la tour de la pyramide parte deux aka 'my first mayan pyramid'

waking up right now to a myriad of bird calls and chirps
perched in my own belizian nest safely under the mosquito net
i think it must be around 7 in the morning
i spent the last half hour trying to discern the different avian voices
and imagine which bird they might belong to
yesterday i opened up the howell and webb guide
to birds of mexico and northern central america
great book
scouring the pages for the birds ive already seen
the truth is i have seen too many to remember
exotic robins, woodpeckers, toucans...
so i have begun giving my own names
roseredbelliedlikesdangerinthejunglebird or the canaryyellowwithsomeblueonthebackareyouakiskadeebird
some birds seem to loop their calls
and get in circular formations
others let out one or two loud blasts
some sound like machines or turbines or trains in the distance
others sound like they might be mimicking the few human souls
out in this deep jungle zone
i hear camilleandjasonbirds (my lovely friends who are hosting me) all the time thinking they are nearby
soon some bird might mimic me
my laugh or maybe just my display of feathers

its been two days since my first belizian and mayan pyramid
xunantunich or lady of the rock

located on the west side of belize
the trip took us about three or so hours
this included stops at waterfalls and magical markets

once we reached the zone
we began our entrance into the park by means of a floating bridge
that moved along a little system of cables
after dancing our way over
we ascended to the site in our truck
picking up some kids along the way

i really nerded out at the welcome center
and decided : i will learn how decipher the mayan calender
i understand there is some combination of a 260 day almanac year
and a 365 solar year
and that only every 52 years would a cycle or 'calender round' be completed the starting point of the mayan calender is equivalent to 3113 bc
and dates measured from this date are called long count dates
and... from what i can tell they have been separated into periods
i think and i will get back to you when i learn more
that the time period during the mayan regime and heyday is referred to as stella
which i love, of course

when i had enough i made my way up the final steps to the site
my feeling was not as anticipatory as usual
in fact i felt relatively calm
my first sense upon seeing the old mayan city was some combination
of comfort and serenity
the site is beautiful
so much green everywhere
and the mounds, temples and big pyramid definitely carried with them
the weight of time and heavy happenings

this little rock lady site consisted of three plazas aligned on a north south axis with two main plazas - the public plaza for the commoners
and the private plaza for the royals

i first climbed the largest pyramid known as the castillo
at 130 feet this was thought to be the highest man made structure in belize until they discovered the sky palace at caracol
lying near the border of guatemala, from the top i could see both countries belize and guatemala
...the lowlands of peten and the blue flanks of the mayan mountains

this was not just my first mayan pyramid
this was also my first pyramid that i visited with other people
this time i was with camille, jason and stephan
three great and super special friends forever
that i was happy to share the experience with
most of the pyramids i see during this journey will be with others
aka the pyramid lady brigade
and so i look forward to completing this new more communal chapter
of my epic world pyramid tour

the wind and the sun were really revealing themselves that day
almost as if in a trance all four of us spent a great deal of time seated or lying down (i was lying down) at the top and zoning out
ahem, i mean meditating
i think we all agreed that there were vibes to be felt
i could definitely feel them hitting my body
like shockwaves moving from the base of the pyramid up through me
imagine squiggly lines emanating from the base of the pyramid to the the top
my sense of up and down did get crazy in my mind at that moment as well
at times i felt like i wasnt lying on a flat surface
but that i was up against a wall dangling
like on the gforce rides at the fair
and for moments i even felt suspended from the ceiling
with the force of the jungle and all its ancestry holding me up

later after hanging with a mayan descendant park guard and learning about power structures of this particular mayan regime
stephan and i climbed the the central mound
separating the public and private plazas
this mound is supposed to be the central point of the site
we could see the sun on one side and the moon directly on the other
they mirrored each other
pretty mystical
stephan even readily agreed to do some yoga with me
again the wind and sun were in full force


i loved this site

(
1 for 1
go mayan pyramids!
i knew you'd follow through
)

after some belikens and burritos and a little dancing in the street
back we went along the hummingbird highway past belmopan
and such lush scenery;
rich tropical hardwood forests, palms, citrus trees and flood plains
into and through dangriga or 'sweet water' our local town
to the deep jungle backabush haven of mamanoots
where i currently reside

i have been working pretty hard here digging a LOT
mainly sticking to tasks that are needed here at the noots
today i think i get to sift sand and make concrete
helping with a fence
and maybe make cements casts of rocks
for the little garden around the main house we have been organizing

i wish i had catnip, rosemary, or geranium seeds
to help keep the mosquitos at bay
in the meantime i embrace the whole
what doesnt kill you makes you stronger deal
as well as my bottle of deet poison
close to my heart

AUDIUM

one perk in sf will be this: the audium.

adam told me about this in london. 

thanks adam!

JONAS MEKAS ON WARHOL LOVE AFFAIR

you should catch mekas' walden. 

JOSEPH BEUYS

i am searching for a beuys vest for my central american journey.

AIR PLANTS RULE!

the bromeliad family was quick to become an integral partner in my personal space. with my first home away from home, came with the freedom to reinvent my self habitat in ways i had never done before. my first step was to buy about six bromeliad plants. there in my little half of a dorm room among these little guys and my funny keepsakes, i was able to create my first sacred space; a world outside my own reality, a world of myths and magic stories, a slice of the dark crystal, a world where my fascination with miniature microcosms could flourish. as i grew older, and my personal space never quite grew the ways other peoples' did, i narrowed my vision into the genus tillandsia. with the plant comes its home. i enjoy finding wood bits , shells, anything to house these little guys. in 1991, nasa experimented in the regeneration of the ozone layer and found that at the time, that the tillandsia regenerates and purifies the atmosphere. go air plants! thanks for purifying my zone. on the mega new age tip, i suppose this plant family has always stirred otherworldliness in my own soul.  

i love you guys. thanks for existing.

MUSHROOMS IN LATVIA

these were delicious

NARWHALS!

PYRAMID LOVE

HDK EXHIBITION

i like their display of processes - weird with the models though maybe - whoa. here is a selection of what i like of what i saw:
anders söderberg



azusa

emma vom brossen


johanna kallin


asa dallbäck




go here to check it all out

BUCKMINSTER FULLER: STARTING WITH THE UNIVERSE

Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
on view June 26, 2008-September 21, 2008

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was one of the great American visionaries of the 20th century. Best-known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, Fuller devoted much of his life to resolving the gap between the sciences and the humanities, which he believed was preventing society from taking a comprehensive view of the world. His theories and innovations traversed the worlds of architecture, visual art, literature, mathematics, molecular biology, and environmental science and have had a deep impact on all of those fields.

In addition to the Whitney Museum show, there will be a number of exciting events throughout June in New York City. We will announce the details as they become available.

For more information about the Whitney show, please visit: http://www.whitney.org/www/exhibition/upcoming.jsp

COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN FOR A CARBON NEUTRAL WORLD

"A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land,
purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. "
Franklin D. Roosevelt

The Comprehensive Design for a Carbon Neutral World project sets forth a revolutionary concept for the design of an entirely new economic model for a region that has been despoiled by extractive industries. Dr. Todd’s vision is inextricably bound to a set of highly advanced ecological design principles that he developed. Appropriately, they reflect not only deep understanding of biological systems, but also the best creative intelligence and cultural wisdom spanning the centuries. These principles are the fruit of Dr. Todd’s decades-long practice developing technologies around the world that build healthy symbiotic relationships between nature’s living systems and modern human needs.

The project’s methodology fully recognizes that transformation requires reconceiving virtually every aspect of how we go about valuing and meeting our life support needs. Accordingly, Todd’s design strategy takes on regionally specific interactions within and between the biosphere, the economy, the local community, the concept of ’right livelihood’, the development of new technology, and education. Its overarching goal is to model a post-industrial economy that mirrors the diverse abundance, cyclic patterns and structural resilience of nature.

read the project proposal

GARDEN SIMPLY GUIDE

and here is the garden simply calender

GARDEN GUIDE: OUTDOOR PLANTING TABLE

the old farmers almanac

BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE

Art is revelation instead of information, expression instead of description, creation instead of imitation or repetition. Art is concerned with the HOW, not the WHAT; not with literal content, but with the performance of the factual content. The performance - how it is done - that is the content of art. - Josef Albers

this place keeps coming up over and over and over again. that's buckminster fuller up there in the picture. he rules.

visit the website

SANFTE STRUKTUREN

i am awestruck by what these guys do. i can't wait to handle some bamboo. you should check out the aureworld palace on their site.

GIULIANO MAURI

EGYPTIAN STREET FOOD

EASTER SUNDAY

THE BOSS SUPPORTS OBAMA

i love obama. for real. and i love the boss. and the boss loves bama. there is a whole lot of love here. here it is the man himself. bruce you know what i was born for:

PHOSPHORESCENT

i can now play this on the ukulele. yes.

SINGING DESERT SANDS

SINGING SANDS ARTICLE

THE OLDEST ANIMAL EVER

it has been christened Ming and it's officially the oldest animal to have ever lived.

• BBC: Museum shows 116-year-old orange
• Leader: RIP Ming the clam

a british scientific team discovered the 405-year-old clam, named after the chinese dynasty and not the former liberal democrat leader, at the bottom of the ocean.

LINNAEUS FLOWER CLOCK

0200 – Night blooming cereus closes
0500 – Morning glories, wild roses
0600 – Spotted cat’s ear, catmint
0700 – African marigold, orange hawkweed, dandelions
0800 – Mouse-ear hawkweed, African daisies
0900 – Field marigold, gentians, prickly sowthistle closes
1000 – Helichrysum, Californium poppy, common nipplewort closes
1100 – Star of Bethlehem
1200 – Passion flower, goatsbeard, morning glory closes
1300 – Chiding pink closes
1400 – Scarlet pimpernel closes
1500 – Hawkbit closes
1600 – ‘Four o’clock’ plant opens, small bindweed closes, Californian poppy closes
1700 – White waterlily closes
1800 – Evening primrose, moonflower
1900
2000 – Daylilies and dandelions close
2100 – Flowering tobacco
2200 – Night blooming cereus

carl linnaeus, father of taxonomy, divided the flowering plants into three groups: the meteorici, which change their opening and closing times according to the weather conditions; the tropici, which change their opening and closing times according to the length of the day; and the aequinoctales, which have fixed opening and closing times, regardless of weather or season. linnaeus noted in his Philosophia Botanica that if one possessed a sufficiently large variety of aequinoctal species, it would be possible to tell time simply by observing the daily opening and closing of flowers.

MAORI LOVE

A TRUE LOVER'S KNOT

OLAFUR ELIASSON

i think my life in general is an unrealized preoject. that's the bottom line.
- olafur
he kinda blows my mind. this crystal bridge is what sold me on him in sf and i can't seem to get enough. i am reading a series of interviews conducted by hans ulrich obrist over the span of several years. an enlightening read i highly recommend.

YOU KNOW ITS TRUE

BRIDGE TO TARABITHIA

a friend and i are gonna make a bridge out of bamboo this summer down in belize on my other friend camille's eco-resort. we talked about making it covered and i think it would be rad to use arches to make a portion maybe the center portion covered with the largest arch in the center and smaller arches beside it tapering.. maybe making a window. anyways here some of the bridges and structures that are inspiring to me. i feel a lifelong dream will come true when this bridge is completed. i hope we succeed.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ACOUSTIC LOCATORS

the image above is an illustration of brantz (or is it alfred?) mayer’s topophone, an acoustic location device invented in 1880 to find the position of ships in fog. the horns not only amplified sound, but because of the distance between them, increased the user’s ability to pinpoint the sound’s direction. acoustic locators were later widely used to pick up the distant rumble of aircraft engines — until the invention of radar during world war II rendered them all but obsolete. below is a photograph of emperor hirohito touring japanese war tubas.
these images come from a terrific page dedicated to acoustic location and sound mirrors.

LOVEBIRDS

lately i cant get enough of nests...i made seven since last summer and hung them up across the country in different cities. here is one:

i have been slow to make more. somehow seven seems like a good number. when i get my world all situated - hopefully by fall i will post them all. they are all made using found stuff but the magic parts of these guys are the scenes on the inside.

so lately or at least during the early winter months, i was and have been thinking of giant nests. adriana (watching my making mania spread onto the living room floor) said i could make one in her gallery so i am gonna go for it. awesomely enough my friend and mega collaborator supreme, jessica findley, was into the idea of the nest so we made a model together of a magical rainbow nest and applied for some funding. fingers crossed cause then we can bring the magic to life. during those days and they were kinda delusional due to the fact that i must have had a heavy duty fever, didnt eat for a week and was seriously in a nest fervor, i told her my dream of the arches which is sorta top secret so i cant say it here but how i am totally inspired by the bower bird since i saw this aired on tv back in the late 90s while i was on some late night tirade making a 3d puzzle.

the most masterful architect bower bird:

or link to here to see my man dave talk

and for kicks here is the master dancing beauty bird:

and click here to see the master song maker bird: the lyrebird video

human dudes need to step it up.

mega ups and props to sir david attenborough who lives the dream completely.
you have taught me well.

LEWIS FRY RICHARDSON"S FORECAST FACTORY

At 7:00 am on May 20, 1910 weather balloons floated into the sky all across Central Europe, collecting data on temperature, barometric pressure, and wind speed at a variety of altitudes. Seven years later, an ambulance driver in the French army named Lewis Fry Richardson would use that data to build the first ever dynamic model of the weather. Working with only pencil, paper, and a slide rule, Richardson engaged in a complex and laborious battery of calculations with the aim of retrospectively predicting how conditions would evolve in one location, southern Germany, over a six hour period. Though Richard’s model proved false — it predicted that barometric pressure over Munich would rise 1,108 millibars, a world record, when in fact it remained steady — his methods form the the basis of modern weather prediction.

In his 1922 book Weather Prediction by Numerical Processes, Richardson proposed the creation of a global weather prediction facility, which he dubbed the “forecast factory.” It would employ some 64,000 human computers sitting in tiers around the circumference of a gigantic globe to calculate the constant flow of differential equations. A conductor situated on a pedestal in the center of the sphere would keep the human computers working in unison. From Richardson’s description of the factory, as it appeared in the January/February 2001 issue of American Scientist:

The walls of this chamber are painted to form a map of the globe. The ceiling represents the north polar regions, England is in the gallery, the tropics in the upper circle, Australia on the dress circles, and the Antarctic in the pit. A myriad of computers [humans, that is] are work upon the weather of the part of the map where each sits…. From the floor of the pit a tall pillar rises to half the height of the hall. It carries a large pulpit on its top. In this sits the man in charge of the whole theatre…. One of his duties is to maintain a uniform speed of progress in all parts of the globe. In this respect he is like the conductor of an orchestra in which the instruments are slide-rules and calculating machines. But instead of waving a baton he turns a rosy beam of life upon any region that is running ahead of the rest, and a beam of blue light upon those who are behindhand.

Apparently, even by Richardson’s own criteria, the task would have required closer to 200,000 human calculators.

[Acknowledgments to Margaret]

INVENTING KINDERGARTEN

if only kindergarten lasted forever. i try to live that way but sometimes i have to skip playtime - always a bummer. oddly a good friend was schooling me on mister froebel the magnificent and the next day i just so happened to come across this site and exhibition without looking for it: inventing kindergarten exhibition would have been cool to check out had i known about it.

paper weaving workbook by Ms. F. Wegerich, Germany, c. 1880.

Most of us today experienced kindergarten as a loose assortment of playful activities – a kind of preparatory ground for school proper. But in its original incarnation kindergarten was a formalized system that drew its inspiration from the science of crystallography. During its early years in the nineteenth century, kindergarten was based around a system of abstract exercises that aimed to instill in young children an understanding of the mathematically generated logic underlying the ebb and flow of creation. This revolutionary system was developed by the German scientist Friedrich Froebel whose vision of childhood education changed the course of our culture laying the grounds for modernist art, architecture and design. Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller are all documented attendees of kindergarten. Other “form-givers” of the modern era – including Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Georges Braque – were educated in an environment permeated with Frobelian influence.

more on Froebel’s influence on modern art in the terrific book Inventing Kindergarten

FILMS OF JEAN PAINLEVE

one of my online 'friends' daniel turned me on to this guy, french filmmaker, jean painleve. his short, magical subaquatic documentaries on subjects including the love life of the octopus, seahorses, and “freshwater assassins” are said to be the predecessors of all modern nature films. d, thanks for talking sealife with me and looking at my childhood seahorse painting. i do love the internet.

'accera or the witches dance' (1972)



le vampire (1945)

beautiful.

ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL

so i got really into this site one day and nerded out. the site mapping is ridic but i feel the content andf the videos when i find them. they rule. plants in motion

In a way, our “plant blindness” is a handicap. Human senses are attuned to react to movement: the stalking predator, the advancing storm, and other immediate threats. Seemingly stationary plants simply don’t capture our attention. But, contrary to our conscious perception, plants do move…be it ever so slowly.'

[acknowledgements to Pruned]

UNDERSTANDING ONE ANOTHER

so like many of you out there i like to pick up a copy of wired in the airport every now and again and see where gadgetry on the mass consumer level is heading and maybe check out some new buzz... i was completely blown away by (i think it was the march issue) of wired article on autism including a talk with amanda baggs. i have followed autism ever since i can remember in part because i am mystified by savants, in part because i spent some really beautiful moments with some autistic friends in my late teens and in part because i have felt certain members of my family exhibit certain characteristics that are often equated with autism. while i talk plenty and many autistics don't, i still feel widely misunderstood or that i can't properly communicate my thoughts very well. in the past i have used sticks, cardboard, tape, food, and glue for the most part to explain a lot of what goes on but its a constant struggle i think for most of us. so this video is called 'in my language' by amanda baggs and well... i think it pretty much speaks for itself:
go amanda. thank you so much for making this beautiful piece and allowing many of us who aren't the best communicators insight into your life.

BUILDING A BOAT

pretty rad, right? so my friend stephan built a boat or i think now its up to three boats with some friends of his. since i have always had a serious fascination for boat captains and maritime stuffs and used to live next to one of the more rad boatbuilding museums (viva la göteborg) i was happy to see some boats getting built. they were a part of an exhibition in upthestate new york at purchase college called 'off the grid'. the idea is to re-purpose wood generally used (and pretty easily found and harvested by people like us) for construction purposes all over nyc in the making of boats and these boats can be made by anyone....they are wheat pasting plans to construction sites near you so get a jigsaw and screwdriver (supposedly that is all you need) and get going. i know i will one day. i will sooner if you wanna do it with me. big props to the makermaster svm.

the whole thing makes me think about the public access to the shore in manhattan and how minimal it is. i always wanted to get my own dinghy when i lived in the les so i could row myself to brooklyn. one of my favorite things to do in this funny little village of villages is to kayak at the only true public access pontage. you should too. go here: downtownboathouse i may be going again soon with my grandmére in early june. if your up for a riproaring time come with us.