December 4, 2009

 Back in Los Angeles I get in my car and listen to Queen singing Bohemian Rhapsody and I am so happy because that song is my kids’ song and our family is just a poor boy from a poor family.  I sang out the window into the cool and monstrous Los Angeles night and was glad to be home in it smelling of dirt and smog.  The Tom Bradley terminal  is exactly like a Third World Country airport, completely devoid of anything that would make you think you’d landed in America. 

I read The Art of Exile by William Archila published by Bilingual Review Press and edited by Francisco Aragon, more on that later, when I can digest it, but fabulous stuff.  We hung with Francisco in Guadalajara and he is a cool smart poet and editor.  I also read The Glass House which is by Jeannette Walls and is about how she had a bad upbringing.  As my kids would say, she didn’t have a satisfying home life.  That was their euphemism from everything from kids who were always a step away from being taken back by CPS to kids whose parents golfed all the time and left them with nannies.  “She doesn’t have a satisfying home life. “

What do we have?  I would ask anxiously.  An insane home life.  They’d say.  A crazy home life.  Fifty animals.  It’s a zoo here.  Who has fifty animals?  But they’re yours.  I know, but who says yes?  To all these animals and who let us have a new litter of kittens every year?  I was trying to give them a satisfying home life.

Jeannette lived in poverty all over the country with her parents who apparently had money but just liked living like that.  And her dad drank a lot and her mother was addicted to painting and chocolate.

Good to be home.  JJ is on Mark’s side of the bed, her head is on his pillow.  She at least has a satisfying home life. 

The strangest thing about a bad growing up life is that your body and mind are always separated.  You are afraid for your body as a separate thing.  That it is ugly, unwanted and might be beaten.  Your mind you always knew was smart and ignored and unnoticed.  How could it be noticed, when you were living in a pit?  But you knew you had it.  Your body with its hunger, its blood, it could not disappear the way you convinced your mind to hide.  Eventually you have a shell for your mind and no one knows you there, and the body, the self you choose to put out there is a puppet.  I’m always curious what the puppet looks like.  Jeannette Walls is beautiful and successful, she went to an Ivy League school.  So is Mary Karr, some people get it together and fix themselves.  Afterward they are perfect at least on the outside.  Do they still drag the little hurt girl?  I don’t know.  Maybe in therapy she gets all fixed up.  I’ll never know.

KISS OF DEATH

The Morganville Vampires, Book 8
estimated release: April/May 2010
by Rachel Caine

pre-order from Amazon Immortal Fiction

The way the Glass House worked, on a practical level, was that there was a schedule for the stuff that had to be done. Cooking, cleaning, fixing things, laundry. Technically, they were all on every housemate’s list. In practice, though, what happened was this: the boys (Michael and Shane) bribed the girls (Eve and Claire) to do laundry, and the girls bribed the boys to fix things. 

The basement of the Glass House was big, dark and creepy, which wasn’t really such a surprise. Most basements were, and this was Morganville. Morganville went in for dark and creepy the way Las Vegas went in for neon. Apart from the one area Claire was in, with a battered washer and dryer, a table that had once been painted some kind of industrial green, and some shelves filled with unidentifiable junk, the rest of the basement was dim and quiet. 

She had the music cranked up so high that she failed to hear steps coming down the stairs. In fact, she had no clue she wasn’t completely alone until she felt a hand touch her shoulder, and hot breath against her neck.

• read full excerpt on RachelCaine.com

So Norma Jean and The Chariot are playing at the Glass House in Pomona, CA on Wed. Nov. 25! Me and Nat are going with some friends of ours, and its gonna rule! Norma Jean used to be one of my favorite hardcore bands, but im definately more pumped about seeing the chariot! also playing is: HORSE the band, and Arsonists Get All the Girls. If you can, you should come out!

If you’ve never heard Norma Jean or The Chariot….I’ve posted some links and things, so check ‘em out!

]]> http://glasshouseexhibition.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/newest-news/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:16:02 +0000 michaelcsato http://glasshouseexhibition.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/newest-news/

Dear Visitors,

The Carl Lutz Foundation decided to inform you in every month about the events in connection with the traveling exhibition and the Memorial Room in Budapest. The Foundation wants to reach more and more people in order to tell them a story about the courage, humanity, and hope in the age of darkness.

On August 1, 2009 the Foundation started its own website – available in three languages, Hungarian, English and Hebrew – full of important data. There are the newest list of people survived in the Glass House, the movie on a virtual tour and useful information on the website. Please, visit it, and leave a comment in the Guestbook.

On October 8, 2009 a new film was shown about the Glass House and the book of György Vámos – Üvegsziget (Glass Island; available now only in Hungarian) – was presented. This anthology contains an essay on the topic and many documents, memoirs, and writings focused mainly on the events happened in the Glass House. The essay reveals the ground, and the background of the events.

In the previous months the Foundation contacted organizations, companies in Hungary and abroad, and schools in Budapest, in order to find possibilities for cooperation. We are very grateful that the Generations of the Shoah International mentioned the Foundation and the traveling exhibition in its 2009 November Newsletter. The Foundation is present on a few Tourist Information websites yet.

The Foundation plans to bring the traveling exhibition to Europe, or make a new one for traveling in European countries, and, if it possible, to make a Hungarian version. The Foundation searches for people, organizations and companies to host, support and sponsor these plans. This topic is in connection with actual questions also – the refugee question, for example.

The members of the Foundation hope they can inform you good news as soon as possible.

Thank you for your visit.

This picture was taken by my friend Naomi. (She is the photographer responsible for all of the photos on this blog).

Naomi arranged for a group of friends to see Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. I am so glad I went on the tour! Another expression from my childhood:

People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones

(think about it…)

Stanford White's Naumkeag -- Stockbridge, Massachusetts

One of my favorite houses is Naumkeag, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (designed by Stanford White).

© Sheri Jordan and Aunt Sheri Says, 2009-2010.

This weekend I also went to Bellahouston Park on the south side of Glasgow. Its home to many a wonderful things, but first and foremost House for an Art Lover, which is the modern day creation of one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s designs that was not realized in Charlie Mac’s day. HAL completed the project in the mid nineties, and the result is a stunning multi purpose building, but more over, a foundation dedicated to mounting ambitious art projects throughout the park. My favorite was the glass house installation designed by Gross Max architects as part of HAL’s Speculative Architecture competition. Its based on the premis of a fictious plant collector who is interested in exotic plant life – ferns (apparently one of the most ancient) and carnivorous plants (just plane strange). But mostly I think I’m just attracted to shiney things – large amounts of glass encasing warm plant life – another interest of mine. The one weird thing about the glass house though is how its situated. Right across from it is this large hill in the park which is home to dry ski slopes. Yes that’s dry ski slopes – no snow, just some sort of weird material that allows you to “ski” down the mountain so to say. Parts of Bellahouston feel like a theme park – a pervasive feeling that does not escape the atmosphere around the artworks. In this particular case though, you can catch one perspective where the glass house fights back. See here how the snowless, fearless skiers soar to their death into the carnivorous pitcher plants of the glass house.

But glass house felt familiar too – it reminded me of the artwork Mark Dion did in the Seattle Art Museum – “Neukon Vivarium”. Dion removed a fallen hemlock tree from a watershed area in the Seattle region, and literally preserved the ecosystem that had begun to develop in and on it by building a huge glass house / green house around it.There’s interesting interview on the project here.

There seems to be such a trend these days for artists working with plants, plant life, ecosystems, hot houses, organics etc. I guess both the global food crisis and climate change make the issues absolutely imperative and at the forefront of all of our minds. We need more artists to address issues of sustainable practices concerning food and the environment in their work. Also of interest are some folks right here in Glasgow Justin Carter, and Olga Schulz . I could list projects for hours, but don’t want to go overboard here. Any other local artists or just interesting projects you can share?

From Domino:

From Door Sixteen:

From Emma’s Design Blog:

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Preservation is green. It retains the carbon footprint of structures that are already there, requires less materials, less expense of energy to construct – because it is already constructed. It is true that some older buildings (more likely those built 1940-2000) USE more energy than new “green” buildings, but the greenest new building will still take 30-40 years to pay off its carbon debt.

Two years ago, National Trust President Dick Moe made a speech at the National Building Museum about preservation and sustainability. It was epochal. He had the statistics that proved that “the greenest building is the one already built” but he wasn’t just preaching to the choir. He was making it known that there was a vibrant, multifaceted preservation movement, and that this movement was staking its claim to sustainability and moving even further in that direction.

The results are out there. Two sites you HAVE TO SEE are blogs linked at right: Barbara Campagna’s green preservation blog (Barbara is the Graham Gund architect of the National Trust) and Carla Bruni’s greenpreservationist.org blog. Carla is a graduate of our Master’s program in Historic Preservation and she has already made a mark. We had her speaking on her work in New Orleans and now she is teaching a preservation class at the Center for Green Technology.

You can’t consume your way to sustainability, folks.

Back to Dick Moe. He announced his retirement this week, and it reminded me of that epochal speech two years ago and how excited I was that he was leading the National Trust and the preservation movement into the future. And it wasn’t the first time he had done it. During his 17 years at the helm, the National Trust reinvented itself from top to bottom. The Trust, founded 60 years ago to save historic houses, nearly doubled its collection of historic properties, but much more significantly, it broadened that collection to more nearly represent the American experience and American architecture. From the commercial Gaylord Building to Philip Johnson’s modernist Glass House to the Acoma Sky City Pueblo, the National Trust’s collection of historic sites has been revolutionized. Not only do we own the two most famous modern glass houses, we also have a new Modern and Recent Past Initiative, a new Preservation Green Lab in Seattle, a more vigorous series of regional offices and a robust collection of statewide and local partners. There are three times as many statewide preservation organizations today than there were in 1992. Dick Moe didn’t simply grow the Trust, he expanded its relevance and helped make it the leader of an expanding nationwide movement. His leadership will be missed but his impact is visible everywhere you look.

He had about 4 to 5 different costumes throughout the entire performance.

Lots more photos always posted on my LiveJournal. I posted one Skinny Puppy picture on my Flickr {might not be viewable yet} – If not, then here it is, just click to see big version

For those in the know.. Whitefriars was not only London’s but Britain’s longest running glass house which ran from 1720 to 1980 when they sadly closed their doors. This brief film shows Eddie King working on a Whitefriars style duck at Adam Aaronson’ s studio! You can see Eddie re-heating the base of the duck and then attaching the ponte. If you look carefully into the glass you can see some of those original Whitefriars canes!

Here is a sneak clip of Eddie “Whitefriars” King doing what he does best. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCMx9nRvXVQ

Santiniketan is a small town in the Birbhum district of West Bengal which is 136 km from Kolkata. The Uttarayan Complex is a famous place in Santiniketan as the poet Rabindranath Tagore was living there. It is situated in the north of Santiniketan Ashram. It consists of several buildings in a distinct architectural style. Konarka was the first brick house at Uttarayan and thereafter Shyamali, Punachha, Udayan and Udichi were built up one by one. There is also a prayer hall founded in 1863 where Brahmo prayers are held on Wednesday.

Apart from the houses which were built up one by one there some other places found in Uttarayan Complex. They are Rabindra Bhavan known as Bichitra which is in left side of the main entrance of Uttarayan consists of a library and a museum, Chitravanu Cave House situated at the south of Uttarayan which was the office of Ravindranath, Chatimala, Sanitiniketan House, Glass house, Aamra Kunja, Natun Bari, Hindi Bhavan, Patha Bhavan, Deholi, Salbithi, Ghanta Tala, Kala Bhavan, Sangeet Bhavan and many more. Kolkata airport is well connected with wide network of flight from all parts of the country. the city is accessible by air, rail and road.

There are also plenty of hotels and resorts in Kolkata for tourists who wish to visit Shantiniketan.

“What are the advantages of living in a glass house?” He asks me.

When the sun is shining, I can always feel it, I can see what’s going on around me, and I’m as close to being part of nature as you can get.

“I assume you ask because as a teenager I wanted to live in a glass house in the middle of the ocean…?” I say to him.

“That’s correct.” He responds back as if he’s analyzing me and my past like a doctor.

All I remember is this,  a scene from my young mind. It was me lying in bed with a man. I was in love. We were in a glass house in the middle of the ocean. I put my hands on his chest and looked up at him, but I can’t remember his face or I can’t see it. I was happy and content.

Reason enough?

“Well it’s not convincing to me, but go ahead, post it!” he says and laughs a nervous and wild laugh.

I read it all back to him.

“I’m not stupid.” He says this as if anyone has implied he is. Then he laughs again. He then says something about a magnifying glass.

I know the feeling I write. It’s like living in a glass house under the sea.

The interesting part is ‘escape.’ I wanted to escape, so I dreamt of a place with true love floating in the sea. My innocent mind missed the terror of being watched through glass. However, life has taught me the real disadvantages of living in a glass house over the years.

I was a beautiful and naive girl who trusted when I awoke in a glass house at bay.

Shattered dreams is the answer. Nothing more, nothing less.

That all architectural structures are covered by solid opaque walls on all four sides to maintain privacy and security is a given. So, a home with walls of glass that offer a clear view of the inside is bound to create more than just a ripple, and 128 Werner Sobek does just that. This rather novel concept in residential architecture seems to have broken through all conventions and set a new – if not higher – standard in innovative construction.

R128 Werner Sobek is four-storey house, floating high on a hill overlooking the city of Stuttgart, Germany. Inside this curious creation, there are no doors, switches, interior walls or partitions and no closed rooms. But what takes the cake is that the home generates its own energy. The construction material used to create R128 is one hundred percent eco-friendly and recyclable.

R128 has a most attractive glass façade and is devoid of a basement. High quality triple-glazed glass with inert gas filling is in use. The use of a modular design, complete with glass panels and steel frames ensured easy assembly and disassembly of the construction. The insulated glass panels prevent overheating of the interior during summer and loss of energy and warmth during winter. The supporting steel frame comprises of 10 tons of steel.

The ceiling of the Werner Sobek glass house consists of prefabricated panels overlaid by plastic. Beneath the unscrewed floor, aluminium ceiling panels are affixed by clip connections. Lighting, heating and cooling systems are fitted into that layer and this acts as an acoustic absorber pattern.   

Sensor controlled doors have been installed on the upper and lower levels of the house. All appliances and environmental systems are also controlled by motion sensors and voice commands. The front door has a voice recognition feature which allows it to open automatically on a voice command. Water faucets in the bathrooms are regulated by sensors. Windows are controlled by touch screen technology.

Every floor has two folding windows each, which allow natural daylight and fresh air to enter the house. During summer, cool water running through the floor elements removes excess heat from the entire house with the help of a heat exchanger. Thus surplus energy is stored for use in winter. This ensures minimal energy consumption. 48 solar powered modules with a total capacity of 6.2 KW are installed on the rooftop, which are responsible for supplying all the power required by the pump system.

This green show-house is expected to go a long way in promoting energy-efficient architecture.

The climatic conditions of all the areas throughout the world are drastically changing. The reasons for this sudden change weather are many. Some of them are:

• Depletion of the ozone layer.
• Increased greenhouse gases.
• Over pollution.
• Intake of high energy from outer space.

Due to these reasons there has been a situation of irreversible climatic change that has occurred to our mother earth. The past procedures what we followed for many things are not possible on today’s date. So a new approach to the existing procedure must be followed in order to survive in this world. This case is also applicable to agriculture.

We all know that for every man living they have to depend upon food, which is got only through cultivation. The day old cultivation procedure followed by all the men are outdated and has many problems associated with it. They are:

• Too high utilization of water.
• The place required for cultivation has to be very large, which is not usually got.
• Proper water supply must be there, which is also not possible due to drying up of rivers.

Due to these reason the conventional method has failed to make up to the expectation of the humans. The remedy to the current crisis is to go in for greenhouse cultivation.

Greenhouse cultivation is the process of growing the plants in a closed atmosphere mostly a glass house. This method made its existence due to its capability to grow plants in cold environment. It traps the incoming sunlight and makes it warm for the plants to grow. But nowadays the greenhouse is used more extensively due to the following reason.

• Due to the availability of natural heat within the greenhouse.
• The advantage of closed environment is associated with the greenhouse.
• The timely watering should be done in this process.
• The unmanned cultivation is possible with the greenhouse.
• The growing up of plants one over the other can also be done.

These advantages go hand in hand with the development of the greenhouse. The temperature inside the greenhouse can be increased extensively by the use of small greenhouse heaters. By using them a temperature of 70 degree can be maintained when the outside temperature is 0 degrees. They are available with various specifications. One of the configuring methods is based upon the size and heating temperature. The price associated with the heater is too little and the method they work is simple so the works can be easily monitored.

A casa de vidro

Sinopse: Após a morte dos pais em um acidente de carro, dois irmãos vão morar com seus novos pais adotivos. Porém, com o passar do tempo, os irmãos acham que seus ‘pais’ já procuravam adotá-los antes mesmo da morte dos pais verdadeiros, de olho nos quatro milhões de dólares que eles possuem em forma de ações.

A casa de vidro 2

Sinopse: Seqüência que conta exatamente a mesma história do primeiro, com uma ou outra pequena diferença. Após ficar órfãos, um casal de irmãos é adotado por um simpático casal. No novo lar, eles esperam encontrar carinho, amor segurança e respeito e, no princípio, tudo aparenta estar indo muito bem. Mas o tempo passa e eles vão perceber, aos poucos, que o casal que os adotou não está assim tão bem intencionado, e que estes poderão transformar em pesadelo os sonhos dos órfãos de um novo lar.

Imagine a house you can see through…the Philip Johnson house.  Learn about the architect, his philosophy and his buildings.  Watch the video at http://vimeo.com/6000949  (It takes time to download and runs a bit faster if you turn the HD option off.)

Glazette.com is a smart and striking name of a newest glass portal. This budding portal efficiently presents various beneficial facts and news about glass and energy efficiency from the nook and corner of the world. This portal also brings us a great knowledge about the glass architectures, architectural glasses, green trends and so on. Unprecedentedly, Glazette not only address the existing architectures but it also offers the information about the buildings under construction and also about the buildings in blue print.

Moreover, Glazette also unveils the latest news, events, features, interior design relevant to glass. Glazette provides the data about the twinkling glass buildings, glass houses, green buildings, LEED rated buildings and the tallest skyscrapers of the world and also about the several events regarding glasses such as exhibitions and trade shows. Glazette incorporates the facility for forums.

Glazette is a greatest feast for all those who are having greatest zeal on glass. Glazette also focus on the sustainable and energy efficiency programs. Glazette describes various manufacturing process and applications for different types of glasses. It includes many articles about the solar control glass, fire resistant glass, self-cleaning glass, energy-efficient glass, high-tech switchable glass and so on. Amazingly, glazette narrates the various types of glasses like tempered glass, laminated glass, ceramic printed glass, heat strengthen glass, insulated glass and heat soaked glass.

Proudly, glazette is useful for the budding to the full-fledged professionals in architecture and interior design whilst the community of glass manufacturers, fabricators and processors by its versatility. Glazette dedicates itself as a common knowledge sharing platform for the architects, interior designers, students, builders and processors for mutual benefits.

Glazette.com is a smart and striking name of a newest glass portal. This budding portal efficiently presents various beneficial facts and news about glass and energy efficiency from the nook and corner of the world. This portal also brings us a great knowledge about the glass architectures, architectural glasses, green trends and so on. Unprecedentedly, Glazette not only address the existing architectures but it also offers the information about the buildings under construction and also about the buildings in blue print.

Moreover, Glazette also unveils the latest news, events, features, interior design relevant to glass. Glazette provides the data about the twinkling glass buildings, glass houses, green buildings, LEED rated buildings and the tallest skyscrapers of the world and also about the several events regarding glasses such as exhibitions and trade shows. Glazette incorporates the facility for forums.

Glazette is a greatest feast for all those who are having greatest zeal on glass. Glazette also focus on the sustainable and energy efficiency programs. Glazette describes various manufacturing process and applications for different types of glasses. It includes many articles about the solar control glass, fire resistant glass, self-cleaning glass, energy-efficient glass, high-tech switchable glass and so on. Amazingly, glazette narrates the various types of glasses like tempered glass, laminated glass, ceramic printed glass, heat strengthen glass, insulated glass and heat soaked glass.

Proudly, glazette is useful for the budding to the full-fledged professionals in architecture and interior design whilst the community of glass manufacturers, fabricators and processors by its versatility. Glazette dedicates itself as a common knowledge sharing platform for the architects, interior designers, students, builders and processors for mutual benefits.