Lunar-Resonant Streetlights in GOOD

The amazing Steven Johnson wrote/illustrated a panel about Civil Twilight's Lunar-Resonant Streetlights in his column in GOOD magazine recently. It beautifully captures the idea and experience of the lights, using a great economy of means.

The Wonderful Walker

The building (Herzog and de Meuron), the art (Alec Soth! salon-style contemporary art with binoculars!), the grounds (Turell!). It makes Minneapolis marvelous.

Quinta

These photos make me think of sunny days in Portugal--out on the porch at the quinta, and a foodie display of our afternoon meal. Figs and grapes from the farm (we also picked quince, apples, and oranges) plus strong cheese and olives from the EcoMarché in nearby Ferreira. I'd like to report that we got the bread from the twice-daily bread truck that drives by with warm loaves...but in fact we were napping when it came by and we got that bread at the market as well...

Rockridge ramblings

We've noticed this house before on walks from our neighborhood up to Diesel Books. A few weeks ago, Anton noticed that it is for sale! Since we're interested in storefronts and potential live-work spaces, we took a gander. Turns out, the owner is an 80 year old former architect, who, after a quick lunch trip to Wendy's, gave us a very long tour. The bones of the lower storefront building (1918) are wonderful--beautiful details, big windows, and a lot of character. It is divided into three living units--studios and a one-bedroom. They have high ceilings, but are in terrible condition--and are victims of awful architectural interventions by the owner (think lofts with 4 foot high ceilings in which you can't sit up in bed). Bathrooms are molding away into dust. But as ever-optimistic young architects, we somehow look past the dank falling apart-ness, and see a big skylit woodshop, a brightly lit corner design studio, and a cozy one bedroom with a woodstove.

And upstairs...
Atop this charming if tumbling-down building sits a 1920s-era bungalow--according to the owner, that was moved from another part of town and raised up to sit on top of the roof--before he bought it. Incredible! Bizarre! The house is awful, its a mystery how its being supported, and there are no end of cheap, non-permitted add-ons to the original bungalow. All are decrepit and have what one of our realtor friends refers to as 'delayed maintenace' issues. Still, when one follows the creaky owner up the pull-down stairs to one of the additions, and comes to a framed-in attic with views of the hills, its easy to forget the decay below and think only of possibilities.

Just in: price reduced from $700K to $550...

Primary Colors

(Plus green and white)

Buildings in the Alentego region of Portugal are invariably white. They often have a band around windows, doors, and at the base of the walls. This is either yellow or blue. Not just any yellow or blue. A specific earthy yellow ochre, or a blue that seems to occupy the platonic middle. Not a tone of blue, just pure blue. The windows and doors may be varnished wood, hunter green, or dark red. That’s it.

We first saw these colors in well-preserved medieval hill towns where they may well be legislated into being: some top-down application of either tradition or quaint homogeneity. Less expectedly, run-of-the mill postwar towns seemed to have the same strict color scheme. We wondered if local paint stores only carry four cans. Or if, in contrast to the vast menagerie of American paint chips with pseudo-evocative names like Sonora Sunrise or Velvet Tango, one simply walks into a paint store and asks for yellow, blue or red- with the shared understanding that each is a cultural consensus, not a range of tones.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to any paint stores. The mystery remains.

kayak fasteners

The indescribable latch system didn't work so well...so I did a prototype of a previous idea, using custom straps and plastic hardware. This one actually worked quite well and looks better than the nylon straps & buckles, I think.

The strap is thin translucent polyethylene (like the skin). The hardware is all flat plastic pieces, can be laser cut. Would like to try white or translucent plastic for these as well.

A little rotating twist lock keeps the strap from coming undone.

It self-aligns much better than the nylon straps, no more weird bulges.

Also tried a new version of the front fairing- just a folded piece of the same strap plastic, velcroed in place. Would be nicer with white velcro, but otherwise works pretty well. Not as good for major impacts but should take care of streamlining & abrasion.

The fairing piece unfolded...

Simplicity

Simplicity is homemade yogurt in a clay ramekin. With a cute sugar packet to sweeten it. And the Herald Tribune, if the New York Times isn't available.

Learning

Ambassador sighting

There are many beautiful grates around town...and also many white Ambassador cars. I am hoping to ride in one soon...

Extended Stay

Hotel food in India is supposed to be really good--ie if you're a resident, you might go of your own accord to a hotel restaurant for a luxury meal. This could mean Indian food, or this could mean a hodgepodge buffet that includes a soccer-ball/spaceship-shaped cheese concoction...

The other day a hotel staffer asked to take my picture. I tried to say no, but they wanted it because I'm here an 'extended stay' guest and they wanted the photo so that the entire staff could know me by face and name. A bit startling. It is a very businessy hotel and reminds me of the hotel we used to stay at in Bangkok, when I was little. Too many patterns in the lobby and lots of overly shiny tropical woods. And marble. And chandeliers. The lobby bar seems to be a hub of business/microfinance/expat activity. Above is my room, overlooking a nice-looking slice of the otherwise fairly putrid lake.

I'm ready for the end of my extended stay.

Traffic in India

That lady in the top photo is riding a motorcycle at high speeds side-saddle! No helmets sighted yet. There are not only a ton of people in the back of that tuk tuk (called a scooty here) in the second photo, there are two people sitting with the driver, more or less on his lap! The bottom photo shows Hyderabad's new system of 'flyovers' (aka overpasses).

These pictures don't show it, but it is truly incredible the tiny tiny margins between travelers on foot, bike, scooter, tuk tuk, car, buses, and then waterbuffalo--all these, sharing the road, albeit with MANY honks. Honking seems to be an entire language in India.

Harvest!

Our vegetables! Delicious with just a dash of lemon & olive oil...best tomatoes of the summer so far!

And to counterract the hyper-local, also got a wedge of jackfruit at BB. According to wikipedia, it's the national fruit of Bangladesh and is also very popular in Southern India- any sightings? It has a strange rubbery texture and tastes somewhat like bubblegum.

Indoor/Outdoor

One of the most interesting aspects of buildings here is the completely different definition of indoors/outdoors, conditioned space/unconditioned space, and perimeters. This photo shows a completely 'outdoor' or unconditioned, unbounded lobby space, with computers, etc., and 'outdoor' stairways and gathering spaces extending off it. Conditioned spaces are smaller and more defined, such as conference rooms, which are sealed by doors. The perimeter of the building is more defined by an exterior gate at the end of a driveway than by an actual front door. There is no front door at all, but rather a sequence of steps, a turn, and a threshhold that alerts you to when you're 'inside' (yet not inside at all in the Western sense). Its pretty great, climactically appropriate, and helps avoid that horrible feeling of spending too long in sealed, air-conditioned spaces.

Places to go together...

Can you guess where this is?

One just about ready- and a few more coming...
Shiny with no wax!

Ganesha(s)

We ran across miles and miles of Ganesha 'factories' on the side of the road on the way to one of the schools outside the city. They're for an upcoming festival in which they are decorated and then put into the lake (I think). They're all plaster and are individually painted, with the hands applied in the right positions at the last minute, it looks like. The whole area was chalky-plastery white.

Designs in Hyderabad

Loads and loads of tiffins in plastic baskets brought from home!

Apparently the 'Thought for the Day' is a common Indian thing...

Colorful maps of India were on a few school's walls. One had Europe too, which included the Russian Federation.

Amazing art! by a student. There's very little display of student work, so this was awesome not just for the aesthetics, but also just being posted on the wall.

Indian book covers--seen at every school

Seen around...

A few shots from our visits yesterday--it rained sporadically, as seen by the sky in one of the photos. Bright colors abound, whether in murals or whole buildings. The interior is an airy split-level office built around rocks, which apparently are part of the Hyderabad context. The last photo is near Charminar, a city landmark.