our communist party walk - it's quite disconnected from the actual district, but that's something i wanted to achieve, along with a less cluttered look then my other maps and the idea of a 1 to 1 scale map and a few others from lectures and readings. anyway, i thought the image stylish enough to post: the picture is originally from my trip with shane out to the rocky mountain national park. i'm leaving for barcelona on a hotel-train at 8:30 tonight, doing laundry and hopefully the church of Saint-Denis first... should be very fun. Looking forward to a lot of Gaudi, the Barcelona Pavillion, Picasso Museum, and absorbing the Spanish atmosphere on the Ramblas and beach. And warmth! predicted to be about 55 (and drizzly, but hopefully that part is lying...) not tropical, but it's been hovering around freezing here and you start to feel it after hours outside. Wee! Back on Monday morning.

Musee d'Orsay

 


oo great evening tonight at the Musee d'Orsay - a converted train station that houses primarily and almost exclusively mid 18th century artists to Impressionists. Amazing quality collection, there was almost more things I had seen in pictures there then pieces I hadn't. I was blown away most especially by the Degas pastels, but there were the Monet chapel studies, and 2 van gohe self-portraits and his room and a few others that i felt were almost better, and cezanne and pissaro and and and.... it was spectacular to be able to see the originals, still looking (in some cases) glossy with wet oil - much more vibrant then pictures. I was suprised by how much I liked some of the work by the Naturalists and Symbolists, art movements I hadn't given much thought to...

also they had a splendid collection of art nuevou environments, fun to get to walk through whole spaces rather then just look at museum pieces - I greatly admire the artistry of the pieces, but feel more firmly now that i wouldn't want them in my house - something about the dark-nature vining takeover implications bothers me. I still adore the Makintosh roses, though, and maybe as a wall piece in the style could be fun.

I loved the way they had converted the station, instead of cramped little drywalled rooms they allowed the scale to stay large, and the walls were faced/created with natural rough-cut ?limestone or marble?. also in other places worked polished concrete - the subtle variations in the walls really made the pieces feel less... artificially placed i think. The main promonade was a little postmodern pastiche - corny imitation column heads and angles, but the elaborate steel rivitted structure poking out pretty much made up for it. 

Wednesday Fin.

 



the rest of the walk was fun, paled in comparison however. started right by my hostel from the first day, apparently the area was quite a bit more seedy then i had realized... the walk was focused on the Canal d'ouroc (although the path wound really far away and back to it a few times) and then ended at the Parc de La Villette. Saw a few exciting Renzo Piano buildings and some fantastic converted warehouses - the neighborhood again was a little more one of immigrants and many housing projects. Not the burning ones, just highrises in town taking over a formerly industrial neighborhood. charming Russian Orthodox church on it's own little hill, oddly placed behind other buildings, access through a gate - completely different world with plants and a little plaza and near-silence. Felt like a piece of the steppe. no access to the chapel, but by peeking in a crack we saw a fresco painter at work.

was a LOT of walking, was very tired by the time we got to the park - a greek sandwich revived me much however. the Parc didn't impress me as much as it maybe should have - the large red follies didn't seem playful enough, but so it goes. the lack of crowds probably had something to do with it - felt like an abandoned six flags with the attractions reduced in scale. impression gradually changed as we walked though it - maybe it's something to visit in the spring. the sunset was gorgeous...

(this is tony's picture, my camera was being finicky with the cold... i pointed out the sunset, although the particular cloud that would have made this picture even better was missing...)

posting this on thursday (i'm finally caught up!), this morning i bought hotel-train tickets to barcelona for tomorrow until sunday :) tonight i'm going to try to get out of studio at 5 or 6 to see the Musee d'Orsay: it's open late on thursdays and is supposed to be full of Impressionist/turn of the century paintings... excited :)