Unfamilar Shrines

(1) From secret doorways to hidden messages, captivating illustrations reveal the stories behind New York’s mosaic Subway signs (Daily Mail)

Credit: Stephen L

(2) The Narcissistic Creed: When preening replaces thinking, our ability to engage in responsible self-government is diminished (National Review)

“But they are enchanted by the unique witchcraft of the age of social media, the totemic power of the digital expression of the self. It is not accidental that the only good selfie in the history of world leaders came well before the invention of Twitter from a man with an ego sufficiently robust not to require the constant reinforcement that is the psychic lifeblood of Millennials (and Washingtonians well old enough to know better), without which they find themselves paralyzed.”

Weekend 280.0

I always post lists without any context so this post concludes with some [context]. And highly experimental since pronouns are rubbish.

(1) ‘Mars Attacks’ again, 50 years later (USA Today)

(2) The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival Ends

(2a) Chris Ware: ‘There is a magic when you read an image that moves in your mind’ (The Guardian)

(3) What Do Pedestrian Traffic Icons Say About Your Culture? (WSJ)

(4) On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History (Publishers Weekly)

(5) Iconic Airports: Where Are They Now?

(5a) This Weekend, Your Last Chance to See Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center at JFK (The Daily Traveler)

Limestone Roof Bucket List

(5b) Standard Hotel Heads to the Airport with Plans to Takeover TWA Flight Center

(6) Why All the Fuss About Proust? (WSJ)

“After all, the story couldn’t be simpler. It’s about a young man of an unspecified age who enjoys reading, who is shy and introspective, but not necessarily awkward or antisocial, who likes his mother, who wants to travel to Venice but, because of poor health, never quite manages to do so until later in life. Marcel, the hero of Proust’s autobiographical novel, loves nature, music, restaurants, hotels, beaches, churches, art, theater, Paris, fantasizes about friendships and girls, dissects the grown-ups around him with no less unforgiving irony and acuity than when he studies himself, and ultimately worships the good and beautiful things of life, hoping one day to craft the story of his maturation as a human being and as an artist.”

From the ‘Son of a Florist’ files…

(7) A Flower Arrangement Inspired by Balthus (WSJ)

*Illustration by Herb Ryman, 1959

Context
(1) My friend was cleaning her desk at work and gave me a pack. They are very reminiscent of the Bowman: Jets, Rockets, and Spacemen set from 1951.

(2 and 2a) Biked to the festival last November in search of an autograph from Chris Ware. Met Mr. Ware BUT the highlight of the show was the discovery of a little comic by Jen Tong called Find My Light. This was a great show and sad to see it end.

(3) Unhealthy preoccupation with icons and signage.

(4) A complement to Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sansom.

(5, 5a, 5b, and 5c) Missed the tour because of the Con but one day in the not so distant future it will be a hotel! This article from the Wall Street Journal on September 13 on Eero is a must read.

“The structural and rational cannot always take precedent [sic] when another form proves more beautiful.”

(6) Found Proust via Alain de Botton (A Week at the Airport and The Architecture of Happiness) and In Search of Lost Time is worth a gander (use your library card). I also like A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce

(7) My beautiful mum is a gifted florist.

Weekend 239.0 (Cycling Weekend)

Bike Rentals Sign(1) My Orange Brompton: A blog for those who want, own or love Brompton Folding Bicycles.

(1a) This cat has great taste in colour (and he seems to have a tyre fetish). He also rides in and about Richmond, London which is the penultimate in neatness since I occasionally travel there.

Images of Richmond courtesy of the Limestone Roof Photo Archives©

Richmond Cycles
Cottages at Waitrose Place
Petersham Meadows or Buccleuch Gardens

(1b) I was in NYC yesterday [Friday, October 26] to have lights installed on my M3L. The trip to NYCeWheels is always an adventure.

(1c) The Brompton Toolkit from Goodwin Hartshorn.

(1d) This chap could be my brother!

(2) The Philadelphia Bike Expo

(3) Boutique boom: From Bobbin to Voltage – Making and selling bikes used to be simple and unimaginative. Today businesses are changing to access a vibrant market for boutique brands.

(4) Ran errands (post office) on Saturday using my hand-built orange basket bike from ANT Bicycles. Trip ended @ Chef’s Table for Potstickers.

Other Stuff
(5) Spent last Sunday at the Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in New Milford, Connecticut and found some treasures!

(5a) Lindsey’s Quality Water Colors – Manufactured by the Glenn Tint & Chem. Co., in Glenside, PA (NO. 25 – 8 Colors). The print on the tin is very colorful (and the price imprinted on the the lid is 39¢). The patent date is December 8, 1931. I tried to find the the original patent but there are 1,142 listed on that date (need an intern).

(6) Ultra Rare Photos Of Le Corbusier In Color

Weekend 185.0 (Austin Edition)

Playmobil Bike II(1) Austin Museum of Art (AMOA)

(1a) GOOD DESIGN: stories from herman miller

(2) Game On (Austin Monthly) – Short article about Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) and the video game industry in Austin.

(2a) Ulitma IV, Apple IIe

(2b) South by Southwest Interactive

(3) Dining in Austin? Limestone recommends La Traviata

Wall Street Journal • Saturday/Sunday, June 4-5, 2011

(4) How Europe Lost Faith in Its Own Civilization

(5) Caution: Universal Icons at Work

(6) Interstate Highways as a Long-Haul Project

(7) Why We Must Learn to Love Weeds

“Ralph Waldo Emerson opted for usefulness and said that a weed was simply “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” This is a generous and botanically friendly idea, suggesting that reprieves may still be possible for the condemned.”

(8) The Festival of Britain 1951

Weekend 175.0

“One realizes oneself only one piece at a time.”
— Marcel Proust, The Fugitive

(1) Christo Without Jeanne-Claude – Where monuments pretend to endure, their work suggests the fleeting nature of our grandest gestures. A romantic might say that each piece evokes the way even the most dedicated passion will be undone by time.

The sudden realization that time is a material in which our lives are, mysteriously, contained—or, you might even say, the material in which we are wrapped, for the time being, at least.

(2) When in Helvetica: A Swiss typeface + 2 Italian designers = New York City

(3) “The Infinite” by Giacomo Leopardi

But sitting and gazing, unending
Spaces beyond what’s here, and
superhuman
Silences, and depthless calm,
I fashion in my mind…

(4) The Magical Mystery Show of Consciousness

…being enchanted by the magic of experience provides a reason to live. Rather than being an aid to survival, consciousness provides an essential incentive to survive. Enchantment is itself “the biological advantage of being awestruck.” Or, as the poet and Pooh creator A.A. Milne put it, “It’s awful fun to be born at all.”

The above is related to this.

(5) Maybe you can buy a bit of happiness

Dan Ariely, a professor of Behavioral Psychology at Duke, notes that studies show that any satisfaction rush we received from a new pair of shoes or jacket is often fleeting. Psychologists call this consumer buying the “hedonistic treadmill,” which leads to nowhere.

However, Ariely believes that how you spend your money can enhance your happiness. For example, you might get as much enjoyment from buying a smaller item than a luxury one, such as a dinner that you share with a friend as opposed to a flat-screen TV. Buying for others can also enhance your happiness level.

Ariely recommends that you buy things that “dust can’t land on” — memories and connections — that are more likely to make you happier.

(6) “Charles Jencks, the author of The Iconic Building, describes architectural icons as delicate balancing acts between memorable forms and the images they conjure up. He emphasizes that in an increasingly heterogeneous world, multiple and sometimes even enigmatic meanings are precisely what turn buildings into popular icons.”

(6a) “Preserving history when it is possible and reinforcing the past are important. A further advantage of adjustment and preservation is that they help create a rich distinctive sense of place.”

(6b) “Design is critical, too, since the project must quickly establish that elusive quality, a sense of place.”
— Witold Rybczynski, Makeshift Metropolis