Centrale Montemartini

I went to the Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini with my architecture class today. It's an amazing and stunning old power plant that has been converted into a museum. The museum showcases classical Roman and Greek sculpture alongside the original power plant machinery. The collision of the industrial world and the ancient sculptures is a beautiful and mesmerizing juxtaposition. These are some of the photos I took there.

  

  

http://www.centralemontemartini.org/

Beauty

"In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted [...] To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business--not always necessarily a means of escaping reality, but sometimes a means of holding on to the real when everything else is flaking away into . . . rhetoric and plot"
— Elizabeth Gilbert

Office Fancy: Local Natives

The CD 'Gorilla Manor' by the Local Natives has become one of our favorite CDs at the architecture office. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. 

"Gorilla Manor feels easy. Pristine and mature, it clouts the listener with a thudding barrage of vital guitar hooks and layered percussion; a dynamic product of accomplished creation, which sounds both radiant and wretched as it traces around themes of love and loss. Lyrics open windows on brief moments in a person’s life, often with a sweet perceptiveness that makes you smile. Polished and considered, this does not feel like a young band’s debut." -http://drownedinsound.com/releases/14829/reviews/4138337

 

http://www.thelocalnatives.com/home.html 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnTacC1qUmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn8xjONVOUg

All India Radio

"They’re one Sophia Coppola film soundtrack away from being the next big thing on the softer side of electronica. The music is beautiful and organic with enough depth to keep coming back for multiple listening sessions...delicate and intriguing” - Wonka Vision












Conceived in 2000 as an experimental music outlet for Martin Kennedy, All India Radio has steadily evolved by combining genres such as ambient, lo-fi, world music, post-rock and electronic without being a slave to any one. Often described as cinematic, All India Radio play gentle downtempo pop songs that utilise piano, strings and samples and sits somewhere between Portishead, Massive Attack & Brian Eno.
http://www.allindiaradio.com.au/

Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke VA

 

 

 

Wedding

So it's been a bit since my last post, but I've been crazy busy and getting ready for my brother's wedding. Here are some photos of the beautiful venue; Braeloch in Roanoke, VA

Miru Kim's Photography: Naked City Spleen

Miru Kim is a New York-based artist who has explored various urban ruins such as abandoned subway stations, tunnels, sewers, catacombs, factories, hospitals, and shipyards. She was featured as one of America's Best and Brightest 2007 in Esquire magazine. Her work has been spotlighted in various other media such as The New York Times, TED.com, The Financial Times, NY Arts Magazine, ARTE France, Ovation TV, Time Out New York, PopPhoto.com, The Korea Daily, La Stampa, Berlingske Tidende, VanityFair.de, and Dong-A Daily. Public collections of her work include Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art.
http://www.mirukim.com/

TED Talk: Miru Kim's Underground Art
At the 2008 EG Conference, artist Miru Kim talks about her work. Kim explores industrial ruins underneath New York and then photographs herself in them, nude -- to bring these massive, dangerous, hidden spaces into sharp focus.

Florence + the Machine; My Current Music Obsession

Excerpt from Florence + the Machine's Official Website:
Let’s talk about magic. Because music, at its best, is a kind of magic that lifts you up and takes you somewhere else. “I want my music to sound like throwing yourself out of a tree, or off a tall building, or as if you’re being sucked down into the ocean and you can’t breathe,” says Florence Welch. “It’s something overwhelming and all-encompassing that fills you up, and you’re either going to explode with it, or you’re just going to disappear."

http://florenceandthemachine.net/

Florence + the Machine: Dog Days are Over

Florence + the Machine: Cosmic Love

Florence + the Machine: Drumming Song

Florence + the Machine: You've Got the Love

Florence + the Machine: Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)

My Favorite Quote

"But forgiveness... I'll hold on to that fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own 'chiaroscuro', our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there is an awful lot of grey to work with. No One can live in the light all the time." 


-Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

An Amazing TED Talk from Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Genius