Take these little rockets lightly at the traffic light, and you lose! "To give some idea of this mechanical system’s efficiency, the Delta S4 Corse famously ran 0-60 MPH in 2.4 seconds on gravel, nearly identical to the F1 cars of the era."

 

The Group B car rulebook stipulated that 200 identical roadgoing variants of the car had to be presented for a competition variant to qualify and the Delta S4 was finally homologated on November 1st 1985.

Now, certain sources claim that the actual number of produced models is closer to 150, while some argue that the numbers were in fact much smaller. That wouldn’t be a surprise considering Lancia’s legendary ruse when homologating the 037 by presenting the same batch of cars on two different lots.

The delays in development meant that the Delta S4 race car was ready to debut at the very end of the group B rally car 1985 season which it did in great style, but more on that later. Now, let’s see what made Lancia Delta S4 so formidable.

For the competition cars to maintain light weight, Abarth constructed the frame of the S4 in used lightweight chrome-molybdenum tubular spaceframe with carbon fiber reinforcements.

The tubular frame of the Delta S4 was constructed in a similar manner to the 037, yet with improved rigidity, enabling the car to perform better under demanding conditions of various rallying across the championship.

Even though the car shared its name with the 5-door hatchback, the Delta S4 Stradale retained only the front grille, the windshield glass and rear lights with its pedestrian namesake. The headlights were sourced from the Fiat Ritmo and virtually everything else was unique for this car.

The two-door hatchback-like car featured lightweight epoxy and fiberglass body panels with both the front and the rear being clamshell panels. The S4 Stradale featured the iconic flared fenders which later found their way onto the Delta HF Integrale, whereas the large side scoops covering the whole C pillar fed air to the turbo and supercharger intercoolers mounted horizontally behind the engine bay cover.

The imposing look of the Delta S4 Stradale was upped even more in the competition-ready Corse trim. The front clamshell panel featured a Gurney flap on the hood and a front splitter with aerodynamic winglets moulded into the edges of the front bumper panel. The rear had exposed exhausts, and the roof mounted spoiler featured a prominent aerodynamic wing.

The body of the Corse version was constructed in lighter carbon fiber composite with hollow shell Kevlar doors keeping the weight even more down. Unlike the glass windows of the S4 Stradale, the Lancia Delta S4 Corse had fixed perspex windows.

Engine and Transmission

Carrying over from the 1984 variant of the 037, the Delta S4 had a Fiat Twin Cam 16-valve inline-four engine.

Originally developed by Aurelio Lamperdi, this aluminum alloy engine had been in production since 1966 and over the course of decades, it powered various Fiats, Alfa Romeos, and Lancias. In the case of the Delta S4, it was one of its most extreme iterations as it was thoroughly reworked by Abarth, officially getting the name Abarth 233 ATR 18S.

Unlike the 2.1-liter unit from the 037 EVO, the Delta S4 used the 1.8-liter variant which enabled the car to stay under the 2.5-liter class with a minimum weight of 1,962 lb or 890 kg, essential for rally success. Also, for better weight distribution due to the centrally mounted transfer case, the engine was rotated 180° compared to its position on the Lancia 037.

Just like in the 037 EVO, the engine was twin-charged, meaning it was both turbocharged and supercharged to eliminate issues with turbo lag – a common occurrence in early turbocharged cars. This complicated system was well-engineered and proved to be reliable during pre-production testing and Delta S4’s competing years too.

In the lower RPM range, it was the supercharger boost giving additional power to the engine while the turbo activated to work in unison with the supercharger midway into the RPM range. Finally, when the engine was getting to its redline, the supercharger disengaged letting the turbo provide

For the Corse variant, the Abarth was able to extract way more power from the setup. Various sources claim that the power during engine testing surpassed the 1000 hp mark, but the rally cars ran around 450 horsepower at 8,000 RPM and 289 lb-ft of torque for the 1985 season.

In 1986, the figures were raised to 480 hp at 8,400 RPM and 362 lb-ft of torque, although the power output was unofficially over 550 horsepower. Moreover, Markku Alen claimed that his Delta S4 had 750 horsepower at the final event of the 1986 season.

The S4 Corse engine ran on 7.1:1 compression, while the KKK K27 Turbo and Volumex R18 supercharger provided a boost of 1.5 bar. Both the competition and the street trim engine had dry-sump lubrication, but only the racing car had a functional roof-mounted scoop for the oil cooler

This tour de force of an engine was mated to Hewland 5-speed dogleg manual gearbox sending the power to the wheels via innovative three-differential all-wheel drive. In the Corse variant, the central Ferguson viscous coupling allowed front-to-rear power distribution to range from 25:75 to 40:60 to both the front and the rear ZF limited-slip differential.

On the other hand, the Delta S4 Stradale had fixed 30:70 power distribution between the front open and the rear limited-slip ZF differential via central Ferguson viscous coupling.

To give some idea of this mechanical system’s efficiency, the Delta S4 Corse famously ran 0-60 MPH in 2.4 seconds on gravel, nearly identical to the F1 cars of the era.

The 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto is a hybrid V12 supercar with a 6.5L naturally aspirated engine and three electric motors, producing a combined 1,001 hp. It features an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, all-wheel drive, and a 0-60 mph time of about 2.5 seconds. The carbon-fiber chassis improves rigidity, while its electric-only mode offers short-distance efficiency.

A single joint of an 8 x 4 steel reinforcing mesh. Normally used to add rigidity to concrete slabs.

Mesh for Macro Mondays

Cross (shape) for 122 pictures in 2022

 

Les œuvres d'art monumentales illustrent la montée dans les années 90 d'une nouvelle architecture influencée par de nouvelles méthodes de conception et de processus de production numérisés. En permettant la variation de forme, qui est caractérisée par le flux d’informations qui la traverse, ces méthodes ont stimulé la création d’une architecture animée, vivante et dynamique dans laquelle se croisent les processus biologiques et la dynamique des fluides. Cette tendance, dite numérique, arithmétique et numérique, remet en question une architecture qui serait immuable et définitive au profit d'une "architecture liquide" (Marcos Novak), aux formes libres et évolutives, dans laquelle des cercles organiques et des surfaces continues se mélangent. Cela correspond au style de cette autre architecture qui, dans les années 1960 et 1970, est revenue aux styles plus anciens (gothique, baroque, expressionnisme) en évoquant la courbe, l'organique et le mouvement par rapport à la rigidité de l'angle droit.

 

The monumental works of art illustrate the rise in the 1990s of a new architecture influenced by new methods of digitized design and production processes. By allowing shape variation, which is characterized by the flow of information passing through it, these methods have stimulated the creation of an animated, dynamic and dynamic architecture in which biological processes and fluid dynamics intersect. This trend, known as numerical, arithmetical and numerical, calls into question an architecture that would be immutable and definitive in favor of a "liquid architecture" (Marcos Novak), with free and evolving forms, in which organic circles and continuous surfaces take place. mix. This corresponds to the style of this other architecture which, in the 1960s and 1970s, returned to older styles (Gothic, Baroque, Expressionism) evoking the curve, the organic and the movement in relation to the rigidity of the angle law.

Man becoming machine. Contre-jour/reflector. Steel object (candlestick) made by Eleni O'Hara around 1970.

While capturing this facade, my intention was to reveal the hidden poetry within modern architecture. I was particularly drawn to the unlikely encounter between the rigidity of geometric lines and the fluidity of reflections on the windows. The contrast between the upper part, almost organic in its changing reflections, and the lower section, strictly geometric, seemed to tell a story about the duality of our urban environment. By choosing this angle and diagonal framing, I wanted to create a visual tension that invites the viewer to question their perception of urban space. The natural color palette, between the cold blues of the reflections and the warm tones of the lower panel, reinforces this narrative between nature and artifice that I was seeking to highlight.

One of the most iconic towns in Arizona, Sedona is located about 2 hours north of Phoenix. Knows for its beautiful rock formations, tourists from all backgrounds visit the town year-round to take in the almost mystical views of the beautiful geology.

 

The Mogollon Rim runs about 200 miles from east to west and ranges between 2000 and 3000 feet in height. Cutting through Sedona, the Rim has receded about four miles, leaving behind the rock formations you see here, including Courthouse Butte, pictured above.

 

The red coloring is caused by iron oxide, also known as rust, staining the sandstone, while the sheer faces of the buttes is due to the erosion of the softer sandstone at the base, while the stronger basalt and limestone maintain the rigidity towards the top.

 

Early WIP of a front part of an arch that is going to be placed right next to the Béatrice's first floor. Still a lot to do with it, like adding internal structural supports for rigidity, tunnel inside (also curved) and finally a road with side walk. More to come :)

Palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz, Viso del Marqués, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, España.

 

El palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz es un edificio situado en el municipio de Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), en la Comunidad autónoma de Castilla-La Mancha, en España. Fue construido a finales del siglo XVI por Álvaro de Bazán, primer marqués de Santa Cruz. Actualmente es la sede del Archivo General de la Marina.

 

Fue construido entre 1564 y 1586 con modificaciones posteriores, y se trata de un edificio de planta cuadrada y estilo renacentista articulado en torno a un atrio renacentista con una tumba yacente. Los muros y techos se hallan cubiertos de frescos de doble temática: por un lado, escenas mitológicas y, por otro, batallas navales y ciudades italianas relacionadas con la trayectoria militar del marqués y de sus familiares. Los frescos se deben a unos pintores manieristas italianos, los Péroli. Al verlos, Felipe II les encargaría trabajos para El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo.

 

Para levantarlo, el marqués contrató a un equipo de arquitectos, pintores y decoradores que trabajaron en la obra desde 1564 hasta 1586. Para algunos, el diseño del edificio se debió al italiano Giovanni Battista Castello, conocido como el Bergamasco, que más tarde trabajó en El Escorial; para otros lo trazó, al menos en su plan original, Enrique Egas el Mozo.

 

La arquitectura se percibe como típica española, sin las arquerías italianas, con paramentos lisos y torres cuadradas en las esquinas, influidos por la austeridad de El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo, dentro de las relaciones armónicas características del Renacimiento. El espacio central está ocupado por un patio porticado que junto con la escalera forma un conjunto típicamente manierista entendido como estilo elegante y cortesano que desborda el marco meramente arquitectónico. Contaba con cuatro torres que, al parecer, se derrumbaron a consecuencia del Terremoto de Lisboa de 1755.

 

Las paredes están decoradas con 8.000 metros cuadrados de frescos manieristas elaborados por Giovanni Battista Peroli con Esteban Peroli y César de Bellis. Todos trabajaron para crear un espacio erigido a la mayor gloria de su dueño: por un lado, había que exaltar sus virtudes militares, y por el otro, enaltecer su linaje. Para lo primero, se pintaron en las paredes, las bóvedas y los techos del palacio vistas de ciudades y de puertos, así como los baluartes y las batallas en los que había conquistado su inmenso prestigio. A ambos lados de la escalera se ubicaron dos estatuas en las que aparecía representado como Neptuno (dios de los mares, con su tridente) y como Marte (dios de la guerra), y sobre las puertas del piso superior se colocaron los fanales de popa de las naves capitanas vencidas en las batallas, que eran los trofeos de los marinos. Para elogiar su linaje, y siguiendo la misma tradición renacentista de representar a hombres como dioses o semidioses de la antigüedad, se pintó a los antepasados del marqués y a sus esposas (tuvo dos) e hijos.

 

Estos dos grupos de representaciones se aderezaron con trampantojos, pinturas que simulaban puertas, columnas y otros elementos decorativos y arquitectónicos; y también con motivos grutescos que incluían animales mitológicos, sabandijas y follajes. Conforme una temática muy variada que se puede interpretar como defensa del catolicismo defendido en Trento.

 

Las estatuas sepulcrales de Alonso de Bazán (hermano de don Álvaro) y su esposa María de Figueroa, son el único ejemplo de escultura funeraria perteneciente al primer tercio del siglo XVII. Fueron ejecutados para el Monasterio de la Concepción que ocupaba la Comunidad de Religiosas Franciscas de El Viso del Marqués, ubicándose a día de hoy en el muro del Palacio más cercano a los jardines. Su creador fue Antonio de Riera, escultor relacionado con la corte de origen catalán. En ellas, aparecen los marqueses en actitud de orante, arrodillados en un reclinatorio, todo ello en mármol blanco que resalta sobre el mármol negro de los nichos. Se advierte en ellos cierta similitud con la elegancia y el clasicismo de los Leoni, a pesar de cierta rigidez formal, siendo de especial relevancia la forma en la que están ejecutadas las telas y el detalle de los vestidos.

 

The Palace of the Marquis of Santa Cruz is a building located in the municipality of Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. It was built in the late 16th century by Álvaro de Bazán, the first Marquis of Santa Cruz. It currently houses the General Archive of the Navy.

 

Built between 1564 and 1586, with subsequent modifications, it is a square, Renaissance-style building centered around a Renaissance atrium with a recumbent tomb. The walls and ceilings are covered with frescoes depicting two themes: mythological scenes, and naval battles and Italian cities related to the military career of the Marquis and his family. The frescoes are by Italian Mannerist painters, the Pérolis. Upon seeing them, Philip II commissioned works from them for El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo.

 

To build it, the Marquis hired a team of architects, painters, and decorators who worked on the project from 1564 to 1586. Some believe the building was designed by the Italian Giovanni Battista Castello, known as El Bergamasco, who later worked at El Escorial; others believe it was designed, at least in its original plan, by Enrique Egas the Younger.

 

The architecture is perceived as typically Spanish, lacking the Italian arches, with smooth walls and square towers at the corners, influenced by the austerity of El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo, within the harmonious relationships characteristic of the Renaissance. The central space is occupied by a porticoed courtyard that, together with the staircase, forms a typically Mannerist ensemble, understood as an elegant and courtly style that transcends the purely architectural framework. It had four towers that apparently collapsed as a result of the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

 

The walls are decorated with 8,000 square meters of Mannerist frescoes created by Giovanni Battista Peroli with Esteban Peroli and César de Bellis. They all worked to create a space built to the greatest glory of its owner: on the one hand, to exalt his military virtues, and on the other, to honor his lineage. To this end, views of cities and ports, as well as the bastions and battles in which he had earned his immense prestige, were painted on the walls, vaults, and ceilings of the palace. On either side of the staircase were two statues depicting him as Neptune (god of the seas, with his trident) and Mars (god of war). Above the doors on the upper floor were the stern lanterns of defeated flagships, trophies of the sailors. To praise his lineage, and following the same Renaissance tradition of depicting men as gods or demigods of antiquity, the marquis's ancestors, his wives (he had two) and children were painted.

 

These two groups of representations were embellished with trompe l'oeil paintings simulating doors, columns, and other decorative and architectural elements; as well as grotesque motifs that included mythological animals, vermin, and foliage. This varied theme can be interpreted as a defense of the Catholicism championed in Trent.

 

The sepulchral statues of Alonso de Bazán (Don Álvaro's brother) and his wife María de Figueroa are the only examples of funerary sculpture dating from the first third of the 17th century. They were executed for the Monastery of the Concepción, which was occupied by the Community of Franciscan Nuns of El Viso del Marqués, and are now located on the wall of the Palace closest to the gardens. Their creator was Antonio de Riera, a sculptor of Catalan origin associated with the court. They depict the marquises in a prayerful attitude, kneeling on a prie-dieu. All in white marble, which stands out against the black marble of the niches. There is a certain similarity to the elegance and classicism of the Leoni family, despite their formal rigidity, with the execution of the fabrics and the detail of the dresses being particularly noteworthy.

A very appealing early 70's Datsun 240Z. This great looking ride participated in the Cars and Coffee car show held at the Kansas City Auto Museum in Olathe Kansas. It was a great little show.

 

The decades-long Z Car legend starts with the original Datsun 240Z, which entered production in October 1969 as a 1970 model year vehicle. Produced as something of a response to Toyota's 2000 GT sports car, the Yamaha proposal for which was passed over by Nissan before it became a Toyota project, the 240Z would ultimately be far more successful, with more than 160,000 of the two-door, two-seat, rear-drive sports cars sold in just four years of production in the United States. With a 151-hp 2.4-liter straight-six engine paired with a four-speed transmission, fully independent suspension, and an affordable $3,526 MSRP, the 240Z was seen as a performance bargain, with 0-to-60 mph times in the 8.0-second range and a 125-mph top speed.

 

The 240Z was sold in four unofficial series. Series 1 240Zs include the earliest cars built in late 1969 through mid-1971, identifiable by two ventilation grilles below the rear hatch and "240Z" badging on the C-pillar. These early cars are typically the most desirable to collectors, although the vents, removed from Series 2 cars, would allow exhaust fumes to enter the cabin when parked or at low speeds. Production of the 240Z ended in September 1973.

 

The 260Z launched for the 1974 model year to replace the 240Z, and as its name suggests, displacement from the straight-six was stroked to 2.6 liters. U.S. emissions regulations initially forced the automaker to detune the larger engine's output to 140 hp, but by mid-1974 the full 165 hp that the 260Z made in the rest of the world was available to American buyers. The 260Z's interior was significantly revised from the 240Z, the chassis was reinforced for greater rigidity, and a rear anti-roll bar was added as standard, while the four-speed manual transmission carried on, with an optional three-speed automatic available. From the outside, 260Zs were identifiable by larger bumpers, new taillights, and a new, longer-wheelbase 2+2 variant. While the 260Z was sold for several years in most markets, the U.S. had just a single year of production before moving on to the 280Z, which bumped engine displacement to 2.8 liters (and output to 170 hp) to help guard against ever-tightening emissions standards.

 

Other changes to the 280Z included a switch to Bosch electronic fuel injection (another emissions-friendly change) and new, heavy U.S.-spec 5-mph bumpers. Models from the 1977 model year were given the option of a new five-speed transmission, a space-saver rear tire, and a larger fuel tank, which cut into cargo space. The 280Z continued in both short- and long-wheelbase models into 1978. All told, by the time first-generation Z car production ended, Nissan and Datsun had sold over 520,000 examples worldwide.

 

Source: MotorTrend/

Les œuvres d'art monumentales illustrent la montée dans les années 90 d'une nouvelle architecture influencée par de nouvelles méthodes de conception et de processus de production numérisés. En permettant la variation de forme, qui est caractérisée par le flux d’informations qui la traverse, ces méthodes ont stimulé la création d’une architecture animée, vivante et dynamique dans laquelle se croisent les processus biologiques et la dynamique des fluides. Cette tendance, dite numérique, arithmétique et numérique, remet en question une architecture qui serait immuable et définitive au profit d'une "architecture liquide" (Marcos Novak), aux formes libres et évolutives, dans laquelle des cercles organiques et des surfaces continues se mélangent. Cela correspond au style de cette autre architecture qui, dans les années 1960 et 1970, est revenue aux styles plus anciens (gothique, baroque, expressionnisme) en évoquant la courbe, l'organique et le mouvement par rapport à la rigidité de l'angle droit.

 

The monumental works of art illustrate the rise in the 1990s of a new architecture influenced by new methods of digitized design and production processes. By allowing shape variation, which is characterized by the flow of information passing through it, these methods have stimulated the creation of an animated, dynamic and dynamic architecture in which biological processes and fluid dynamics intersect. This trend, known as numerical, arithmetical and numerical, calls into question an architecture that would be immutable and definitive in favor of a "liquid architecture" (Marcos Novak), with free and evolving forms, in which organic circles and continuous surfaces take place. mix. This corresponds to the style of this other architecture which, in the 1960s and 1970s, returned to older styles (Gothic, Baroque, Expressionism) evoking the curve, the organic and the movement in relation to the rigidity of the angle law.

I like the way that despite the rigidity of the hard contrast, there is a sense of more dynamic movement through this one. This is about 3 years ago in the middle of city, Pitt St. Mall.

 

website | instagram (@albionsamson) | facebook | twitter | last fm |

 

My photo blog on Sydney, 'A Sydney Thumb Opera', on: Instagram or tumblr |

The Bulgarian artist has dared to wrap and transform monuments and landscapes throughout the world. After forty years, he is back in Italy, on Lake Iseo, once more proposing the contrast between the uidity of water and the rigidity of the dry land.

There are three essential requirements for a structure to function properly: Stability, resistance and rigidity; Stable so that it does not tip over, resistant so that it supports force without breaking and rigid so that its shape does not change when subjected to stresses such as your own weight or that of people.

Eakins Oval, Philadelphia. T4's twigging skills have really progressed. He is now bringing back pieces of all various sizes and rigidity to support and line the nest.

1972 Ford Capri 1600.

 

Last taxed in September 2019 and last MoT test expired in July 2019 (now exempt).

It failed a test that month -

 

Windscreen washer not working switch missing (3.5 (a)) - Major

Vehicle structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced both front floor pans corroded within 30cm of seat mounts (6.1.1 (c) (i)) - Major

Nearside front suspension component mounting prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength inner wheel arch (5.3.6 (a) (i)) - Major

Parking brake efficiency below requirements (1.4.2 (a) (i)) - Major

  

Der Tod ist kein plötzliches Ereignis

sondern ein Prozess.

Der Tod tritt ein,

wenn das Herz aufhört zu schlagen.

Dadurch wird die Sauerstoff- und Nährstoffzufuhr

zu den Körperregionen unterbrochen.

Die Körperzellen sterben nach und nach ab,

und die Organfunktionen kommen zum Erliegen.

 

Zuerst ist das Gehirn betroffen.

Die verringerte Hirnaktivität schränkt zunächst

das Bewusstsein und die Wahrnehmung ein,

die Atmung wird flacher,

Hör- und Sehvermögen nehmen ab,

und schließlich fällt die Steuerung

der elementaren Lebensfunktionen für immer aus.

 

Das Ende der elektrischen Aktivität des Gehirns,

der Hirntod, gilt juristisch als Todeszeitpunkt.

 

Zehn bis zwanzig Minuten nach dem Hirntod

sterben viele Zellen des Herzgewebes ab.

Dann folgt der Tod der Leber- und der Lungenzellen.

Erst ein bis zwei Stunden später stellen die

Zellen der Nieren ihre Funktion endgültig ein.

 

Etwa eine halbe Stunde nach Eintritt des Todes

beginnt Blut aus den Kapillaren auszutreten.

Dadurch erscheint die Haut des Leichnams blass,

und in den Partien, in die das Blut absackt,

entstehen Blutergüsse, sogenannte Totenflecke.

 

Im weiteren Verlauf erstarren die Muskeln

aufgrund des fehlenden Sauerstoffs.

Schließlich zersetzen körpereigene Enzyme

wie auch eindringende Keime den Körper zunehmend

und die Muskelstarre löst sich wieder.

_____________________

 

Death is not a sudden event

but a process.

Death occurs

when the heart stops beating.

This will increase the oxygen and nutrient supply

interrupted to the body regions.

The body cells gradually die off,

and the organ functions come to a standstill.

 

The brain is affected first.

The reduced brain activity initially restricts

the consciousness and the perception,

breathing becomes shallower

Hearing and eyesight decrease,

and finally control falls

of the elementary functions of life forever.

 

The end of the electrical activity of the brain,

brain death, is legally considered to be the time of death.

 

Ten to twenty minutes after brain death

many cells of the heart tissue die.

Then comes the death of the liver and lung cells.

Only one or two hours later do the

Cells of the kidneys finally cease to function.

 

About half an hour after death occurred

blood begins to leak out of the capillaries.

This makes the corpse's skin appear pale,

and in the areas where the blood sags,

bruises develop, so-called death spots.

 

As the process progresses, the muscles solidify

due to the lack of oxygen.

Eventually, the body's own enzymes break down

as well as invading germs the body increasingly

and the muscular rigidity dissolves again.

amidst the towering architecture of munich, a lone orthodox jewish man strides forward with a sense of purpose, casting a sharp silhouette against the cold, imposing stone of the building. the stark lines and grid-like windows frame his path, juxtaposing the rigidity of the man-made structure with the fluidity of human motion. this scene captures the eternal struggle between the abstract beliefs that drive us and the concrete realities we navigate daily. the interplay of light and shadow, of human and architecture, creates a moment of introspection and resolve.

I rode 35 miles to support Parkinson Orgazation.

 

'And there is no place to hide'

Bob is not alone, as forum's speakers demonstrate

By Tom Beal

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.11.2008

advertisementFebruary 2, 2008

Richard Carothers has overseen more than 3,200 projects in his career as a designer, architect and developer, but this morning he's focused on getting his feet to shuffle him onstage at DuVal Auditorium.

Bob Dolezal is not alone in his fight against Parkinson's disease or his plight as one of its victims. I've decided to learn how others cope with the disease at a forum Carothers helped arrange through the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Arizona chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association.

Carothers is still seeing clients 14 years after his diagnosis, but he doesn't think that will last much longer.

After a short freeze, his feet get going and he reaches the podium.

"I have Parkinson's disease. You probably surmised that," he says to laughter from the audience of Parkinson's patients and caregivers.

"Do any of these sound familiar?" he asks. "Rigidity, dozing off, urinary urgency, slowed physically, banging your hands and knuckles, trouble buttoning shirts, tying ties, sleeping, short-term memory loss. These are all my symptoms. Last year my walking decreased in efficiency by 50 percent."

He compares his movements to "a sloth climbing a tree."

"It's a challenge," he says, "being comfortable in your own skin."

He's gotten past the embarrassment of holding onto people's chairs as he makes his way to the bathroom in a restaurant. He uses wheelchairs and motorized carts in airports to avoid missing connecting flights. He relies more and more on his wife.

"I'm super-fortunate," he says. "I have a caregiver who is my foundation, as Bette Midler says," and here Carothers stops to still his heaving chest, "she is 'the wind beneath my wings.' "

Parkinson's is tough on caregivers, reports the panel that Carothers introduces. They describe the little funerals they are always holding for the loss of yet another function. Life fluctuates between despair and a profound sense of nobility.

Sharon Kha is the odd woman out on this panel. Like Bob Dolezal, she has no caregiver and she's found advantages in that.

"You know how we are. We get up, turn the TV on, go back to bed. When you live alone, you can do that all night."

Kha says she has days when she has energy to cook dinner, but not to clean up after. "So you put your skillet on the table and eat right out of it. You can annoy yourself all you want."

She is amused when she goes for her checkups.

"They ask, 'Do you need help getting dressed?' Yes, I need help, but I don't get it."

"Buttons are a problem. I buy big. I button 'em once. I wash 'em buttoned. I hang 'em up buttoned."

Kha, formerly an associate vice president for communications at the UA, wrote, in March 2005:

"I feel like I am standing in a sunny meadow watching a storm approach. Even though I can feel the sun warm on my shoulders right now, the darkness and cold rain are moving inexorably toward me and there is no place to hide."

She has been in the center of that storm. Her father had Parkinson's and took shelter for his last eight years in Sharon's home.

"I watched people treating Dad like he was drunk or senile."

Kha spent a decade in television as a reporter and assignments editor at KGUN Channel 9 in Tucson, then 22 years at the UA, where she was working when she diagnosed herself.

"I was looking in the mirror one day and dad's face looked back at me," she wrote. There was a droop in her right eyelid and the right side of her mouth.

When we get together, she tells me her self-diagnosis was ratified by a neurologist three years later – Nov. 11, 2003, at 11 a.m. It's not something you forget.

Kha said her dad managed to work until he died, slowly folding boxes for a religious audiotape company.

Kha quit working when the reporters she dealt with began to finish her sentences, her boss began rewriting her memos and she began to fall asleep at meetings.

"It drives a wedge between your brain and your mind or your soul. I always thought my brain is where I resided. It's where I have my memories, my abilities. Everything I know how to do is stored there," she says.

And now her brain is lying to her. It tells her she is taking big steps when she shuffles. It tells her she is speaking normally when her volume is a weak echo of her TV announcer days.

She has trained, through a program called "Big and Loud," to override her brain. She instructs herself to take a giant step and takes a normal one. She pretends to shout and she speaks clearly. She is a liturgist — a scripture reader — at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church, where she also volunteers weekly.

"People come up to me now and say, 'You're the only one I can understand.' "

She hopes she won't deceive herself when the time comes to seek more help. She doesn't expect to live long enough to experience the final Parkinson's decline. She has chronic kidney disease and an inoperable "giant aneurysm" in her brain.

Her son, David, who has been living a gypsy life in New Zealand, is coming to stay with her for a while, now that her long-term boarder is moving out.

She is beginning to examine her options and feels fortunate to have some.

"My dad's only solution was, 'I will cope with this by going to live with my daughter.'

"I don't have to do that to my son."

It is the only time at lunch when her voice chokes and her lip trembles.

 

O MATRIMÔNIO DO CÉU E DO INFERNO

William Blake

 

O Argumento

 

Rintrah ruge e chacoalha seus fogos

No AR opresso;

Nuvens famintas escoam para o abismo.

 

Antes dócil e em perigosa senda

O justo seguiu seu curso

Ao longo do vale DA morte

 

Rosas são plantadas onde espinhos crescem

E no urzal estéril

Cantam as abelhas do mel.

 

Então a perigosa senda foi plantada.

E em um Rio e uma fonte

Em cada penhasco e tumba,

E sobre ossos descorados

Vermelho barro foi trazido.

 

Até que o vilão deixou as sendas do conforto

Para caminhar por perigosas sendas

E conduzir o justo a regiões estéreis.

 

Agora a sorrateira serpente

Se move em meiga humildade

E o justo vocifera nos desertos

Onde leões perambulam.

 

Rintrah ruge e chacoalha seus fogos

No AR opresso

Nuvens famintas escoam para o abismo."

 

Como um novo céu é começado, e são passados trinta e três anos de seu

advento, o Eterno Inferno revive. E eis: Swedenborg*** é o anjo sentado sobre a

tumba: seus escritos as roupas de linho dobradas. Agora é o domínio de Edom

e o retorno de Adão ao Paraíso. Ver Isaías, capítulos 34 e 35.

Sem contrários não há Progresso. Atração e Repulsa, Razão e Energia,

Amor e Ódio são necessários à existência humana.

Destes contrários provém o que OS religiosos chamam de Bem e Mal. Bem é o

passivo que obedece à Razão. Mal é o ativo emanando DA Energia.

Bem é Céu. Mal é Inferno.

 

A voz do Demônio

 

Todas as Bíblias ou códigos sagrados têm sido as causas dos seguintes erros

:

 

1.Que o homem tem dois princípios reais de existência: ou sejam: um Corpo

e uma Alma.

2.Que a Energia, chamada Mal, é apenas do Corpo; e que a Razão, chamada

Bem, é apenas DA Alma.

3.Que Deus atormentará o Homem pela Eternidade por seguir suas Energias.

Mas OS seguintes contrários a estes são verdadeiros:

1.O Homem não tem um corpo distinto de sua Alma, pois isso chamado Corpo

é uma porção DA Alma discernida pelos cinco sentidos, as principais entradas

DA Alma nessa idade.

2.Energia é a única vida, e provém do Corpo; e Razão é o limite ou

circunferência externa DA Energia.

3.Energia é Eterno Deleite.

 

Aqueles que reprimem o desejo assim o fazem porque o deles é fraco o

suficiente para ser reprimido; e o repressor ou Razão ursupa-lhe o lugar e

governa o sem-vontade.

E, sendo reprimido, ele aos poucos torna-se passivo, até ser apenas a sombra

do desejo.

A história disto está escrita no Paraíso Perdido, e o Governante ou Razão é

chamado Messias.

E o Arcanjo Original, ou possuidor do comando das hostes celestiais, é

chamado Demônio ou Satã, e suas crianças são chamadas Pecado e Morte.

Mas no Livro de Jó o Messias de Milton chama-se Satã.

Pois esta história foi adotada por ambos OS lados.

Realmente pareceu à Razão que o desejo tinha sido banido.

Mas a versão do Diabo é que o Messias caiu e formou um céu com o que roubara

do Abismo.

Isso é mostrado no Evangelho, em que ele ora ao Pai para enviar-lhe o

confortador ou Desejo, de forma que a Razão possa ter idéias sobre as quais

se fundamentar: O Jeová DA Bíblia não sendo outro senão aquele que habita o

fogo flamejante.

Saibam que após a morte de Cristo ele tornou-se Jeová.

Mas, em Milton, o Pai é Destino, o Filho quociente dos Cinco Sentidos, e o

Espírito Santo Vácuo!

Nota: a razão pela qual Milton escreveu acorrentado quando escreveu sobre

Anjos e Deus, e em liberdade, quando sobre Demônios e Inferno, é porque era

um verdadeiro poeta, e DA parte do Diabo, sem sabê-lo.

 

Uma Visão Memorável

 

Enquanto caminhava por entre OS fogos do inferno, encantado com OS prazeres

do Gênio, que para OS Anjos parecem tormento e insanidade, coletei alguns de

seus Provérbios, pensando que como OS dizeres usados em uma nação delineiam

seu caráter, assim OS Provérbios do Inferno mostram a natureza DA sabedoria

infernal melhor que qualquer descrição de edifícios ou vestuário.

Ao voltar para Casa: no abismo dos cincos sentidos, onde uma encosta

íngreme e plana desaprova o mundo atual, vi um poderoso demônio envolto em

nuvens negras, pairando sobre as bordas do rochedo: com fogos corrosivos

escreveu a seguinte sentença, agora percebida pela mente dos homens e por

else lida na terra:

 

Como sabeis que cada pássaro que corta OS ares seja um imenso mundo de

deleite, fechado por vossos cinco sentidos?

 

Provérbios do Inferno

 

No plantio aprende, na colheita ensina, no inverno desfruta.

Leva teu carro e teu arado por sobre OS ossos dos mortos.

A estrada do excesso conduz ao palácio DA sabedoria

A Prudência é uma Rica, feia e velha dama cortejada pela Incapacidade.

Aquele que deseja e não age, cultiva a peste.

O verme cortado perdoa o arado.

Afunda no rio aquele que ama a água.

Um tolo não vê a mesma árvore que o sábio vê.

Aquele cuja face não lampeja, jamais se tornará uma estrela.

A Eternidade namora os frutos do tempo.

A abelha laboriosa não tem tempo para entrevos.

As horas de estupidez são medidas pelo relógio; as de sabedoria, porém,

relógio algum pode medir.

Toda comida sadia é conseguida sem rede ou armadilha.

Traz número, peso e medida num ano de privação.

Nenhum pássaro voa muito alto, se voa com as próprias asas.

Um cadáver não revida a agressões.

O mais sublime ato é realizar um outro que o supere.

Se o tolo persistisse em sua tolice, sábio se tornaria.

A tolice é o manto da malandragem.

A vergonha é o manto do orgulho.

Prisões são construídas com pedras da lei, bordéis com tijolos de religião.

O orgulho do pavão é a glória de Deus.

A luxúria do bode é a generosidade de Deus.

A ira do leão é a sabedoria de Deus.

A nudez da mulher é a obra de Deus.

Excesso de tristeza ri. Excesso de alegria chora.

O rugir dos leões, o uivar dos lobos, a fúria do mar tempestuoso, e a espada

destruidora, são porções de Eternidade, grandiosas demais para o olho do

homem.

A raposa condena a armadilha, não a si mesma.

Alegrias fecundam. Tristezas fazem germinar.

Que o homem vista a pele do leão e a mulher a da ovelha.

O pássaro um ninho, a aranha uma teia, o homem amizade.

O tolo mesquinho e o risonho, e o tolo sisudo e tristonho, devem ser ambos

julgados sábios, para que sirvam de exemplo.

O que agora é provado, foi antes apenas imaginado.

O rato, o camundongo, a raposa e coelho espreitam as raízes; o leão, o

tigre, o cavalo e o elefante espreitam os frutos.

A cisterna contém, a fonte transborda.

Um pensamento preenche a imensidão.

Sempre esteja pronto para dizer o que pensa, e um sujeito desprezível o

evitará.

Qualquer coisa em que se possa acreditar é uma imagem da verdade.

A águia nunca perdeu tanto tempo como como quando se submeteu a aprender com

a gralha.

A raposa provê a si mesma, mas Deus provê ao leão.

Pensa de manhã, age ao meio-dia, come de tarde, dorme de noite.

Aquele que sofreu a tua imposição, esse te conhece.

Assim como o arado segue as palavras, Deus recompensa as preces.

Os tigres da ira são mais sábios que os cavalos da instrução.

Espera veneno da água parada.

Nunca se sabe o que é suficiente enquanto não se sabe o que é mais do que

suficiente.

Ouve a crítica do tolo! É um direito régio!

Os olhos de fogo, as narinas de ar, a boca de água, a barba de terra.

O fraco em coragem é forte em astúcia.

A macieira jamais pergunta a faia como crescer, nem o leão ao cavalo como

apanhar sua presa.

O que recebe agradecido obtém colheita abundante.

Se outros não tivessem sido tolos, nós o seríamos.

A alma de doce deleite jamais deve ser maculada.

Quando vês uma águia, vês uma porção de Gênio; levanta a cabeça!

Como a lagarta escolhe as mais belas folhas para por seus ovos, assim o

sacerdote amaldiçoa as mais belas alegrias.

Criar uma pequena flor é labor de anos.

Maldição tensiona, bênção relaxa.

O melhor vinho, o mais velho.

A melhor água, a mais nova.

Orações não aram! Louvores não colhem!

Alegrias não riem! Tristezas não choram!

A cabeça sublime, o coração Pathos, os genitais Beleza, mãos e pés Proporção

 

Como o ar para um pássaro e o mar para um peixe, assim é o desprezo para o

desprezível.

A gralha queria que tudo fosse negro, a coruja que tudo fosse branco.

Exuberância é Beleza.

Se o leão fosse aconselhado pela raposa, seria astuto.

O progresso constrói estradas retas, mas as estradas tortuosas sem Progresso

são estradas de Gênio.

Antes matar um bebê no berço que cuidar de desejos não realizados.

Onde o homem não está, a natureza é estéril.

A verdade nunca pode ser dita para que seja compreendida sem que nela se

possa acreditar.

Suficiente! Ou Demasiado.

 

Os antigos poetas animavam todos os objetos sensíveis com Deuses ou Gênios,

chamando-os por nomes e adornando-os com as propriedades das florestas, rios

montanhas, lagos, cidades, nações e tudo o que seus vastos e numerosos

sentidos podiam perceber.

E estudaram em particular o gênio de cada cidade e país, colocando-o sob sua

deidade mental;

até que um sistema foi formado, do qual alguns se aproveitaram, e

escravizaram o vulgo com o intento de criar ou abstrair as deidades mentais

de seus objetos: assim começou o Sacerdócio.

Escolhendo formas de adoração tiradas dos contos poéticos. E com o tempo,

pronunciaram que os deuses tinham ordenado tais coisas.

Assim o homem se esqueceu que todas as deidades residem no peito humano.

 

Uma Visão Memorável

 

Os profetas Isaías e Ezequiel jantaram comigo, e eu lhes perguntei como

ousavam tão redondamente afirmar que Deus lhes falara; e se não pensaram na

época que seriam mal-compreendidos, e assim, causa de imposição.

Isaías respondeu: "Eu não vi Deus algum, nem ouvi, numa percepção

orgânica finita; mas meus sentidos descobriram o infinito em todas coisas, e

como estivesse assim convencido, e ainda o estou, de que a voz da indignação

honesta é a voz de Deus, não me preocupei com as consequências, mas escrevi.

 

Então perguntei: "A firme convição de que uma coisa é assim, assim a

torna?"

Ele respondeu: "Todos os poetas assim o acreditam, e em eras de

imaginação esta firme convicção removeu montanhas; mas muitos não são

capazes de uma firme convicção de coisa alguma."

Então Ezequiel disse: "A filosofia do Oriente ensinou os primeiros

princípios de percepção humana: algumas nações mantiveram um princípio para

a origem, algumas outro: nós de Israel ensinamos que o Gênio Poético (como

vocês agora o chamam) foi o primeiro princípio e os outros meramente

derivados, e essa foi a causa de nosso desprezo pelos Sacerdotes e Filosófos

de outros países e de profetizarmos que se provaria afinal serem todos os

Deuses originados no nosso e serem tributários do Gênio Poético; foi isso

que nosso grande poeta, Rei David, desejou tão ardentemente e invoca tão

pateticamente, dizendo que com isso ele conquista inimigos e governa

reinados; e nós amamos tanto nosso Deus, que amaldiçoamos em seu nome todas

as divindades das nações vizinhas, e afirmamos terem elas se rebelado:

destas opiniões o vulgo veio a pensar que todas as nações seriam afinal

subjugadas pelos judeus."

"Isto", disse ele, "como toda firme convição, é fatal que aconteça; pois

todas as nações acreditam no código dos judeus e adoram o seu Deus, e pode

haver maior sujeição?"

Ouvi isso com algum espanto, e devo confessar, minha própria convicção.

Após o jantar, pedi a Isaías que favorecesse o mundo com suas obras

perdidas; ele disse que nenhuma de valor se perdera. Ezequiel disse o mesmo

das suas.

Também a Isaías o que o fazia caminhar nu e descalço durante três anos?

ele respondeu:

"O mesmo que nosso amigo Diógenes, o grego."

Perguntei então a Ezequiel por que comia lama e se deitava por tanto

tempo em seus lados direito e esquerdo? ele respondeu : "O desejo de

despertar outros homens para uma percepção do infinito: isto, as tribos

norte-americanas praticam, e é honesto aquele que resiste a seu gênio ou

consciência, visando apenas conforto ou gratificação presentes?"

 

A antiga tradição de que o mundo será consumido em fogo ao final de seis mil

anos é verdadeira, conforme ouvi no Inferno.

Pois o querubim com sua espada flamejante tem aqui ordens de deixar a

guarda da árvore da vida; e quando ele o fizer, toda a criação será

consumida e parecerá infinita e sagrada, enquanto agora parece finita e

corrupta.

Isto ocorrerá com um aperfeiçoamento do prazer sensual.

Mas primeiro a noção de que o homem tem corpo distinto de sua alma deve

ser banida.

Isto deverei fazê-lo imprimindo no método infernal, com corrosivos, que

no inferno são salutares e medicinais, solvendo superfícies aparentes, e

expondo o infinito que estava oculto.

Se as portas da percepção fossem limpas, tudo apareceria ao homem como é,

infinito.

Pois o homem fechou-se a si mesmo, até ver todas as coisas pelas

estreitas fendas de sua caverna.

 

Uma Visão Memorável

 

Estava numa tipografia do inferno, e vi o método pelo qual o conhecimento é

transmitido de geração a geração.

Na primeira câmara havia um Homem-Dragão, limpando a sujeira da boca de

uma caverna, em cujo interior, uns quantos Dragões escavavam.

Na segunda câmara havia uma Víbora envolvendo a rocha e a caverna, e

outras adornando-a com ouro, prata e pedras preciosas.

Na terceira câmara havia uma Águia com asas e plumas de ar: tornava o

interior da caverna infinito; ao redor estavam alguns Homens-Águia, que

construíam palácios nos imensos rochedos.

Na quarta câmara havia leões de fogo flamante, vagando furiosos e fundindo

os metais em vivos fluidos.

Na quinta câmara havia formas Inominadas que lançavam os metais espaço

adentro.

Lá eram recebidos por homens que ocupavam a sexta câmara, e ganhavam a

forma de livros, e eram arrumados em bibiliotecas.

 

Os Gigantes que formaram este mundo em sua existência sensual, e parecem

viver nele agora acorrentados, são na verdade as causas de sua vida e as

fontes de toda atividade; mas as correntes são a astúcia de mentes fracas e

domesticadas, que têm poder de resistir à Energia; como diz o provérbio, o

fraco em coragem é forte em astúcia.

Assim uma parte do ser é o Prolífico, a outra o Devorador: ao Devorador

lhe pareceu ter o Produtor em suas correntes; mas não é assim, ele apenas

toma porções de existência e as imagina o todo.

Mas o Prolífico deixaria de ser Prolífico, se o Devorador, como um mar,

não recebesse o excesso de seus prazeres.

Alguns dirão: "Não é somente Deus o Prolífico?" Eu respondo: "Deus só age

e é em seres existentes ou Homens."

Essas duas espécies de homens estão sempre sobre a terra, e devem ser

inimigos : quem tentar reconciliá-los busca destruir a existência.

A Religião é um esforço para reconciliar os dois.

Nota: Jesus Cristo não desejava uní-los, mas separá-los, como na parábola

das ovelhas e das cabras! E ele diz: "Eu não vim trazer a Paz, mas a Espada.

 

Messias ou Satã ou o Tentador era originalmente considerado um dos

Antediluvianos que são nossas Energias.

 

Uma Visão Memorável

 

Um Anjo veio para mim e disse: "Oh lamentável, tolo jovem! Oh horrível!

Pavoroso estado! Considera a ardente masmorra que estás preparando para ti

mesmo por toda a Eternidade, para a qual estás indo em tal carreira!"

 

Eu disse: "Talvez gostarias de mostrar-me meu Destino Eterno, e refletindo

juntos a respeito, veremos se o teu ou o meu é mais desejável."

Então, levou-me por um estábulo, e por uma igreja, e para o interior do

sepulcro da igreja, dentro do qual havia um moinho; através do moinho fomos,

e chegamos a uma caverna: pela caverna sinuosa adentro tateamos nosso

tedioso caminho, até que um vazio vasto como um céu rebaixado se mostrou a

nós, e nos seguramos nas raízes das árvores e pairamos sobre a imensidão;

mas eu disse: "se me permites, vamos entregar-nos a este vazio e ver se a

providência aí também se encontra: se não fores, eu irei." Mas ele

respondeu: Não seja presunçoso, jovem homem, mas já que aqui estamos,

contempla tua sina, que em breve aparecerá, quando as trevas tenham se

dissipado."

Permaneci, então, com ele, sentado sobre a raíz retorcida de um carvalho;

ele se mantinha suspenso por um cogumelo que pendia com a cabeça voltada

para o abismo.

Pouco a pouco contemplamos o abismo infinito, ardente como a fumaça de uma

cidade em chamas; atrás de nós, a uma imensa distância, estava o sol, negro,

mas brilhante; ao seu redor, trilhas ardentes nas quais se revolviam enormes

aranhas, rastejando atrás de suas presas que voavam, ou antes, nadavam no

abismo infinito, nas mais terríveis formas de animais nascidos da corrupção;

e o ar estava cheio deles, e parecia composto por eles: esses são os

demônios, e são chamados Poderes do ar. Perguntei então a meu companheiro

onde estava meu destino eterno? Ele disse: "entre as aranhas negras e as

brancas."

 

Mas agora, dentre as aranhas negras e brancas, uma nuvem e um fogo

irromperam e rolaram espaço adentro, enegrecendo tudo embaixo, de forma que

o baixo abismo ficou negro como um mar, e rolou com um terrível ruído;

abaixo de nós nada mais se via senão uma negra tempestade, até que, olhando

para leste, entre as nuvens e as ondas, avistamos uma catarata de sangue

mesclado com fogo e, a não muitas pedras de distância, emergiu e afundou de

novo a escamosa pele de uma monstruosa serpente; por fim, a leste, distante

aproximadamente três graus, surgiu a crista ardente sobre as ondas;

lentamente ela se elevou como uma cadeia de montanhas douradas, até

descobrirmos dois globos de fogo carmim, dos quais o mar se expandia em

nuvens de fumaça; e então vimos que era a cabeça de Leviatã; sua fronte

estava dividida em listras verde e púrpura como as da fronte de um tigre:

logo vimos sua boca e guelras rubras pendiam por sobre a espuma raivosa,

tingindo o negro abismo com raios de sangue, avançando em direção a nós com

toda a força de uma existência espiritual.

 

Meu amigo o Anjo galgou desde seu posto até o moinho: eu permaneci só, e

então não havia mais essa aparição, mas encontrei-me sentado em uma

agradável encosta à beira de um rio ao luar, ouvindo um harpista, que

cantava ao som de sua harpa; e seu tema era:

"O homem que nunca altera sua opinião é como água parada, e engendra

répteis da mente."

Mas eu me levantei e procurei o moinho, e lá encontrei meu Anjo, que,

surpreso, perguntou-me como escapei?

Eu respondi: "Tudo o que vimos deveu-se à tua metafísica; pois quando

fugiste, encontrei-me numa encosta ao luar ouvindo um harpista. Mas agora

que vimos meu destino eterno, devo mostrar-te o teu?" Ele riu de minha

proposta; mas eu, à força, subitamente tomei-o em meus braços, e voamos

noite adentro em direção a oeste, até sermos elevados acima da sombra da

terra; então me atirei com ele diretamente para dentro do corpo do sol; ali,

vesti-me de branco, e tomando em minha mão volumes de Swedenborg, deixei-me

cair da região gloriosa e passei todos os planetas até chegar a Saturno: lá

parei para descansar e então saltei para dentro do vácuo entre Saturno e as

estrelas fixas.

"Aqui", disse eu, "está teu destino, neste espaço, se de espaço pode ser

chamado". Logo avistamos a igreja, e levei-o até o altar e abri a bíblia e

ah! Era um poço profundo, para dentro do qual desci, guiando o Anjo à minha

frente: logo vimos sete casas de tijolos, em uma entramos; dentro, havia uns

quanto macacos, babuínos, e todos dessa espécie, acorrentados pela cintura,

arreganhando os dentes e agarrando-se uns aos outros, mas detidos pelo curto

alcance de suas correntes: no entanto, vi que eles às vezes tornavam-se

numerosos, e então os fracos eram pegos pelos fortes, e com dentes

arreganhados, primeiro copulavam com eles e então os devoravam,

arrancando-lhes primeiro um membro, depois outro, até que o corpo se

reduzisse a um tronco miserável: este, após mostrarem-lhe os dentes e

beijá-lo com aparente afeto, devoravam também; e aqui e ali vi um

saborosamente mordendo a carne de sua própria cauda; como o fedor nos

incomodasse a ambos terrivelmente, entramos no moinho, e em minha mão trazia

um esqueleto, que no moinho era a Analítica de Aristóteles.

Então o Anjo disse: "tua fantasia se impôs sobre mim, e deverias estar

envergonhado."

Eu respondi: "Nós nos impusemos um ao outro, e é perda de tempo conversar

contigo, cujas obras não passam de Analítica."

 

Oposição é verdadeira amizade.

 

Eu sempre achei que os anjos têm a vaidade de falar de si mesmos como os

únicos sábios; isto o fazem com uma confiante insolência, surgida do

raciocínio sistemático.

Assim Swedenborg se vangloria de que o que ele escreve é novo: embora seja

apenas um Sumário ou Índice de livros já publicados.

Um homem levou consigo um macaco para mostrá-lo, e por quê era um pouco

mais sábio que o macaco, envaideceu-se e julgou-se mais sábio que sete

homens. O mesmo ocorre com Swedenborg: ele mostra a estupidez das igrejas, e

expõe hipócritas, até imaginar que todos são religiosos e ele mesmo o único

na terra que jamais rompeu barreiras.

Agora ouçam um fato evidente: Swedenborg não escreveu uma só verdade nova.

Agora ouçam outro: ele escreveu todas as velhas falsidades.

E agora ouçam a razão. Ele conversava com Anjos, que são todos religiosos,

e não com Demônios, que odeiam todos religião, pois ele era incapaz dentro

de suas noções presunçosas.

Assim os escritos de Swedenborg são uma recapitulação de todas as opiniões

superficiais, e uma análise das mais sublimes , mas nada mais.

Ouçam agora outro fato evidente. Qualquer homem de talentos mecânicos pode

a partir dos escritos de Paracelso ou Jacob Boehme, produzir dez mil

volumes de igual valor aos de Swedenborg, e daqueles de Dante ou Shakespeare

um número infinito.

Mas que, ao fazê-lo, não o deixem dizer que sabe mais do que seu mestre,

pois ele apenas segura uma vela à luz do sol.

 

Uma Visão Memorável

 

Vi uma vez um Demônio numa flama de fogo, que se elevou diante de um Anjo

sentado numa nuvem, e o Demônio proferiu as seguintes palavras:

"A adoração de Deus é : Honrar seus dons em outros homens, cada um de

acordo com seu gênio, e amar mais os maiores homens: aqueles que invejam e

caluniam os grandes homens odeiam Deus, pois não há outro Deus."

O Anjo, ouvindo isso, tornou-se quase azul, mas, recompondo-se, ficou

amarelo, e finalmente branco, rosa, e sorrindo respondeu:

"Tu, idólatra! Não é Deus Uno? E não é ele visível em Jesus Cristo? e

Jesus Cristo não deu sua sanção à lei dos dez mandamentos? E não são todos

os outros homens tolos, pecadores e ninguéns?"

O Demônio respondeu: "Mói um tolo num pilão com trigo e ainda não se

conseguirá arrancar-lhe sua tolice: se Jesus Cristo é o maior dos homens,

deve-se amá-lo no mais alto grau; ouve agora como Ele deu Sua sanção à lei

dos dez mandamentos: não zombou ele do sabbath e assim do Deus do sabbath?

não matou aqueles que foram mortos por sua causa? não fez vista grossa à lei

da mulher pega em adultério? não roubou trabalho alheio pra se sustentar?

não manteve falso testemunho quando se recusou a fazer uma defesa diante de

Pilatos? não cobiçou ao pregar para seus discípulos, e pedir-lhes que

sacudissem a poeira de seus pés diante dos que se negavam a hospedá-los? Eu

te digo, nenhuma virtude pode existir sem a quebra desses dez mandamentos.

Jesus era todo virtude, e agia por impulso, não por regras."

Quando ele acabou de falar, observei o Anjo, que estendeu os braços,

envolvendo a flama de fogo, e foi consumido, e ascendeu como Elias.

Nota: esse Anjo, que agora se tornou um Demônio, é meu amigo íntimo. Nós

sempre lemos juntos a Bíblia, em seu sentido infernal ou diabólico, que o

mundo deverá ter, se se comportar bem.

Tenho sempre a Bíblia do Inferno, que o mundo há de ter, quer queira, quer

não.

 

Uma Lei para o Leão e o Boi é Opressão.

 

Uma Canção de Liberdade

 

1. A Eterna Fêmea grunhiu! foi ouvida por toda a Terra.

2. A costa de Albion está doente, silenciosa; fenecem os campos

americanos!

3. Sombras de Profecias tremem ao longo de lagos e rios, e murmuram através

do oceano: França, derruba a tua masmorra!

4. Dourada Espanha, estoura as barreiras da velha Roma!

5. Joga tuas chaves, ó Roma, abismo adentro despencando, mesmo até a

Eternidade despencando,

6. E chora.

7. Em sua mão trêmula ele tomou o terror recëm-nascido, uivando.

8. Naquelas infinitas montanhas de luz, agora confinadas pelo Oceano

Atlântico, o recém-nascido fogo deteve-se perante o rei estelar!

9. Embandeiradas com neves de fronte cinzenta e rostos trovejantes, as asas

ciumentas agitaram-se sobre o abismo.

10. A mão em forma de lança incinerou-se no ar; desatado estava o escudo;

adiante seguiu a mão do ciúme por entre os cabelos em fogo, e lançou a

maravilha recém-nascida através da noite estrelada.

11. O fogo, o fogo está caindo!

12. Olha para o alto! Olha, cidadão de Londres, alarga teu semblante! Ó

Judeu, deixa de contar ouro! retorna a teu óleo e teu vinho. Ó Africano!

negro Africano! (vai, pensamento alado, amplia o seu semblante.)

13. Os membros ardentes, cabelos flamejantes, lançados como o sol poente no

oceano ocidental.

14. Desperto de seu sono eterno, o antigo elemento urrando fugiu.

15. Para baixo, precipitando-se, batendo suas asas em vão, o rei ciumento;

seus conselheiros de cenho cinzento, guerreiros retumbantes, veteranos

encrespados, por entre elmos, escudos e carruagens, cavalos, elefantes,

estandartes, castelos, tipóias e rochas.

16. Caindo, precipitando-se, ruindo! enterrado em ruínas, nos refúgios de

Urthona.

17. Por toda a noite, por entre as ruínas; então, suas chamas sombrias,

apagadas, emergem em torno do melancólico rei.

18. Com trovão e fogo, conduzindo suas hostes estelares através do árido

deserto, ele promulga seus dez mandamentos, erguendo suas luminosas

pálpebras sobre o abismo, em profundo desânimo.

19. Onde o filho do fogo, em sua nuvem oriental, enquanto a manhã empluma

seu peito dourado,

20. Desprezando as nuvens escritas com maldições, esmaga reduzindo a pó a

lei de pedra, libertando os cavalos eternos dos refúgios da noite, gritando:

O IMPÉRIO CAÍU! E AGORA O LEÃO E O LOBO DEVEM PARAR.

 

Côro

 

Não permitam mais que os sacerdotes do corvo da Aurora, em negro mortal, com

áspera voz, amaldiçoem os filhos do prazer. Nem seus confrades aceitos - a

quem ele, tirano, chama de livres - marquem o limite ou construam o telhado.

Nem que a pálida luxúria religiosa chame aquela virgindade que deseja mas

não age!

 

Porquê tudo o que vive é Sagrado.

 

soundcloud.com/junyocosta/williamblake-matrimonio1

 

****he Marriage of Heaven and Hell William Blake

The following entry presents criticism of Blake's prophetic prose poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93). See also, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion Criticism.

 

INTRODUCTION

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, started in 1790 but probably not completed until 1793, represents for many critics William Blake's finest achievement and certainly his most innovative work both thematically and stylistically. It not only broke with the past on many levels but was also an important first step in the articulation of Blake's philosophy and the creation of his new universe, both of which would be expanded in the writing that followed, particularly The First Book of Urizen (1794) and The Four Zoas (1796-1807?). The Marriage of Heaven and Hell defies easy interpretation just as it defies neat categorization as any one genre. Thus, commentary has focused as much on the structure of the text as on its influences and themes.

 

Biographical Information

Blake had established himself as an author and engraver during the previous decade and had produced the treatises There Is No Natural Religion and All Religions Are One around 1788 using his unique method of illuminated printing. Songs of Innocence and The Book of Thel followed the next year. Although his time-consuming process of engraving, printing, and hand-coloring each copy produced texts of extraordinary beauty, circulation was necessarily limited, which prevented Blake from achieving either the reputation or the income level his work properly merited. His early association with Emanuel Swedenborg's New Church—the extent of which is still debated—provided one of the most important influences on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Blake's disenchantment with the increasing rigidity of Swedenborg and his followers made them the primary targets for much of The Marriage's parody and satire. Meanwhile, his political philosophy took shape within a circle that included some of the leading radicals of the day, such as Joseph Priestley and Thomas Paine.

 

Major Themes

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is a satiric attack on orthodoxy in general and on the Swedenborgians in particular, but it is also an extended description of the educational and developmental process by which the poet-prophet is created. In addition, it is a revolutionary prophecy, written against the historical backdrop of political upheaval in America and in France. The Marriage begins with a poem, "The Argument," in which Blake introduces his prophetic character Rintrah; it ends with another poem, "A Song of Liberty," in which Blake celebrates revolution and foresees a new age of political and religious freedom. Between these two poems is a series of prose doctrinal statements, each followed by a "Memorable Fancy," which comments on the preceding statement while parodying Swedenborg's "Memorable Relations" from the latter's Heaven and Hell. Throughout the work, Blake presents a series of contraries—Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, Angel and Devil, Reason and Energy—but then appears to reverse the traditional values associated with each term, thus celebrating Energy, Evil, and even Satan himself. Most critics today reject such a reading as simplistic and insist that, rather than merely inverting the terms of the contraries, Blake was questioning both terms and exploring the limitations of each. The "Proverbs of Hell" section contains some of the most outrageous and most widely-quoted passages of the entire text, among them: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom," "The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction," and "Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires."

 

Critical Reception

The critical debate surrounding The Marriage of Heaven and Hell has been varied and heated over the last one hundred years and shows no sign of abating. Critics differ on the degree of irony Blake employed in some of his bolder statements, questioning when Blake is speaking ironically as the Devil and when he is speaking as himself. They disagree on whether Blake was an innovative revolutionary who mercilessly ridiculed dogmatic religion and rebelled against convention in both art and politics, or if he was merely one of many products of his revolutionary times.

 

Another area of intense critical debate involves the various influences on the author and, in turn, on the text. Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell is the most obvious source and target of The Marriage's satire and parody. Although Blake directs some barbs at Milton as well, critics seem to agree that their tone is one of gentle irony as opposed to the vicious ridicule he reserves for Swedenborg. Other critics have suggested the writings of Boehme and Paracelsus as inspirations for The Marriage, as well as Lavater's Aphorisms on Man, Spenser's The Faerie Queen, and Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. In terms of form, The Marriage has been called "structureless," but it has also been compared to "the A B A of the ternary form in music"; in this structure, the development of a first theme is followed by the development of a second theme. The work then returns to the first theme (or some variation of it). Others scholars have claimed that the poem draws on dialectic, on a well-established satiric tradition, on the elementary school primer, and on the chapbooks and political tracts of the time. Still other critics insist that it stands alone in its structure and that there has been nothing like it before or since.

Les œuvres qui précèdent celle de Menabuoi dans le baptistère sont fortement empreintes de rigidité romane et byzantine, comme on peut le voir dans la vision du Paradis de la coupole du baptistère : la scène est organisée autour d'un Christ pantocrator, autour duquel tourne une roue hypnotique faite d'anges et de saints, dont les auréoles dorées, vues d'en bas, semblent être l'œuvre d'un grand orfèvre. Au centre de cette représentation se trouve également la Mère de Dieu.

 

The works preceding that of Menabuoi in the Baptistery are strongly marked by Romanesque and Byzantine rigidity, as can be seen in the vision of Paradise in the dome of the Baptistery: the scene is organized around a Christ Pantocrator, around whom turns a hypnotic wheel made of angels and saints, whose golden halos, seen from below, seem to be the work of a great goldsmith. At the center of this representation is also the Mother of God.

Winter shot taken on the frozen lake of the Mont-Cenis dam (2.083 m), Savoie, France.

 

A lovely, algid, castle of clouds was wrapping Pointe Clairy (3.161 m), its rock ridge is barely visible through the clouds.

 

In the foreground the first cracks of solid ice temporarily covered by a thin blanket of snow.

 

The idea behind this photo is to document the unique moment and the beauty of the place, but this seemed even too easy... so the real challenge was to convey the inflexible rigidity of the cold winter, a difficult season, often minimalist, somehow empty, but so full of intangible pathos!

_____________________

 

©Roberto Bertero, All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.

berteroroberto.pixu.com/

China, Shanghai, Poly Grand Theatre, designed by Japanese architect Tadao AndoIt, completed august 2014, contains the city’s first "waterscape Theatre" & is located by Yuanxiang Lake in Jiading New Town. The Theatre includes a 1466 seats main hall, a multi-function hall & plazas, as well as two semi-outdoor theatres named "Water Stage" & "Roof Theatre".

 

Geometric shapes & interlaced cylindrical elements make up the entrance lobby, lounge & outdoor theatres & reflects that Tadao Ando placed a great deal of attention on its relationship with water, wind, light & particularly its integration with the natural landscapes.

 

The theatre of reinforced concrete forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system, not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure & veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system & structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles & sides, seemingly intruding into the structural foundation of the project

 

These voids offer a range of experiences that depart from the rigidity of a regular structural scheme. Each tube, built of a steel skeleton shielded in ribbed aluminium, painted to portray the appearance of wood, varies in dimension, direction & function. Not all tubes can be experienced by visitor, some are only accessible for certain events & to get to specific halls, while others such as the entry foyer void will greet every guest, natural light is funnelled through the telescopic cylinders illuminating the interior spaces.

 

The Poly Grand Theatre is located approx. 20 km outside the city centre situated between two man-made lakes in the Jiading district, an area rapidly developing its own socio-political identity & cultural hub.

 

👉 One World one Dream,

🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over

14 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments

The most abundant of all swallows in the world, the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) summers throughout most of the northern hemisphere, and winters throughout most of the southern! These flighty birds build their nests out of mud that is infused with bits of grass stems to add strength and rigidity. While these nests were once built in caves and natural escarpments, today they are erected almost exclusively on manmade structures.

Palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz, Viso del Marqués, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, España.

 

El palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz es un edificio situado en el municipio de Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), en la Comunidad autónoma de Castilla-La Mancha, en España. Fue construido a finales del siglo XVI por Álvaro de Bazán, primer marqués de Santa Cruz. Actualmente es la sede del Archivo General de la Marina.

 

Fue construido entre 1564 y 1586 con modificaciones posteriores, y se trata de un edificio de planta cuadrada y estilo renacentista articulado en torno a un atrio renacentista con una tumba yacente. Los muros y techos se hallan cubiertos de frescos de doble temática: por un lado, escenas mitológicas y, por otro, batallas navales y ciudades italianas relacionadas con la trayectoria militar del marqués y de sus familiares. Los frescos se deben a unos pintores manieristas italianos, los Péroli. Al verlos, Felipe II les encargaría trabajos para El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo.

 

Para levantarlo, el marqués contrató a un equipo de arquitectos, pintores y decoradores que trabajaron en la obra desde 1564 hasta 1586. Para algunos, el diseño del edificio se debió al italiano Giovanni Battista Castello, conocido como el Bergamasco, que más tarde trabajó en El Escorial; para otros lo trazó, al menos en su plan original, Enrique Egas el Mozo.

 

La arquitectura se percibe como típica española, sin las arquerías italianas, con paramentos lisos y torres cuadradas en las esquinas, influidos por la austeridad de El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo, dentro de las relaciones armónicas características del Renacimiento. El espacio central está ocupado por un patio porticado que junto con la escalera forma un conjunto típicamente manierista entendido como estilo elegante y cortesano que desborda el marco meramente arquitectónico. Contaba con cuatro torres que, al parecer, se derrumbaron a consecuencia del Terremoto de Lisboa de 1755.

 

Las paredes están decoradas con 8.000 metros cuadrados de frescos manieristas elaborados por Giovanni Battista Peroli con Esteban Peroli y César de Bellis. Todos trabajaron para crear un espacio erigido a la mayor gloria de su dueño: por un lado, había que exaltar sus virtudes militares, y por el otro, enaltecer su linaje. Para lo primero, se pintaron en las paredes, las bóvedas y los techos del palacio vistas de ciudades y de puertos, así como los baluartes y las batallas en los que había conquistado su inmenso prestigio. A ambos lados de la escalera se ubicaron dos estatuas en las que aparecía representado como Neptuno (dios de los mares, con su tridente) y como Marte (dios de la guerra), y sobre las puertas del piso superior se colocaron los fanales de popa de las naves capitanas vencidas en las batallas, que eran los trofeos de los marinos. Para elogiar su linaje, y siguiendo la misma tradición renacentista de representar a hombres como dioses o semidioses de la antigüedad, se pintó a los antepasados del marqués y a sus esposas (tuvo dos) e hijos.

 

Estos dos grupos de representaciones se aderezaron con trampantojos, pinturas que simulaban puertas, columnas y otros elementos decorativos y arquitectónicos; y también con motivos grutescos que incluían animales mitológicos, sabandijas y follajes. Conforme una temática muy variada que se puede interpretar como defensa del catolicismo defendido en Trento.

 

Las estatuas sepulcrales de Alonso de Bazán (hermano de don Álvaro) y su esposa María de Figueroa, son el único ejemplo de escultura funeraria perteneciente al primer tercio del siglo XVII. Fueron ejecutados para el Monasterio de la Concepción que ocupaba la Comunidad de Religiosas Franciscas de El Viso del Marqués, ubicándose a día de hoy en el muro del Palacio más cercano a los jardines. Su creador fue Antonio de Riera, escultor relacionado con la corte de origen catalán. En ellas, aparecen los marqueses en actitud de orante, arrodillados en un reclinatorio, todo ello en mármol blanco que resalta sobre el mármol negro de los nichos. Se advierte en ellos cierta similitud con la elegancia y el clasicismo de los Leoni, a pesar de cierta rigidez formal, siendo de especial relevancia la forma en la que están ejecutadas las telas y el detalle de los vestidos.

 

The Palace of the Marquis of Santa Cruz is a building located in the municipality of Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. It was built in the late 16th century by Álvaro de Bazán, the first Marquis of Santa Cruz. It currently houses the General Archive of the Navy.

 

Built between 1564 and 1586, with subsequent modifications, it is a square, Renaissance-style building centered around a Renaissance atrium with a recumbent tomb. The walls and ceilings are covered with frescoes depicting two themes: mythological scenes, and naval battles and Italian cities related to the military career of the Marquis and his family. The frescoes are by Italian Mannerist painters, the Pérolis. Upon seeing them, Philip II commissioned works from them for El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo.

 

To build it, the Marquis hired a team of architects, painters, and decorators who worked on the project from 1564 to 1586. Some believe the building was designed by the Italian Giovanni Battista Castello, known as El Bergamasco, who later worked at El Escorial; others believe it was designed, at least in its original plan, by Enrique Egas the Younger.

 

The architecture is perceived as typically Spanish, lacking the Italian arches, with smooth walls and square towers at the corners, influenced by the austerity of El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo, within the harmonious relationships characteristic of the Renaissance. The central space is occupied by a porticoed courtyard that, together with the staircase, forms a typically Mannerist ensemble, understood as an elegant and courtly style that transcends the purely architectural framework. It had four towers that apparently collapsed as a result of the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

 

The walls are decorated with 8,000 square meters of Mannerist frescoes created by Giovanni Battista Peroli with Esteban Peroli and César de Bellis. They all worked to create a space built to the greatest glory of its owner: on the one hand, to exalt his military virtues, and on the other, to honor his lineage. To this end, views of cities and ports, as well as the bastions and battles in which he had earned his immense prestige, were painted on the walls, vaults, and ceilings of the palace. On either side of the staircase were two statues depicting him as Neptune (god of the seas, with his trident) and Mars (god of war). Above the doors on the upper floor were the stern lanterns of defeated flagships, trophies of the sailors. To praise his lineage, and following the same Renaissance tradition of depicting men as gods or demigods of antiquity, the marquis's ancestors, his wives (he had two) and children were painted.

 

These two groups of representations were embellished with trompe l'oeil paintings simulating doors, columns, and other decorative and architectural elements; as well as grotesque motifs that included mythological animals, vermin, and foliage. This varied theme can be interpreted as a defense of the Catholicism championed in Trent.

 

The sepulchral statues of Alonso de Bazán (Don Álvaro's brother) and his wife María de Figueroa are the only examples of funerary sculpture dating from the first third of the 17th century. They were executed for the Monastery of the Concepción, which was occupied by the Community of Franciscan Nuns of El Viso del Marqués, and are now located on the wall of the Palace closest to the gardens. Their creator was Antonio de Riera, a sculptor of Catalan origin associated with the court. They depict the marquises in a prayerful attitude, kneeling on a prie-dieu. All in white marble, which stands out against the black marble of the niches. There is a certain similarity to the elegance and classicism of the Leoni family, despite their formal rigidity, with the execution of the fabrics and the detail of the dresses being particularly noteworthy.

China, Shanghai, on the left the 196 mtr high, 304 rooms Hyatt Regency Shanghai Jiading, next the neighbouring Jiading Library, the Poly Grand Theatre & the Yuanxiang Lake in the heart of Jiading forming a cultural connexion designed by Japanese architect Tadao AndoIt, completed august 2014,

 

The theatre contains the city’s first "waterscape Theatre" & is located by Yuanxiang Lake in Jiading New Town. The Theatre includes a 1466 seats main hall, a multi-function hall & plazas, as well as two semi-outdoor theatres named "Water Stage" & "Roof Theatre".

 

Geometric shapes & interlaced cylindrical elements make up the entrance lobby, lounge & outdoor theatres & reflects that Tadao Ando placed a great deal of attention on its relationship with water, wind, light & particularly its integration with the natural landscapes.

 

The theatre of reinforced concrete forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system, not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure & veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system & structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles & sides, seemingly intruding into the structural foundation of the project

 

These voids offer a range of experiences that depart from the rigidity of a regular structural scheme. Each tube, built of a steel skeleton shielded in ribbed aluminium, painted to portray the appearance of wood, varies in dimension, direction & function. Not all tubes can be experienced by visitor, some are only accessible for certain events & to get to specific halls, while others such as the entry foyer void will greet every guest, natural light is funnelled through the telescopic cylinders illuminating the interior spaces.

 

The Poly Grand Theatre is located approx. 20 km outside the city centre situated between two man-made lakes in the Jiading district, an area rapidly developing its own socio-political identity & cultural hub.

 

👉 One World one Dream,

🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over

14 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments

 

La Casa Batlló es un reflejo de la plenitud artística de Gaudí: pertenece a su etapa naturalista (primera década del siglo XX), periodo en que el arquitecto perfecciona su estilo personal, inspirándose en las formas orgánicas de la naturaleza, para lo que puso en práctica toda una serie de nuevas soluciones estructurales originadas en los profundos análisis efectuados por Gaudí de la geometría reglada. A ello añade el artista catalán una gran libertad creativa y una imaginativa creación ornamental: partiendo de cierto barroquismo sus obras adquieren gran riqueza estructural, de formas y volúmenes desprovistos de rigidez racionalista o de cualquier premisa clásica.

 

The Casa Batllo is a reflection of the artistic fulfillment of Gaudi: belongs to naturalistic stage (first decade of the twentieth century), during which the architect perfected his personal style, inspired by the organic forms of nature, for what you put in practice a whole series of new structural solutions originating from the deep analyzes by Gaudí ruled geometry. He adds the Catalan artist great creative freedom and an imaginative ornamental creation: starting from a certain baroque works great wealth acquired structural shapes and volumes devoid of rational rigidity or any premise clásica.

 

Rigid and firm lines on the petal edges get lost with the color and direction of light. Reminds me of phyllo dough.

Palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz, Viso del Marqués, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, España.

 

El palacio del Marqués de Santa Cruz es un edificio situado en el municipio de Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), en la Comunidad autónoma de Castilla-La Mancha, en España. Fue construido a finales del siglo XVI por Álvaro de Bazán, primer marqués de Santa Cruz. Actualmente es la sede del Archivo General de la Marina.

 

Fue construido entre 1564 y 1586 con modificaciones posteriores, y se trata de un edificio de planta cuadrada y estilo renacentista articulado en torno a un atrio renacentista con una tumba yacente. Los muros y techos se hallan cubiertos de frescos de doble temática: por un lado, escenas mitológicas y, por otro, batallas navales y ciudades italianas relacionadas con la trayectoria militar del marqués y de sus familiares. Los frescos se deben a unos pintores manieristas italianos, los Péroli. Al verlos, Felipe II les encargaría trabajos para El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo.

 

Para levantarlo, el marqués contrató a un equipo de arquitectos, pintores y decoradores que trabajaron en la obra desde 1564 hasta 1586. Para algunos, el diseño del edificio se debió al italiano Giovanni Battista Castello, conocido como el Bergamasco, que más tarde trabajó en El Escorial; para otros lo trazó, al menos en su plan original, Enrique Egas el Mozo.

 

La arquitectura se percibe como típica española, sin las arquerías italianas, con paramentos lisos y torres cuadradas en las esquinas, influidos por la austeridad de El Escorial y el Alcázar de Toledo, dentro de las relaciones armónicas características del Renacimiento. El espacio central está ocupado por un patio porticado que junto con la escalera forma un conjunto típicamente manierista entendido como estilo elegante y cortesano que desborda el marco meramente arquitectónico. Contaba con cuatro torres que, al parecer, se derrumbaron a consecuencia del Terremoto de Lisboa de 1755.

 

Las paredes están decoradas con 8.000 metros cuadrados de frescos manieristas elaborados por Giovanni Battista Peroli con Esteban Peroli y César de Bellis. Todos trabajaron para crear un espacio erigido a la mayor gloria de su dueño: por un lado, había que exaltar sus virtudes militares, y por el otro, enaltecer su linaje. Para lo primero, se pintaron en las paredes, las bóvedas y los techos del palacio vistas de ciudades y de puertos, así como los baluartes y las batallas en los que había conquistado su inmenso prestigio. A ambos lados de la escalera se ubicaron dos estatuas en las que aparecía representado como Neptuno (dios de los mares, con su tridente) y como Marte (dios de la guerra), y sobre las puertas del piso superior se colocaron los fanales de popa de las naves capitanas vencidas en las batallas, que eran los trofeos de los marinos. Para elogiar su linaje, y siguiendo la misma tradición renacentista de representar a hombres como dioses o semidioses de la antigüedad, se pintó a los antepasados del marqués y a sus esposas (tuvo dos) e hijos.

 

Estos dos grupos de representaciones se aderezaron con trampantojos, pinturas que simulaban puertas, columnas y otros elementos decorativos y arquitectónicos; y también con motivos grutescos que incluían animales mitológicos, sabandijas y follajes. Conforme una temática muy variada que se puede interpretar como defensa del catolicismo defendido en Trento.

 

Las estatuas sepulcrales de Alonso de Bazán (hermano de don Álvaro) y su esposa María de Figueroa, son el único ejemplo de escultura funeraria perteneciente al primer tercio del siglo XVII. Fueron ejecutados para el Monasterio de la Concepción que ocupaba la Comunidad de Religiosas Franciscas de El Viso del Marqués, ubicándose a día de hoy en el muro del Palacio más cercano a los jardines. Su creador fue Antonio de Riera, escultor relacionado con la corte de origen catalán. En ellas, aparecen los marqueses en actitud de orante, arrodillados en un reclinatorio, todo ello en mármol blanco que resalta sobre el mármol negro de los nichos. Se advierte en ellos cierta similitud con la elegancia y el clasicismo de los Leoni, a pesar de cierta rigidez formal, siendo de especial relevancia la forma en la que están ejecutadas las telas y el detalle de los vestidos.

 

The Palace of the Marquis of Santa Cruz is a building located in the municipality of Viso del Marqués (Ciudad Real), in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. It was built in the late 16th century by Álvaro de Bazán, the first Marquis of Santa Cruz. It currently houses the General Archive of the Navy.

 

Built between 1564 and 1586, with subsequent modifications, it is a square, Renaissance-style building centered around a Renaissance atrium with a recumbent tomb. The walls and ceilings are covered with frescoes depicting two themes: mythological scenes, and naval battles and Italian cities related to the military career of the Marquis and his family. The frescoes are by Italian Mannerist painters, the Pérolis. Upon seeing them, Philip II commissioned works from them for El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo.

 

To build it, the Marquis hired a team of architects, painters, and decorators who worked on the project from 1564 to 1586. Some believe the building was designed by the Italian Giovanni Battista Castello, known as El Bergamasco, who later worked at El Escorial; others believe it was designed, at least in its original plan, by Enrique Egas the Younger.

 

The architecture is perceived as typically Spanish, lacking the Italian arches, with smooth walls and square towers at the corners, influenced by the austerity of El Escorial and the Alcázar of Toledo, within the harmonious relationships characteristic of the Renaissance. The central space is occupied by a porticoed courtyard that, together with the staircase, forms a typically Mannerist ensemble, understood as an elegant and courtly style that transcends the purely architectural framework. It had four towers that apparently collapsed as a result of the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755.

 

The walls are decorated with 8,000 square meters of Mannerist frescoes created by Giovanni Battista Peroli with Esteban Peroli and César de Bellis. They all worked to create a space built to the greatest glory of its owner: on the one hand, to exalt his military virtues, and on the other, to honor his lineage. To this end, views of cities and ports, as well as the bastions and battles in which he had earned his immense prestige, were painted on the walls, vaults, and ceilings of the palace. On either side of the staircase were two statues depicting him as Neptune (god of the seas, with his trident) and Mars (god of war). Above the doors on the upper floor were the stern lanterns of defeated flagships, trophies of the sailors. To praise his lineage, and following the same Renaissance tradition of depicting men as gods or demigods of antiquity, the marquis's ancestors, his wives (he had two) and children were painted.

 

These two groups of representations were embellished with trompe l'oeil paintings simulating doors, columns, and other decorative and architectural elements; as well as grotesque motifs that included mythological animals, vermin, and foliage. This varied theme can be interpreted as a defense of the Catholicism championed in Trent.

 

The sepulchral statues of Alonso de Bazán (Don Álvaro's brother) and his wife María de Figueroa are the only examples of funerary sculpture dating from the first third of the 17th century. They were executed for the Monastery of the Concepción, which was occupied by the Community of Franciscan Nuns of El Viso del Marqués, and are now located on the wall of the Palace closest to the gardens. Their creator was Antonio de Riera, a sculptor of Catalan origin associated with the court. They depict the marquises in a prayerful attitude, kneeling on a prie-dieu. All in white marble, which stands out against the black marble of the niches. There is a certain similarity to the elegance and classicism of the Leoni family, despite their formal rigidity, with the execution of the fabrics and the detail of the dresses being particularly noteworthy.

This limestone, from a small lens in the Lower Cretaceous Thermopolis Shale near Rainbow Canyon east of Kane Wyoming, displays a unique sedimentary structure called cone-in-cone (cic). As the name implies, the rock is made up of cone shaped forms that nest inside a cone cup. The cone shapes are visible in this photo. Researchers agree that these structures often form from the growth of calcareous fibers, in this case, calcite. The cic structures have also been found in gypsum, pyrite, and even coal. The pictured sample measures 5 cm x 2.5 cm and was found in a lens that consisted of cone-in-cone structured limestone that was a maximum of about 3 cm thick.

Cic structures are common in the Cretaceous shales of the Bighorn Basin: The Thermopolis Shale, the Mowry Shale, and The Frontier Formation. Rockhounds often confuse the structures with fossils such as petrified wood, horn corals, or some other marine organism. Cic structures are mostly inorganic in nature but how they form has been debated by geologists for many years. Part of the problem is that no one has been able to find them forming in a modern environment so no modern analogs are known. Some of the debate devolves to whether the growth of the calcareous fibers comes before or after the rock has some rigidity. Some think that the concretions form while the sediments are still pliable and the fibers are able to grow uninhibited, other researchers believe the fibers grow after a concretion has already been formed and the fibers fracture the concretion into the structures that are preserved. Geochemical research indicates that cic structures form in deeper water below the sulfate-reduction zone. The shales in the Bighorn Basin that contain the cic structures are famous for deposits of bentonite. Ewing & Ailes (2019) documented samples and analogs of cone-in-cone beds that formed adjacent or near to bentonite beds. Their geochemical findings supports "seafloor or near subsurface reduction of sulfate via bacterial mat biology which then displacively forms crystalline carbonates from solutes derived from the volcanic ash".

 

References:

serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/sedimentary/images/cone.html

 

Ewing, Charles & Ailes, Chad. (2019). A Possible Bentonite Origin for Carbonate Cone-in-Cone Structures within the Late Famennian Bedford Shale, Rowan County, Kentucky.

www.researchgate.net/publication/337874101_A_Possible_Ben...

 

Hesse, R., Fong, C., & Schumann, D. (2019). Origin of spherulitic and cone-in-cone concretions in Cambro-Ordovician black shales, St Lawrence Estuary, Quebec, Canada. Geological Magazine, 156(10), 1793-1804. doi:10.1017/S0016756819000128 www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/artic...

Macro Mondays theme: Decay

 

The rigidity of an aquatic snail shell comes from a calcified inner layer with a protective protein layer at the outside. If the water is too acid, the protein layer breaks down. The outside of the shell is dead material (much like toenails) and once damaged will stay that way. The snail can live in adverse conditions as long as there is a source of calcium to repair the inner surfaces.

 

This particular snail has passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker; bereft of life, its metabolic processes are now history; it's shuffled off its mortal coil; joined the bleedin' choir invisible! THIS IS AN EX-SNAIL.

 

HMM

 

ATSH: Weakened

 

Canon IXUS 265 HS

China, Shanghai, the Poly Grand Theatre, the 196 mtr high, 304 rooms Hyatt Regency Shanghai Jiading, the neighbouring Jiading Library & the Yuanxiang Lake in the heart of Jiading forming a cultural connexion designed by Japanese architect Tadao AndoIt, completed august 2014,

 

The theatre contains the city’s first "waterscape Theatre" & is located by Yuanxiang Lake in Jiading New Town. The Theatre includes a 1466 seats main hall, a multi-function hall & plazas, as well as two semi-outdoor theatres named "Water Stage" & "Roof Theatre".

 

Geometric shapes & interlaced cylindrical elements make up the entrance lobby, lounge & outdoor theatres & reflects that Tadao Ando placed a great deal of attention on its relationship with water, wind, light & particularly its integration with the natural landscapes.

 

The theatre of reinforced concrete forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system, not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure & veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system & structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles & sides, seemingly intruding into the structural foundation of the project

 

These voids offer a range of experiences that depart from the rigidity of a regular structural scheme. Each tube, built of a steel skeleton shielded in ribbed aluminium, painted to portray the appearance of wood, varies in dimension, direction & function. Not all tubes can be experienced by visitor, some are only accessible for certain events & to get to specific halls, while others such as the entry foyer void will greet every guest, natural light is funnelled through the telescopic cylinders illuminating the interior spaces.

 

The Poly Grand Theatre is located approx. 20 km outside the city centre situated between two man-made lakes in the Jiading district, an area rapidly developing its own socio-political identity & cultural hub.

 

👉 One World one Dream,

🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over

13 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments

 

#ABFAV_graphic_minimalism

 

Taken a few years ago when I was still only shooting with film on my super Nikons F4!

  

One of the many new terminals at Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport where there are again huge works to expand even more, I took this through the window of the terminal I was leaving from.

 

It was early morning and I liked muted colours and the soft light on the rigidity of the lines.

 

I could have called it 'Jaws'?

  

Lots of people to see and a few jobs in between, so not nearly enough free photography.

Went over for a 'flying visit', came home knackered, heeeee, giddy with sleep deprivation, overloaded / but contented yet with a tristesse at leaving, looking forward to coming home, torn between my two worlds of mixed feelings.

  

Have a great day and thank you for viewing, M, (*_*)

ALL IMAGES ARE BEST seen On Black, yours too!

For more here: www.indigo2photography.com

IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (BY LAW!!!) TO USE ANY OF MY image or TEXT on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

 

Casa Milà, La Pedrera, Barcelona.

 

La Casa Milà, La Pedrera («cantera» en catalán), es un edificio modernistanota 1 obra del arquitecto Antoni Gaudí, construido entre los años 1906 y 1910 en el distrito del Ensanche de Barcelona, en el número 92 del paseo de Gracia. La casa fue edificada por encargo del matrimonio Pere Milà i Camps y Roser Segimon i Artells, y Gaudí contó con la colaboración de sus ayudantes Josep Maria Jujol, Domènec Sugrañes, Francesc Quintana, Jaume Bayó i Font, Joan Rubió, Enrique Nieto y Josep Canaleta, así como del constructor Josep Bayó i Font, que había trabajado con Gaudí en la Casa Batlló. Desde su apertura al público en 1987 ha recibido más de 20 millones de visitas (un millón cada año aproximadamente), convirtiéndola en uno de los diez lugares más visitados de Barcelona.

 

La Casa Milà es un reflejo de la plenitud artística de Gaudí: pertenece a su etapa naturalista (primera década del siglo XX), periodo en que el arquitecto perfecciona su estilo personal, inspirándose en las formas orgánicas de la naturaleza, para lo que puso en práctica toda una serie de nuevas soluciones estructurales originadas en los profundos análisis efectuados por Gaudí de la geometría reglada. A ello añade el artista catalán una gran libertad creativa y una imaginativa creación ornamental: partiendo de cierto barroquismo sus obras adquieren gran riqueza estructural, de formas y volúmenes desprovistos de rigidez racionalista o de cualquier premisa clásica.

 

Casa Mila, La Pedrera ( "quarry" in Catalan) is a building modernistanota first work of architect Antoni Gaudi, built between the years 1906 and 1910 in the district of Ensanche of Barcelona, ​​at number 92 Paseo de Gracia. The house WAS built by encargo del matrimonio Pere Mila i Camps and Roser Sigismund and Knuckles, and Gaudí Conti with the collaboration of its assistantship Josep Maria Jujol, Dominic Sugrañes, Francisco Quintana, James Bayó i Font, Joan Rubio, Enrique Nieto and Josep Canaleta as well as the builder Bayó and Josep Font, who had trabajado with Gaudí Casa Batllo. Since its opening to the public in 1987 recibido has more than 20 million visits (a MILLION each year approximately), turning it into one of the ten most places visitados Barcelona.

 

Casa Mila is a reflejo the full artistic Gaudi belongs to its stage naturalist (first decade of century XX), periods in which the architect perfected your personal style, inspirándose in the forms orgánicas of nature, for what Pusó in nuevas practice toda a series of structural solutions in the originadas profundos efectuados analysis by Gaudí formal geometry. A ello añade the great Catalan artist libertad creative and imaginative ornamental creation: Partiendo cierta baroque style of its works adquieren great wealth of structural forms and lacking volumes of rationalist rigidity or whatever the classic premise.

 

The Mies Van der Rohe designed United States Post Office in Downtown Chicago's Loop.

 

MIES PROVES “GOD IS IN THE DETAILS”

  

"Modernism is the style that changed our visual world

in the 20th century, and Chicago’s Federal Center is among the world’s most important modernist sites.

These structures display the features that make great works of modernism so compelling: dramatic profiles, spatial energy, and striking visual contrasts and harmonies.

 

In his design process, Mies developed three different schemes for the site, playing with various combinations of government offices, a courthouse and a post office.

In his final design, he separated those functions into 3 distinct buildings all situated on an open plaza.

Today, The Plaza hosts festivals, farmers markets AND protests—activities that signify the vibrant relationships between citizens, business and government.

 

The glass + steel buildings are constructed on a rigid grid system.

Every element of the 3-building complex—

every column, light fixture, bench, door and paver—

lines up on the grid.

From the center of The Plaza,

you could spend hours finding all the places where the architectural elements align perfectly.

In fact, we dare you

to find one spot where they don’t.

 

Mies’ meticulous design illustrates another of his famous maxims, “God is in the details.”

 

Despite this rigidity, the Federal Center’s design

produces what architecture critic Franz Schulze

calls, “a monumental urban presence.”

Eliminating the usual pomp & circumstance of civic buildings, the Federal Center has become a beacon of the International Style and a Chicago icon."

The third of a series of images, originally inspired by Paul Cowie, of "Re-Mixed" or collaged Classical paintings.

 

With this piece ( "Vanity, Vanity, All is Vanity" ) I brought two ostensibly incongruent images together to comment on the nature of our denial of death and our ultimate submission to it. On the left the Pharaoh and his Queen are in procession with a symbolic boat that will take them through the sky to Heaven and into immortal life.

 

On the right, The dead Icarus, having flown too close to this "Heaven" ( the sun has always been acquainted with Heaven or the Deity itself ) is mourned. In this way the denial of our mortality is seen as what was known in Latin as Vanitas, or, Vanity. This isn't what we commonly use the word for now, which usually implies a kind of narcissistic conceit. To the Romans it meant something much deeper. It is the tragic way that we fool ourselves about our own importance, or in this case, mortality. This is the theme of my image.

 

Two classical paintings are mixed with two of my older, photo manipulations of sewer grates. While not to be taken literally, the grates are used here for their hard metallic forcefulness, looking almost like prison bars, suggesting the "prison" of mortality. Some of these are made very translucent, hinting that the prison might be transcended. IS death final ? We don't know, we really don't. But it is Vanitas to think that THIS form of ourselves can live forever.

 

Sourced from a fee, public domain, wallpaper website.

 

wallpaper-gallery.net/single/classic-paintings-wallpapers...

____________________________________________________

 

Music Link: "The Funeral of Amenhotep III" - Philip Glass from his opera "Akhnaten" ( sic ). A live performance done in a very ritualistic style to evoke an imaginary scene of the funeral of a Pharaoh, but also to convey the very strict, almost immovable rigidity and formalism of the culture of Ancient Egypt. Amenhotep's son, Akhenaten, rebelled against this tight, constrained formalism, literally overturning thousands of years of unchanged Eygptian tradition in his relatively few years as Pharaoh.

 

As is well known, the Ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the properly prepared body being ritualistically sent off to the Heaven of Ra in the detailed prescribed fashion. This opening scene is meant to contrast the old militaristic order of Amenhotep III to the lyrical "Amarna Period" which Akhenaten ( Amenhotep IV ) and his wife, Nefertiti brought in and established.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XENvMGyy4J8

____________________________________________________

 

© This Collage - Richard S Warner ( Visionheart ) - 2019. All Rights Reserved. This collaged image is not for use in any form without explicit, express, written permission. The two classical images used are public domain and no monies will be made from this piece.

____________________________________________________

The International Railroad Swing Bridge allows trains to cross the Sault Canal (National Historic Site); the bridge was built in 1895 by the Dominion Bridge Company based upon a Baltimore truss design. The bridge features extensive v-lacing and lattice for support. The bridge was originally a pin connected structure; however, the bridge has been altered in the past with additional steel bolted on to increase rigidity.

 

The bridge was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company and is now owned by the Canadian National Railway Company.

Austin A40 Sports (1951-53) Engine 1200cc S4 OHV Production 3800

Registration Number VTW 555 (Essex)

AUSTIN SET

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/albums/721576237598082...

 

The Austin A40 Sports debuted at the 949 London Motor Show at Earls Court[ as a four passenger aluminium-bodied convertible variant of the current Austin A40. carrying an Austin of England nameplate, bearing Austin's Flying A hood ornament, and designed Jensen Motors at West Bromwich

 

Intended as a sporty tourer rather than an out and out sportscar production began in November 1950, for the 1951 model year, with production ending in 1953.

 

the A40 Sports originated when Austin's chairman Leonard Lord saw the Jensen Interceptor and requested that Jensen develop a body that could use the A40 mechanicals. The resulting body-on-frame A40 Sports was designed by Eric Neale, a stylist who had joined Jensen in 1946 after working at Wolseley Motors. During production, A40 Sports bodies were built by Jensen and transported to Austin's Longbridge plant for final assembly. the A40 Sports was based on the mechanicals of the Austin A40 Devon, though the centre section of the chassis was boxed to provide rigidity for the open body. The A40 Sports also employed a twin-SU carburettor version of the 1.2 L engine producing 46 bhp rather than the 42bhp of the single carburettor of the A40 Saloon. Production of the A40 Sports occurred in two series.

The initial GD2 Series began in November 1950 and featured a floor gear change and dashboard identical to that of the Devon The later GD3 Series began production in August 1951 and ended in April 1953, featuring a steering-column gear change, full hydraulic brakes, and a revised dash with a centered instrument panel

 

The A40 Sports was originally targeted towards the American export market priced at about $2,200 (equivalent to $25,250, 2021). It was listed at about £818 (£ 22,164 Jan 2023) in the UK against around £500 for the A40 Saloon

 

Diolch am 95,884,329 o olygfeydd anhygoel, mae pob un yn cael ei werthfawrogi'n fawr.

 

Thanks for 95,884,329 amazing views, every one is greatly appreciated.

 

Shot 07.08.2022, at the VSCC Prescott Speed Hill Climb, Prescott, Gloucestershire REF 162-133

catalepsy - n. Muscular rigidity, lack of awareness of environment, and lack of response to external stimuli.

 

I was banging and drilling and stomping all afternoon and he just lay there. It's hot!

 

btw - tummy rubs allowed and appreciated!

China, Shanghai, Poly Grand Theatre, designed by Japanese architect Tadao AndoIt, completed august 2014, contains the city’s first "waterscape Theatre" & is located by Yuanxiang Lake in Jiading New Town. The Theatre includes a 1466 seats main hall, a multi-function hall & plazas, as well as two semi-outdoor theatres named "Water Stage" & "Roof Theatre".

 

Geometric shapes & interlaced cylindrical elements make up the entrance lobby, lounge & outdoor theatres & reflects that Tadao Ando placed a great deal of attention on its relationship with water, wind, light & particularly its integration with the natural landscapes.

 

The theatre of reinforced concrete forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system, not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure & veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system & structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles & sides, seemingly intruding into the structural foundation of the project

 

These voids offer a range of experiences that depart from the rigidity of a regular structural scheme. Each tube, built of a steel skeleton shielded in ribbed aluminium, painted to portray the appearance of wood, varies in dimension, direction & function. Not all tubes can be experienced by visitor, some are only accessible for certain events & to get to specific halls, while others such as the entry foyer void will greet every guest, natural light is funnelled through the telescopic cylinders illuminating the interior spaces.

 

The Poly Grand Theatre is located approx. 20 km outside the city centre situated between two man-made lakes in the Jiading district, an area rapidly developing its own socio-political identity & cultural hub.

 

👉 One World one Dream,

🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over

14 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments

Excerpt from agb.life/visit/exhibitions/holding_up_the_sky:

 

Caroline Monnet: Holding Up The Sky

Lee-Chin Family Gallery

 

In this survey of new and recent works, multidisciplinary artist Caroline Monnet centers geometries, especially the cube, to draw attention to how different spatial relationships condition the way that we live and think. Monnet’s practice moves between textiles, photography, sculpture, and film to address the complexity of Indigenous identities and bilateral legacies, drawing from her Anishinaabe and French heritages. In her work, traditional Anishinaabe sacred geometry transforms and softens the industrial into something more personal, constructing a new point of view—centering the cube. As a form, the cube is present in architecture and many traditions of building, shaping the way we understand the world and dictating the ways in which we live, play, and learn. And, like the repetitious creations unfolded in birch biting, Holding Up The Sky follows a symmetrical continuum.

 

The exhibition features her new work The Room (2023), a ten-foot square construction of industrial-grade styrofoam, a material used in residential buildings to create water and air-resistive barriers and insulate against inclement climate conditions. The Room is open on one side, exposing the box and welcoming the audience into its constructed space. The foam is incised with a repetitive pattern; the motifs, inspired by traditional Anishinaabe iconography, break the strictness of the industrial square form by introducing the personal and the poetic into architectural rigidity.

 

In conversation with The Room is Pikogan (Shelter) (2021), a sculptural work with voluminous curvatures constructed of reticulated polyethylene pipes, PVC conduits, copper, velcro, and steel. The materials are bent to shape, working against the prescription of colonial architecture, and resisting the urge to square and compartmentalize. The fluidity of the circle intentionally builds from knowledge rooted in the past. This can also be seen in the direction of Monnet’s recent photographic works that depict a formal arranging and rearranging of foam “beads” into cubed borders. Manipulating the material for the camera leads to endless possible formations and configurations.

 

A series of technical drawings from Monnet’s early career (2014) of multiple cube structures are seen alongside a new series of diagrams, completed in a Swedish residency, mapping the ceiling of her studio. Positioning these works in conversation illustrates the circular process of Monnet’s practice—from drafting architectural forms, to utilizing structural design to underscore the severity of the housing crisis, to manipulating industrial material into textile creations and wearable fabrics, and returning to schematic renderings and geometric linework. These are simultaneously performances for the camera and blueprints for future work.

 

Born to an Anishinaabe mother and a French father, Caroline Monnet is from Outaouais, Québec, and now based in Montréal. After studying at the University of Ottawa and the University of Granada, in Spain, she pursued a career in visual arts and film. Her work is regularly presented internationally and can be found in prestigious museum, private, and corporate collections. Monnet has become known for minimalist yet emotionally charged work that uses industrial materials and combines the vocabulary of popular and traditional visual cultures with the tropes of modernist abstraction to create unique hybrid forms. She is represented by Blouin Division Gallery.

 

At the AGB, we lean into our unique position of being a public art gallery at the crossroads of craft and contemporary art production and presentation. Monnet’s work examines the traditional craft of Anishinaabe embroidery and textiles in alternative methods and materials, exemplifying the potent fluidity of craft and contemporary art. Holding Up The Sky continues the dialogue on how new material engagement takes up space within craft and how traditional and ancestral knowledge of art production is being represented in the expanded field of contemporary art institutes.

International Railroad Swing bridge, Sault Canal National Historic Site.

 

A passing Canadian National freight train crosses the International Railroad Swing Bridge at sunset. In the background are the International Bridge and the Sault Canal- -a Parks Canada National Historical Site.

 

The International Railroad Swing Bridge was built in 1895 by the Dominion Bridge Company of Canada based upon a Baltimore truss design. The bridge features extensive v-lacing and lattice for support. The bridge was originally a pin connected structure; however, the bridge has been altered in the past with additional steel bolted on to increase rigidity.

 

The Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge is a 4.5 kilometer / 2.8 mile long metal Cantilever (suspended deck) Warren Through Truss two lane bridge with a two span arch over the American Soo Locks and a single span arch over the Canadian Sault Canal. It was designed by the New York architectural firm of Steinman, Boynton, Gronquist and London; the bridge opened October 1962.

 

The Sault Canal opened in 1895 as a ‘Canadian‘ alternative to the nearby American Soo Locks. Closed in 1987 due to a lock wall collapse, the canal was reconstructed and reopened for recreational boating use in 1998. The Canal is operated as a National Historic Site by Parks Canada: when it opened, it was the world’s first to be operated electrically, and it was the world’s longest lock- -the lock was 274 metres / 899 feet long and 18 metres / 59 feet wide.

 

Two second exposure with a Lee Seven5 0.6 ND Soft Grad Filter. Processing alchemy with Nik Dfine 2 and Color Efex: detail extractor and glamour glow.

 

The Metal Dog in Chinese Astrology

 

At the basic level, the Dog is an idealist. He/she is deeply righteous in nature and is a stickler for certain values like honesty and truthfulness. Dogs strongly denounce injustice and wrongdoing, generously giving useful and effective advice to those around them. They value honor and truth and are usually among the first to speak out against injustice and champion the cause of the downtrodden. When forged in Metal, the Dog turns out to be even more staunch in his/her adherence to the code of values and there is rarely an occasion when he/she sees fit to bend the rules for anybody, least of all to pursue his/her own interest. However this kind of rigidity on values can also make the Metal Dog quite opinionated and fixed in their ideals. Frequently this character becomes stubborn in the extreme since they know what is right and what they want and will not be convinced otherwise. This not only makes for a certain impracticality but also leaves a dent in the Dog’s overall social popularity.

 

Artwork by Jeff Thomson

The International Railroad Swing Bridge allows trains to cross the Sault Canal (National Historic Site); the bridge was built in 1895 by the Dominion Bridge Company based upon a Baltimore truss design. The bridge features extensive v-lacing and lattice for support. The bridge was originally a pin connected structure; however, the bridge has been altered in the past with additional steel bolted on to increase rigidity.

 

The bridge was originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company and is now owned by the Canadian National Railway Company.

China, Shanghai, on the left the 196 mtr high, 304 rooms Hyatt Regency Shanghai Jiading, next the neighbouring Jiading Library, the Poly Grand Theatre & the Yuanxiang Lake in the heart of Jiading forming a cultural connexion designed by Japanese architect Tadao AndoIt, completed august 2014,

 

The theatre contains the city’s first "waterscape Theatre" & is located by Yuanxiang Lake in Jiading New Town. The Theatre includes a 1466 seats main hall, a multi-function hall & plazas, as well as two semi-outdoor theatres named "Water Stage" & "Roof Theatre".

 

Geometric shapes & interlaced cylindrical elements make up the entrance lobby, lounge & outdoor theatres & reflects that Tadao Ando placed a great deal of attention on its relationship with water, wind, light & particularly its integration with the natural landscapes.

 

The theatre of reinforced concrete forms the majority of the primary structure surrounded by a transparent curtain wall that forms a double-skin facade system, not only performing the aesthetic purpose of obscuring the actual structure & veiling the project in a translucent screen, the glass skin also helps reflect direct light off the concrete which performs as a large thermal mass in china’s summer heat. Cutting through the regularity of the cladding system & structure itself, five cylindrical voids penetrate through the entirety of the volume from all angles & sides, seemingly intruding into the structural foundation of the project

 

These voids offer a range of experiences that depart from the rigidity of a regular structural scheme. Each tube, built of a steel skeleton shielded in ribbed aluminium, painted to portray the appearance of wood, varies in dimension, direction & function. Not all tubes can be experienced by visitor, some are only accessible for certain events & to get to specific halls, while others such as the entry foyer void will greet every guest, natural light is funnelled through the telescopic cylinders illuminating the interior spaces.

 

The Poly Grand Theatre is located approx. 20 km outside the city centre situated between two man-made lakes in the Jiading district, an area rapidly developing its own socio-political identity & cultural hub.

 

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Architect Nikolai Yakovlev (1879-1956). The towers at the corners of the neoclassical buildings of the time are no longer the pseudo-Gothic spires or the voluminous domes of the neo-Baroque style, but round belvederes under domes reminiscent of the work of Renaissance architects. The architectural character of the house is expressed in its upward orientation; the rigidity of the rhythmically divided facades of the window rows. The façade is almost devoid of brick or sculptural ornamentation, with a few Classical wreaths or leaf garlands and relatively modest ornament.

Connaissez-vous l'origine de ces belles poupées appelées «coquettes» ou « causeuses » qui ornent les fenêtres à travers le Brésil ?

Il en existe de nombreuses formes en argile, bois, résine, plâtre, tous matériaux qui se prêtent au modelage. Bien qu’elles peuvent figurer en différentes positions, il s’agit traditionnellement de bustes accoudés d’un bras sur une surface plane, l’autre soutenant la tête de la main, qui imitent une femme à sa fenêtre.

On les imagine parler avec un voisin, regarder les enfants jouer dans la rue ou comme certains l’affirment, se montrer simplement dans l’espoir d'être vues par un séduisant jeune homme qui leur lancerait un regard, prémices d’un possible flirt …

De telles pièces décoratives évoquent le souvenir d'une époque où les femmes et les jeunes filles éduquées avec beaucoup de rigidité ne pouvaient pas sortir non accompagnées dans les rues et encore moins oser un rendez-vous.

  

Do you know the origin of these beautiful dolls called "coquettes" or "causeuses" that decorate the windows across Brazil ?

There are many forms in clay, wood, resin, plaster, any materials suitable to modeling. Although they may be in different positions, they are traditionally busts with one arm resting on a flat surface, the other supporting the head with the hand, which imitate a woman at her window.

One imagines them talking with a neighbour, watching the children playing in the street or as some are saying, showing themselves simply in the hope of being seen by a seductive young man who would throw a glance at them, the beginnings of a possible flirtation ...

Such decorative pieces refer to memories of a time when women and girls educated with great rigidity could not go out unaccompanied in the streets and even less dare to make a date.

Casa Batlló, Barcelona.

 

La Casa Batlló es un edificio obra del arquitecto Antoni Gaudí, máximo representante del modernismo catalán. Se trata de una remodelación integral de un edificio previamente existente en el solar, obra de Emilio Sala Cortés. Está situado en el número 43 del paseo de Gracia de Barcelona, la ancha avenida que atraviesa el distrito del Ensanche (Eixample), en la llamada Manzana de la discordia, porque alberga además de este edificio otras obras de arquitectos modernistas: la casa Amatller, que colinda con la de Gaudí, obra de Josep Puig i Cadafalch; la Casa Lleó Morera, obra de Lluís Domènech i Montaner; la Casa Mulleras, de Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia; y la Casa Josefina Bonet, de Marcel·lià Coquillat. La construcción se realizó entre los años 1904 y 1906.

 

La Casa Batlló es un reflejo de la plenitud artística de Gaudí: pertenece a su etapa naturalista (primera década del siglo XX), periodo en que el arquitecto perfecciona su estilo personal, inspirándose en las formas orgánicas de la naturaleza, para lo que puso en práctica toda una serie de nuevas soluciones estructurales originadas en los profundos análisis efectuados por Gaudí de la geometría reglada. A ello añade el artista catalán una gran libertad creativa y una imaginativa creación ornamental: partiendo de cierto barroquismo sus obras adquieren gran riqueza estructural, de formas y volúmenes desprovistos de rigidez racionalista o de cualquier premisa clásica.

 

The Casa Batlló is a building work of the architect Antoni Gaudí, maximum representative of Catalan modernism. It is a complete remodeling of a building previously existing in the plot, by Emilio Sala Cortés. It is located at number 43 of Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona, ​​the wide avenue that crosses the district of Ensanche (Eixample), in the so-called Manzana de la discordia, because it houses in addition to this building other works by modernist architects: the Amatller house, Which borders on that of Gaudí, the work of Josep Puig i Cadafalch; The Casa Lleó Morera, the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner; The Casa Mulleras, by Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia; And the Casa Josefina Bonet, by Marcel·lià Coquillat. Construction took place between 1904 and 1906.1

 

The Casa Batlló is a reflection of Gaudí's artistic fullness: he belongs to his naturalistic stage (first decade of the twentieth century), a period in which the architect perfects his personal style, drawing inspiration from the organic forms of nature, for which he Practice a whole series of new structural solutions originated in Gaudí's deep analyzes of regulated geometry. To this the Catalan artist adds a great creative freedom and an imaginative ornamental creation: starting from certain barroquismo its works acquire great structural wealth, of forms and volumes without rational rigidity or of any classic premise.