Ethpanya!

So I was thinking about some of the amazing architecture found in Spain today and had a Eureka! moment and decided that is what I'd do my next blog on but as I was snooping around looking for pictures of some of this awesome shtuff I started thinking about some of my favorite wines (mostly from Spain), thinking about yummy cheeses (also mostly from Spain) and then tapas came to mind, and Spanish ham! So this blog has now evolved into all things Ethpanya! (I really hope you get the joke...) Anywho, on to the architecture!

This is the Basque Health Department (El Departamento de Sanidad y Osakidetza) building in Bilbao, Spain. Done by Coll-Barreu Arquitectos. The exterior is actually a glass shell configured with irregular angles that generate multiple reflections visible from the inside changing its appearance depending on the point of view, the hour and the season. The architects describe it as “a very effective mechanism for the integration of urban vitality in the interior of the building. The city is perceived like a multidirectional system of moving vectors.” The façade is also a double skin that responds to energy saving requirements, allowing the abolition of traditional air-conditioning systems and false ceilings, insulating heat, reducing noise and letting in precious natural light.

(interior of Basque Health Dept. bldg)
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I'm sure we all know what this one is...in case you don't here's a hint...(Guggenheim, Bilbao). This building is what made me realize that when I was going to F.I.D.M. studying fashion design that I was majoring in the wrong field (yes, I'm that old. I was in college when this opened to the public :\) The Guggenheim sits on the Nervion River in Bilbao, Spain with a humongous Spider "Maman" by Louise Bourgeois (I had the chance to see her exhibit at MOCA in LA before I moved to hotlanta!) and was designed by Mr. Frank Owen Gehry. The thought that was put into the design is awesome (can you tell I like that word?) Gehry stated that the randomness of the curves were designed to catch the light and since it is located in a port town it is intended to resemble a ship and the reflective titanium panels are meant to resemble fish scales, echoing organic life like the fish in the Nervion River.

(another view of the Guggenheim, Bilbao)
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The Alamillo Bridge done by Santiago Calatrava was actually supposed to be twin bridges but only one was ever finished. Alamillo was built when Spain chose to host expo '92 on a large deserted island in the Guadalquivir River in Seville. The thirteen pairs of cables span 600 ft. and support a beam down the middle of the road that is cantilevered out from the beam and maintains the intended image of a harp.

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Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciences (City of Arts and Sciences) is a collection of four buildings and a walkway in the dry riverbed of what was once the River Turia in Valencia Spain. Another Santiago Calatrava masterpiece collaborated with Felix Candela. The "city" is made up by the following structures usually known by their Valencian names:

(l' hemisferic - imax theater, planetarium/laserium)

(palacio de las artes reina sofia - opera house & performing arts center)

(l'oceanografic - open air oceanographic park)

(l'umbracle - walkway/garden)

(el museu de les ciencies principe felipe - science museum)
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Dammit man, I'm pooped! I was going to go on and on about Gaudi architecture, Santa Maria del Mar, more Santiago Calatrava but I don't think I can go any further tonight. I shall end here and tomorrow I'll continue with wines and cheeses of Spain!

until then, adeu.
D.

p.s.
I'll take any and all help as far as blog tips are concerned.
kthx :D

uh, like a horse...

so hbo has a new show. it's kinda like weeds. that is if John Holmes were starring in it! Thomas Jane (yummers!) Anne Heche and some other chick i've never heard of (Jane Adams) are starring in it and it's slated for a June 28 premiere (a day before my birthday!)

Years ago in high school, Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane) was athletic, popular and destined for success. Now, as a high school teacher and basketball coach, he's underpaid, uninsured and embittered that his wife of 20 years (Anne Heche) has left him for her dermatologist. After a fire damages the rundown Detroit home he inherited from his parents, Ray's fortunes reach an all-time low when his twin children, who had been living with him, move in with their mom and her clean-freak hubby. Lonely, run-down and at wit's end, Ray attends a local self-help class whose mantra is to identify a person "winning tool" to market for financial success. After a not-so-fulfilling encounter with a fellow attendee - an ex-flame and would-be poet named Tanya (Jane Adams) - Ray has a "eureka!" moment. With the help of Tanya, Ray resolves to take advantage of his greatest asset, in hopes of changing his fortunes in a big way.

source

D.

Eno Henze

So not much is available about Eno except that he's a German digital artist living in Berlin, and his work is amazing, typically large-scale and has an organic feel to them. I'm in total awe of his work, it's like someone threw James Nares and cheesecloth in a washer, added a couple drops of food coloring et voila! an Eno Henze piece appears!

The following pictures are from his "Human Factor" series which he's been working on since 2006 and he considers it "a collaborative process between me and the machine."

Eno Henze interviews Eno Henze

Another of his series "The Subjektbeschleuniger (subject accelerator)" mimics signatures subatomic particles leave in collision detectors such as installed at the CERN in Geneva. They kind of remind me of this Native American pottery I used to collect where they would set horse hair in the clay before they would fire the vases/pots and it would love amazing squiggly lines throughout, almost like black streaks of lightning.

...now here's some of that pottery I was talking about...

D.

eeek! my first posting...

okay, I"m all giddy inside and excited and nervous. why? i don't know, i mean, it's just a blog right? I"ve blogged for years on myspace and have had tons of journals why am I freaking out? i don't know. I need to give a major shout-out to the lovely Erin H. for getting me to start a blog and the super twins Gabby and Elizabeth who encouraged me to actually do it. Thanks ladies! oh, by the way, in case you haven't noticed, I am a very schizophrenic typer. I seldomly use correct punctuation and even more seldomly ever capitolize when I'm supposed to. okay, back to my little whatever you want to call it. so here is my first blog posting. is everyone's first post this weird and lame? i sure hope so! well, I'm going to explore this damn blogger thing. see how I can funkify my blog and hopefully you'll start to see the fruits of my labor in the near future. HAPPY WEEKEND Y'ALL!

D.