Studio 109

It's Been Fun

2007-07-15T20:57:00.000-05:00

You can now find me at two new spots on the web:

BKingsley - a personal weblog

Finding Form - weekly posting on ideas, design, and creative culture

I think the two formats will work better for my two different groups of readership and will allow me to tailor more specifically to what you all want to read. So, whether you come to Studio109 for photography and anecdotal stories, or posts on architecture and design there is still something for you either here or there.

Goodbye Blogger

2007-07-13T21:19:00.000-05:00

Dear Blogger,

I am sorry. I had to leave you. Honestly, it's not you...it's me. I have a problem. I get stir crazy and need change. You were faithful to me for two and a half years. In the beginning it was exciting, you and me...boy this is hard. I loved discovering all of your new features, but after a while the newness wore off. You became bland and clumsy. I was disappointed with your layout. I know, that was a jerk thing to say. So today I have to tell you that I've found another, younger, cleaner, and easier platform. Don't worry, I'm not taking Studio109 with me. I have instead made a clean brake, it's easier that way, for both of us. I'll miss you Blogger.

Sincerely,

Brad

Make Me Sustainable

2007-07-11T08:44:00.000-05:00

The folks over at Make Me Sustainable are making it easy to track your personal carbon emissions. The site collects information from users about there carbon emissions in the form of easy to answer questions about your lifestyle. After you create your carbon profile you can choose for a small list of energy saving tasks and track how those tasks are effecting your overall output. I have registered with the site and created a profile, but haven't dug much deeper. The site couples as social networking along the lines of MySpace or Facebook, allowing you to create contacts and see what they are doing to reduce their carbon emissions. At first glance I think they will have to offer more comprehensive and in depth energy saving tasks for this to be an effective tool. For example, they give you the option to select "substituted driving for walking or public transportation" but they leave it up to the user to calculate how many miles they are saving in doing this. Rebekah and I can walk to a grocery store in our neighborhood that is only .7 miles from our house. Let's say we go every week, that's .7 miles a week or 3.5 miles per month. However, what it doesn't account for is that if we weren't walking we'd be going to a grocery store that is much further away (because it is cheaper). All in all I think the site is a great idea, especially because it gives the user cost savings analysis for their various tasks. If I could discover that walking to the local drug store and the local grocery store (which is why we moved to the neighborhood in the first place) vs. driving to Target or Price Chopper (because they offer less expensive products) was actually saving me money in the long run I'd be much more motivated to make that lifestyle change. Anyway, give a whirl and see for yourself...Oh yeah, I've also added their blog, Carbon Crusaders, to my blog roll.

Scenes From Abroad

2007-07-02T22:05:00.000-05:00

When I studied in Europe a few years back I shot a few rolls of film on my 35mm, you know, for nostalgia's sake. Since then the images have been tucked away in a photo album somewhere. That is until last weekend when I ran across the negatives and had them scanned to digital files. These photos mark some of my favorite, not only from the film rolls, but from the trip in general. There's really nothing like finding a photograph you'd nearly forgoten about.

Basilica Sacre Coupe. Paris, France

Centre Pompidou. Paris France

Weathered Apartment Building, Basel Switzerland

Trail Marker, End of Day. Cinque Terra, Italy

Striated Tide. Cinque Terra, Italy

Curvilinear Formation. Cinque Terra, Italy

Shipwrecked. Cinque Terra, Italy

"A Post About Originality" or "Insert Witty Title Here"

2007-06-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

In my previous post I suggested that "originality is typically our downfall." A good friend over at Werlew wondered why I would say such a thing. First off Danny, Happy Birthday and second, cool dog. As far as originality is concerned? Is it really our downfall? Perhaps not. Danny is a terribly original guy, so this will be a hard statement to back up.I gotta tell ya, that last post happened in a matter of minutes, not something I poured over, rather, something that poured out. But never the less I stand behind it.

I didn't have anything too specific in mind concerning originality and downfalls, aside for an aggregation of indiscriminate thoughts collected haphazardly over the last several months. Perhaps what I was really getting at was the veil that originality carries with it, making it all to easy to overlook a simple design problem, let alone an original and simple solution.

I think the whole notion that originality could be our downfall simply goes back to two ideas, 1.) Reinventing the wheel, or as Meis would say, creating a new architecture every Monday morning and 2.) Being different for the sake of being different. I wonder how many wonderful and beautiful design solutions have been overlooked because the designer was first and foremost aimed at originality? I think truly original solutions are cross fertilized and developed intuitively after one is fully ingrained in the design problem. A simple concept from one trade, applied to another. But rarely do I think great ideas are born out of thin air or in isolation. I won't go on, in fear of saying something I regret. I consider myself a champion of creative thought and unique approaches...as long as they are rooted and have actual meaning.

Not a great explanation, but an attempt. I'll try again later.

These Shoes Belong to Her

2007-06-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

The frequency of posting has dwindled as the daily to-do lists get longer and longer. After vacations and swanky parties the day to day comings and goings just don't seem that interesting. What have I been doing? I ask myself this without expecting an answer, or fearing one, I'm not quite sure yet. I'd say there's been some realization, but then again there is always a realization. At least on the good days. The bad days? Well they are the days that teeter on the verge of accepting the onset of mediocrity. An interesting post over here at Western Assimilation on God knows what. I'll spare you the details, and Corbin I'll spare you the virtual chastising (I'll spare you because more often than not I am the sole proprietor of the jaded outlook), but in the end it's strange how coincidences work. One minute you're thinking something, the next minute your reading it on a blog published somewhere between a stage and the mountains in rainy, rainy state. Are we all that unoriginal? I hope so, maybe there's hope if that's the case. Originality is typically our downfall.

Regardless, a word I find myself saying nowadays. I think we all go through the same thought process. We hang our hats on this thing or that and one day wake up and realize, we never even had a hat, let alone anything to hang it on. But the thing that surprises me the most is the notion of success that five years of academic indoctrination leaves us with.

I am reading a little book, the best kind of book mind you. One that can fit in your back pocket, or my back pocket depending on who's reading the book, you or I? Regardless, it's called The Dip and it speaks to this notion of success and the path to reach it. Pretty common sense stuff when it gets right down to it and the best part, the whole notion can be explained in one little graph. I like graphs. There are decisions to be made, so decide where you want to go, it's not going to be easy every day. It's not going to make sense every day. But decide non the less, and stick to it. Stick to it through the dip and the pay off will be great. I don't want to call this little pocket size book a motivational book, because I don't think it is. But if it motivates you, then so be it. If it makes you want to quit something, well maybe that's the best thing that could ever happen.

The truth is, some days you don't know. But I have a secret my friends, I know. I know every day. Without question I know what is best for me. I know what is true and right and authentic. I know what brings a smile to my face and makes me feel at peace in a world of cynical in-decision...

...and these shoes belong to her.

An Asymmetrical Evening

2007-06-03T16:50:00.001-05:00

Rebekah and I were super lucky and scored two tickets to last night's Grand Opening of the Bloch Building for Benefactors and Patrons of the Nelson-Atkins. The event kicked off around seven o'clock and ran well into the evening. The following are just a few of the pictures I took as the evening went on. Click on the images, or here, for the full photo set.

The main entrance from the pedestrian level, just before sunset. It is simply a magnificent space. The lobby is just a precursor to the dramatic story that Holl tells as you move throughout the galleries. I immediately took my camera from my pocket and went into attack mode, but then reminded myself that this world class building is right in my backyard. I can come and take pictures whenever I want. Tonight was a night for mingling among the tuxes and ball gowns worn by the elite of Kansas City, a crowd that Rebekah and I have no real business matriculating with. Non-the-less, it was a night to remember and we meet some great people.

This crowd had gathered outside of the Noguchi Sculpture gallery. The man with his back to the camera, hands in his back pockets, and sliver hair is non other that Steven Holl. This was the only time I saw him all evening, just for a moment before he wandered back inside his creation and disappeared for ever. I imagine the majority of the people there had no idea who he was, or why what he had done was so spectacular. At least the engineer we ran into in the line for the bar wouldn't have known. He didn't seem to impressed with the space. He just didn't understand what all the hub-bub was about. "I had a friend in New York tell me this building was written about in the New York Times, can you believe that?!?" He exclaimed with a ghastly look on his face. I wanted so bad to reply, "Yes, well, that and every other architecture publication in the free world." Another couple told us that before tonight they had thought the new addition was a Butler Building constructed out of metal.

I had to pull out the old tux I purchased for choir in high school. Luckily the pants were adjustable and I was able to squeeze into it, rather generously might I add. Anyway, I decided to go with a bit more modern look and drop the bow-tie in exchange for a simple black neck tie and loose the vest all together. None of this matters of course, because with a lady like that on my arm, no one noticed my tux!

As the sun went down the building began to take on new character. Almost an inverse of the atmospheric light it became illuminated from the ground up before transforming into the glowing lenses that spot the landscape.

As the majority of the crowd began to thin out we basically had the place all to ourselves.

Bekka took a moment to rest and looked perfectly at home against the polished plaster, glass and light.

These art installations marked the exit for the evening as the remaining guests waited for their cars.

I'm sure I'll post more on the building soon. It was, in all reality, one of the most breathtaking museums I've seen anywhere in the world. And that's saying a lot considering not more that three weeks ago I was walking through Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin, a spatial experience that pales in comparison to Holl's masterpiece. More on the comparison later, that's a different post for a different day...

TED | Ideas Worth Spreading

2007-06-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

I've recently made a new friend, his name is TED. His passion? Spreading ideas stemming from Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED is an annual conference, began in 1984, where the most influential, experimental, and progressive thinkers and doers from around the globe come together to present ideas in their respective areas of expertise. The presentations are typically between 10-20 minutes, offering the audience bite-size chunks of big-time ideas. User's of the TED website can set up profiles, share their favorite lectures, and interact with other members. It's YouTube for adults.

Today's featured video, Joshua Prince-Ramus of OMA on the Seattle Public Library. I'm working on embedding these videos into this page, it's messing with my layout though so a hyper link will have to do for now.

Microsoft Surface Computing

2007-05-31T15:28:00.000-05:00

Anyone out there need a new coffee table?

Q&A with Hank Dittmar

2007-05-23T16:53:00.000-05:00

Hank Dittmar is chief executive of the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, the London-based educational charity established by the Prince of Wales to teach and demonstrate the principles of traditional architecture and urban design. Before taking that post in 2005, he was president and CEO of Reconnecting America, which seeks to develop communities around transit and walking, not automobiles. Dittmar is a board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and is currently its chairman. He is the author of the 2003 book The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit-Oriented Development.

Are Green Buildings Here to Stay?
While there is a substantial amount of faddism to the green buildings movement, the need for greener buildings and greener neighborhoods is compelling and vital to the planet, and the movement will not go away.

Too much of green building is about technological fixes. At least here in the U.K., many “green” buildings are normal buildings with green gizmos tacked on. Little attention seems to be paid to the question of whether steel-and-glass-curtain-wall buildings can ever truly be sustainable no matter how many CHP [combined heat and power] plants or wind turbines are stuck on them.

While it is certainly a step in the right direction for Wal-Mart, for example, to “green” one of its stores by incorporating environmental features, the question is: if it is located by itself in a sea of parking on an arterial roadway not served by transit, and its customers all must drive from a 30- or 40-mile radius to shop there, is it truly green? It is the need to go deeper that has led the Congress for the New Urbanism, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC] to work together to create the LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] standard for neighborhood development [LEED-ND].

Meers Marketing - Construction Update

2007-05-17T20:30:00.000-05:00

After one and a half months of design and one month of documentation, we are ten working days away from completing construction for Meers Marketing. After coming back from Berlin I was glad to find the project closer to completion than when I left. Amazingly, it's starting to look just like the renderings we made just a few months ago. The one thing the renderings didn't allude to was the the quality of light that would result from the three five foot by eight foot skylights, and 23 foot by nine and a half foot storefront. Even the construction workers are commenting.

Storage bar with wet bar pass through, awaiting counter top.

Loading Dock storage bar, awaiting casework and flooring.

Entrance wall, awaiting graphic and sealed concrete

Conference room, with acrylic panel mock up.

Conference room, awaiting acrylic panel

Berlin Photos - Round One

2007-05-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

By Sunday night, just before the day rolled over to Monday, we were back in our own bed. The clocks in our house proclaimed midnight, but our bodies new they were seven hours off. It had been a long day. We had been traveling for over 24hrs and we were exhausted. You can imagine my pleasure then when Rebekah and I both awoke at five thirty sharp the next morning, and the next morning, and the next morning. Oh well, I can't complain. I've been getting a lot done the last three mornings and, although I don't see myself waking up at six for much longer, it has been nice.

The trip was wonderful, although the weather was not. We arrived on Sunday, the sixth of May, after loosing seven hours and a night of sleep as we crossed the Atlantic. The sun was out and the temperature was close to 25 degrees (Celsius). That was the last we'd see of that. For the next seven days it would rain with temperatures continually dropping. However each day there were brief moments of brilliant sunshine in which the camera came out.

IMG_6795, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

Postdamer Platz on our last evening in Berlin. The rain stopped just long enough to snap this photo. In a strange way it reminded me of Luis Baraggan's towers in Mexico city.

IMG_6405, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

Travertine Waves. We found this building on our way to the Bauhaus Archives, which coincidently was closed when we got there. I can't remember the architect, which was posted on a plaque on the front of the building. I thought it looked nice against the sky.

IMG_6742, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

Dutch Embassy. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. After a day of visiting closed museums and not being able to find Gehry's bank, this was our first successful venture. The site planning here was very nice, it sits right on the Spree river, and the building unfolds to open up to the water. Formally it is very interesting, but I thought the proportions were strange, and the materials cold, however on the ground level at the service entrance Koolhaas introduces an isolated incident of wood siding. It's a brief moment, but the best part of the exterior of the building.

IMG_6333, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

Checkpoint Charlie. Not real sure what the allure of this site is, maybe it's just a little before my time. The actual checkpoint outhouse that sits on the site is a replication, but the photo opp of the Russian portrait couldn't be passed up.

IMG_6207, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

German Parliment. The Reichstag building designed by British architect and Lord, Norman Foster. Before visiting I thought the glass cupola atop the historic building was a bit of a gimmick. However, it offers stunning views of Berlin and is quite the experience moving up the helical ramp to the top of the observation deck, all the while looking down into the actual parliament house. We experienced the glass and mirrors on a rainy day, and for the first time I realized the importance of reflections. Some of the greatest architects of all times have spent there lifetime mastering day lighting techniques, which seems daunting in itself. However, in the event of a rainy day the experience must still be spectacular. Even though the sun was hiding, the overall experience of this glass dome and central spire of mirrored panels was absolutely dramatic.

Wann Fahrt das Boot ab?

2007-05-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

Well, the constant to-do list's have hindered my urge to post the last week. But tomorrow marks the first day of our much needed vacation to Berlin. I'm hoping to have internet access so I can post some photos from the trip along the way, so stay tuned. Otherwise, auf wiedersehen for now.

Room With a View via NYT

2007-04-26T21:31:00.000-05:00

Click here for Meier retrospective of models from his 40 year career.

The Construction Worker and Poetic-ness

2007-04-24T15:50:00.000-05:00

This post was going to be all dramatic, talking about the amazing metaphysical properties of natural light. You know, some real architectury stuff. Something all you designer types could totally get off on. But when push comes to shove, I'm just not in a poetic mood today. Wish I was.

Something about running CA (construction administration for you non architectury folks out there) on two projects takes the poetic-ness right out of me. The mechanical sub doesn't care about poetic-ness, nor does the electrician. The roofer certainly doesn't care about poetic-ness...and the plumber? Forget about it.

During construction the poetic-ness is hard to come by. You're running around all day, between job sites, being asked question that you have no answers to. My favorite phrase this week? "I'll have to get back to you."

Yes, it is easy to forget all about the poetic-ness of architecture, opting instead for the "just get it done" mentality. It is easy to forget, until you see a picture like this, and it makes it all worth it. It makes the steel detail suddenly important again. It makes me insist to the electrician that the lights that were supposed to line up with the main entrance is a big deal. And that yes, "some one will notice." It makes me thankful that we rearranged the budget and reconfigured the skylights multiple times to ensure that they had a place in the project. *This picture - to me - is what architecture is about, making a place for people.

*this image was taken by an associate of Meers Marketing and originally posted, here at Smoke and Meers.

The In-Crowd Environmentalist

2007-04-16T13:39:00.000-05:00

Head over to Greenpeace for this campaign riddled with hipster bait. Below are some of my favorite one line hipster attractors:

Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.
Remember folks, it has to be cool. If it's not cool then there's no use in saving the planet.

Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right?
Yes this is true, they know more about design than anybody on earth. Actually, Apple invented the entire design profession.

Want to wear the hip new GreenMyApple T-shirts?
Well, only if they're hip. I wouldn't want some one thinking I'm an uncool tree hugger.

And my all time favorite...

If you've got a Mac you've got some creative talent.
Is that all it takes? Then someone please tell me why I wasted all of that time and money on an architecture degree? Next time I'll head down to my uber fashionable Mac mecca (you know, the one with the filthy, cracked, and chipped all glass staircase's that hasn't looked it's best since opening day) and pick up the latest iProduct.

Sorry for the cynical spin folks. I'm just wondering when environmentalism became a fashion statement. I remember the environmentalists in my high school, they weren't cool. Why weren't they cool? Because they were environmentalists. Now these folks don't have a chance at being in-crowd environmentalists, they're just not cool enough.

Surely this can't be a bad thing. We want environmental issues to be at the forefront of corporate culture...right? Not exactly. Being "green" can only be effective when it makes it past a marketing campaign. For related rants see, The Art of Where.

Upcoming Event: Five Great Ideas the World Needs

2007-04-16T09:39:00.000-05:00

Guest Speaker:
Jerry Allan, professor of design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

WHEN:
Thursday, April 19
5:30 Reception
6:00-8:00 Green Salon/Lecture

WHERE:
Encompas
1512 Grand Blvd
Kansas City, MO 64108

If problems are the catalyst for creativity, what are the 5 great problems we all need to address? Jerry Allan, professor of design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design gives his interactive presentation the "5 Great Ideas the World Needs." This interdisciplinary design problem invites designers of all backgrounds to think, work and act globally.

More on Ties at Work

2007-04-13T09:45:00.001-05:00

Someone give me the name and number of the folks over at Pintday, for the cartoon series Intern Architects In Hell. I'd block out some time for visiting this site, also don't be afraid to think to yourself, finally, someone who cares. This is really someone who I can relate to...of course between the sobs of realization that this to is your harsh reality. (click on the image for the whole cartoon)

*I stumbled upon these fabulous cartoons over at The Art of Where.

Modus Operandi

2007-04-11T15:17:00.001-05:00

I picked up the latest issue of Record this afternoon to check out the 2007 Record Houses. However on the way to the money shots I became fixated on this image instead. Not to sure what the article is about but I love the picture that accompanies it.

I was never around when this scene was the modus operandi, but something draws me too it and makes me wish I was sitting right in the middle of the whole lot, hunched over a drafting table. Who knows, maybe I would hate it.

p.s. What ever happened to wearing ties to work? I would surely get made fun of for wearing a tie to work.

2007-04-05T15:03:00.000-05:00

It happened two hours ago but is already old news now for the Kstate fans out there...read about Bob Huggins departure from Manhattan, and the renaming of Huggieville here, here, and here.

Kstate gambled big time to bring Huggins into the program. He is what you would call a high risk investment dangling the potential of large returns in front of Wildcat fans everywhere. Or, the potential to be a complete flop.

Chalk this one up in the flop column...good thing I didn't have any Huggins in my IRA.

Killer of Sheep

2007-04-05T08:58:00.000-05:00

Charles Brunette's long awaited film, Killer of Sheep, shot while he was in film school at UCLA, will now be available on DVD. Killer of Sheep was declared a national treasure by the Library of Congress in 1990 and has been named one of the 100 essential films of all time by the National Society of Film Critics.

Ploy Synopsis from allmovie.com:

The first feature film from acclaimed independent African American filmmaker Charles Burnett, this intensely emotional drama concerns a man who makes his living at a slaughterhouse as he struggles for economic and emotional survival and tries to patch up his often strained relationship with his family. Shot on weekends over a period of several years and first shown publicly in 1977, Killer of Sheep slowly but surely began to develop a potent reputation among film enthusiasts; in 1981, it won honors at the Berlin International Film Festival and an enthusiastic reception at the Sundance Film Festival. It was added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1990.

Read more from the New York Times and Slate Magazine.

--

Kansas City Live from the Empire Theater

2007-04-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

My view this morning from the top of the Empire Theater. Am I loosing my mind or was it eighty degrees on Monday? Three days later I'm and freezing my ass off at eighty feet, standing on rickety scaffolding trying to sketch a terra cotta detail, meanwhile I can't feel my fingers.

The morning panned out to be a blur. With two projects under construction I am between sites for a good part of the day. You have to be careful at the job site, you'll get sucked in. All the different trades have been saving up their impossible questions, making notes of things you've missed in the drawings. They all want answers, they want them now.

C'était un rendez vous

2007-03-30T14:47:00.001-05:00

This short film by seminal French director Claude Lelouch presents a unique experience of the urban environment. A nine minute tour of 1970's Paris from a moving vehicle. There are some pretty tense moments as the driver speeds through the cobblestone streets. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the nuts and bolts of the film. Who was driving? What type of car? Was it staged? Has it been altered to make the cars speed appear faster? But the overwhelming consensus is that Lelouch himself was driving, the roads were not block off, and he reached top speeds between 90-140 mph in a Ferrari 275 GTB before ending his voyage at the Basilica Sacre Coeur.

Centre Pompidou and the Nike Air Max

2007-03-30T11:14:00.001-05:00

In light of Richard Rogers winning the Pritzker, let's see how far his influence has reached. Maybe some of you have seen this before.

This Just In: Masonry Tuck Pointing, General Public Not Interested

2007-03-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

We're in the thick of masonry restoration at the theater, but as it turns out masonry restoration doesn't make for powerful prose. If you are dying to read about the process I will redirect you here.

I did however want to share these images, which I didn't take, but I think they are pretty...and yes, I said pretty.

Richard Rogers to be Commended

2007-03-29T12:11:00.000-05:00

Oh, you probably thought I meant he should be commended for this. Well he already has been, here, here, and here. Oh wait, here too, and for an interview with Rogers, click here.

I say, forget the Pritzker, someone give Rogers a pat on the ass for this, his firms website. For the record, I'm talking about a coach to star player style pat on the ass. One you get on the way to the locker room after a career high scoring night and a game winning shot. Nothing weird. Just so we're clear.

Anyway, Roger's website is one of the better architectural websites I've seen. Very informative and very comprehensive, yet not overwhelming. His face isn't plastered all over the damn thing, but the architecture is. And not just the money shots either, but the ideas, the technologies, and the processes behind the buildings. Kudos to you Lord Rogers.

The Solution Lies in the Problem

2007-03-29T00:30:00.000-05:00

Design is, first and foremost, an exercise in problem solving. How can we overcome structural and functional obstacles in order to perform a task in a place and time? And further, how can we make that space comfortable to occupy? I would say these are fundamental problems of architecture. Now, one could discuss much more cerebral notions of architectural origins, such as the catalysts for the generation of form, but what it really boils down to is problem solving.

Why is it then we spend exponentially more time developing and researching design solutions than we do understanding design problems? How often do we stop and ask ourselves, what exactly is it that we are trying to solve? This question has to be asked, and it has to be asked on multiple scales at multiple stages of the project. Many well intended designs go by the wayside because the designer didn't fully understand the task at hand.

I see this as problematic for a number of reasons. 1.) your time is money 2.) opportunity is here and now, and 3.) your design needs to be sold. I guess there's one more, did I mention 4.) time is money?

1.) Time is money. Investing the time up front to fully understand the multiple layers of context can save you loads of time in the long run, and we all know what that means, more profitable projects. But also, understanding the problem on various levels of context can lead to much more appropriate, effective, and meaningful design solutions. The question becomes, how far are you willing to take it? Understanding the clients functional needs is integral to a projects success, but what about integrating the building into a larger context. For example, an urban environment, a social hierarchy, or a sustainable environment? Each level requires a different definition and understanding of what the problem is. The best designs...solve multiple problems in a single solution (ker-ching, ker-ching)

2.) Opportunity is here and now. I once filled out a questionnaire which posed the question, "what is your dream project." My answer, "any project, as long as it's treated as such." The truth is that every project is an opportunity to create a meaningful design solution. However, you must first understand the problem. Without an understanding of the problem, your design can go one of two ways, it can become generic and stale, or (perhaps worse) trendy and arbitrary. You all know of projects that, from the beginning have ascribed to a specific aesthetic agenda and in the process have missed out on extraordinary design opportunities. A specific project here in Kansas City comes to mind, I'll try to snap an image later this week for some commentary, and hopefully discussion.

3.) Design needs to be sold. When I was at K-State I watched many of my classmates crash and burn during pin up critiques because they could not sell their design. This usually stemmed from a weak understanding of design problem. The unfortunate thing, not all the projects were bad. They simply lacked those key moments when the design on the wall was tied back into the conceptual statement. These projects are easy to poke holes in and they just won't hold up. Metaphorically speaking, if you tell me you've drawn a butterfly, but you don't know what a butterfly looks like and on the wall you've pinned up a frog then there's no reason I can't change it to a cat. After all, you don't know what a butterfly even looks like, you don't understand the problem.

This American Life

2007-03-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

Act One
Sunday morning. We drive east under a canopy of oak trees from Kansas to Missouri. Our home and our church are 3.2 miles and one state line apart. During that short drive each week I get to sample two of Sunday mornings finest offerings.

Act Two
I'm holding a travel mug filled with piping hot french pressed goodness from The Roasterie and just tuning into KCUR, Kansas City's NPR source. The coffee is too hot to drink and NPR's Ira Glass is setting up his most recent vignette into American contemporary culture.

Act Three
The church parking lot. A clock on the dash tells me it's time to go in. My coffee is still too hot to drink, and Ira Glass has just hooked me on another great story. This Sunday, just like every other Sunday, I leave a full cup and a half listened to episode of This American Life waiting in the car. Thank goodness for insulated mugs and the advent of podcasts.

If you have the chance to catch This American Life on NPR, Sunday mornings at 10:00 am, I would highly recommend it. Or maybe you had a rough Saturday night and the prospects of waking up before the NFL on NBC isn't in the cards. If that's the case, you're in luck. This American Life made it's television debut last Thursday at 10:30 ET on Showtime, watch the first episode here. You can find an interview with Glass, host and producer of This American Life, here.

Today, An Image

2007-03-25T17:45:00.000-05:00

Communication, Information, and Virtual Context

2007-03-22T23:20:00.001-05:00

How many of us think of the world in this context? And what does it tell us about architecture going into the future?

Communication has played a major role in the development of towns and cities throughout the course of history. Perhaps the largest part, but I wouldn't want to go speaking in superlatives now would I? How we communicate, and more importantly how we interact with each other as a community accounts for many of the pillars of sound urban planning.

This video shows us that communication and communities are changing, and at an alarming rate. If MySpace were a country it would be the 11th largest country in the world, between Japan and Mexico. As of August 2006 MySpace has 100 million members. Does this startle anyone else? So I'll ask it again, how many of us think about the world in this context?

In the future...

1. We will develop new models for growth in towns and cities. If architecture has a direct link with our ability to interact, communicate, and grow economically, what shape will cities, towns, and buildings take when physical connections are no longer essential. I'm not suggesting that shelter will at once become passe, it may just begin to take different form.

2. Architecture will not exist autonomously. Buildings are no longer a given. MySpace has proven that. A community of 100 million people exist with no common physical space. To formulate relevant models for growth architects and designers will have to engage not only the communications and information management industries, but industries that - as the film suggests - haven't even been invented yet.

3. The business model will change. As of yet I don't have much experience in this area. But I am starting to realize that this field is about leverage. The architect is no longer seen as the master builder, the contractor has more leverage, the city has more leverage, the consumers have more leverage. I can only imagine that as we engage with different industries and models of communication the leverage will swing, and the business model will have to change. Our umbrella of expertise will have to expand, that is if we expect to retain leverage.

The White Flag, Tattered and Torn

2007-03-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

Blogger has won, for now. I tried and tried and could not get Studio109 to import into TypePad. I did however ruin my template, which accounts for the new look, a standard Blogger template, which I guess will do for now. In the process I fouled up some of the text formating as well, it deleted all of my paragraph breaks, so now all posts read as one large block of text. They show up fine in my "Edit Post" field, just not on the page itself. If anyone knows what's up with this, by all means, do share.

Signing Off, See You On The Flip Side

2007-03-22T17:59:00.000-05:00

Every now and then you have to cut your losses, and start something new. I've been frustrated with Blogger since the inception of Studio109 almost two years ago but have been putting up with it for reasons beyond my comprehension. I've flirted with moving the site, had a quick affair with Apple's blogging software only to find out that after 30 days they were going to charge me 100 bucks to continue the service. That brought me back to blogger pretty quick. But I just can't hassle with the formatting issues anymore. I hav elimited time, when I need to post I need to post quick. If I want to change something, I need to do it quick. Time is money folks.

I've started a TypePad account and am now wondering how I put up with Blogger for so long. I'm sitting here with instructions on transfering my blog from Blogger to TypePad, and I've got to tell you, I'm a little nervous. I hope, after it's all said and done, I'll still have my blog history. I feel like the character in a horror movie that, upon leaving the room says, "I'll be right back." We all know how that story ends.

So, tonight I will attempt the transfer. See you on the flip side, hopefully

Can You Say Market Research?

2007-03-21T15:44:00.001-05:00

product-product, originally uploaded by reverb2005.

How does apple always seem to know just what I want? It's like they just called and ask, and vwa-la...the very product I've been dreaming about. Click here for more.

Plastina Mosh - Alo

2007-03-21T08:32:00.001-05:00

A swanky video, a sexy film, and great architecture, watch the trailer...what else could you ask for? Watch the trailer for La Mujer de mi Hermano (aka My Brothers Wife) here and more info here.

I Can Has Cheezburger

2007-03-21T07:58:00.000-05:00

For more lol cat photos with tags for your convenience head over to I Can Has Chezzburger. I'm warning you folks, you'll spend all day here.

StumbleUpon

2007-03-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

StumbleUpon is an online community I would actually recommend taking the time to join. For you Mozilla fans out there it plugs right into Firefox. This site tracks which websites you visit most frequently and combines that info with the profile information you provide. Based on those stats StumbleUpon recommends website that it thinks you may enjoy. I've been using this for one evening and have already stumbled upon some bookmark worthy sites.

Alone on a Friday Night?

2007-03-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

After the last few days poking around the web I've come to one conclusion: The internet is a great place for lonely people. Or maybe just folks who are in the market for some new friends. Either way, check out these new online communities:

Technorati
MyBlogLog
Digg
Squidoo
Twitter
LiveJournal
Vox

iTunes Recently Added

2007-03-19T17:26:00.000-05:00

Matt Costa
Songs We Sing

This CD was given to me by a friend as 2006 was coming to a close. I gave it a listen at the time, I remember enjoying it. Unfortunately is was swallowed up by one of many ongoing and incomplete projects at my house and hadn't been heard from since. That is, until this weekend. I found it in a random and forgotten pile of who knows what in the corner of our office. I've been listening to it since. The album, released on Jack Johnson's label Brushfire records is listenable, not terribly edgy, but not to produced either. The simple acoustic guitar numbers are uplifting at first listen, but a second look from a different perspective could upturn Costa's darker, lonely side.

Justin Timberlake
Future Sex / Love Sounds

I thought I would give this album a listen. I actually enjoyed JT's previous album Justified and for some reason I'm thinking about calling Timberlake a serious pop - dare I use the word - artist. I'm still wondering where the album title comes from. I've run it through my head placing emphasis on the different individual words. Future Sex Love Sounds. Future Sex Love Sounds. Future Sex Love Sounds. Future Sex Love Sounds. You get the idea. Anyway, I was a little disappointed with the CD, I'm just not feeling the falsetto on the ball-esque track, All Over Again. However, I wouldn't hesitate blasting, What Goes Around Comes Around while cruising the Plaza before a bitchin' night at Blonde.

Peter Bjorn and John
Writers Block

I'm a little behind the times with this CD, but I've been enjoying it all day. This album is great, very rich and diverse, but not too schizophrenic. I especially dig the track Young Folks because of the whistling, which Rebekah I'm sure will love once it becomes embedded in my brain. Also, the Morrissey-esque vocals of Objects of My Affection is a nice touch.

Al Gore Sends A Message

2007-03-19T10:38:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what is says about government that the former Vice President is more influential after he leaves office than when was in office. Al Gore proclaims, "Help me send a message to Congress, now is the time to act." Actually Al, I've already helped you send a message to Congress, by electing you and Bill as the President and Vice President thirteen years ago. What about the eight years you spent in the White House, wasn't that the time to act?

Regardless, Al Gore is taking global warming off the back burner, and he's making it pretty easy for the rest of us to have our voices heard. Click here to sign a postcard to your representative that Al Gore will personally deliver on March 21st, only two days left to let your voice be heard.

Charrette In The Hood

2007-03-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Last week I was lucky enough to participate in a UMKC Urban Planning design Charrette with landscape architect Walter Hood founder of Hood Design based in Oakland California.

The project was simple. How do you link the Crossroads arts district with the historic 18th and Vine Jazz distric? The Crossroads has become wildly popular in recent years due in large part to the success of events like First Friday. The nearby historic jazz district at 18th and Vine was hugely influential in shaping the American Jazz movement during the 1930's and 40's. Essentially, you've got the new hipster hang out and the old hipster hang out. In between? Nothing. 1.3 miles of waste, blight, and coiled barbed wire adorning chain link fence. There's Holmes Park and KCPL Sub Station, the KCATA bus barn, Bruce R Watkins Drive, and the historic (but sorely neglected) Wheatley Provident Hospital. Like I said, simple. Right?

The question posed by UMKC Urban Planning professor Jacob Wagner, how do you link the two districts? I would add, do they need to be linked? The class at UMKC had done an amazing job researching the history of these two districts. Charts, graphs, demographics, land use, zoning, political issues, and social divisions...very comprehensive, very well done. Walter kicked off the two day design charrette with a short lecture and showcase of his projects Friday morning before breaking us up into four groups, each with a mix of students and design professionals (I guess I fall in with the later) to create design solutions for the targeted area.

Hood's lecture focused on the rift between urban planning nomenclature and the way spaces were actually used. Calling to question vocabulary such as street, park, square, garden, plaza, field, yard. At one time there was a definition for these words that correlated very closely to the way the spaces were used. Now, we hold strong to the words but have abandoned the use resulting in spaces that fall short of modern society. Further, we design urban spaces to serve only one function. A parking lot only solves one problem, where and how to park cars. It doesn't address issues like pedestrian circulation, public gathering, or landscape design. Hood is quick to point out that addressing these issues is more involved than tossing some yellow crossing stripes down and planting a few trees. Hood maintained that in order for a city to be successful and efficient urban design solutions would have to address multiple urban problems. Hoods lecture was well delivered, and made sense on many different levels. I'm just not so sure there's anything new here.

Under Hood's direction we divided the site into 12 bite size zones. Within each zone we were to develop four urban interventions falling into each of the following categories: architecture, landscape, infrastructure, and memorial. Hood's process focuses much more on, well...process, as opposed to result. There was to be no master plan, no grand scheme, no Burnham-esque map to be honored for decades to come. Hood looked at each zone based on it's own characteristics. What does this zone need to be livable and what does it need to function as a part of the larger city? The UMKC studio will be developing the ideas that were brainstormed last weekend and displaying their results at an open house later in the semester, details to come.

When The Dust Settles

2007-03-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

"Destroying and constructing are of equal importance, we must have souls for the one and souls for the other."

Three stages of demolition. Three panoramas taken from one relative point.

Act 01 >> It's 4:54 on Friday afternoon and the receptionist at my office just came by my desk with a tray full of strawberry daiquiri's. Can you believe that, daiquiri's? I of course took one, and then owned up to the fact, I have a pretty cush job. I won't apologize.

Act 02 >> I don't make as many things as I used to. But I guess the projects are just getting longer, and more real. Are the stakes higher? I'm not sure. Are they as fun? In some regards, more. In others, less. But the learning curve is higher, which makes it interesting. A professor of mine once told me to never start a sentence with "I think..." or "I feel...", he said "you're the one writing, it should go unsaid that what you are writing is what you think or feel." I think I agree with that. I mean, I agree with that. But what if I don't and I just think I do. I only mention it because originally I had started out by saying, "I feel like I don't make as many things"

Act o3 >> Things I keep telling myself: you're surroundings don't define you, you define your surrounds. Don't take yourself so seriously, if it's not fun it's not worth it. Quit over thinking, you'll never get anything done. I have a hard time listening. Again, the receptionist with round two of the Friday Daiquiri happy hour...Please excuse me, I'll be driving off into the sunset now.

A Shawshank State of Mind

2007-03-15T23:10:00.000-05:00

If there's one thing I know it's movie quotes...here are a few from one of my favorites.

I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.

...that tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass

Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine.

Son, six wardens have been through here in my tenure, and I've learned one immutable, universal truth: Not one of them born whose asshole wouldn't pucker up tighter than a snare drum when you ask them for funds.

Easy peasy japanesey.

and that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison Lord!

It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind

Google or Yahoo? It's been on my mind lately, I'm not sure why, after all it seems a bit trivial. I've had an email address with yahoo for close to five years now, and so far it's worked out. I was never to thrilled with the interface, however they've made some changes in the last few months that make yahoo mail much easier to use. I know Google is kicking Yahoo's ass in the scheme of things and there's been a big push towards gmail lately. I flirted with gmail. Registered an address, just in case I want to switch over in the future I wanted to secure a user name. I always hate those pesky notifications alerting you that the user name you've selected has already been claimed and would I like to consider bkingsley0790-0789890898requoq34234iud@gmail.com. I mean, who else could possibly want bkingsley@gmail.com, there can't be another one out there, it infuriates me. Now for the BIG problem, photographs. Google has teamed with blogger and picasa. I use picasa on my PC for all of my photo organization and I use Blogger to host Studio109. But Yahoo is teamed with Flickr and I use Flickr for all of my online photo-sharing. This creates some problems and I haven't figured out the remedy.

On a related note, I got to work yesterday and unloaded the contents of my bag onto my desk, which included, but is not limited to, my cell phone, cell phone charger, my iPod and iPod charger, my removable hardrive and associated charger and firewire connection, the detachable face to my cars CD player, and my hand held PDA. I laid them there on my desk, all strung out together and thought, isn't technology supposed to make our live streamlined simple?

It took 25 years and my own house, but I'm slowly starting to realize that picking up after one's self eliminates weekend long cleaning binges. To think, it's much easier just to put your shirt directly in the hamper rather than sling it on the ground with the rest of the shirts and have a pile on your hands at the end of the week. If only someone would have told me <sarcastic undertone, as you can imagine I've been told this many, many times till my mother was blue in the face>

I'm tired of searching for new and interesting music. I still enjoy and appreciate it, but come one, who has that kind of time? I digress. I go on streaks where you can't keep me away from the iStore. I'll download an album a day and listen to music repeatedly, searching out the latest and greatest bands that won't be coming to Kansas City anytime soon. But after a while it all starts to sound the same. The factor contributing most to my recent apathy towards indie music, the new Arcade Fire album. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, but I've listened to it a couple of times, granted this I was sitting with a blank stare in front of AutoCad, but at any rate I wasn't impressed. This explains my recent foray into country western (think more Hank Williams and less Toby Keith).

Five phrases I find myself saying as of late: 1.) at any rate 2.) here we go again 3.) it seems to me 4.) scope of work 5.) as of late

I was born and raised on KU basketball. This became problematic when I decided to attend Kansas State, a decision I never saw myself making, but one I'm glad I did. Throughout most of my tenure at K-State I was a closet case KU basketball fan, only my close friends really knew my obsession. But now I'm a little more open with it and I must say, I always pick them to win the NCAA tournement. I'm on pins and needles waiting for tomorrow nights game, I really think KU's the best team in the tourney but I can just picture a train wreck against Niagra. I hope it's just my inner pessimist getting the best of me.

Put a Penny in the Slot, Fionn Regan

2007-03-09T08:10:00.001-06:00

Sent to me this morning from Atticus at Diminutivocations

Wherever you are, that's the place to be

2007-02-27T16:58:00.000-06:00

Updated demolition images from 1811 Walnut, future home of Meers Marketing

Wake Me Up When It's Time To Go To Sleep

2007-02-20T22:03:00.000-06:00

>> ESPN, far superior television programming compared to…just about everything else on TV. I used to be a big fan of television news programs. But a good one is hard to come by as of late. I think Tim Russert is good to go, and CBS Sunday Morning is top notch but most everything else is heavy on the Entertainment Tonight factor. These pundits are no more clued in than you or I and that scares me. Back to ESPN. All sports, all the time, all in the interest of the game. Most of the analysts are legendary to semi-legendary sports figures that actually know a thing or two. Plus these guys are badass, can you picture Stuart Scott just wailing on Tucker what’s his name, that’s right Tucker Carlson. Scott would beat him with his own bow-tie. What about Chris Berman and Wolf Blitzer? Forget about it. Even Rich Eisen could whip the likes of Anderson Cooper. The only “news anchor” I’d put my money on is Nancy Grace, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

>> Listening to classical music at full volume while parked in an automated car wash adds a totally new dimension to the experience. It turns what is otherwise a fairly mundane event into a musical extravaganza, that is, if you have a bit of imagination. Add some color to the experience, splurge for the rainbow color wax. For the full effect, slowly increase the volume as the first pass of soap makes it’s way down your front window, cutting you off from the outside world. As far as music goes, I suggest George Frederic Handel: Concerto Grosso No. 6 for starters. It seemed to coordinate well with the car wash settings, especially if you can parallel the automatic dryer with Handel's tympani.

>> I’m glad I don’t work at an office that has a whistle to signal the end of the day like on the Flintstones. On second thought, that might be ok if it was indeed a guy pulling a bird's tail feathers.

>>The best thing about co-ed volleyball leagues...the net is set to women's regulation height. It's just not fair.

>>There's a guy in our office who looks just like the boss, but he isn't the boss and he's always passing by the front of my desk. Again, not fair.

Let the Demo Begin

2007-02-20T10:18:00.000-06:00

Last night marked the official "ground breaking" at 1811 Walnut, the new headquarters for the Kansas City advertising agency Meers Marketing, and my first real solo project. Seeing as how this project is a renovation, there was actually no ground to break but there were walls...and oh did they need to be broken. So last night was more of a Demolition Party than anything else. Everyone who's been involved in the process so far, including many friends of Meers gathered at the site, gold sledge hammers in hand, to take a celebratory whack at the tired old building which will soon be breathing fresh air and new life...let the demo begin! I've attached some renderings of what the new space will look like in just 90 short days.

Two Top Five's

2007-02-15T21:18:00.000-06:00

Top five topics I am tired of hearing about:

1. Anna Nicole Smith
2. A surge of 20,000 troops
3. NFL Coaches Being Fired
4. NASCAR Scandals
5. Frank Gehry

Top five topics I wouldn't mind hearing more about:

1. Katherine Jefferts Schori
2. Breach, starring Chris Cooper
3. Diplomacy
4. Green Roofs
5. The US Trade Deficit

An Architecture of Happiness

2007-01-28T23:16:00.000-06:00

We depend on our surroundings obliquely to embody the moods and ideas we respect and then to remind us of them. We look to our buildings to hold us, like a kind of psychological mold, to a helpful vision of ourselves. We arrange around us material forms which communicate to us what we need - but are at constant risk of forgetting we need - within. We turn to wallpaper, benches, paintings and streets to staunch the disappearance of our true selves. -An Architecture of Happiness, pg. 107

I'm not one to launch into conversation by recollecting on the "way things used to be." After all, I haven't been around long enough to remember the "way things used to be." The way things used to be are simply the way things are for my generation. However, the above passage makes me wonder if there is not a direct connection between the short comings of our society and the change in our towns and cities embodied by what we build. I suppose a building is always a monument to something. Whether it be a God, a family, an institution, or a political body. After all, one must think highly of an ideal to set in concrete a place for it to reside. It may even go that the more momentous the memorialized the more permanent and grand the monument becomes. It is no secret that throughout history buildings have given order to our lives and aspirations, becoming a direct manifestation of the values of society. And the buildings, like values, carry with them notions of integrity and permanence.

It makes me wonder how history will judge us if based solely on the everyday buildings we leave behind. We no longer center our communities around civic structures, religious institutions, or public space. Instead we find them organized (and I use that term loosely) around mega centers of big box outlets. Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Depot...the list could go on. According to the stories that our towns will tell these are the institutions that we hold closest to our heart. According to the shape of our cities it is not longer important to interact with our neighbors in a public place, unless of course that interaction takes place in parking lot or a GAP. It is no longer important to have faith in our governing bodies or religious institutions. The churches we build today look like they are more suited for sporting events and multi media entertainment than they do for worship.

Judging by the stories our homes tell it is no longer important for our families to be part of a larger community. Our neighborhoods, adorned with ill-suited names, turn their back on the city, retreating behind a maze of twisted streets, dead end cul-de-sacs, and gated communities. Sidewalks are reduced to a minimum, if they show up at all. Living rooms and picture windows no longer take precedent on a facade by looking out onto the street. Instead our three car garages project out towards the street and define the identity of our homes while our living space retreats further back, and down, taking the form of walkout basements.

I wish I could remember the way things used to be.

What we build tells a story about our lives, our preoccupations, and as the opening passage suggests, a vision of ourselves. Next time you're out for a drive, take a moment to note your surroundings and ask yourself if what you see speaks to you. But more importantly, ask yourself what it says.

Our Fearless Leader

2007-01-24T20:47:00.000-06:00

Although I tried to avoid it like the plague, for fear of becoming dumber, I ended up catching some snippets of President Bush's state of the Union address last night. One thing that caught my attention was his challenge to American's to reduce their fuel consumption by 10% this year. For many reason's that struck me as ironic. He went on to talk about increasing our use of alternative fuel sources as he stumbled through words he could barely pronounce, let alone understand. As he was rambling on about alternative fuel sources (which by the way I think are terribly important) I couldn't help but wonder....has anyone ever suggested that one simple solution to reducing our fuel use is to build things in closer together? I've ranted about this many times before, so if you are getting tired of hearing about it, forgive me.

There are three components that I believe can reduce our dependency on oil, make our environment cleaner, and improve personal health...in a somewhat particular order.

1.) Build buildings closer together. Hello? Does this not make sense to anyone out there?

2.) Invest in public transportation. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to tell you that a vehicle that can transport 40 people at a time is more efficient than a vehicle that can transport one person at a time.

3.) Invest in alternative fuel sources. Let's face it, we don't have that much oil in the United States, what we do have though is corn and wind.

That's all.

Interview With Nathan Glazier

2007-01-12T09:16:00.001-06:00

Nathan Glazer Interview for Learning from Bob and Denise

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Learning From Bob and Denise

2007-01-11T18:36:00.001-06:00

learning from bob and denise

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Architecture of the Incidental Vol. 1

2007-01-10T23:08:00.000-06:00

I've been reading a blog lately called The Sartorialist. The author, Scott Schuman is a fashion photographer in New York who snaps photos of fashionable everyday men and women he passes on the streets. What I like about this is the emphasis on personal style and the position that well composed ensembles don't have to come from major labels or fashion magazines (although I'm sure many of them do). But what I like more is the salute to timeless style by emphasizing the simple things, like a proper fit and a nice composition of colors. According to the Sartorialist, one need not stand out, or be cutting edge to be fashionable.

This of course made me think about architecture and how hard it is to let go of the images we see in design magazines in favor of a more timeless and sometimes less noticeable notion of what constitutes "good architecture." It takes foregoing an architecture that does nothing but draw attention to itself and placing a larger emphasis on problem solving. It takes selflessness. How hard would it be for the architect to admit that it may not take an architect to create great architectural solutions? How many brilliant and beautiful design solutions do we pass everyday that we discredit because they are common place?

I wanted to post three images from my favorite source of everyday inspiration, my grandparents farm...

Does this image tell a story or what? The AC unit in the window, the slightly offset position of the middle chair, the reflection of the tree in the picture window, and the way the Christmas lights hang down to capture the worn and rusted back of the patio furniture. You know it is Christmas, yet somehow it looks strangely warm for this time of year. Is this just an interesting photograh, or great architecture? Of course I love the flaking paint from the corner of the house, and the way the brick rises up from the concrete patio. Maybe there is no story here and I just like it because I know those chairs literally haven't moved in 20 years. But this is the result of a long and layered life making a mark on architecture, not the other way around.

This image doesn't need much explanation. My grandfather needed to patch a hole in the side of the shed, so he did it with the materials he had lying around, corrugated metal. Corrugated metal is probably the most overused and poorly detailed material in fashionable architecture today. This is corrugated metal done right. You can't achieve materiality like this, it has to happen.

A nice little glass block detail in my grandfathers barn. You can see where he patched an existing hole with new concrete and glass blocks. I love how the glass blocks are separated by an inch or two of concrete mortar, instead of slammed right up against each other or held apart by a silicone caulk.

Three Stylish Films

2007-01-09T21:19:00.000-06:00

Three Days of the Condor, 1975
Directed by Sydney Pollack starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway

In the movie adaptation of James Grady's novel Six Days of the Condor Robert Redford, code name Condor, must have become winded, or he figured out in three days what took the book's Condor six. Regardless, Redford plays a bookworm turned CIA agent who's stumbles upon a government plan to invade the middle east in order to seize control of their oil supply. Hmmm. The film was a mix between the suspensefulness of North by Northwest and the hopeful triumph of doing the right thing that Redford later portrays in Spy Game.

Purple Noon, 1960
Directed by Rene Clement

This film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Tanlented Mr. Ripley is one cool film. The characters are rich, good looking, and well dressed..not to mention pathological.

Get Carter, 1971
Directed by Mike Hodges starring Michael Caine

This film taught me four things, 1.) Michael Caine is a badass, even considering his role in Ms. Congeniality. 2.) Michael Caine runs funny, but I'd never tell him that. 3.) After this movie Jack Carter is going to need a new suite, and a trip to the clinic. 4.) When you are dealing with Jack Carter, a construction site, and a fee hungry architect, things will most likely end up with a man being thrown out of a building.

These films came from a list that GQ magazine recently released, the Top 25 Most Stylish films of all time. This makes me wonder, which films of our generation will go down in history as stylish (interpret that as you will). The one film that sticks out in my mind is Gattaca starring Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and FLW's uber stylish Marin County Civic Center. Feel free to offer your suggestions.

Rivermarket Blues

2007-01-05T16:32:00.000-06:00

Poems for Architects

2007-01-04T09:15:00.000-06:00

I found on my chair this morning a delightful birthday gift from a friend and coworker, a book entitled Poems for Architects. And from it's pages a poem by Wallace Stevens

The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician

It comes about that the drifting of these curtains
Is full of long motions; as the ponderous
Deflations of distance; or as clouds
Inseparable from their afternoons;
Or the changing of light, the dropping
Of the silence, wide sleep and solitude
Of night, in which all motion
Is beyond us, as the firmament,
Up-rising and down-falling, bares
The last largeness, bold to see.

New Reading for 2007

2007-01-02T11:08:00.000-06:00

1. The Architecture of Happiness, Alain De Botton

Review From Publishers Weekly
With this entertaining and stimulating book, de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) examines the ways architecture speaks to us, evoking associations that, if we are alive to them, can put us in touch with our true selves and influence how we conduct our lives. Because of this, he contends, it's the architect's task to design buildings that contribute to happiness by embodying ennobling values. While he makes no claim to be able to define true beauty in architecture, he suggests some of the virtues a building should have (illustrated by pictures on almost every spread): order combined with complexity; balance between contrasting elements; elegance that appears effortless; a coherent relationship among the parts; and self-knowledge, which entails an understanding of human psychology, something that architects all too often overlook. To underscore his argument, de Botton includes many apt examples of buildings that either incorporate or ignore these qualities, discussing them in ways that make obvious their virtues or failings. The strength of his book is that it encourages us to open our eyes and really look at the buildings in which we live and work. A three-part series of the same title will air on PBS this fall. (Oct. 3)

2. Richard Meier Architect Vol. 1, by Richard Meier
3. The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs
4. Modern Architecture: A Critical History, by Kenneth Frampton
5. An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Work of Marlon Blackwell, by Marlon Blackwell

CASAS Holland

2006-12-22T11:40:00.000-06:00

Project: Villas Han Stijkelplein
Architect: Lemens Van Heerden

I found this project, as well as other to be posted later, in a book called CASAS Holland. A beautiful display of clear structural, spatial, and material articulation.

The site is surrounded by streets on three sides with a shopping center to the north. This gives the site three frontages. to conform a strong enough volume to confront the shopping center, the two houses are deliberately designed as one building, although their elevations clearly reflect their completely different programs. The big house was designed for the client (an elderly couple) and the small house for the architect and his family.

The program...was very unusual: a "drive through" garage for car and caravan with a separate guest-house on first floor level. An apartment for the client on the second floor and an apartment for a nurse on the roof, both apartments to be reached by elevator. All this left a free strip available for the small house of only 18 feet wide. By situating all bedrooms, bathrooms and the entrance on the first floor, the living room can occupy the entire second floor. Voids connect this level to the roof study and ground-entrance which gives the house an extreme feeling of space despite its limitations.

Having the living room on the second floor also provides more privacy and a panoramic view over the shopping center. Both houses have a large wooden sun-deck cantilevered over a steel construction on the south side and sun-decks on the roof. Because in the case of the small house the garden is used by children to play in, it is connected to the sundeck by an outside staircase.

Handyman's Guide

2006-12-19T18:35:00.000-06:00

I love the look of vintage illustrations. So I was thrilled to find this little gem tucked away in a bookshelf long forgot ten when we were back home for Thanksgiving. I love the graphics and photography and the simple "Leave It To Beaverness" of it all. The book is broken down into ten chapters, 1.) Hand tools, 2.) Power tools, 3.) Building materials, 4.) Fastening techniques, 5.) Finishing, 6.) Plumbing and wiring, 7.) Walls, floors, and ceiling, 8.) Windows and doors, 9.) Exterior maintena nce, and 10.) Storage and furniture. I know there's a few of you who read this that, like me, have just purchased mid-century modern homes in Kansas City and might be interested in what this blast from the past has to offer. Not only for the inherent vintage quirkiness, but to use for reference when updating your house while still keeping with the mid-century aesthetic, maybe that's something only you architects will find interesting. So consider this the first installment of the Better Homes and Gardens Handyman's Guide, presented by Studio 109...more to come.

Plight of the Hand Drawn

2006-12-18T22:55:00.000-06:00

There is nothing I enjoy more during the work week than turning my back to the computer and situating myself at my drafting table, pencil in hand. That's right, I said it...I draw by hand, and at work non-the-less. The worst part, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. As if in some way I am wasting time by not working as efficiently as possible. After all, it is inevitable that the drawing will have to take the shape of CAD at some point in time. Further, am I somehow short changing the design by not developing it with cutting edge software? During school I would spend countless hours of sleepless nights hunched over the keyboard and mouse tirelessly chasing after the perfect rendering, with some success might I add. My presentations always went over well during critiques and for the most part the designs were grounded, if not developed. However looking back I wonder, could that time have been better spent? The answer is of course, of course. How much better could my projects have been if I would have settled for a more primitive representation and sunk that time into further developing the project. On the other hand, the project was what it was by virtue of the 3D model. It was a result of an evolution that may or may not have been stumbled upon by any other medium. This ultimately begs the question, can architecture exist independently from the tools used to create it?

What good is a word processor to an author with no story to tell?

A Hobit's Tale

2006-12-17T23:03:00.000-06:00

Something incredibly strange just happened. If you noticed, I randomly changed the sub-title of Studio 109. Rebekah's sitting next to me on the couch watching The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, a movie I have never seen, and I ask her if she likes the sound of the new sub-title, From Kansas To Missouri and Back Again. We were throwing around different suggestions for the new sub-title when we both look at the screen and notice Frodo, writing his book at the end of the movie. Frodo closes the cover of the book and reads the title out loud, "There and Back Again, by Bilbo Bagins"

Every once in a while coincidences like this happen to us all. I love them, but they freak me out and make me wonder, what really takes place in our sub-conscious?

Ultimate Christmas Mix

2006-12-17T15:09:00.000-06:00

Rebekah and I spent some quality time this afternoon with 'ol iTunes and started what may well become a Kingsley tradition. We compiled our own Christmas album with Christmas classics such as Bing Crosby's Winter Wonderland and the Carpenter's Christmas Waltz. There are a couple of not so traditional Christmas songs on the mix like Dave Matthews, The Christmas Song and the Barenaked Ladies rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, but I think they fit in nicely with the classics. What we ended up with may be the best flippin' Christmas compilation ever created.

1. Christmas Time Is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio (from Charlie Brown Christmas)
2. Winter Wonderland - Bing Crosby
3. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
4. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole
5. Christmas Song - Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
6. My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
7. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams
8. Sleigh Ride - Harry Connick, Jr.
9. Silent Night - Frank Sinatra
10. Silver Bells - Bing Crosby and Carole Richards
11. Christmas Waltz - Carpenters
12. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
13. O Holy Night - Johnny Mathis
14. O Tannenbaum - Vince Gauraldi Trio (from Charlie Brown Christmas)
15. Let It Snow - Michael Buble
16. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan
17. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Pat Boone
18. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - Diana Krall

Don't Fight Forces

2006-12-10T23:30:00.000-06:00

I was cleaning out the office at home this weekend when I came across a paper bag full of old elctronic and computer cords. I needed to find an efficient way to organize all the different cord types, after all, everything is a design problem. I thought the first step of course would be to coil them into tidy rolls, each the same size and put them in a shoe box. I methodically coiled each cord into roughly four inch loops starting with standard AV chords. When I began to coil the PC power supply chords I ran into problems. Try as I might they would not loop into the standard four inch roll. After years of sitting at they bottom of their cardboard box they had developed their own twists and turns that simply prevented them from being coiled any other way.

After my fourth of fifth profanity I looked at the cords in my hand, jumbled into a configuration that looked more like the large intestine than the perfect roll of twine I had imagined. I was reminded of a quote from Buckminster Fuller, "Don't fight forces, use them" and wouldn't you know the moment I stopped trying to coil the cords into my own design, and work with the existing twists and turns I quickly wrapped them into an orderly loop that now hangs perfectly on the closet wall.

As architects and designers we have our own vision for how things should be. We work tirelessly to create order out of chaos. Our job is to sit down with a bunch of jumbled information and somehow make sense of it so that it will fit perfectly into some kind of orderly building. Our proverbial cords are all of the different components of the building process such as the building type, the building systems, and of course the client. At Helix we do a good deal of adaptive reuse of existing buildings, mainly in the Crossroads/Downtown districts of Kansas City. This adds a whole new set of layers onto the process. In order to give shape to all of the components listed above we are limited to what the existing building will allow. Existing buildings have their own ordering system created by their enclosure, materials, and most importantly the structural system.

I've learned a great deal about "order" by working on some very well designed historic buildings in Kansas City, the Lowes Midland Theater (designed by Thomas Lamb) and the Mainstreet Theater (designed by Rapp and Rapp). But those lessons aren't solely limited to existing buildings. No matter where or what we build, there will always be forces that wil influence a design for better or worse. I believe that great architecture uses these forces to it's advantage, seamlessly weaving the new into the old, not in an aesthetic or fashionable way, but in a more meaningful spatial sense that may not necessarily be detected right off. As opposed to forcing design into an unaccepting context and ending up with a jumbled mess we have the opportunity as architects to uncover the forces and carve our buildings from them.

The more we are able to discover and understand specific complex forces the more simple the design process becomes. The notion of "what to do" begins to answer itself and "what not to do" becomes readily apparent. My cord fiasco could have been avoided if I would have have recognized the existing twists and kinks and used them to my advantage. So to can architecture capitalize on existing frameworks to create a meanignful solution that seamlessly fits into a larger context.

To Be Simple

2006-12-06T20:28:00.001-06:00

What does it mean to be simple? Simplicity can be practiced in any number of ways and has had it's place in all of the arts. Over time the most simple expressions have often been regarded as the most masterful. The songwriting of Townes Van Zandt, paintings of Hopper, the short stories of Flannery O'Connor and of course the architecture of folks like Mies, Aalto, Zumthor, Barragan, and Khan. All of these artists are lauded for the simplistic, yet clear expression of their medium, yet much of the work over time has become more and more complex while it's articulation has appeared more and more simplistic.

By definition simple means, easy to understand. But sometimes the most simple work is the hardest to understand.

Zumthor's glass clad Kuntsthaus in Bregentz is at first glance a simple architectural expression . However, when looking at the detailing of the glass facade one realizes that there is nothing minimal about it, and I guaruntee the builder would describe it as anything but simplistic. I can think of a handful of much more simple architectural solutions that use a much more efficient and tidy kit of parts, for example a standard glass curtain wall. The standard curtain wall would use less parts and be easier to install, however it would not read with the same amount of simple elegance as Zumthors glass drapery. Is it possible for something to be a grotesque display of simplicity?

I would argue that the ability of these architects to practice simplicity is more a factor of what they don't do than what they do. In the postmodern erea, anything goes. It takes great resolve to be content with ones own work and not chase after every architectural trend to hit the pages of Record. As architecture students we are seduced by new images, new materials, and new experimental forms. For each architect developing these solutions there is a whole slew of knock off's made everyday in architecture schools and offices across the globe, all with the best intentions of course.

Historically, the architects who stand the test of time have created a very narrow framework in which to build their practice. Some of these architects are criticized for repeating the same building over and over. Richard Meier for example has designed hundreds of buildings, filling four volumes of complete works and I can only think of a handful that are not clad in the same white paneling. While I would not describe Meier's buildings as simple I would argue that he has approaced his practice in a very simple way. Some may see it as repetitive, however if you dig deeper you will find a diverse body of architecture that has been built on a solid understanding of the fundamentals over the last thirty years. Meier exhibits great restraint. In his career he has seen fads and trends come and go, and however seductive these have been, Meier has explored his own path. As a result he has become very good at what he does. Has he become so good at creating complex compositions that it has become simple? If so, when is it time to reinvent?

I've heard the saying a few times, "It is easy to express a simple idea in a complex way, it is harder however to express a complex idea in a simple way." So if artistic innovation comes by expressing complex ideas in simple ways, what does it really mean to be simple?

Noontime in the Crossroads

2006-12-06T17:03:00.000-06:00

Making a House a Home

2006-12-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

I was standing in the housewares aisle at Target fervently trying to convince my wife that we needed the snowflake adorned seasonal drinking glasses that I was clutching in my right hand. Then it hit me, shouldn't I have been the one on the other side of that glass? Rebekah was standing there, shaking her head with a sour look on her face and proclaiming something about tacky-ness and not spending extra money and pointing out that we already had plenty of cups. I looked back at the cups, they were hideous. Who am I right now? I knew she was right but we went round and round, I would almost go as far as to say that I was making a scene, but Rebekah was steadfast in her denial of the Christmas cups. This coming from the same girl that just months ago was filling our cart with porcelain pumpkins, wicker cornucopia's, and leaf shaped candy dishes while I shoveled them out just as quickly as they went in. So what is different about these cups? Good question, I don't exactly know. I suppose I was just overtaken by the Christmas spirit, regardless we left the store without them.

Later that day my yearning for signs of Christmas was redeemed when we picked out the inaugural Kingsley family Christmas tree. Earlier in the week there had been brief discussion of pre-lit, artificial Christmas trees, but that talk was gibberish and not entertained. I'm a big proponent of the real live thing, which carries with it certain responsibilities, mainly watering the tree and sweeping the pine needles from the floor. I think I'm up for the task. We headed to the Christmas tree lot, picked the best looking tree out of the bunch, strapped it to the top of the Jeep in a very Norman Rockwell-esque sort of way, and headed home. The months leading up to Christmas, have been occupied by customizing our new house. Christmas 2005 was technically our first Christmas, but we lived in an apartment and decorating for the holiday's, or decorating at all for that matter just didn't seem necessary. Our current house on the other hand has changed significantly from floor to ceiling since we have become owners, but decorating for Christmas was a sure sign that our new house is quickly becoming our new home.

Frigid First Friday

2006-12-02T10:34:00.000-06:00

I've become disenchanted with First Friday's over the last several months. Mainly because there are so many people that, 1.) it is nearly impossible to get close enough to actually see art, and 2.) because a lot of the art tends to blend together into a hapless mirage of modish work. I have however been eyeing one gallery in particular, the Byron C. Cohen Gallery just north of the Freight House here in KC. I've walked past it several times and noticed the few visible paintings on the walls inside. These few sneak peaks have lead to a much anticipated visit to the gallery last night. Last night was cold, and snowing, and icy, and the usual crowd of First Friday imposter habitués was no where in sight. This made it very enjoyable for someone like myself, who loves cold weather and hates large crowds. Anyway, the aforestated show was captivating, one of the most refreshing and unique shows that I have seen in many a First Friday. I don't know much about the artist, Leslie Lerner, except that he passed away last year, but you can read about him here, here, and here.

My Life in France: The man with the Wooden Arm, All the Possibilities in One Night, 1995 acrylic, oil, MSA hard varnish, 18"x18"

My Life in France: A Part of the Hive...,1999 acrylic on hardboard, 40"x40"

My Life in France: My Life in France, The Lost Boy; The Vista, 1999 Acrylic/MSA hard varnish on mounted canvas, 70” x 60”

Winter Light

2006-12-02T07:13:00.000-06:00

I can't take credit for the image, Rebekah snapped this from our front porch Friday morning before we left for work.

It's 7:15 on Saturday morning. I've been awake since 4:00 a.m. and I'm going to need some coffee. As a matter of fact, I'll make a pot now. Be back in a flash.

Ok, that's better. It's 7:20 on a Saturday morning, and for the second dayspring in a row I've been awake for three straight hours. Why? I couldn't tell you. Well, maybe I have an idea. Looking outside I'm reassured that my favorite time of year is upon us. The time of year that every pale skinned, blue eyed, Norwegien looking, persperation prone boy looks foward to...winter. The last couple of days have marked the first snow of the winter season and I am reminded of Gunnar Björnstrand, who coincedently looks an awful lot like Kevin Kline, as the tormented pastor of a small Swedish parish in Bergman's Winter Light. Masterful.

I never thought I would have the need to say, "Back by popular demand," and this probably doesn't call for it, but the fact of the matter is that I've received several notes asking about the reinstation of Studio109 into the blogosphere. Now if you haven't noticed, I get bored with creative pursuits fairly quickly, moving on to the next new thing like, like...let me go see if the coffee is done brewing while I think of an analogy...Delightful. As I was saying, I grow tired of creative pusuits like...I'm really drawing a blank here.

Lucky for me, and lukcy for Studio109, there have been some updates at Blogger, which has given me something to toy around with the last few sleepless mornings. That, coupled with recent musings over the popularity of Dunkin Donughts that left me seeing green, and the influx of emails I have received inquiring about Studio109 (when I say influx, I mean five) I have been moved to action. So check back every once in a while.

Cast Away

2006-07-20T06:34:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, at an architecture league softball game I was lucky enough to break my hand when I connected with a runners knee while tagging him out. I know, I'm hardcore. Hardcore and clumsy. By the way, I didn't make the out. Plus, I think I taught the kids in the stands some new words, a big apology to their folks.

Now, I am typically not and individual with a lot of patience - I've been told it is a virtue, but I guess I'm not that virtuous - so having this cast on my left hand has tried what little patience I have, needless to say, it's running out. I have refrained from writing for a while, mainly because I couldn't type but also becuase I've been so frustrated with the smallest of tasks that it makes thinking hard to do. Afew days ago at work I reached my boiling point. I frantically reached for a pen and paper, scribbling down each and every frustration that I had experienced in the last two weeks because of this broken hand and it's partner in crime, the cast. It took me three quarters of a minute to jot down a list of twenty five things that were driving me nuts. Among them, 14.) Putting deoderant under my right arm, and 23.) Eating over stuffed, softshell fish tacos, or anything in a wrap for that matter. Oh by the way, typing sucks too. I resemble the middle aged man at your office who refuses to learn how to type correctly. All day you watch him with his head down, eyes glued to the keyboard, perfecting the seek and peck typing technique. We have a few in our office, I know there in yours too...hell, you might even be that guy. I am proud to say though, I took a typing test online and I'm still able to crank out 42 words per minute. I scanned the three handwritten pages I had scribbled out, planning on posting them later, but upon re-reading my own words I discovered two things, 1.) I could barely read my own chicken scratch, and 2.) There were sentence fragments to cynical and pessimistic for even me to find comfort in.

There are actually a lot of things I'd like to write about, but it's as if all of my thoughts have to pass through my left hand before they can be expressed, and right now, that passage way is busted. I really don't feel like doing anything, plus, my cast is starting to smell. But I've been taking some notes of possible topics so in the coming weeks watch for these headlines:

Misconceptions About Urban Sprawl
The causes, effects, and manifestations in the nations sixth best place to live.

They Don't Build 'em Like They Used To
What contemporary architetcture can learn from historic rennovation.

The Kingsley News
A blogger recalls his early years as a publishing tycoon; or how I didn't get rich publishing a family newspaper using the first computer with a Graphic User Interface

The Book of Mark, Chapter Six, Verse Eight: Lessons on Technology, Architecture, and Corporate Branding
Taking nothing for your journey except a staff and leaving that extra tunic at home.

Return To LA

2006-06-22T08:11:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago Bekka and I headed to southern California for a wedding. We were mainly in the Newport Beach/Dana Point area and didn't get to do a ton of sight seeing and I wasn't able to take a ton of pictures, but here are a few from the trip. This one is at the beach in Dana Point.

Beachitecture.

I am always being accused of taking pictures with no people in them, well HA, I managed to work a leg or two into this one. I'm slowly working myself into this "people in pictures" idea.

Here ya go, this picture even has two people in it. Rebekah had never been to LA so I made sure that we hit up the Getty Center. For as much as I dislike LA the Getty Center is on my list of favorite places in the world and I'm not really sure why. It's not so much the art and I don't even love the building that much, I think it is the gardens and the lawn. I always find myself sitting on the lawn with my shoes off, people watching and sketching.

I always love traveling because it's a great time to pick up a new book. For this trip I brought Ask the Dust by John Fante. This was an oddly appropriate choice for two reasons. First off, a few days earlier Rebekah and I watched Born Into This, a documentary on Charles Bukowski (more on that later). It turns out that Charles Bukowski wrote the preface for this particular edition of Ask the Dust. Not only that, Bukowski loved John Fante's writing and regarded him as one of the best authors of all time. Second, which I had no idea when I picked up the book, Ask the Dust takes place in Los Angeles as do most of Fante's novels. Both Fante and Bukowski capture the essence of Los Angeles in a certain place in time and I think these two authors helped shape my view of LA on this trip. Things that I had previously looked at with distaste began to take new shape, becoming beautiful in strange way.

Block 54 Lot 31

2006-06-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

Most of you may know by now that Rebekah and I bought a house, hence the lack of posting for the last two weeks. Between preparing for closing, which was June 1st and trying to get the house ready for our move date we haven't had much free time. Our house is the first house on the right hand side of this picture. The 80+ year old oak trees canopy all of Prairie Village and I'm sure they will be a joy come fall.

There she is. We started off looking for a home built by Donald Drummond, a well known Kansas City modern builder in the 50's. They don't come on the market that often and when they do they are either too expensive or too run down. However, we found this mid century modern ranch in Prairie Village, which to the best of our knowledge is not a Drummond house but still has some great modern characteristics.

I love this overhang and entry from the exterior. The landscaping definately has it's issues, and it's day will come, but lately we've just been concentrating on the interior of the house.

Before Shots

2006-06-16T23:56:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the living room before we purchased the house. The carpet was horrible and the allure of hardwoods beneath had us anxious to rip it up. The colors in the house were AWESOME, and by awesome I mean terrible, a nice palatte of biege, teal, and mauve.

The kitchen wasn't all that bad, it just needed a fresh coat of paint and some new drawer and cabinet pulls.

We weren't to sure what we were going to find when we removed these mirrors, but one thing was for sure, they had to go...

...so we got out our hammers and went to town. Coincidently, we began breaking the mirrors on June 6th (6.6.06) so I'm sure we'll have awful luck for years to come. As long as the mirrors are gone, it will be worth it. I must make one comment on this picture...Bekka actually did none of the removing of mirrors, she simply slapped on some saftey glasses and grabed a hammer when the camera came out, I guess that would make her a qualified host for Extreme Home Makeover.

The mirrors turned into quite a chore. They were adhered to the wall with Liquid Nails every four or five inches and the only way to get them off was to spend hours on a ladder with a crow bar chipping away three or four square inch sections at a time. By the time all of the glass was gone the wood paneling behind was so splintered that we went ahead and put up a new gyp board fascia.

After, But Not Finished

2006-06-16T23:42:00.000-05:00

Pocket Size Books

2006-06-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

I have a few pocket sized books that serve their purpose by making themselves available at random moments of the day. They are best consulted in the two or three minute intervals when time would otherwise pass, unoticed. The books are all similar in scale, about the size of a postcard. They can be held in one hand making them easy to read on the fly. They don't require you to set aside an afternoon for them, they are prefect for bite size interjections into everyday life. The Prophet, The Alchemist, The Four Agreements, Einsteins Dreams, Invisible Cities, The Bible, Thinking Architecture, and this book. They all know just what to say and just when to say it. There was nothing special about this morning that inticed me to consult with Mr. Gibran, author of The Prophet, I was walking past the modest bookshelf in our living room and just decided to check in. I don't want to interject to much on this little excerpt from Gibran, but the two things that caught my attention this morning are highlighted in blue. This is what he had to tell me...

"You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary. And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge. And all knowledge is vain save when there is work, And all work is empty save when there is love; And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God."

and one more that I couldn't pass up...

"For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger."

Ok, I suppose one more wouldn't hurt...

"Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world...as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self. You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay,and he falls for those ahead of him, who, though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone."

A Parable

2006-05-25T17:06:00.000-05:00

A man came along a construction site where three bricklayers were working building what appeared to be three identical walls. He asked the first, "What are you doing?" The bricklayer replied, "I am building a wall." He asked the second, "What are you doing?" And the bricklayer answered, "I am building a cathederal." Finally, he asked the third man, "What are you doing?" The bricklayer surveyed his wall and thought carefully before replying, "I am helping to create a place for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth."

Herzog and De Meuron No. 34

2006-05-25T08:11:00.000-05:00

In recent years Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have become one of the most influential architectural duos in the world. The most current and high profile projects to come out of the practice based in Basel Switzerland include the De Young Art Museum in San Fransisco, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Olympic Stadium in Beijing China that has been dubiously dubbed the birds nest, currently under construction. Their architecture most certainly resides on the coolest of the cool list and is constantly imitated in architecture schools across the globe. Don't get me wrong, the architecture is great and the principles should be studied and applied to student projects. They are one of the only starchitects out there who's work, in my opinion explores some very intellectual ideas yet still presents itself in the form of real and simple buildngs. Their work speaks to issues that are autonomous to architecture-structure, materials, space, light-and deeper metaphysical ideas of time, perception, and memory, yet the architects are still concerned with the architecture working in a larger social, political, and economic context. The danger lies in taking their recent projects at face value. It is easy to get caught up in the flashy renderings, sexy angles, and shiny materials associated with their new projects without understanding that they have built their practice over a many years, layering idea after idea on top of a very simple and fundamental understanding of design and construction means and methods. There is a drastic contrast in comparing their early works to their more recent works, but no single defining moment is apparent. The projects have developed as a body of work.

No. 34
House for an Art Collector
Project 1985-1986

This is one of my favorite Herzog and de Meuron projects and is found in the first volume of their complete works spanning 1978-1988. The project is a modest residence in a suburban area of Therwil Switzerland on the periphery of town. The house draws its inspiration in large part from vernacular Swiss housing models and can't be described as overtly "contemporary" in style.

Upper Level Floor Plan
1. Entry Courtyard
2. Entry Stair
3. Garden
4. Gallery Space

The power of this project is gererated entirely by the siting of building on the lot. The main road runs north and south along the west face of the house (north us up on the plans) and the east side of the house opens up to the countryside. The opposition between the urban condition on the west and the natural condition on the east drives the site plan.

One enters on the lower level from the street into a courtyard (1), up a very narrow set of concrete stairs (2), and is finally released into the garden (3) on the main level of the house. It is through this sequence of spaces that Herzog and de Meuron mitigate between the two opposing conditions of the city and the countryside. This very simple arrangement sets up a seriers of spaces that fluctuate between compression and release as one moves from the urban to the natural.

West Facade
The concrete walls and courtyard on the west set up a barrier from the street. Once the user enters the courtyard they are contained within the site (1). The cars can still be heard, passing on the road but there is no visual connection to the street. Moving through the courtyard and up the stairs (2), the concrete walls close in tight and dark cutting the user off from the street and transitioning them into the rest of the site. I suppose you could describe the stairs inversley as an sub-transition between the two larger transition spaces of the courtyard and the garden.

Looking East
Once the user reaches the top of the stairs they are released from the compressive nature of the concrete into the light and openess of the yard which extends itself almost infinately into the country side. The row of trees in the backgroud become a backdrop as the final layer of the composition. The east side of the house presents itself as much more of a country cottage than the fort like character of the west facade, arbitrating between public and private, urban and countryside.

Self Portraits

2006-05-16T23:38:00.000-05:00

Friday evening after work I set off for the Mother's land in honor of the Mother's Day. Rebekah and her sister were planning a sneak attack on their mom, making me fend for myself so I set my weekend sail on 1-70 towards Hutchinson but not before making a pit stop in Manhattan Friday night to help some friends celebrate their recent graduation. This was the first time that I have been back to Manhattan since my graduation this time last year, which is a suprise to me, but sadly true. I pulled into town and spent a fair amount of time driving around, checking out all of the usual spots before meeting up with the ol' gang at the ol' stomping grounds. The whole experience was oddly un-nostalgic. It was like watching the same play, only this time the understudies are on stage and these characters just didn't seem to fit in like the starting line up that we all knew. All of our favorite bars and restaurants were of course there, but I recognized hardly no one behind the counter serving the drinks and I was actually asked for my ID when entering Rockabelly Deli by a bouncer whom I didn't recognize and couldn't have been a day over 16. Usually we are greated at Rockabelly by a role of the eyes, as if to say Weren't you just here last night? followed by a hand motioning us through the door like cattle being sent to the stock.

My mom's house in Hutchinson on the other hand will always feel like home, it's a garuntee. No matter where I have just come from or where I am about to go I know I can always count on that feeling of being home. We spent Saturday evening shuffling through old family photographs. Some of them I hadn't seen in a good deal of time, it was a great family memory refresher. I love that feeling, when you look at an image, or hear a sound, or smell a smell, and an entire memory comes flooding back into your head and you remember the tinniest of details as if it's happening for the first time. The picture above is me at three months with my grandma. This has always been one of my favorite pictures of my grandma, I love the colors and composition, and of course her beautiful smile. I should give credit where credit is due and thank the author of Purpose Driven for leaving her comments on this post last month. It prompted me to find some pictures of myself when I was a kid and I thought they would be somewhat appropriate for this weeks Self Portrait Tuesday. I also need to give props to my mom for taking so many darn pictures of me as I was growing up, although I may regret posting them on the internet for all of the world to see. So, as Mitch Hedberg (R.I.P.) would say, This is a picture of me when I was younger, every picture of you is when you were younger!
I thought I looked rather hip in this picture sporting my vintage polo, faded jeans, and stylish Converse All-Stars well before this was the look of choice for every indie-rock band. What can I say? Some people are simply fashion pioneers, looks like I am one of them. I'm not sure where the cats come into play though.

The drive from Hutchinson back to Kansas City put me eastbound on US 50 right at dusk on Sunday evening with the sun at my back. For those of you who have never been to Kansas or have never driven across the Flint Hills, this couldn't be a better time of year to do it, although the fall is good too. It's worth your time. I just wished I would have been on foot instead of hurling down the highway at 70 mph. There is something interesting about capturing a roadside scene on the fly but I'm kicking myself for not stopping to to aptly document many of the wonderful barns, sheds, cemetery's, silo's, and grain elevators that were benefiting from the end of the day sunlight.

As I whizzed by this barn I finally came to my senses. It was simply begging to be photographed but I drove on past anyway telling myself that I would, of course, be on this stretch of road again and I would just have to pray for comparable lighting conditions. As the barn became smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror, fading into the horizon and blending with the blinding sun, I decided it would be worth my time to pull over, so at the risk of missing Grey's Anatomy I steered the Jeep onto the gravel shoulder, flipped a U, and headed back up the blacktop toward the old barn.

The Empire Strikes Back

2006-05-11T15:00:00.001-05:00

A few images from the inside of the Empire.

The grand stair

The stage house.

The Barn Floor

2006-05-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

We were granted acces to the inside of the Empire Theater for the first time since the initial walk through last November. The wood foor of the stage, pictured above, was so deteriorated that I swore I was walking on a giant sponge or piece of swiss cheese. Softball sized holes dotted the stagefloor, illuminated from below by the construction lights in the basement but for a moment they were spotlights, operated from the catwalk forty feet above our head, illuminating the show on opening night. However, looking out over the auidence revealed that there were no people, not even seats, just an empty shell and concrete floor that pinballed echoes from one decayed wall to the next. I chose my steps carefully as I made my way to the front of the stage just knowing that next time I put my foot down it was going through. I could just imagine all of the construction workers getting a good laugh as they pointed to the architect in slacks and a hardhat leg deep in the rotted stage.

The floor took me back to the hay loft of my grandfathers barn that I would hide out in as a child. I remember the hay bales, bound with orange twine, a trade mark of western Kansas farms, tied in knots that would make even the proudest Eagle Scout dizzy. There was a cleared space as wide as I was tall, a street between the two rows of haybale skyscrapers. They were stacked high, taller than any building I'd ever seen transforming that little farm in Western Kansas in to a thriving metropolis with twenty story office towers, perhaps sparking my interest for cities early on.

Every once in a while sporting my grandpas boots, which were always to big for me but I insisted on wearing anyway, I would brush aside a clump of hay to reveal a space between wood planks every bit as wide as my foot. I was terrified of falling through, yet couldn't stay out of the vaulted second story. I would press my face to the floor and align my eye with any number of the quarter size holes, peering into the barn below. I was looking through a pin hole and it offered a small glimse of the horses below. They were as big as dinasours when viewed through the tiny hole. An ear here, a tail there as they paced back and forth in the cramped, cool space. The horses were old, and and hadn't seen a saddle in years and the meanest thing I'd ever seen them do was swat flies of their backside with their crusty tails.

Somedays I would brush away the hay and see no movement through the pinhole floor. Instead I would hear heavy, clumsy footsteps and incessant snorts that I knew didn't belong to any horse. Suddenly the reality of falling through the dusty floor set in as I saw the back end of my grandpa's bull pass slowly through the tiny oculus in the floor of the exact hay loft I'd been told to stay out of earlier that morning. Somewhere in the background a tumble weed blew across a dusty street and I could hear the sound of silver spurs jingle as the hero, with his hand quivering over his holster made his way out to face down the villan. The only thing to make this scene more authentic would be an old Vaqueros with a mustache and sombrero providing the soundtrack for the duel. I hated the bull. I didn't even care for cows that much, and this one had a ring in his nose. At that moment I couldn't think of anything much worse than falling through the barn floor and now, standing there on the dilapidated stage of the Empire Theater fifteen years later I'm thinking that falling through the stage doesn't sound that bad compared to ending up face to face with my childhood enemy.

Brookside Art Fair

2006-05-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

Rebekah and I hit up the Brookside Art Fair this Sunday after church. Supposedly there were close to 190 local, national, and internatioal artist there and close to 8,000 people over three days. I'm not much for crowds so we buzzed through pretty quick, but not before snagging some delicious street food from Cosentino's Market, a staple in the Brookside community and the best damn grocery store in Kansas City. There were a few booths that drew our attention and made us flirt with the idea of making a purchase, but remembering we are poor newlywed's we opted for business cards and fliers instead of fine art. All in all we picked up five business cards, and I just so happen to be a big fan of top five lists, so here it goes (in no particular order)...

TOP FIVE ARTISTS AT THE BROOKSIDE ART FAIR:

Heinrich Toh - I'm not sure which was more interesting, this art or the artist. His booth stood out because it was completely empty in a sea of people, making it easy for the screenprints to catch our eye. They are not much to look at from a distance, but up close they intricate, colorful, and filled with eastern themes. I think Mr. Toh was dying to talk to somebody. Everytime we turned around to move from screenprint to screen print he was peearing over our shoulder to tell us the story behind each work while simultaineously shoveling large hunks of sesame seed bagel in between his little mustache and pointed goatee.

Audrey Heller
We spent more time in this booth than any other. She had hundreds of photographs depicting little people in all sorts of daily situations transforming the macro into the micro, this one wasn't necessarly my favorite, but I posted it anyway knowing that Scorch has an affinity for scrabble.

Mary Beth Shaw - These collages were pretty fun. Bekka seemed to like them the best. They were playful in subject matter and did not take themselves to seriously, plus a real joy visually with great colors, texture, and layering.

Chris Honeysett - I have to be honest, I wasn't really that taken by this dude's photographs, howevever I did pick up a card so in all fairness he should go on the list.

Angela McFarland I wish Mrs. Mcfarland, a native of Kansas City had some high resolution images on her webstie because these emulsion transfer photographs were quite breath taking and probably my favorite of the whole show, to bad I couldn't get a larger image off of her website or she would have been listed first.

Five Friday Addictions

2006-05-05T09:24:00.000-05:00

These are the songs that have found their way onto my Addictions vol 02 playlist thus far:

1. Magic Hour - Fruit Bats
2. California - Rogue Wave
3. Oxygen - Willy Mason
4. The Great Salt Lake - Band of Horses
5. Long Haul - Voxtrot

...and some bonus lyrics

Oxygen
by Willy Mason

I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.

On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew.

I wanna see through all the lies of society
To the reality, happiness is at stake
I wanna hold up my head with dignity
Proud of a life where to give means more than to take
I wan't to live beyond the modern mentality
Where paper is all that you're really taught to create
Do you remember the forgotten America?
Justice, equality, freedom to every race?
Just need to get past all the lies and hypocrisy
Make up and hair to the truth behind every face
That look around to all the people you see,
How many of them are happy and free?
I know it sounds like a dream
But it's the only thing that can get me to sleep at night
I know it's hard to believe
But it's easy to see that something here isn't right
I know the future looks dark
But it's there that the kids of today must carry the light.

FBL Guide to Fixing the Planet, vol 01- Gase Prices

2006-05-03T16:49:00.000-05:00

This is the first installment of the Farm Boy Logic (FBL) Guide to Fixing the Planet. Basically the way that this works is simple, I see something stupid that has a very apparent solution and using what my dad calls good 'ol Farm Boy Logic, I solve the problem. Here we go…

If you haven’t noticed, gas prices are on the rise. It has even reached the point that our fearless leader, DUBYA, a former oil tycoon has been forced to admit that Americans are addicted to oil. If this isn’t the pot calling the kettle black I don’t know what is and so far the best solutions that anyone in Washington has come up with is to curtail the profits of oil companies, offer 100 dollar gas rebates, and dip into the governments oil reserves? Brilliant, brilliant, and brilliant.

I hope the Bush administration’s plan to lower gas prices, just like most every plan they’ve initiated since taking office, fails…and fails miserably as it most likely will. As a matter of fact, I hope that gas prices continue to rise to four, five, even six dollars per gallon, and here’s why…

First off, I made a list of five things (excluding the obvious gasoline) that my lifestyle could be described as dependent on. They are, coffee, iTUNES music store, DVD’s, the Internet, and my cell phone. These are things that I use on a day to day basis that would severely disrupt my life if they were to disappear, I guess you could call that a dependency. The most expensive of these items is probably my cell phone service which costs me between sixty to eighty bucks a month and the least expensive being iTUNES music store which costs me less than a dollar per song.

Now here is a list of five items that, as of right now I do not have a dependency on. They are Mercedes Benz’s, Private Jets, beach front properties, country clubs, and Opus One, the list could go on... The cheapest item from this list is without a doubt Opus One checking in at 150 dollars per mouth watering bottle. The most expensive? I’m not sure, probably a tie between private jets and beach front property. I’m not in the position to know what either of these things cost.

My point is simple, I am not addicted to that which I cannot afford and my lifestyle concedes respectively. This is also the case with consumer spending and is major factor that drives our entire economy. Take Wal-Mart for example. Their entire business premise is built on the fact that people will buy more if they feel they are spending less, thus more profits for the retailer. But what is the real savings to the consumer? If I go to Wal-Mart for five items and throughout the course of my shopping end up buying ten items because they were to cheap to pass up, did I really save any money? Or if I go to Wal-Mart to buy a television set and I have to replace it in two or three years because the damn thing doesn’t work anymore, what did that actually cost me? It’s called lifecycle costs folks. Likewise, if gas is so cheap that I can fill my car at will, without thought, as opposed to only using fuel when I absolutely have to, am I really saving money at the pump?

Hypothetically, if gas is 1.50/gallon, and I drive my car everywhere for everything including a 50 mile roundtrip commute to work everyday in bumper to bumper traffic and weekend trips to Target I’ll probably end up filling my 18 gallon tank once a week. At 1.50/gallon this would end up costing me close to 110 bucks per month. Now, if gas is 4.00/gallon and I’m able to take public transportation to work and walk to a variety of stores and shops from my house I may only need to fill my gas tank once a month, that would cost me almost 75.00 per month. I’m not an economist or a financial analyst of consumer spending; I am simply using FBL.

Using my FBL I have worked backwards from the ultimate goal, which is reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and created a series of steps that could lead us in the right direction. Without further adieu I give you the...

GOFBL GUIDE TO FIXING THE PLANET vol. 01:

GOAL: Reduce our dependency on foreign oil leads to…

1. Reducing our dependency on automobiles leads to…

2. Exploring alternate modes of transportation such as walking, riding bikes, driving smaller more efficient vehicles, or taking public transportation leads to…

3. More dense, pedestrian friendly cities with amenities in closer proximity to residential neighborhoods (you never know America could actually loose the title of fattest people on earth) leads to…

4. City planning commissions playing an active role in development and not sitting idly by as the private sector determines how our cities and towns operate leads to…

Now, a solution of this sort would require the government to actually invest in our cities and would certainly not satisfy our insatiable desire for instant gratification. It would take a colossal amount of infrastructure and mass transit systems, not only within our cities, but between them and it would also require our city planning commissions to actually do their job in an intelligent way by regulating when, where, and how development can take place. As it is now developers have pretty much been having their way with city planning commissions (since this is a family show I will refrain from using the descriptor that I originally intended). This of course is going to take lots and lots of money that we don’t have. But never fear this is not something that stops Americans, we LOVE to spend money we don’t have. Here is the beginning GOFB solution to paying for all of this:

Tax the hell out of the things that are at the root of the problem such as, oh say…gasoline. This will be prefect because higher taxes on gasoline will increase the cost of gasoline which in return will put it out of the financial means of the middle class and we’ve already established that we’re not addicted to what we can’t afford. Except the guy who broke into my car a few weeks ago. He was probably addicted to coke and he couldn’t afford it, which is probably why he had to break into my car, let’s just cross our fingers and pray that people don’t start breaking into cars and stealing stereos in order to buy gasoline if my plan does indeed get put into effect.

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-05-02T22:01:00.000-05:00

This month's Self Portrait Tuesday is Introduce Yourself.

I chose this image because it is simple, authentic, and void of context...It is just me, yet it tells a story. A year has past since I've graduated from college and in that time I've been going through some mental spring cleaning, trying to get at the basics of what I really learned and how I want to express myself. A creative deconstruction, a breaking down and stripping away. After a while your brain becomes so saturated with information you have to sort out what is worth wile and cut the fat. But the lessons that have survived will prove invaluable over time. So this image is representative of the begining of the end of that process...serving as a foundation for things to come.

The Great Frontier

2006-05-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

I’m at the office a bit early this morning and looking back I realize that the weekend was an absolute blur. Last Friday, in the midst of a monsoon we hit I-70 heading west to Hays for my cousins wedding. Hays is an interesting place and it is always enjoyable to visit family.

Hays exists in my mind as a series of isolated images. Like the grocery store on Hall Street where we would load up on snacks, pop, and ice before a scorching day at the lake. Or the old highway west of town that leads to the great frontier…my grandparent’s farm. I suppose at one point in time this was quite literally the great frontier and every time I come for a visit my grandpa conducts the same tour of the fifth generation Kingsley farm. The tour always begins at the same point, the dugout that his grandpa built in 1870 after being wounded in the Battle of Shiloh and moving out west from Pennsylvania. The dugout sits today as a hole in the ground with four yellow limestone rocks marking its boundaries. It faces south towards the Smokey Hills and standing there looking towards the horizon you can count on one hand the number of trees in sight. Rubbing the sole of your shoe in the weeds produces a breath of dust that is immediately carried off by the constant wind and it makes you wonder why in the world somebody would stop along the trail to call this home. But every so often, on a cool calm evening, looking out over the hills one hundred and thirty six years later you can see why he chose this particular spot.

This weekend we were only able to spend a couple hours at the farm but in that short time my grandpa was able to tell Rebekah and I countless stories as he drove us around the pastures in his beat up Silverado. Many of the stories I had heard before but most of them were random memories that came to him at the sight of a specific rock, fence post, or tree. He would put his foot on the brake, bring the truck to a near complete stop and close his eyes, thinking about the past with his fingers on his forehead and relay events in chronological order. My grandpa is not a professional storyteller, or writer, or film maker, but he verbally sets the scene for his memories in a manner that creatives in any of the above professions would jump at the chance to capture. He tells his stories with absolute simplicity and clarity that would make you wonder, why all the fuss over Hemmingway?

My grandpa is 94 years old. He lives on a steady diet of coffee, roast beef and bread and although he no longer works eighteen hour days (he stopped that at 80) he still actively maintains 1800 acres of pasture land, crops, and as of a month ago, a brand new oil well. He talks about his grandpa traveling from Hays to Hutchinson on foot every winter to work in the salt mines. He tells the same stories that his grandad told him of battles between Fort Hays soldiers and a tribe of indians that took place in one of their wheat fields (a story that was confirmed a few years ago when the army dug up the graves of the soldiers and moved them to a cemetery in town). He talks about his dad, who died when he was fifteen years old, leaving behind his wife, four boys, and a farm, all of which were up to my grandpa to take care of. And his youngest brother, Orville who died in France flying planes during dubya dubya two. On a vacation in California during the fifties my grandparents pulled off to the shoulder of the busy Los Angeles freeway on account of a flat tire. Another driver noticed their Kansas tags marked EL in the top left hand corner to signify the car was registered in Ellis County. Although Los Angeles isn't known for their particulary friendly drivers, this one just happened to pull over and offer assistance. The anonymous driver had an old friend from Ellis county, a pilot he had met in the war. The driver told my grandparents that his friend had gone down in France and he sat at his bedside in the infirmary as he passed away. “Did you by chance know a young man named of Orville Kingsley” he finally asked as they bolted the spare tire in place.

At the end of each story my grandpa will laugh and say “well, I don’t know…I wouldn’t go repeatin’ that there story, may not be the way it happind…”

Fruit Bats

2006-04-24T19:07:00.000-05:00

Close to a month ago I found in my inbox a song called Canyon Girl. It was sent to me as the Wednesday selection of massDETRITUS, a daily song sharing group that a consits of myself and six friends. I am Monday and my contributions usually have as the subject mondayTUNE, that is, when I remember. I will admit that there was a stretch of time when I was unheard of for a week or two, but all in all we've done a fairly good job of maintaining the thing. My latest massDETRITUS playlist on iTunes is volume 4, and since a new volume starts with a new month I'd figure we've been at this for four months.

Canyon Girl was laster joined by Born in the 70's and both songs were shuffled through the massDETRITUS playlist. It wasn't for a number of weeks that the two songs began to stand out and I finally payed attention to band behind the songs which were from the sophomore album, Spelled in Bones, of the Chicago/Seattle based Fruit Bats. The two albums were immediately acquired from the iTUNES music store (they make it so easy) and I have been addicted ever since.

This past Saturday evening we headed to Columbia, MO with a couple of friends to catch the Fruit Bats (not to be confused with fruit bats) in concert. I haven't spent much time in Columbia so we spent the hours leading up to the concert milling around downtown and looking for a place to eat. We thought we would ask some of the locals if they could recommmend a place so I did what I do any time I have to talk to strangers, asked Bekka to do it. Of course she, without hesitation marched right up to the first person we saw and began soliciting endorsments for local eating and drinking establishments. In situations like this her enthuisasm is rivalved only by that of girl scouts hustling cookies or their male counterparts peddling popcorn door to door. We didn't know it going into the evening, but we were lucky to be in Columbia. Our new found friends told us of not one, but two of the "best restaurants on the planet" Shaekspears Pizza, and some burger joint called Chumps, or Chums, or Bucho's or something to that effect. It had a neon Budweiser sign in the window non-the-less. Now, I have visiited quite a few places in my short time so you can imagine my suprise when we were told that Columbia had two of the best restaurants on the planet. I found myself asking why did I spend all of that time and money eating Gnocchi and drinking vino in Italy, or chowing down on world class sushi in Japan when I could have made the relatively short trip to Columbia MO?

Anyway, the concert was nice. The venue was small, which I liked. There were no more than fifty people in the whole joint with only a third paying attention to the music, but the band put on a good show and lived up to their albums. Only one band member from the picture above was actually on stage, the other three folks in that picture had obviously been replaced by different musicians which leads me to think that the dude in the super cool blazer with vintage striped tie is the brains behind the operation and what he laks in unique fashion he makes up for with his vocals and melodic lead guitar. He was by far the most energetic of the band members, hunched over and writhing around on stage a bit, a stark contrast to the bassplayer stage left. For a bass player he seemed to have very little rhythm as he was having a hard time stopming his cowboy boots to the beat of the hunching and writhing of the lead singer. It was as though the original bass player had come down with avain flu or something and they had to replace him with a robot.

I think the band was pissed that no one showed up to their concert because they played a terribly short set, immediately left the stage and took a seat at the bar infront of a fresh round of brews without even playing my favorite song. I headed toward the back of the bar where the drummer was selling tshirts. He was abnormally tall and skinny, much taller and skinnier than he appeared behind the drum set. He also had a bright red beard and looked as if he would be much more inclined to paint a picture of some old boots before cutting off his ear than he would to play drums and the occasional glockenspiel in a band named after winged mamals. Rebekah reminded me that bats are mammals because they give live birth, she also reminded me how to spell mammals.

So anyway, I would definately recommend picking up either of the albums pictured above. They are both great albums, I personally favor Mouthfuls but you really can't go wrong. I realize now that I have yet to mention the actual music, and since I'm tired and since this post is already longer than I had intended I will only say only this, it is really really good and I think you will like it.

Elbow Chocolates

2006-04-19T23:27:00.001-05:00

I realize that Valentines Day was over a month ago, but I had to post this image before we moved to far down the road. Luckily, I did present these to Rebekah punctually, however that was during my time away from blogging so I didn't get a chance to post the images. The chocolate is called Christopher Elbow Chocolate, it is made locally here in Kansas City and it is absolutely breath taking. You can get some of your own by clicking here, and you can view the whole set of images here.

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-04-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

I play the Italy card a lot, tonight is no different, it's late and I'm tired. The Italy card is a sure thing. This was taken at the Colosseum in Rome in the spring of 2004. Short hair, yikes!! For those of you who don't know, Self Portrait Tuesday was originally started as a Flickr group here. You can also find it here, here, and here.

Knee Deep in the Empire Theater

2006-04-17T22:05:00.000-05:00

This week marked the begining of a much anticipated project for our office and for Kansas City, the restoration of the historic Empire Theater at 14th and Main built in 1920. The theater is at the center of the downtown Power and Light District, a new development that includes the Sprint Center Arena, H&R Block headquarters, retail spaces, entertainment venues, and loft apartments. We are doing all of the historic rennovation and shell work on the Empire, at this point in time I'm not so sure what all that entails, but I know the first step will be to get all of the drawings up to date and document areas with major damage.

This is the 14th Street elevation of the Empire. Lucky for me this facade was not built according to the original construction documents from 1920, as a matter of fact, it could not be more different and we haven't found any documents illustrating it's construction. So my task for the next two weeks is to physically measure the facade of this building recording every nok and crany down to the quarter inch...and just in time for hot weather.

The building has been sitting vacant for the last thirty years, so you can imagine the condition of the interior. Up until this year it has been illegal to enter the building. Two people from our firm got special permission to explore the inside with the abatement contractors. Everyone had to wear biohazard suites and gas masks to protect against the asbestos, mold, raidon, and god knows what other adventures. Next week we gain full access to the interior. I am giddy with anticipation. I can't wait to be knee deep in dead pigeons, let alone their thirty year old excrement.

I don't have much historic renovation experience, and honestly it is not something that I am terribly attracted to, but this project has proved interesting thus far. The Empire will be the only movie theater downtown and it is shaping up to be a state of the art facility that will focus mainly on forgien and independent art films. It is pretty exciting to be a part of everything that is going on in downtown Kansas City. Other than the Empire we are currently involved in the rennovation of the Kansas City Music Hall, The Midland Theater, The Blossom House, The historic Hotel Phillips and various other projects in the Crossroads District.

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-04-11T23:00:00.000-05:00

This image was taken at a cemetery in a small town called Modena sometime between the death of winter and the life of an Italian spring. It was a fitting time of year to visit such a place. The day is frozen into my memory, literally, it must have been twenty five degrees outside. The perfect day to visit one of Aldo Rossi's masterworks. We road a train from our hill town and after a bit of confusion, as three tall American's stood in the aisle pointing between our pocket size travel book and the train station signs that were passing by the windows, we finally reached Modena. A man selling candy bars and newspapers responded with an ambiguous full body geasture when we asked, in our mix of Spanish and Italian, which way to the cemetery? In retrospect it was a silly question, there must have been more than one, but the thought never crossed our minds. We were here to see this one.

I could ramble on about the austerity of the place or how it was so cold I thought my toes would fall off. I could talk about the coulds that day, and how they were grey and indistiguishable from the sky and earth making the horizon all but invisible. But I think all that stuff might be a little heavy for a Tuesday and more fit for Saturday Morning Musings over a cup of coffee.

Plus, I think the image pretty much sums it all up.

Three Work Spaces

2006-04-09T23:33:00.000-05:00

OFFICE WORKPLACE: This Friday was none other than First Friday when all of the galleries in the Crossroads open up their doors, usually unvieling new shows. As a part of the festivities we were hosting a get together for some new clients of ours who are also going to be our new next door neighbors. With that on the horizon Friday was a slow day for everyone so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of my workspace, this one was my favorite. You'll notice a few items from my Office Top Five list, namely the yellow highlighter and the Pilot Precise V7.

The cup on the left (usually full of colored pencils), the ceramic pen and pencil holder in the middle, the handheld PC, and my cell phone which can barely be seen on the right edge of the picture consitute my office command center, everything can be executed using one of these four devices. Oh exept the things that call for the heavy artilery, the PC positioned just out of view of the camera. I wanted this photo to be about the little guys, the underdogs, the little peices of my work day that are normally overshadowed by the all powerful machine.

HOME STUDIO: This image doesn't show much of the the studio space but it does highlight the newest addition. A few weeks ago I became the proud owner of this Eames Aluminum Group Management chair, circa 1960, and it has found a perfect spot in my studio. It is in fairly good shape for as old as it is, but could use a little work. The chocolate brown upholstery needs a good steam cleaning and the aluminum could stand a polish, but for a forty year old chair it is darn good shape. Plus, it is the most comfortable task chair I have ever sat in, and amazingly simple. No hydraulic adjustable peices, no plastic, no reclining pivot, no fancy-shmancy do dad's or who-ha's. Just a very simple, nicely crafted comfortable chair.

SATURDAY MORNING OFFICE: I love this spot on a Saturday or Sunday morning at our kitchen table in front of the balcony window. The eastern sun comes in the twelve foot long floor to ceiling opening perfectly, with no glare, but plenty of light, and a great view of the turn of the century mansions across the street. This Saturday morning was spent with a pot of coffee crunching numbers, surfing flickr, and giving some much needed attention to a couple of art projects I've been working on. All the while Rebekah and a high school chum and recent bridesmaid who is visiting from out of town spent the day on the Plaza.

To view all of the photos in the set, click here.

Just Like Christmas Morning

2006-04-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, once in a great while, you stumble along something so grand that you'd swear it was Christmas morning.

I was up late last night, like I have been since I’ve re-entered the online community, sifting through random people’s flickr images, transferring files to my recently reformatted computer, and reading up on home mortgages. I was seconds away from going to bed, I was even finished brushing my teeth, when I realized that I had not cleaned the kitchen after dinner like I had intended. It is always my job to clean the kitchen. Actually, whoever does the cooking is exempt from cleaning and since Bekka usually does the cooking I usually am stuck cleaning.

So it is nearing 2:30 am and I am standing in the kitchen in my green and white striped boxers (I know this is an arresting image but please, try to get past it and read the rest). I am drying off a frying pan while the rest of the world sleeps and after I notice the two apartments across the courtyard have drawn their blinds and called it a night I decide to follow suite and give the drapery cords a healthy tug covering the floor to ceiling windows that overlook our street, and continue cleaning the sauce pans and wine glasses that dot the kitchen counter.

Rebekah is not expecting me to get this stuff cleaned tonight so I know she will be thrilled to wake up and find a spotless kitchen (let’s keep the, you’re such an amazing husband comments to a minimum please). She will stumble into the kitchen and - like a child discovering the gifts under the tree on Christmas morning- she will see our sparkling counter free of artifacts from last night’s feast. She will be so happy. The thought of this scene brings a premature, somewhat self-serving smile to my face.

By the time morning roles around Rebekah, passing right by the cleanest of clean kitchens without a second thought or a satisfactory seal of job well done, walks right out the door, down the steps, across the courtyard and out to the car as she does every morning. Rebekah has a longer commute than I and always leaves the house thirty minutes before I even get into the shower. Again, I find myself in the kitchen in my boxers, this time eating a bagel and enjoying a cup of coffee when I hear the door to the apartment jiggle and the deadbolt unlock. I’m thinking, "If this is the maintenance man, he’s in for a big surprise. But it is Bekka. She has returned from her short trip to the curb to report a discovery. Our little black Honda has been violated in the worst way. The driver’s side window is shattered, the stereo has been stolen and there is a flurry of glass confetti decorating the street. Needless to say, I am elated (insert the most extreme sarcastic undertone) and I’ll bet the person who did this is feeling like its Christmas morning.

I new it was only a matter of time before this happened. I toss on some clothes and head out to inspect the damage. Yep, it’s shattered, and yes, the stereo is gone. I immediately begin taking pictures, mainly for the blog, but also for the insurance company should they dispute our claim. A pregnant woman with a southern accent who has recently moved into our apartment complex shuts the front gate, heads across the street to her Jeep and notices the devastation.

“Did that jest happin last nat?” She asks. A million sarcastic responses shuffle through my head.

“No, this happened a few weeks ago, but I’m just now getting around to dealing with it”

Or…

“It actually happened just moments ago while I was eating breakfast, that’s my apartment right up there with the big window overlooking the street. I watched the whole thing happen but I had a mouthful of bagel and I was in my boxers and by the time I was done chewing and had put on clothes the scoundrel was gone.”

I said none of these things. Of course it happened last night. That’s when people break into things, that’s when criminals go to work.

We then entered into an exchange of neighborly repartee. I explain to her that this is no big surprise, and the thieves didn’t really make off with anything to valuable my stereo was all of ten years old, it was more of a nuisance than anything. She offers her condolences and takes a seat behind the wheel of the Jeep parked directly behind me.

I know she is watching me over her dash as I move around to the back of my car and open the trunk. I should have worn a shirt with some snappy saying on the back. She probably has the radio on and is probably thinking, “How long before my Jeep gets broken into, should I invest the 25 bucks a month to park it in the lot….at least they didn’t get anything to valuable” It was at this point in time that her stream of thought is most likely interrupted as I slam my trunk, making the whole car shake and sending the remaining glass that had been hanging on for dear life crumbling to the pavement. The pregnant ladies door is shut and her windows are up, which is a good thing because I don’t think she, or her unbord child needs to hear the words coming out of my mouth when I realize that my golf clubs have also been stolen from the trunk.

I am reminded of The Dude and his briefcase. Of that heart sinking feeling when he realized his briefcase full of clams has not been recovered from his stolen car. Of the confusing expression on his face when he is told that a vagrant probably spent the night in his car, or worse, used it as a toilet and moved on. I recall the devastation in his eyes when he asks the police officer if they have any leads, only to have the officer laugh in his face and respond, “Leads, yeah. I'll just check with the boys down at the Crime Lab. They've assigned four more detectives to the case, got us working in shifts…”

Five Top Five's

2006-04-05T12:52:00.000-05:00

Hula Seventy recently tagged a bunch of folks with top five lists. I have modified it a bit for Studio109.

Five Top Five Must Haves (of the moment)

IN THE KITCHEN:

1. Michelob Light
2. Fresh Flowers courtesy of Rehekah Marie
3. A full Brita pitcher (Bekka will kill me if I put it in the fridge empty again)
4. Anything Archer Farms
5. Purple Method Dishsoap

IN THE CLOSET:

1. Black long sleeves
2. Screen printed t's
3. Favorite jeans from Italy with a hole in the knee
4. J Crew chino's
5. More space

IN MY BAG:

1. Cannon Powershot S410
2. Chapstick (the original black tube)
3. Moleskine
4. Flannery O'Conner
5. Stamps

AT THE OFFICE:

1. iTUNES
2. Coffee and chocolate after lunch
3. Pilot Precise V7 (black, blue, and red)
4. Headphones
5. To-do lists

AT HOME:

1. Apple Powerbook
2. Bekka's antics
3. Picasa2
4. Eames Management Chair
5. All of the windows open

Tagged: Jill, Barrett, Jackie

Lesons From Natasha

2006-04-03T01:27:00.000-05:00

A short time ago, in the most unlikely of places, I was given a bit of advice from an artist friend of mine who knew I was in the market for a new hobby, mainly painting. Between cocktails at Bar Natasha, a local gay bar where the waiters and waitresses wear all black and double as lounge singers, the artist friend told me this, “spend seventy-five percent of your time doing what you’re good at and twenty five percent of your time experimenting.” I took a sip of my Tanqueray and tonic, a drink that had taken our singing all black wearing waitress twenty minutes to bring to our table, and thought…. hmmmm, how novel..

Drawing with a pencil has always come naturally for me. I was an only child with a hard working single mom and pencil and paper were my two best friends. I would draw my hero’s pictured in Sport’s Illustrated for Kids or I would take family photo’s off of the shelves in our basement so that I could draw the people behind the glass, I loved drawing people. I went through countless sketchbooks, note pads and pencil sets. I remember asking my mother to buy me a new sketchbook nearly every time we went to the Kmart down the street from our house. She would look down in disbelief, “I just bought you one of these,” she would say. All I could do is look up at her and unabashedly admit, “It’s already full.” I never thought about what I drew. The ideas behind drawings were simple, like the people in the photographs and I got great satisfaction from this. My senior year of high school I discovered Rauschenberg and Jim Dine. There was something I loved about this work. I had no idea why I liked it, but I did. It was messy and sometimes offensive and my high school art teachers didn’t want to talk about it.

It is my first time at Bar Natasha and although I’m enjoying the current waitress performing I Wished on the Moon, I am noticing that it is taking an unusually long time to get a drink. My artist friend and I talk about our backgrounds, growing up in small towns and on or around farms. We both come from places where anything worth while took some sweating and some cussing to get the job done right. Somewhere along the line this notion of worth while-ness became directly proportional to level of difficulty and ingrained itself in our creative pursuits. If that is the case, then tonight is time well spent because it is proving incredibly difficult to get a drink in this joint.

I did a few mixed media pieces my senior year of high school. They simply poured out of me. There was no overall meaning or conceptual development prior to making a piece. I tore some images out of a magazine or the newspaper, dumped my chalks and paints onto a piece of illustration board on the floor of my bedroom and went to work. The first one showcased three or four very large eyeballs that I ripped out of an optometry advertisement in our local paper. For the second one I pasted down an image of an adolescent child and drew a target over his heart. After the fact I realized that I had made this painting only days after the shootings at Columbine high school. I did these things without thinking much, they had no intended meaning. But I liked the images, they were powerful and people reacted to them.

It was not until college that the work became aware of itself. I started to learn about architecture and spatial theories and I became incredibly interested in art and architecture as isolated ideas asking myself, what does this or that mean. Deconstruction, Critical Regionalism, New Urbanism, all of these became a part of my household words. As for my textbooks? Architectural Record, Metropolis and Dwell meets Hiedigger, Frampton, and Pallasmaa. By the time my final year rolled around it was as if I had been institutionalized to find validation only in the newest and most profound architectural images. The same went for art. I couldn’t just sit down and draw a picture…that would be to easy, it would come to naturally. We stayed up all hours of the night working on our architecture projects. Most of the time it was pure anguish. The solution came only after a number of sleepless days and nights (this is no exaggeration, my third year I stayed awake for six straight days to finish a project). How do these spaces work next to each other? How do I figure out this connection? But more importantly, what does this project mean? How is it different from any project that has ever been done before and how will it change the world?!?

During my five years in college I toyed around with various art projects outside of architecture school. I made a handful of mixed media paintings and did three or four decent drawings but spent most of my time experimenting with different paints or inks or processes or whacky subject matter. Most of this was done in my sketchbook. I had done a lot of thinking, spent a lot of time, and used a lot of materials, but in the end I didn't really have much to show.

Back to the present, I have ordered a second (or was it seventh) gin and tonic that I probably won’t see until my waitress has completed her rendition of The Bitch is Back, and my artist friends advice is suddenly making perfect sense. The fact is, I love to draw. I can loose myself in a shadow for hours. So I made up my mind to spend seventy five percent of my time and energy on what comes naturally to me. This very simple notion has translated into a case study of many different creative acts: art, architecture, music, film. How does one create a very powerful body of work based on very simple foundations, and further, how is ones body of work unique to their own personal point of view? I over heard a professor of mine once say that one should, “make architecture like Hendrix plays the guitar” that may just make sense.

Meaning in the creative act is found over time in the buildings of Corbusier, Aalto, and Kahn, the words of Ernest Hemingway and Flannery O’Connor, or the way that Townes Van Zandt writes a song…raw and real, simple and unapologetic, and above all, truly unique.

"Now where in the hell is that waitress?"

New Moleskine and New Movies

2006-03-31T01:30:00.000-06:00

I spent two hours in Barnes and Noble yesterday evening and didn’t even end up buying a book with words. The black hardbound Moleskine notebook I took home is totally blank and full of promise. I carried it with me all day, never opening it, nor writing in it and I suppose I will carry on this way for two or three days until I stumble across something that triggers the first entry. That’s usually how it goes. Sometimes it’s a poem, lyrics to a song, or an idea that needs recorded in hopes of implementation down the road. I guess I did stick a post it note on the cover. On it was written five new movies, the titles of which you will find below, and if you're lucky you will click on them and find the trailers.

There is a point in every process that calls for analysis of that which has transpired, a simple look back to cut the fat and this blank sketchbook will hopefully serve that purpose. The last year has challenged me to revaluate many of the ideals that I hold very dear and in these new contexts many of them have taken on new, and sometimes more profound meanings. This sketchbook, the eleventh in a series that began while studying abroad in Italy just over two years ago, will mark the beginning of a new series of sketchbooks and a new chapter of creative development.

As promised, the aforementioned movie list:

LONESOME JIM - Directed by Steve Buscimi and starring Casey Afleck and Liv Tyler, this movie looks simply great.

WINTER PASSING - So it looks like Will Farrell may be in a good movie, with good actors including Ed Harris and Zooey Deschanel.

MANDERLAY - Another interesting film from the man who brought us Dogville, Lars Von Trier.

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL - I think this movie looks histerical.

HARD CANDY - I know what you're thinking, it's that crappy album by the Counting Crows right? Well it's not, but it's just as scary. This movie looks chilling.

Idle Hands Make Lazy Minds

2006-03-29T13:40:00.000-06:00

There is something heady about the onset of spring.

It was around this time last spring that I felt the urge to begin this blog, and now, one year later, for no particular reason, I feel compelled to write again. The preceding post, GONE FISHIN', was named so because it indicated that I would not be posting for an extended, undefined period of time. In retrospect the title was oddly appropriate in more ways than one. Not only does it signify a leave of absence, but it also implies that I would be out searching and collecting. In this case the last five months was spent fishing for new ideas, perspectives, and endeavours. Over the next undefined period of time I will record traces and images of those new ideas, perspectives, and endeavours and perhaps begin to lay a very simple foundation for new creations.

On an unrelated note, I will kick things off with a small list of songs that have recently found their way onto my Adictions volume 01 playlist on iTUNES. You all know songs like these, everyone has them in their library. These are the songs that you could potentially put on repeat and listen to for the duration of a road trip and yet never get sick of, what are yours?

1. Sodom, South Georgia - Iron and Wine
2. Dead Flowers - Townes Van Zandt
3. Leslie Anne Levine - The Decemberists
4. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire
5. Canyon Girl - Fruit Bats
6. Margaret vs. Pauline - Neko Case
7. Bowl of Oragnes - Bright Eyes
8. Faking the Books - Lali Puna
9. Headlock - Imogen Heap
10. Next Exit - Interpool

Gone Fishin'

2005-09-27T09:12:00.000-05:00

OZ Volume 27

2005-09-13T23:49:00.000-05:00

For the first time I'm veiwing Oz 27 in real life. It no longer exists within the confines of the Oz eMAC 2 in the basement of Seaton Hall, and I must say, the whole thing is a bit anti-climactic.

This is Not a Moose

2005-09-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

painting by Jessia Wohl on display at Tchoupitoulas.

After two months in the daily grind I have developed a surprising affinity towards mornings, especially those taking place on Saturday. Last Saturday morning I found myself at Tchoupitoulas, a coffee shop and art house in the fifteen hundred block of Walnut sitting beneath a painting that René Magritte may very well describe by saying, “This is not a moose,” I would add, “Taxidermy perhaps, but a real moose? Surely not!”

Tchoupitoulas, pronounced Cho-pa-tu-las, and dubbed Choppy Place by Rebekah, offers a wide variety of settings to enjoy friends and meet new people. It is great for a morning coffee, lunch, an after work cocktail, or socializing on Friday nights.

The last two months Tchoupitoulas has displayed two impressive art shows featuring local Kansas City artists. Tammy Shell, a photographer presented her show called NETHER LABOR NOR SPIN: A STUDY OF EFFORTLESS BEAUTY AND INTRINSIC WORTH last month. Currently Jessica Wohl, a painter that graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute has displayed a series of her current work entitled RECOLLECTING TIME.

Next month at Tchoupitoulas: Darien Johnson {Transitions} Friday, October 7th 6pm-9pm.

Extra Anchovies

2005-09-10T11:20:00.000-05:00

This post is in honor of Patrick Dempsey who put on breath taking performances in the late 80's classics Can't Buy Me Love and Lover Boy as Ronald Miller and Randy Bodek respectively. These films are two classic examples of kitsch artistry at its finest. If ever there were an activity for a rainy Sunday afternoon these two movies, in succession, are as good a solution as any. What are your favorite B movies that are so bad they are better than just good???

Great Scott

2005-09-09T10:13:00.000-05:00

On Friday mornings my office can’t exactly be described as bustling. I arrive close to 8:15 and after ten or twenty minutes I realize that my desk lamp is the only light on in the office. So I find myself alone, sitting in front of the computer wondering what happened to last weekend, and the subsequent week that followed. Can time just disappear like that?

Rebekah got word from Wichita on Thursday that her grandfather was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. She, along with her sister, hit the road that afternoon, Wichita or bust. It was at this point in time that the soundtrack of our lives skipped tracks from Brand New Colony by the Postal Service to something more akin to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey. The weekend was an absolute circus, however nothing compared to what we have in store as we near November fifth.

Back to the present. By 10:30am I know I’ve had all the caffeine I can take. My trigger finger is out of control and it’s beginning to impede on my work. My cursor is all over the screen and I can’t stop clicking. I try with utter failure and suddenly there are zillions of involuntary commands activated on my computer. Programs that haven’t seen the light of day in ages are opening up and all I want to do is edit one freaking line in autoCAD.

Ah, autoCAD, the bane of my existence, your day will come autoCAD and your little AutoDesk too, when God will look down from the heavens and cast judgment on all of the suffering you have caused the good people of this earth. What's that? What about VIZ? Don’t look so innocent over there in the corner VIZ, although you are less sinful than your brother autoCAD you too have caused the human race great suffering and enacted tremendous devastation and you will one day be brought to trial in front of the powers that be.

A Little Piece of Hitchcock

2005-08-31T09:00:00.000-05:00