Don't Worry, Be Happy!

This hut was constructed with whatever materials were available. Pioneering ingenuity at its best.

Since I love architectural copper, this building drew me to it like a magnet. I would love to tell you more about it, but I cannot because I don't have the address or the name : (

 

A recent acquaintance who is also a fan of architecture told me she keeps a log with the addresses of the buildings she photographs. I may have to do the same.

 

Be that as it may, what appeals to me about this facade is the differential oxidation and weathering that gives the surface an organic look.

 

The way my tastes run, the staining on this type adds to the appeal of a copper-clad building, whereas on concrete the effect is downright dystopian, creating a sense of abandonment and decay.

 

I have a pretty good success rate when I search buildings on the Web, but Helsinki has such an abundance of world-class copper-clad architecture that this building seems to have been overlooked by the keepers of the architectural canon in Helsinki.

  

Jacqueline Karen

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

-- Pablo Picasso.

 

When I went to the biennale, I had no photographic expectations. For most part I didn't expect to pull out my camera. That didn't deter me from lugging it around though. I would rather that I am not sorry for leaving it behind. I don't understand contemporary art. And I figure from some of the loud esclamations, that majority of the "patrons" had no clue either. Neverthless, a few of the installations were captivating. I am a strong proponent of the view that contemporary art should be appealing to the common man.

 

So I was amused by this creation from Vivek Vilasini. The postures of the burqa clad models had been reproduced to minute level details from what Da Vinci had painted.

 

I didn't want to merely copy the image into a frame, what could I add to it ? That's when this family walked into my shot. A welcome distraction to create balance in the visual. I wonder what each of them was thinking. Because this is contemporary art.

  

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With the shed done and slid into place next to the tractor shed the skid steer rests ahead of its first night under the new roof. Despite having a smaller footprint than the old shed it turned out to be a bit taller. You can also see the difference in how far the edge of the roof comes down on the tractor shed, to the point where there really aren't walls on it per se. I did enclose the walls on the skid steer shed and clad them in tin to keep the weather out. I am really pleased with how it turned out, looks and feels very stout, I expect it to survive innumerable heavy UP snowfalls and ultimately outlive me. October 11, 2020.

Mademoiselle Eden is wearing jeans from Earth Angel Eden Blair, top is from an OOAK DB fashion, cardigan is Dagamoart, handbag is Little Day Ensemble Véronique Perrin. Earring are JamieShow.

 

An underwater camera was cool to have. As I wasn't game enough to ditch the life jacket and swim on my own in the middle of the ocean, I took photos of those who were.

 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/uppyphoto

Built in 1931, this complex of sandstone-clad Art Deco-style buildings at the edge of Amherst, Ohio were designed by architect Frank Wooster Bail and constructed to house terminally ill tuberculosis patients in Lorain County, utilizing easy access to fresh air and ample natural light to help alleviate their symptoms, and being constructed with beautiful details and a warm-colored stone exterior. Following the advent of effective cures for tuberculosis, the building fell out of use for housing people afflicted with the disease, and became a nursing home in 1967, replacing the old Lorain County Home, with a major renovation and addition being carried out on the building in 1979. In 2015, owing to a lack of funding, the nursing home was closed, and the building has since sat vacant, with a proposal to convert it into an addiction treatment center being rejected by Lorain County voters in 2017. The building, as of Spring 2022, was being offered for sale to developers, and was undergoing asbestos abatement at the time. By November 2022, the building had been demolished.

I couldn't possibly care to comment on the safety of the cladding used.

Architectural detail of the Cold War building at the Cosford RAF Museum, England.

 

The bamboos (Bambusoideae) are a subfamily of flowering perennial evergreen plants in the grass family Poaceae.

 

Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. In bamboos, the internodal regions of the stem are hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

 

Bamboos are some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 88.9 Centimeters within a 24-hour period, at a rate of 3 cm/h (a growth of approximately 1 millimeter every 2 minutes). Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.

 

The word bamboo comes from the Kannada term bambu, which was introduced to English through Malay.

 

SYSTEMATICS AND TAXONOMY

The bamboos have long been considered the most primitive grasses, mostly because of the presence of bracteate, indeterminate inflorescences, "pseudospikelets", and flowers with three lodicules, six stamens, and three stigmas. Following more recent molecular phylogenetic research, many tribes and genera of grasses formerly included in Bambusoideae are now classified in other subfamilies, e.g. the Anomochlooideae, the Puelioideae, and the Ehrhartoideae. The subfamily in its current sense belongs to the BOP clade of grasses, where it is sister to the Pooideae (bluegrasses and relatives).

 

The bamboos contains three clades classified as tribes, and these strongly correspond with geographic divisions, representing the New World herbaceous species (Olyreae), tropical woody bamboos (Bambuseae) and temperate woody bamboos (Arundinarieae). The woody bamboos do not form a monophyletic group; instead, the tropical woody and herbaceous bamboos are sister to the temperate woody bamboos. Altogether, there are more than 1,400 species in 115 genera.

 

Tribe Olyreae (herbaceous bamboos)

Tribe Bambuseae (tropical woody bamboos)

Tribe Arundinarieae (temperate woody bamboos)

 

DISTRIBUTION

Bamboo species are found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. They occur across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin through to Northern Australia, and west to India and the Himalayas. They also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Americas from the mid-Atlantic states south to Argentina and Chile, reaching their southernmost point at 47°S latitude. Continental Europe is not known to have any native species of bamboo.

 

Recently, some attempts have been made to grow bamboo on a commercial basis in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, especially in Rwanda. In the United States, several companies are growing, harvesting, and distributing species such as Phyllostachys nigra (Henon) and Phyllostachys edulis (Moso).

 

ECOLOGY

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, with reported growth rates of 250 cm in 24 hours. However, the growth rate is dependent on local soil and climatic conditions, as well as species, and a more typical growth rate for many commonly cultivated bamboos in temperate climates is in the range of 3–10 centimetre per day during the growing period. Primarily growing in regions of warmer climates during the late Cretaceous period, vast fields existed in what is now Asia. Some of the largest timber bamboo can grow over 30 m tall, and be as large as 15–20 cm in diameter. However, the size range for mature bamboo is species dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. A typical height range that would cover many of the common bamboos grown in the United States is 4.6–12 metres, depending on species. Anji County of China, known as the "Town of Bamboo", provides the optimal climate and soil conditions to grow, harvest, and process some of the most valued bamboo poles available worldwide.

 

Unlike all trees, individual bamboo stems, or culms, emerge from the ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of three to four months. During these several months, each new shoot grows vertically into a culm with no branching out until the majority of the mature height is reached. Then, the branches extend from the nodes and leafing out occurs. In the next year, the pulpy wall of each culm slowly hardens. During the third year, the culm hardens further. The shoot is now considered a fully mature culm. Over the next 2–5 years (depending on species), fungus begins to form on the outside of the culm, which eventually penetrates and overcomes the culm. Around 5–8 years later (species and climate dependent), the fungal growths cause the culm to collapse and decay. This brief life means culms are ready for harvest and suitable for use in construction within about three to seven years. Individual bamboo culms do not get any taller or larger in diameter in subsequent years than they do in their first year, and they do not replace any growth lost from pruning or natural breakage. Bamboos have a wide range of hardiness depending on species and locale. Small or young specimens of an individual species will produce small culms initially. As the clump and its rhizome system mature, taller and larger culms will be produced each year until the plant approaches its particular species limits of height and diameter.

 

Many tropical bamboo species will die at or near freezing temperatures, while some of the hardier or so-called temperate bamboos can survive temperatures as low as −29 °C. Some of the hardiest bamboo species can be grown in places as cold as USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5–6, although they typically will defoliate and may even lose all above-ground growth, yet the rhizomes will survive and send up shoots again the next spring. In milder climates, such as USDA Zone 8 and above, some hardy bamboo may remain fully leafed out year-round.

 

MASS FLOWERING

Most bamboo species flower infrequently. In fact, many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years. These taxa exhibit mass flowering (or gregarious flowering), with all plants in a particular cohort flowering over a several-year period. Any plant derived through clonal propagation from this cohort will also flower regardless of whether it has been planted in a different location. The longest mass flowering interval known is 130 years, and it is for the species Phyllostachys bambusoides (Sieb. & Zucc.). In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, and then the bamboo dies. The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of "alarm clock" in each cell of the plant which signals the diversion of all energy to flower production and the cessation of vegetative growth. This mechanism, as well as the evolutionary cause behind it, is still largely a mystery.

 

One hypothesis to explain the evolution of this semelparous mass flowering is the predator satiation hypothesis which argues that by fruiting at the same time, a population increases the survival rate of their seeds by flooding the area with fruit, so, even if predators eat their fill, seeds will still be left over. By having a flowering cycle longer than the lifespan of the rodent predators, bamboos can regulate animal populations by causing starvation during the period between flowering events. Thus the death of the adult clone is due to resource exhaustion, as it would be more effective for parent plants to devote all resources to creating a large seed crop than to hold back energy for their own regeneration.

 

Another, the fire cycle hypothesis, argues that periodic flowering followed by death of the adult plants has evolved as a mechanism to create disturbance in the habitat, thus providing the seedlings with a gap in which to grow. This argues that the dead culms create a large fuel load, and also a large target for lightning strikes, increasing the likelihood of wildfire. Because bamboos can be aggressive as early successional plants, the seedlings would be able to outstrip other plants and take over the space left by their parents.

 

However, both have been disputed for different reasons. The predator satiation hypothesis does not explain why the flowering cycle is 10 times longer than the lifespan of the local rodents, something not predicted. The bamboo fire cycle hypothesis is considered by a few scientists to be unreasonable; they argue[20] that fires only result from humans and there is no natural fire in India. This notion is considered wrong based on distribution of lightning strike data during the dry season throughout India. However, another argument against this is the lack of precedent for any living organism to harness something as unpredictable as lightning strikes to increase its chance of survival as part of natural evolutionary progress.

 

More recently, a mathematical explanation for the extreme length of the flowering cycles has been offered, involving both the stabilizing selection implied by the predator satiation hypothesis and others, and the fact that plants that flower at longer intervals tend to release more seeds. The hypothesis claims that bamboo flowering intervals grew by integer multiplication. A mutant bamboo plant flowering at a non-integer multiple of its population's flowering interval would release its seeds alone, and would not enjoy the benefits of collective flowering (such as protection from predators). On the other hand, a mutant bamboo plant flowering at an integer multiple of its population's flowering interval would release its seeds only during collective flowering events, and would release more seeds than the average plant in the population. It could therefore take over the population, establishing a flowering interval that is an integer multiple of the previous flowering interval. The hypothesis predicts that observed bamboo flowering intervals should factorize into small prime numbers.

 

The mass fruiting also has direct economic and ecological consequences, however. The huge increase in available fruit in the forests often causes a boom in rodent populations, leading to increases in disease and famine in nearby human populations. For example, devastating consequences occur when the Melocanna bambusoides population flowers and fruits once every 30–35 years around the Bay of Bengal. The death of the bamboo plants following their fruiting means the local people lose their building material, and the large increase in bamboo fruit leads to a rapid increase in rodent populations. As the number of rodents increases, they consume all available food, including grain fields and stored food, sometimes leading to famine. These rats can also carry dangerous diseases, such as typhus, typhoid, and bubonic plague, which can reach epidemic proportions as the rodents increase in number. The relationship between rat populations and bamboo flowering was examined in a 2009 Nova documentary "Rat Attack".

 

In any case, flowering produces masses of seeds, typically suspended from the ends of the branches. These seeds will give rise to a new generation of plants that may be identical in appearance to those that preceded the flowering, or they may produce new cultivars with different characteristics, such as the presence or absence of striping or other changes in coloration of the culms.

 

Several bamboo species are never known to set seed even when sporadically flowering has been reported. Bambusa vulgaris, Bambusa balcooa and Dendrocalamus stocksii are common examples of such bamboo.

 

AS ANIMAL DIET

Soft bamboo shoots, stems, and leaves are the major food source of the giant panda of China, the red panda of Nepal and the bamboo lemurs of Madagascar. Rats will eat the fruits as described above. Mountain gorillas of Africa also feed on bamboo, and have been documented consuming bamboo sap which was fermented and alcoholic; chimpanzees and elephants of the region also eat the stalks.

 

The larvae of the bamboo borer (the moth Omphisa fuscidentalis) of Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Yunnan Province, China, feeds off the pulp of live bamboo. In turn, these caterpillars are considered a local delicacy.

 

CULTIVATION

COMMERCIAL TIMBER

Timber is harvested from both cultivated and wild stands, and some of the larger bamboos, particularly species in the genus Phyllostachys, are known as "timber bamboos".

 

HARVESTING

Bamboo used for construction purposes must be harvested when the culms reach their greatest strength and when sugar levels in the sap are at their lowest, as high sugar content increases the ease and rate of pest infestation.

 

Harvesting of bamboo is typically undertaken according to the following cycles:

 

1) Life cycle of the culm: As each individual culm goes through a 5– to 7-year life cycle, culms are ideally allowed to reach this level of maturity prior to full capacity harvesting. The clearing out or thinning of culms, particularly older decaying culms, helps to ensure adequate light and resources for new growth. Well-maintained clumps may have a productivity three to four times that of an unharvested wild clump. Consistent with the life cycle described above, bamboo is harvested from two to three years through to five to seven years, depending on the species.

 

2) Annual cycle: As all growth of new bamboo occurs during the wet season, disturbing the clump during this phase will potentially damage the upcoming crop. Also during this high rainfall period, sap levels are at their highest, and then diminish towards the dry season. Picking immediately prior to the wet/growth season may also damage new shoots. Hence, harvesting is best a few months prior to the start of the wet season.

 

3) Daily cycle: During the height of the day, photosynthesis is at its peak, producing the highest levels of sugar in sap, making this the least ideal time of day to harvest. Many traditional practitioners believe the best time to harvest is at dawn or dusk on a waning moon.

 

LEACHING

Leaching is the removal of sap after harvest. In many areas of the world, the sap levels in harvested bamboo are reduced either through leaching or postharvest photosynthesis.

 

EXEMPLES OF THIS PRACTICE INCLUDE:

Cut bamboo is raised clear of the ground and leaned against the rest of the clump for one to two weeks until leaves turn yellow to allow full consumption of sugars by the plant.

A similar method is undertaken, but with the base of the culm standing in fresh water, either in a large drum or stream to leach out sap.

Cut culms are immersed in a running stream and weighted down for three to four weeks.

Water is pumped through the freshly cut culms, forcing out the sap (this method is often used in conjunction with the injection of some form of treatment).

 

In the process of water leaching, the bamboo is dried slowly and evenly in the shade to avoid cracking in the outer skin of the bamboo, thereby reducing opportunities for pest infestation.

 

Durability of bamboo in construction is directly related to how well it is handled from the moment of planting through harvesting, transportation, storage, design, construction and maintenance. Bamboo harvested at the correct time of year and then exposed to ground contact or rain, will break down just as quickly as incorrectly harvested material.

 

ORNAMENTAL BAMBOOS

The two general patterns for the growth of bamboo are "clumping" (sympodial) and "running" (monopodial). Clumping bamboo species tend to spread slowly, as the growth pattern of the rhizomes is to simply expand the root mass gradually, similar to ornamental grasses. "Running" bamboos, on the other hand, need to be controlled during cultivation because of their potential for aggressive behavior. They spread mainly through their roots and/or rhizomes, which can spread widely underground and send up new culms to break through the surface. Running bamboo species are highly variable in their tendency to spread; this is related to both the species and the soil and climate conditions. Some can send out runners of several metres a year, while others can stay in the same general area for long periods. If neglected, over time they can cause problems by moving into adjacent areas.

 

Bamboos seldom and unpredictably flower, and the frequency of flowering varies greatly from species to species. Once flowering takes place, a plant will decline and often die entirely. Although there are always a few species of bamboo in flower at any given time, collectors desiring to grow specific bamboo typically obtain their plants as divisions of already-growing plants, rather than waiting for seeds to be produced.

 

Regular observations will indicate major growth directions and locations. Once the rhizomes are cut, they are typically removed; however, rhizomes take a number of months to mature, and an immature, severed rhizome will usually cease growing if left in-ground. If any bamboo shoots come up outside of the bamboo area afterwards, their presence indicates the precise location of the removed rhizome. The fibrous roots that radiate from the rhizomes do not produce more bamboo.

 

Bamboo growth is also controlled by surrounding the plant or grove with a physical barrier. Typically, concrete and specially rolled HDPE plastic are the materials used to create the barrier, which is placed in a 60– to 90-cm-deep ditch around the planting, and angled out at the top to direct the rhizomes to the surface. (This is only possible if the barrier is installed in a straight line.) If the containment area is small, this method can be detrimental to ornamental bamboo, as the bamboo within can become rootbound and start to display the signs of any unhealthy containerized plant. In addition, rhizomes can escape over the top, or beneath the barrier if it is not deep enough. Strong rhizomes and tools can penetrate plastic barriers, so care must be taken. In small areas, regular maintenance may be the best method for controlling the running bamboos. Barriers and edging are unnecessary for clump-forming bamboos, although these may eventually need to have portions removed if they become too large.

 

The ornamental plant sold in containers and marketed as "lucky bamboo" is actually an entirely unrelated plant, Dracaena sanderiana. It is a resilient member of the lily family that grows in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa. Lucky bamboo has long been associated with the Eastern practice of feng shui and images of the plant widely available on the Web are often used to depict bamboo. On a similar note, Japanese knotweed is also sometimes mistaken for a bamboo, but it grows wild and is considered an invasive species. Phyllostachys species of bamboo are also considered invasive and illegal to sell or propagate in some areas of the US.

 

USES

CULINARY

Although the shoots (new culms that come out of the ground) of bamboo contain a toxin taxiphyllin (a cyanogenic glycoside) that produces cyanide in the gut, proper processing renders them edible. They are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh and canned versions. The golden bamboo lemur ingests many times the quantity of the taxiphyllin-containing bamboo that would kill a human.

 

The bamboo shoot in its fermented state forms an important ingredient in cuisines across the Himalayas. In Assam, India, for example, it is called khorisa. In Nepal, a delicacy popular across ethnic boundaries consists of bamboo shoots fermented with turmeric and oil, and cooked with potatoes into a dish that usually accompanies rice (alu tama (आलु तामा) in Nepali).

 

In Indonesia, they are sliced thin and then boiled with santan (thick coconut milk) and spices to make a dish called gulai rebung. Other recipes using bamboo shoots are sayur lodeh (mixed vegetables in coconut milk) and lun pia (sometimes written lumpia: fried wrapped bamboo shoots with vegetables). The shoots of some species contain toxins that need to be leached or boiled out before they can be eaten safely.

 

Pickled bamboo, used as a condiment, may also be made from the pith of the young shoots.

 

The sap of young stalks tapped during the rainy season may be fermented to make ulanzi (a sweet wine) or simply made into a soft drink. Bamboo leaves are also used as wrappers for steamed dumplings which usually contains glutinous rice and other ingredients.

 

Pickled bamboo shoots (Nepali:तामा tama) are cooked with black-eyed beans as a delicacy food in Nepal. Many Nepalese restaurant around the world serve this dish as aloo bodi tama. Fresh bamboo shoots are sliced and pickled with mustard seeds and turmeric and kept in glass jar in direct sunlight for the best taste. It is used alongside many dried beans in cooking during winter months. Baby shoots (Nepali: tusa) of a very different variety of bamboo (Nepali: निगालो Nigalo) native to Nepal is cooked as a curry in Hilly regions.

 

In Sambalpur, India, the tender shoots are grated into juliennes and fermented to prepare kardi. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word for bamboo shoot, karira. This fermented bamboo shoot is used in various culinary preparations, notably amil, a sour vegetable soup. It is also made into pancakes using rice flour as a binding agent. The shoots that have turned a little fibrous are fermented, dried, and ground to sand-sized particles to prepare a garnish known as hendua. It is also cooked with tender pumpkin leaves to make sag green leaves.

 

In Konkani cuisine, the tender shoots (kirlu) are grated and cooked with crushed jackfruit seeds to prepare 'kirla sukke'.

 

The empty hollow in the stalks of larger bamboo is often used to cook food in many Asian cultures. Soups are boiled and rice is cooked in the hollows of fresh stalks of bamboo directly over a flame. Similarly, steamed tea is sometimes rammed into bamboo hollows to produce compressed forms of Pu-erh tea. Cooking food in bamboo is said to give the food a subtle but distinctive taste.

 

In addition, bamboo is frequently used for cooking utensils within many cultures, and is used in the manufacture of chopsticks. In modern times, some see bamboo tools as an ecofriendly alternative to other manufactured utensils.

 

MEDICINE

Bamboo is used in Chinese medicine for treating infections and healing. In northern Indian state of Assam, the fermented bamboo paste known as khorisa is known locally as a folk remedy for the treatment of impotence, infertility, and menstrual pains.

 

CONSTRUCTION

Bamboo, like true wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures.

 

In its natural form, bamboo as a construction material is traditionally associated with the cultures of South Asia, East Asia and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America, and by extension in the aesthetic of Tiki culture. In China and India, bamboo was used to hold up simple suspension bridges, either by making cables of split bamboo or twisting whole culms of sufficiently pliable bamboo together. One such bridge in the area of Qian-Xian is referenced in writings dating back to 960 AD and may have stood since as far back as the third century BC, due largely to continuous maintenance.

 

Bamboo has also long been used as scaffolding; the practice has been banned in China for buildings over six stories, but is still in continuous use for skyscrapers in Hong Kong. In the Philippines, the nipa hut is a fairly typical example of the most basic sort of housing where bamboo is used; the walls are split and woven bamboo, and bamboo slats and poles may be used as its support. In Japanese architecture, bamboo is used primarily as a supplemental and/or decorative element in buildings such as fencing, fountains, grates and gutters, largely due to the ready abundance of quality timber.

 

Various structural shapes may be made by training the bamboo to assume them as it grows. Squared sections of bamboo are created by compressing the growing stalk within a square form. Arches may similarly be created by forcing the bamboo's growth into the desired form, costing much less than it would to obtain the same shape with regular wood timber. More traditional forming methods, such as the application of heat and pressure, may also be used to curve or flatten the cut stalks.

 

Bamboo can be cut and laminated into sheets and planks. This process involves cutting stalks into thin strips, planing them flat, and boiling and drying the strips; they are then glued, pressed and finished. Long used in China and Japan, entrepreneurs started developing and selling laminated bamboo flooring in the West during the mid-1990s; products made from bamboo laminate, including flooring, cabinetry, furniture and even decorations, are currently surging in popularity, transitioning from the boutique market to mainstream providers such as Home Depot. The bamboo goods industry (which also includes small goods, fabric, etc.) is expected to be worth $25 billion by 2012. The quality of bamboo laminate varies among manufacturers and varies according to the maturity of the plant from which it was harvested (six years being considered the optimum); the sturdiest products fulfill their claims of being up to three times harder than oak hardwood while others may be softer than standard hardwood.

 

Bamboo intended for use in construction should be treated to resist insects and rot. The most common solution for this purpose is a mixture of borax and boric acid. Another process involves boiling cut bamboo to remove the starches that attract insects.

 

Bamboo has been used as reinforcement for concrete in those areas where it is plentiful, though dispute exists over its effectiveness in the various studies done on the subject. Bamboo does have the necessary strength to fulfil this function, but untreated bamboo will swell with water absorbed from the concrete, causing it to crack. Several procedures must be followed to overcome this shortcoming.

 

Several institutes, businesses, and universities are researching the use of bamboo as an ecological construction material. In the United States and France, it is possible to get houses made entirely of bamboo,[citation needed] which are earthquake- and cyclone-resistant and internationally certified. In Bali, Indonesia, an international K-12 school, the Green School, is constructed entirely of bamboo, for its beauty and advantages as a sustainable resource. There are three ISO standards for bamboo as a construction material.

 

In parts of India, bamboo is used for drying clothes indoors, both as a rod high up near the ceiling to hang clothes on, and as a stick wielded with acquired expert skill to hoist, spread, and to take down the clothes when dry. It is also commonly used to make ladders, which apart from their normal function, are also used for carrying bodies in funerals. In Maharashtra, the bamboo groves and forests are called Veluvana, the name velu for bamboo is most likely from Sanskrit, while vana means forest.

 

Furthermore, bamboo is also used to create flagpoles for saffron-coloured, Hindu religious flags, which can be seen fluttering across India, especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, as well as in Guyana and Suriname in South America.

 

Bamboo was used for the structural members of the India pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The pavilion is the world’s largest bamboo dome, about 34 m in diameter, with bamboo beams/members overlaid with a ferro-concrete slab, waterproofing, copper plate, solar PV panels, a small windmill, and live plants. A total of 30 km of bamboo was used. The dome is supported on 18-m-long steel piles and a series of steel ring beams. The bamboo was treated with borax and boric acid as a fire retardant and insecticide and bent in the required shape. The bamboo sections were joined with reinforcement bars and concrete mortar to achieve the necessary lengths.

 

TEXTILES

Since the fibers of bamboo are very short (less than 3 mm), they are not usually transformed into yarn by a natural process. The usual process by which textiles labeled as being made of bamboo are produced uses only rayon made from the fibers with heavy employment of chemicals. To accomplish this, the fibers are broken down with chemicals and extruded through mechanical spinnerets; the chemicals include lye, carbon disulfide and strong acids. Retailers have sold both end products as "bamboo fabric" to cash in on bamboo's current ecofriendly cachet; however, the Canadian Competition Bureau and the US Federal Trade Commission, as of mid-2009, are cracking down on the practice of labeling bamboo rayon as natural bamboo fabric. Under the guidelines of both agencies, these products must be labeled as rayon with the optional qualifier "from bamboo".

 

AS A WRITING SURFACE

Bamboo was in widespread use in early China as a medium for written documents. The earliest surviving examples of such documents, written in ink on string-bound bundles of bamboo strips (or "slips"), date from the fifth century BC during the Warring States period. However, references in earlier texts surviving on other media make it clear that some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was in use as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC).

 

Bamboo or wooden strips were the standard writing material during the Han dynasty, and excavated examples have been found in abundance. Subsequently, paper began to displace bamboo and wooden strips from mainstream uses, and by the fourth century AD, bamboo slips had been largely abandoned as a medium for writing in China. Several paper industries are surviving on bamboo forests. Ballarpur (Chandrapur, Maharstra) paper mills use bamboo for paper production.

 

Bamboo fiber has been used to make paper in China since early times. A high-quality, handmade paper is still produced in small quantities. Coarse bamboo paper is still used to make spirit money in many Chinese communities.

 

Bamboo pulps are mainly produced in China, Myanmar, Thailand and India, and are used in printing and writing papers. The most common bamboo species used for paper are Dendrocalamus asper and Bamboo bluemanea. It is also possible to make dissolving pulp from bamboo. The average fiber length is similar to hardwoods, but the properties of bamboo pulp are closer to softwood pulps due to it having a very broad fiber length distribution. With the help of molecular tools, it is now possible to distinguish the superior fiber-yielding species/varieties even at juvenile stages of their growth, which can help in unadulterated merchandise production.[

 

WEAPONS

Bamboo has often been used to construct weapons and is still incorporated in several Asian martial arts.

 

A bamboo staff, sometimes with one end sharpened, is used in the Tamil martial art of silambam, a word derived from a term meaning "hill bamboo".

Staves used in the Indian martial art of gatka are commonly made from bamboo, a material favoured for its light weight.

A bamboo sword called a shinai is used in the Japanese martial art of kendo.

Bamboo is used for crafting the bows, called yumi, and arrows used in the Japanese martial art kyudo.

Bamboo is sometimes used to craft the limbs of the longbow and recurve bow used in traditional archery, and to make superior weapons for bowhunting and target archery.

The first gunpowder-based weapons, such as the fire lance, were made of bamboo.

Bamboo was apparently used in East and South Asia as a means of torture.

 

OTHER USES

Bamboo has traditionally been used to make a wide range of everyday utensils, particularly in Japan, where archaeological excavations have uncovered bamboo baskets dating to the Late Jomon period (2000–1000 BC).

 

Bamboo has a long history of use in Asian furniture. Chinese bamboo furniture is a distinct style based on a millennia-long tradition.

 

Several manufacturers offer bamboo bicycles, surfboards, snowboards, and skateboards.

 

Due to its flexibility, bamboo is also used to make fishing rods. The split cane rod is especially prized for fly fishing. Bamboo has been traditionally used in Malaysia as a firecracker called a meriam buluh or bamboo cannon. Four-foot-long sections of bamboo are cut, and a mixture of water and calcium carbide are introduced. The resulting acetylene gas is ignited with a stick, producing a loud bang. Bamboo can be used in water desalination. A bamboo filter is used to remove the salt from seawater.

 

Food is cooked in East Timor in bamboo in fire. This is called Tukir.

 

Many minority groups in remote areas that have water access in Asia use bamboo that is 3–5 years old to make rafts. They use 8 to 12 poles, 6–7 metres long, laid together side by side to a width of about 1 metre. Once the poles are lined up together, they cut a hole crosswise through the poles at each end and use a small bamboo pole pushed through that hole like a screw to hold all the long bamboo poles together. Floating houses use whole bamboo stalks tied together in a big bunch to support the house floating in the water. Bamboo is also used to make eating utensils such as chop sticks, trays, and tea scoops.

 

The Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) Chinese scientist and polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) used the evidence of underground petrified bamboo found in the dry northern climate of Yan'an, Shanbei region, Shaanxi province to support his geological theory of gradual climate change.

 

SYMBOLISM AND CULTURE

Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of uprightness, while in India it is a symbol of friendship. The rarity of its blossoming has led to the flowers' being regarded as a sign of impending famine. This may be due to rats feeding upon the profusion of flowers, then multiplying and destroying a large part of the local food supply. The most recent flowering began in May 2006 (see Mautam). Bamboo is said to bloom in this manner only about every 50 years (see 28–60 year examples in FAO: 'gregarious' species table).

 

In Chinese culture, the bamboo, plum blossom, orchid, and chrysanthemum (often known as méi lán zhú jú 梅兰竹菊) are collectively referred to as the Four Gentlemen. These four plants also represent the four seasons and, in Confucian ideology, four aspects of the junzi ("prince" or "noble one"). The pine (sōng 松), the bamboo (zhú 竹), and the plum blossom (méi 梅) are also admired for their perseverance under harsh conditions, and are together known as the "Three Friends of Winter" (岁寒三友 suìhán sānyǒu) in Chinese culture. The "Three Friends of Winter" is traditionally used as a system of ranking in Japan, for example in sushi sets or accommodations at a traditional ryokan. Pine (matsu 松) is of the first rank, bamboo (také 竹) is of second rank, and plum (ume 梅) is of the third.

 

The Bozo ethnic group of West Africa take their name from the Bambara phrase bo-so, which means "bamboo house". Bamboo is also the national plant of St. Lucia.

 

BAMBOO, NOBLE AND USEFUL

Bamboo, one of the "Four Gentlemen" (bamboo, orchid, plum blossom and chrysanthemum), plays such an important role in traditional Chinese culture that it is even regarded as a behavior model of the gentleman. As bamboo has features such as uprightness, tenacity, and hollow heart, people endow bamboo with integrity, elegance, and plainness, though it is not physically strong. Countless poems praising bamboo written by ancient Chinese poets are actually metaphorically about people who exhibited these characteristics. According to laws, an ancient poet, Bai Juyi (772–846), thought that to be a gentleman, a man does not need to be physically strong, but he must be mentally strong, upright, and perseverant. Just as a bamboo is hollow-hearted, he should open his heart to accept anything of benefit and never have arrogance or prejudice. Bamboo is not only a symbol of a gentleman, but also plays an important role in Buddhism, which was introduced into China in the first century. As canons of Buddhism forbids cruelty to animals, flesh and egg were not allowed in the diet. The tender bamboo shoot (sǔn筍 in Chinese) thus became a nutritious alternative. Preparation methods developed over thousands of years have come to incorporated into Asian cuisines, especially for monks. A Buddhist monk, Zan Ning, wrote a manual of the bamboo shoot called "Sǔn Pǔ筍譜" offering descriptions and recipes for many kinds of bamboo shoots. Bamboo shoot has always been a traditional dish on the Chinese dinner table, especially in southern China. In ancient times, those who could afford a big house with a yard would plant bamboo in their garden.

 

In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil. Many Buddhist temples also have bamboo groves.

 

Bamboo plays an important part of the culture of Vietnam. Bamboo symbolizes the spirit of Vovinam (a Vietnamese martial arts): cương nhu phối triển (coordination between hard and soft (martial arts)). Bamboo also symbolizes the Vietnamese hometown and Vietnamese soul: the gentlemanlike, straightforwardness, hard working, optimism, unity, and adaptability. A Vietnamese proverb says, "When the bamboo is old, the bamboo sprouts appear", the meaning being Vietnam will never be annihilated; if the previous generation dies, the children take their place. Therefore, the Vietnam nation and Vietnamese value will be maintained and developed eternally. Traditional Vietnamese villages are surrounded by thick bamboo hedges (lũy tre).

 

IN MYTHOLOGY

Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe humanity emerged from a bamboo stem.

 

In Philippine mythology, one of the more famous creation accounts tells of the first man, Malakás ("Strong"), and the first woman, Maganda ("Beautiful"), each emerged from one half of a split bamboo stem on an island formed after the battle between Sky and Ocean. In Malaysia, a similar story includes a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside. The Japanese folktale "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (Taketori Monogatari) tells of a princess from the Moon emerging from a shining bamboo section. Hawaiian bamboo ('ohe) is a kinolau or body form of the Polynesian creator god Kāne.

 

A bamboo cane is also the weapon of Vietnamese legendary hero, Saint Giong, who had grown up immediately and magically since the age of three because of his wish to liberate his land from Ân invaders. An ancient Vietnamese legend (The Hundred-knot Bamboo Tree) tells of a poor, young farmer who fell in love with his landlord's beautiful daughter. The farmer asked the landlord for his daughter's hand in marriage, but the proud landlord would not allow her to be bound in marriage to a poor farmer. The landlord decided to foil the marriage with an impossible deal; the farmer must bring him a "bamboo tree of 100 nodes". But Gautama Buddha (Bụt) appeared to the farmer and told him that such a tree could be made from 100 nodes from several different trees. Bụt gave to him four magic words to attach the many nodes of bamboo: Khắc nhập, khắc xuất, which means "joined together immediately, fell apart immediately". The triumphant farmer returned to the landlord and demanded his daughter. Curious to see such a long bamboo, the landlord was magically joined to the bamboo when he touched it, as the young farmer said the first two magic words. The story ends with the happy marriage of the farmer and the landlord's daughter after the landlord agreed to the marriage and asked to be separated from the bamboo.

 

In a Chinese legend, the Emperor Yao gave two of his daughters to the future Emperor Shun as a test for his potential to rule. Shun passed the test of being able to run his household with the two emperor's daughters as wives, and thus Yao made Shun his successor, bypassing his unworthy son. Later, Shun drowned in the Xiang River. The tears his two bereaved wives let fall upon the bamboos growing there explains the origin of spotted bamboo. The two women later became goddesses.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Hamburg

Photographed in the Fremont Street Experience on an April evening in 2015. In Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

a detail of the glass curtain wall cladding of an academic building on the campus of Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York

 

Beckett Cemetery, Leeds UK

Joggers on the Embankment, for the monthly scavenger hunt: 'Lycra should only be for the very thin!'

 

I disagree. When I was sitting on the Embankment watching the joggers, I saw lots of lycra. The wobbly people looked really bad in it, but the worst was a lady who was so painfully thin it can only have been through illness (I assume anorexia). The lycra was hanging off her and accentuating all the hollow bits.

 

The lady in this photo isn't very thin (though she's thinner than me!), but she is nicely toned, and I think she looks fine in lycra.

 

Update: also added for MSH Jan '12 "Take the weight loss challenge"

Newmar was a "dancer-assassin" in Slaves of Babylon (1953) and the "gilded girl" in Serpent of the Nile (1953), in which she was clad in gold paint. She danced in several other films, including The Band Wagon and Demetrius and the Gladiators, and was a ballerina with the Los Angeles Opera. She also worked as a choreographer and dancer for Universal Studios.

Prompts: an owl wearing a military helmet and smoking a cigar.

 

Created with #midjourney #photoshop

Thank you for your visit, faves, and kind comments. 😊

© AI Art Legends 2022

work in progress at old village - east kilbride

 

view of oak cladding and hardwood louvres

 

more at

www.abbozzo.co.uk/

Exquisitely crafted brass door of Kamru Fort

Dutch postcard by P.F. Cladder, Amsterdam, no. 49-62 kk. Photo: HABÉ Film.

 

George Formby (1904–1961) was Britain's most popular film comedian between 1934 and 1945, and one of the highest-paid stars. He appeared in 21 hit films, cut over 230 records, and entertained an estimated three million Allied Servicemen during World War II. His trademark was the ukulele - along with his buck-toothed grin.

 

George Formby was born in Wigan, Lancashire, as George Hoy Booth , the eldest of seven children. His father, George Formby Senior (real name James Booth), was a famous stage actor and comedian. He never wanted any of his family to enter show business and so George, Jr., was apprenticed as a jockey when he was seven and rode his first professional race at ten. On the death of his father in 1921, Formby abandoned his career as a jockey and started his own music hall career using his father's material. In 1924 he married dancer Beryl Ingham, who managed his career until her death in 1960. He allegedly took up the ukulele, for which he was later famous, as a hobby; he first played it on stage for a bet. In film and on stage, he generally adopted the character of an honest, good-hearted but accident-prone innocent who used the phrases: "It's turned out nice again!" as an opening line; "Ooh, mother!" when escaping from trouble; and a timid "Never touched me!" after losing a fistfight. What made him stand out, however, was his unique and often mimicked musical style. He sang comic songs, full of double entendre, to his own accompaniment on the ukelele. Some of his songs were considered too rude for broadcasting. His 1937 song, With my little stick of Blackpool Rock was banned by the BBC because of the lyrics, but Formby's cheerful, innocent demeanor and nasal, high-pitched Lancashire accent neutralized the shock value of the lyrics.

 

George Formby appeared in a sole silent film, By the Shortest of Heads (1915, Bert Haldane), and in 1934 he made his first sound film Boots! Boots! (1934, Bert Tracy). The film was successful and he signed a contract to make a further 11 with Associated Talking Pictures, which earned him a then-astronomical income of £100,000 per year. In his films he played essentially gormless incompetents, aspiring to various kinds of professional success (as cyclist or jockey) and even more improbably to a middle-class girlfriend, usually in the clutches of some caddish type with a moustache. Invariably he scored on both counts, in such films as No Limit (1935, Monty Banks), Keep Fit (1937, Anthony Kimmins), and Trouble Brewing (1939, Anthony Kimmins). Between 1934 and 1945 Formby was the top comedian in British cinema, and at the height of his film popularity, Let George Do It (1940, Marcel Varnel) with Phyllis Calvert, was exported to America.. This espionage comedy is still regarded as probably his best. He is a member of a concert party, who takes the wrong ship by mistake during a blackout, and finds himself in Norway (mistaking Bergen for Blackpool) as a secret agent. A dream sequence in which he punches Hitler on the nose and addresses him as a ”windbag" is one of the most enduring moments in film comedy. In the post-war years, the Formbys toured Australia and New Zealand, Scandinavia and Canada, and in 1951 George took the West End by storm in the new musical Zip Goes A Million. A weak heart led to his official retirement in 1952 although he had since occasionally appeared on the stage and in pantomimes. His final heart attack occurred at the home of his fiancée, Patricia Howson, 36. The announcement of their engagement was a surprise to many, coming as it did just two months after the death of Beryl. An estimated 100,000 mourners lined the route as his coffin was driven to the cemetary.

 

Sources: Brian McFarlane (Encyclopedia of British Film), Wikipedia, BBC On This Day, The George Formby Society, and IMDb.

 

Blessings from the eldest worshiper of the family.

  

My Experience of Chhath

I am a permanent resident of Kolkata, but I never witnessed the celebration of Chhath Pooja here. Lakhs of migrant residents from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India and Nepal as well, celebrated their most ancient festival along the bank of river Hoogly, the sacred river that flows through the city. On 6th November this year, around 2pm, I went to a famous ghat on the bank of river Hoogly opposite to Eden gardens. It was an unique photographic journey to witness how people performed their rituals with so much devotion and faith. I saw hundreds of devotees sitting on the banks quietly with their offerings to Sun God and some performing their rituals with half of their bodies immersed in the Ganges, and some with fire, called ‘Homas’. I was closely looking at them, and I was amazed by their dedication, devotion and complacency. Thousands of devotees were found proceeding towards the Ganges with their offerings, all cladded in bright clothes and ornaments, and many were found on their way to lay prone on the roads touching their whole body (Ashtanga or eight parts of the body) on the Earth and performing ‘Dondis’(Surya Namaskara -Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, Sun Salutation). Many of the family members, including newborn kids were found lying on the roads waiting for the main worshipper of the family to crossover their bodies as a way to get blessings from them. Most of the main family worshippers were found to be the eldest ladies of the family. Through Chhath, I rediscovered my religious India, in a new and beautiful way.

  

Chhath Pooja

Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival of worshiping Sun God, as the Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun God and describes similar rituals.Historically it is native to eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar of India and Mithila State of Nepal.The Chhath Puja is dedicated to the Sun and his wife Usha in order to thank them for bestowing the bounties of life on earth.The God is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress. In Hinduism, Sun worship is also believed to help cure a variety of diseases, including leprosy, and helps ensure the longevity and prosperity of family members, friends, and elders. Environmentalists claim that Chhath is the most eco-friendly Hindu festival.

 

Regions Celebrating Chhath

Although the festival is observed most elaborately in Mithila Province of Nepal,Terai-Madhesh region of Nepal, Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and UP, it is also more prevalent in areas where migrants from those areas have a presence.The festival is celebrated in the regions including but not exclusive to the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, as well in various countries worldwide.

 

Timings

Chhath puja is performed on Kartika Shukla Shashthi, which is the sixth day of the month of Kartika in Bengali calender. This falls typically in the month of October or November in the Gregorian English Calendar.

  

History

The rituals also find reference in the Sanskrit epic poem Mahābhārata in which Draupadi is depicted as observing similar rites. It is assumed that the oldest Purohits were requested by the kings to come and perform the traditional pooja of the Lord Sun. They used to chant the ancient Rigveda texts and a variety of hymns for worshiping the God. In the ancient time of Mahabharata Chhath pooja was celebrated by Draupadi and Pandavas of Hastinapur (present Delhi) for solving their instant problem and regaining their lost kingdom. It is also assumed that the Chhath puja was first started by the Surya Putra (son of Sun God) Karna. He was a great warrior and had ruled over the Anga Desh (Munger district of Bihar) during the Mahabharata period.

 

Ethymology

The word chhath means sixth in Nepali, Maithili and Bhojpuri languages and the festival is celebrated on the sixth day of the month Kārtika of the Hindu lunar Bikram Sambat calendar.The word is a Prakrit derivation from the Sanskrit ṣaṣṭhi, meaning sixth.

The Goddess who is also worshipped during the famous Chhath Puja is known as Chhathi Maiya. Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Surya, the sun god. The rituals signify rising sun as well as setting sun.

 

Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja

It is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having single blanket.

Devotees offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua, bananas and other fruits included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad is cooked without salt, onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which includes:

On the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of Gange and bring some holy water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango woods over the soil stove.

On the second day, the day before Chhath, devotees keeps fast for whole day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun. They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.

On the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) the human is body made up of.

On the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad.

 

Six levels of purification in Chhath ( a belief)

The belief of fast and cleanliness of body on the festival identify the detoxification of the body and mind in order to set up the body and mind to accept the cosmic solar energy.

Standing in water with half of the body inside the water diminishes the escape of energy as well as facilitates the prana to elevate to the sushumna.

Then the entrance of cosmic solar energy takes place in the pineal gland, pituitary gland and hypothalamus (known as the Triveni complex) through the retina and optic nerves.

In the 4th stage Triveni complex gets activated.

After activation of the Triveni complex, spine gets polarized and body of devotee gets transformed into a cosmic powerhouse and gets the Kundalini Shakti.

At this stage the devotee is fully able to conduct, recycle and pass on the energy into entire universe.

  

Benefits of the rituals (a belief)

Devotee of the Chhath puja can improve the immunity of body.

A variety of skin infections can be cured through the safe radiations of sunlight.

It increases the fighting power of blood by improving the performance of WBC.

Solar energy provides the power to control the secretion of hormones.

 

Significance

Chhath puja has a special significance during the Sunrise and Sunset periods. The Sunrise and sunset are the most important periods of the day during which a human body can safely get the solar energy without any harm. That’s why there is a myth of offering the Sanjhiya Arghya and Bihaniya Arghya to the Sun at the Chhath festival. During this period the solar energy has low level of ultraviolet radiations so it is safe for the human body. People perform the Chhath puja in order to thank the Lord Sun for the lives on the earth as well as to get blessings.

The ritual of Chhath puja provides mental calmness (by detoxifying the body and mind), enhances the energy level and immunity, reduces the frequency of anger, greed and jealousy as well as lot of negative emotions. It is also believed that following the Chhath processes helps in slowing down the ageing process. Such beliefs and rituals of the Chhath make it the most significant festival in the Hindus ever.

 

[ Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhath and www.varanasi.org.in/chhath-pooja ]

  

photographer's notes and text borrowings-

 

"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis

 

inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?

 

stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)

 

most of the building was changed into residential units

 

beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton

 

some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted

 

the tribes being-

matabele

basuto

barotse

kikuyu

zulu

bushman

xosa (xhosa)

pedi

masai

 

the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD

 

much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite

 

***********************

Mutual Building

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.

The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated

by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]

The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.

Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE

Mutual Building

Mutual Gebou

The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town

Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual

names Building

General information

Contents

1 History

1.1 The business

1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street

1.3 Search for inspiration

1.4 Completion

1.5 Vacating and conversion

2 Structure of the building

3 Design elements

4 Features of the building

 

4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall

4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium

4.7 The windows

4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze

5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References

7 Other external links

Type

Architectural style

Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height

Structural system

Floor count Lifts/elevators

Commercial converted to residential

Art Deco

14 Darling Street

Cape Town

South Africa

33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939

1940

2005

Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)

Technical details

Reinforced concrete, granite cladding

12 plus 3 levels basement parking

7

Architect

Architecture firm

Architect

Renovating firm

Structural engineer

Awards and prizes

Fred Glennie Louw & Louw

Renovating team

Robert Silke Louis Karol

Murray & Roberts

South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008

Website

Design and construction

www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)

History The business

The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.

The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then

Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio

of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.

It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.

The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street

 

The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text

Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings

In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional

and contemporary design.[1]

Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the

nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.

Search for inspiration

The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England

and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been

converted to residential occupation.[1]

The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.

Completion

The building was completed in 1939 and opened

early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:

"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]

 

The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or

"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]

Vacating and conversion

Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of

which departed in May 2003.[3]

At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol

Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in

the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has

been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]

In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.

Structure of the building

The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as

contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]

It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web

site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.

Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only

in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]

Design elements

The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally

credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some

internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.

It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.

The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.

Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.

Marble from the columns in the banking hall

As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on

Bulkhead lights on the 9th level

White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall

Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building

An original door handle (of which many remain)

The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling

Detail of a banister on one of the stairs

Original fire doors, with distinctive handles

Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room

Some interior design details

The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.

An original light fitting

The light fittings in the Assembly Room

The entrance lobby

Features of the building

The building incorporates a range of significant features.

The Entrance Hall

Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).

Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.

The Banking Hall

Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.

The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.

The banking hall

Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.

The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall

Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia

Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State

Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein

Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.

The lifts (elevators)

The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.

 

There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)

The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):

Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower

Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right

Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)

Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)

The individual etchings on the lift doors

Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)

Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left

Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)

Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top

Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree

The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top

Vulture

These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.

The Assembly Room

Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy

holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,

 

undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.

Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in

London and elsewhere. In London he

undertook a mural in South Africa House with

Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.

These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example

"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well

represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end

walls and over the entrance depict more than

100 years of the history of the nation,

including industrial development, the Great

Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,

the growth of industry and agriculture, and a

hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan

Smuts' coalition government".[1]

The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.

The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.

The fresco panels in the Assembly Room

The Assembly Room

 

Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and

railroads

Trade and international travel

The discovery of gold

Railroads in service, productive farms

The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).

Some details from the panels:

Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room

Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide

irrigation

The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face

horses

 

The Directors' Board Room

A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under

Table Mountain

The Directors' Rooms

On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.

In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents

Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]

The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.

Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations

The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London

Blue cranes flying

A sea plane

A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune

Penguins and whales

A mermaid

Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze

Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room

 

Entrance to the board room (see note below)

Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time

Marble at the door to the board room

Another original light fitting in the sitting room

Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room

An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device

It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.

The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.

The atrium

The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.

The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.

 

The windows

On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium

 

The windows compared

The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.

Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.

As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).

Granite cladding

The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the

city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).

The granite decorations

The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)

Tower with tribal head

The Tribal Figures

On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.

 

The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.

The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):

The individual tribal figures

"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"

"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"

"Bushman"

Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.

The frieze

Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its

completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]

 

A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing

It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the

enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]

A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.

The sections of the frieze are as follows:

The landing of Jan van Riebeeck

The arrival of the 1820 Settlers

The "Post Office Stone"

The building of the Castle of Good Hope

The emancipation of the slaves

Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek

The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley

Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias

Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele

David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory

The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants

A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]

  

A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)

Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.

Views of (and from) the building

  

The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.

The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.

 

In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.

The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).

 

Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.

Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.

References

The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.

1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57

2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage

Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)

4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)

5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008

8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.

12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved

27 December 2010.

13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.

14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008

15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.

Other external links

Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)

Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)

Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)

David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)

Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)

Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)

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The HUNKY JESUS CONTEST 2015 with THE SISTERS OF PERPETUAL INDULGENCE !

 

A MUSCLE-BOUND, diaper clad, HUNKY JESUS carrying his toy Easter bunnies, two baby bottles filled with milk, and sucking on a pacifier waddled up on stage much to the delight of Sister ROMA and the crowd. Everyone went in to a wild uproar when he squirted his bottle of milk all over his golden tan, rippled muscled beautiful body a la Flashdance. Milk really do a body good...BABY JESUS won the title of 2015 HUNKY JESUS CONTEST!

 

The sexy lanky ROLLER DISCO JESUS stunned the crowed with his roller skating antics on stage, ok it was his tight muscled body in a white disco jumpsuit which was ripped open in just the right places !

 

The EXORCIST JESUS also got the audience howling with his Dr. Frankenfurter black lace , neglige outfit and 6-inch black platform boots.

 

Afterwards, HUNKY, MUSCLE-BOUND BABY JESUS was pulled aside by tons of people for a photo-op !

 

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Overlapping dried-enset repair cladding. Dorze home.

  

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