(1) THE LARK ASCENDING (performed as originally heard)
(2) BUILDING A SCALE MODEL CAR KIT : Volkswagen Golf Gti Mk2 Full Build – Step by Step – ASMR – Revell
(3) Everything We Know About the Next Spaceship Earth Update at EPCOT
Category Archives: Miniatures
Modernity in miniature
(1) I’ve clipped the blog post title from a chapter in the excellently written British Rail Architecture 1948-97 by David Lawrence.
“For centuries architects have used miniature versions of their designs to communicate their ideas to emperors, oligarchs, magnates, civil servants and audiences who must be engaged to ensure a project is approved for development. They may be the device which convinces a client to provide substantial investment for a project.”
“Many modelers will choose a station as one of their first buildings because it is a simulacrum of the interface between trains and human activity. It is an archetype for all stations. In this way the model — in fact an assembly of sundry materials and adhesives — is an imaginative threshold into the tiny world of the model railway, inviting the modeler and audience to step, like Alice in Wonderland, into a perfect version of an imperfect world.”
>>> Source File
(2) Continental’s BIG CITY H-O Scale Modern Architecture Series (Flickr)
I have the ‘Entrance Building’ (Model No. 104) which inspired this photo at Walt Disney World. What do you think happened to Continental Models at 1 Dupont Street in Plainview, NY?
(3) Artist rendering of the new concourse for Liverpool Street (1987) from British Rail Architecture 1948-97 by David Lawrence. I love the vintage engine. It reminds me of Playmobil 4052.
Weekend 378.0 (…so you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been)
(1) Small Stories: At Home in a Dollhouse (National Building Museum)
(2) A quote from Staying Up Much Too Late by Gordon Theisen:
“The Phillies sign does not overwhelm Nighthawks the way that “Ex-Lax” overwhelms Drug Store. But it does top the otherwise signless diner, like a false heaven that keeps the starlight out and the artificial light in. It might be saying that the pleasures of the afterlife can be achieved here on earth by spending a mere nickel for a machine-made cigar, just as in beer commercials paradise comes in a bottle, and a Model T Ford offers “hours of pleasure in God’s open country.”
*Photo is from the set of in transit.
Weekend 371.0
(1) How miniature objects reveal bigger pictures (CBS This Morning)
Weekend 283.0 (You’re the bloody barrister!)
(1) Miniature City Models Around the World: From the Panorama of the City of New York to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, downscaled versions of real places (WSJ)
“Why do tiny things delight us so? From early childhood we’re captivated by model train sets and dollhouses, miniature worlds that can inspire flights of imagination. We needn’t relinquish those pleasures just because we’ve grown up: Meticulously crafted models of real-life landscapes await discovery around the globe. One of the most intriguing, the Panorama of the City of New York, built for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, reopens to the public today, as does its home, the Queens Museum, fresh from a three-year overhaul.”
(1a) Panorama of the City of New York
(2) Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World (WSJ)
(3) 101 Airports (Dwell)
(4) When Being Alone Turns Into Loneliness, There Are Ways to Fight Back (WSJ)
“Researchers at Brigham Young University studying the correlation between social relationships and mortality did a 2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies encompassing more than 300,000 participants. They found loneliness was as strong a predictor of early death as was alcoholism or smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and it was a stronger predictor than obesity or a sedentary lifestyle.”
(5) Artist Do Ho Suh Explores the Meaning of Home (WSJ Magazine)
(6) GIANT tyre/tire
2 from the ‘Son of a Florist’ files…
(7) 101Florals – a collaborative pattern project by illustrators Lindsay Nohl & Llew Mejia
(7a) A Thanksgiving Centerpiece Inspired by a Cy Twombly Painting (WSJ)
(7b) Patterned paper flowers @ Folksy
Weekend 275.0+
Posting and cycling (sigh) have been sporadic because of the Limestone HQ move (then there were some unexpected technical challenges requiring an entirely separate post) but a return to normalcy is only 6.4 KM away.
(1) Bike blog: Experiments in Speed
(2) Sophia Amoruso Expands Nasty Gal (WSJ Magazine)
(3) The Coveted Halls of the Design Library (WSJ Magazine)
(4) A Point of View: The endless obsession with what might be (BBC)
(5) What Lurks Beyond the Boundaries (WSJ – Registration Required)
(6) The Sun Sets On Fox Soccer – 1997 to 2013 (Forbes)
(7) The Big Ambition of Miniature Art (WSJ – Registration Required)
From the ‘Son of a Florist’ files…
(8) The Rise of Fall Gardening: Summer has its merits, but, as more gardeners are embracing late-blooming perennials, autumn is the hot new season, says garden designer Grace Kennedy (WSJ)
Weekend 235.0
(1) D23 Presents Armchair Archivist: The Magic of Models and Miniatures
(2) Last Exile: First Impressions (Twenty Sided)
I finished the series and now I’m thoroughly depressed (like when I finished KH1 or watched the last episode of the Macross Saga). I’ll post a review in the not so distant future but Shamus Young (see above) does a fine job.
(3) Living in the City – Good documentary from Andrew Marr.
Weekend 214.0 (Almost)
(1) The scan is from The Art of the The Secret World of Arrietty. I can’t scan the entire book BUT will add the abandoned gazebo (not tea house) in the garden that was featured in the final shot of the film.
(1a) A Dollhouse Fit for a Queen
(1b) Spoils!
(2) A Bicycle Built For Speed (WSJ)
(2a) ‘Stupid’ and Oil Prices (WSJ)
(3) A Pattern Emerges (WSJ)
“They’re innovating original prints that stand out more than any logo could. And because you must know fashion to recognize a print’s meaning, they have become a secret handshake to an undeniably stylish club.”
(4) On being an Anglophile…
Friend: So why do you seem to always want to be a redcoat? That doesn’t seem very American.
Limestone: Just something about the smell of EMPIRE!
Friend: Eew, OLD empire. Musty!
(4a) Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now–As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It
(4b) A Short History of England: The Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation
Weekend 213.0 (Arrietty)
My one sentence review of Arrietty.
“Arrietty is adorable, diminutive, and special and the last scene features a tea house with stained glass windows.”
I can’t draft anything that isn’t biased. I love Miyazaki and small things. The backgrounds were gorgeous and the music and characters were great. I love it (for very personal and sentimental reasons) when she givers her hair clip to Sean.
The benefits of the quiet mind (or my first borrowing):
Found this tiny pin on the train platform this morning. It would fit inside a quarter.
Borrowed time, but time well spent: Animation god crafts ‘Arrietty’ from classic story