New in the neighborhood -Hell, Yes!

The New Museum that just opened up around the corner.

I agree.

(from my work calendar system.)

ZKM - digital arts museum

Nina, Philip and I drove to Karlsruhe to visit the digital arts museum. Seeing the history of digital and interactive art was both inspiring and grounding. I found myself back in many considerations from school.

Outside in a glass and water cage was a riot of light.






As you enter, if it catches your face, a drum will strike and sound your entry.



Audiobar - Mogens Jacobsen 2006

Nina



Sculptural piece that makes subtle sounds as your shadow passes it.



A robotic monk, spending six months writing the books of the bible in a precise, calligraphic hand.



Nina and Philip at the foot of the final twist in subtly disturbing, Alice-in-Wonderland staircase.


In the entryway as we left, I played with the spotlight a friend developed - it selects someone and follows them for a time, seemingly pleased and interested, then in a fit a pique disappearing to watch someone else - a flighty gaze.

Us.

Small towns in Germany

I'm here at our Herrenberg studio for a few days of work. I'm enjoying the studio and on the weekends exploring a bit of the area. It's a lovely area - idyllic really - fields tidily laid out between forested hills with medieval towns rising on their slopes, topped with castles and churches - all in the red-roofed, heavy-beamed architecture of the region - Swabian, Black Forest...

My guest house

The church just above the guest house and on the way up to the remains of the castle. It's bells wake me in the morning.

My door.

The nearby town of Tübingen - home to an ancient university.

Like the Cam in Cambridge UK, a lazy river flows through town and students and others pole their way along it, relaxing, chatting, and picnicking.

The streets that wend between buildings are often narrow,

But each of the towns seem to open to a market square with cafes, public houses of great age, and fountains.


Detail of a church window - very painful medieval sentiments.

Ivy.

Madrid

I stayed in the heart of the city.
On the last day, my colleague and I walked a bit of the city. From the roof of the Beaux Arts museum we saw the angels and guardians of the city.


The stairs back down to street level

Our hotel was in a warren of narrow streets - reminiscent of a mix of nations.

The Plaza Mayor is where the city gathers - and tourists.

Au revoir Paris - Hola Madrid

Paris was interesting. Now on to Madrid.

Paris on a quick wander though the city

When we arrived in Paris for the research, the French transit workers decided on a strike and the World Cup of Rugby final was being played in town. The city was packed with partiers and with traffic. Research went well and I got to spend a day wandering the city - occasionally pulling out my camera.

The drive into the city on Saturday after a stop in Versailles.


At the hotel, they'd misplaced my reservation and had to give me the suite - so I slept with a view of the Eiffel tower out one window and Notre Dame out the other, over rooftops.
Each church has it's own feel. This one is all about mementos left to thank the Virgin Mary for answering one's prayers. The church is filled with gold and copper hearts, marble plaques, swords, metals and other things. The mementos climb the walls and cover every surface.


St Eustache feels to me like a set from the Lord of the Rings. Plus the organist was practicing his music that afternoon -so I sat for a long time, listening and watching the sun throw specks of color through the stained glass.


Outside, I must admit that Paris also feels a bit surreal - or unreal - like a set or like aliens landed and set up camp.


And finally the Louvre


To finish the day and the best thing I did in Paris... a luxurious hammam bath at the Paris Mosque - wonderful! Highly recommended.

Then the Metro back to the hotel.

A stroll through the gardens of Versailles

As my hotel was way out here - I decided to stop at Versailles on the way in to Paris. The lines to enter the museum were enormous and the prospect of parking slim, so I drove around the park to another, pedestrian, entrance, and joined the flow of French people into the grounds.

Fall at the Lake with family

My aunt and uncle came to visit Dad - up from Houston on their way further north to see Acadia National Park. I came up for a quick weekend visit.

Margaret and Floyd


The wonderful wall built near our home (I edited out the silly little concrete toad they've placed under it's jump to the ground.)


Fall colors.

"I see you!" Paquita's entertainment - the chipmunks.

A Sunday at the Cloisters

I live at the very bottom of the island of Manhattan. Overall I walk most places I go in a normal week - sometimes take the train uptown or to Brooklyn or other parts of the city. But this particular Sunday I decided to go see the Cloisters - a branch of the museum dedicated to Medieval Art. Rather than take the train, I caught a series of busses all the way uptown to the museum. I recommend the trip if you're ever in town - you see so much more than on the train - the stores and buildings that set the context for those getting on and off the bus.

The would be a wonderful site to host an event - this covered courtyard or the summer gardens, even the halls.

More from Burning Man

More from the temple: This one, looking up, early in the morning.




Memories and messages left behind.

And being created.

Center Camp! Coffee, ice, performances, shade, sleep, noise, activity, gathering, departure, discovery....

An odd character - there, performing, half drunk and seemingly most often that way, with a story of fame achieved and lost to drink and self-despair. And he felt to me like he was not ready to leave that space, interested in his story only, speaking and not listening.


The bone tree

Early morning people dancing at the moving dragon.

The little temple made all of recyclable trash.

The giant swing set at dawn.

The Man - his tent removed, and body rebuilt for the burn to come that night.

Images of Burning Man

The treehouse made by people who'd never seen nature.


A caravan, early morning, the cyclists sleeping inside.


Books that take you away on flights of fantasy.


Guardian of Eden - Kate's piece which Spaceman helped with.

Burning Man 2007: ladder in the sky

One afternoon we came across a guy who had found a fire engine on EBay and decided it was exactly what Burning Man needed. So... we climbed it, all the way way way up.



Toward the top you begin to feel it twist and shift a bit in the wind. It gets scary and your hands grip the rungs tighter and you begin to test your footing just a bit more carefully. For this year, this was the thing that most reminded me how much you take responsibility for your own safety here.

Brett on his way up.

Brett at the top. Look at our tiny little shadows.


The view was great from the top. Off to the left spun the lazy dust devils that presaged the wilder storms of later in the week.

Ahead, past Center Camp, stood the place of the pre-Burned Man, and beyond it the temple, and a great sound installation that didn't survive the first high wind storm.

Burning Man 2007: the people

This year I camped with a wonderful crew of folks - some know and some new to me.

Our camp

Brett the Magnificent

Emily the Brave

Ranger Rich

Megs the Beautiful

Adam the Excellent

Bernard (picture is yet to be posted)

It was camp of good spirits, lots of tasty grillings, and a week of exploration and adventure.

Mike's Birthday Party

Last night we went to Counter, East Village - a vegan restaurant... which I never thought I'd like... but it's amazing! The food was wonderful and the deserts were amazing.

The reason for the party was Mike's birthday... celebrating both him and getting in a bit extra Mike before he leaves for other coasts and continents.

Matt Ipcar took all the photos.

Signage - product of China, salted jellyfish

This weekend was great!

Weds-Thurs Boston - conference and then (well not so fun) dental surgery - plus two good friends, dinner, walk on beach, my old residence hall - memory lane and all that.

Friday a bit of dental surgery recovery plus some going out with the office for music then a late evening performance art thing with a friend (it was awful performance art).

Then Saturday a bit of early day contemplation followed by a conference at Cooper Union with a friend followed by dinner and drinks and long talk about life, love, and all that - plus his fascination and consternation with his newly-found head-over-heels girl.

Then a pool party in mid-town for a birthday.

Then a housewarming party in the LES (where someone was showing off the real-deal iPhone - and where I bumped into people from parsons and many places -- enforcing the small size of the design world)

Then Sunday Russ and Daughter's brunch with a friend, and the afternoon with another.

All topped off by re-reading a great, if a bit juvenile, sci-fi book.

Signage series continues

Another frog Friday: Black Tie

David invited us to the Sailor's Ball. (Photos from Kyle's friend, Erin.)

Stage 1
It all started innocently enough.

Stage 2
Then it progressed.

Stage 3
And went on from here...


It was fun - fun to be dressed up; fun to watch the husband hunting; fun to dance; fun to be with friends, and to stay up past our bedtimes.

frog Fridays: on the pier

This was the first warm Friday afternoon of the year so we took our afterwork coffeetime out to the pier. (Photos by Matt Ipcar.)
Mike - really Mike - the grin, the awareness of both sides of the image, the nails...

The Album Cover

Happy Me.