My naivety only ratifies the city’s noir glamour. I feel as if I can comprehend every detail if I move my thoughts a bit slower. Off we go with a black backpack filled with a few days of clothes and small connections to home. We arrive early morning after a short train haul, and step off onto frozen land a bit intimidated. We enter a selectively chosen art nouveau decorated doorway. The words overhead read ‘Fin De Siècle Café Louvre’. Beautifully rustic and no longer sooty from decades of neglect, its the old haunt of Kafka and Einstein! Next, the Astronomical Clock, old and intriguing. A rare city that made it through World War Two, this city was derelict and miserable, now it’s become glowing and dreamy as we meander across the baroque Charles bridge annoying the locals that pass by. Down the road and around the corner, Prague Castle, even older and more intriguing. I have fallen madly in love with this city as we make our way to the hotel to prepare for dinner and and a night of shouting over the music.The next morning I harbor the absurd conviction that Prague is my secret, Of course, it isn’t mine and it’s no secret. We set out to gleefully peruse the crystal, garnet jewels, and Qubus ceramics, I can’t fathom how we will get this stuff home. We step back on the train with our hearts a bit heavier<3
JA JA JA, JAck 12/11/2010
‘The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.’ -Jack Kerouac
Little Boxes All The Same. 11/12/2010
I have collected and considered many options for when I own my own home. I have decided on the alchemical, utilitarian, and sustainable. It is nice that in modern day there are many options that fit into all of those categories. By the time I build though, I hope there is more to consider. I love these possibilities:
Earthships! completely off the grid. Windows on sun-facing walls admit light and heat, and the buildings are often horseshoe-shaped to maximize natural light and solar-gain during winter months. The dense inner walls, made of soil packed tires, provide thermal mass that naturally regulates the interior temperature during both cold and hot outside temperatures. Internal, non-load-bearing walls are made of a honeycomb of recycled bottles joined by concrete. Earthships are designed to catch and use water from the local environment with a cistern. The water then travels through a system that maximizes use. At the beginning of the system it is white water suitable for skin contact and drinking. It then becomes grey water, used in toilets. Last, it is black water, that is pumped into a solar enhanced septic tank. Energy is sourced through a combination of solar panels and wind turbines, very simple indeed. The homes cost about the same per square foot as the average cookie cutter home, but I get a custom home that leaves no mark on the environment. What attracts me to this type of living is the self-sustaining beauty is unprecedented, and no bills!
Pop-up homes! Built to be low impact and very modern and customized, at the same price as the mass marketed homes. The great thing about these homes is that they come flat packed and I can build them myself, with more help than a hobbit home and less help than an earthship! There is a web mini series following Hally Thatcher, a woman who did just that,here!
Hobbit Homes! Very similar to earthships, however, I feel that they are more attainable and easy to build. These homes do not have the intricate water system that the earthships have, they would use city water, but I am sure I could somehow incorporate that same system. I also like this home over the earthship because of aesthetics, I feel that earthships are a bit bulky. I could do this on my own land without an expensive contractor for labor. I like the appeal of Hobbit Homes over Pop-Ups when considering price, even though I find the Pop-Ups more aesthetically appealing. I think the hobbit homes could take on a more modern feel on the interior. Important to note that I could utilize the space according to real need like the pop-up homes, no need to waste.
ee-jipt 11/11/2010
I have learned that the harp was one of the earliest musical instruments known and seems to be based off the sound of a resonating string on a bow from early hunter societies. The harp was passed to Egyptian culture in 3500BC through trade with the Sumer and came to be considered very important in ancient Egypt, it was played by temple musicians, a high position usually held by women. The harp never disappeared from the culture and is still played in modern Egypt.
I have fallen in awe of the strategy game senet, which is considered to be the oldest board game in the world, dating back to predynastic Egypt at about 3500 BC. The actual rules of the game were never recorded but historians Kendall and Bell make a very educated guess. The Senet game board is a grid of thirty squares, arranged in three rows of ten and has two sets of seven pawns alternating along the first 14 squares. The 15th square, or the life house, is the starting point.The movement of pawns is decided by the throw of four, two-sided sticks. You gain one point for each side with a mark, and 5 points if all 4 markings are present in the same throw. You move one of your pawns the same number of marking you threw in a reverse S pattern. If you come to a square occupied by the opponent they have to exchange their position. squares 26, 27, 28, and 29 on the board have symbols which have special rules of play. Square 26, house of happiness, is a mandatory square for all pawns. Square 27, house of water, requires the pawn to start back at square 15, house of life. Square 28, house of three truths, can only be left when a 3 is thrown. Square 29, house of re-atoum, can only be left when a three is thrown. The winner is the first with all pawns off the board. I wonder though, if we are playing it all wrong?
Moving on to the pyramids, specifically the great pyramid of Khufu, which is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still in existence. The pyramid was built by Pharaoh Khufu on the Giza Plateau at the west bank of the Nile around 2558BC. It is not known how the pyramid was built but there are intense theories that involve about 35,800 workers, intricate ramp systems, and approximately 10 years time. I am glad I was not part of that shindig. Even with all we know with modern equipment and excavation, what we do not know is how those pyramids where biult. I wonder if we ever will?
Hieroglyphics are the ancient Egyptians formal writing style that was developed along side hieratic script in about 3200BC. It is the second known written language after Cuneiform, it is still not known if the language was passed on by the Sumerians or if it was independently developed, as it was spoken long before it was written. There are over 2000 hieroglyphic symbols that are used in much the same way as our 26 alphabetic letters. Letters create words, words create sentences, sentences tell a story, and so it goes with hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphic writing was written in columns or rows and reading direction is determined by the direction that human and animal figures faced. Reading starts from the direction that figures face and continues in the opposite direction but if the hieroglyphs are in columns instead of rows they are read top to bottom. Demotic was developed in late egypt, around 650BC, as a form of administrative and archival text while hieroglyphs and hieratic script were still reserved for everything else. Coptic is the Egyptian language which has distinct dialects and was spoken until about the 7th century. Around the 7th century Coptic was phased out by Egyptian Arabic, which remains as the modern language.
Creative Genius 11/05/2010
Genius means that we must be more about hard work than wishing to be someone. Even if we are not truely genius, we can use the same strategies as Da Vinci or Einstein to harness our creative mind and encourage ourselves to think productively. Looking at problems in many different ways, and finding new perspectives that no one else has taken. Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one. When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, but most important was visualizing the issue. So these become the first traits of genius, rethinking and visualization.
Another distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity. Picasso made more than 500 preparatory drawings for “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. Thomas Edison held about 1,093 patents, he gave himself idea quotas. Alfred Hitchcock had a penchant for planning the entire movie before the first day of filming. Another thing these three had in common is they weren’t afraid to “fail”, or to produce mediocre work in order to arrive at excellence. Whenever we attempt to do something and “fail”, we create a new branch of possible success. That’s the first principle of creative accident. Even when people set out to act purposefully and rationally, they wind up doing things they did not intend. Failure itself can be productive.
The laws of heredity on which genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science. Alexander McQueen had a tendency to juxtapose female strength with fragility in his collections. Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Also, Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts. Combine and recombine ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or strange they may be.
Onna bugeisha
Women warriors have had an important role in many cultures and have also served their societies in indigenous tribal warfare and rebellion. With regard to Native American history, the majority of Native American tribes respected well established women warriors of their “militia”. These female warriors determined the fate of prisoners of war alongside other tribal decisions. However, the Europeans and early American men refused to deal with Native American women on such matters and so their significance was not understood or appreciated. Here are the stories of just a few of the amazing women throughout history who have been belittled and forgotten in Western patriarchal history.
The Dahomey people, who live in western Africa established an all female militia, who served as royal bodyguards to the king. During the 18th century, the King Houegbadja had some of his wives trained as royal bodyguards. Houegbadja’s son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed the female bodyguard into a militia. Unlike the semi-mythical Amazons, these were real female warriors that were never romanticized, and their existence is a mere footprint in history. Documentation suggests they were used to protect against European colonizers. This militia was not defeated until 1892, after France sent: Artillery, The Foreign Legion, Marine Infantry, And Their Calvary.
The daughter of a Duke, Pingyang raised and commanded her own army in the revolt against the Sui Dynasty. In the Huxian Province she gained a loyal following of several hundred men and persuaded the rebel leaders, He Panren, Li Zhongwen, Xiang Shanzhi, and Qiu Shili, to join her. Leading their combined forces, she attacked and captured the capital of Huxian. The Sui government did not take her army seriously because it was led by a woman, until she had gathered a total of 70,000 men. She led the way for her father to become Emporer, He then made his daughter Princess Pingyang. When she died at the age of twenty-three, Emperor Gaozu gave her a grand military funeral, fit for a high general. In Chinese literature, Princess Pingyang remains a legend and example of courage.
The Spartan princess Arachidamia commanded a group of female soldiers that fought against Pyrrhus during the seige of Lacedemon in the 3rd century B.C., she killed many soldiers and coined the term “pyrrhic victory” .
The Celtic Queen Boudicca with her two daughters “took no prisoners,” as they decimated the capital of Roman Britain. Boudicca’s husband Prasutagus, ruler of the Iceni tribe as an independent ally of Rome, left his kingdom to his daughters and the Roman Emperor in his will. However, when he died, his will was ignored. The kingdom was annexed as if conquered, Boudicca was flogged and her daughters raped. Boudica led the Iceni people, along with the Trinovantes and others, in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum, Verulamium, and Londinium. They also routed a Roman legion, the IX Hispana. Boudicca then killed herself so she would not be captured.
the best speech he never wrote 10/31/2010
Wear Sunscreen
By Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’98: Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blind side you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don’t waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind.
The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
LOVE APOTHECARY 