Yugo Nakamura: Flash Genius

Take a look at the different interactive thingies on the link above. Amazing stuff. I don't know what it's good for, but it's damn pretty!

Christo + Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, NYC, 2005

"The Gates" are finally up! It's taken over 25 years to happen, but those mental buggers Christo + Jeanne-Claude have finally got 7,500 orange "gates" into Central Park, NYC. Incredible.

I say incredible, but I don't mean that in an entirely positive way. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea. I love the ideas behind it and the presentation drawings were pretty great too. It's the wastefulness that gets to me. I can understand how an artwork can sell for $20,000,000, after all, it's upto the buyer what they spend their money on. What I can't understand is how people can think it's okay to invest $20,000,000 in the RAW MATERIALS and CONSTRUCTION COSTS for an artwork. That is just disgusting. Everyone seems to be saying "oh, but the artists are footing the bill" and "it'll all be recycled afterwards", but that's not the point. The point is the energy and resources expended in the construction. Even recylcing will only regain a small part of that energy.

For a better explanation of what I'm getting at, check out this article in the New York Times. For other stuff from the NYT or the artists themselves, just click on the photos. Seeing as the bloody thing's been made now, we may as well enjoy it. It's only up for 16 days. I wish I was in NY right now.

This is one of the artists' original plans.

A"Gate" being set up.

Impressive stuff, really.

Time off to remember....

Spent a really relaxing weekend in France with some family. A really good way to mark a first anniversary.

Got in a couple of days boarding and a LOT of sleep.

Now back to work....

Treated like a ginger step-child...

Stayed up to watch Superbowl XXXIX last night. Some American friends of The Lawyer were having a party in their flat in Peckham so we headed along late (got in an evening's work first) to watch the game, eat carb-heavy snacks and bemoan the fact that Sky Sports don't show the proper Superbowl adverts.

The comment above was made by one of the Sky pundits, who said that the Patriot defense were treating Dononvan McNabb "like a ginger step-child". Given that they were beating the hell out of him, I can only imagine he meant that as a bad thing. I wonder if he'll get sacked like Big Ron did. I doubt enough people were watching to notice.

I'm now knackered, with loads of work to do. Not good.

Saturday Mornings

Ahh. It's nice to have at least a bit of a routine occasionally.

On Saturday mornings it's all about heading down to the market for pain au chocolat and the weeks supply of good bread. Makes me feel all settled and domesticated...

...until I get back to my desk to work the rest of the day. Sigh.