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December 23, 2005
Get in the Christmas sprit...SPAZ OUT!!
Remember when you were a kid, back in the day when Santa was real?
Remember the list?
Remember how that cheesy alminium tree scorched your young and wide eyes, a burning bush full of angels and stars?
Remember waking to a pyramid of ribboned boxes and the knowing that "he" had been?
Remember?
Do you?
Thanks baby, for helping me to remember again this year.
Happy christmas to eveyone we know and love.
from Ursula, Barbara and Andrew.
Posted by Barbara at 06:51 PM | Comments (1)
December 22, 2005
Can you keep a secret?
I have been quietly given a huge honor.
I have been asked by Burningman this year to work with Larry Harvey and Rod Garret on the design of next years Burningman.
Burningman may be the current eye of the tornado of the worldwide art community, and the "Man" is the very jewel in the crown.
The theme next year will be "Hope and Fear" pointing a questioning finger towards the future. We have designed the Man to rise or fall in a shaft, its elevation depending upon general levels of optimism, (or otherwise)of the population of our temporary city in the desert (the fifth largest in Nevada last year).
This collective mood will be gaged by voting pods sprinkled through the city, where people are encouraged to scale their levels of hope or fear. This information is then fed by wi-fi to the Man and is translated into his being up on top, or down in the dumps.
The shaft is supported by eight flying buttresses which have a Fritz Lang/art deco feel, and lit at night with neon.
The outside enclosure forms a courtyard to a maze, the successful navigation of which will allow access to stairs taking you up to a top deck and the Man.
We have used my Virtual Playa software to model the Man as a computer 3d object and make changes to the design as we explore the structure in Virtual reality. These are day and night screen shot from the Virtual Playa project.
Next month, Burningman makes its presentation to the Federal bureau of Land Management, and the State of Nevada, which we will illustrate with my program projected onto a giant screen and take them on a virtual tour of Burningman 2006... It will knock them down!
Here is shot I took from a light aircraft of Burningman's Black Rock City in its 2005 incarnation.
Posted by Barbara at 02:12 PM | Comments (1)
December 03, 2005
Now it feels like Christmas!
The village of Haworth lies a few miles away, and is famous throughout the literary world for being the home of the Bronte sisters, (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Jaws) but all that pulp fiction in lace is all blah, blah, blah to a five year old. The real big deal about Haworth is that it is the true home of Thomas the Tank Engine!!!
So we show up to an unusually busy platform to find out that today was appointment only day as it was the day of the Santa Special, and we of course, were appointmentless. In true Christmas style we find out there is no room at the inn on this packed train of mirth.
Not to be bah humbugged out of the gig, I quickly coach Ursula in the fine art of heart string pulling, and armed with the dewy eyed and pouty bottom lipped little girl we melt station master into a puddle and get us onto the train...bingo.
What a time!!
The steam engine wheezes into the station, and we clatter off down the track. The train is full of kids singing jingle bells etc. then Scrooge comes through telling all the kids to be quiet and stop having fun and is greeted with a fusillade of boos and raspberries. Minutes later Santa and the elves come down the train giving wrapped presents to all the kids to be followed by more elves with mince pies and sherry for the grown ups. As if it couldn't get better, I find the bar carriage, notice that he has a bottle of Highland Park single malt, and in the true Christmas spirit buy one for myself and the barman, who then repays the courtesy by seeing off the last of the bottle between us. Instant karma.
As evening fell (3.30pm in these latitudes) we go into Haworth where we find morris dancers doing their thing at one end of the lane, a bagpipe band in the middle and a brass band at the top of the lane. It feels like we have entered some Christmas nirvana, and the atmosphere is cracking with the sort of vibe that all these wannabe Dickens Fayre events dream of... but this is the real thing!
I turn around to find Ursula has been given the jingle bells by the brass band conductor, and is working the crowd hard for more of the little angel routine. Big "ahhs" all round.
Then just as we get set to leave, because it just can't get any better than this, the band breaks into John Lennon's "Happy Christmas, War Is Over", and the whole lane breaks into song... and I bawl my eyes out.
"Happy Christmas John... happy Christmas Yoko."
Posted by Andrew at 10:24 AM | Comments (2)
December 02, 2005
When in doubt...stay home.
We awoke to "filthy" weather, and decided to stay close to home today... good move.
The clouds broke by mid-morning and we were treated to the full majesty of the Lancashire countryside.
We first visted Whalley Abbey where my old boyscout master, Roy Fishwick, is the custodian.
The Abbey dates back to 555 a.d. before being ruined in 1535 by Henry VIII during the reformation. It was an old playground of mine as a kid, and it is great to pass on the torch to Ursula and see her running through the ruins and spreading her hummingbird like energy through these hallowed old stones. Roy also makes a serious cup of tea.
When I let my imagination drift to home, I worry that I paint the scene in my minds eye with too fair a brush. As we stepped out of the pub after lunch, and started down the lane we were stopped in our stride as we were blessed with this view of the village with the backdrop of Pendle Hill.
I will never again worry that my meagre imagination will ever hope to touch the perfect measure of nature and history of the beauty of the village. This is the right place for a painter or a poet to have grown up. Visions like this linger in the marrow, and its beauty feeds one for a lifetime.
I am so lucky to call myself a local... part of me will always be so.
Posted by Andrew at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)
December 01, 2005
Every princess needs a castle.
We took a short trip to the nearby vilage of Skipton to do a little shopping at the village market and visit its fine mediaeval castle dating from 1090 a.d. It was built by the Norman King William I and was home to Cliford, Edward I, Henry VIII and prison to Mary Queen of Scots.
It was blowing snow and we had the whole castle entirely to ourselves. This was a great opportunity to beat the freezing day by warming up by running around pretending to be knights with swords, hiding in the dungeons and attacking from the ancient spiral stairs. This must be the ultimate playground for a five year old, and will be a tough act to follow in the future.
We warmed up with a pub meal of Yorkshire pudding and beef helped down with ale and milk, then stopped by the beast auctions at Gisburn on the way home for a cup of tea and a look at the sheep.
Posted by Andrew at 12:54 AM | Comments (2)