Last night, the plan for dinner was Whole Foods turkey(on sale). Well, the smallest turkey was 11 pounds… we’re 3 people. New plan: Dinner at Tomassos! I adore this restaurant, as it’s by far the best one near us, Italian or otherwise. I even dropped some not-so-secret hints last weekend I wanted to go, so I was glad those were picked up. I definitely did not want to go hungry, so I kept snacking on through the afternoon.

Apple

Organic Sprouted Cinnamon Raisin Bread With Macadamia Butter

This was my first time trying macadamia butter, and I have to say the bread really outshined it. It tasted almost precisely like cashew butter(which is the other ingredient in it). It wasn’t bad, and if I were a vegan I could see myself turning to this as a “butter replacement”, but it really didn’t wow me. It seemed like something that could highlight other flavors rather than stand on its own. A little white chocolate with this would have been amazing(Ok, that can be said about a lot of things). We got to the restaurant around 6:30.

Tomassos

I love the open atmosphere; you can see right into the kitchen and the dining room is perfectly arranged for relaxation. The funniest part of the night was when my mom asked our hostess “So is your sister home yet?” with no pretext; last time we were there, we decided that the hostess looked like a girl I went to elementary school with, though we never confirmed this and she clearly had no clue who we were. This time, my mom thought that we had confirmed this with her and she knew who we were, but in reality she gave us a very creeped out glance back. Once we explained things it turned out it was her and she was shocked to come across us. Isn’t it fun running in to old acquaintances?

Pizze Margarita

I had to steal a slice of my parents pizza as an appetizer. This is seriously the best margarita pizza I’ve had outside of Italy, and even then only 1 pizza has ever tops it. It’s perfectly thin and crispy, with an herby sauce and light but fresh cheese. For my dinner I had a really hard time deciding but settled for the maiale

Local Pork With Local Cranberry And Pear Monstrada

I can’t say I’d ever reorder this. The monstrada was delightfully spicy and sweet, but I’m just not someone who can sit down to a big plate of meat and feel good(and that’s all there was on this plate). It felt vulgarly big. I ate most of the leaner meat, but ended up giving 1/3 or so of it to my parents and not feeling particularly satisfied with what I’d eaten. In fact, I was just about downright hangry as we were leaving and other people were talking about how full they were. When I got home, I knew just what I needed.

Brussels Sprouts With Vanilla Sugar

Maybe I should change this blog to VeggieBoy in homage to this lovely blogger(who we should all wish good luck on finishing her finals!). I sprinkled a little vanilla sugar on top because I couldn’t decide if this was a “dessert”. At heart, I’m truly a vegetable lover, which led me to this new plan: Eat meat as a side or seasoning, never more than 1/3 of the meal. Don’t order it while out(I could, but I don’t expect many restaurants to meet the first sentiment, so why set myself up for disappointment?). Maybe those brussels sprouts were more than I expected, because they left me big and bloated. But there’s always room for chocolate!

NibMor Original Style Chocolate

This was a new chocolate I got in the mail yesterday to sample and review by NibMor.

So Delicious Agave Sweetened Plain With Dark Chocolate Newman's Cup And Original NibMor

With a little more chocolate and some soy yogurt to go along side. Yum! This chocolate really impressed me. The flavor was slightly more bitter than I prefer, which was odd because this was a 70% and that’s usually my perfect number. But overall the flavor was good. And I couldn’t get over the fact that this was entirely organic and raw! Seriously, that part astounded me as I couldn’t taste any difference. After posting my peanut butter cookie recipe, a snack plate was in order.

Peanut Butter Cookie, Deep Chocolate Vitatop, Advent Chocolate With Smart Balance Peanut Butter

I don’t think they’re quite as good after being frozen from a week, but oh well. Not quite as good still equaled damn fine for a “healthy” cookie. I ended up getting to bed before 11:30, only to wake up around 3:45 and having difficulty falling back to sleep; I think I was either in anticipation of the snow or workout(both to come). I ended up making some 4am oatmeal to settle myself.

Oatmeal With Honey

McLure's Clover Honey

I don’t usually sweeten my oatmeal with stevia or anything; in fact, I like salty oats. But I thought I’d try out my new honey as I definitely was having a bear’s tooth for it. I only did 1/2 a tablespoon(I was trying tog et back to sleep after all), so I didn’t get a lot of flavor, but what I could taste was so nice and pure. I can’t believe I got this for only $4. I did eventually get to bed, and the snow outside was soooo amazing when I woke up.

7:30am

Could you think of something better to wake up to? Well I spared no time in starting my quest to find some good at home workouts to do over the next 30 days if that’s going to be the case. This morning, I did an overall body core workout first which kicked my butt. I need to readjust it for my level before I go and post anything. That took 30 minutes, and afterwards I did stair iterations for 200 flights, which took another 60 minutes. I was literally dripping sweat by the end but it felt soo good. New plan: Get a workout in every day, even if it’s just some light walking around. You’ll feel so much better once you do! And being couped up at home doesn’t have to be an excuse to get out of exercise. I was so ready for breakfast after showering.

Pumpkin Oatmeal WIth Mighty Maple And Pumkin Cream Cheese

Boulevard's Organic Hot Chocolate With Vegan Fluff

This was perfect for a snowy day. I know she wasn’t the first person ever to do this, but Brandi deserves a huge shout out for reminding me of hot cocoa and fluff. The combination of Boulevard’s Organic and vegan marshmallow spread couldn’t have been simpler and tastier. And I just love my pumpkin oats with mighty maple and pumpkin cream cheese(as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now). But that brings me to a final new plan: Get 2 sources of probiotics a day. Actually, this is a rather old plan of mine, and something I generally do, but I think I need to remind myself of this one. Probiotics from fortified foods is so good for the digestive system and I shouldn’t be skimping. If that means I have to eat frozen yogurt at night, who’s to complain? Clearly there weren’t any at breakfast which just means I’m going to need to fit them in a bit later.

I can’t believe how much it’s still snowing; this is too perfect!

I completely forgot to mention yesterday that I did a guest post over at Heather Bakes. It’s on one of my favorite subjects so go ahead, check it out, and tell me what you think. And while you’re over there be sure to congratulate Heather and Brian on their new baby, Jack!

Yesterday morning I had my last Latin class of the semester where I had to recite a 16 line poem in Latin. Oi that had me nervous, but I think I did pretty good. I stumbled on the last 3 lines out of nerves but overall I did well. Plus the assignment only called for a 10 line poem so really what were those but the cherry on top? It felt so good to be done with a class, until I decided to take something harder upon myself: microwave eggs.

2 Eggs Scrambled, Broccoli With American Cheese

Lightlife Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I guess this can sort of count as a deconstructed omelet? I should have gone for the one bowl wonder, because while this was all OK, it didn’t really pull together. Scrambeled eggs are a hell of a lot less explosive to microwave so I did that until they were just a little runny. The broccoli with an american cheese slice was pure goodness: Is anything with cheese not? And the squash and sausage… just didn’t work, which was a shame because I wanted it to. This also got cold by the time I was eating it in class so that was not so appetizing.

Having my last History and Epic Poetry classes was also a joy. In between I stopped to get coffee when the worst happened: they had no decaf Rather than play around with drugs(i.e. caffeine), I tried a new tea.

I’m not normally a tea drinker, but I already had put stevia in my cup and didn’t want it to go to waste, and I noticed this was a) seasonal b) caffeine free and c) all-natural so I thought I tried it. I liked it, though as with all tea it tasted mostly like hot, sweetened water. It did have a nice lemon and ginger kick to it, kind of like some bars I’ve had(is it bad that my mind relates things to bars? Don’t answer that…). When I got back to my dorm, I found out it was National Cookie Day! And yet I had not prepared well enough. Oh well, I grabbed the closest thing to a cookie I could find.

Vanilla Chip Cascadian Farms Bar

Seriously, if you’ve never tried this bar, you should. It has 0 nutritional value to it, but it tastes JUST like a cookie. The vanilla chips and touch of salt make it so amazing. That cured my cookie tooth(with about 2 cups of coffee), until I was hungry like 20 minutes later. I choose non-nutritious snacks and then get upset when they don’t keep me full I’m a genius.

Orange Cranberry Gnu Bar, Peanut Butter Yogurt With Vanilla Cranberry PB

Muuuuuuuch better. This was a perfect assembly of fiber, protein, and healthy fats. When they called this bar “orange cranberry” they weren’t kidding! The flavor was potent. I think I’ve been programmed to expect duller flavors in bars but not here. The yogurt was soooo good. It was like eating peanut butter straight out of the jar, but with some control(and probiotics, too!). Like I said, those mini-Oikos containers are perfect for when you could care less about the yogurt and just want the toppings.

As I ate this I packed all my stuff to bring home. On Thursday after the persimmon incident I asked(read: commanded) my dad to pick me up early this week and take me home Friday. It just felt soooo long and rough(remember the lock out incident?) I really was just dying to feel “at home” and college wasn’t feeling like that this week. We were hoping to get home for a real “homestyle” dinner, but time was not on our side so we hopped off the highway to get something at Whole Foods. I was craving general tsao’s chicken, but they only had it in party platter size(as in, meant to feed and clog the arteries of 20 people). Instead I went for an equally greasy meal.

Golden Sesame Tofu, Roasted Brussels Sprouts

This felt… a little disgusting, but I went at it anyway because I was starving. My mom makes way better roasted brussels than these; they were so oily they didn’t get crisp. And the tofu was… fried, but oddly didn’t have that heavenly fried food feeling. Bummer And I had to throw salt AND soy sauce on it all just because… ok I wasn’t really thinking then. I guess, though, if this were everyone’s “greasy, guilty fast food”, America would be a little less screwed up–just sayin’.

It felt so good to get home. What I loved most was seeing all the Christmas lights on the houses! That’s another thing you miss at college-the true holiday spirit(I say “holiday” because it’s not just Christmas time and our Jewish friends can get just as spirited with giant, lit up manorahs ). There was so much mail when I walked in the door; I’m really excited about some of the product reviews I’ll get to give you guys! For instance…

Boulevards Organic Dark Hot Chocolate Dairy

This was amazing and very welcomed into my life. Thank you to the people from Boulevards! The weather in New England has been so disappointingly unseasonal but hot chocolate never fails to make it feel like Christmas time. Next time I think I’ll be adding a touch of stevia to perk it up. I might even get a little crazy and add it to decaf coffee. Look out, Lindsey Lohan; we’ve got one crazy partier here After settling in and getting things organized around here, I had some solid food.

Pumpkin Oatmeal With Kettle Cashew Butter And Chocolate Peanut Covered Sunspire Candies

This bowl was mighty random, and mighty good. My dad had some new cashew butter he wanted me to try. With a little maple syrup and sea salt, I was down with it. All of you guys who said these Sundrops on yogurt look like a Blizzard are soo right! I don’t know why it never occurred to me; I used to get those with reese’s pieces and that’s probably where my color obsession came from.

Advent Calender Milk Chocolate

Because I clearly hadn’t had enough milk chocolate for the night(and it’s only December 4th once a year), a piece of advent calender. Advent calenders are a great way to say “you’re probably going to overeat this holiday season anyone, so one more piece of chocolate everyday isn’t going to kill” .

How ironic I came home to “unwind” and as I think of everything I need to do I want to pull out my hair. At the least, there’ll be 2 different batches of cookies being made, a definite trip to Trader Joe’s/Whole Foods, plenty of product reviewing, and a 15 page paper being written in the background. I’d love to run, eat out, and perhaps get a haircut, but we’ll see. It’s also supposed to snow for the 2nd time this year! That has me seeing the silver lining. Have a great weekend!

Hey all! I hope you’re having a great night. Right now, I’m back at home on the couch in my PJ’s enjoying some hot beverages, and nothing would feel better after the whirlwind of a week this has been. I just wanted to share a new delicacy I found that found me: Boulevards Organic Hot Chocolate. Is there anything better for the winter time than hot chocolate? Well, besides making it organic, I don’t think so. I got the Boulevards’ Dark Hot Chocolate(Dairy) to review and had to break into it when I got through the door a tad chilly. Here’s my review. Bottoms up!

7.5/10: As for instant hot chocolates, it doesn’t get much simpler than this. I liked how Boulevards has dry milk powder already in it so this could be added to hot water(or even coffee) and still have a milky texture. It still was a bit thin but better than other instant hot chocolates I’ve tried. I loved how it was organic and the simplicity of ingredients. Nutritionally… well who’s having hot chocolate for nutrition anyhow Taste-wise it was enjoyable, though perhaps could have used a bit more sweetness. That being said, I’m glad it wasn’t too seet since it’s always possible to sweeten afterwards. Overall this was a simple and enjoyable holiday favorite.

Nadau Lavergne Architects reimagines the Grand Concourse as a linear urban forest in one proposal in this show at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

The Design Trust for Public Space in New York recently unveiled the results of a nine-month design competition focusing on the revitalization of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a long-neglected piece of New York’s City Beautiful legacy.

Could we do something similar with the Paseo in Kansas City?

Artist: Camille Pissarro

Title: Les boulevards extérieurs, effet de neige ( Exterior boulevards, snow effects )

Year: 1879

Wikipedia article on Camille Pissaro

Wikipedia article on impressionism

So this weekend I went up to Tulsa for a little R&R. It was soooo nice to get away from the crazy week I had last week and recharge my batteries some. There really is no place like home when it comes to relaxing. And I know I took full advantage. Saturday, my Mom and I went into the city for an agenda free day. We ended up going to a GREAT botique; Boulevards on Cheyenne in Tulsa with this wonderful woman named Mona Green who runs it. They have great clothes there but sadly nothing for men. She gets a lot of her stuff from France and my favorite designer she had in there is Lilith. My mom ended up getting this great outfit from local designer Terasa Fadem who apparently has been working with the store for about seven years now. I plan on doing a post all on that store and Terasa. Great stuff! After Boulevards, we went to a few thrift shops (where I did find a couple gems), a retro furniture store and then ended up meeting my sister for dinner. A great day, a great weekend! Hope you had an enjoyable one as well and got outside to enjoy the weather before it turns cold. It’s midterms week for me, and I have my first one today, so wish me luck! Here’s the pics.
-Andrew J.

Boulevards was SUCH a cool botique

Both of these are by Terasa Fadem, my mom got the orange one. It is lighter than light when you touch it. Great design!


The front of Boulevards


I kept seeing owls everywhere that day



She got me really tickled because she kept taking so many pictures lol.


Two fashionable girls on Cherry Street. The one on the left is actually from OKC I believe.


My sister and I with our matching cross jewelry lol.

Delicious, yummy food-porn

What an awesome first night. We had fifteen kids show up and I think six or seven of them were friends that were invited from the returning kids of last year. This is a huge encouragment for the staff for a couple reasons. Number one, because it shows that God is working in these kids hearts and working through them to reach out into their community. Second, it shows to us that the kids love coming and want their friends to be part of it as well.

Its great to see the children reaching out into their community to invite their friends to come hear about Jesus with us. It is so cool, to think that God is using these young kids to bring the Gospel to families who may otherwise never heard about it.

Please be praying for these kids, pray that God will working in their hearts to see that He is more amazing and awesome than what the world says is the “latest and greatest, must have.” Pray that through these kids the gospel will reach more and more families and chidlren that never would have heard about Jesus before this. Please pray for growth, not just in the amount of the kids that attend, but for everyone involved to be growing to be more and more like Jesus everyday.

Also please pray for us(the staff), we ask that you pray for our health. With this much interaction with kids the odds of us getting sick goes through the roof. Pray that we learn more about the Gospel and presenting it to children everyday. Also, that God continues to show us fun and creative ways to display Jesus to the kids through games, music, and lessons.

Thank you so much for your support, love and prayers,

The Boulevards Team

When I went to Paris some of the biggest misfortunes happened to me, one at a time. My laptop was collateral damage on this trip when it fell out of its open bag sitting on my suitcase. My suitcase is fairly big. It took a heavy fall and my screen suddenly became dark and dark it’s been for the past few months – this was all happening around the 20th of May.

After this laptop malfunction, my suitcase fell victim to some abuse in an airport, possibly in Frankfurt while on my way somewhere else; arriving home, the lock was jammed and I had to force open my own suitcase to take stuff out of it since the lock combination refused to work. It went through therapy and now it’s no longer missing a wheel and shockingly enough I can close it properly.

I won’t detail Paris because I’m not a travel blog and I’ve been there before; it’s not my dream city to live in as I’m not the hopeless romantic to wander the streets of the Quartier Latin or sip my coffee on the hills surrounding Montmartre. My life is nicer with macarons but it’s just as good without them. And frankly, I don’t like unknown French people in large numbers. They have scary habits.

It was raining – no, it was pouring when I left Manchester. I was amazed that the French people on the flight were all nicely dressed, well groomed and generally impeccable. The locals on the other hand were in jeans and tshirts but I have to say it was 1-0 for the French as far as flying attire goes.

I didn’t fly KLM but this is about how bad the weather looked when I left Manchester.

Arriving in France was far more painful – nearly 30 degrees outside and I was wearing a sodding coat. I will never learn.

The first ad to greet me in a bus stop was for a McDonald’s milkshake of some sort for a ridiculously low price. What struck me is what it says right underneath it: “For your safety, maintain regular physical exercise”, pointing to a website called mangerbouger.fr, inviting people not to be full-time slobs but to get off their bums and exercise more. If I’m not mistaken, in the UK the only recommendation is to maintain a regular diet. Eat this, eat that, eat less of this but the focus is mostly on food rather than exercise.

The wonderful thing about Paris is that it’s aesthetically pleasing: the buildings are all around the same height and nothing pokes out more than it should at eye level. For anyone going up the Eiffel Tower or on the Funiculaire de Montmartre, it’s the first obvious thing. If you spend enough time in Paris thinking about this, it strikes you as very clever architectural planning.

If you revisit Paris, and spend even more time wondering about its architecture, you discover more interesting things: the main boulevards have all been built really wide in order to accommodate  heavy artillery rolling down the streets for better defence if need be. What happened is obviously history but since no one has invaded Paris in a while, traffic seems fluid even at its busiest. Whether this is the actual cause or not I don’t know – but it does help. I don’t think the UK ever expected a lot of foreign tanks..

I won’t waffle on about how pretty everything looks because we all know it does and I hated school literature for descriptive passages and swore never to write any artistic descriptions of things ever again. It’s just nice. It has its downsides too: owing to the celebrations on the 14th of July, some people decided it would be a good idea to set fire to a lot of cars. Most would argue France is sometimes a nice country, shame it’s inhabited. Other sad events include a punch-up in the RER witnessed just before the Eiffel Tower stop. Italian with foreign girlfriend gets mugged by some individuals in a train, train is packed with tourists and the only thing they can yell is ‘HELP’ rather than ‘Au secours’ or ‘A l’aide’, ‘voleur’ or whatever. Panicking, you realise that violence gets things done but depressingly enough, police is reactive rather than proactive. It is your fault, monsieur. It is just what les pique-poquettes do. You live with it. This is Paris! Do you know how many people get mugged here?

Everything around seems to slow down in Paris. As the Lantana blog ‘Scrambling Eggs‘ says it,

“I never could understand why Britain, a country surrounded by such gastronomic meccas as Italy, Spain and France, managed to develop such a chain store food culture. It seems bizarre that anyone could find it acceptable, even preferable, to eat highly processed, pre packaged food and patronise bland formulaic food and coffee chains.”

I can’t not mention the cheese. It’s great. I was introduced to a very tasty cheese called ‘mimolette‘ – the bright orange thing in the middle of this picture:

Apparently there’s bread made with two types of cheese as well. I doubt there’s much chance of finding anything like that around these parts but it makes me wish Britain would sit down more often than just for scones and cream tea or cricket and strawberries with cream.

Late yesterday afternoon I walked the boulevards around 24th and G Streets, staying in the shade of the big old trees and the many big houses. It had been up to 90 or more but it felt fine as the evening’s Delta breeze made its soft, first arrival.

I was looking at or walking by apartments for rent. I need a bigger one for the furniture I need to bring here from San Jose. I’d like one that cools down faster at night, my current one heats up and stays hot awhile after I put fans in the windows to draw in the cool air (it gets as low as 50 by morning, so it feels wasteful to use the living room AC to cool the place down at night.

I passed a peach-stucco house with nice shrubs and a big lemon tree in the short front yard. There was the iconic Obama campaign sticker in the window, along with hand written notes taped to the walls: “Please pick up after your dog” and “Help yourselves to lemons. We can’t keep up!”
I took one and took down their address. My fantasy is to move into the neighborhood and then knock on their door and introduce myself as their new neighbor. “I live three blocks over and I moved there just to be near your house, so I hope we can be friends!” I am sure they will invite me in for pie, or even supper, but if they don’t I may have to get a great Dane.

It took me awhile to find where I had parked my car, then I drove to Old Soul Bakery/Weatherstone’s Coffee. I wanted to sit on the tree-covered brick patio but needed to be inside near an outlet for my laptop. I glared at a guy sitting at a table by the windows and one of the few outlets. I’m sure he was about to leave anyway.

I had a $2 iced tea of some precious herbal blend. After an hour I had to step out to the sidewalk to take a phone call. While talking I approached a sweet black Labrador tied to the patio fence and pining for me with bright eyes and a mouth that could smile as much as possible with a muzzle strap on its snout. Her ears were velvety and she loved the taste of my hand.

Two people walked toward us with two little long-haired yippy dogs on leash. I said, “Now just ignore them, okay?” I tried to keep eye contact with her but she wouldn’t take her eyes off them; she had a new reason for living. To the owners I said, “This isn’t my dog; I don’t know what she’ll do, you might want to steer clear.” They seemed to ignore me and three dogs began a barking and lunging melee. I said, “It’s not my dog. It’s not my dog,” as one of the owners apologized, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” (Since it wasn’t my dog, I thought later, I should have shouted, “Get ‘em, get ‘em!”)

The yippy and sorry family went on by us. My new friend, panting cheerfully, returned her attention to me, and I returned to my cell phone conversation, easing toward her for some more love, hoping she wouldn’t decide to settle on me as the handiest thing to bite.

Soon the owner came out and led her from the fence over to a table on the sidewalk and had her sit down, splitting us up forever. I said, “That’s a very sweet dog.” He said, “Yes, too sweet.”

Guy Debord and Situationist the Theory of the Derive, and Pyschogeography.

I recently came across the essay “The Poetics of the Derive” written by Vincent Kaufmann. Not being that familiar with Debord’s Derive, and only slightly informed of its predecessor from the Surrealist Andre Breton and his walks through Paris, it quickly raised many questions to tackle. Most specifically the idea of looking at the early photographic works of Eugene Atget, and his systematic walks through Paris cataloging the ephemeral Paris of his time. One which was being demolished to make way for the Modern streets and boulevards that Debord and the Situationist would later lament in the same manner Atget did before. Yet, how might this theoretical construct of the Derive apply to the large amount of contemporary urbanscape photography found in the United States. And even more interesting the actual activity the photographer performs in order to find these locations.

Debord’s Derive is not simple a walk through the streets of the city, of chance encounters. Instead one must move rapidly and decisively through the urban space, with intention. When possible the practice should not be done alone, but in groups of two or three. They should be aware of their surroundings, of the “…ecological analysis of the absolute or relative character of fissures in the urban network, of the role of microclimates, of distinct neighborhoods with no relation to administrative boundaries, and above all of the dominating action of centers of attraction…” (link to essay) Thus the most talented photographers who’s oeuvre includes the investigation of the urbanscape. The walk itself, the interaction of operator, camera, and site breaks down the normal relationship we have with public urban spaces. Their activity alone is the Derive.

Breaking the rules of theory to return to Eugen Atget melancholic catalog of a ghostly Paris that is no longer. His photographs present to us the sites slated to be demolished, of the concrete reality of the demolition not just of squares and houses, but of the intricate means and subtle variations of the daily social realities created and maintained through public works and layout.

The pyschogeography. Atget’s photographs of a forgotten urbanscapes now stand like so many rectangular ghost, an archive of ephemera, of power structures that have morphed, shifted, become temporal and translucent. They function as nostalgic tombstones, racked nicely in a file, viewed sequentially, ordered and precise. Are Atget’s photographs any less powerful than they were in his time period? Or does the contemporary viewer see them only as quaint post cards, a romantic bygone era of a dirtier, grimmer, Paris leaving out the pychogeography of that site and the site that will replace it?

If Atget’s photographs have lost their power to be anything more than romantic nostalgic post cards and coffee table books, then what of the contemporary photographers working within the urbanscape. Their photographs present tangible realities, visual stand ins of the power structures, specifically in the United States. Yet is the mere representation of these sites enough, does it go far enough to instigate more than just chance encounters for the viewer looking at the photographs. And what of the Modernist aesthetic formal qualities laid over these sites. Atget’s Paris is grimy, dark, moody. Contemporary urbanscape photographs are made to be as beautiful as they are not in reality. The photographers activity of finding these sites is the derive, the photograph itself is the pyschogeography, the questioning. But unlike the gritty ghost of Atget’s Paris, their contemporary formal presentation, high gloss, bright colours, fends off the questions raised by their derive. Instead the viewer is left with one word, nostalgia. The photograph becomes a representation of the United States political landscape and the power structures in play as it slowly turns and morphs. Instead of critical action and engagement, we mourn. The United States is changing and morphing its political and social power structures while its identity as super power declines. Its intial status symbols and sturctures that came to represent power have shifted, take on new meaning. Like so many tombstones the contemporary photographic formal aesthetic and their beautiful rendering of the dynamic and shifting urbanscape moots any possible critical interaction. Instead we are presented with lovely nostalgia, and pretty memento mori.

Grant W. Ray

http://grantray.blogspot.com/2009/06/debords-derive-and-pyschogeography.html

see also :

http://www.lepointdujour.eu/fr/psychogeographie

Signe de la fin prochaine des travaux, le marché des boulevards à Valence a pris possession de l’espace qui lui est réservé entre la fontaine monumentale et l’ancien emplacement de la “place Leclerc”.

Jour de marché sur les boulevards à Valence

Une quinzaine de marchands ont ainsi investi les aménagements prévus spécialement pour leurs activités: vêtements, chaussures, jouets, toile cirée, maroquinerie, etc… C’est enfin l’heure de la stabilité pour ces commerçants, qui au fur et à mesure de l’avancée du chantier ont été obligés de changer à plusieurs reprises de lieu de travail: Place des Clercs, ancien parking de la Maison de l’Armée, à proximité de la place Manouchian…

Avec la finalisation des boulevards, des marchands ambulants supplémentaires devraient rejoindre ceux présents ce samedi, avec également les futurs occupants des nouveaux kiosques dont on ne sait pas encore ce qu’ils proposeront: fleuriste? point presse? Nous devrions le découvrir dès cet été.

Marché des boulevards à Valence

Une bonne nouvelle donc, qui arrive avec les beaux jours et qui apporte un charme supplémentaire aux ballades en centre ville.

Sinon, vous souvenez-vous du marché des boulevards avant les travaux? Vous a-t-il manqué durant tout ce temps?

El Prado

“The Prado was a very special place to me…
Lined with two rows of Royal Palm trees,
quite a beautiful sight to see.

Once a year, the base of the trees were hand-painted white…
It made the trees look royal and bold,
and they grew to a very tall height.

Large, white-washed homes, were parallel to the trees,
And when day turned to night, chugging down the Prado streets, came the truck dispensing its thick fog of DDT.

In one direction of the Prado, was the Clubhouse,
a fine place to eat…
Or, swim at the pool, buy a comic,
or go to the movies for a treat.

The Administration Building, with its 113 stairs,
sat high on Ancon Hill at the “other” Prado end…
I remember spending many hours sliding down that steep hill,
on a piece of cardboard, with a very special friend.

Cooling off from the tropical heat, by taking off your shoes…
Wading and playing in Goethals Monument,
was always a fun thing to do.

Once in a while, the Prado was graced,
with special, “soapflake” snow…
The bubbles would fly high above the trees,
for as long and far as the wind would blow.

The grass on the Prado was always bright green and soft,
due to the rainy season of at least nine months…
The Prado, such a beautiful place, I miss it so very much.

When the streetlights came on,
the Prado was lit up very bright…
It marked the end of the day, and the peacefulness of night.

The Prado will always be a very special place to me…
It will remain unchanged “forever”, in my heart and memory.”

© Snow W. Frost
07-01-2000

The most outstanding project of the ex-Canal Zone was the new government center in Balboa, built in 1914-15 and designed by New York architect Austin W. Lord, at that time Dean of the Department of Architecture at Columbia University.  The masterpieces of that grand complex are the Administration Building and the boulevard in front of it, called El Prado in memory of the famous Havana boulevard of the same name.

The World Monuments Watch included the Panama Canal Area on its List of One Hundred Most Endangered Sites for 2004-06, and specific conservation laws have been proposed recently, although their aims and priorities are not yet entirely clear. A first step has been to propose the Administration Building and El Prado as monuments, although there is strong state opposition to this designation.

Within the different communities there has also flourished a will to preserve their established character as “garden cities”.

Mesmerized by the beauty of this boulevard, flanked by two rows of  Royal Palm trees, I took a picture of El Prado early in the morning of March 22, 2009.  This is what I saw through the lens of my Birthday camera.  Here we go.

Photograph of El Prado Boulevard located at Balboa, Panama City, Panama. El Prado Boulevard consists of two sections, each one exactly the size of a Panama Canal lock. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

As the Sun slows down its rapid pace across the blue sky and prepares to lie down and rest, and the Evening slowly emerges for a walk and a breath of fresh air, El Prado Boulevard puts on its magic black cloak that glows brightly in the dark.  Nothing beats a scene like this at Balboa.  Good Day.

Fueron presentados los proyectos a ejecutarse dentro del  “Programa 2009”, por el XIX Ayuntamiento de Tijuana.

Algunos proyectos planeados durante el año pasado y que a partir de este año comenzó la ejecución, es la construcción de la segunda Comandancia de Policía que se ubicará en la zona de retorno del bulevar Rosas Magallón. También la obra recuperación de playa y reconstrucción del malecón turístico de Playas de Tijuana.

Estas obras fueron ejecutadas con recursos del estado y la federación y para este año se pretende trabajar con el mismo apoyo.

Para este 2009 se harán más obras con concreto hidráulico o “white topping”, como son los bulevares Lázaro Cárdenas, Cuauhtémoc Norte, Las Américas, Bellas Artes, Juan Ojeda Robles y la carretera Playas de Tijuana, y otros que se rehabilitarán para 2010”.

También harán acciones y servicios en materia de limpia, forestación, alumbrado y semáforos en el ejercicio 2009 por conducto de la Dirección de Servicios Públicos Municipales.

Centro Comunale d’Arte e Cultura Exmà – Via San Lucifero 71, Cagliari

Inaugurazione domenica 1 febbraio 2009

Apertura al pubblico: dal 1 febbraio 2009 al 28 febbraio 2009

Nella Sala della Terrazza in mostra una ventina di quadri, la maggior parte dei quali aventi raffigurato l’emblematico taxi giallo, filo conduttore dell’intera esposizione.

Serge Salis, nato e cresciuto in Francia e laureato all’Accademia di Belle Arti a Parigi e specializzato in grafica 3D, propone un viaggio pittorico fra piccole strade e caotici boulevards metropolitani catturati su tela durante gli ultimi quattro anni di permanenza a Istanbul. Dai cittadini passanti ai tradizionali taxi gialli, tutto è frenetico nelle opere di Salis: solo gli enormi grattacieli e la desolazione dei poveri quartieri della capitale turca, appaiono immobili nei suoi dipinti, testimoni di una città in continua, disordinata, espansione. Anche i suoi tratti, dapprima con matita su block-notes e poi con decise pennellate su tela, realizzano figure fuggevoli, destrutturate, quasi impossibilitate a essere immortalate nel frenetico movimento della città.

Le tecniche utilizzate  spaziano dall’olio su tela all’acrilico all’acquerello, non disdegnando i disegni à la sanguine.

Orario: dal martedì alla domenica dalle ore 9 alle 13 e dalle 16 alle 20

Biglietto: Intero 3 €; Ridotto 2 €

Ingresso gratuito con la Karalis Card.

While watching the Cotton Bowl heard a brief story on this guy, some of you are familiar or may have read the book…”On a cold and blustery morning, Sean and his wife, Leigh Anne, were driving down one of the main boulevards of East Memphis..Sean pointed him out to his wife and said: That kid I was telling you about ” thats him.

Big Mike.

The full story is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24football.html?pagewanted=all