nature sounds

found this web site at notcot. images of sound vibrations, the music of creation.

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fred--vitruvius--hodgson

among the many books on practical construction and draftmanship written by fred t hodgson is this pattern book of euroese columnstyle architecture.

not the only nor first collection and comparison of the orders as envisioned by the best architects and surveyors.

as in other compilations this book attempts to reach perfection through a selection of the orders and their usage as collected from highly regarded classicists and their followers.

hodgson included some notes and essays on what he terms the phases of classical architecture.

the text is available through the invaluable archive.org library and can be read with the plates online, or the text without plates can be downloaded for off line reading.

 

 

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hackard and shiel

the euroese-east has a soul, misunderstood and even ignored by its relatives living further to the west. it gets a fair assesment at mark hackards web site, the soul of the east.

"Russia,' said Prince Zaleski to me one day, when I happened to be on a visit to him in his darksome sanctuary—'Russia may be regarded as land surrounded by ocean; that is to say, she is an island. In the same way, it is sheer gross irrelevancy to speak of Britain as an island, unless indeed the word be understood as a mere modus loquendi arising out of a rather poor geographical pleasantry. Britain, in reality, is a small continent. Near her—a little to the south-east—is situated the large island of Europe. Thus, the enlightened French traveller passing to these shores should commune within himself: "I now cross to the Mainland"; and retracing his steps: "I now return to the fragment rent by wrack and earthshock from the Mother-country." And this I say not in the way of paradox, but as the expres"

Excerpt From: Matthew Phipps Shiel. "Prince Zaleski." iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

"sion of a sober truth. I have in my mind merely the relative depth and extent—the non-insularity, in fact—of the impressions made by the several nations on the world. But this island of Europe has herself an island of her own: the name of it, Russia. She, of all lands, is the terra incognita, the unknown land; till quite lately she was more—she was the undiscovered, the unsuspected land. She has a literature, you know, and a history, and a language, and a purpose—but of all this the world has hardly so much as heard. Indeed, she, and not any Antarctic Sea whatever, is the real Ultima Thule of modern times, the true Island of Mystery."

Excerpt From: Matthew Phipps Shiel. "Prince Zaleski." iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

all of shiels prince zaleski can be read at the Internet archive.org.

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palladio--skarzenski

 

Villa Cube from James Anthony Skarzenski on Vimeo.

at vimeo, four videos of palladios villa architecture. a project by james skarzenski.

one video of the plans, one of the front elevations, a third of the side elevations, and a fourth of a cube incorporating the other three.

animated collaging of some or all of the orthographic projections of palladios villas.

 

 

 

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mediterranean--well salted

 

a short time lapse video of the mediterranean coast line increasing in length as the water evaporates.

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lurking cia half pint

that time in ninety one i was sleeping under the st. claire street bridge near mount pleasant cemetary. one morning two street people, a male and female showed up with orange juice. they were just checking if I was ok they said. they claimed they were from the states and had walked in to canada somewhere along the border.

later in the nineties i saw the female near church and wellesly and again in twenty ten i think it may of been her who showed up at the reference library as one of the part time street people harassers who were organised by someone or group to bother me.

how this could be used in a fiction. a person sleeping under a bridge in toronto is approached by two other people on the street. they say they are checking to see if he is all right. a few years later he is walking to the subway from the church and wellesley area and he thinks he recognizes the female of the couple from under the bridge, the one who called herself half pint.

a few years after that she again reappeares, this time at the reference library. she seems to make sure she has booked a computer station near him almost every day. almost as though she is collecting information on him. or doing things to disturb him while someone else observes his response.

he dosnt know till later, that she is a csis informant acting as a street person. being an illegal immigrant she was told she would be sent back to the states unless she agreed to work for csis as a watchdog at street level.

 

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jean baudrillard --neapoliscape

" in its urban incoherence, naples is the finest example of the fact that the results of absolute disorder are the same as the results of absolute order."

jean baudrillaird, cool memories iv; translated by chris turner.

 

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gibbon and huxley on landscape

"The Mediterranean is more blue than elsewhere because firs and cedars and pines are not too green. The cliffs are more red than elsewhere because there is no prevailing tone of bare, baked earth to modify them into brown and gray. On the Riviera one does not have to give up the rich green of northern landscapes to enjoy the alternative of brilliant sunshine."

Excerpt From: Gibbons, Herbert Adams, 1880-. "Riviera towns." New York, R. M. McBride & co., 1920. iBooks.

This material may be protected by copyright.

gibbons riviera towns can be read at the online library, archive.org.

 

" the greens in an italian landscape are either pale and dusty or glossily dark. only when you climb to two thousand feet--and by no means invariably then--does anything like the brilliant, the seemingly self-luminous verdure of the english scene appear.

"the typical north italian landscape is one of hills, the lower slopes grey with olives, the summits, when they are above the level of cultivation, bare and brown.

" the south mediterranean landscape, which makes its first italian appearance at terracina, is bare, sharp-outlined and austerely brilliant the air is clear, and the far-seen earth seems itself to be made of coloured air. the landscape of northern italy is neither northern nor southern--neither aerially bright and light nor, on the other hand , rounded, or softly, luxuriously green."

aldous huxley, along the road. at the archive.org library.

 

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reflecting pool

last weeks snow reflecting the january heaven in a plant saucer at the cathedral garden of st. james.

 

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justin trudeau--budget

wonderland budget or economic husbandry?

take care of the pence the pounds will take care of themselves. english saying

take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves. lewis carroll

take care of the economy and the budgets will take care of themselves. justin trudeau

 

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changing townscape--yonge and bloor

the view from the wendell castle time piece, looking south to the intersection of yonge and bloor. what was an interesting piece of accidental townscape is has disappeared behind a new condominium.

the repetition of the zigzag on the sculptured clock and the stepped building wall in the distance gave this intersection something more than the individual buildings add up to.

this has been lost except where the engineers have stepped the new buildings yonge street side with three balconys.

 

 

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books furnishing rooms

the story behind the phrase books do furnish a room. ( or rooms are unfurnished without books, or rooms may be furnished with nothing but books, with out books rooms would be in some way naked even if they were fully furnished with furniture. )

a three paragraph review of anthony powells writers notebook, it also explains some of the story behind the phrase " books do furnish a room."

when I found the quote on books as decoration led to powell, that led to reviews, blogs, and other sites devoted to powell and his twelve piece novel. other than his writers notebook I've not read any of his other work.

 

 

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lurking csis intimidation

that time I exited the subway into the bay building at younge and bloor. a female about twenty years of age, wearing a winter coat and bright pink pyjama pants was standing by the purdys chocolates, holding out her cell phone the way csis informers are trained. I passed her went outside and down the walk into the tim hortons got my everyday usual steeped tea sat down and in a few minutes a ruckus started at the counter to my right.

there's the girl in the pinkpjamas complaining that half an hour ago she ordered steeped tea like she always does everyday and she was given coffea today. she didn't know till she opened it a few minutes ago and wants to return it and get her tea. the staff is reluctant at first to exchange it after half an hour had gone by, one of them saying "if we give you a steeped tea for the coffea you will come back in half an hour saying it's the wrong order, ", maybe she's done this here before and they recognize her. but finally they give in to her after they get her to check that the drink they give her in the new cup is what she ordered, steeped tea.

it must of been an hour later I left the cafe and went back into the bay building, there she was standing at the corner of purdys chocolate holding her cell phone out in that way csis informers do to let you know you are under surveillance.

the next day I ordered my steeped tea and got coffea, so at the least it was a coincidence, someone on the staff has a short memory for orders or is taking orders from other than the customer. I didn't bother to exchange it. I wonder what they get out of these strange little games.

how this could be used in a fiction. differs from regular csis surveillance stuff, more like an example of the off the record harassments csis uses to bother people they have something or nothing against. or to involve someone else in their cases as informers for any thing.

maybe she was in trouble for a small drug bust and was given the chance to avoid charges if she does something for the police and csis. they want her to order a steeped tea at a cafe and they order a coffea at the same time for her to return to the store and make a complaint about getting the wrong order. together they go and wait near a chocolate store and when the person they are trailing gets off the subway they point him out and she does something to get his attention.

she then waits long enough for him to go to cafe and then follows him and at a cash near where he is sitting she proceeds to make a fuss about her order, the same as his order including how she orders it everyday. the staff are unwilling to exchange her drink at first, then give in providing she checks her new drink before she leaves. all the while her handlers are lurking in the cafe watching it go down.

when the person she was sent to bother leaves and returns to the bay building she is waiting for him at the corner of the chocolate store with her cell phone held as if she's checking email or tweets but as he passes by she turns the same way so the phone is pointed at and follows him. must be csis again he thinks and wonders how long before the next part of the script is carried out.

the next day at the same cafe when he orders steeped tea and has already sat down and opens it, they have given him coffea leading him to conclude this was the other part of the entertainment and that some or all of the staff are in csis employ. perhaps it is part of the contract for working at tim hortons, or it was simply a mistake.

 

Sent from my iPad

 

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lurking csis recruiter

 

in 1991,the guy in the green canvas coat, he had a beard and carried a back sack I was sitting at the north west corner of the toronto reference library. he came along sat down and said to me "that was somenight last night wasn't it crank case" something like that, I growled at him to get away from me and he took off.

around or about ten years later he showed up again on the fourth floor of the reference library. he was with some street people and seemed to have organized them into a protest against me. I was by the elevator, they were on the other side of the atrium space, he said something about there he is that's him and the others went in to action as I watched the theatre from near the elevator. and they all started this little weird march around on the other side of the floor and stopped it almost as fast as began.

then he showed up later around 2011, before the surveillance intimidations and harassments began. I was walking through the lower corridor between the cibc building and the manulife building at yonge and bloor when he came along with the sleazy guy who I had seen with the sluttey female who a number of years earlier had cruised me at the britnell starbucks. as I passed by them he said something to the sleazy guy to the effect " that's the guy". meaning me.

and then around or about 2011, not long after or before the last incident, I saw him again. I was coming out of the north east corner of the same cumberland mall and he was sitting in the pizza pizza with chris guardian who had lived at sixteen chandos avenue between 2000 and 2006, which overlapped with time I lived there. I looked ahead of me, they looked at me.

that's four times in twenty years wearing same type of clothing and all near the reference library. how could he be used as a character in a fiction? maybe he's involved in the drug trade or he may be an asset and informer, possibly for the rcmp or csis. he is looking for other people to sell drugs, or recruiting other informers for csis, maybe.

Sent from my iPad

 

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accidental townscape--curved screen wall

st. josephs street, an example of a curved screen wall between yonge and bay streets.

standing at the corner of the sidewalk looking west the opposite end of st. joseph can not be seen, until walking out to cross the street.

in his book, the italian townscape, ivor dewolfe identifies this as one of the arrangements of buildings alongside a street as making a repleasing urban environment.

 

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uva witch hunt

some newsclippings on the argument of naming the accuser in alleged rapes.

decided for naming : at the national review online.

decided for anonymity : at the salon

undecided : the libertarian republic

 

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landscape porn

jmtp's flickr gallery.

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