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MANIFESTO   (To quote Lord Byron;)

I hardly know too if not quite alone am I

In this small hope of bettering future ill

By circumscribing, with some slight restriction,

The eternity of hell’s hot jurisdiction

LIFE IMITATES LIFE

I keep harping about how much of our Federal income is spent on the war machine, but recently I came across an article of ancient Greece that seems to emulate our current dilemma.   We’re talking about the year 450 BC. Athenian society had been geared to war for so long that many breadwinners had never known a time when they could not earn  a summer’s income by rowing the triremes (Three levels of oars on warships).  Peace was going to mean some under-employment, but Pericles and his group had no doubt foreseen this , and among their remedies was a public building program, beginning with  the great temple long projected on the summit of the Acropolis ( The Parthenon).

 Just imagine! We could tear down the Capitol in DC, and build a really worthy architectural gem that might bring us into the 21^st century.  Or maybe demo the White House and build a really swell residence for the Ruler of the World and his family.  Or, alternately, we could build schools for girls in the Mid-East like the guy (3 cups of Tea) but he got his ass in a sling due to what?  Or was he just getting in the way of killing?

HAIRY POTTER                   

Brooks Pottery shop/Studio, Laguna Beach

           

                                                      

All during my professional life I have traded services with my clients. I probably did my first of probably 15  restaurants  trade in 1960 when I designed a Smorgasbord in Laguna Beach.  Right after  that, I designed a pottery shop and store in Laguna Canyon for the Brooks, who introduced me to ceramics. My first pieces looked like large (12 16”) river-run  stones with a glaze similar to jade. These were very thin, paddle constructed weed pots with a small slot in the top.  We didn’t take photos much in those days, only of architecture. My interest peaked in about 1980 when Karen Kozlow and I started the “Sonoma County Potters Guild” in the back of the Roseland Post Office in Santa Rosa. A year later we moved to Graton where we built two roll-in Kilns and work areas for ten potters. This was a pre-cursor to our renovating the old condemned apple dryer across the street into the Atelier One Artist Studios.

 While I have your attention, below is a primer of how to attach an ergonomic handle to different size cups.

 Large cup.Heavy, support with lower finger, and index. Thumb holds it steady.

Add caption

 Small Espresso cup. Just a spot to squeeze or pinch. not much weight. Just thumb & first finger.

Medium Espresso. Note support by first & third fingers. 

 Thumb steadies.

ON A HOT DAY IN GHENT, BELGIUM    

A cold day in Honfluer, France, waiting for crepe with cognac & cider

ON A COLD DAY IN HONFLUER, FRANCE waiting for my crepe with cognc & cider

      

      BLOGMASTER NOTICE  - HELP!  I need a tutor for my new Kindle ebook reader.  If anyone out there can help me find a way around in it, I would be very thankful.   Example: I’ve ordered my own e-book (Education of an Architect) twice ($.99) but I can’t find it or get it to my Kindle .

                                                                                   

THE BURNING QUESTIONS OF THE HOUR: (I’ve been saving these up)

1.     Body hair; I can understand that we have left-overs from full body hair (from our brothers, Chimpansee?)  but why under arm pits ? (Helps sweat disburse?) Eyebrows (Same ) Head;( protect from cold & Ozone?) Beard? (Just to look cool?) but why over our genitals? It kind of works like a fig leaf for the girls, but doesn’t do much for guys, unless he has a really teenie weenie.

Now I’ve viewed Michelangelo’s David a couple of times plus many more of the replica outside in the Piazza Savronola and have missed the fabulous way M. rendered David’s pubic hairs. I’ve left off most of his penis so you ladies could concentrate on the fabulous way he carved the hair.  Is it just me?

TO CONTINUE;

2.      Why do males have nipples and no tits?

3.      Bible conundrums; Who was John and what was his purpose?  Didn’t he lose his head somewhere? And why?

4.    Where did the Jews come from when they went to Egypt?  Were they just nomadic Arabs like all the rest of the folks in the area? When did they get to Egypt and why? How many were there? 1,000? 10,000? Had to be before 1300 BC . Can’t we just see their heritage by checking DNA with the Palestinians?

5.    Do blind people see in their dreams? Do the deaf hear? Do the dumb speak? (They do when Trump opens his mouth).

6.    If testicles are so important for reproduction, how come they were built on the exterior of the body? Animals also. Maybe just so Michelangelo could do such a great job of rendering them in marble? (See above).  

HERE ARE SOME THINGS I HATE

I’ve almost forgotten why I started this blog about nine years ago. Don’t forget, you can go to the Archive list on the right side of the Blog and look at any one of my scribblings.

 I was exposing idiotic things that I hated but have kind of fallen down on the job of keeping up. But recently I visited the hugely expensive Seattle Library by Rem Koolhouse, one of the current Darlings of super & expensive Architecture and  I saw that our libraries (Even Sebastopol)  have subscriptions to about 60 magazines plus all the major newspapers of the US.  I can only hope they get all those free, although, it seems illogical in our economy to do so. But it does work well for all the Street people to keep up on the latest happenings in their little miserable world, at my expense of course.

I was just reminded that Pres. Reagan (The Gipper!) had this wonderful idea to stop the atomic missiles Russia was about to throw at us , he called it “Star Wars”, remind you of anything? Anyway, this program costs us 1.5 Billion dollars and it was a failure , It couldn’t work. Now that’s three times our annual budget for all Military spending. Is anyone in charge there?

You’ve heard me ranting about the architecture of the Sydney Opera House .  I still see everyone drooling over it but I wonder if it was the pre-curser to all the current Architecture which has departed from the Organic concept of “Form & Function are One” or “Form follows Function”?  In other words, you won’t see a short necked  giraffe , will you? Gehry, Calatrava, Hadid all follow Jorn Utzon’s formula; Way, way over budget(10 times?), no relationship to the use or function of the structure,  just a way to get one of your sculptures out there  on a massive scale. Let’s re-visit these buildings in 50 years and see if they look so swell.  Portlanders are already to demolish Graves’ Portland Building, (c. 1985?) a really stupid execution of a problem. Hopefully, they will save the large sculpture of Portlandia.

 

YOGA GIRL

For those of you that are fans of the YouTube video “Whole Foods Parking Lot”, the guy has a new one out there called “Yoga Girl”.  Wonderful stuff.

DON’T BLAME COLUMBUS

It’s become very hip these days to blame C. Columbus for the denegration of the American Indian. The poor guy never even set foot on North or South America, he was just trying to get to the Orient of India.  It was a lot farther than he imagined to his goal, but the Amercas got in the way. Why don’t you blame Cortez or the Spanish rulers or the Catholic Church?  Colombo  was just a minor player in the saga of the development of Earth, so just look in your history books and your globe,  you’ll see what happened to all indigenous folks who got in the way of taking over their land.  Count your blessings, Tonto, at least you’ve got a monopoly on the gambling casinos.