Tuesday, February 22
Monday, February 21
Drivers License
Aunt Marcia recently found my long-lost California drivers license, gone since freshman year in college. I remember searching frantically for it. Those looking closely may notice my birth year, doctored using the "5" in "1530 Euclid Avenue." This got me into The Tunnel and the Palladium as well as all the alcohol I wished to consume. Marcia asks if Larry confiscated my license when I took the Bronxville family car? But that is for another story.
at 13:12
Sunday, February 20
Eitan's Cake
Eitan bakes an orange cake whose ingredients include unsalted butter, two eggs, golden caster sugar, flour and baking power. And, of course, one orange.
at 12:31
Saturday, February 19
.01 Seconds
A fascinating series of photos, below, of the 100-meter butterfly final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics pitting Phelps against Serbia’s Milorad Cavic (on the right). Without Phelp's magic touch, the quest to surpass Mark Spitz's seven Olympic golds would have come to an end at race seven.
at 18:37
Trellick Tower
Sonnet has the idea to visit Lisboa, early, for the best cream pastries and fried pork sandwiches in Notting Hill. Years ago in Maida Vale and pre-kids, we walked to Lisboa most Saturday mornings then the Portebella market for vintage whatever. All my cuff-links from then. Lisboa on the Golborne Rd and near the horrific Trellik Tower, pictured, which has fascinated me for years. Trellik, next to the Grand Union Canal littered with dog shit, a 31-storey block of flats designed in the Brutalist style by architect Ernő Goldfinger (Ian Fleming hated the building so much he named a central Bond villain after the architect). The tower completed in '72 and now recognised as Grade II* listed building.
at 13:25
'58
Moe and Grace before the Rotary Dance. Grace wears her high school sweater and was a cheer-leader at Upper Arlington High School outside of Columbus, Ohio, from 1956-1958. She tells me the school mascot was the Golden Bear. Jack Nicklaus, whose nick-name "the Golden Bear," was graduated a year ahead my mom; he was captain or co-captain of the football, basketball and baseball teams "and played a little golf on the side which none of us really knew about." Grace led cheers for the football and basketball teams and notes the teams pretty good. "There were six of us, three sophomores and three seniors."
"How people keep correcting us when we are young! There is always some bad habit or other they tell us we ought to get over. Yet most bad habits are tools to help us through life."
--Jack Nicklaus
at 10:55
On Our Wedding Invitation
Me: "Well, Eitan, I am sorry to inform you that your mother and I not invited to the Royal Wedding. "The invitations went out this week and we did not receive the golden invitation. Unless it should arrive in today's post, that is."
at 07:16
Friday, February 18
Drury's Statue
A bridge has been at Vauxhaull since 13th century when the south river a swamp. Following numerous essays, a new bridge built to a starkly functional design at the turn of of the 19th century, and many influential architects complained about the lack of consultation during the design process. In 1903, during the construction of the bridge, the LCC consulted with architect William Edward Riley about the possible decorative elements that could be added to the bridge. Riley proposed erecting two 60-foot pylons topped with statues at one end of the bridge, and adding decorative sculpture to the bridge piers. The pylons were rejected on cost but it was decided to erect monumental bronze statues above the piers.
On the upstream piers are Pomeroy's Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering and Pottery, whilst on the downstream piers are Drury's Science, Fine Arts, Local Government and Education. Each statue weighs approximately two tons. Despite their size, the statues are little-noticed by users of the bridge as they are not visible from the bridge itself, but only from the river banks or from passing shipping.
at 17:26
Wud Up, Y'All?
And, yes, Friday. It is not entirely clear that I have moved the ball down-field this week but, then, nor has the world come to an end. Our family routine fixed: AM dog walk -> kids to school -> work &c -> swimming, football, trumpet, tutor, play-date(s) -> dinner -> reading -> lights out. The kids on half-term from Monday.
at 16:21
Water Colour
Watercolour at Tate Britain invites you to challenge your preconceptions of what watercolour is. The most ambitious exhibition about watercolour ever to be staged, with works spanning 800 years, this boundary-breaking survey celebrates the full variety of ways watercolour has been used. From manuscripts, miniatures and maps through to works showing the expressive visual splendour of foreign landscapes, watercolour has always played a part in British Art. Artists range from JMW Turner and Thomas Girtin to Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin.
at 16:03
Battersea #2
Today is a London day, grey and dark - cold. This is what I and everyone thinks of when they consider here. I cross the Vauxhaull Bridge on my way to the Tate Britain to see the Water Colour exhibition and check in with some l'art. Seems like the right thing to do on a slow day otherwise.
at 15:56
Thursday, February 17
Boxcar 2D
Below, a nifty program designed by Derp Bike Designer, learns to build a "car" using a genetic algorithm - the clip in its advanced stages. It starts with a population of 20 randomly generated shapes with wheels and runs each one to see how far it goes. The cars that go the furthest reproduce to produce offspring for the next generation. The offspring combine the traits of the parents to hopefully produce better cars.
at 11:45
Wednesday, February 16
Madeleine's Crew
Me: "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
at 11:26
Tuesday, February 15
Self Portrait XV
Somehow I find myself in the middle. 43, after all - half way to the end zone, contemplating secondary schools for the kids, watching Sonnet in her museum career and working on mine. Waiting for Cal in the Rose Bowl. Admittedly, my generation off to a late start - many of us remaining at home until our 30s, avoiding occupations and marriage until later still. The delay perhaps due to a stagnant US economy in the early '90s, but my suspicion simply that many of us could. Or maybe the stall from some sense of entitlement, passed down from our comfortable parents, who instilled in our psyches the belief that our lives would be more interesting, more rich, more exciting than theirs. Such expectations high enough to be unobtainable and so .. why bother?
at 12:15
Show Down
The 2012 Olympics schedule posted today and 30 July may be the Biggest Day of many Big Days. This, Dear Reader, the final of the men's 200-meter freestyle which may see Michael Phelps against Ian Thorpe, who un-retires for one more essay at glory.
at 08:44
Monday, February 14
Russia's Wealth
"Nobody and nothing will stop Russia on the road to strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights and freedoms."
--Vladimir Putin
--Mikhail Khodorkovsky (#1 Russia in 2004, $15 Billion, Forbes, before his arrest)
"People who know me said I will win one or two Premierships and will not be interested after that."
--Roman Abramovich
at 11:50
Thought Leadership
at 10:41
T. Rex’s Secret
at 09:47
Saturday, February 12
Louise NY
at 18:49
Partay
at 14:37
Farewell To The Fairground
at 08:53
Friday, February 11
High Fashion And Dog Hair
at 10:16
Viktor & Rolf
Sonnet and I visit Musée de La Mode et du Textile, which is a wonderful museum inside the Louvre (She gave a lecture at Les Arts Decoratifs at the Institut National du Patrimoine at the Louvre in 2009). The exhibitions include various famous designers like Viktor & Rolf, pictured, augmented by video display of their costumes on the catwalk. I find the image one of the creepiest I have taken. V&R's work strongly influenced by The Eyes of Laura Mars.
Viktor Horsting (1969) & Rolf Snoeren (1969) met at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design in The Netherlands. They began working together after graduation, relocating to Paris in 1993 to launch their careers. Their first collection 'Hyères' (1993) based on distortion, reconstruction and layering won three prizes at the Salon Europeen des Jeunes Stylistes at the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie. The subsequent presentation of four collections in experimental art spaces led them in 1998 to show their first Haute Couture collection (Spring/Summer 1998).
A true man hates no one.
--Napoleon Bonaparte
at 09:50
L'Art
Here Sonnet in the French Paintings, the largest of its kind anywhere.
"A picture is worth a thousand words."
--Napoleon Bonaparte
at 07:45
Thursday, February 10
The Louvre
We give the Grand Dame a full day. I am pained to acknowledge that despite my visits to Paris I have not been to the Louvre once though within walking distance of my hotel. In fact the last time I was here, I believe, 1989 when my family on a lay-over en route to Africa. I was so jet-lagged I could not see straight let alone contemplate the enormity of the museum - 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres.
My photo taken from the Egyptian collection on the fourth floor. In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the Grand Louvre plan to renovate the building and relocate the Finance Ministry, allowing displays throughout the building. Architect I. M. Pei proposed the glass pyramid which stands over the new main entrance of the main court, the Cour Napoléon. The pyramid and its underground lobby inaugurated October 15, 1988. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée, was completed in 1993.
Sonnet and I focus on the Vermiers - two of his 26 existing paintings here - and the Italian Renaissance with extra attention to El Greco, Bertolucci, and da Vinci. I see the Mona Lisa which is now in a protective bullet proof casing and a guard rail of ten feet. The first time I saw her, in 1984, she was unprotected. During World War II, the painting was removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d'Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord, then finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban. And now there she is, 500 years after Leonardo painted her, looking at us strangely and us none the wiser.
at 20:46
8ème
Sonnet and I sit outside Cafe Ambasade facing the pretty Frenchies walking determinedly to their work on Rue du Faubourge St Honoré which, Dear Reader, we know is the shopping avenue of Paris. The men own pointy shoes and tussled hair while the young ladies with black leggings or flair trousers, capes, or fur shawls; they walk with the unusual lope of the model. The travailleurs boutique are as pretty as their wares.
at 20:09
Paris Morning
"A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets."
--Napoleon Bonaparte
at 19:53
Tuesday, February 8
Spectacle
I pick up Madeleine early from school to visit the High Street optometrist and our little dear's dreams come true : glasses. I tell her she can have the ones pictured which gets an "oh, Dad" and I spend the better part of an hour waiting for her to pick out a pair. This is her decision though I am quietly delighted when she chooses a pair of flash rectangular injection molds in Halloween orange. She is torn between these and the more sensible metal frames. The helpful Dr offers something in the middle and our bookworm sold.
at 19:54
Woj
Katie's Harvurd friend Susan Wojcicki profiled in today's San Jose Mercury News as "The Most Important Googler You've Never Heard Of" (photo by Robyn Twomey). Susan oversees Google's two main advertising products, AdWords and AdSense, which bring in the vast majority of Google's revenues (and even more of its profits). Back in '98, when Serge and Larry venture-backed by Kleiner Perkins (who BTW thought Google the least likely company to succeed in their '97 fund - because of Google, the fund the best partnership ever created based on returns) they needed a cheap work place and Susan rented her garage to the company (This really does happen in SV). Eventually Susan left a comfortable job at Intel to became one of the earliest employees and the first woman employee and then the first mother employee (she has four kids). She was behind Google's most important m and a's: DoubleClick and YouTube, after failing to keep up with YouTube as head of Google Video. She rocks.
I return to lap-swimming which is really the best sport for any age but especially older-age. No pounding nor possible sports-related injury accepting a blocked ear maybe. I have threatened to join a Masters club but their pool-times the worst: work-outs from 9PM. We have a couple of good (at least clean) public pools in Richmond and Lord knows we know them as both kids practice 4X a week. I do long for those outdoor Californian 50-meter basins which are a staple in the West Coast suburbs.
Madeleine: "Every day I keep waking up in the middle of the night."
at 10:24
Monday, February 7
2
My second birthday cake, pictured, probably taken, and eaten, in San Francisco before we moved to Berkeley. It kinda looks like me.
at 17:30
Sunday, February 6
Madeleine 9
at 18:19
Crime Stopper
From last week, Scotland Yard makes UK crime data available at the street level. I can punch in my postal code and see the number of burglaries, murders, rapes &c. that have taken place nearby my, or any body's, house. Pictured, drug use per 1000 Londoners. This is a bold move and we are the first metropolitan area to have access to such rich data at our finger tips. True, one can find similar reports on US cities via Google api but this culled from public information and misses smaller or petty crime. The Police hope transparency will help make our streets safer. I would not disagree.
"I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream. It's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor … and surviving."
at 14:22
Saturday, February 5
Buck
I am within fifteen-feet of these mysterious, ancient, beasts.
at 16:39
Big Board
at 08:06
Friday, February 4
Holy Christ
I visit the VA yesterday and check out the European 11-13th century, which is in a neglected gallery off the main entrance. Shame, too, because there are beautiful treasures here from the High Renaissance including this c.1150 statue of Jesus. I wonder about the lone guard who sits in his chair all-day-long. From there I visit Raphael's cartoons ("cartones" in Italian) which are seven large cartoons for tapestries, painted in 1515-16 and showing scenes from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. They are the only survivors of set of ten cartoons commissioned by Pope Leo X for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace, which are still (on special occasions) hung below Michelangelo's famous ceiling. My visit less than 20 minutes but how lucky am I?
at 16:03
Thursday, February 3
Meanwhile Poolside
at 17:41
Tuesday, February 1
On Debt
at 09:29
Monday, January 31
Sunday, January 30
Eyes Of Laura Mars
As a premise for a horror movie Laura works - this was John Carpenter's first major studio film, after all. It also had its intended consequences : I walked from the first violent scene and have had periodic nightmares ever since.
at 19:34
Richmond Ramble
at 18:42