Prospects

Exciting news for 2011 coming soon!

A Memory

There was an event of some sort, in the M common room.

I think we had just finished eating in the dining hall, and as we were walking out, the group was cleaning up.

There it stood. A collection of about a hundred balloons, framing the entrance door. A balloon arch with nowhere to go, but the trash.

So we saved it. And offered to take it to our high-ceilinged room. A with one end, and me following behind, we walked out the door into the brisk night...

And then we started to run. To flatten the arch, of course. But it felt like we were on a chase, and a long bubbly dragon was flying above our heads. Holding it was so effortless, as if it were pulling us along. We passed one or two moonlit silhouettes, but we continued to run across campus, in front of the clocked tower, between the mirrored stone buildings, through the darkened trees. Faster and faster we ran until it lifted us up and we were suspended in air amidst the stars for a few breathless moments, looking down upon the silent campus.

We finally arrived at our hall and ran up the stairs that wrapped around the elevator like a far-too-long caterpillar, until it was safely in our room. It stood for weeks, first standing tall, and then...slowly, slowly drooping towards the earth, but reminding us of the night that we got to fly.

A Bookstore

Nestled on the hilltop neighborhood

of Santa Teresa,

surrounded by ominous dark trees,

we stepped into the warmth

of this inviting bookstore

for a spot of cafezeinho

at dusk.

Brazil

Traveling once again!

It has been so busy this past month that I haven't even gotten a chance to enjoy the pre-departure adrenaline.

But here it is! It has been a dream for oh, I don't know how long, but I am finally going to Rio, and I've been listening to bossa nova non-stop for the past few days. I'm probably longing for the Rio days of old--or perhaps even a Rio that never existed, but that's the soundtrack I want when I'm sitting on Ipanema.

Mannnny pictures and words to come.

Two small boxes

(Her own mother, she said, had been an inspiration: she died at 101 with only two small boxes to her name. “She gave away things for years,” Lydia said. “You have to stop accumulating, and start clearing out early.”)

From the NYT

This really struck me as soon as I read it. It reminds me of Boltanski.

Whose Law?

I just got my mind rocked

about the real culture gap

and how we dropped the ball

rather, tossed it aside

gave it up

somewhere along the way

when State becomes salvation

when the dots don't connect

but instead grow larger and larger

into giant potholes

with no safety nets

and people fall and are diminished

to meaninglessness.

New Title

Hastily made.

Will fix. Work in Progress.

Clouds

Driving from D.C. to NJ, we experienced some awesome weather.

I hope you get the point

Courtesy of the Harn Museum of Art and Ronald, Elizabeth and Lauren DiFilippo

Mather & Company, “Say It With A Snap! Get To The Point.,” 1925.

From NYT, T-Magazine. Find the article here.

iPad+Velcro

Now, THIS makes sense. LOVE IT.

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

"The Killers," or, Ahwahnee

From a weekend.

Where I Am

Smallness

From Paul Strand, on moving from the US to France to experience and document the life of a pastoral French village:

"I liked the idea of being confined to a small place and then having to dig into its smallness."

---
Do you think he meant beyond the camera?

Smallness is a matter of opinion, but in some way, I feel like this is more applicable to me right now than in other times in my life.

I feel like I have no roots. Dislocated. No real home. I'm constantly going back and forth from place to place...my real house, my other house, my house away from house. How many homes can you have?

And then I dream of what home could look like, and I'm not sure what to think of it.

I wonder if Strand traveled alone and who was waiting for him in France. Did he feel invited in that village?

Like he found a new home?

I think I shall continue to look into this matter. More thoughts later.

Buckle up, my friends

PSA from the UK - very well done.

Embrace Life

SFR

Swiss Family Robinson. Swiss design at its best.

On my to-do list: Build a Treehouse

WOW

I very much enjoy these photo projects. The hill (top left corner), day at the Yale Peabody, and JFK-SFO projects are especially amazing. His series on his friends reminds me of someone...

http://www.pauloctavious.com/

E.B. White Quotes

The first one I saw in a book this weekend, and it has been on my mind. The rest I thought were thought-provoking.

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.

We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry.

When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.

LISTOMANIA!

BRILLIANT article about list-making. Thank you, dear jfmg.

Buying Art

Check out these great pieces and great prices!

On Plagiarism

"There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity."

-Helene Hegemann in a NYT article on Berlin and plagiarism

Interesting to compare that to the last post, no?

Vanity Fair

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher;

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

...

All things are full of labor;

Man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor the ear filled with hearing.

That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which is may be said,

"See, this is new"?

It has already been in ancient times before us.

There is not remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance

of things that are to come

By those who will come after.

-Portions of Ecclesiastes 1