Good News, New Stuff and Things to Share
First, the good news. Starting June 21st I will no longer be unemployed! After more than 8 months of inconsistent income, overwhelming stress and general economic slumps — I will rejoin the working class. Awesome, and I have 3 weeks off until then to work on odds and ends without dwelling on the future.
I put up this weeks mixtape. You can listen to it, or download it on the sidebar to the right. Um, the language is NSFW. But so is leaving the window open. I guess try it out with headphones first before you start a dance party in the office. This will be a weekly thing, unless I find it to be too much to keep up on. For now, no problem on that front. Enjoy.
30 Days of Creativity starts today. I made a mix to kick things off. I have a few ideas in my head and sketch pad that I am going to try and get more developed. One of them includes a remodel experiment for my family’s house down in Florence, Oregon. It’s a really great mid-century ranch style house. Some other things will show up here before or after that. This 30 day project will be my motivation to really kick my portfolio into high gear.
“30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff, anything, every day for 30 days.
This is your excuse to buy that tub of Playdough, unbox your Erector set, or dust off your Holga. You might be working on one huge project for 30 days straight. Maybe you are creating something new thing every day. (That’s the best way to participate!) It could be as simple as taking a picture of your outfit for 30 days to something as involved as a writing a song or making a movie every day.” — MAKE Magazine Blog
#30daysofcreativity — A How To Guide from 30 Days of Creativity on Vimeo.
Finally, something to share. I’ve been trying to share at least one project/design a week that inspires me. Today I am sharring the Palmyra House located in Nandgaon, Maharashtra, India. This has been featured on a few architecture blogs. So it may look familiar. It was designed by Studio Mumbai Architects.
What I like most about it is the interior use of very dark and rich woods, along with natural stone and concrete elements. It has a strong textural aesthetic — almost rough looking. Still though, the end experience that I observed from the images it that the the house has a quiet and soft feeling. The house has great Eastern Asian design elements as well, to unify the modern design with traditional finishes. More images and observations are available over at Contemporist.
Oil, Greed, and Distractions
I have kept my opinions on the Gulf oil spill to myself. Mostly for the reason that there are more knowledgeable figures to take on this sad, sad topic. And with ignorance I can focus on the weighing problems in my life. But this catastrophic baloney that is happening outside of my selfish world has pissed me off enough to say something. I mean that’s what blogs are for, right? Haha.
These greedy oil tycoons and lobbyist controlled politicians with their thumbs up their butts need to step aside from their agendas, and deal with this HUGE problem. I know efforts are being made were made, and it was successful at stopping the flow, but it’s not enough. It is not just this spill. It is their inability to control technology, due to greed and status whoring.
Then there is this guy, who is too smart for Washington. Thank you Dennis Kucinich. Though once again, you have proven that these morons in Washington have too much dirty money in their ears to hear you. Sadly though, much of this falls on people like me. I and others like me demand for products that do more to sustain our oil addiction.
I don’t drive anymore, and I try to limit the amount of energy I consume. I am however not doing enough to demand for better sources of energy, better technology and better food production/packaging practices. We are simply victims of our own ignorance. Mother Nature — we are not worthy.
Treehugger.com has some images to help calm some anger, with satire. Which is different than Sarah Palin’s definition. /rant
Now for my daily distraction. Sports! This is a promo for the Portland Timbers MLS 2011 crest design. The Timbers will unveil the crest on June 12 — in a friendly against England. Great production, and I am very excited for the future of Portland Football. Thanks to Dropping Timber and PortlandMLS2011 for showing me this.
This fantastic boardwalk is located on the Benidorm Seafront in Spain . Designed by Office of Architecture in Barcelona. I can only imagine how the air flows through these elegant curves. The design reminds me of a wind sock. I’ll have to add this to my list of places to see someday. Found on Archdaily and Abitare.
World Cup 2010: Nike Commercial
Yes! World Cup 2010 is just around the corner. This is a new Nike commercial to build up your excitement. Are you ready? I know I am. This is such a cool commercial.
Time to Share
I went to the open house yesterday for the house I had been working on earlier this year. Of course I forgot my camera. It looked great with furniture though, I swear. I am still busy looking for work, but I wanted to take a break and share some things that I’d come across over the weekend.
This first video is some proper reuse/adaptation to the foreclosures and economic dumps of these crazy times. This may be a little controversial depending on how you look at it. I grew up skateboarding, and see no harm done. What do you think? If you are watching at work, be careful. The language is NSFW.
Cannonball from California is a place. on Vimeo.
This next item is a fantastic combination of modern architecture and near perfect integration into the house’s surrounding landscape. I call this success. Beautiful textures, stunning lines, and so many interesting focal points. I would love to be a part of a project like this someday. This gets me going.
Los Molles House / Oltmann Ahlers W. + Oltmann Ahlers G. + dRN Arquitectos — Source: Arch Daily
