this is my message to you ou ou

hey, i'm baaack!!! it's been a while!!!
i've been pretty busy in the last few weeks, but only good stuff, lots of work and lots of social events!!! it has been good.
Chris is back toooooo!!! finally, after all these months he has been back on our beloved continent for a few days. he is in Albury now, and will be back for the week end, will go back to albury for a week or so, and then, he will be back for good..... it looks like i might have to share him because i'm certainly not the only one who's excited about his return, he's even getting a barby organised for the occasion this coming monday... it should be really good, but after that, he's all mine, miiiine!!!
His temporary return falls right at the end of the studio i am doing this week, and eventhough it won't be the ideal circumstances for a romantic reunion (i will probably be spending the night at uni the day he arrives in Sydney...), i still can't wait to run towards him with my hair floating in the wind on the Uni Mall...
The studio is going great so far, the lecturers are very very good, and the project is equally interesting. Difficult, challenging but great. Let's hope it continues that way. Still a bit to go but it feels like it's under control and on the great road to success... cross your fingers...
In parallel to the studio, I've been documenting it photographically. I'm having a really good time doing that, and although it's not, it feels like the first real project i take on using photography as my tool for investigation. I will be using the results for another elective this session, and i think it will be successful. The first couple rolls are quite promising and I'm enjoying every bit of it... we will see how it turns out but i am confident about it. Even if it doesn't turn out as I want it to, i will have no regrets. I think that it is also acting as a sort of mild therapy, helping me to get into the realm of photographing human beings, and giving me confidence with that. I don't feel ready to approach people on the street, so this is a scale i can handle and in just a couple days, I already feel stronger in my approach...
On the social side of things, I am loving every minute I can spend with my Cazita, who is nearly on her way to becoming the most beautiful dragonfly in the whole safari of life... I will miss you so much cazita/cazito, but have no fear, you'll still be with me everyday, whenever I hear "by the rivers of Babylon" on the radio, or when I walk by the Royal, or when I imagine reepers and gravelings on the streets.... they are everywhere....
I think that overall, life has been good to me lately, and it's a nice feeling. there will be ups and downs in the coming weeks, but as Bob says so brilliantly "everything is gonna be alright... everything is gonna be alright....this is my message to you ou ou..."

salaam namaste

I went to see a Bollywood movie last night with my friend Suajata from Uni. I has asked her to introduce me to the intimate universe of the largest movie industry in the world and it was well worth it. Plus, I'm usually the one showing off my tan but i hadn't felt so white since I went to a Cap Verde wedding ceremony...
The story was soapy and the fashion tendencies of Indian men was questionable but overall, i had a great time, it was refreshing and put me in a good mood. The singing was fun and it was heard not to take part in a bit of head and shoulders swinging action.... It was interesting to see what made people in the audience (99% indian, except for me...) laugh, the sense of humor they display is quite different since characters are pretty much caricatures of people and the jokes are pretty heavy and obvious but I can't deny that it made me laugh from time to time too, and, I know that might seem surprising but I actually found some charm in the main male character and couldn't help smiling at him.... weird....
I guess I hadn't realised that for a lot of people Bollywood is so real, with favorite actors, superstars, exciting movies coming out and such a big part of a different popular culture... All I can say is that it's a big world out there, and it was cool taking part in something new...

Well, it's sunday night and boy, this was quite the hectic week, so of course it just flew right by my open eyes... and i was mega busy, running around from the city to uni back to the city back to uni etc etc..., thinking about a million assignments at the same time and trying to make everything fit in so little time. It feels kind of good though, and eventhough it's a lot of work right now, i certainly like that much better than last session, that was such a boring version of hell !!! I'm feeling more active and am being forced to organise my time and be productive with it too. In the end, i've been putting more effort into things, getting pretty decent marks so far and, well, liking it, i must confess.....
the only problem is that i've been going to bed way too late and i'm feeling exhausted especially since these days, sleeping in is quite the treat and doesn't happen as much as i would like it to.... Surprisingly, although i'm really tired, i feel like i have a bit more energy to do things so it's all good...
Yesterday, Caz and I went to eastgardens shopping centre and we managed to find a few goodies. I came up with a moto to prevent myself from excessive consumption "if it's over 50, it's not for me!", firm and effective, no? well it worked even better than i thought because i managed to get a jacket, 2 tops, and a dress for precisely 50 bucks... what else can you ask for ?
Today, I went to Tina's in the city to start working on a design project. She lives in the CBD, on george st so that was exciting i guess. We didn't get much effective work done but we got some good ideas and a real starting point to work with... it should be fun, and i have never worked with her so we shall see how that goes... new experiences are good!
well taht's pretty much all i can think of for now so i'll let you go for now, and shall be back soon for more news

uber-productive

yeaaaaah today was so much better although i'm so tired that i feel almost like i hadn't slept at all. Anyway, no time for winging, and i can only blame myself for going to bed way too late.
I did everything that was on my schedule today, and I sill have time for more... brilliant!!! Went to E Bay house in the early afternoon, took all the measurements to draw the section due on thursday, and went to Bondi Junction and shot two rolls of film, legally too... well, I had the permission but it's a bit restrictive because I won't be able to go as much as I would need to... but i'll figure it out in time. At least, I should have good material to start with...
Mothe you're the absolute best in the world, i went to pick up the package and i luuuuuv every single thing in it, it's great, and i must say that the krispy cream paper hat is the booooomb!!!!
fff will be coming here tonight to have a look at the lappy baby since it's kind of sick right now, but should be all better after fff's magic takes care of it...
Alrightyo, I better clean up this pigsty before he gets here or he will never want to set foot in here again, and i might even do a little bit of work if i still have some time before he arrives....
I love you all soooo much, what would i do without every single one of you...???

counter-productive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Geez, is it just me or today is just not happening!!! I wanted to go to the site to work on the drawing assignment and of course, it's raining!!! So in an attempt to be productive anyway, I switched my planned schedule around and went to Bondi junction instead to start working on a new idea for the project, and of course, I forgot to bring the authorisation letter from uni so I take one photo and a security guard starts speaking to me in sign language style because apparently, it looked like a couldn't understand a word he was saying.... hum, I told him that I could understand him fine... So he started using his mouth, rather than the rest of his body to inform me that photos weren't allowed inside....
Conclusion, I will have to go back tomorrow with the letter and speak to the management service... and cross my fingers for them to let me do it.... with the letter, it shouldn't be a problem... we shall soon find out. Oh well, because I am so full of ressources, I will make today a at-home/theoretical research day, wouhou!! can you feel the joy?

early week-end

It's only saturday night and I don't really feel any frustration about not going out tonight, well a bit but not too bad since this week we sort of had an early week-end with Caz.
The grand opening of "Charlie and the chocolate factory" was on thursday night, so Caz came here right after work and we didn't miss our chance of being amongst the first aussies to watch it. And, as I was hoping, it was well worth it. Johnny Depp is such a good actor and that role reminded me of him as edward scissor hands, slightly weird, intriguing and sooooo charming.... well, sort of. I think I might want to re-read the book, i don't care if it's for kids, even better in fact.
Yesterday (friday), we met up with fff in Newtown and I brought my computer for him to transfer most of his music and a few other goodies, so basically, name it, i've got it now!!!!! i've been burning for hours and i'm still not finished..... good stuff!!!!!
From his place, we went to the Law review, the syd uni one, and although some jokes were impossible for the poor frenchies to understand, it was great. It was just amazing how well it was planned and prepared, it all went so smoothly and was very funny. Most of the skits were a few minutes, there were some in between bits that were about 20 seconds or so (i liked those, they were cool) and some much longer ones, well singing bits with dancing and everything, that was awesome, especially the grand finale. Although the subject (the bali 9) was sad, it was hilarious and well, it confirms that humor is a good way of talking about delicate subjects. of course, a bunch of guys in tutus probably helped too...... they were so cute though and they all looked so happy.
Today, I can't really say I did much work but at least I went out for a little bit. Went to Westfield Bondi Junction and spent most of my time at the bookstore.... hihihihi, that was cool, well in a geek sort of way but i love bookstores so.....
That's about it really, I've been burning eversince, and watching episodes of Daria, the second best cartoon ever, after the Simpsons of course.
I have to force myself to do work tomorrow, and I will, no choice in the matter really or i'll be in biiiiig trouble anytime soon,
Well, time to go to bed on this side of the world amigos, I'll write again soon, youhou!!!!!
ps : did i forget to mention that in one bit of the review, the students were......... (sorry about the bad quality of the photos but it's there... no?)

site visit at E Bay house

Design started today, and first things first, we went to our site for this project "changing spaces". The Elizabeth Bay House is a heritage building in the close suburbs of Sydney. It overlooks a "picturesque marine landscape" and is, apparently, a manifestation of the neo-classical/greek revival era.... or so they say.
It used to be a house, then it was divided into small independant apartments, and is now a sort of museum. From what I understand, the project will be to change it into a house again, or appartments, not sure...
I guess it was interesting enough, and certainly unusual on this side of the world, but really, the space I found most interesting was the central area and the staircase. It has an eliptic shape which, after enquiry, is because in that time, they were obsessed with natural studies and notably that the earth travels around the sun on an eliptic orbit, rather than the sun traveling around us on a circular orbit.......... Who knows......... the staircase is "geometrical" but I didn't exactly follow the explanation for that, but what I did get is that if you took out even only the first step, the whole thing would come crashing down, so basically, you don't want to do that. That space was interesting because it resembled an outdoor space but inside, with a sort of arcade creating an internal corridor distributing the upstairs rooms. Also the quality and amount of light coming from the windows around the ceiling, gave a completely different feel to the space, with the other rooms being generally quite dark. Of course, the double height and all the other spaces coming off this central space also gave it a quality of breathing space, at the center of a clustered and divided periphery........ Hum, ok this is all pretty jargonish bs right there and i'm sorry about that, i'm just trying to put into words how I felt before i forget... which should happen anytime soon.
We'll have to go back because we have to do some sketching there but the guided tour we had was an interesting starting point.......................................................................................................
That's all folks

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.....

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!!

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

quote of one day

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

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)

"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.

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.......

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....

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!!!!!!!!!!