Wednesday, 5 May 2004

Virtual Warmth There is something to that. In the early Eighties my brother and I used to rent a loft in Boston, a big 3,750 sq.ft. commercial space on a fourth floor, with direct access to the roof. I did all of the plumbing...schlepping an old fashioned water heater up four flights of stairs was quite the feat! We found a used claw-foot bathtub, which I raised on three pallets we found on the street for a better view out of the window. Anyway, every Friday around 5pm the heat was shut off and it didn't come back on until Monday morning...During the harsh New England winters one did not have many choices: - visit a girl-friend for the week-end..... - stay in the loft in bed and read. - light a ton of candles and put on some warm clothes. Just seeing the candles makes you feel warmer. Mind over matter! We had sanded down the old wood floors and left half of the big space completely open. Which means, we did have almost 2,000 sq.ft. of space to run around, bicycle, or roller-skate..... 12:04:17 PM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   First Look The DigiPak edition of "La Semana" will look like this, and was designed by a Brazilian, Alexandre Ludwig over at Epos in Cali4nia. I made the font from my hand writing. The first Luna Negra CD with all new original pieces since 1999's "Innamorare". And wait until I give you a little peak at the Limited Edition package! I am very excited about that one. 9:32:19 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Crash! Recently, the Saint George Island bridge in Florida was decommissioned and slated for destruction. That gave bridge engineers an interesting idea: Why not get a barge and smash it into the bridge a bunch of times, to see if the bridge survives? After all, intentionally causing collisions is precisely how the auto industry checks to make sure cars are safe; building-materials and airplanes and almost everything else is similarly stress-tested. But apparently the engineers did some research and found that nobody had ever tested a bridge for barge-collision endurance. As a story in Nature noted: "You cannot run a barge into a bridge intentionally if the bridge is in service," says Gary Consolazio of the University of Florida, lead engineer on the project. "There are just massive safety issues involved." So for the last month, they've been repeatedly slamming a 635-ton barge into the bridge. It's still standing. [collision detection] 9:04:34 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Designers.... ...and while I am talking about Design....I might as well tell you I threw away all of the food containers Philip Starck designed for Target this morning, after I broke another nail trying to open one. The devil is in the detail and too many designers are getting away with sloppy work. Starck also designed a water kettle named "Big Bertha" that spit aluminum flakes when I poured water from it. It was a gift someone gave me and after putting it on a shelf and looking at the useless object for a while I decided that since part of a household object is defined by its usefulness, I should have no room for crap like that and threw it away. 8:50:07 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   Just slap some fancy doors on it.... Music: Göran Söllscher - Suites for Lute Mood: interested The car for the movie "I, Robot". Since the Fifties, it seems to me that designers think all they need to do to make a car look more futuristic is to put some new doors on 'em. And doesn't this car look not just a little like the Lexus in "Minority Report"? I am not impressed with Audi. All of their new models have huge engines and lots of horse-power and not a Hybrid in sight. Very sad. 8:42:18 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   My view The calm before the storm. Only a month before we go out on tour. And somehow I am supposed to finish "1001 Christmas Nights". 8:34:23 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   'twas a lovely Day In the foreground is a piece by John F. Simon Jr. that hangs in a window. 8:31:15 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry   New Font.... My last post was a joke. Wired Magazine loves touting stuff as the future of mankind....remember when they declared "Push" to be the immediate future about four or five years ago? I find the typeface amusing, but nothing more. I mean, just imagine reading Wilber with that font...your brain would be in pieces... 7:40:16 AM  Permanent Link 2 this Entry

© Copyright 2004 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 01.06.04; 10:27:22.