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August 31, 2005
push pull arch and design
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Illustrator portal
Illustration :: IllustrationMundo.com
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August 30, 2005
Yang Shou
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pixelpost
Pixelpost :: Authentic Photoblog Flavour
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A PHOTOLOG IN FIVE EASY STEPS
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eternal life
New invention allows humans to live forever.
Why should I sell a device which is believed to allow eternal life? This is a very risky business, and most people don't believe me. There is a good reason why I am doing all this. BECAUSE IT WORKS!!! Isn't that cool? I'm selling eternal life right off of internet.
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August 29, 2005
hunter s
"Well, I got through today, but tomorrow might be different." This is a very weird and twisted world; you can't afford to get careless; don't fuck around. You want to keep your affairs in order at all times.
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hunter s thompson interview with playboy
playboy interview - hunter s. thompson
It was like falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids.
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honor thy tailbone
Dr Devorah Feinbloom ~ Healing And Chiropractic
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boston spine clinics
Thank You for Contacting Boston Spine Clinics
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sacrum adjustment
Medical Network - MedNet Directory - Providers
Daniel Poole DC
Park Street Chiropractic
11 Park St
Waterville, ME 04901
Ph: (207) 872-0961
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alternative healing new bedford
Wind Walker Healing - Intuitive Reiki Engery Healing
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boston lofts
Boston Lofts - Kimball Borgo - Welcome
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Archinect : Discussion Forum : View All : inexpensive materials for loft
Coroplast - corrugated plastic sheets.
comes in many colors, but translucent is my favorite. wholesale
price is $8.00 for a 4' x 8' sheet i think. could make nice dividers..
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Archinect : Discussion Forum : View All : Hi, Gorgeous. Haven't I Seen You Somewhere?
Probably the same way that reenactment differs from reaction.
Rita Novel
Total Entries: 23
Total Comments: 742
08/28/05 12:22
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The Burning Man Project :: Welcome Home
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August 25, 2005
Poodle Predictor
See how search-engine friendly your site is
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freeload press location map
Visitor log for freeload press
Visitor log for freeload press
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August 24, 2005
A Quondam Banquet of Virtual Sachlichkeit: Part I
by Stephen Lauf
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August 23, 2005
koolhaas process oriented
explicitly devoted to making buildings that function as solutions to carefully analyzed problems - a studio, in other words, whose aesthetic is not formal but organizational - Koolhaas
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August 22, 2005
trailor trash in style
Breckenridge Perfect Cottages™
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Modern Shed - my new home?
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INhabitat - great spatial design blog
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Soybean Protein Fiber
Soybean Protein Fiber(SPF),The Exclusive Plant Protein Fiber in The World
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Mathias Bengtsson -- slice series of furniture
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Design stuff to buy
Welcome to Design Public™ -- Fresh New Design Online: 800.506.6541
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ASLA opportunities
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The Dirt- ASLA
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stuff+Cats = awesome
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August 21, 2005
Setting up an architecture practice
Archinect : Discussion Forum : View All : Setting Up an Architecture Practice
R.A. Rudolph
Total Entries: 14
Total Comments: 394
08/21/05 18:50
Lots of good questions - I'd love to hear answers from people who have been doing it a bit longer than we have, but here's one perspective:
We have been on our own full time for about 2 years - started doing small side projects maybe 4 years ago... 3 partners, we all met in school but have different backgrounds & degrees. We decided to officially jump in and start a company after my two partners (one of whom is my husband - the other his best friend from school) had left full time jobs in architecture they weren't satisfied with and started doing small remodel jobs. That combined with the small design jobs we had going led us to think we might make it as a design/build company.
First misconception : You will make more money on the construction side of things, thus if you do design/build you have a better chance of making it. For the moment, this is absolutely not true for us - the architecture side of the company is more profitable - not what we expected... I have since read that 95% of people that start their own construction companies quit after 2 years. Don't know about comparable statistics for architecture, but I imagine it's less. It's VERY EASY to lose money in construction, not so easy in design if you've got a good contract. If the construction side succeeds, we will eventually be able to make more money than we would just doing architecture (on the residential scale anyway). HOWEVER, it now looks like this will take 5-10 years, and we're not sure if we can stick it out - see below.
TIME: We work all the time. At least, we work, or talk about work, all the time. By this I mean 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Of course we take breaks, long lunches, have fun, pet the dog, but lately we have no time for museums, movies, bars, or anything like that... now we're really busy this summer, and it's not consistently this bad, but in order to make it work as a small company you're looking at long long hours. Part of it is just the stress factor, you'll constantly be thinking of how to improve the company, how to do marketing, how to deal with clients, learning how to do the books, setting up a library, etc. At this point I am concluding the only way to own your own company and have a normal life (unless your spouse makes a lot of money and/or you live somewhere with a low cost of living, and even then I'm not sure) is to have employee(s), and you need a certain amount of guaranteed work for that, which most people starting out don't have (including us - after 4 years).
MONEY: You will likely make less than working for someone else, for a few years to even longer. Last year we made about a quarter of what we were making when we both worked in offices (no joke) - this year it's almost equal, but we got lucky and got a few big jobs. We have NO IDEA where we'll be at next year, and in all likelyhood we'll make less than this year. This is partly because the construction side of the company makes less money, so if you're doing only architecture you might do reasonably well after a few years if you have consistent work. As an example, in order to make the same amount of money I would make at a firm (maybe $65,000/yr - I am licensed with 6 years experience), I would estimate I need about 1 million worth of projects per year. This is very rough, and it assumes that is the value of the construction estimate for projects the billing for which stretches over a few years. It takes into account overhead (which is fairly small - no employees except a paid summer intern, office at our house, etc.) and a bit of money to keep in the bank.
I would really recommend if you are serious about starting a company, that you do a budget including what you estimate your overhead will be (and ours is a lot higher than expected), what your fees will be per project, how long it will take you to complete each project, etc., to attempt to determine how much revenue you think you'll bring in per month. As the bookkeeper for both the design & construction sides of the company, I have been surprised to find that the fees just don't go as far as it seems they should. Remember, you also have to pay self-employment tax, plus state income tax depending on where you live. Since we're in CA, we probably have one of the higher tax burdens, and though deductions help a lot, you'll still end up paying 25-30% of your income to taxes.
PROS/CONS: It's great to work for ourselves. It's flexible, there's no one to blame but ourselves (good & bad), it can be rewarding when things turn out well. We do get to accomplish our designs, but keep in mind that when you start out you're not going to get fantastic commissions right away. We often discuss whether we'd be better off working for an already established office that does good work, because then we would at least probably not have to work on tract houses or pseudo craftsman remodels. The reality is that most of America doesn't own, and doesn't want, ultra-modern design, nor can they afford it. If you have the good fortune to start out with a couple of modern restaurant designs, or a ground up modern house as your first commission (no one I know if in this situation but it must happen), go for it. Otherwise, you'll be looking at the work that more established firms don't want for several years. And you'll probably be doing small residential projects. We would love to do something commercial, industrial, anything, but referrals generally come from friends or family, and in our case it's all residential.
I have no idea what the statistics are for people who start their own companies staying afloat, but I can say that of the 6 or so people I know personally who have done it, probably 2/3 have gone back to work for someone else, and the others (besides ourselves) have been teaching as a way to supplement their incomes. I am looking into teaching myself, but don't know how I would honestly do it with a full design workload.
To make a long story short - it's been worth a try so far, but after two years we are tired and often talk about giving up. We're in it at least until next spring, and then we're having our first child (note:official archinect news exclusive), after which point who knows what will happen...
PS: I also bought the AIA guide to starting a practice and haven't even cracked it open. My best advice is find people you know who have done it and ask alot of questions...
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bacterial wisdom
Bacterial Wisdom, G�del's Theorem and Creative Genomic Webs
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Paranoid Critical Method
Archinect : Discussion Forum : View All : Why do you think you're creative?
bRink
Total Entries: 11
Total Comments: 148
08/19/05 22:29
When I was in archischool, one of my colleagues was quite interested in Salvidor Dali's "Paranoid Critical Method", something that Rem Koolhaas also wrote about somewhere I recall... I'm not an expert on Dali or surrealism, but the basic premise of Dali's Paranoid Critical method was that in fact creativity could be induced methodically (by basically anybody) by intentionally creating a surreal juxtaposition: if you intentionally juxtapose two extraneous things (that is totally unrelated things chosen at random, be it two objects--- like a lobster and a telephone say, or two ideas that have nothing to do with one another, or two of anything, perhaps two concepts from unrelated disciplines), you can actually methodically produce something new that nobody could have thought up through logical means... In other words, create an idea that is totally illogical (like some of Dali's surreal creations), by having your mind be in two places at once, a kind of imaginative schizophrenia... What you end up with is a surreal juxtaposition, but it is something that nobody could have thought up through a logical method of thinking...
The interesting thing I think is when you bring that surreal idea and push it further, try to make it "real"... You might serendipitously discover something that you could not have come up with through rational means. Whether that thing is actually useful to you or not is chance... But the potential for it being completely "new" is much greater... So in a way, its an irrational method that can actually produce more innovative ideas than any rational method could ever hope to...
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practicing
liberty bell
Total Entries: 5
Total Comments: 698
08/20/05 12:45
http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=23513_0_42_0_C
There's a story about a Westerner who went to a renowned Japanese calligraphy master to make a purchase. The master took the person's money and said “Come back in a year”.
A year later man came back, and the master said “It's not ready yet, come back in another year.”
This went on for a decade. The man eventually lost patience. He went to the calligraphist and demanded a drawing or his money back.
The master pulled out a piece of paper, dipped his brush in ink, and in one perfect motion drew the figure and handed the piece of paper to the man. The man saw the beauty and skill evident in the piece and said “That took five seconds to do, why did I have to wait so long, what on earth have you been doing for the last ten years?!”
The master walked to the door behind him and opened it, revealing thousands upon thousands of papers piled and stacked and scattered about, all with the man's figure on them, and replied “Practicing.”
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interview with Bjork, Tori, PJ
HIPS. TITS. LIPS. POWER. P.J. Harvey, Bjork, Tori Amos.
Written by: Adrian Deevoy
Source: Q Magazine, May 1994
Well, would you spill their pint? In the last 18 months, Polly Harvey, Bjork, and Tori Amos have rogered the charts with their special brew of spooky, left-field weirdness and estrogen-marinated musings. Q invites the gleesome threesome over for a tupperware party with attitude. Adrian Deevoy pours the tea and supplies the fondant fancies.
The Elfin Eskimo, the Kooky American chick and the Mad Bitch Woman from hell are drinking tea and talking about other people's perceptions of them and how wrong they always seem to be.
Gathered around a low table in a photographic studio in Islington, North London, they make for gently intense yet engaging company. Soon, the conversation is taking the unlikely B-roads hinted at in their expressly non-linear music. It is punctuated at regular intervals by staccato bursts of manic laughter. If Andrew Lloyd Webber were ever to make Macbeth The Musical!! (The Scottish play as you've never heard it before, starring Nick Cave and Sarah Brightman) he'd need look no further for his three witches.
As they talk, parts of their characters begin to emerge: Polly Harvey is a cotious cove, quietly looking on and rolling her own cigarettes, following rather than leading the proceedings; Bjork is a more abstract customer, immediately giving voice to her more random thoughts and pursuing the unlikeliest of tangents; Tori Amos's off-centre broadsides come in elliptical form, often stopping off for a spot of free association and shrinkspeak en route to her original point.
With 5 LPs between them (two unsettling albums apiece for Polly and Tori and one half-million UK seller for Bjork's startling debut), they have given spooky, left-field label weirdness back its good name and everyone from Kate Bush to Evan Dando a run for their money.
But what sets these women apart from the mainstream soft soul of Mariah Carey and Dina Caroll is their extraordinary singing voices. Bjork's is a heavenly hiccuping thing that almost defies terrestrial description; Polly's is as if opera diva had eaten a drum kit - swooping and percussive, and Tori's is a finely tutored instrument that manages to simultaneously preach, purr and plead.
Their speaking voices are no less unusual: Bjork boasts a yodelling Cockney Icelanding hybrid with occasional East European overtones (that old one); Polly has the soft Rs and sleepily stretched vowels of her native Dorset, while Tori posesses a dreamy mid-American accent which, of the trio, bears the closest resemblance to that which you hear on her records.
All three have met before, most poigniantly at this year's Brit Awards where Bjork collected a brace of gongs and performed Satisfaction with Polly. Seeking refudge from the corporate black slapathon, Tori sought out her fellow female singers backstage, harbouring the suspicion that they might be soul mates. She was, she maintains proudly, correct.
Q: Do you feel a connection between the three of you?
POLLY: I think there is a connection. For me, anyway. This is the first time I've really had the opportunity to meet other women that are in the same kind of situation that I'm in. It's been really helpful for me to see that other people have to deal with exactly the same sort of things that I have to deal with. I was feeling on my own. I was thinking that other people don't have to go through these things, seeing lawyers, getting sued left, right and centre while you're trying to write an album.
BJORK: Are you being sued as well?
POLLY: Yea, I'm being sued at the moment. It's really horrible.
BJORK: I'm so sorry for you.
TORI: Do you want us to shoot the lawyer?
POLLY: But meeting up with these two has made me stop feeling so sorry for myself. It's just living and everyone has to deal with these kinds of things in their different ways.
Q: You've met before, haven't you?
BJORK: Me and Tori met in Iceland.
TORI: She came backstage to see me at my show two years ago. I had been aware of her because of The Sugarcubes and I went to Iceland because I wanted to go so bad. I'd been facinated by it and studied a bit about it so I eventually went. Everybody like, gets drunk, don't they?
BJORK: That's Icelandic culture, That's all there is, really.
TORI: It's the most expensive place to by alcohol on the planet.
BJORK: It's a joke. One beer costs about five quid.
TORI: But they were a really good audience for a country that's drunk.
BJORK: But that was the way you kept the concentration going. It was amazing. I've done gigs in Iceland that have been ridiculous because people know you and when you're singing, they're shouting, Hey, you didn't make your Engish degree! Your uncle is fucking my neice!
TORI: They could have shouted that at me and it probably would have been true. But we went snow-mobiling on the glacier. Polly, you should go there, you'd love it.
POLLY: I've never been. In my head I've just seen snow and cold.
TORI: There aren't many trees, but it's very green. And it's icy in Greenland. They got the names wrong.
POLLY: Is it hilly or flat?
BJORK: It's very hilly. Geographically, it's very young, so it's still in the making. It's not got to the tree stage yet. It's still making moss.
TORI: It's a very unique place. It makes sense that Bjork comes from there.
Q: What were your impessions of each other before you met?
TORI: Total respect for them.
BJORK: This might sound really arrogant, I don't know, but when it comes to people who make music, I'm not very interested in most cases. That doesn't mean I think they're bad, they just don't do anything for me. But I could tell very quickly when I heard Polly's album and Tori's album that I'd like them. When I met Polly, it was really relaxed and I have to say that she was like I expected her to be.
Q: Were you anxious about meeting each other?
POLLY: I wasn't really. As soon as we met it was very easy.
BJORK: You can suss some people out pretty quickly. Not completely, obviously, but you can sense whether or not you're on the same wavelength.
Q: Do you have, or have you ever, felt in competition with each other?
BJORK: No way.
POLLY: No.
TORI: Never. It's funny for women because journalists pit women against each other. If you think about Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, they were all much more similar to each other than we are. We have tits. We have three holes. That's what we have in common. We don't even play the same instruments. It really dissapoints me when some sort of competition has to be manufactured for their little minds and fantasies. That's not growing, that's not support. There is room for everybody on the planet to be creative and conscious if you are your own person. If you're trying to be like somebody else, then there isn't. We see things from different points of view and that affects people in different ways and I think that should be encouraged. It shouldn't be like two tits too many. Like with radio in America, they tell you, "Well, we're already playing one female this week." They wouldn't think about that with guys.
Q: In the last 18 months, you have all felt the pressures of success at full tilt. How have you, in your own ways, coped or not coped?
BJORK: I guess I was lucky in that I became a public property in Iceland when I was 11, so I had 15 years of hardcore rehersals before all of this hullabaloo. I guess at the end of the day you realize that this hullabaloo is not about you, it's about that person you've created. It sounds cold and horrible, but you feel very lucky that the person who you are - the relationship that you have between you and yourself - is different than with some person who's never met you. It's good to have that distance, because when you get Brit awards and front covers, it's not about you, it's a symbol for what you do. And when it comes to what I do, it's got so little to do with myself. I'm writing songs about other people, my favorite things, whatever, and it's the most unselfish thing you can imagine.
Q: Do you agree with that, Tori and Polly? Your songs, ostensibly, seem to be more about first hand personal experience.
POLLY: No, I definitely agree with what Bjork was saying. I'm just growing to realize that it's not you when you see your picture in the paper. I can now see that it's something competely removed from what I am.
Q: You had some problems with that, didn't you?
POLLY: Yea, because I couldn't remove myself and I found it very difficult. Anything that I read would really upset me. Or I wouldn't realize at the time and then later on it would really upset me. But now I can disassociate myself from that. I think maybe it's just time that does it. The longer I've done this, the more I've learnt how to deal with it and not be dragged down by it. But I did at the start. It really upset me.
BJORK: You have one relationship with your Grandmother and one with your boyfriend and one with the guy in the grocery shop. That doesn't mean you're being fake or untrue, it's just that you have those different colors in you.
TORI: You have to know what your intentions are. In this little time we've spent together, supporting each other, I sense that our intentions are about exposing things within our own beings which become mirrors for other people. Like when I listen to Polly's words, I see pieces of me that I'm not willing to see. So I'm like (taking a series of deep breaths) 'OK, be with this for a moment, Tori, and hear what Polly is saying'. And I hear pieces of Bjork that I cut out a long time ago. The girl that jumps off rooftops, that part. It's all about consciousness. We're not actors. I think songwriters are the concious or the unconscious of the time. That's what the poet's job is. I'm only a mirror. If someone hates my guys, then they only hate half of me. Do you understand? 50 percent of it is me and 50 percent of it is them. A great review? Half of that is them.
BJORK: Sorry, it's nothing personal but generally journalists don't have a clue. I don't expect them to have one. It's very rare that you read something with some insight. Maby five percent of reviews I can identify with and then only a little bit.
Q: But certain reviews must stay with you.
BJORK: Uhm, I'm not saying (laughter).
TORI: What I remember is spending three hours with someone for an interview and you've gotten to know them a little bit and talked about intimate things and tried to be open. Then you've read what they've written and you think, 'God, this is not where I was.' You feel really invaded. You think, 'Well, that is a Cornflake Girl.' People want to know what a Cornflake Girl is. That's journo right there.
Q: Don't you feel you sometimes reveal too much of yourselves?
BJORK: I think if there's a place to reveal yourself, then it's in the songs. It's not like you decide, 'OK, I'm going to reveal myself.' It's just a certain need. You're just focusing on the things you're talking about and not necessarily yourself. I compare what I do to sleeping, because most journalists seem to get that pretty easily. There's no way you can decide what position you're going to be in when you wake up in the morning. You just roll around the bad and it happens. And if you don't do it for a week, you go mad.
Q: Do you feel in control of your lives?
POLLY: Yep, I do. Nearly. (laughter)
BJORK: I could be more in control, but I don't want to be. I decide what happens. I'm always so thirsty for this element of surprise that I don't want to plan more than a few days ahead.
Q: But surely in your current position you can't do that. It must be difficult to be spontaneous.
TORI: What's spontaneity? There isn't any spontaneity. I'm just speaking for me right now. On stage, when I play, that's my moment of freedom, but 19 hours a day are packed with what's got to happen to get to the next show. I'm a bit of a road dog. I love to play. I guess it's because I did clubs for 14 years before Little Earthquakes happened. So I know what I'm doing September 6th or August 7th. Will you call me up and cheer me up on August 7?
POLLY: Course I will. It'll be funny, you'll have to try to keep this balance between being organized and being creative and keeping everything in balance in your head and monitoring everything that's going on.
BJORK: It's about allowing enough space for accidents to happen. Being in control and yet not. Being just in control enough. That really turns me on.
POLLY: I got that last night! Half a bottle of wine and I was thinking, 'Wow! What a great life!'
Q: You all perform with a great degree of abandon. What does that mean to you?
TORI: It's everything.
POLLY: It's what gets me through...my life. It reminds you about why you wanted to do that in the first place because you have a love and a need to do it.
BJORK: It's hard to pin it down without bringing out a string of cliche's. It's an addiction, but it's not JUST that.
TORI: You're not even thinking anymore. You just free up your mind and express. Thered's nothing calculated. I don't play the piano, the piano plays me.
BJORK: You sacrifice yourself. And you lose everything - like the fact that I'm this big and an Icelandic female and all that. I think that this is the reason that music and sex are so often compared with each other. The most common way of feeliing this is probably in sex. Because when you're having sex, you don't think, I'm now going to move my left arm 30 centimeters. You just have to do something and you follow your instincts. In that sense, although I'm not saying I'm thinking about sex all the time when I'm on stage, it's a very similar feeling to having very good sex with someone.
TORI: That's so good that you have sex like that. I have a much harder time opening up in the intimate sex realm because I have stuff to deal with. I don't have to go there emotionally when I play. It's harder for me to feel that in sex. The only time I can really feel it is when I play and I guess that's why I do so many shows. I'm dry. In real life I'm bone dry, and when I play I'm a mango and in sex I'm starving to be a dripping mango.
BJORK: I'm not very good at communicating things but with music it makes sense.
POLLY: I think you're really good at communicating.
BOJRK: Yea, but I have to use my brain alot, and it's taken 28 years to get to this.
Q: Do you go mad when you tour?
BJORK: You bet, man. You start out with fucking health foods and no alcohol...
POLLY: ...you're totally cleaned out and you're eating well and doing exersize, swimming every day, and by the end of the tour you're drinking to calm down instead of meditating or whatever, and eating crap and smoking.
TORI: It's really great for me to hear this because my tour starts tomorrow.
BJORK: And your reading just goes down the toilet. You start off reading highly spiritual, good-for-the-brain things and by the end I'm just reading about fucking and sex orgies.
Q: Do you ever feel like you can't be bothered to perform?
TORI: Yea, of course but you can tap into that source. I'm just a conduit for some kind of power. I'm just a vase and the water is flowing through me. You put your hands on the voltage and it just surges through you and if the crowd are giving that out too, it can completely energize you back.
Q: How do you deal with hecklers?
TORI: There's always someone who wants to make you doubt yourself and scream at you. I have a very quiet house when I play, so I can always hear them. I don't know if there are any hecklers loud enough for Polly to hear from the stage.
BJORK: Meat Loaf!
TORI: "Get off the stage, you fucking whore!" They shout that at you (leans forward agressively) and go, 'Look, I'm here for an hour and twenty fucking minutes and if you don't have a gun to blow me off the stage then I'm staying.'
POLLY: I've had people from beginning to end just shouting, 'You fucking bitch! Go back to fucking Yeovil!' I always wonder why they've paid money to do that. I just smile and sing at them and that seems to work. Dedicate a song to them, that always works.
TORI: When that happens, your first reaction is to crawl into a bubble bath and have a pizza. But you have to respect yourself and draw the line and deal with it. I don't like confrontations but you have to do something.
BJORK: And you learn, after a while, to turn everything into something that turns you on. It's like you've got this button. You learn to use things. If someone shouts at you, you can use it to make a song better.
Q: Can you be megalomaniacs?
BJORK: In my case, I wish I was a little bit more of a megalomaniac. Just kidding, OK. I'm guilty!
POLLY: Me too!
Q: Unbearable?
TORI: Of course.
BJORK: You might attack some innocent room service people or something.
Q: How does it feel to be an object of lust?
POLLY: An object of lust!
TORI: What's lust? (laughter)
Q: Student desire.
BJORK: Student desire. Mmmm. I have to say a lot of that is created by the media.
Q: But it's true. You are all lusted after in some way or another.
BJORK: I just can't relate to it.
Q: But that doesn't stop it existing.
BJORK: I know. Maybe we should talk about this. It's very difficult.
Q: Didn't you fancy pop-stars yourself when you were very young?
BJORK: No. I was into Albert Einstien and David Attenborough. I really lusted after him.
POLLY: David Attenborough was lovely.
TORI: Sorry girls, but Robert Plant did it for me. Sorry. I was 10 years old and I wanted to give him my virginity. I decided he was better than all the boys in my class.
BJORK: I just wasn't interested in boys until a few years ago. I thought they were shit. You can't talk to them, especially as a teenager. You could play with them in a band, but as people they were so limited. You can't get properly drunk with them. Like, all the way drunk.
TORI: Are you serious?
POLLY: I'm a late starter as well. I didn't start dating until I was 20 and I'm 24 now.
TORI: I was in love with this boy when I was five years old and I knew we could really make it work. I was trying to convince him and he took this hammer and hit me with it really hard and, you're going to really hate me for this, but I was so stupid, I tried to get my dad, the minister, to invite them over because I wanted to see him and conquer his heart. I was going to give him bubble-gum and then he'd let me into his treehouse to play with his toy machine-guns. I just wanted to be with him so bad.
Q: Did it work out?
TORI: No, never. He called me a nerd.
Q: Do you ever use drugs when you're writing?
BJORK: Drugs? What are you talking about? (laughter)
POLLY: You mean drugs as a tool to write? Only really alcohol and then not much.
BJORK: I sing best without anything. I know this sounds really hippy, but being on top of a mountain in the middle of the day would be best for me. But to be able to socialize with all these people, because I'm quite an introverted sort of person, I'll have a cognac before I go on stage. But even that's more of a ritual more than anything. And maybe a bottle of wine afterwards to chill down.
Q: Do you ever fancy pop-stars now or do you understand the contrivance of image to well to do that?
TORI: I think we've all been doing this too long to fall for that.
Q: Don't you ever look at a picture of Morissey and think 'Phwoar!'
BJORK: Morissey? You're joking.
POLLY: It's more likely to be someone who works in the pub down the road. You don't fancy people just because they're pop stars. And it's not just men. Women can be attractive too.
TORI: KD Lang is kind of attractive. And that grip who was on the video shoot the other day was very attractive.
BJORK: Headphones really turn me on.
POLLY: Headphones?
BJORK: And good literature. The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille usually does the job.
Q: You all draw on sex very heavily in your work.
TORI: Sexuality. There is a difference. Sex is this (inserts right index finger into left thumb and fore-finger 'O' shape). Sexuality is being in touch with something that isn't just that. It's passion. Sexuality is a much greater thing than, Do it all night, honey.
Q: Sexuality, then.
POLLY: It's a very natural thing to write about, I think. It's like getting yourself turned onto a play in a way. For me, music is something that is very sexual. It's a turn-on. It's not something to do with your head, it's to do with your body, which is a very sexual instrument. To bring sexual elements into the lyrics to go with the music just makes perfect sense to me. It just happens.
Q: Alot,in your case. Did you read Elvis Costello saying that a lot of Polly's songs "seem to be about blood and fucking"?
POLLY: (pause) Well, he's wrong. (laughter)
Q: Are you flattered when elder statesmen of rock - Eric Clapton, Costello, Warren Zevon - announce that your records have been their favorites in the last year?
BJORK: Half of me is a bit of a rebel, thinking that someone my dad used to listen to, stuff like Cream, saying that my stuff is all right must mean I've gone wrong somewhere. But half of me is really flattered. If you want the honest truth, I'll be sickly sentimental and say that if my best friend says she likes a song it would affect me alot more.
Q: Are you aware of what the public think of you?
BJORK: I think in my case, it was decided that I was an Eskimo Elf. And I guess that's...(laughs) something I'll have to live with.
POLLY: And I'm a mad bitch woman from hell. I can't get enough sex or blood!
TORI: People's perceptions of Polly seem to be completely off. Compared to when I met her, excuse me, but Polly was like an angel. So loving. So I think whoever made her out to be this mad bitch women has done her an injustice.
Q: But you must have done something to give people that initial impression.
POLLY: I suppose I give as much as I want to give. I decide immediately if I like a person and if I do, then I'm myself, and if I don't, then I give nothing. With Tori I liked her straight away, so she got me. But people do have completely the wrong idea about me, almost the opposite, in fact. And I'm quite happy for it to be like that. Do I want loads of people to know who I am? I'd much rather they didn't have a clue.
BJORK: I didn't get that "mad bitch" impression from listening to Polly's records. I thought she sounded like a caring person. I didn't expect her to turn up with a chainsaw.
Q: Finally, do you have anything to add?
POLLY: Just, thank you, really.
TORI: Could I ask you just please not to use any exclamation points? It looks so awful.
BJORK: I've said far too much already. I should learn to say less.
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August 20, 2005
more couch stuff
American Trim & Upholstery Supply - foam cushions & upholstery supplies
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couch springs
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What the fuck?!
Patent 6368227: Method of swinging on a swing
Inventors: Olson; Steven (337 Otis Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104)
Abstract: A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.
Assignee:
Application Number: 715198
Filing Date: November 17, 2000
Publication Date: April 9, 2002
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Free Patent Searching and PDF Downloading
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Design Within Reach - Case Study Day Bed
Material
Laminated maple plywood frame; nickel-plated brushed steel legs; high-density polyurethane foam core; 100% nylon crepe upholstery with Teflon coating
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August 19, 2005
amazing- maps maps maps
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Visitor log for byandrew
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ReadyMade: Feature - Slide Lamp
SLIDE LAMP
20min Clock icondifficulty_2 $45
Ingredients:
* Standard type A lampshade frame, at least 8.5" diameter
* 48-60 mounted slides
* 48-60 1.5" x 1.5" squares of heavy parchment white lumen paper
* 150-175 10mm 16-gauge silver-tone jump rings
* Table lamp with standard type A base
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phili competition
Urban Voids [design ideas competition]
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August 17, 2005
Hotel Tikal Inn, Tikal - Guatemala
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Hotel Casa Duranta, Coban in Guatemala
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Hospedaje RAX PO Backpacker Hostel in Coban – Guatemala – North America
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Lonely Planet | Thorn Tree Travel Forum
Tikal
Now, Guatemala is also full of culture and ruins. If you opt for this C.A. country, I would highly recomend Panajachel in Lake Atitlan. It is a bit of a hippie town, but the sourounding scenery is breathless. An added plus is that Guatemala is so small that you could visit most areas of the county in weekend trips or side trips. I will try to avoid Antigua and Quetzaltenango (sp?) though since both are too touristy. Panajachel, Guate will be a good choice if you love nature, mayan culture, and a less touristy option to learn Spanish.
cheers,
Fernando
PS: any question, just choot me an email at
darthmilmo at yahoo dot com
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August 16, 2005
for love of money
Jobs: Worst pay for the investment - Aug. 16, 2005
Big jobs that pay badly
Some careers cost time and money to take up. But don't expect a big paycheck.
August 16, 2005: 3:19 PM EDT
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer
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Culinary Institute Of New Orleans
Win A $10,000 College scholarship For Culinary Institute Of New Orleans or any...
www.10000scholarship.com
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Top Culinary Schools offering degrees, training, classes, and certificates in...
www.edu411.org
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Most of us work hard for a living. And if we're lucky, we're well compensated for the effort.
But there are some jobs you should take only if you really love the work because the investment you make to get the job and the hours you keep aren't necessarily commensurate with what you earn.
Not that all careers in this category are necessarily low-paying, at least not by national standards.
But they may require a great deal of time and money in graduate education, offer working conditions that only passion can excuse, and there may be such a long run for the roses that you forfeit prime working and child-bearing years just to achieve a salary that college peers were earning a decade earlier.
Here are just three of those jobs.
Architects
For every Philip Johnson or Frank Lloyd Wright in a generation of architects, there are countless more who work without fanfare on the everyday buildings where we work, live and shop.
Architects may spend up to seven years completing undergraduate and master's-degree studies, or up to three-and-a-half years in a master's program if they majored in another area during college. To be eligible to take the licensing exam, they also must log three years as interns working for licensed architects.
Architects with a master's might enter the work force with between $50,000 and $80,000 in student loan debt. But as first-year interns, they might earn only $34,000, the national median according to the 2005 compensation survey by the American Institute of Architects. Meanwhile, several steps up the ladder, senior architects earn a median of $68,900.
Chefs
There's a reason they say if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Restaurant kitchens usually aren't air conditioned, so temperatures can top 100 degrees in the summer, said Stephan Hengst, spokesman for the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
Since most restaurant chefs are not on track to become the next Jean-Georges Vongerichten or Wolfgang Puck, they can expect far more modest incomes.
Culinary school graduates who might have spent two to four years and tens of thousands of dollars to get their degrees might get a low-level job on the kitchen line paying around $32,000 soon after graduation (more if they had experience prior to culinary school).
By the time they work their way up to sous-chef after perhaps three or four years, they might make around $55,000, Hengst said.
Benefits are more likely to be included if they work for a chain rather than a small, independently owned restaurant.
And the hours they log on their feet average about 12 hours a day, Hengst said, although 80- to 100-hour weeks aren't unusual for some.
When you work behind the scenes in a restaurant, kudos aren't delivered directly by the customer, but rather indirectly by their returned plates: the emptier, the better.
Academic research scientists
A career with one of the most disproportionate ratios of training to pay is that of academic research scientist.
A Ph.D. program and dissertation are requirements for the job, which can take between six and eight years to complete. (See correction.) Add to that several years in the postdoctoral phase of one's career to qualify for much coveted tenure-track positions.
During the postdoc phase, you are likely to teach, run a lab with experiments that require you to check in at all hours, publish research and write grants – for a salary that may not exceed $43,000.
The length of the postdoc career has doubled in the past 10 years, said Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. "It's taking longer and longer to get there. You can't start a family. It's really tough."
And it's made tougher still by the fact that in many disciplines, there aren't nearly as many tenure-track positions as there are candidates.
So, to those who earn their MBAs in two years and snag six-figure jobs soon after graduation, your jobs may be hard, but maybe not quite as hard as you think.
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August 15, 2005
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August 12, 2005
phd thought - narciso's class
Post-colonialism has close ties to utopianism. Next semester I shall teach a proseminar on the utopianism of French Neo-classic architecture and beyond. The notion that classicism is atemporal because it is a product of the wisdom of nature and therefore the perfect architecture for the perfect society will be at the core of the proseminar. Investigation of how this idea, which is morally neutral, fed into utopias defined by the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Empire, the emerging early nineteenth-century Prussian nationalism, American republicanism and subsequent democracy, the notion to a return to first principles in early 20th-century Austria and Germany, and the Nazi and Soviet utopias will be topics of research.
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classes with narciso
600 Special Topics in Art History (Recent Topics: "Louis Sullivan";
467 Form and Content in American Architecture (1855-1900)
348 European Architecture: The 18th Century
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"It always starts out with me asking myself, 'Does the world really need another 40 feet of painting?' " Mr. Katz said, grinning. "And the answer is always no, but then I paint it anyway, just to see what it's going to look like."
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August 11, 2005
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August 10, 2005
photography artist
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August 09, 2005
Office of Landscape Morphology
// Office of Landscape Morphology :::::::::::::
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vacant lot in chester ma
Google Maps - from: 34 South 6th St. new bedford ma to: 96 Golden Knight Ln, Chester, MA 01011
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NY times article - Foreclosures
August 7, 2005
Finding Bargains (and Headaches) at Foreclosure Sales
By KATE MURPHY
IF rising interest rates cause more people to default on their adjustable-rate mortgages, investors could face a potential boon. Buying distressed properties - those that are in foreclosure or have a foreclosure pending - is one of the few opportunities to snag a bargain in this overheated real estate market. But it is not easy, and it entails considerable risk, especially if a property is bought at an auction. And buyers may find that if they have not done their homework, or lack ready cash and an ability to reason with a distraught homeowner, they don't have a prayer of making a profit and could end up in debt themselves.
"Buying a foreclosure is not a simple transaction," said Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com, which provides information and training on how to buy distressed properties. "It takes a lot of time and effort." But the rewards can be great, with the most successful investors getting 30 to 40 percent return on their money.
If you are interested in such properties, the first hurdle is finding them. Defaulting on a mortgage is a matter of public record, so your city or county will have lists including the names of people in arrears, the lenders and the properties' addresses. Sometimes that information is available online, but you often have to go to the courthouse and search a computer database or read posted printouts. Or you could pay $30 to $40 to have the list e-mailed to you by outfits like Foreclosures.com, All-foreclosure.com and Foreclosureworld.net.
The next step is to drive by the property to check on things like structural integrity and whether, for example, there is a toxic waste dump in the area. If the property passes curbside inspection, you will probably want to pay $300 to $400 for a full title search to find out if there are additional liens, or financial claims, against the property. Buying a distressed property at a steep discount is no bargain if multiple mortgages and years of unpaid property taxes are attached to the title. If that search finds no problems, you can wait to see if the lender actually forecloses and try to buy when the property is auctioned at the courthouse. Announcements of auctions are usually printed in local newspapers; the starting bid is typically only what the lender needs to cover its costs. "Depending on competition from other bidders, you can generally buy properties at public auctions for 25 to 35 percent below market value," said Todd Beitler, founder and president of Real Estate Information Services, a publishing company in Boca Raton, Fla., that provides real estate information to home buyers and investors.
But many investors prefer to make offers to property owners before foreclosure. "A lot of times they'll slam the door in your face," said Michael Ballard of Edmonds, Wash., who started buying distressed residential properties a year ago, after selling his interest in an electronics business. "But sometimes you can convince them that you can help them walk away less scathed than if the bank forecloses on them."
Mr. Ballard said he preferred to work with debtors because he did not like the confusion and competition associated with a public auction - and because he could inspect the property. That was the case a year ago when Mr. Ballard agreed to assume the $312,000 mortgage of a struggling entrepreneur who was facing foreclosure on his home, which was appraised at $360,000. Mr. Ballard allowed the man to remain in the house for $1,600 a month, with the understanding that the payments would go toward buying it back for $390,000 within two years. Otherwise, Mr. Ballard said, he would sell the house. Now, a year later, it is appraised at $425,000.
Properties bought at auction, however, are proverbial pigs in a poke: there is no opportunity even to peek inside before buying, much less get an appraisal. And once you buy the property, you're stuck with it. Forget about warranties or refunds.
Furthermore, buyers at auction often have to pay immediately. In Palm Beach County, Fla., for example, winning bidders must pay the full amount in cash or by cashier's check before 3 p.m. on the day of the auction, and they have the responsibility of evicting the occupant of the property.
Mr. Ballard said that when he bought properties facing foreclosure, he usually paid the owners a mutually-agreed-upon amount of "walking money," typically a small portion of their equity. The owners would then sign over the deed, with Mr. Ballard either assuming their mortgage or, more often, refinancing the debt. "If you're going to flip the property quickly, it doesn't make sense to pay the refinance fees," he said. But buyers holding on to a property for at least a year before selling would save 20 percent on their taxes when they sold because the asset would qualify as a long-term capital gain.
Mr. Ballard said he generally waited to sell to reduce his tax liability. In the meantime, he said, he leases the house, sometimes to the previous owner, to generate positive cash flow.
But Grace Doctolero of San Rafael, Calif., who was an account manager for a telecom company before she quit last year to invest in distressed properties, said, "I buy them, rehab them and sell them as soon as I can," usually within three to four months. She has flipped five single-family homes so far, for an average 20 percent return on her investment.
Most people who buy distressed properties repair them before reselling. "It helps in this business to know a good contractor," Mr. Ballard said, adding that updating just the kitchen and bathrooms increases resale value by 10 to 15 percent. His total return on investment on a typical house is 15 to 20 percent.
The safest but potentially least profitable way to acquire foreclosed properties is from the lender. Called R.E.O.'s - for real estate owned - these properties usually end up in a bank's possession after they did not fetch desired prices at auction. "Since they are nonperforming assets, banks generally want to get them off their books as quickly as possible," said Mr. Beitler of Real Estate Information Services.
Buying from the lender ensures that you get clear title, and you do not have to evict anyone. But the 5 to 10 percent discount is far less than you would be likely to get by buying before foreclosure or at auction. R.E.O.'s are generally sold through regular real estate agents, but Mr. Beitler said a potential buyer could also try to contact asset managers at banks to find out what they have in their portfolios. "Sometimes they'll deal with you directly," he said, "and sometimes they won't."
Regardless of when during the foreclosure process you buy a property, Mr. Ballard said, "there's money to be made." But, he cautioned, "There's also money to be lost if you aren't aware of all the moving parts."
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Sheet Metal Fabrication | Metal Parts and Stamping | Panel Bending from Sintel, Inc.
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Versatile Fabrication Home Page
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prototype fabrication
Martel Design Fabrication -Synthesis of Furniture and Architectural Design/Fabrication
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vegetarian in fast food
Vegetarian Options in Fast Food Restaurants
Papa John's (www.papajohns.com)
Lists the ingredients of some of their dishes on their web site. The original pizza dough, the breadsticks and the pizza sauce (tomatoes, olive and canola oils) are vegan.
The mozzarella cheese used on the pizzas contains microbial (vegetarian) rennet. The Parmesan cheese contains animal rennet.
The Special Garlic Sauce contains mono- and diglycerides and lecithin from and unknown source.
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August 05, 2005
hud home buy baltimore
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questions for creationists
Stumper Questions for Creationists
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August 04, 2005
bugeye saftey goggles
BOBSTER Bugeye 2, 3 Interchangeable, Lens
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safety glasses
Pyramex Rendezvous Safety Glasses
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tactical saftey goggle 1
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August 03, 2005
web survey program
SurveyMonkey.com - Powerful tool for creating web surveys. Online survey software made easy!
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August 01, 2005
art dune up right
Blum & Poe - Chiho Aoshima - Asleep, dreaming of reptilian glory
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