D E S I G N /// ck

Some of my favorite musicians, all filmed by the unique La Blogotheque. I'm really impressed by the intimacy of these videos. It's worth the investment of twenty minutes of your time to watch these. The best, in my opinion, is the last. Sufjan is almost better by himself than with his whole ensemble.

Many of you who know me know my affinity for the vw "box on wheels." I never jumped like this with Greta, but I did ford two rivers one time. I'll be selling her on ebay this month- I finally found the title last night. It marks the end of an era.

If you guys haven't listened to this guy yet, you seriously should. He's good. This song has become a favorite to listen to while driving.

Alice and I were going to head up to Franklin tonight, but the rain and all the yahoos on the roads made us reconsider. We'll head up early in the morning and just chill tonight. The freakshow was all out tonight in our beloved supermarket, known as "Kroghetto" and "Fellini Kroger." Nothing brings out the characters like a national holiday. I think literally every socioeconomic level in our society was represented in my checkout line. And people were passing line! I narrowly missed seeing a rumble between a lady with a mustache and a black family who had slid up in front of us.
For anyone worried about globalization should go for a stroll down the aisle of any urban grocery. The funky, weird, and smelly Americans are out there buying food. They're one of a kind and there's alot of them.

Sometimes it's not easy to see if something is well designed or performs well, especially if we are familiar with it. The human body is one of these things. The culminating masterpiece of the most skilled designer of all time, we take our bodies' amazing design for granted. Nothing brings this into relief more than when the design breaks down, sometimes horrifically. We live in a failing, diseased world. The design is falling into entropy and will continue until it utterly fails. I think this video shows one aspect of that.

Thankfully, this man is being helped by western doctors and may be able to live a relatively normal life. But what they've found is that it was the man's genetics that allowed this. The fundamental blueprint of his body broke down.
Not all conditions are this dramatic. But whether it's growing tree branches on your skin or a cancer that eats you from the inside out, one can see entropy in our own bodies- evidence of a failing world in spite of it's original design.

This is a great site I found that features a lot of exemplary architecture that doesn't make it into the regular magazines: www.arcspace.com
There's good analysis here and it's always good for one to see where the cutting edge of the profession is. I'm looking around at projects this morning trying to get inspired for a restaurant I'm designing. It may be the coolest project that I design this year- I want to make sure I push it as far as I can and get out of my comfort zone. I need to avoid becoming formulaic at this point in my career. I want to stretch myself and try new techniques and methods, while honing the things I know I'm good at.
It doesn't hurt to know the other guys are doing. I know I'm not as talented as many of them, but I want to be the best I can be where I am at, at this point in my life. I should never be content to stop reexamining things and improving them. I hope that I keep learning new things until the day I die.