Wrods
Not exactly the Queen’s English but this at least gives us some hope for texters, tweeters, twitterers, and emailers, for whom spelling does not seem to be a primary concern, or at least, for whom typos seem to be second nature.
The Power of the Human Mind
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The Country – Too Much Uncooked Meat Running Around
Wild doe grazing on our property in upstate New York
When we arrived at our upstate house last week we were confronted with this doe, with a “what the hell do you think you are doing here” expression on its face. To some folks this is very cute. To Helga it is the worst kind of garden-munching vermin (“Rats on stilts” as she calls them). To me, it is an opportunity for a nice roast. The sad thing is we are overrun with them but you can’t get fresh venison for love nor money around here, other than high-priced frozen stuff from some farm in California.
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Giving AT&T a Hand
ATT Hands Ad Campaign
Guido Daniele, from Milan, Italy, has created these remarkable images for an ad campaign for AT&T. Look carefully – other than the phone, everything here, the leaves, the trees, the animals, are entirely painted hands. Click here to see the complete set of Guido Daniele’s images.
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Hit by a Mini-Twister
Specimen maple hit by a mini-twister (the tree on the right in the inset)
New York is not exactly Alabama, but last night, out of nowhere, a violent thunder and lightning display, a mighty roaring noise, and while we wrestled unsuccessfully to try to close the front door against the incredible wind, a mini-twister (I think, technically, a microburst) traced a path right over our house, splitting a massive 85 foot specimen maple in half. The tree had towered over the house as you can see on the right in the inset photo. The twister touched nothing on either side of its track – this morning we traced its path by downed trees over a mile or so. Today’s forecast – more violent storms with tornado conditions. What fun.
Warm Enough for You?
Early US and UK thermometers.
This is the time of the year in the US when you suddenly don’t need the heating set on 68 Fahrenheit (20 Celcius) any more. We were looking however at a couple of old room thermometers we own, one from the US from about 100 years ago, and one, in black “Bakelite”, from Britain from the 1950s, So, you New World wimps, the British comfort zone then was 60 to 70 degrees (15 to 21 Celcius) – you just dressed warmly. In the US, the comfort zone was the current 68 to 72 degrees (20 to 22 Celcius), but if you look carefully, it recommends a bedroom temperature of 50 degrees (10 Celcius) or less. We have unheated bedrooms upstate NY, and in the Winter is gets way below 50, but with a warm duvet we do just fine. It’s very cozy and a great way to save energy.
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Thomas Heatherwick at TED
Thomas Heatherwick's Seed Cathedral at Shanghai Expo, and rolling bridge in Paddington
At the TED conference in March this year Thomas Heatherwick gave a short but wonderful presentation of some of his current work and thinking, which is very much outside the box. Click here to see Thomas Heatherwick’s presentation at TED. The photos above show his Seed Cathedral, the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Exposition, consisting of 66,000 light cables each illuminating a seed within the building with sunlight during the day and conversely transmitting the interior light outside by night, and his rolling bridge project at Paddington in London (photos via dezeen.com).
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Disappeared but not Forgotten
Ai Weiwei Chinese Zodiac sculptures New York
This week, to draw attention to the “disappearance” of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, his sculpture consisting of twelve separate bronze sculptures, each one representing one of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac, has been installed in Grand Army Plaza in New York, at the South-East corner of Central Park. This sculpture is located just South of the sculpture shown below in the posting “Art, Art, Art”, just beyond the statue of Sherman.
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Bubble Boy
Taken in front of the bandshell in Central Park
Never a dull day in Central Park. We rarely walk through without something going on. This morning, a guy making giant soap bubbles just for the fun of it. If only these could be frozen in time and left there. But I guess part of the delight of them is that they can’t.
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Art, Art, Art
Public art piece "Empire", South-East entrance to Central Park
The rear end of a rapidly tarnishing gilded bronze of General William Tecumseh Sherman being painted by a none too friendly artist (as it turned out) with a straw hat, about to be cocooned by the spider-like public art piece by Eva Rothschild, entitled Empire. These public art intallations at the south-east entry to Central Park are made possible by the Public Art Fund, and are changed every six months or so.
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Spring in Central Park
Spring in Central Park, looking south from Bank Rock Bridge heading into the Rambles
Arriving back in New York at this time of year is not exactly a chore. The forsythia and cherries are just blooming and Central Park is as wonderful as ever. This photo was taken yesterday on our daily walk through the Park on the way to work. Just two years ago, this view didn’t exist. The inlet had turned into a swampy mess and the view was blocked by brush and weed trees. Now the new bridge, a reconstruction of Olmsted’s original, looks out onto the vista of the lake and the buildings of Midtown.
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