george sitwell--water colours

the secret of the silt colour of the water in the photo comes from the pigeons, starlings and sparrows bathing the dust off their feathers in the water basin above the pool.

“Take, for example, the treatment of water. The Italian mastery over the " water-art " has been dealt with by a score of writers, who have failed to notice that a higher poetry may be found in that element than the beauty of form and sound, than the shifting curves of a fountain or the deep-toned music of a great cascade. There is the poetry of colour. Surely some one of these writers miist have noticed the blue of the Vatican fountain,^ the greenish tint of the basin at Caprarola, the mysterious reflections of the water-garden at Lante which strangely and beyond experience mirrors the sky. But,

 

1 Dello Scoglio. This has colour even on a sunless”

 

Excerpt From: Sitwell, George Reresby, Sir, 1860-1943. “An essay on the making of gardens; being a study of old Italian gardens, of the nature of beauty, and the principles involved in garden design.” London, J. Murray, 1909. iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

“day.

 

fresh it may be from the lovely colouring of Como and Maggiore, or from the blue-crystal strand of Garda, where the sunlight is ever dancing in a magic web over the pebbles, they have attributed these effects to any cause but the right one ; to happy chance, to the depth or purity of the water, the clearness of the atmosphere, the glowing radiance of the southern sun. At the ViUa Borghese at Frascati a httle basin some twelve feet across gives away the secret;”

 

Excerpt From: Sitwell, George Reresby, Sir, 1860-1943. “An essay on the making of gardens; being a study of old Italian gardens, of the nature of beauty, and the principles involved in garden design.” London, J. Murray, 1909. iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

 

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spot garden

ivy growing from behind a concrete patch on wall at allen gardens.

 

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downtown toronto from parkette

the townscape west from david crombie park, torontos radio tower half visible behind the office towers of the city's downtown core.

 

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rogue classicism

 

a blog on classicism, euroese classicism, therefore a blog devoted to dead white euroese males. the recent archives goe all the way back to the year two thousand three.

 

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architecture--palladian

a local piece of architecture showing the influence of palladios villas on public buildings in canada.

 

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intercon--congame

 

that time at 44 charles street in the manulife building, the security guard on duty at the parking desk stopped me as i was leaving the washroom and accused me of screaming and threatening her with my fist as i went into the washroom. paula (111589) went on, in the presence of a second security guard, to claim my screaming had terrified some children at the security-parking desk and she had to tell their parents that it was her i was screaming at and not them and she would talk to me when i came by the desk, as though they were going to complain and she had done me a favour by getting them to leave without filing a report. she then denied, in front of the other guard, that she said i had been screaming but that i did every time i went past any of the other security guards as well.

when i asked for who i could talk to and make a complaint she told me, in front of the other guard, to figure it out myself, then changed her mind when i got out paper and pencil and started to record the number on her id tag (111589), gave me the phone number (416-961-2311) for the supervisor of security in that building and her name, paula.

this incident could be used in a story where a security guard does the same thing as part of an extortion scheme. as the person comes out of the washroom and the female security guard attacks him verbally about frightening some children at the counter, who with their parents are part of the extortion racket. while verbally harassing him she is making a money-fingers gesture, rubbing her thumb against her index and middle finger, at him, a subtle hint to hand over money or she will cause him trouble. as he is getting the information of who he makes a complaint to about her he notices what seems to be an asian woman to his side with her cell phone out who seems to be recording the incident between him and the guard, probably another one of the extortionists.

the way the situation was broken into three parts, frightened children to set it up, security harassment to get a response, and a third bystander to record the person now screaming at the guard. they now have an argument via the hegelian dialectique for increased security by intercon-garda.

 

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lakescape

torontos inner harbour has frozen over, they say this is a sure sign spring is around the corner.

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ttc--toronto transit congame

that time at the king street subway a woman in a long bell bottom coat and a mob hat was standing near me and while not looking right at me began saying loud enough for me to hear, "you have two feet, you have two legs, you have two hands, you have two arms, you have two ears, you have two eyes, you have two balls". and i said to her do you want me to go and get security, she acted like she had been surprised and ran off. some time after that at the dundas station another woman began to sidle up to within arms reach of me and when i moved several feet away to to see if she would follow and draw her into view of the security camera she looked up like she knew it was there and smiled like she knew what i was doing before she moved off.

this could be used as an incident in a story. a group of sex trade workers approach men on the subway platforms of toronto when no one else is near and start soliciting them with out looking in the mans direction and taking care not to appear to be talking to him, if the man says any thing to them they act frightened and go to the ttc staff and complain about him. they then repeat this several times with different females making the complaints to build a case against him. maybe some of the ttc staff and security know about this and get perks in return for helping in the harassment.

is the idea is to extort money from the men or the women will claim that they were sexually harassed or frightened by the men. the rehearsed scene in the subway played out so security cameras could record it would be used as evidence.

in 2013 some ttc security seem to have been taking time off during work hours but covering that up by ticketing people for offences on the subway and saying it occurred during the time they had taken off to make it seem they had been on the job. so it seems not to be beyond imaginary ttc constables to be involved in the events described above. when they are told by the gang of harassers that this person has seen what is going on they take matters in to their own hands.

another possibility being that the ttc or someone else are trying to make a case for increased security by manufacturing these incidents

 

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pigeon of the week

pigeons bathing in the garden of st. james cathedral.

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ruins of nature

walking mount pleasant cemetary and found this tree with damage that had been bricked over and marvelled at its ruin-like-folly quality, then looking around realized it was not the only folly.

 

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pigeon of the week

surveillance pigeon at front street union station.

 

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architecture--mouldings

plants in a cementite bowl on a column at the allen gardens orchid house.

 

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accidental townscape--layered landmarking

as described in ivor de wolfes "the italian townscape," a landmark is a building that gives people who can see it at ground level a point of reference to where they are in the townscape. looking to the north-west from the intersection of front and sherbourne street, the steeple of saint james cathedral at queen and church streets, visible in the gap of the buildings on the sides of the alley between king and front streets, and to the south-west the antenna of the radio tower both serve as landmarks at different scales of the townscape.

together these buildings give the pedestrian a sense of location in the closer neighborhood of the cathedral, torontos old town, and the multiple neighborhoods of the radio tower, greater toronto. this accidental composition makes one of the most memorable landmarks of torontos skyline.

 

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architecture--triumphal

"perhaps even more instructive, grammatically, than the theatres were the triumphal arches of rome and other parts of italy ... now look at this arch. what does it consist of? it is a massive rectangular slab of masonry with three holes in it--the centre hole is the main arch, the other two are lower and narrower subsidiary arches.

"an interesting, compact and harmonious arrangement admirably fulfilling its symbolic function. in the fifteenth century this arch and the other roman arches had an enormous imaginative appeal both for painters and for architects ( who, of course, were often painters ) and, as a consequence, we find, over and over again, features and combinations of features which originated in the triumphal arches, being used in totally different sorts of buildings, all sorts of buildings, and used, once again, as grammatical expressions controlling the structure.

"there is much more I could say about triumphal arches and their contribution to the classical language. the most elementary fact of all about them--the division of a space by columns into three parts: narrow, wide, narrow--is perhaps also the most important."

john summerson, the classical language of architecture.

 

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