My favs,

the pink chair warehouse:

where green thrives:

the snow factory:

prefab shantytown:

and lastly the mostamazingawesomemodernism:

I bet they didn’t have this in Tokyo when you were there! (he loves these things)

Whereas most American roller coasters are in theme parks that are outside of some nearby city, surrounded by rural or wooded terrain, it seems the Japanese have a fascination with their theme parks being situation in urban environments, to the degree that at one point this roller coaster even goes through a building. Watch for yourself:

On an aside my webhost is really fukhing with me these days. I can’t auto-create thumbnails of the above images anymore because suddenly they’ve dropped some PHP library support. I guess with the new month they rolled out some new code and for anybody unwilling or unable to pay $50/month for the primo-package you get left in the dust. Even though everything worked before they don’t simply drop support they remove the code entirely! So I’ll have to be moving webhosts again soon in the next month I reckon. Yeah I’m really looking forward to that.

I originally thought this might by the KLVY-TV mast in North Dakota but I was wrong. Appears to be some guy-wired radio mast in Russia originally taken by Victor Professor (some great photos of high-altitude icing there!). His stuff is in Russian so don’t worry you won’t be able to read anything, but the photos are marvelous! Now imagine the radio mast in North Dakota is 2.3 times taller than the radio mast his images come from! And imagine furthermore that the Burj Dubai recently surpassed the KLVY-TV mast as the tallest structure in the world and will double as the tallest building upon its completion later this year.

And a video about high voltage cable repairmen that remains one of my favorite videos on the nets:

I hope more people who work these jobs, window washing the Burj Dubai or scaling the KLVY-TV tower to replace a light bulb take their becoming-ubiquitous digital cameras with them because this stuffs is amazings!

[from TenArquitectos - I hate flash popup websites though!]

As I mulled over this dilemma half-asleep last night, I simply concluded that it would be best for me to start a post, and then to add to it with sub-entries, rather than attempting to compile one single megapost which can’t actually be done as my experiences here are on-going and never cease. Day in and day out there’s something new. And I’m already over a week behind schedule.

So in unordered list and no particular arrangement:

My parents and stuff:

• my parents own, or possess rather, nearly if not more than 30 pairs of scissors. Nearly if not more… as in, while I’m sorting through their house and attempting to downsize their lives, I’ve really only penetrated and can account for the contents of two rooms. Add to that the other rooms (namely the computer room and my mom’s office areas) and in passing I’ve counted well over 20 pairs, and nearing 30. And I haven’t even spent time in the toolshop area. Could they own 50 scissors? Is this possible?

• In the light of the scissors complex, I went back and counted the number of staplers they own. Currently accounted for: 8.

e.g.:

many, many more to come!

STL corner architecture:
I’ve always had a fondness for corner buildings in St. Louis city. They’re always slightly more visually complex than the buildings surrounding them (which are usually domiciles, with the corner buildings operating commercial ventures); accented with architectural features and decorative elements; usually “wrap” the corner physically, and provide multiple entrances or window displays; and are usually more substantial – at times gargantuan – in comparison to the surrounding area. (I’ll add more examples as I take them) If one was to purchase or develop a property in the city for an arts center or housing co-op, this would be the way to go:

STL alley architecture:

Likewise I’ve always had a fondness for the alleys of St. Louis, and they’re an urban development feature that I’ve missed in larger cities I’ve lived in like London or NYC or which other cities I just don’t think employ the nature and uses of the alley as well as St. Louis city. In my earlier days I played basketball and stickball in them; used them to cut through neighborhoods while avoiding the car-traffic streets; and often used them as entrances to peoples’ homes through their back doors because the front door is so formal and proper, whereas the back door usually leads immediately into the kitchen which is where people congregate to eat and drink.

More recently I’ve found myself attracted to their narrow and sharp vantage points, especially at the moment when one rides past an alley quickly and is given a glimpse down the canyon of garages and sheds, trash cans, and debris. Those moments are quick as the alleys here are only 11 ft. wide or so. Wheres some neighboring streets can appear the same, the alleyways are always different and unique:

Delphi hats:

Word is this kid can’t get enough hats. Things on head in general:

Obama woz ere:

view image larger

Stumbling around the intertubes looking for STL entertainment, I came upon Bill Streeter’s website and flickr account, which included one of the more honest images shot from within the crowd for President Obama’s (not -elect, he’s my bloody President already damnit!) rally in St. Louis in mid-October. Most press images published from that record-turnout speech were wide shots from above or a press-box area (see scissor lifts) that overwhelmed the eye and whose composition was strategically designed to include the old courthouse in the background (again, for mass media). This shot however shows the back heads of the crowd as they face forward, cheering. That is Illinois in the background; also to the right of the white tent was a jumbotron television. I think Obama can be seen between the bleachers stand and the scissor lifts, in white.

I don’t know Bill but he seems like an all-right guy, his name being penned on some of the websites I’ve been perusing as I re-explore the city, including The Royale, one of the finer pubs in town that I’ve visited before and was trying to remember the name of, and thankfully came across their site. Bill codes with WordPress (the same software I employ), which is good to know open-source is running a fair portion of STL’s cultural production.

arts in town:

It’s as difficult as the original NES TMNT game to find art listings in this town however.

Jesus if you know of some openings, or one even, let me know. I found this blog: gallery openings in st. louis.

I was also introduced to this page at the Kemper Museum’s site which discreetely hides a map to STL non-profit visual art sites. Still, there must be more?

architecture blended:

Did they paint the building to blend in with the tree? Or did the tree chameleonize to blend in with the building?

zombie entertainment:

It’s a shame I just missed this (by a month). Subscribe to their feed for updates ahead of time.

More STL architecture:

I guess architecture, especially domiciles and housing structures, features prominently in this post because St. Louis has so much that is abandoned or not living up to its potential. It’s amazing, coming from New York City where realtors can and do literally sit on pieces of real estate, and end up not leasing them out figuring they can loose money now by not leasing a property in exchange for banking on that same property in a couple months or years even, when a specific neighborhood “blows up” and prices skyrocket. Yet here pieces of property sit abandoned for decades and there’s no assistance from the city to move people into them in exchange for fixing them up or developing a program (non-profit or otherwise) within the structure.

Here are some prime examples of abandoned or derelict or simply vapid structures:

a cutie two-part house thing. I don’t even know how to describe this place. It’s odd. It’s lovely. It has a No Trespassing No Loitering sign. It’s about 50ft. from the Antique Row area (Cherokee Street).

I didn’t walk over the hill but this building appeared partiallly – if not entirely – abandoned. Hard to tell. Still, it’s surrounded by land that at one point surely was loaded with other buildings and structures. Where did they all go? Who took the bricks?

Don’t remember the location. Great double garage door access, with ghost sign on side. All windows boarded up. Red plywood.

This one both confuses and upsets me. Such a beatiful structure, and the colorful rooftop facade is incomplete. Did the owner attempt to fix it up and then simply flee? the spraypaint on the road hoarding says “2900″ for the address.

Google Map link

Thursday 11 October: sorry everybody I am off work today, so I don’t have any updated photos at the moment. It is raining here at the moment so I don’t suspect they’ll get terribly far today, but I will post updates as I take them.

Friday 12 October:

you can see the scaffolding is missing from the left side now, so that side is done; the wires are hanging on the right side; they have to whitewash the wall first, then draw out the design before painting.

they did the whitewash so fast!

how to draw a billboard on the side of a building! the art is printed on some paper, they roll it out a couple feet at a time, line it up, and do a rubbing. sort of like a giant paint by numbers.

by evening, nothing new to report really. they finished the template art and obviously paced themselves to take a solid day to lay it down.

i might add, those guys are having so much fun! they hoot and holler at streetwalkers and are just making the most of being 30 feet off the ground painting a building! it’s hilarious to watch.

Saturday 13 October:


morning! Indeed, they are at work today. I too am at work and will step out a couple times to take some extra snaps. unfortunately in the template art that is on the wall, I don’t see any text. but the graphic-to-be looks incredible!

Sunday 14 October:


unfortunately I won’t have another update today because I’m going kayaking in the East River and won’t be heading to that part of town! so I’ll leave you to mull over how it was at dusk when I left work on Saturday, yesterday. will they be working on Sunday anyhow? actually, probably, yes. I’ll have images up Monday then!

(she’s got those big brown eyes…. hey, is that a cherry she’s popping in her mouth?!)

Monday 15 October:
updated photos coming shortly. you should all be quite pleased with the progress!

finish tomorrow??

Tuesday morning 16 October:

you can see the building, and thus the billboard, from a couple blocks away!

walking back to work I overheard on the street,
man 1: Whoah. Is that paint?
man 2: Yeah.
man 1: Holy shit!

it’s a very impressive piece of work! but it looks like it will take one more day yet. Lola’s cleavage is done but there’s still a fair amount of hair to paint, the Rockstar logo, and touchup on the ‘V’ in ‘IV’ for the game title.

Wednesday 17 October:

overcast and cloudy day. they’re finishing up on the logo, then will probably blaze through the rest of the right side. unfortunately i can’t say i see room for a release date or any last-minute guerilla tactics, but it’s still a fucking impressive ad campaign!

lunchtime:

nearly done!

packing up the gear a little after 7pm. I wasn’t able to get a ‘finished’ shot in the daylight because they were literally still touching up at dusk, and didn’t remove the scaffolding and equipment out of the shot until after sunset. will post completed shots ASAP (i’m not supposed to be at work tomorrow, but maybe I make a special trip for all of you!).

Thursday 18 October:


Finished, final shots. This post is officially closed! Sorry it was an overcast day again, so the photos aren’t saturated with color. But you get the effect. It’s an impressive billboard. It’s been fun watching this thing transform, and I really appreciate all the visitors and comments. But alas, we wait for a release date, and more importantly, to play! GAME ON!

update:

one more final shot that shows the building in good sunlight with saturated color, and also exemplifies the number of pedestrians who parade up and down Canal Street every day – tourists #$^!&*!! and thanks to Patrick from WikiGTA.org for the animated gif!

(see here for previous incarnations)
(or here for these images larger from my Flickr)

Update 2 Jan 2008:

As you can see, the billboard has been painted over. It ran for just over two months. Thanks everyone for watching!

And I’m not talking about an ‘article’ about me or you or anything like that. en dot wikipedia dot org forward-slash wiki forward-slash ‘insert_article_name_here’. All that stuff is pretty straightforward. Nope nope nope, I’m talking about something which to me is much more intriguing.

Nearly five months ago I wrote a post mentioning the current dilapidated state of a piece of Moscow architecture, the Narkomfin building, designed in the Constructivist style by Moisei Ginzburg.

Then recently, while partaking in my newest hobby of trolling through my web stats (something I’ve never really done before up until a couple of months ago), I noticed that one of my top referral links was being sent from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moisei_Ginzburg. No shit! Well I mean I wrote that post some time ago about the Narkomfin, but otherwise why would anything be coming in from Wikipedia, I thought.

So I revisit the page and read through the article again. Sure, some things appear updated or amended. That’s the nature of the wiki. Keep scrolling. ‘See also’, there are familiar names: El Lissitzky, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Vesnin, and others. Then I notice:

Hooooly smokes. That’s awesome! Total excitement.

I wrote the original post back in November, the Ginzburg Wikipedia entry says it was last modified 16:38, 19 February 2007. So sometime between those months someone modified the entry with a link to my blog.

So nothing special to report really, just a sort of excitement-post about another post, now with ties to Wikipedia! And even though its merely an external site reference link, to be listed on the same page as people such as Tatlin, Vesnin and Mayakovsky, that really brings a smile to my face.

A quintessential work of Constructivist architecture, which once used to float on columns but whose space between was filled in to provide additional housing, which also contained a solarium, roof garden, communal kitchen and library among other facilities, and oft-cited as inspiration for Le Courbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, is these days in complete and utter disrepair.

The structure, home to some 50 apartments, including some spacious duplex quarters, is now at less than half capacity with most of the other apartments in disrepair, and is potentially to be demolished by the city of Moscow, its current property holder, unless another course of action is taken (suggestions have included affordable artist studios to expensive middle-class housing).

The building is also listed on the 100 Most Endangered Sites of 2006, presented by the World Monument Fund, a non-profit ‘dedicated to the preservation of historic art and architecture worldwide’.

Too bad we can’t see what those Russian climbers might be able to do with this building, eh?

Related websites:
LostClusters blog
The Art Newspaper article
Moscow Architecture Preservation Society (MAPS)
The Guardian pictures of Narkomfin