Casablanca, Morocco

Found this picture that one of my friends took in Morocco... The tower is the minaret of the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca. I have heard that the laser points in the direction of Mecca. Perhaps Veritas knows something more about the details...

I got to tour the inside, and it is incredible... there are no words. I was astounded by the size, beauty and the ideas in that structure.

Topographic Map Book

Dear Bloggies:

I thought I would share with you this project that I finished last week....
I have been working on this for a while now... it is a topographic map-book of Crater Lake (in Oregon), the deepest lake in the USA. The vertical scale is the same as the horizontal scale, making it a scale model of the lake.

Cover:
Cover sheets are a thick paper. I used a Japanese stab binding with hemp string.

Page 1: 

Tan page attached to the back cover flips out to the right... 

Page 3: 

 Contours cut out of the pages and painted w/ a blue enamel paint...

Page that flips to the right... can you read it??

More views of the rest of the book: 

Deepest point...

Back page explains more about the map... 

I'm pretty happy with it!

Caroline 

Contemporary Dance

Bonjour tout le monde!! So, a friend posted this video on their facebook a while back, and I appreciated it quite a bit. Thus, I've decided to share it with y'all (I can say that now because I live in the south--y'all, y'all, y'all. Win. ;P) It is a piece of contemporary dancing that I found to be very moving. Gotta love self-expression!! ;) Beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnguqsMQmg4&list=FLb66lGr2sdrnp-g5X-lWMJg&index=4&feature=plpp_video

New Laptop for Me!

Hi all!

My new computer makes me fully internet-functional now (as I have not been in weeks, eek)... Not that I mind absence of the internet, it's just really hard to do homework.. and to connect to you lovely folks.

Thus,
Poke me if you don't hear from me enough.

Blue Skies,
C

No Greater Joy

http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/no-greater-joy/

Films

These are the films Nicole and I have watched together recently.

The World in a Suitcase

So here is a link to Jared's thesis. I haven't read it, but I found it while doing some research and thought it might be nice to read when we finish the collection up. I also thought it might be nice of us each to leave a little review on amazon for him when we finish (:

I look forward to discussing with you all on Sunday, and if there is anything that you forget to say or would like us to think about for future discussions, comment here!

Ballad of the Hanged

Sooo.... I recently used my favorite French poem in one of my paintings. I mentioned it to Reema once upon a skype-date and thought I would share it here as well since it touches upon a number of interesting themes. If you'd like to see the original French you can find it with this link:

http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/20C/Villon2.html

Otherwise, here it is. The Ballad of the Hanged by Francois Villon:

Brothers, men who live after us,
Let not your hearts be hardened against us,
Because, if you have pity for us poor men,
God will have more mercy toward you.
You see us here attached five or six:
When our flesh that was nourished so well
Is over time devoured and putrified,
And we, the bones, have become cinders and powder.
Let no one laugh at our misfortune:
But pray that God absolve us all!

If we call you, brothers, you ought not
To have disdain even though we were killed
By law. Often, you know
That not all men have a righteous mind;
Excuse us, now that we have passed,
Toward the son of the Virgin Mary,
That her grace will not be slow for us,
Preserving us from the infernal fire.
We are dead, no soul harries us;
But pray that God absolve us all!

The rain has washed and purified us,
And the sun has dried and blackened us:
Magpies, crows have dug out our eyes
And pulled out our beards and eyebrows.
Never do we have rest;
The changeable wind blows us first this way, then that,
To its pleasure without ceasing,
Our skin has more bird peckings than if it were sewed.
Do not leave our company then;
But pray that God absolve us all!

Prince Jesus, who is lord of all,
Keep us from the tyranny of Hell:
Let the Devil have no claim over us
Men, make no mockery here;
But pray that God absolve us all!

I know that I'm more spiritual than religious, but this poem really speaks to me. What are your thoughts?