Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Today is Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's birthday. My nickname in Architecture school was Mies.

Gaming

So, about D&D. Lo, many years ago I was a shy boy off to college at the tender age of 17. Not too far into my First Year* I met a young woman named Ann, who shared my interest in Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. She told me about this game that she thought I would love, and she got me invited to go observe. I was skeptical. And at first, watching it (the group were almost all upper-class wargamer types, who looked upon us with barely-concealed condescension), it seemed kind of boring. However, they let us make up characters, and we were off, joining in on the tail-end of a multi-year campaign known as the 'Crown-quest' (the quest to destroy the Iron Crown of Morgoth; this predated the Silmarillion, where we learned that the crown had been made into manacles).

Anyway, I soon became quite addicted. At one point I was playing three times a week in different games, two run by the incomparable Pete: one in the known Middle-earth, and the other in the 'east.' Also at this time, Pete, Coleman and Kurt were working on adapting D&D with better rules...

Years passed, I graduated, and had a bit of a crisis. Would I go to graduate school? (Pretty much required of an Architecture career). I was absolutely not going back home to Pittsburgh. I managed to pretty quickly get dual part-time jobs at U.Va.'s Sci-tech and Architecture Libraries, so I had a decent full-time job, and I was living pretty inexpensively. Meanwhile, Pete and crew were gearing up to formally found ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises), though not with enough money to have more than one person on staff full-time. Slowly, though, ICE grew and we were able to hire ourselves, and I ended up working for ICE for over a decade. It was a wild and (mostly) fun time, and it gave me a lot of good experience for the future. I certainly don't regret going that way instead of Architecture.

*At U.Va., we do not say 'freshman,' etc. Just like it is the 'Grounds' not the 'Campus.'

Mercury Building

I made a little Quicktime slideshow of the next stage of the demolition of the Mercury Building here in DC. They are tearing off those big stainless steel coffers, and by the way they have them piled up, it looks like they might be recycling them. I would think so; all that stainless steel would be enough to make a whole airplane or two.

Destruction

I was saddened to see that they are apparently going to tear down the Mercury Building at 20th and K St NW; in fact interior demolition has already started. I liked this building because it was different. With its stainless steel coffered window panels and the strange concrete balcony jutting out of the side, it had a kind of sci-fi look to it. Certainly it was more fun than the endless parade of hideous exposed-aggregate monoliths and poorly-done International Style knockoffs (dark glass, I-beams or other vertical strips tacked on the outside: copies of the designs of Mies van der Rohe. Think Seagram Building or SOM's Lever House across the street in NY.) Apparently they are going to replace it with some crazy-angled blue glass thing. Strangely, this would have been a decent location for one of the buildings in the style that is trendy now that I like to call 'schizophrenic-style' where one side of the building looks nothing like the other (often glass and steel on one side, post-modern concrete with smaller windows on the other, and the two colliding and intersecting). Since we have a lot of architecture clients, I get to see what's coming down the pike, and these designs seem to be everywhere. I'm not sure what I think about this trend; like most things, they can be done well, or just haphazardly. Of course one thing that makes DC so strange is the height restriction, so all the buildings downtown are almost the same height. I read somewhere recently that the rule is not the often-stated 'nothing can be taller than the Capitol' but something more prosaic...

In Daily Grind news, I've been staying up too late watching TV, so struggling to get up as early as I'd like (and sometimes spending too much time goofing off when I do wake up). Work has been going ok, but just constantly busy for the last few months. I was a little relieved to hear though that July-August should only be about 60% of the workload as we have had recently.

I've been pretty much keeping to myself lately, aside from work and spin classes; I just don't have the energy to make the effort to 'get out and about.' And in case anyone was wondering, I haven't seen R. in several weeks, and maybe that's just as well. We had a brief and seemingly terse IM conversation a week or so, but that was insubstantial.

Well, I'm off to straighten up the place a bit then head to the coffee place for writing and maybe a bit of reading. Yay.

Ennui

Ennui, n. weariness and dissatisfaction with life that results from a loss of interest or sense of excitement (Encarta® World English Dictionary).

Maybe it's just because it's Monday again, but I'm feeling particularly blah this morning. I just watched the premier ep of Color Splash with that Design Star winner hottie David Bromstad. He sure has an interesting look (part Asian?). And it was a running joke on Design Star how he liked to take his shirt off. The show was cute, but pretty much like all the other redo shows. At least he lets himself queen-out every once in awhile.

Anyway, maybe I'll feel better after I have some more coffee, and maybe an English Muffin slathered with grape jelly. Hmm... sugar. I need to finish this little writing project and make the bed.

Oh, and for some reason I keep thinking about Brandon Lee. No not the son of Bruce Lee who died tragically, the other one.

Update: Ugh, it's almost 11 am, got to head to work in about 25 minutes. That's the one bad thing about these hours... the last hour or so I just kind of wander around the place unable to focus. I guess now would be a good time to vacuum.

C&O Canal

Here's two shots of the C&O Canal in Georgetown, taken with my craptastick RAZR camera. I'm behind the Georgetown Park Mall, walking back to my car after Spin class this morning. The Canal, as you can see, is still pretty much frozen over.

Not much else new. Work has been interesting. My old employer (not the last one from the fall; the one before that) had their lawyer send a thinly-veiled accusation that I'm stealing their clients (I'm not, though perhaps I should feel flattered that several of their clients have apparently suddenly left them, and my old employer seems to think I'm somehow responsible. Or maybe they are just incompetent...) Anyway, my new employer's lawyers sent them a nifty reply. Oh and I'm starting to hear more and more of the office gossip. Mostly work-related but interesting. Not as juicy as the personal crap though.

My skin is so dry; I guess it's another sign of aging. My feet especially are really awful, even with moisturizing them 2x a day. Of course I'm sure it doesn't help that I work out (and so sweat) at least once a day, and am showering twice a day. My lower legs are kinda dry too, and of course my hands. My cuticles are a wreck.

Wii Commercials

Here's that whole Wii ad. The cute Asian boy doesn't show up till about minute 4 or so, but note the earlier white guy in the Barcelona chair. Certainly someone has an eye for style. I even love the music running through this ad.

Wii Commercials

Fabulous boy, fabulous outfit, fabulous apartment, fabulous Breuer chair, fabulous game console, fabulous game, fabulous ad.

What is the boy doing in the second picture, you ask? Link is walking on the magnetic roof in his iron boots. What did you think he was doing?


It's Friday; everyone have a great weekend!

I *heart* Goil

And no, the picture doesn't do him credit; he's very cute and not an annoying little queen. And he's actually educated as an architect, which means he's not a 'decorator' type designer: he really can do architectural design. And he's done well so far. Though I personally don't care for Robert A. M. Stern (who Goil worked for), he's a world-renowned architect. Goil also went to Carnegie-Mellon, which was on my short list of schools (and Near where I lived) but it was really expensive.

So, I'm enjoying Top Design so far; I can relate to it a lot better than Project Runway and I like Todd Oldham. I'm not sorry to see John go, though I thought Michael's room was indeed retirement-home like. And he's such a whiner.

Chilly/Chili

It was a bit of a cold walk to work today, but not too bad really. (And once again I told myself 'be glad, be very glad you are not driving!') The sun was out and shining on me most of the way. It was really only unpleasant after I got out of the Metro for the 4-block walk downtown to the job: the wind can really whip through the artificial canyons we created in our cities.

I got in, then walked right back out to the little food place around the corner and got a large of their yummy chili. Now I feel warm and full.

Oh and about the Metro. They seem to be going out of their way to uglify what was once an elegant design. Of course long ago they had to stick sound dampening panels in the concrete coffering because people thought the electric trains were too loud. Then it was 'too dark,' so in the foyer areas they hung these hideous cylindrical lights. All the lighting in the Metro--except a few low-ceilinged transition areas--was supposed to be indirect. Not any more. Then of course there are the security cameras. The latest hideousness is, however, the new speakers. The audio system on the Metro has always been, admittedly, crappy. You can almost never understand announcements. So, they spent millions to install this digital sign system (and it took ages to work the kinks out of that). But now they are installing new speakers all through the system. Not small, unobtrusive ones, but big beige boxy ones connected by silvery pipes mounted on the concrete. These speakers look like castoffs from a grade school in the 1950's. Seriously. I would take pictures, but I'd probably be arrested for 'suspicious activity.'