Senin, 31 Mei 2010
Need inspiration? Hello Europe!
So who watched the Eurovision Song Contest? A bit of history for you: this annual singing competition started back in 1956 and has launched several big careers - ABBA won in 1974 (with 'Waterloo') and Céline Dion in 1988.
This year, 39 countries participated. They use a rather loose definition of 'Europe' - included are Russia and Azerbaijan, for example - but who cares about the politics?!
I never used to watch this - tacky! embarrassing! - and never admitted to it if I did, but I thought Norway did a great job of hosting this year's contest. And the participants were um... inspiring!
Does your guy want a bold, new look? Go for a blonde fringe - Serbia shows you how!
Look to Turkey for your next party: blinding lights and Stars Wars fashion.
Want to know how to wear this summer's blue eye make-up? Look no further, Moldova has the answer!
So that's where Lara Croft from Tomb Raider has been hanging out! In Armenia and she now sings, too.
There were also serious performers. I quite like it when they sing in their own language but most of them choose English. And this bit is embarrassing: my husband voted! As in, he actually called, and not just once but three times! (for Albania)
I don't know how they organised these but they showed huge crowds in European cities doing choreographed dances together. (Think Austin Powers.) We just thought: all this fun, excitement and joy across Europe, it's so much better than killing each other in pointless wars!
The winner was Germany: sweet 19-year old Lena with the song 'Satellite'. She was a nobody before Eurovision! And now she's a star!
Did you watch it? What was your favourite song? Did you vote?!
Minggu, 30 Mei 2010
"...Star differs from star in glory..."
(Vincent Van Gogh, "Starry Night over the Rhone," 1888)
I Corinthians 15:40-44:
"There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body."
I had a magnificent set of evenings over Memorial Day weekend sitting out among the moon and the stars--even sleeping out all night in my yard one night, it was so glorious--and seeing the lightning bugs begin their summer debut for the season. It was simply a magnificent weekend to be a speck in God's Universe. The sheer size and awesome timelessness of the "big" things in nature--the sky, the stars, the ocean, just to name a few--have always been the major spiritual grounding rods for me, my entire life. People just don't do it for me the way nature does.
I looked at the stars these last few nights and pondered the paradoxical dance that "people" seem to occupy in my existence, thinking how each star, in its own way, is its own "person." How like the stars in the sky, we are called to community, and how each of us in our own way feels called to individuals in that community. Yet for me, the paradox has always been nothing gets my goat like people sometimes. I can only handle people for so long, and then that secular monastic in me takes over and I retreat to my safe hermitage of my country life. There is my daily retreat from work, as well as "add on" forms like my occasional "silent Saturday morning," and my "stay-cation retreats where I never leave home." Yet I never feel "un-called" to be a part of a community. When I am home alone, after a certain amount of time enjoying my alone-ness, I think of what it is I am supposed to "do next" when I enter back into community. When I am in that community, after a while I start daydreaming of what I want to do next in my "alone time." Each needs the other, and truthfully, each feeds the other.
On one of those nights, I sat out and thought about different people with each star--what they were experiencing in their lives, and how it is that I am supposed to combine with them to light up the sky, yet maintain my own individual "star-ness." Each one of us with the incarnational light of God within us, but manifested in so many unique ways.
There seem to be at least three kinds of stars in my life experience. Most valued are the "stars I can always see"--for instance, in the winter, I can always find the constellation Orion, and in the summer I can always fix my gaze on Scorpio. They are like the people in my life who have now been my friends for three decades or more. How we relate to each other has changed drastically over the years--sometimes not even close to the roles in which our relationships started out--but we somehow can always adjust. Sometimes their light is very intense and intimate in my life, and vice versa; other times, the light is dimmer. But they are constants. They are appreciated for both their longevity and their versatility.
Then there are the stars that once were a major focus, but I now no longer pay much attention to. I really don't pay much attention to the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, or the North Star itself, per se. But there was a time I always looked for them. They are like the people who were once very involved and intimate in my life--old lovers, intense best friends, etc.--and somehow no longer figure much into the tapestry other than to be a thread once cherished, but no longer. Some of these fizzled out in a supernova of conflict, whereas others just sort of atrophied and slowly burned to extinction. Sometimes their light returns--but it is almost never of the same intensity that it once was, nor does my need to tend to that light return with the same intensity. I appreciate those stars for the history they have given me, even if it includes hard lessons.
Finally, there are the stars I just got around to noticing, like the time I first recognized all of Ursa Major, rather than just its "dipper." The first time I realized the dipper could be converted to a bear, it was an exciting time. It made the sky seem a little bigger than it used to be. I think about the gifts and talents in people I just now got around to appreciating in people who have been around me all along, or about the new people that come into my life over the years, and something about them challenge me to tend their light and let them tend mine. I appreciate those stars because they represent hope and promise.
Even the stars are perishable--which enhances my knowledge that people are perishable. It makes me understand the urgency of the Gospel of Mark, and in Paul's letters. If even stars are perishable, then people definitely are. Yet timelessness and infinity rides within all of them. What a beautiful, but messy, dance it all is!
MyZeil Shopping Center, Frankfurt Germany
Massimiliano Fuksas designed the My Zeil Mall in the PalaisQuartier region of Frankfurt, Germany, completed in 2009.
The shopping mall resembles the Milan Trade Fair by Fuksas, which had a large rectangular glass pavilion curving around the blocky forms of the structures inside. The vortex at the front entrance also recalls the BMW Welt museum in Munich.
In the Frankfurt mall MyZeil, the negative space of the exterior public realm swirls with 3,200 triangular glass pieces into the heart of the complex, with glass structure folding and flexing according to advantageous views and circulation strategies. The 6000 m2 of roof collects its rainwater for reuse. Vast elevators circulate people efficiently from store to store.
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Videos: Opening, Inside
Brasilia Cathedral, Brasília Brazil
Oscar Niemeyer designed Brasilia's Catedral de Brasília, completed in 1970. Lúcio Costa also contributed to the city's design.
The Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida is a hyperboloid design with 16 concrete columns squeezing toward the center and then flaying out into the sky. The design recalls hands reaching up toward heaven, with a circular movement that recalls the eternity of ancient designs. Unlike previous such buildings, the concrete structure is filled with a ceiling of pure glass. The floor curves up to reach the glass at a threshhold above eye level.
The modernism of Le Corbusier took root in Brazil mainly through Niemeyer's innovations.
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Sabtu, 29 Mei 2010
Fresh Flower Pavillion, Bedford Square London
Tonkin Liu designed the Fresh Flower pavilion for for the Architectural Association School of Architecture's Bedford Square AADRL10 exhibition in Bedford Square, London England 2008. The "fresh" theme has 11 petals that spread out from a central axis to shelter pedestrians. The central flute uses counterweights, inspired by stems and roots. It stands out like a large split banana.
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See also: [C]space Pavilion DRL10, Bedford Square , Driftwood Pavilion DRL10, Bedford Square
Baker Street Station, London England
MR constructed Baker Street tube station at Baker Street and the Marylebone Road in London, UK. The history of this station began in 1863 by what is now served by the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines.
The underground station is flooded with natural light by a row of cleverly designed light wells that direct non-direct light onto the platform. The shifting of the sun produces distinct lighting situations according to the time of day.
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