Wednesday, August 31, 2005

nothing to say but....

nothing better to do. It's interesting because really, I could be doing some work right now, or doing whatever else needs to be done, but no... I feel like doing NOTHING right now. I can't even seem to read properly, which is a bit of a worry.
I got myself the "motorcycle diaries" by Che Guevara. The book, not the movie and it is quite interesting but my mind keeps wandering off non stop, to think of nothing though.
I wish Caz were here tonight, we could go have some fun, or just sit here and have some laughs but she will be here tomorrow night and we're finally going to see "Charlie and the chocolate factory" so I can't wait!!!! I hope it's as good as I imagine it to be. In my mind, it is the best movie of the year, but as I haven't seen it yet and am putting the bar quite high, I should be ready to be a bit disappointed, one never knows in this crazy world...
Tomorrow, we are going to visit the site for our design, which is about to start. It's the Elizabeth bay house and i'm hoping it will be interesting although, at this stage, I have absolutely no idea what the design will be about. I picked it for two simple reasons. Firstly, it's kind of the second round of the Barcelona adventure, and because it's an intensive design and will be over in a few weeks, which is good to have time to work on the other subjects. Oh and also, the tutors from Barcelona are coming for it, and they are alright....
The only thing that stresses me out about tomorrow and that a drawing exercise has been announced, and well, the least I can say is that I'm not very confident about my drawing (non)-abilities, and I have good reasons for that. Basically because I couldn't draw, even to save my own life... Oh well, i'll do what I can and try not to feel the pressure of competing against the many talented artists we have in our class......
Other than that, I had the "architecture and the consumer society" elective today and although very interesting stuff, the tutorial/discussion hour could be improved a lot. The debates don't tend to rise very high, mainly because half the people there have either not read the weekly reading, or because they don't know what's going on. So the discussion tends to involve only a few enthusiasts...
I also reunited with the gym bike yesterday. I went there for the first time in ages for the sole purpose of venting out the frustration that I had been feeling, for no particular reason, all day. I'm not sure why, but basically, i had no desire to be at uni yesterday and I'm starting to miss Chris more than is healthy. I just want him to be HEEEEEEEEERE and NOOOOOOOOW. I think it's because the end is pointing it's little nosy that i'm getting so impatient about it. I just want to scream "ok enough of that already, now it's time to be back!!!!!!!!!!!!!" aaaaagggghhhhh!!! wow i feel much better now, no not really but i think it's normal what i'm feeling, time does funny things and plays tricks on you.... so right now, when there really isn't that much actual time left, it has just seemed to slow down, maybe even go for a nap.......
Hum, well that certaily is a truly interesting and world-changing entry to this blog, but hey, it's been keeping me busy for the last few minutes, which was the point of it really.
Well, that's about it i'm afraid, when it comes to my most interesting life anyway. Just for an update and news from other people, I had a very nice conversation with marco today on msn and he hadn't been that talkative in quite a while. usually, i get monosyllabic answers, and that's when i'm lucky. Today, we talked about his new school, and volleyball, the friends he is making, how girls only fall for athletic playboys (that's not true and in time, he will figure it out), his two lockers and basketball hoop.... etc etc.... it was great.
My daddy is visting Paulu in Seattle at the moment, and everything seems to be going great. They went to Vancouver for the week end, and then back to Seattle, they are staying at Paulu's new flat in which he has moved a couple months ago. Now Mothe is convinced he is a saint, which we already suspected, since papa said that he saw a rainbow ending right on paulu's head.... in-te-res-ting....
I haven't heard from christo since last sunday, when he was in Greece, so i can't say anything new about my lovely angelito, but "great things come to those who waaaa aaaaait", so i'm trying to pretend i'm patient...
Ok, that's enough now, i know you are all playing dead by now, and I should be working on getting a life now.....

Monday, August 29, 2005

Epicure, Eastlakes and champagne barbie

Our new moto "everyday a new adventure" and well "it's meat o'clock" but that's not directly related to this entry.
This week end was full of unplanned, unexpected and unpredictable round the clock excitment so fasten your seat belts, or don't actually, and there we go...
I think we can all say that we gave a fair go to Coogee bay hotel, we spent more time there in the last few weeks than should be permitted and well, we needed a change of scenery, just for mental sanity purposes really.
Therefore, we met up in Annandale with ph (fff...) and Caz, and went to listen to Epicure. That was cool, the support bands were good as well and the beer was flowing and... hum... spilling but not by our fault....
fff lives right near king street in Newtown so it was a perfect location for him and caz to meet for the first time, and needless to say they got along like a house on fire... Everytime one of them left to get beer or go to the bathroom, the other one would tell me how cool and nice and fun the other one is.... it must be that french connection thing happening...
on saturday, we got up a bit latish, nothing shoking though but by the time we got off the couch and decided that we would go shopping, it was already 3 o'clock and considering the shops close at 5, by the time we got there, we would have had one hour to walk around, hardly worth it you might say, well we agree so we didn't go and sat on the bench at the bus stop for a while. it was a bit early to call it beer o'clock, but we had 0 ideas so just when we were about to give in to the piercing scream calling our names from the Royal, a bus arrived indicating it was going to Eastlakes. Well, since life should be an ever-lasting learning experience, we decided to find out what Eastlakes was..... don't be too fooled by the highly seducing name because we didn't see any lakes there..... The closest we got to a lake would have been a puddle of mud in front of the supa dodgey Eastlakes shopping centre... we walked around there for a few minutes, taking our time actually but it just wasn't happening for us between the turmoiling smell of decomposing meat and the artful displays of underwear (cf photo), we were out of there in no time. Just to make the experience fully enjoyable, we didn't take the bus home and prefered to walk. I don't think the amazement at the sight of aussie suburbia shall ever wear off. Each house is a more extreme manifestation of how to pack as much bad taste as you can in a 400 squared meters family house.... Anyway, let us not dwell on that...
40 minutes later, we were home and after a well deserved rest on the couch in front of Starsky and Hutch, we got up again, and walked down to the Regent for a $5 steack with the yummiest chips and peper sauce on the face of the earth..... Unfortunately, we were pretty much kicked out of our seats by a bunch of goths.... oh well, it was time to go home anyway....
Aaaaaaaaah, this is starting to get long and it's not finished yet.... just the beginning in fact....
On sunday, fff, Caz and myself went to a housewarming/champagne bbq/brekkie. That was fun, the weather was beautiful (hard to believe it is the winter), the food was great, the champagne had bubbles and both the cds they played were good, especially the first time they were played....
we had a donut-off-a-string-eating competition, Caz cheated by taking a bite before it started and still didn't win and i was hopeless, ready to choke between every bite.... fff didn't do too badly though, and so he preserved our dignity!!
We stayed there for a while, and well, we noticed that champagne, even in large quantities, doesn't make you drunk, just really tired with a headache, oh well, we're tough...
And because a week end is never over after a last beero at the Royal, we honored the tradition and got home after that. Christo called up and I giggled like a little girl for the entire conversation, meanwhile, Caz fell into a deep coma in the bedroom, and that was it for the week end of the century........ It was awesome!!

it's monday, this must be Mikonos...

Thanks for the title Mothy...
Here's a little update on the Chris saga, never tired, always on the go!!!!
After spending some time in Italy, where he went to Venice, Florence, Verona, Rome (he saw the dead and stuffed body of jean-paul in a glass cabinet, yuuuuk and they build architecture with the bones of 2000 dead monks, yuuuk again), naples, and Pompei (where they made plaster casts of the people who died there, kind of gross but i suppose it serves an educational purpose so it isn't nearly as bad), he is now in Greece, Athenes mainly, and different islands around there. To quote "it is white and blue", which I think is pretty cool and to quote again "I must have been spoiled with the australian beaches because they don't seem to come into shape here". Well, I shall believe that, because our European beaches can hardly compare to here, even the nicest ones. Also, the aussie beaches are more often populated by over-sized sting rays, than over-sized germans wearing nothing but birkies and socks..... hum, jean-paul isn't so bad afterall, at least he wears a massive cover-it-all red velvet robe most times.
Anyway, after a few days of enjoying the sites and maybe being slightly turmoiled by some unwanted visions, Christo will be on his way to Turkey.... We'll see what that brings... and the countdown has begun.... 4 weeks left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don't mess with .... Marco



hum, doesn't he look like an all-american star but better...? i must say that the pose on the individual one is good, you wouldn't want anything to happen to those babies... hihihi, he's the man!!

Friday, August 26, 2005

it's a dell

Hey yellow there, i'm not very good with updating this blog at the moment, nor am i with writing emails actually. I think i'm going through one of those out-of-it phases when days just seem to fly by and I don't have time to realise what is happening in the mean time, crazay stuff!!!
Anyway, I don't believe I have written about last saturday yet and well, it deserves an entry in the free-money-for-nothing category of casual jobs, not that i know of any others mind you...
So yeah, last saturday, Caz, nikki and myself were paid to be extras in an american ad for dell so we won't get to see it here but we will always remember those great times at the Seymous centre in Sydney.
We got there around 12:30 only to realise that it wasn't the intimate experience we were hoping for and joined what seemed to be the never-ending line of random extras. It turns out that there was 500 of us there, all being paid to do nothing... sweeto.
We went through the process of waiting in line, a wardrobe check, and a portrait of us holding up our names loud and clear.
After that, we got a feel of the real life and sat around for about 4 hours... on wannabee mies van der rohe couches please.
We had to wait until our batch of extras was needed for the shoot, so around 4 o'clock we went into the "studio" which was set up as a fake talk show, david letterman style, but this one was called the something something power hour (can't believe i forgot already, must have been the emotion). Our role was to be part of a fake audience so we chearfully contributed our clapping and chearing abilities to this worthy cause and in 1 1/2 hours or 2, we were out of there. No need to say that our little trio wasn't even close to the field of vision of the camera.... Oh well, celebrity and glamour will have to wait a bit longer....
By 6 o'clock, we had our bags and jackets and were ready to go home. So just to recap the facts, we were there for 6 hours, sat around for 4, clapped for 2 and we're getting paid for 8 hours (that is, if it ever happens because that's a whole new story that won't make it into the blog, not yet anyway) and about $21 an hour.... if you take the invaluable time to do the math on this one, it's about $150 after tax to do .... NOTHING!!! isn't it awesome!!! well, some might argue that the time spent being genuinely bored shall never come back, but i believe i can live with that idea. I don't think i will turn that into a carreer but that must only be personal because there were some pretty old folks there too, not just desperate-to-do-nothing uni students... all in all, it was a pretty fun experience and shall be considered for future plans... maybe... definitely if i never get a life, which is more than likely from my present perspective...
Love you all, fb

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

quote of one day



"without tv, it's hard to tell when the day ends and the other begins" (Homer Simpson)

Thursday, August 18, 2005

travel bug


I just spoke to Chris for exactly 6 minutes, before the stoooopid phone card hung up on us... again.
It's hard to keep track of my favourite travel bug in the northern hemisphere but after Venice, he is now in Verona (country of Romeo and Juliet, although apparently the balcony is "lame") and on his way to Florence. He didn't find Venice that romantic, but maybe being alone and surrounded by over-weight american tourists didn't do the trick... plus I almost forgot about the fearless pigeons you could step on before they would get out of your way....
Apparently, the Carlo Scarpa museum was wonderful (in Verona) and he is, I quote, "the best architect". I'm glad that was more inspiring than the balcony.
Overall, I miss him tremendously but what he is doing is well worth it and my only regret is not being able to join in the adventure... next time...
Soon, I'll be hearing from another trip, on another continent but still in the Southern Hemisphere for part of it, and I shall be heart-broken all over again but it is also for a good cause.
In the Northern hemisphere again, my little Texan family seems to be settling in quite happily and well, I'll just say, fear da warriors!!!!!!!
Papa will soon be traveling to Seattle to visit my dear Paulu and I can't wait to hear about that, I think it will be wonderful and so cute to imagine two of the most important men in my life strolling along the streets of Sea-lle.
All my love to all my most wonderful travel bugs and butterflies-to-be, FB

nokia 1100



Here's a portrait of my new best friend although the favor is quite unreciprocated since I'm not sure it works, it never rings anyway. Well, not yet my friends because I am back into the world of 24/7 interactive communication and let me tell you, it won't go unnoticed.... if i can manage to have more than 10 numbers (including mine) in the contacts list.... pretty sad at the moment.... Anyway, I have now proved that it is possible to live without a phone but I need to now focus on my social life rather than taking firm stands in this world of ever-growing consumerism. Just kidding, especially since I don't care if I ever only speak and see the people I already do, which is not many but one has to chose between quantity and quality, and although it might appear as the choice was made for me, I am still glad I have quality...

I am also glad to anounce that I am feeling much better today. All this tolerance level training has paid off and my body/machine has fought and won over the germs in just a couple days. The battle was a harsh one which involved a lot of aching, sweating, blowing and nightmaring but the forces of good have defeated those of evil.... muhahahahahahaha!!!!

Oh and saturday should be an exciting one since Caz, fish and myself will be starring in an ad, well as extras, for a computer company. the ad will only be screened in the states so mothe, watch out, here we come. The other cool thing about it is that we'll be getting paid for 8 hours of work when we might only be there for 6... hihihihi, that's good no? well we'll see if it happens that way anyway.

Alright, the only reason I am writing all this stuff is because I should actually be doing work right now so I am trying to find every possible excuse not to get back to it, I think I shall go to bed soon......

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other...... (ah good old jerry)

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

"day books" of Edward Weston



I think that so far, this is my favourite photo but I haven't seen enough for my liking yet so it can change but not so easily.... if you also want to see more, click here

I am sick today, how depressing and I thought i was unbreakable, sad realisation but I can't deny it since my nose now burns from blowing it way too many times and my head is all congested. Oh well, it will be gone in a few days and a winter isn't winter without it. Plus, it has been especially cold these last few days and so the combination of living in a fridge and only wearing thongs has revealed itself to be fatal......
On the other hand, and I should have been doing work instead, I have finished the "day books" of Edward Weston. Sadely, I hadn't realised that it was volume 2, on his California years and so I missed volume 1, in Mexico. That's annoying since he would have talked about Diego Rivera and Tina Modotti etc... probably not Frida since he only meets her in the California volume. I must say that it was especially exciting to read a random entry on her.... although he doesn't say much except that she is only little by the size and well, tell me something I didn't know...

In the midst of his quest for money without prostituting his art, and the inumerable mistresses, he also talks about photography, so although the other stuff is interesting and anecdotic, the photography parts are the most inspiring.
I think that what I have learned from him is that photography is a way of seeing and unlike other artists, Weston has not focused on what he sees but rather on how he sees it, therefore working with all kinds of subject matters ranging from vegetables, to nudes, portraits, landscapes, rocks etc.... with the same approach. I don't mean that all the photos are the same or that he was trying to express something common to all of them, but always, he tries to reveal the intrinsic beauty of nature, the shapes, the movement, the dynamism that is present in anything and everything if one can see it. One of the first things I learned in the landscape photography elective I took last summer (february in Sydney) is that a beautiful subject matter doesn't necesseraly make a beautiful photograph but what appears to be a banal subject can be revealed and sublimized by the skilled eye and a camera (or any other medium, although Weston only truly believes in the integrity of the camera). That idea of integrity, of recording reality as it is can obviously be discussed since it is after all guided by the human hand and before that the artist. It is the artist who choses the viewpoint, the type of lens, the film (colour, b+w etc...), and when the artist develops his own negatives, there opens a whole new realm of possibilities.
Nevertheless, Weston was aiming for perfection, or getting as close as possible to it. He took very long exposures (partly due to slow films at the time), with great depth of field (f.64) trying to record as much detail as available in the real thing, trying not to fall into the trap of expressing a mood, or an atmosphere or emphasizing one aspect more than the other. Sometimes, he added contrast with filters but most of the times, he tried to get the real tones. Basically, he tried to reveal the qualities inherent to the subject matter rather than creating an artificial representation of it using techniques like blur for example.
Again, his photographs are far from being boring and a mere recording of facts. They are often quite dramatic, abstract forms but they are not trying to force an interpretation this way or that way, they don’t have a message or a metaphorical meaning. They offer a new way of seeing, create interest and emotion because it is hard to believe that a pepper or knees can be seen like that and that nature can create such beauty if only one can look at it.


Monday, August 15, 2005

copy cat




The top photo is mine taken in Manly, the bottom one was taken by Edward Weston. I am reading his "day books" at the moment and it's very interesting. He talks about photography, sometimes, but most of the time, it's him running after a few dollars, and figuring out (or not) what to do about is multiple mistresses. I think that my Paris Hilton/badpacker demonstration over the summer proves that I would have trouble living that life of struggling artist, but it does sound very seducing.....................

this is why we will always go for the all blacks.......

Monday, August 08, 2005

busy week end afterall

on saturday, we went to an exibition at the mca with Caz. It was for a competition for a project in darling Harbour (architecture) and Caz' office team got into the 5 finalists (out of 500 entries) so that was exciting and interesting to look at for presentations and model ideas etc....
Anyway, we bumped into a few people from uni, including Lachlan and some of his friends or whatever they are. Sagar was also there with one of his friends so the four of us hung out afterwards and started a long loooong pub crawl from the city to Randwick where we ended up at that guy's place, right accross from the Royal. We were meant to go watch the rugby in coogee afterwards but didn't make it that far because we had, well a fair bit to drink ... quite an adventure and we missed the game, which is ok since it was NZ vs South Africa and South Africa won...grrrrrrrrrr.
Sunday, we woke up and we were feeling fine so we went for a little walk to have a nice coffee down at the spot and then we came back and spent way too many hours working on the damn assignment i had to do for professional practice. it's due tomorrow and i just finished it, it's pretty boring stuff.
Today, nikki and Andy and myself went to Cameron's house for a building services assignment, and we got it done pretty fast so we then had a barbie on the deck. it was really nice and his house is really cool.
So yeah, i just finished my assignement, now i have to read a thing for another class and i should be done for the day....
I know all of this is fairly uninteresting but I thought i would let you know so you can share a bit of what's happening here,
I'll write again soon, all my love to everyone who has the patience to go through all of this....

Friday, August 05, 2005

time flies when....

.... you're at Uni, bored to the core... Well another week has gone by and well, not much was achieved really.
I can't believe how fast this week has just gone, it feels like going from one week end to another without much in between, well besides classes. There is already a pile of things I could/should be doing and it's not happening, or if it is, the process is quite slow....
I ran out of books to read unfortunately so that leaves me with close to no ideas to keep myself busy. It's friday night so doing some work (which i have just tried to do) is not working so well, and Caz (my social life) is working tonight.... Maybe, I'll go rent myself a movie or re-watch the incredibles but that would be a bit tragic.... my social life is traaaaaaaaaagic!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, August 01, 2005

so posh so yuppy

Well that certainly is a fine day ending as I write another stunning entry in this stunningly interesting blog...
I woke up late, for a change. 1:30 to be precise but instead of staring blankly at my computer screen for the few hours of daylight left, I took a shower, updtated bopy, my new best friend and went for a really nice walk. Well, I only went to Coogee (again, for a change) but the way seemed pretty short with music busting in my little ears (nowhere close to 113 dbs for the worried ones out there). I wanted to sing along and did so when no one was anywhere close. I wanted to break the moves but restrained myself. I went and sat by my beloved rock pools for a while and when the sun was setting, went into a cafe to read for a bit. That's the best part I believe....
About two hours later, I was back home feeling all refreshed and glad to see the screen again. I even got a bit of work started, nothing very productive though but you've got to start somewhere....no?
That's about it really, but it put me in a fine mood and maybe, i'll do that more often. Aaaaah, ibops, they just change your life.........
I'm gonna read some more now if you don't mind, and i'll write again soon, love you, FB
ps : just for a little update, the apple of my eye (if that's how it's said in english) is in Lisboa at the moment but he needs to chill out because he's just racing around the place like a possessed man..... he's having a great time though and although, I miss him, I'm happy for what he's discovering through his beautiful green/black/red eyes.....