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Friday, April 28, 2006

Just like the Matrix - but for Cars!

Courtesy of Design Evanston's David Galloway and all the fine folks at skyscraperpage, here's a few photos on the striking Hochregal-Lager autopark structure designed by HENN Architekten for Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany. It's part of the Autostadt, which is described by one posting from Nexus6 as a "technology theme park". The all glass facade makes the automated process of storing and discharging cars a bit of street theater. As Autostadt's website describes it, "Collecting your new car is an event in itself. The best idea is to begin that special day with a relaxing trip to Autostadt followed by a tour until the big moment arrives: In a fully automated procedure, your new car is brought down to you from one of the 20-story Car Towers. Large signboards in the Customer Center show you when your turn has come. Then, you're handed the keys, your picture is taken, the glass doors open and your brand-new car appears. You're all set to go." According to Emporis, " Everytime a new car enters the tower, another car leaves it via the automatic underground transport system to the customer center. That happens every 40 seconds."

Maybe beleagured GM should give it a look. It would certainly be a step up from the massive, ugly concrete garages that have blighted so many downtown Chicago streets.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Chicago Symphony - The Dream of Gerontologist

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra needs a new music director - Daniel Barenboim conducts his last CSO concerts later this spring, and he's not coming back, not even as a guest - but it's in no hurry to name one. Names - Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson - have floated briefly to the surface, only to float away again like clouds dispersed to the wind.

At the moment, for better or worse or, quite possibility, out of sheer necessity, CSO management has a commitment phobia. To buy itself more time, today it announced the appointment of the venerable Bernard Haitink to the post of "Principal Conductor", with long-time Principal Guest conductor Pierre Boulez as "Conductor Emeritus." For the 2006-07 season, Haitink has added a second concert to the previously scheduled performance of the Mahler 3rd, and is scheduled to lead four to six weeks of concerts in subsequent seasons. Boulez is slated for three to four weeks a season. Both men will lead concerts on tour.

Boulez is a treasured friend of orchestra. Those lucky enough to have attended Haitink's concerts with the CSO this past March heard music-making of the highest level, and his new appointment is a great coup. Haitink had been away from the CSO for a very long time, and if this season's Beethoven 7th is any indication, he'll be an effective collaborator with the orchestra's musicians, and it should be bracing and refreshing to hear their take on the standard classics. As for Boulez, with the possible exception of next season's Ligeti Piano Concerto, he is spending his time with the CSO revisiting scores he's already conducted here. (Which doesn't mean that every Boulez concert doesn't still hold out the possibility of revelation: his Cleveland Orchestra recording of the Mahler 7th, which he will conduct again next season, was just such a performance, bringing out the glories of that difficult work while steering clear of the rocks of its incipient bombast.)

While both men still have so much energy it can be exhausting just watching them, Haitink is 77, Boulez 81. Both will participate in the management of the orchestra, but running a symphony in this digital age takes the strength of a body builder coupled to the endurance of a marathon runner. It could be argued that no orchestra has currently found the secret that doesn't have the added advantage of an iconic concert hall designed by Frank Gehry. The structure unveiled by the CSO today needs a third leg to be able to stand, and perhaps a fourth to actually run. For over a decade the CSO had just that. It was called the "Gang of Four" - music director Georg Solti, plus guests Claudio Abbado, Erich Leinsdorf, and Leonard Slatkin, all of whom had particular strengths that added up to more than the sum of the parts.

I still have doubts about the much-vaunted David Robertson, current Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony. A performance of the Brahms 3rd a few years ago reminded me of Leinsdorf - everything in the right place, the playing absolutely beautiful, but something missing in the way of emotion or a sense of overall line. Now, however, with Brahms, Beethoven and Schumann most likely safely in Haitink's capable hands, Robertson should be brought back for more concerts like the memorable March, 2005 evening that included Stravinsky's Piano Concerto, a solo performance of the Boulez 1st Piano Sonata, both by Pierre-Laurent Aimard, as well as Boulez's Ritual: In Memoriam Bruno Maderna, Messiaen's Sept Haikai, plus a performance of the traditional music that helped inspire it, by the Japanese Imperial Court Musicians. With Haitink holding down the classical rear and Boulez the contemporary middle, Robertson's kind of programming and music-making could be just the right counterpoint, one that moves symphonic music towards a much-needed revival.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

An Irishman Asks, "Can a Building be Jewish?", plus Lois Weisberg to be Honored at Archeworks Commencement

Two late listings of Chicago architectural events:

The first four Tuesdays in May, the Spertus Institute will be sponsoring a mini-course, Funny, It Doesn’t Look Jewish An Exploration of Architecture Of, For and Particularly By Jews. a series of noonday lectures, each including a Kosher lunch, by IIT Professor of Architectural History Kevin Harrington, that will explore the questions of "How can the structure of a building be analyzed in terms of its Jewishness? Can the symbolic or aesthetic appearance of a building be considered Jewish?" The price is $100.00 for members, $125.00 for non-members, advanced registration required via phone (312.332/1743) or email. More info on the Spertus website.

This Sunday, April 30th at 12:00 noon, Archeworks will hold its 2006 commencement, and present the Archeworks Honorary Diploma to Lois Weisberg, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner. She will be honored by Archeworks Co-founders Stanley Tigerman and Eva Maddox. Archeworks will also hold its final critique of projects presented by its students tonight, Wednesday, April 26th, from 5:30 to 8:15 P.M. Archeworks is located at 625 North Kingsbury Street. Get information and/or RSVP online or at 312/867.7254.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Soldier Field Landmark Status Stripped - Beyond the Spin

On Friday, the National Park Service de-designated Chicago's Soldier Field from its list of national historic landmarks. The 2003, $660,000,000 project , which saw a completely new stadium built within the original 1924 arcades, has spawned both heated debate over its architectural merits and a surfeit of nonsense over its landmark status.

In a Saturday story in the Chicago Tribune, reporter Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah quotes Ben Wood, whose firm Wood+Zapata collaborated on the new design with Lohan Associates as having "blamed the media, especially Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin, saying a barrage of unfavorable commentary influenced the federal decision." Kamin had made the new Soldier Field his own Baby Richard, filling up column after column of derisive critiques even after all doubt that the project would be built had been removed, and lauded the idea of stripping landmark designation as validating his campaign. In the opposing camp, the Trib says the city is claiming that designation was never about architecture - only about all the historic events that took place in the stadium.

A lot of spin avoiding the real issue. It's not that Soldier Field is a bad building, but that it is a new building. Keeping the colonnades doesn't make it the 1920's Soldier Field any more than placing 1989's 37-story Chase Plaza at 10 S. LaSalle between the Holabird & Roche's first and second floor facades makes the resulting structure that firm's 1912 Otis Building. No building, no matter how worthy, is designated a landmark the moment it opens - it usually takes fifty years or more. Soldier Field is dead, long live Soldier Field. Come back in a few decades, and we'll see if it's still considered an embarrassment, or if our successors will be fighting, in their turn, to keep it from the wrecker's ball.

Friday, April 21, 2006

re:Fab tonight, Grant Park Earth Day on Saturday and some final thoughts on the AfH newStand competition

Tonight, Friday, at 7:30 P.M., Civic Blueprint will be sponsoring a benefit at Salvage One for Architecture for Humanity. And on Saturday from 9:00 A.M. to noon, you can join volunteers from Exelon Corporation and the Grant Park Advisory Council and Conservancy as they celebrate Earth Day by helping clean up one of Chicago's great civic treasures. (Watch out for the goose droppings.)

The Civic Blueprint event is scheduled to include the display of winning entries from Architecture for Humanity/Chicago's newStand competition. Back in March, I criticized the way the group announced the winners on AfH/Chicago website with no other mention of how the entries could be seen than a reference to the $75.00 a ticket Civic Blueprint benefit. A week later pictures of the entries were posted on the website. There have been a series of responses to my two posts on the topic, eloquent and impassioned, and for convenience I've compiled them all in the comments section of this post, along with my own (final?) thoughts on the responsibilities of running a competition.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake - the Burnham and Root connection

Tuesday was the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Circled in red in the photograph accompanying this post is Burnham & Roots 1892 Mills Building, which for several years was the tallest in the city. It was built for Bank of California founder Darius Ogden Mills who bypassed the opportunity to build a hotel in Chicago in favor of an office building in San Francisco. According to John Wellborn Root chronicler Donald Hoffman, Root designed a structural system of "a steel frame anchored to masonry piers," which proved a strong enough buttress to survive the earthquake, although the building, including a sinuously winding, richly ornamented cast iron stair, was largely gutted by the ensuing fire. In 1908, it was rebuilt and expanded under the guidance of the successor firm of D.H. Burnham & Co., and remains a San Francisco landmark to this day.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Freedom's Just Another Word For . . . Another New Museum

New York couldn't get its Freedom Museum off the ground. Chicago's McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum is already open. From red-baiting Colonel McCormick, to wardrobe malfunctions, to Mae West and Charlie McCarthy, read all about the exhibits and new design by VOA & Associates and Gallagher & Associates - and see the pictures - here

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

AIA Chicago sponsoring Genesis competition to design its new digs

AIA Chicago needs to redesign its own offices at a location TBD. What better way than to have the Young Architects Forum sponsor a competition - Genesis: AIA Chicago. Registration began last Friday and will close May 1 at 5:00 P.M. At noon this Friday, April 21, there will be a tour of AIA's existing offices at 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 1049.

In the competitions' first stage, "entrants will be asked to provide conceptual design proposals that meet the stated mission and requirements of AIA Chicago. These submissions will be judged and 5 finalists will be awarded. In Stage 2, finalists will meet with AIA officials to discuss the requirements and expectations of stage 2, and will then be judged based on them and their teams' professional qualifications to execute the proposed design. A winner will be selected and will be presented with the opportunity to negotiate a contract with AIA Chicago and to execute their design."

The competition is open to "students and/or professional architects" who have been registered for less than 10 years. AIA membership is not required. Registration is $35.00, or $50.00 after May 1.

There's more information on the website, including guidelines and requirements, and on-line registration.

Monday, April 17, 2006

A Great Piece of Urban Theater Returns for the Season

One of the great pieces of urban theater returned to Chicago this past Saturday with the first of this year's boatlifts, opening up the Chicago river's sequence of bascule bridges to allow tall-masted sailboats to travel to and from Lake Michigan. Chicago has more of these moveable bridges than any other city in the world. Until not that long ago, maritime rules required the bridges to be opened for any boat, at any time, but in our more efficiency-driven age a deal was struck with the feds to limit the lifts to one a day on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. spring to fall.

The efficiency has minimized traffic jams but stolen away still another bit of the romance of the city. You used to be able to look down the river and see the upended, split roadboads of several bridges soaring up in salute to the riverfront skyline. If this Saturday was any indication, the Chicago Department of Transportation now allows only one bridge to be opened at a time. For boaters, the experience must be something between a leisurely sail down the Chicago River's rich waterfront to an stop and start ordeal that begins at 8:00 A.M. but doesn't hit the Loop until 11:00.

On Saturday, the wait at Dearborn was even longer, as the tender strained to get the bridge to move, ultimately only getting only the south span to rise. The small parade of boats included a pair of Canadian geese, swimming along, bringing up the end.

If you're want to learn more, as part of its Live & Learn program, the Latin School is sponsoring a course beginning at 10:00 A.M., Saturday, May 13th called Chicago's Moveable Bridges: An Inside Look. Tom Powers, chief bridge engineer and deputy commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation will take participants inside the Lake Street Bascule Bridge during an actual bridge lift. Check out their website for details and for a pdf registration form, or call 312/582.6035

Monday, April 10, 2006

With a lot of Loopla, ABC 7 opens new street level studio

We'll give you more pictures and description later, but for now, here's a couple shots from this mornings ribbon-cutting ceremonies for ABC7 Chicago's new street-level studio built in what was originally the lobby of the State-Lake Theater. Mayor Daley, the Jesse White tumblers, and a bevy of Channel 7 news anchors were all in attendance.

The Trib acknowledges death of newspaper

In this morning's Chicago Tribune, a small Editor's note appears in the lower corner of the front page of what would usually be the business section. "Today's report on first-quarter mutual fund and stock performance takes the place of the Monday Business Section. Regular Monday news and features, including Ask Jim Why and the rest of the weekly Technology offerings, will return next week."

Translation: we think we can pinch a few pennies by forgetting about doing any reporting for a day and substituting a canned section, and we're betting you won't even notice and still actually think we're a daily newspaper. Hell, if you really wanted news, you'd be on the internet!

Lagrange outstretches palms on Prairie

Reporter Laura Putre and the neighborhood newspaper Chicago Journal scored a scoop last week in publishing early renderings of a proposed development to be designed by Lucien Lagrange south of the Loop. The project, dubbed 1712 S. Prairie by its developer Keith Giles, would consist of two towers, one 33 stories tall, the other 45, offset above a shared podium.

Lagrange has made his mark as Chicago's architect to the affluent, creating a series of backward-looking projects like 65 E. Goethe and the truly execrable Elysian Hotel & Residences, a sixty-story mishmash where "The style incorporates both Second Empire and Art Deco motifs . . . ," including a carriage courtyard so retrograde in design it will let the projects monied residents imagine they've just crushed the Commune. Such projects reinvite Ruskin's judgement of "an architecture in which intellect is idle, invention impossible, but in which all luxury is gratified, and all insolence fortified."

Every so often, however, Lagrange is hired by a developer who sees architecture as something more than a masked ball, and his office comes up with something like the now stalled concrete and glass tower that was to built behind Michigan Avenue's Fourth Presbyterian Church, or a true masterwork of recent Chicago architecture, Erie on the Park, done for developer William Smith's Smithfield Properties.

1712 S. Prairie is in the same mold, although perhaps not in the same league. Next to the innovative and visually striking molded terraces of Jeanne Gang's new Aqua tower, the way Lagrange expands or contracts his terraces to have the profile of his buildings appear to "tilt" outward like outstretched palms seems a little too linear and foursquare. Still, I'll take it over the Pinnacle any day.

The Chicago Journal article also includes a good overview of the battle that may be shaping up as to whether the project is appropriate for its historic Prairie Avenue district. One group, Prairie District Townhomes, is opposed, while proponents include both the Great South Loop Association, and the Glessner House Museum, which, coincidentally or not, has just received a commitment from the developer for a $600,000 gift.

Friday, April 07, 2006

David Chipperfield lecture among additions to April calendar

An April 26th panel on Careers Paths in Planning and Architecture, co-sponsored by Women in Planning and Development, and Chicago Women in Architecture, is among the late additions to the April calendar of architectural events. The same night, IIT has added a lecture at Crown Hall by British architect David Chipperfield, whose new Des Moines Public Library opens tomorrow. (Chipperfield's website is one of those with the annoying presumption of expanding your browser window to fill ever square inch of your screen, no matter how big your monitor is, despite the fact that the actual image area never expands beyond a small set square in the middle.) It's also the same night that Archeworks will hold its Spring Final Critique.

Also at IIT, a scheduled April 11th lecture by S. Faisal Hassan on John Cage has been replaced by one by architectural and art photographer Todd Eberle.

Finally, on Friday, April 21st, Civic Blueprint will introduce itself to Chicago with ReFab, a benefit for Architecture for Humanity at remnant reseller Salvage One.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Rem Koolhaas: Faster Architect! Build! Build!

Courtesy of the indispensable ArchNewsNow newsletter, here's a link to a great in-depth interview of Rem Koolhaas by Der Spiegel's Matthias Matussek and Joachim Kronsbein. It covers a lot of ground, with the expert interviewers getting Koolhaas to talk of his stint as a scriptwriter for Russ Meyer, maker of porn films Koolhaas labels "the last form of humanism"; to defend both his work for Prada and CCTV, and ugliness in the service of appropriateness; to name The Pantheon as his possible nominee for world's most beautiful building; and even to admit, after testily trying to dismiss a question about architects not having to live in the buildings they create ("Oh, come on, now, that's really trivial") that "I live in a Victorian apartment building in London." It offers up an essential insight into Koolhaas, his thoughts and contradictions, and an exemplary example of the interviewers' art.

A Dying Wallflower Reveals a Buried Sun

In the 19th century, the U.S. government got railroads built by awarding the owners wide swathes of land on either side of the tracks. Today, the Chicago Transit Authority is reversing the process.

The agency has undertaken a half-billion-dollar-plus project to increase the length of station platforms along its Ravenswood Brown Line to accommodate longer, six car trains. But instead of a surgically precise approach that respects the surrounding urban fabric, the CTA, as is its nature, is responding with a bludgeon, a massive land grab that is leveling huge tracts of land adjacent to the "El". At the Fullerton station, it's meant the demolition of the historic 1929 Hayes-Healy Center on the Depaul University campus. At Belmont, an entire half block north of the station has been laid waste, and a couple of weeks ago, the CTA's bell tolled for a homely three story building that for decades had served as a surplus store, its stolid brick walls sheltering commuters from icy lake winds even as often frayed displays in station-level windows hawked the store's wares.

The two new stations are being designed by Ross Barney + Jankowski. The original designs offered translucent canopies and glass platform planks to return light to the streetscapes that the heavy "EL" structure has traditionally darkened, however, there have already been cutbacks due to the CTA's inability to manage budgets, which it inevitably deals with by punishing its passengers, first by cavalierly going back on its promise to keep all stations open during rehab, and now at the Fullerton, by cutting back the protective canopy from the length of ten cars, down to four.

A corruption of values has tarred the entire project. The Gothic grandeur of Hayes-Healy is thrown away with scarcely a second thought, while community groups expend massive amounts of energy preserving original station houses which offer up less a rich window on the past than a numbingly barren mediocrity.

We like to flatter ourselves that we're a big, brave city when it comes to creating civic architecture, but the sorry way the Brown Line project has played out says otherwise. Anything as bold as Busby Associates Brentwood Skytrain Station in Vancouver seems completely beyond us.

Back at Belmont, the old surplus store did not go gently. As the long brick wall along the tracks was dismantled, the interior support structure was revealed for the first, last and only time, wood columns and beams almost Miesian in their spareness and simplicity, leaning and bent with age, but bearing up bravely, standing in wait for their final obliteration with a humble eloquence. And along the top floor, a yoke seeping through its newly cracked shell, a wall painted a surprisingly intense, yellow blazed beneath the crisp blue sky of an early spring day, a last defiant mirror of the sun's eternal fire.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Dr. Fischer enters the 4th Dimension

Joseph Burns of engineering firm Thorton-Tomasetti has called Martin Fischer the "rock star of the 4th Dimension." The Swiss-born Stanford University Professor was at UIC Monday night to talk about the effects and potential of 4D modeling in the field of construction. 3D modeling has been around for a long time. The swirling forms of Frank Gehry buildings like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Pritzker Pavilion in Millenium Park would be impossible without the CATIA software, originally developed from CAD programs for aerospace, that insure that the wide range of irregular parts, each with its own discrete shape, don't offer up any nasty surprises by not fitting together when assembly takes place on-site

The 4th dimension is, of course, time, and in Fischer's world, this means modeling that not only provides visual simulations to aid in evaluating and marketing specific designs and the 3D construction models that bring all the elements - structural and mechanical - of a building together to insure, to cite one example, that a large pipe and an impenetrable beam are not inadvertantly sharing the exact same location, but that also plots out those modelings over the full construction cycle. To illustrate, Fischer played a 4D simulation that revealed that a huge cooling unit was planned to be added to a building after the construction of the structure left no opening wide enough to actually bring it in. The 4D simulation prevented this rude surprise from actually happening by prompting the structure to be modified to allow an ingress large enough for the cooling unit to be slid in at the appropriate point in the schedule.

Fisher heads up the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, which defines its mission as being " the world's premier academic research center for Virtual Design and Construction of Architecture - Engineering - Construction (AEC) industry projects." The website is enlivened by streaming video of actress Cameron Diaz's participation in a class of sustainability this past October. Stanford also hosts a 4D CAD Research website with a host of project simulations posted, although they seemed to have stopped after 2002.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Over 50 Hot Dates on April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events

April finds over 50 architectural events in Chicago - including nearly 20 this week alone, with scheduling trainwrecks at 6:00 both on Wednesday (Robert Irwin at Crown Hall, David Brown at Archeworks and Steven Ehrlich at the Graham Foundation), and Thursday (the Design Evanston 2005 Design Awards,a lecture on Mie's Landhaus Wolf at Crown Hall, and a symposium on open space with Alexander Garvin,Charles Renfro and Ed Uhlir at CAF) Plus lectures by Martin Fischer and Brigitte Shim.Archesworks Spring final critique, The Modern Ball at Millennium Park benefiting the Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute. We could go on and on, but check it all out for yourself here.


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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Blogging and Earning

I got a lot of link exchange requests recently. Some of them are from friends, and some are from bloggers who are strangers to me. But for a personal blogger like I am, this is good news. It doesn't only mean that I'm gaining new friends -- my blog's visitors are also increasing. And it's also interesting to visit and read their blogs. Most of them are newbies and hopeful to be get paid to blog.

Well, newbies out there, it’s never easy to get paid for blogging. First, your blog must be interesting enough to generate a high level of traffic. And last, you must be able to sustain it. This is where my problem came in, actually. I cannot sustain a regular blog writing schedule due to a lot of reasons. Even though I’ve found several advertisers, a good service provider with regular writing assignments and pays me on time is a real blessing. I get to write about the topics that I want, and I get paid for that. Surely blog advertising is a lot of help for bloggers like I am.

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Monthly Archives: July 2015

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Movie Trailer – 10,000 Saints

Category : Movie Trailer

Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ethan Hawke

Release: August 14th, 2015

I guess it’s a little bit early, but I just don’t think that Asa Butterfield is a good actor.  Neither Hugo nor Ender’s Game were very good, and I just don’t see a lot of talent there apart from the impression he made as a kid.  Same thing goes for Hailee Steinfeld, who hasn’t done anything great sine True Grit.  The film as a whole looks heavy-handed and I don’t think I’ll be making it a priority.

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DVD Review – Big in Japan

Category : DVD Review

Director: John Jeffcoat

Starring: Phillip Peterson, Sean Lowry, David Drury

Year: 2014

John Jeffcoat’s first (and only) feature-length film was 2006’s Outsourced, a comedy about a manager who moves to India to supervise a call center.  The movie was a success, and apparently warranted a spinoff TV series by the same name, although it would only last one season.  Afterwards, Jeffcoat went to work for MTV, shooting behind-the-scenes footage of Seattle bands.  While there, he met the band Tennis Pro, a trio of musicians who wanted a documentary team to accompany them overseas where they hoped to gain an audience for their music.  Too bad there was no money for the trip, no script for the movie, and no idea how to get things rolling.  But after a successful Kickstarter campaign, the band & crew headed to Tokyo, created a semi-fictional docu-drama, and lived their dream of becoming big in Japan.

The Movie

Phil is an unemployed family man who isn’t happy being a 9 to 5 guy.  David is a professional gambler who is down on his luck.  Sean is a hairstylist who is tired of his clients.  Together, they are Tennis Pro, a pop/rock band from Seattle that has been struggling to find an audience since its inception and that hasn’t created new music in years.  When they meet Alex, a crazy ex-rocker, he proposes a daring plan; take the act to Tokyo, play some shows, build a fan base, and come home to America as heroes.  Phil’s wife isn’t thrilled, David loses all the possible seed money, and Sean’s girlfriend threatens to cut off his buddies’ balls if he cheats on her with a Japanese girl.  But Tennis Pro, after many false starts, is finally on the road.

Or, more specifically, on the plane, and where they’re headed is a place they’ve never been, an experience they aren’t at all prepared for.  Alex, acting as their manager, doesn’t seem to know exactly what he’s doing, the venues that the band is playing in are tiny, the hotels that they’re staying in are even smaller, the food is weird, their luggage is lost, no one attends their shows, and this trip to Tokyo seems like a giant disaster.  But the guys believe in their music, and slowly the city begins to feel like a second home.  Phil makes friends with a free spirit named Mans, David begins what could be a promising relationship with a local girl, and Sean tries his best to curtail his despise for Alex.  The trio are so close to finding fans, and when an earthquake hits the city, they may be the only band who doesn’t cut & run, setting them up for the success they have always dreamed of.

What an odd, odd story behind a movie, let alone the story of the movie, which is equally as strange.  I had to look all the information up after watching the film, because I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing; actors or musicians, scenes or concerts, mockumentary or documentary, fiction or fact.  Turns out, it’s all a bit of both, and, honestly, the movie would have been excellent either way.  What we have here is a real band performing at real shows as they really try to get an audience to support their music.  These aren’t actors, and even the side-characters are played by the crew, so Big in Japan becomes a movie that’s half documentary.  But only half, because the story is fictionalized, the plot is crafted, and this isn’t real life.  Except, it kinda is.  Confused yet?  Well, thankfully, it doesn’t matter, because the film is great however you look at it, entertaining from every angle.

First, the music is incredible, a mix of rock & pop that Tennis Pro pounds out with equal parts true talent and pure charisma.  Their songs are imaginative, classic, funny, beat-driven, and always cool, creating a real-life soundtrack that those of us who don’t live on the west coast are lucky to have heard as live as we could get it.  Secondly, the film is filled with hilarious action and lovable characters, with a pace that keeps audiences interested.  It’s the antithesis in many ways of films like God Help the Girl, which is much more fanciful, romantic, studio, and ultimately unbelievable.  Big in Japan is a film that always feels real, adult, physical, and likeable, mirroring a band that exhibits those same characteristics.  It’s a quirky way to make a movie, but perfect for what the band was intending, and I hope they win more hearts than mine, becoming big not only in Tokyo, but everywhere.

Video – Presented in widescreen color format, and without any other details to share, the video quality of Big in Japan takes a backseat to, well, everything else.  It’s a very personal visual, following the characters closely and intimately, but without the high picture quality that we’ve come to feel entitled to.  The shot selection of the film is much stronger than the camera clarity, but that fact only adds to the documentary feel and the realism of what we are seeing.

Audio – The only audio option on the DVD is the ability to turn English SDH on or off, and no other audio details are available.  The sound quality of the film is the same as the video; poor, but understandably so, and even presented in a way that aids the goal of the movie, which is to give audiences an all-access pass to Tennis Pro and the tour that launched their career.

Extras – There are a large number of excellent extras on this disc.  The film can be viewed with commentary in two forms: either from the band (Phil Peterson, Sean Lowry, David Drury) or from the director/crew (John Jeffcoat, Ryan McMackin).  There is a behind-the scenes segment that runs for two minutes and features a song from the band laid under BTS footage.  A seven-minute interview section can be viewed, with discussion about the film from the director and cast.  There are five trailers available: Big in Japan, Wetlands, Cupcakes, Living is Easy, A Wolf at the Door.  And there are five music videos as well: Fishin’, Kimberly, Mix Tape, Rock Over Tokyo, Shopping Day.

Final Thoughts

Highly RecommendedBig in Japan is more than a movie or even a true story.  It’s the documentation and entertaining presentation of a journey that changed the fate of a band, the humble concert tour that will seem so familiar to so many, and hopefully inspire a few.  It’s half-realism, half-fantasy, but all-encompassing in its honest portrayal of the American rock dream.  Tennis Pro is a talented, exciting band, but beyond that they’re also an example of the struggle to succeed and to be heard; something we can all understand, which makes them all the more lovable.  The video and audio qualities of the DVD won’t impress, but they’re adequate for the format, and the extras on the disc make up for a lot.  Indie, quirky, off-beat, musical, very very strange; these words might all describe parts of both Big in Japan and Tennis Pro, but you’ve got to watch them work to understand their work, and words will not suffice.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Content

☆ ☆ ☆ – Video

☆ ☆ ☆ – Audio

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Extras

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Replay

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Movie Trailer – I Am Chris Farley

Category : Movie Trailer

Director: Brent Hodge, Derik Murray

Starring: Chris Farley, David Spade, Adam Sandler

Release: July 2015

Quite sad, and quite a look back on the life of one of America’s greatest comedians.  Farley’s characters on SNL remain some of the funniest to ever air, and his movies were a ridiculously fun time.  This documentary must have been very painful to make for the interviewees, and I’m interested to see their take on Farley, his talent, and what he meant to each of them.

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Sports – 2015 NFL Predictions

Category : Sports

The 2015 NFL season is almost upon us, with Free Agency and the Draft complete, Training Camps beginning, and the Regular Season right around the corner.  It’s time for Olie’s Too Early To Tell Season Predictions!  Here’s to another great year!

AFC Division Winners

NFC Division Winners

AFC Wild Cards

NFC Wild Cards

Super Bowl

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Movie Trailer – Phoenix

Category : Movie Trailer

Director: Christian Petzold

Starring: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf

Release: July 2015

I saw and enjoyed Barbara, which was directed by Petzold and also starred Hoss & Zehrfeld as the two main characters.  That film was very subtle, very understated, and required great acting to create a very certain mood.  This time around, the action looks a little more thrilling, the plot a bit more soap opera, and the drama much more intense.  I’m willing to take a chance of a movie whose trailer didn’t blow me away, especially with a team like this and some good early buzz.

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DVD Review – The Luzhin Defence

Category : DVD Review

Director: Marleen Gorris

Starring: John Turturro, Emily Watson, Geraldine James

Year: 2000

In 1930, Vladimir Nabokov wrote the novel entitled The Luzhin Defense, a book that would be translated into English in 1964 under the title The Defense, and later would be adapted into a screenplay for this 2000 film.  Nabokov is best known for Lolita, written in English in 1955, and made into two films: one in 1962 and the other in 1997.  But while Lolita represents his middle period of work, The Luzhin Defence represents the beginning of his career, when this trilingual artist was still writing in Russian and perfecting his craft.  This film also represents Nabokov’s passion for chess.  He was the composer of many chess problems, or puzzles using chess pieces to obtain a set goal.  Nabokov saw chess as an art form, a challenging endeavor that forces both inventiveness and mental exercise.  The Luzhin Defence is a cinematic example of Nabokov’s dark dramatics combined with his love for the game of chess.

The Movie

The troubled main character of this film is Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin, nicknamed Sascha.  As a boy, Luzhin was mistreated and mishandled by his parents; sent to a prestigious Russian school that typically did not take emigres and denied his desire to play chess after it was decided that his poor health was connected to his new-found obsession.  Eventually, and during the complete collapse of his parents’ marriage, Luzhin would be allowed to follow his passion, but specifically under the tutelage of his former teacher, Leo Valentinov.  The pair would begin a European tour, honing Luzhin’s chess skills, proving his ability, but separating him from the family he once knew.  Growing up with becoming a Grandmaster as his only goal, Luzhin would be denied the ability to become a balanced societal member, changing into an unstable competitor whose life revolves solely around a game.

Many years have passed, Luzhin is a grown man, and he travels the world from tournament to tournament, both feeding his obsession and chasing the dream of being the best chess player in the entire world.  At an Italian resort awaiting his next test, he meets the beautiful Natalia Katkov and his life changes forever.  He is smitten with the young aristocrat immediately, asking her to marry him mere hours after they meet.  She, along with her mother, is on holiday and perhaps on the lookout for a fine suitor.  But Luzhin is not what she had in mind, though she can’t help but be intrigued by his oddity and his genius.  As the tournament commences and Valentinov reenters the picture, Luzhin must begin the most difficult challenge of his life, not on the chess board, but within his own mind, with the loss of reality at stake and love the ultimate prize.

This film feels 150 years old, not 15, but somehow a talented cast & crew turn that into a good thing.  The action is set in the 20s, with Luzhin’s boyhood scenes depicted many years before.  And so the period piece element is present, but that’s not what makes this film seem so old.  Had you come into it blindly, it would feel like the movie was shot decades ago, so excellently was the effect pulled off.  The dress, the sets, the mannerisms, the accents, the dialogue; it was a modern Casablanca placed years before, filmed years after, but succeeding in producing a classic cinema feel that only needed a signature song to complete the illusion.  But somehow the movie never seemed dated or forced, always felt very proud of its place in time, and gracefully slid across 1920s Italy while actually being filmed in Budapest as we all prepared for Y2K.

Give credit to the actors for pulling off the charade, but also to the author, screenwriter, and director for creating such excellent & timeless characters.  Luzhin was an insane protagonist who we quickly began to understand and empathize with, Turturro playing him perfectly and with finesse.  Emily Watson as Natalia, a part that never receives a name in the Nabokov novel, was both sturdy and realistic, allowing audiences to fall in love with her quirky partner just as she did.  But the character I loved/hated the most was that of Leo Valentinov, played by Stuart Wilson, the consummate villain, whether in The Mask of Zorro or No Escape.  He was brilliantly evil, a terrible human, an antagonist for the ages.  And combined, each actor brought a piece to the film that worked, crafting something smooth that felt classic but brought modern quality.  If perhaps the subject matter doesn’t arouse much excitement, and if the last 30 minutes bring down what was building up to be something grand, the film, taken as a whole, is still an impressive & surprising cinematic feat.

Video – With an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, the video is surprisingly lacking in texture & clarity.  The film feels decades older than it actually is, both in presentation and appearance, concerning itself less with visual perfection and more with a classic approach. The picture quality is fair, but unspectacular, much less crisp & beautiful than the year this film was made should dictate.

Audio – The DVD is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Digital, with no other language or subtitle options.  Actually, this DVD has no menu, and so no features can be changed in that way.  The sound quality of the film is as lackluster as the video, but, again, this only adds to the classic feel that the film attempts to convey, immersing us in the period completely.

Extras – There are no extras on the disc, as the disc has no menu.

Final Thoughts

RecommendedThe Luzhin Defence is an oddity of a movie in many ways.  First, the story is about an extremely eccentric character created by a rarely talented man.  This combination of unique genius creates a very intricate dynamic that feels off-putting at first, at least until you begin to care for Luzhin and root for him to succeed.  Secondly, the film seems so old, so dated, and the entire team works hard to pull off a certain classic vibe.  They succeed, which is odd in itself, transporting audiences back in time to the life of an extremely unusual man.  This makes for a surprisingly entertaining experience, but one that is certainly atypical.  With good acting & a unique plot, the film works, but it always feels like an experiment that could go wrong.  The ending does feel a little out of place, but by then the hope is that audiences will be hooked, and I was, partially, enjoying the characters enough to want to know what happens to them.  The video and sound make the story seem so ancient, and the lack of a menu of any sort on the DVD creates a sense of time out of place.  This is a movie made for aficionados, not for the average audience member, but there are pieces here that deserve applause, even if the entire package isn’t perfect.

☆ ☆ ☆ – Content

☆ ☆ – Video

☆ ☆ – Audio

☆ – Extras

☆ ☆ ☆ – Replay

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Movie Trailer – Sicario

Category : Movie Trailer

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin

Release: September 18th, 2015

After Prisoners and Enemy, I can only imagine how excellent this film will be with Villeneuve at the helm.  And with this cast?  Fagettabowdid.  Emily Blunt is on fire, and if her role is more Edge of Tomorrow than Into the Woods, all the better.  Benicio Del Toro seems made for this role, and Josh Brolin knows exactly what to do in a movie like this.  I see a Best Actress nomination coming Blunt’s way.

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Book Review – The Little Prince

Category : Book Review

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Year: 1943

The Little Prince is the 3rd-most translated book in the world, having been written in more than 250 languages.  It was also voted the best book of the 20th century in France.  And it is 4th on the list of the best-selling books of all-time, right behind A Tale Of Two Cities, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit.  Pretty impressive stuff, especially for what amounts to a children’s novella.  Of course, there is more behind the story than what meets the eye, as it is a metaphorical recounting of the author’s youthful observations combined with a desert plane crash he fell victim to in 1935.  Each character, each moment, each chapter, and every piece of the story is laden with meaning, both personal and universal, allowing readers to immerse themselves in a tale that has so much to say.

The narrator of the book begins by telling audiences about the inadequacies of adults, mainly their inability to use their imaginations, their insistence that the world be taken seriously, and their belief that responsible people should be occupied solely with matters of consequence.  In his adult years, the narrator would become a pilot, and eventually crash in the Sahara desert.  There he would meet a small boy, a prince from another planet, a child of questions who has left his home and is exploring the universe.  He has been to many planets, each more peculiar than the last, all inhabited by close-minded adults who don’t understand the true beauty of life.  The narrator and the little prince discuss Earth, it’s possibilities, and the young boy’s homeward journey.

While the book has a lot to say in a short amount of time, no central moral or theme appears.  The author is speaking on youth, on the loss of dreams, of love bolstering the purpose of our lives, and of so many other tiny concepts that each page could be said to be its own world.  And although I appreciated the ability to write such tiny messages, I grew very tired of hearing them.  There were too many points, too much background, and not enough coherence for me to fully jump on board.  A longer book would have needed to have many ideas, but such a short one has need of only a small amount.  The book became overwhelming, not magical, with so many metaphors that I never had time to think one through before the next was being presented.  In a poem, in a 30 page sketch book, I think I could have loved this very imaginative story.  But as a novella, I have no idea why it is so globally loved.

My rating: ☆ ☆

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Movie Trailer – Sleeping with Other People

Category : Movie Trailer

Director: Leslye Headland

Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Amanda Peet

Release: September 11th, 2015

This is just a rom/com masquerading as something else.  It’s also one of those silly friends with benefits movies, but without the benefits.  It’ll still end the same, and although it might be raunchy along the way, it’ll deal more with sap then with actual feeling, leaving it fakely funny, dishonestly dramatic, and ultimately unwatchable.

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Movie Review – The Secret World of Arrietty

Category : Movie Review

Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Starring: Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie, Carol Burnett

Year: 2010

My first experience with Studio Ghibli was watching Princess Mononoke.  I had never seen Japanese animation before and was unprepared for the style, the action, and the dubbing.  It was an art form that I wouldn’t appreciate until years later, even though the studio was becoming famous worldwide.  Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, Arrietty, The Wind Rises, When Marnie Was There; these are some of the most widely-known and successful animated movies of all-time, though Americans continue to prefer Disney, Pixar, and other local animation studies.  But the power of Ghibli can’t be denied, as their films are an artistic medium all on their own and continue to amaze us with wonderful stories brought to life with dazzling talent.

Based on The Borrowers, a novel written in 1952 by Mary Norton, Arrietty concerns itself with a world beneath our notice.  Young Shawn, a boy with a weak heart, moves into the country to await an operation.  While there, he encounters a girl the size of his thumb whose name is Arrietty.  She lives with her mother & father under the floor of the human house, borrowing objects from the world above to furnish their house & survive.  They are a proud family, never intending the humans any harm and attempting never to be noticed.  But Shawn’s curiosity coupled with Arrietty’s adventurous streak creates a situation that is dangerous to both, forcing the tiny beings to move away and threatening a unique friendship that was just blossoming into something special.

I remember the book and love the way this film presented it.  It’s odd that the English novel was transformed into Japanese animation and then dubbed by American actors, but the story itself is simple enough that nothing is really lost in translation.  Studio Ghibli has perfected the visuals of their style, creating color & background that are unrivaled, with characters presenting the action across a stunning set.  And the music was tremendous, creating a mood that sweeps audiences away and allows them to enter Arrietty’s world without a moment’s hesitation.  The film does without the humor and roller-coaster of emotions that American animation use as staples, developing a more even feel with an intensity of detail in each scene that is more adult and less childish than perhaps we’re used to.  But given the chance, this genre will impress you with its professionalism, its dedication, and its beauty, aspects that are too easily & too often set aside when it comes to children’s movies.  Arrietty is art for everyone, and should be appreciated as such.

My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆


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By Daniele Dionisio

Author’s summary: The newly launched HIV Medicines Alliance (HMA) initiative commendably seeks enlarged brand, generic industry collaboration to optimize, enhance access to HIV treatments by developing world populations. But it raises concerns about implications for the freedom of India’s pharma companies, good faith in helping the greatest number of patients, and impact on the Medicines Patent Pool. These compound criticism that, as a lip service move to get rid of the Pool, HMA could fall short of a staunch commitment to affordable prices and availability.

A pharmaceutical industry initiative, the HIV Medicines Alliance (HMA) to optimize and enhance access to HIV treatments by developing world populations, was launched in London on 2-3 May 2012 at a stakeholder meeting gathered by the Wellcome Trust. This brought together representatives of originator companies, WHO, UNAIDS, CHAI, MSF, UNITAID, the Medicines Patent Pool, advocacy groups, donors, clinicians from Africa and other key stakeholders.

Participants met again on 21-22 June in New Delhi, to informally discuss and articulate the HMA vision as laid down early June in a draft charter showing some flexibility on brand industry’s part . As per its terms, multinational corporations (MNCs) are invited to share in-kind support and patented products royalty-free to developing countries under arrangements with generics companies.

The HMA effort is commendable as regards openings to enlarged partner collaboration to make HIV medicines more widely available. But it raises concerns about implications for India’s pharma companies’ freedom, good-faith to help the greatest number of patients, and impact on the Medicines Patent Pool (or the Pool), a trustworthy group with a similar but highly demanding mandate.

The Pool invites patent holders to offer the intellectual property (IP) related to their inventions. Any company in either low- or middle-income countries that wants to use this IP to develop antiretrovirals for HIV (or ARVs) can seek a license from the Pool against the payment of royalties. Expected benefits encompass, through increased competition, substantially lower prices for cutting-edge second- and third-line patent pool-generated fixed-dose combination (FDC) ARVs.

As such, while the Pool has inked licenses with Gilead Sciences and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Merck and Abbott corporations have unfortunately declined to enter negotiations. This is concerning because the participation of these companies in the Pool is necessary for generic companies to deliver appropriate antiretroviral (ARV) formulations.

In this connection, while the HMA plan stands as awareness that the Pool is unlikely to be a self-sufficient solution, it concurrently meets the brand industry’s reluctance to give up their IP rights via the Pool to the advantage of competing industries in the middle-income countries.

But, will the HMA plan also meet transparency and needs-driven, open source requirements the World Health Organization is calling for as regards models to ensure long-term access to medicines? Disappointingly, the WHO delegation at the May meeting in London was very slim (only one representative) as compared with oversized delegations from the brand industry and pro-big pharma organizations, including all companies that have declined to negotiate with the Pool.

And, astonishingly, only two Indian firms were present, while the Global Fund was apparently excluded, as were those Indian companies, like Cipla and Natco, fiercely opposing MNCs control.

Not the least surprising, the information currently available allows us to infer that the HMA strategy will mainly rely on royalty-free voluntary license bilateral agreements as already experienced in trade deals between the brand and generic counterparts worldwide. Unfortunately, a number of constraints limit the voluntary license model potential since the originators are granted full control over the manufacturing, distribution and pricing steps: an unbalanced, unfair mechanism. Inherently, it is worth remembering that J&J recently inked, only with Hetero Drugs Ltd., Matrix Laboratories Ltd. of India and Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa, a rather narrow voluntary license agreement in terms of geographical scope .

And there’s more.

HMA could fall short of a staunch commitment to affordable prices. Indeed, commitments in the draft charter mentioned before state that innovator companies will work to apply the lowest possible prices, while generic manufacturers will apply “… the lowest possible sustainable prices, recognizing our obligation to provide a fair and equitable return on investment to our shareholders”.

This is not the same as fixing prices poor populations can afford.

The New Delhi location of HMA’s June meeting is intriguing since India is home to most of the world’s generic production, at a time when the MNCs are looking to the country as a fast-growth market where 300 million people can afford out-of-pocket spending on healthcare . Unaffordable prices are being charged by MNCs for lifesaving new patented drugs in India, where they are steaming ahead with nonstop acquisitions of firms and takeover deals, as a strategy whereby lower prices applied to end products are offset by lower manufacturing, distribution and marketing costs.

And pharmaceutical sales are expected to reach US$30 billion by 2020 in India, compared with $11 billion in 2009, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers forecasts.

These insights are to the point now that India’s obligations to the WTO prevent the Indian companies from making generics for medicines introduced since 2005. And they add to TRIPS-plus policies [going beyond the 1994 WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] pursued by the US and EU, which protect monopolistic interests at the expense of unbiased access to lifesaving medicines (read further here, here, here and here).

Aside from recent bold moves by the Indian government, these trends are likely doomed to get worse in the medium-term. As a result, the Indian pharma companies could unfortunately be restricted, under close control of drug giants, to an almost exclusive role as a sophisticated R&D arm.

The overall insights here raise concern that HMA lacks transparency, and support criticism that, as a lip service move to get rid of the Pool, HMA could fall short of a staunch commitment to affordable prices and availability.

These questions are crucial at a time when just under three billion people live on less than US$2 per day in resource-limited countries where key medicines protected by patents are unaffordable. (Read the WHO publication for further reference.)

Daniele Dionisio is a member of the European Parliament Working Group on Innovation, Access to Medicines and Poverty-Related Diseases; head of the research project Geopolitics, Public Health and Access to Medicines (GESPAM); and an advisor for the Italian Society for Infectious and Tropical Diseases (SIMIT). He can be contacted at

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Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse – Future Programme

Royal Collection Trust has announced a £37-million investment at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse to fund a series of projects that will transform the experience of visitors. Collectively known as Future Programme, the projects will deliver significant improvements to the way visitors are welcomed on arrival, interpret the buildings in new ways, create dedicated Learning Centres and open up new spaces to the public.  Work will begin on site in 2017 and is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2018.  Both Palaces will remain open to visitors throughout the development.

Lead Designer, Windsor Castle

Purcell has been appointed to lead the multidisciplinary design team; advising, managing and coordinating the project from design concept to implementation. Purcell is a leading architectural practice with studios throughout the UK and in Asia Pacific. The practice is highly regarded for their heritage and design work within sensitive and complex sites. The practice has previously completed projects at Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Dover Castle, Wells Cathedral, the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and Tower Bridge.

Lead Designer, Palace of Holyroodhouse

Set up by Catherine Burd & Buddy Haward in 1998, Burd Haward Architects has a reputation for making award-winning, carefully crafted, authentic, sustainable buildings. The practice works across a diverse range of building types and has led projects at a number of high-profile architecturally sensitive historic sites, including Chastleton House, Red House and Chartwell. Their new ‘Welcome Centre’ for the National Trust at Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire is currently shortlisted for a 2016 RIBA Award.

The design team includes:
Exhibition Design – Nissen Richards
Environmental Engineers – Max Fordham LLP
Landscape Architects – J&L Gibbons
Structural Engineers – David Narro Associates

Cost Consultants

Mace is an international consultancy and construction company, employing over 4,600 people, with a turnover of £1.49bn. Mace’s business is programme and project management, cost consultancy, construction delivery and facilities management. Mace has worked on projects at many high-profile listed buildings including The British Museum, the Parliamentary Estate and Senate House (School of Oriental and African Studies), Tate Modern Gallery and the Ashmolean Museum.

Project Managers

Lendlease Consulting (Heritage and Arts) provides consultancy for every stage of the project life cycle – from inception to completion. Lendlease Consulting is part of the global Lendlease property group and provides project management and consultancy services. Lendlease Consulting has a 16 year relationship with the Victoria & Albert Museum delivering over 30 projects, is a key project management partner of the Parliamentary Estates Directorate, and has also successfully completed commissions at the British Museum, Tower of London and Tate Britain.


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Monday, October 10, 2011

Kenzo Tange in front of his Plan for Tokyo in 1960

Metabolism was the most important urban architectural, artistic and philosophical movement, that Japan produced in the twentieth century. Its influence went beyond the utopian concepts of a society that was experiencing rapid economic growth in the early 60s and it materialized in specific projects, not only in Japan but also beyond the archipelago.

This post is based on two sources: the first is the exhibition "Metabolism: City of the Future" held at Mori Museum, at the top of Roppongi Hills , in the events of World Congress of Architecture in Tokyo. This is the first exhibition on the Metabolist Movement carried out in the world, so this post is organized according to the structure of the exhibition.
The second is the complete and recommended book, "Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement. Urban Utopias of Modern Japan", by Lin Zhongjie, 2010.

This section discusses the early modern Japanese urban planning, when the country dominated much of Asia. Then, the Japanese planners proposed projects in their colonies (Korea, Manchuko, etc) that they would not dare to carry out in Japan itself. At that time, Kenzo Tange won his first competition at age 29, a proposal to build a monument to the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." His proposal considered monumental scale and modern axes, but suggested a monument reminiscent of the Grand Shrine of Ise. Due to the escalation of the war none of these plans was carried out.

Monument to the East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere , Kenzo Tange, 1942. It was supposed to be located between Kyoto and Tokyo, the traditional heart of the modern metropolis of Japan. The linear axis would be repeated in other projects such as the one in Hiroshima, Tokyo or Osaka Expo.

However, the first concrete example of modern urban planning was the Master Plan for the reconstruction of Hiroshima, along with the buildings designed for the Peace Park in that city by Kenzo Tange.

Plan for the Peace Park, Hiroshima . Kenzo Tange, 1955.

Because of Tange's influence, a group composed of Japanese architects (many of them his colleagues and students) Kisho Kurokawa, Kiyonori Kikutake, Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka among others presented in 1960 a manifesto called "Metabolism: Proposals for a New Urbanism" during the World Design Congress that year.

The movement took that name because, distancing away from modernism, arguing that buildings and cities should be conceived as living beings, and therefore should grow organically, according to the needs of their inhabitants.

Kenzo Tange in 1960 presented his Plan for Tokyo, including innovative ideas on how to expand the city across Tokyo Bay.

Plan for Tokyo, 1960. Photomontage and model. Kenzo Tange. The huge monumental axis built across the Tokyo Bay was designed for cars, keeping pedestrians away in separate areas through a hierarchy of expressways. The proposal differed from the ideas of CIAM, which was in favor of "urban centers" and proposed "civic areas" instead.

Plan for Tokyo, 1960. Details of the model. Kenzo Tange. This huge fleet of units up to 300 m wide, with roofs like Japanese temples that seemed to be floating in the water, contained the residences.

Plan for Tokyo, 1960. System piles and nuclei. Kenzo Tange. Influenced by the ideas of Le Corbusier, Tange proposes that "Pilotis areas constitute spatial links between public and private areas. They are the areas in which the flow of traffic meets with stable architectural space. Core systems, on the other hand, link urban arteries with the buildings." Both cores and piles were integrated into a single system.

The ideas evolved into urban utopias that envisioned mega-cities through the generation of giant geometric shapes. In the exhibition, 3D reconstructions show images of what these huge futuristic structures would have been, but in my personal opinion, they lack human scale and people were considered little more than ants in a huge mechanical assembly.

Ecopolis. Kiyonori Kikutake, 1990

Joint Core System. Arata Isozaki, 1960. The plan assembled large horizontal arms around vertical elements, forming groups of offices. It was integrated into the Plan for Tokyo by Tange, his master.

City in the air. Arata Isozaki, 1961. The young architect, dissatisfied with the chaos of Tokyo, raised an orderly city completely separated from that laid in its base, whose branches were born from central mega-columns.

Helix City. Kurokawa, 1961. Located on the sea, this proposal was inspired by the structure of DNA, which had recently been discovered. It was a double helix allowing continued growth of the city.

City Farm. Kurokawa, 1960. The proposal sought to resolve the contradiction between city and countryside through a concrete grid of 500 x 500 m, elevated 4 m high from the agricultural area by pilotis. I wonder how the architect consider to provide the agricultural field with a fundamental resource: solar light.

Renewal of Tsukiji District. Kenzo Tange, 1963.

However, these ideas led to the creation of some Metabolist buildings, particularly certain works by Tange, Kikutake, Kurokawa, Maki, Otani and others. But without a doubt the most important icon of this movement was the Nakagin Tower by Kisho Kurokawa, the first interchangeable capsule building in the world, that we have explained in more detail in this moleskine.

Shizuoka Press and Broadcasting Center, Tokyo. Kenzo Tange, 1967. This should have been the starting point of a mega-lattice, yet never was built. This building is near the Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Corporate headquarters of Fuji TV, Tokyo. Kenzo Tange, 1996.

Shinjuku Station, Tokyo. Fumihiko Maki and Masato Osawa, 1960.

Hotel Tokoen, Tottori. Kiyonori Kikutake, 1964

Miyakonogo Civic Center. Kiyonori Kikutake, 1966. The bulky fan shape of this mega structure contrasted with the modest skyline of this small town.

International Conference Centre, Kyoto. Sachio Otani, 1966. I hope to dedicate a post to this building soon, which seems a futuristic Star Wars Imperial destroyer.

Republic Polytechnic, Singapore. Fumihiko Maki, 2007. Photo courtesy of Maki and Associates.

Besides the architecture and urbanism, art was deeply involved in Metabolism, primarily through two events: the exhibition "Environmental Space", 1966, and mainly the Osaka Expo in 1970 (whose urban planning was alsodesigned by Tange). This was a chance for artists like Katsuhiro Yamaguchi and Kiyoshi Awazu to develop creations based on the principles of Metabolism.

Master Plan for the Osaka Expo 70 . Kenzo Tange.

Aerial view of the Osaka Expo 70 .
Beautilion Takara, Osaka Expo. Kisho Kurokawa, 1970. Obsessed with the idea of capsules, Kurokawa organized a structural frame to which cube caps were attached. The unfinished aesthetic conveyed the idea that it was a constantly growing project.

Expo Tower, Osaka. Kiyonori Kikutake, 1970. Located at the southern end of the Expo , offering panoramic views of the event. It was composed of a central steel pipes to which metallic geodesic spheres were attached. The design allowed for continuous expansion.

This section is devoted to the influence of metabolism on projects outside Japan, including Hawaii Marine City, USA, PREVI homes in Peru and the reconstruction plan of Skopje, Macedonia.

Housing PREVI, Lima, Peru. Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki. In 1967, Peruvian President architectFernando Belaunde, promoted experimental housing systems called PREVI, to which Metabolists were invited, along with other famous international architects. The proposal of the Japanese was characterized by a long and narrow layout of the dwelling units, that regulates the rigid division between the service and living functions, which are arranged lengthwise.

Marine City, Hawaii. Kiyonori Kikutake, 1963. These "rollers" were cylindrical cores from which housing units were born. As the units became older, they were replaced by new ones, similar to regenerating cells.
Photo courtesy of mr. Prudence .

Plan reconstruction of Skopje, Macedonia. Kenzo Tange, 1965. This proposal won an international competition and it was structured around two concepts: the "City Gate", which was the hub of entry into the capital, comprising all transportation systems, and the "City Wall", consisting of apartment buildings, simulating a medieval wall, which would incorporate housing to downtown.

- Kenzo Tange WORKS
- Kisho Kurokawa WORKS
At last, the dream of my own capsule was fulfilled ...

  1. Hi carlos, whoever have this web,,, :)
    i'm glad to find ur helpful for my assignment, especially for this topic, metabolist movement...and i also read ur writing about yoyogi and another...good photography and informations.. :)
    nice to know u... :D

  2. Thanks Odi, I am happy to know that the information posted here was useful.

  3. I just met you,and I´m so happy! Please don´t stop sharing your beautiful photos and great stories with us.

  4. Carlos,
    Congratulations, it is so well done your historical information about this generation of architects who was not copying but creating their own ideas. Unfortunately today in the internet era the younger architects often use to “enrich” the others concepts and produce them as their own products. It is amazingly enriching to be able to be informed to avoid producing what has been already done. For this purpose Professor Jean-Pierre CHUPIN has created a bank collecting the results of international competitions. Here is the address of the Canadian competitions I hope it will help to avoid the plagiarism and produce more new and creative ideas. 

  5. Thanks a lot Baoan, that is indeed an interesting project.

  6. Hi Carlos! I'm very happy to see you gathered so much information about the metabolist movement. I study japanese history and am about to write my bachelor thesis about the impact of the metabolists on city planning in Tokyo. Do you have any recommendations concerning literature, homepages etc. that might be helpful? Thanks a lot in advance! :)

  7. Hi there! I am interested in one thing, could you be so kind and please share with us your place of birth?

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Maynard Dixon / MATRIX 49

December 15, 1981 - March 7, 1982

Free Speech, 1934-36

Download the exhibition brochure (PDF).

From the time he was a boy in the San Joaquin Valley until his death in 1946, Maynard Dixon painted the scenes and landscapes of the American West, leaving a visual record of the American frontier and its inhabitants. Dixon is recognized for the strong, abstract quality of his patterned landscapes of canyons, mesas, peaks, and stretching deserts which often give a heavy compositional emphasis to the weight and shapes of clouds in the sky. Dixon's paintings and drawings also reflect a great love and respect for the Native American in relationship to his majestic ancestral land.

During the Great Depression in the thirties, Dixon felt compelled to depart from familiar themes in order to make a political protest through his art. He produced a powerful an emotional series of social commentary paintings, sympathetically portraying the hopelessness of the common man and the rage of the proletariat. Dixon called these rare works his "Forgotten Man and Strike" series.

Virtually self-taught, Dixon was at the height of his success when the Depression occurred. After several disappointments, including losing a major mural contract, he moved his family to Taos, New Mexico, where although impoverished, he continued to study and paint cloud formations, landscapes, and Native Americans. Earth Knower, the most outstanding work of this period, is in the permanent collection of The Oakland Museum.

Returning to San Francisco in 1932 by automobile, Dixon and his family were confronted by a human wasteland of economic devastation. They saw displaced Americans aimlessly wandering with no place to go and men seeking work in vain. Dixon's wife, Dorothea Lange, photographed the homeless vagabonds they encountered along the roads. Dixon was deeply disturbed by what he saw and was influenced by his wife's activist views.

He commenced his "Forgotten Man" paintings in angry response to the unfair social conditions he had observed for so long. The two paintings from this series represented in MATRIX are The Forgotten Man and No Place to go. At about the same time, the San Francisco Maritime Strike took place. Dixon witnessed the violence and rioting caused when authorities tried to prevent the Longshoremen and Seamen from striking. this event further stirred Dixon's social conscience, and he was prompted to champion the cause of the oppressed strikers in his five "Strike" paintings, four of which (Pickets, Law and Disorder, Free Speech, and Scab) are on view in MATRIX. Working from preliminary composition sketches, sometimes consisting of only a few directional lines, Dixon developed elaborate studies. When he reached the point where he could envision the final result, he worked very rapidly, usually finishing the painting at one sitting to avoid overworking the canvas' surface.
In many ways the social commentary paintings, particularly the "Forgotten Man" series, bear a close relationship to the work of the American realist, Edward Hopper. Like Hopper, Dixon established a strong mood that projects a desolate, almost eerie vision of human isolation in an urban setting. Both artists used strong value patterns of light and shadow. Also, the features of their subjects are generalized, and only those which further visual impact and contribute to a dynamic composition are represented. Both give their subjects a sculptural solidity by modeling natural forms from light to dark, which lends them a monumentality and dignity. Unlike Hopper, Dixon's work of this period focuses on those most victimized and exploited by the economic deprivation of the Depression.

Perhaps the finest painting of the "Forgotten Man" series is the one that bears that title. The image of a lonely vagrant sitting on a curb, in what could be any large American city, is a timeless portrayal of a dejected "have not," who is down but not yet trampled to death by the passing feet on the sidewalk, symbolic of the "haves." The alienated condition of this transient is depicted with a forceful clarity underlining the contrast between relative affluence and dire poverty. In this work and in No Place to Go, Dixon continues the American social realist tradition begun by George Bellows and John Sloan thirty years earlier. These stark sympathetic and socially motivated works reveal some of the most direct and bluntly conceived works of Dixon's career.

The influence of Francisco Goya is evident in the strongly patterned "Strike" series which employ intense dark and light contrasts made dynamic by diagonal thrusts. Muted tones of grey and blue are used to establish an ominous mood. These somber yet emotional paintings echo the intensity of Honor? Daumier's Uprising.

The Depression was the only period in Dixon's life in which he felt compelled to make a political statement through his art. In 1935 he said, "...like other artists, I had dodged the responsibility of facing social conditions. The depression woke me up to the fact that I had a part in all this, as an artist."

By 1937, Maynad Dixon had exhausted his need to protest and devoted himself once more to painting Western scenes. The same year he moved to Arizona, where he died seven years later at the age of 71.

Terry St. John
Associate Curator, The Oakland Museum

MATRIX is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency.


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Henry in the Grub: Sterling's

Posted by Adam 12  July 31, 2013 11:27 AM

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Sometimes we wax poetic about the cuisine we're served for Henry in the Grub. But this week, we'll let the photos and Henry's chat with Chef Travis and Catering Manager Glenn from Sterling's write the delicious stanzas.

Thanks, Travis and Glenn!

This blog is not written or edited by or the Boston Globe.
The author is solely responsible for the content.

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About RadioBDC blog

Welcome to the new RadioBDC Blog, featuring the latest from the crew in the evolution of the radio station, music news and local concerts and events. More »

More stuff from RadioBDC inside ...

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Adam 12
Not only is Adam 12 Radio's Production Director, he also hosts afternoons. 12 is a longtime fixture on the Boston scene, and when he's not out and about in the city, he's trekking around New England with his kids.
Julie Kramer
Julie enters the building every day with a big smile and trough of freshly brewed coffee. She’s Radio’s Music Director and mid-day hostess, and will deliver Lunch At Your Desk every day from noon to 1 PM.
Henry Santoro
Henry‘s always on the lookout for news. He’s Radio’s News Director and Morning Presenter. He’s also a music and art collector, and is a world-class cook with over 5,000 cookbooks in his library.
Paul Driscoll
Paul Driscoll is Radio’s Program Director who has the best ears in the business. Paul gets dozens of phone calls and visits a day, from bands and record labels looking to get their music played. Some even leave an apple on is desk.
Steph Mangan
Steph Mangan hosts Grrl Power and LocalBDC. When she's not at the studio, she is constantly on the look out for up-and-coming local bands and attending shows at Boston's many venues. She is an avid enthusiast of burritos and denim jackets.
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Framingham Town Manager search committee to introduce finalists by late March

Posted by Jaclyn Reiss  February 22, 2012 04:05 PM

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After two rounds of job postings and interviews, the Framingham Town Manager Search Committee plans to bring a handful of final candidates to the Board of Selectmen in a month, said Audrey Hall, search committee spokesperson.

Whomever the selectmen vote in will take the place of former town manager Julian Suso, who left to manage the town of Falmouth Nov. 1. Town Clerk Valerie Mulvey is currently acting interim manager, with no intentions of throwing her hat in the ring for the full-time job, said Hall.

The search committee has been working with a consultant since late spring last year to post a job listing for the position, which first went live last fall, and then again this winter once the committee decided to expand the applicant pool.

After the consultant narrowed down the 30 initial applicants to the present nine resumes to the committee (originally 10, but one candidate dropped out), the committee then interviewed five prospects before asking the consultant to re-list the posting.

The second time the listing went live in December, the consultant whittled down 18 applicants to bring forth 10 job-seekers to the committee. Committee members will interview seven of the 10 candidates during closed-door meetings next week, Hall said.

“We are required to keep the names confidential and protect their confidentiality up until the point we officially identify them as finalists forwarded to the Board of Selectmen, and then their names become public,” Hall said.

Hall said that a couple of interviewees from the first round are still in the running, and that she does not know how many finalists will stand by the third week of March, when the committee presents them to selectmen.

Selectmen then have final say in who will step in as town manager, she said.

“Once we turn in the finalists, the committee’s work is done and the selectmen take over,” Hall said. “It’s up to them to pick the key person, if they feel they have the right person.”

She said while the committee is not moving slowly time-wise, members are taking time to thoroughly check into each candidate, despite some public unrest over the vacant position.

“Framingham is such an important hub in Massachusetts, and a person for that position has such an important role, so we just want to take our time and make sure we get the absolute best person for the job,” Hall said. “Hopefully that person will be there for a long time.

“We want to bring forth the absolute best candidates we can find for the position. That takes priority over expediting things.”

Hall said there was no way of knowing if the number of applications were relatively large, small, or average.

“People qualified [for the job] already work in local government, and sometimes elections change the composition of boards they report to, which influences things. Timing is very important,” she said. “We would rather have smaller pool of highly qualified people than a large pool with people not having the skills we’re looking for.”

Hall also said the magnitude of the town manager job slims the pool down dramatically.

“Framingham is the largest town in the state of Massachusetts, and requires a strong candidate,” she said. “We’re looking at people with the kinds of qualifications and skills that Framingham needs, so that could reduce the applicant pool to some degree.”

Hall said that some applicants have showed enthusiasm for the position, adding that Framingham offers certain experience that other towns do not.

“This requires more skill and experience and expertise than other communities throughout the state,” she said.

Hall said the right candidate would have a mix of skills in communication, management, business, strategic planning, and municipal experience.

“It’s all these skills coming together to be able to be successful in this position,” Hall said. “It’s such a great opportunity for someone ready to take all experience they had in their career, and use them in a community with great opportunity at a higher level.”

In a notice sent out on his last day, Suso outlined the peaks of working for Framingham for five and a half years, including working with department heads, the School Committee, and watching citizens interact with local government.

"As a credentialed professional municipal manager, I thank the Board of Selectmen for the opportunity you have afforded me to serve," Suso wrote. "It has been a privilege to work diligently on behalf of the Town’s taxpayers in maintaining the responsible cost-containment and collaborative management initiatives which have been underway through this unprecedented period of prolonged economic recession."

Follow us on Twitter: @yourframingham, @jaclynreiss

Jaclyn Reiss can be reached at

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Moving Pips
11 entries in CategoriesCardsEffect ThemesAnimationMoving Pips
Search within these entries:
Creators Title Comments & References Year Source Page CARC Categories
Unknown The "Walking Pip" Card 1889 Tricks with Cards 47
Unknown "Walking Pip" Cards 1890 More Magic 56
Unknown Die Haarkarte see also "Moving Pip Card" (1897) 1896 Der moderne Kartenkünstler 145
Unknown Third Method two moving pip cards 1897 New Era Card Tricks 213
Unknown Moving Pip Card see also "Die Haarkarte" (1896) 1897 New Era Card Tricks 251
Roy Johnson "Pips-A-Plenty" - or Sensitive Fingers... Plus!!! card is put on spectator's hand and secured with a match box, card is then blank and pips found in box 1970 The Roy Johnson Experience 45
Karl Fulves (G) Heart Throb a heart pip floats up and back down, posed as problem 1978 Interlocutor (Issue 24) 94
Tommy Wonder Falling Pips pips on cards "fall" to one end when cards are tapped on table varied by "Footsteps" (Stephen Tucker & David Britland, 1984) 1980 Pabular (Vol. 6 No. 2) 806
Frederick Braue The Wandering Pip five into 4 of Diamonds, magnetic (1943) 1985 The Fred Braue Notebooks (Issue 3) 13
Will Ayling & Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin Moving Pip Card moving pip in conjunction with rising cards, anecdote of De Kolta's daughter manufacturing multi pip cards 1991 Knowing The Rising Cards 26
Tomo Maeda New Era Moving Pips wrong prediction (card behind cellophane on card case) changes into right one by pip-moving 1992 Five Times Five - Japan 34


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Indiana University

Evening of the Arts showcases IU student talent, raises funds for free clinics

  • April 3, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS – The 22nd annual Evening of the Arts will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 13. The program showcases the performing arts talents of Indiana University School of Medicine students and supports clinics providing free health care services to the homeless and working poor of Indianapolis.

The performance and a silent auction will be at Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School, 1140 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Street. The doors open at 6 p.m. and items in the silent auction will be on display throughout the evening. Tickets, available at the door, are $15 for students and $17 for non-students.

This year more than 100 performers, including medical, dental and doctoral students; IU School of Medicine faculty and staff; and a veterinarian, will take part.

For more information, see www.iupui.edu/~iusmeota/.

Media Contacts

Mary Hardin


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 RoadBike Review's Forum Archives

RoadBikeReview.com's Forum Archives - Components

Archive Home >> Components(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 )

kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?(5 posts)

kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?duke660
Dec 28, 2003 5:12 PM
I am looking for input on some wheel selections for a bike I am building. The bike (so far): S-works E5, dura-ace drivetrain(future purchase), easton ec90 bar, speedplay x-2 pedals. I weigh 145Lbs and will mainly be training on local roads which can be choppy(Michigan) but overall not to bad. I also plan on racing a few times a year. I do not plan on buying separate racing wheels. So far I was looking at bontrager race lites or ksyrium elites.
re: kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?xxl
Dec 29, 2003 7:11 AM
If you're spending that much, you could buy two sets of wheels, if they were "traditional." For $200/250, you can get some OP's laced with Ultegra at least, which should really be fine for the few times you're planning to race a year. If you lose any of those races I doubt it would be because of those wheels (no offense intended). Then, with the money you have left, you could build another set with sturdier rims and fatter tires, for those long training rides on the more remote UP gravel roads. I don't know how your E5 rides for you, but on rough roads it'll ride noticeably better with the big wheels, and you'll feel better. You may even ride longer, which will do a lot more for your racing prospects than some boutique wheels.

I ride Ksyriums myself, and they are an excellent wheel, really high quality, etc., but unless you're seriously racing, their advantages won't really come into play; kind of like using a race car for runs to the grocery store. FWIW, I'm only riding them because the shop made me an incredible deal on them as part of a group purchase. That, and they really look cool with my bike's orange paint.
re: kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?duke660
Dec 29, 2003 3:26 PM
Thanks for the very useful info. Do you happen to know the approx. weight of built OPs with ultegra hubs or durace? I also have a '99 Bianchi alloro with ultegra groupo which is traditional geometry frame which I still will ride(long rides, centurys etc.), I guess I wanted something different with the E-5 but don't think I want to spend all the $$$ for the racing wheels plus durablity is an issue.
re: kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?TNSquared
Dec 29, 2003 9:29 AM
I can't speak to the k's, but the bontrager race lites came stock on my road bike. Basically, they are good, sturdy every day wheels. I've bashed them through some deep potholes and have not even had to true them. However, they are not light, no more so than the cxp33/ultegras that I had Excelsports build for my cross bike. The cxp's were about $220. I don't know what the retail is on the race lites, but I'm guessing they are over $400. The race x-lites are racing wheels, but they are considerably more expensive still.

Bottom line - the race lites are good wheels, but they are average daily wheels, just dressed up to look like race wheels. Other than the cosmetic qualities, I'm not sure what advantages you'd get for the extra expense. Don't get me wrong, I really like mine, but I'm not sure I would have purchased them had they not come stock on my bike.
re: kysrium elite or bontrager race lites?duke660
Dec 29, 2003 3:27 PM
Thanks for the info.


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Author Topic: Saturday Inshore Report 5/10/03.  (Read 1460 times)

  • Administrator
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« on: April 06, 2009, 03:24:42 AM »
We usually cook chicken one of 3 ways smoked, baked, shake and bake, and rarely fry. Anyone have any good recipes for something a lil different? I\'m not looking to reinvent the wheel, just would like to try something else. We usually use quarters or a whole bird.

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Re: Chicken? \"S.S.Tupperware\"
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2009, 11:30:21 AM »
I FA DAT had a great recipe. I tried it on the grill and it\'s very good:

\"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don\'t have that problem\" Ronald Reagan 1985

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Re: Chicken? \"S.S.Tupperware\"
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2009, 11:38:53 AM »
Here\'s two that I posted last year.

\"edit: beat me to it Abelman.\"
Modified by I FA DAT at 11:39 AM 1/28/2009

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Re: Chicken? \"S.S.Tupperware\"
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2009, 11:43:39 AM »
Here\'s one of my faves

Uses chicken breast. I buy the tyson in the 10 lb bag at sams. skinless/boneless IQF \"NOT TENDERS\". Easy, quick thaw and cheap. You can bone out your own if you prefer and make your own stock with the bones.

4 big half breasts, cut in half and pounded to 1/4-1/2 inch thickSalt and a little pepper on each sideThin sliced smoked ham on each chicken piece, almost enough to coverThin sliced emmenthaler or jarlsberg on each chicken piece, folded over in half and placed in the center \"you could also use a nice provolone or gruyere\"

For each piece, roll both sides to the middle and toothpick closed if necessary.Dust in plain flour, roll in a thin egg/milk wash and roll completely in plain bread crumbs seasoned with a little salt and very little rubbed thyme. \"Finely crushed Ritz crackers is good in a pinch, or Italian style if you want those flavors\"

Place seam side down on a buttered baking sheet.Place a 1 Tbs pat of butter on the top of each piece. \"cheat: or spray well with butter pam\"

put in oven to bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350 till golden and crusty.

If you want to go whole hog, while the chicken is baking, you make a pan sauce, a very simple reduction of low salt chicken stock, about a cup with a cup of milk \"cream is better\", remove from heat, stir in some of the grated cheese till melted and thickened, salt to taste. \"You could toss a lemon slice or two in the pan for a few minutes during the reduction, if you like that flavor profile, but not for too long\"

Plate with a Tbs or 2 of sauce, then the chicken, then sauce drizzled over at the last second, don\'t let the chicken crust get soggy.

Very easy and YUMMY Chicken Cordon Bleu

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Re: Chicken? \"S.S.Tupperware\"
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2009, 02:27:23 PM »
4 boneless chicken breast1 bottle of catalina dressing1 jar of apricot preserves1 package of onion soup mix

mix together bake at 350 for 1 hour serve over white rice

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Re: Chicken?
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2009, 02:52:38 PM »
i\'ve been on a tuscan style chicken kick lately. about 3-5 times/month, make 3 at a time.

basic idea is to cook fast on a really hot grill. i\'m down to under 30 minutes total cooking time for a whole 3.5 lb bird, wth a gas grill that gets to 600 degrees closed.

--butterfly a kosher \"already salted\" chicken, 3.5-4.0 lbs. non-kosher will work, tho not quite as well. do NOT brine chicken for this, as you need to get heavy infusion of the marinade. i always rinse birds i don\'t brine under cold running water for a minute, then pat them dry w/ dish towels --marinade for 1-2 hours in ziplock bag, or non-reactive container, in the following mixture:

--zest frrom one medium lemon--juice from two medium lemons--6 cloves of crushed garlic--2 tablespoons minced rosemary--1 tablespoon of salt--1/2 tablespoon cracked pepper--1/4 cup of extra vrgin olive oil

get grill HOT as it will go. after chicken at room temp, put skin/breast side UP directly over hot coals or middle \"hottest part\" of gas grill.

if flaring up, move bird carefully a little to side. i keep the top up about hald the time, depending on flare ups.

ONLY turn ONCE, toward the end, skin side down to finish for couple minutes.

i take off the grill when the INSIDE of the thigh reads 160. it will hit 165 at rest in a hurry. NOTE: once bird hits 140, temps seem to go up really fast on the grill, for reasons that escape me.

sprinkle a little olive oil and lemon juice over the top, let rest uncovered for 10 minutes before carving.

the bone side will be charred nicely.

good luck


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The Adventure Time Blog

Archive for the ‘Press Art’

New Rizzoli & Isles Sign

August 11th, 2010

Adventure Time Sign
Outside Turner headquarters in Atlanta.

Thanks to FOF Nate Olson for the photo.

– Eric

More press art.

April 19th, 2009

As AT gets further down the production line everyone around CN is starting to get antsy for stuff. So, in addition to the crushing amount of work necessary to actually make the show, the artists are trying to figure out the best way to present the show to an unsuspecting public. These are rough concepts, bu they’re all pretty cool to me.

[Read more…]

Revised Promo Art

April 14th, 2009

Revised Promo Art

By character designer Phil Rynda.

– Eric

First Piece of Press Art

March 26th, 2009

Adventure Time Press Art

The folks at Cartoon Network announced what’s in their pipeline for the 2009-2010 season at their upfront presentation this week in Manhattan. As part of its announcement, the network released this first piece of official press art for Adventure Time, which, if you want to be technical, is actually now Adventure Time with Finn and Jake. Read the press release - complete with requisite misspelling of Fred’s name - here.

– Eric


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Experimenting with Google Drive and Templates

If you're bored of using the same Google Slides templates or just the blank pages on Google Docs, the new Google templates are perfect for you! One of my favorite templates to use throughout my classes is the class notes 'Luxe' template in Google Docs. It allows for clean, simple, and organized class notes that are a click away when studying for upcoming tests or quizzes. Check out my video tutorial below on how you can utilize the new Google templates as a student or teacher!

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Ariane DeVere
Index - links to all items in this blog
9th-Apr-2012 11:43 pm - [sticky post]
Primeval - Connor whole lotta WTF
Index of Sherlock, Cabin Pressure and Primeval entries

All the links below now go to my blog on Dreamwidth.
If, for some reason, you prefer to use Livejournal, you’ll need to use the appropriate Entry Tag at the bottom of the left column. If, for example, you’re looking for Sherlock transcripts, click on “sherlock episode transcript”.

Episode transcripts

Season 1
: A Study in Pink / The Blind Banker / The Great Game
                A Study in Pink (pilot episode)
                A Study in Pink - the broadcast episode and the pilot episode compared side by side (downloadable pdf file)

Season 2: A Scandal in Belgravia / The Hounds of Baskerville / The Reichenbach Fall

Season 3: Mini episode: Many Happy Returns / The Empty Hearse / The Sign of Three / His Last Vow

The Special: The Abominable Bride

Season 4: The Six Thatchers / The Lying Detective / The Final Problem

        The transcripts are downloadable (Word and PDF). You can find links to the various versions here.

DVD episode audio commentaries
A Study in Pink / The Great Game / A Scandal in Belgravia / The Hounds of Baskerville / The Empty Hearse / His Last Vow

DVD special feature transcripts
Season 1: Unlocking Sherlock
Season 2: Sherlock Uncovered
Season 3: Fans, Villains and Speculation – The Legacy of Sherlock Holmes / Shooting Sherlock / The Fall
Season 3 Special Edition: Deleted scene from “His Last Vow” / Series outtakes
The Special (The Abominable Bride): Mark Gatiss – a Study in Sherlock / Creating the Look / Mark Gatiss Production Diary and Writers’ Interview / Sherlockology Q&A
Season 4: Behind 221B / The Writer’s Chat / Script to Screen / Set Tour: John and Mary’s Flat / Mark Gatiss Video Diary: On Set / Mark Gatiss Video Diary: Final Scenes / Danny Hargreaves Video Diary / Timelapse: Building 221B

My Sherlock fanfiction, macros, etc
Index here.

CABIN PRESSUREepisode transcripts, reports of live episode recordings, my fiction and macros
Index here.

PRIMEVALmy fiction and macros
Index here.

MISCELLANEOUSthe stuff that doesn’t fit elsewhere (including transcripts of the Sherlock parodies; Benedict Cumberbatch in “Look Back in Anger”; and the Frankenstein Q&A with Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller and Danny Boyle. Plus cupcakes)
Index here.

28th-Mar-2013 10:51 am (UTC)
Thank you for taking the time to tell me! I'm so glad they're helpful.
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