I made this when I was about five years old. I think it was a school project for mother’s day. I was visiting my mom a few months ago and ran across it. I guess it was a paper weight. I like the color and pattern choices I made.
I would like to say I remember making it. Actually I DO have a vague memory of making it, but not a detailed enough memory to say I remember making the color choices. But, perhaps it’s safe to think it was intuitive and intentional (as opposed to random or chosen by the teacher). Even if it started with a few handfuls of little tiles out of a big bin, it undoubtedly required some intentional placement. In any case, I’m happy with the choices and take pretty much full credit.
One of my favorite places for breakfast is the City Room in Nashua, NH. And I can prove it. Pictured above are just a few of the many receipt tabs that I save every time I go there. It’s a place that still has actual written-out dining checks, so I always grab the little tab at the bottom and record anything notable. In fact I’m there right now. And Nashua has free wireless downtown! I almost always get the Mediterranean omlette.
While I’m giving accolades to the Admin building, here’s another view, framed by its neighbor across the Plaza, the Colonnade building. On a cold gray winter day the Colonnade looks like part of a battle-damaged science fiction movie spaceport. That’s a compliment, by the way.
Few people I have talked to in passing love it. Most would say it is stark or brutal (true to the style) or comment on the “unsightly” weathering of the concrete. But I happen to love it, in spite of those qualities. Perhaps, in part, because of those qualities. I like to look down the length of the reflecting pool and then visually run into its solid, soaring, uncompromising solid form. It was built in the early 70s and one might make the case that it symbolizes the aspirations of the organization at the time, just as the cathedrals did for their builders centuries before.
I worked on the 21st floor, the 20th floor, the 19th floor, and the 15th floor. Some were redecorated, but a few still had the jarring greens, oranges, and blues of the vintage 70s decor. And, just before it was shut down to re-emerge as 177 Huntington, I got some great old office supplies including rubber stamps, typewriters, and old file folders (a friend of mine got a dictaphone). Every day I looked forward to walking out of the elevator to the expansive, floor-to-ceiling, thick glass window view of the city.
It’s easy to walk by and shrug it off as just another ugly nondescript concrete sub-skyscraper. But take a closer look for a minute. The wide side’s window grid bracketed by an inverted “L.” The unbroken line of the top row of windows. The sharp point of the double corner and the octagonal narrow end that harmonizes with the domed Church across the plaza. Some nice design wok there. Though there are many buildings of this general configuration from its era, none look quite like this. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this would stand out and be recognizable anywhere, unlike it’s similar neighbors, one a mile to the north and one a mile to the south.
*to borrow a line from Tom Waits.
I upload my digital photos to iPhoto. I get film processed and burned to cd (no prints). Then I upload whatever is worthy, and then some, to flickr. It’s great. Except for one thing. The proof sheet (and I mean the 8×10 kind on real photo paper) is not part of the experience anymore.
On the left is a Photoshop-generated proof sheet from photos shot on film with my Nikon F3. Not bad. But it lacks the film type and frame number information. It just looks like a sad substitute for a REAL proof sheet. I’m sure there’s a program out there that would generate a more realistic pfoof sheet using a portion of the EXIF data or custom fields. I just haven’t found it yet. In fact I haven’t even looked for it, choosing to rant first.
On the right is a proof sheet from digital photos that I made by hand. I like the type slightly better than the one made with Photoshop.
But it’s still not quite there yet. But it still provides a bit of that proof sheet experience to see all the photos small in one place on a black background. I guess the next step is representing the grease-pencil circles of the best frames. I’ll keep at it.