Winter

Given, I do not live in a place that snows or even gets very cold for that matter. But, I think I understand why winter is my favorite time of year. Let me try to explain myself. There are few times in life in which we can see all people recognize that they are subject to the powers of nature. Winter is one of them, a time when people must go inside, and aren't always able to do anything they like. The festivities of winter and feeling of brotherhood that we feel around wintertime come from the recognition that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ whose birth was a gift than nobody could have expected or hoped for, but also because we find ourselves in close quarters with the ones we love because of the dropping mercury and gusty winds. We are indeed people of warmth, and the things we partake of indoors during wintertime reflect our need for warmth and joy.

Cut from one piece

A work I did last year on transformations and how simply they can be done outside of scientific and/or natural boundaries. Corkscrew-Horseshoe.

Athena, Kyklops, and the Suitors

Having just finished reading the Iliad, I have had the convenient coincidence of starting the Odyssey with my Literature class in perfect timing. It's an incredible story that I'm enjoying more than any book I've read in a while. It's the beautiful tale of a man lost at sea, wandering , trying to get home while being waylaid for years upon years by storms, the gods, and Kyklops (Cyclops). It has all the aspects of an epic; extremely long, far off lands, a quest, etc.. and I highly recommend it to anyone. The Iliad is good as well and acts as an excellent primer for the Odyssey, complete with extremely detailed battle scenes, "and his head was cleaved in two and his brains spilled out like the innards of a freshly killed lamb", but also acts as a historical background to better understand the Odyssey. If this was what Homer had in mind, or whether it was just how history panned out, I don't know, but it works out nicely. Please read these books. They were written in the 4th century B.C., but they read with more developed and lyrically perfect tone than any modern work I've read. The translation by Robert Fitzgerald is the one I recommend; he seems to understand the humor as well as the beauty, incorporating less line-for-line translation and more actual meaning from the original Greek. You will not want to leave Odysseus, his son, or Athena once you start and you will thank yourself for diving into such a journey of literary bliss.

The earth before technology

Call me romantic, but upon being asked which period of time I would want to live in if I were given the choice, I started to think about the mystic nature of the world as seen through ancient eyes, lacking instruments of insight and measurement; surpassing the senses in thorough, but no doubt numbing the human sentiment to the overwhelming beauty of every corner of the globe. The world is still much larger than most people know, but traveling it in jets and TGVs suggests otherwise. Walking a few miles through a forest proves them wrong.

FORZA INTER MILANO!

On tuesday, along with a few friends and family I shall be attending a soccer match in Pasadena between Inter Milan and FC Chelsea, the champion winners of their own divisions. I leave you with this video to guess which side I'm supporting. . Enjoy...

Pensee'

Isn't it incredible that hair, which falls around the outside of the face can seem like such a part of someone. It is. But it isn't really. It just grows from them and frames the face as if to focus in on all that a face really is. If I had nothing to read or watch, I would gladly look at faces all day long.

Chicago (The Art Institvte of)

On a recent voyage to Chicago, I made it my first priority to see The Art Institvte of Chicago (they tastefully used the latin 'v' rather than english 'u'), and was astounded at such a place. I was instantly transformed into a glaze-eyed baby following a trail in and out of all the rooms and wings, more than ready to devote all my time there to wandering the place, delaying lunch as long as possible. A recently added Modern Wing by the Italian architect Renzo Piano (see the Centre Pompidou, Paris), was astonishing. True to form, it was high ceilinged with natural light coming in from the upper levels to bathe all the lower galleries which were accessed through huge glass doors. The upstairs level had a view of all of Millennium Park across the street. The old stone building was reminiscent of the museums in Europe; attention to detail, a realization of the necessity of a specific environment for the contemplation of art, and the simple fact that a beautiful building puts everyone in a good mood.