Friday, December 30, 2005

persons of the year

i never took pictures of people. i think i was scared of people. i mean, they're strange and threatening creatures what with their talking and hugging and other societal idiosyncrasies. then you realize, oh they're pretty photogenic and entertaining in their own right.

that's all it boils down to. people. love em or hate, we're all in this together so make the best of it. and if you try a bit more, you get a lot more. so thanks, you people. you're number one on my nonexistent year end list.

Friday, December 23, 2005

mixed blessings

so that ascent? check. i'm there. we're there, i mean. we can sit back on a rock under the moon and the stars and just bask in the radiance. luckily there was one last christmas/holiday/solstice party to wrap up the year before i've come back home. now we play the waiting game, but what better way to kill time for a week other than christmas. and it'll be that magically strange week between december 25th and january 1st where the calendar just hangs in the cosmic purgatory. how enchanting.

my dad was diagnosed with cancer. and it took everything in both of us to even bring it up today. this dates back to the mid summer nights phone call concerning his blood clots. in the scope of things, i guess it's relatively worry free, being lance armstrong cancer and all. my dad even went bicycling on his old italian speeder this week, i guess in preparation for the tour. but there's a few more tests and a range of treatment ahead of him so i should get used to talking about it with him. and maybe get used to talking about women. we aren't much for such sharing but there comes a time when you have to fight against your instincts.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

happy holy days

on the other side of the year, time in san antonio is wrapping up. in the grand wish list of it all, i'm getting some closure, but wishes aren't so great if you always get what you asked for. it leaves something to be desired. each week is more interesting than the previous and it's good to have this constant momentum towards something but at the end of the day you want to reach a plateau and look back at the ascent in a breathless well deserved daze. at the end of the year. at the end of the fuse a bomb goes off or a fuse just goes out. fireworks also apply. you know, on account of the new year.

and cruelly enough, the days get shorter. and the nights get longer. and the druids dress as fairies in celebration of it all.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

up the mountain






and one year ago i watched that gradual sunset over the atlantic. unspoken plans of matching the experiences i had in europe with life in america have been a success. fall 2005 might even trump 2004 in its own slow and methodical way. another round of college students heads out into the real world and i'll just bide my time here a bit longer.

Friday, December 09, 2005

winter jitters

there comes a time when you have to fight your instincts and climb a giant rock in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night in the mid to low twenties. that time is now.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

generation i

i don't have an ipod. and i'd be fine for the rest of my life if i never owned one, but there is some inner child pulling at my pant leg saying, "i want." i am entranced by apple hardware. but i feel like i'm winning some great cultural battle by not having one thus far. those little white ear buds might as well be yellow stars singling out the youth of the nation. listen to deathcab, watch laguna beach, and wear over sized jLo glasses. maybe it's me taking this 7 month career-in-a-box vacation, but i feel disconnected from the kids.

more of it is that the kids listen to their ipods 24/7. do you really need music piped in at all times? has the world become that boring? there's so much entertainment/information available on demand whenever we want it, that's there's little time left to walk down the street and enjoy it for its own sake. i guess my eureka moment was losing my tv remote. sure i tried to find it and had the couch turned upside down, but i gave up and have been all the better ever since. who is america's next top model? and why do we care?

somehow i had also managed to sidestep the whole text messaging movement. who is sending these to whom? can my phone even receive them? these are the questions i asked my mom two weeks ago, and then the telephonic gods stepped up and i've since received six different messages from various sources. it's fate.

maybe i've led my mother to believe i might possibly want a 30 gig music/photo/video player while claiming that i "was not an ipod person." i mean come on, i'm adding to the information ether with this little blog so i might as well cast off my old fashioned chains and plug into the white plastic grid. i can still avoid dvr and satellite radio...for now. i'm no simple farm boy. the elephant in the room we're all avoiding is that i lost a remote control in a twelve foot square space and i plan to take a $300 remote with a screen out into the world on a daily basis. if my conflicted christmas wish does come true, the fates will ultimately decide if i was to be one of the youth of the nation. cast the ivory walkman into the wind. we're all gonna be old one day so i might as well start now.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Thanksgiven

i was awakened thanksgiving morning to a call from my brother-law to look in the trunk of the car. after an early morning hunting trip between him and my father, what would one expect to find in the trunk of a honda accord? a deer. and what good is a freshly killed deer just sitting in the trunk of a honda accord? no good. and what y-chromosome call to order did i fulfill in order to rectify the situation? i helped hoist the carcass up from my childhood basketball goal for the following skinning and gutting, of course.

let's all backtrack and note that my immediate family is far removed from white trash, especially when compared to the whole of east texas. we only have garage sales every other year and have never owned a truck (as can be proved by the hunting vehicle of choice). my father even has this running joke about how my uncles have spent the entirety of thanksgivings past telling deer stories. and there he was pouring intestines into an old tin washtub where i used to practice my lay-ups. they shoved a freakin deer into a midsize sedan. this is a deer story that will live on through my children's children, forever stained crimson red into my concrete surfaced memory.

then i return to san antone to find a gaggle of flies having their own thanksgiving get together on every previously sanitized surface in my apartment. i did my best billy crystal impression to round them up out the door through an intricate series of desk lamp light lochs that lead out the door to the front porch/pacific ocean/colorado plains. pick your metaphor.

if having your apartment infested with flies is cool, consider me miles davis.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

her name was nita

over the years i've managed to become selfless, cold, and composed in the face of women. one dare not let down one's defenses when females make the advance, or else one might fall for them and we all know how long a drop that is.

that being said, today i got a manicure. i'd run to the rivercenter mall during lunch to buy enough socks to get me to thanksgiving at home, where a cornucopia of whites would be bleached back to their rightful aryan superiority...so yeah, i was at the mall. and i was headed back when the most beautiful "excuse me, sir" did cross my ears. she was about 5'7", no older than me, dressed in a slim black sweater and knee length black skirt, with a matching head of jet black hair hanging around a porcelain white face which were in turn pierced by deep brown eyes and traces of freckles upon further inspection. i can qualify such inspections cause the next thing i knew this girl had grabbed my right hand and pulled me in (literally and figuratively) to a closeness i hadn't experienced in a while. she was working a nail care mall kiosk.

the next moments played out with me being pulled further and further in, as she dug deeper and deeper into my cuticles with a nail buffer. she'd bat her eyes, i'd blink, and next thing i knew i was saying "my thumbnail has never looked nicer." it was even better with the side-by-side comparison where she held both my hands together, close to my chest, close to her. i managed to say that it really wasn't my kind of product but maybe something more for my mom, which gave her an in into the need for caring for all things female. did i mention she had a gorgeous eastern european accent? she WAS offering me half price off $50 for today only, but i thought of the fantastic lie that i could only afford $10 for mom. and then things got grim as she lowered her voice and put her delicate finger to her now noticeably red lips, saying "shhhh, i can offer you a deal but you have to promise not to tell anyone..."

and that's when the old brain jumped in and told every other part of my body that this was my last chance to bail. "i really have to get back to work. i'm sorry." i hope i let her down gently enough. the look on her face as i backed away either said "i'll never again meet a man like that" or "damn, i almost made that sale."

and that's how i roll. i can block off any innate male tendencies to love and propagate when actually given the opportunity. everything in me said buy the nail buffer and sweep her off her feet, but i didn't. i live on the line between gentleman and loner. there's a chance i could go back there tomorrow, but it wouldn't be the same. when the moment is passed, it's passed. she'll find other impressionable young men with disposable incomes, and i'll at least for the next few days have my shiny and slightly bleeding thumbnail.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

the night it got real cold

i would run out and do it all in a second if the clock stopped ticking.

Monday, November 14, 2005

oh, i'm one of thooose people

that's it. i'm here. i'm writing from the ivory tower. fight it i did, but i've now inducted myself into the culturally elite as a result of my actions. tonight i spent a hundred dollars on a week's worth of central market groceries.

it's not that i need goat cheese, but it's a nice alternative to a prepackaged processed cheese appetizer. i mean, what else am i supposed to garnish fresh baked ciabatta with? sun dried tomatoes and freshly minced basil alone aren't gonna cut it.

no, it doesn't stop at being a snobbish grocery whore. i buy those fancy five dollar greetings cards, ride my bike to work, and listen to college radio. what the hell? is free form jazz good? how would i know. aren't you just supposed to listen to it so as to feel special in a town that loves pro wrestling and hummers. that's why i like san antonio. in seattle, i'd have been guaranteed all the drum circles and and organic coffee a little boy could ever hope for, but here being bohemian is a bit harder. and this is coming from someone of actual bohemian blood. it's my destiny to wear tight jeans.

and that brings us to arrested development. a show so witty and subtle that we knew it couldn't last. it happened. they're taking it away from us as punishment for all the obscure literary references we tried passing over the heads of the masses for years. before they take our wes anderson box sets, we must run further underground my blogging brethren and warm ourselves only by the heat of a mocha latte and feed off the proverbial loaf of ciabatta. we will transmit communications via npr. godspeed.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

noviembre

is always my favorite month. or at least top five. good movies come out, texas settles into being cold, and the word wreath reenters our collective lexicon. i know i'm wearing shorts and t shirt right now with the windows open, but pretend with me and tend to the yard with my imaginary rake.

further checking off my list of unique things to do in san antonio, this week i bought an old whiskey bottle from the o'neil ford estate, drank shiner as i watched willy nelson sing under the hill country stars, and did the first friday art walk which ends in an argyle sea of 16 year old hipsters with crooked haircuts. all along the way i learned about the incapability of social awkwardness and how it's the one thing that ties us all together as a twenty something populace.

now with the moving out of another semi house mate this week, casa myrtle is feelin extra empty. an emptiness that can only be filled with the sweet smell of brownies and hot wassle. come a wassle with me.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

the day of deadline

at one point during the summer i had heard november 1st would be the grand ending deadline to it all. beach club detailed to a T and on to bigger and better things. like new york. i spent one night in july requesting tickets to anything entertaining that was recording live during that first week of november. i was gonna go to the big city, wear autumn clothes, and see some of them movie stars.

i slowly learned that thanksgiving would be the new deadline and anytime between then and then would have to be dedicated to work. ok, fine. i want to see this thing to the end and an extended thanksgiving holiday that includes seeing friends in ny, ny sounds great.

christmas. it'll go til then now and and hopes of visiting people when there are still people to see are pretty much gone. i'll still be working here in san antonio as those around the country head back home to texas. i'm loving my job here but I hate i haven't really gotten to get away from SA that much. one day i'm just gonna jump in my car and fly away. just you wait.

and damnit, i've got a bowl full of candy kids. why won't you come and eat my candy?

Friday, October 28, 2005

the unbearable lightness of being single

i usually get away with avoiding the topic of love. or even like for that matter. maybe that stems from the fact that san antonio has almost entirely avoided offering either up. and i love it.

and herein lies the problem. i am at times fiercely independent. not necessarily in the way of playing by my own rules, skateboarding on top of people's cars, and paying my utilities bill late, but i often like to be alone. independent of others. the freedom to unhook from the grid every once in a while.

i'm also not a fan of compromise. making important life decisions such as finding-a-job-and-moving-somewhere is a decision loaded with enough factors besides "where does she want to go in life?" i am a a big fan of being considerate so i'd probably outweigh my own wants/needs with hers and compromise myself in the end.

this all sounds like the talk of someone without a whole lot of experience in relationships. that's right. but i have observed a lot of relationships in the last year rise and fall on the basis independence and thinking-about-the-future. i'm even asked to offer my advice, and that's like me critiquing the astros. sure i've played a little baseball in my day, but do you see any world series/wedding rings on my finger? do i want one? more than craig biggio would ever know.

this all stems from be right now reading, Superstud by Paul Feig. he created freaks and geeks and directed some arrested developments and pretty much wrote my own autobiography with this book. it's him being a hopeless romantic without having much luck at romance. it's hilarious and eye opening in that same feeling i got from watching wedding crashers. in the end owen wilson gets the girl.

so then maybe i'm getting most of my knowledge of love from pop culture and that means i simply need to step outside a little more often. it is quite beautiful out there. enjoy the weather.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

run home, jack

i just got back from my nephew's football game in the montgomery area 4-6 year old league. if you look past the the fact that it's just wrong to stick a kid who can't tie his shoes in pads and a helmet, it's fun to watch your lineage score three of the game's 5 touchdowns. i didn't have that much time to watch the game though as i was designated my 2 year old nephew's caretaker. i gave him my camera as i held on to the reigns and answered his "what is that?" questions as he pointed at everything from a chain link fence to a perplexed one year old. garrison is way too intelligent for his age so tomorrow, for his third birthday i'm getting him books. were my uncles this lame? tomorrow being his birthday party also means being surrounded by thirty-somethings, their yukon-xls, and a myriad of other kids named evan, tyler, and madison.

to top it all off, i'll be watching the astros hit the world series from my native environment with nick on parentally-provided and freshly aquired hdtv. you can literally see each tear falling from jeff bagwell's DLed face. in his memory, i made a run at a full fall classic beard, but commited a sleep deprived trimmer error yesterday and landed myself with a spring training goat.

jinx, buy me a coke.

Friday, October 14, 2005

coley the racist steam engine

once again the internet becomes an anonymous forum for grossly insensitive chit chat. once again, the conversation has been slightly altered to protect the innocent, though mainly to make us not look like total racists. once again we join this conversation in progress…

Cram Leppot: i'll follow up for you
Cornbread is Gr8: thanks pal
Cram Leppot: anytime chum
Cram Leppot: shark food
Cornbread is Gr8: fish heads
Cornbread is Gr8: I wish I was a shark so I could eat chum
Cram Leppot: ha
Cornbread is Gr8: Or Chinese, they eat it too
Cornbread is Gr8: they love chum
Cram Leppot: i'm sure some restaurant in LA serves chum
Cornbread is Gr8: I'm gonna start a chum factory and export all our unused chum into china
Cram Leppot: it's the new thing
Cornbread is Gr8: haha. they eat chum. that's sick
Cram Leppot: well it's their culture
Cram Leppot: don't laugh at their habits
Cornbread is Gr8: i'm high
Cram Leppot: oh goodie
Cornbread is Gr8: i'm just kidding!
Cornbread is Gr8: it sounded like i was
Cram Leppot: well i just had a beer so watch out!
Cram Leppot: i'm loopy lou
Cornbread is Gr8: you're a beer drinker! you're so adult
Cram Leppot: yeah, and after work with the coworkers
Cornbread is Gr8: no one wants to go out for drinks in my job. wah.
Cram Leppot: that's like having an architect hang out at a construction site after work
Cram Leppot: oh wait, we did that too
Cornbread is Gr8: ha
Cram Leppot: now i'm hungry so i'm getting cranky
Cornbread is Gr8: you sound like a mom
Cram Leppot: a mom unto my self
Cornbread is Gr8: exactly
Cram Leppot: that's deep
Cram Leppot: i'm deep
Cram Leppot: deep like a shark
Cornbread is Gr8: that eats chinese people
Cram Leppot: deep like your MOM
Cornbread is Gr8:You're gross! i'm telling her you said that
Cram Leppot: so is your chinese shark mom
Cornbread is Gr8: please don't sleep with my mom
Cram Leppot: “nicowr, come eat your chum dinner and fowtune cookies”
Cram Leppot: that's your chinese shark mom talking
Cornbread is Gr8: is nicowr my chinese name?
Cram Leppot: yes, sound it out
Cornbread is Gr8: that's hard to say
Cram Leppot: i know, try thinking how to spell it
Cornbread is Gr8: yes i see
Cram Leppot: i'm glad we're both smart and can have such conversations
Cornbread is Gr8: don't get boring. let's talk some more about chum
Cornbread is Gr8: Just think of all the chum americans waste
Cornbread is Gr8: we could make so much money shipping out our chum
Cram Leppot: i thought i got to go eat now
Cram Leppot: though you're taking away my appetite
Cornbread is Gr8: NO
Cornbread is Gr8: c'mon, chum. hahahaha.
Cram Leppot: if only we knew someone who specialized in food and drink distribution
Cornbread is Gr8: drink? hmmmm
Cornbread is Gr8: good idea, like clamato
Cram Leppot: chum soda
Cram Leppot: sangria del tiburon!
Cornbread is Gr8: hey that sounds delish
Cram Leppot: it'll kill you
Cornbread is Gr8: only if i eat the eyes
Cram Leppot: a tasty death, like choking on a mcgriddle
Cornbread is Gr8: the chinese say eating the eyes is like eating their SOUL
Cornbread is Gr8: and you can only have so many fish souls
Cram Leppot: i think that's when you take a shark's picture
Cornbread is Gr8: oh yeah and then you eat the picture right?
Cram Leppot: shamu must be very sad
Cornbread is Gr8: he has negative souls
Cram Leppot: i'll go visit him tonight
Cornbread is Gr8: hey i have a sea world too, the real one
Cornbread is Gr8: i will visit shamu. stay home with your beer
Cornbread is Gr8: in my apartment complex I threw some koi in the pool
Cornbread is Gr8: i feed them bread

Sunday, October 09, 2005

texas my texas?

i'm past that imaginary half way point here in san antonio and that's got me looking beyond. everything that i stressed about in applying for this residency now gets multiplied by a billion or so. in the past week i've been finding out how the recent grads went about finding their jobs and what cities and firms that looked at. sounds like it's 90% timing and good luck. the remaining 20% could be my portfolio, which i've been staying up late working on so as to prevent spring time stress fests. oh yeah, it's gonna be a 110% effort.

then as kind of a grand escape from all that, i ran up to wimberly, tx this weekend to hang out with kate and the gang. sitting quietly for three hours before everyone woke up, looking at hill country magazines and 2003 central texas christmas lighting schedules, then strolling around on the chilly wood deck overlooking the blanco river makes you wonder why you'd want to leave texas. let it be said here that zoe suggested that i move to phoenix. what and leave this weather?

oh yeah, ut beat ou and the astros beat the braves. all other states suck.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

i bet i think this song is about me


though the model may be long gone, i did have some of the final pics i wanted to show off. i present to you the project whose name i shall not mention for fear of curious googlers researching as of yet non-existent beach clubs for as of yet non-existent cities in coastal florida. somewhere along the line, kids will be swimming here and you don't want my deep dark NC-17 secrets traveling across the web to them now do you?





so this is our little jewel in the sand, and going back to the last post i believe this to be good architecture. yet the client payed us upwards of $10,000 to just build this model. the months of detailing cost many thousands more, so this obviously isn't architecture for the masses. could architecture be more than just for the 2% who can aford it? yet, isn't there something liberating about sheet rock and 2 by 4 paradises that can be done in a weekend? yes and yes.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

designing homes that fit your lifestyle!

this one has been a long time coming but my conversation with my sister just now makes it urgent. upon finding herself and family with a good chunk of wealth, she is now looking to buy lakeside land and build a new house. i am of course not to the point where i could detail out her dream home so she's taken up the task of browsing southern living floor plans and passing along "architects" names that i should advise her on. the latest is Gary Keith Jackson and hopefully he's not the last. at what point did the extruded street facade become architecture? does wrapping everything in marble make for fine living? what color would you like: golden desert wheat or beigy beige beige? i partially blame you, creator of MTV cribs.

and then of course the same people who live in these mansions fund the creation of cheap soul sucking strip centers that are meant to stand for about 20 years then they all fall down. i can't even name whatever material that is being caked on every new commercial building around. fake stucco? it lacks relation to anything real and tangible so they paint and cornice it to death until it slightly resembles some other type of material. it's architectural tofu.

what's got me most scared is how we rebuild after the hurricanes. first off do you? and secondly if you do, do you write a blank check to contractors and have them throw up placeless floor plans. southern louisiana and mississippi still held traces of thoughtful architecture. a lot of that may be gone because of things beyond our control, but do you just give up and forget all about the shotgun houses?

why do you think americans find europe so enchanting and name our mansions mediterranean? there's a fascination with places that stand the test of time. let's build some of those. if they get destroyed, then learn your lesson and build smarter (not just better). rant complete.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

the timeless days of summer

oh how me and the neighborhood boys would play stick ball neath the power lines. we'd fetch tadpoles from the nearby creek. and nothing says summer like an afternoon escape to the local shake n' fries.

for those of us not on the public school seasonal schedule, summer ends this week. i ended up spending the end right where it started with my dad down along the gulf coast. in between i've tossed aside the aqua socks of summers past and donned a pair of wingtips. ok, i am allowed to wear flip flops at work, but i've been told i'm handling this adulthood thing really well either way. then again today i was likened to a 40 year old virgin, trapped between man and boyhood.

earlier on in july during a cliff diving excursion, i misplaced my watch and had been going tan line free ever since. it was borderline liberating for my buttoned down lifestyle. my dad urged me to retrieve the watch in order to be a man, or something, so lo and behold, thank you david for getting it back for me.

so cue the cicadas and fire up the conroe high school fighting tiger marching tiger band, as summer 2005 slowly rumbles to an end. i'm gonna stop short of quoting sappy green day lyrics. it's fall.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

day 2

my dad and i tried relating what we'd seen in mississippi to jerry, the developer at st. joe i'm working with. how can you actually justify building an entire city along the gulf coast of florida when it could just as easily be gone in half a day? and building from scratch seams inane when there's so much that needs to be repaired elsewhere. building material costs rise. labor is impossible to come by. makes you think where priorities lie. jerry was in between shook and depressed.

i guess i don't have to wax on such complexities of architecture as i'm just an intern. for the rest of the day my dad and i were running around the deep south trying to make our way back to texas. tip: remember to set your watch to eastern time so you don't your overnight bus. i was slightly better off and had my discount flight that took me back through miami. shaq, will smith, and david caruso send their best.

journey complete.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

day 1

my dad ended up jumping on for the trip east. and coming from the man who originally told me to stay far north of any of the hurricane damage, i found it surprising that we took a two hour detour south into mississippi. along the way we met a man who swept sand from the driveway of his house that was no longer there. we met fema workers and national guardsmen. we met a woman who'd stayed for 4 days in new orleans to care for her nursing home patients. we met another who'd watched people die in the convention center. most of these photos are from waveland, mississippi where cars were on top of cars and entire houses were missing save for the foundation and front steps.
amidst all of that, it was nice to see the gulfport applebee's back open and serving hot plates of whatever it is they serve at an applebee's.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

$2.89

with things how they are, this might be the last great american road trip. in the next few days i'll drive by the astrodome, up to conroe, head out early monday morning along I-10 as far as that will get me into louisiana, through the backroads of mississippi and alabama and everything else katrina, and into tallahassee simply to deliver a model without risk of destruction. after that, it's a whirlwind flight tuesday down to miami and back up to houston/conroe for the night only to make it back here to work around lunchtime wednesday.

i wasn't kidding in my last post about the delta being hit hard. it wasn't until today though that it made the news. click on the video there too, if you feel like you haven't seen enough footage for the past week and a half.

on a lighter note, while sorting to find some donations i discovered a shirt i haven't actually worn since high school. it's somehow been following me around through all my college closets until now. it might have even made it to italy. anyway, i hope there's some new orleanian going through a big fat plaid phase.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

worry some

next week i'll be in new orleans. or i was supposed to be. the thing is me and my model still have to make our way to tallahassee before september 15th, but that now requires a detour and a new pitstop city. either way i'm crossing the path of katrina and taking my camera.

as scary as things are in new orleans right now, i know everything i saw along the mississippi delta back at the beginning of summer is destroyed. the town at the end, ironically named venice, was nothing but mobil homes, shanty baptist churches, and oil refineries butting up against levees. seems like none of that is left.

some of our structural consulatants are headed over there before long to...well consult structure and see if they can save any of the surviving buildings. in our office we're raising money for the new orleans AIA. as stupid as that sounds, architecture is a big part of what makes new orleans new orleans and not just a third world war zone.

oh, and the saints will be playing football here in the alamodome this season. bored spurs fan nonchalantly rejoice.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

up the river





considering that one year ago today i stepped off a bus in tuscany, i'm just fine with south texas. this weekend at ted's land was good. good in the way you actually watch the sun rise and fall two days in a row. good in hearing roosters crow and rain falling on the metal roof where you sleep. good in really getting to know your coworkers, bosses, and friends.

out in the middle of nowhere it's very quiet and you can get a lot of thinking done. that's both good and bad. ultimately you reach a higher state of being and a good tan, and you can't trade that for the world.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

best week ever?

lying in a hospital bed, covered in cardiogram electrodes, and being surrounded by comatose stroke victims wasn't in my plans for today. but beggers can't be choosers and life is just one bitch of a level scale.

for most of this week i was either moving on up to the third floor or schmoozing with the clients from florida. by schoozing i mean i stayed quiet and watched everyone who wasn't paid by the hour talk architecture. yesterday our team got back together to plan out the rest of this project. i now with my new found knowledge of bigwig talk, chimed in a couple times to earn that $9.50. in between there was plenty of company catered food, an hour long presentation on linoleum, and i got to meet the mayor of san antonio at a genuine ribbon cutting.

today i woke up and was immediately on the floor in back pain. i figured i just slept wrong so i stretched it out, headed to work, and chalked it up to being a man of my age. in fact at the office i was called out on walking like an old man a couple times. soon after i was struggling to breath and really hurting. soon after that there i was in the emergency room.

i was diagnosed with severely pulled parasternal intercostals (i slept severely wrong) so now i'm chalk full of high grade narcotics with a carton of epsom salts primed for a morning bath. sadly, a planned trip to austin tomorrow might be in jeopardy with my inability to operate heavy machinery.

Monday, August 15, 2005

my facester

somehow i broke down and signed back on to facebook right as the summer started. half as a way to pass the time on a quiet night and half to stalk people. well that quiet night has lasted all summer and i'm sure i have a few restraining orders by now. as much as i indulge, i'm still 100% against the likes of facebook, friendster, and my space (the only one i've managed to steer clear of) on the sole basis of acquaintanship. that's all we are nowadays it seems, casual friends who you can too easily read blogs and away messages of or see their naked pictures of (i'm not allowed to tell) from across the country without having to actually talk face to face. know the deepest darkest secrets of someone and then merely give a hello nod when passing on the street. though i'd shake zach braff's hand.

in following suit, i looked up everyone with my last name, and now they're my virtual friends. i'd always felt lonely in the world having never met another, but now i "have" and that makes me feel "good." i even furthered the non-necessity of future high school reunion small talk by linking to this blog and giving out my screenname on facebook. read away semistrangers, even you unknown person in san angelo. my favorite though is big "breasted italian women" searcher who found this thing by searching for big breasted italian women. if my knowledge of yahoo search engine code is right and this thing has been hit before, this blog should be the future search engine champion for big breasted italian women.

if any of y'all are ever actually in san antonio, let's grab a margarita on the riverwalk. i'll even shake your hand.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

the most worthless blog entry ever

it's funny the things you occupy your time with when living alone. the things you do that for your own pure amusement, that have no effect on anyone else in the world but yourself. no one to impress, to entertain, compromise for. it makes you understand where your actual interests lie.

take for instance my pile of change. i first started using cash at the age of 7 or 8, but you know just a school lunch here or an arcade marathon there. it all added up to a lot in my mind, and in fact i added it all up every few months to determine my wealth. i actually stored five dollar birthday bills in my old half of an encyclopedia set, in the m-volume, under money. i was a veritable bruce wayne. as time went on, i had 3 or 4 jobs then which for the most part went into savings. any one dollar bills or pocket change i did have was funneled into my then 16 year old gasoline fund. remember back in 1998, gas was cheap and driving out to church seemed like a grand adventure.

since then, i've had 5 or 6 more jobs, all non-cash, yet i'm still carrying around that same pile of change in my little red train tin i got from some junior high band candy fundraiser. now the debit card is king and though my famous frank lloyd wright checks i got right before college are almost all gone, i'm sure i'll find something equally as dorky/pretentious to take me into the next 5 years. so i've made it my personal goal here in san antonio to use those nickels whenever possible (i love parking meters) and simplify my life enough to where i can count it all up, organized by demonination on my bedspread. long story short...er, yesterday when making an impromptu bread run at HEB, i grabbed what i'd stashed in the honda coinscoop and discovered a worn souvenir pressed penny that i'd gotten at fisherman's wharf in san francisco, a family trip back from when i was 10 or 11.

i was content to stand in the humbling nostalgia of the moment and just leave it at that, but no it was too precious so i decided to share it with you.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred
pieces of basswood

how do you measure, measure a month? in headaches? in bandades? in runs to hobby lobby?

it should have been about a month, but it kept going and now i'm afraid to figure out how long it took. let's just agree that for all of july 2005 my sole purpose was to create this model of a florida beach club. it was my existence.

outside of that, i'd have to say july 2005 was quite a good month in terms of living in san antonio and dealing with those responsibilities and feeling the passing of time a little bit more than i'm used to. august means it gets even hotter and i have to contend with back to school sales/tax free weekends at the mall, like i did yesterday. carry on children as i go tie shopping and get my car inspected.

and make my little doll houses. tomorrow i unveil this thing that i finished on this sunday night and hopefully start anew on a few drawings and definitely wear my new shirt.

you actually measure in 32nds of an inch and eyeball anything smaller. and on a similar note, this month i remembered to pay my RENT.

Friday, July 29, 2005

"have you met my ex-wife?"

that's the line my dad has used countless times in the past to make in-laws laugh and relative strangers feel uncomfortable. that's the line he used today when his nurse came in to check on him. that's the same nurse we would later learn is the mother of a girl i once dated which led to me making akward conversation and feeling relatively uncomfortable.

chalk it up to our famed y-chromosone and our unwillingness to treat serious stuff too seriously. for the first time today i heard the story about how my dad (and his friend john (who was my junior high principal)) arrived back from their long trip to india in the early seventies. keeping in mind that he hadn't seen his wife (my mother (not his nurse) in six weeks, and could have possibly gone through a beattles-esque rebirth during that time, donned the traditional indian robe and head piece he'd bought there, in the airport bathroom. my mom failed to recognize the skinnier, tanner indian man who looked like her husband. But of course her mother (my grandmother (his in-law)) picked him out of the crowd i'm sure with relative bewilderment.

another revelation by dad concerned the previously mentioned post-op yard trenching therapy session. why he didn't dislocate his new shoulder, he did cut up a few sprinkler system pipes which he had to fix and relocate. doing so required hours of crouching which led to his knee surgery a year later and made his legs constantly fall asleep. now he believes that that same poor circulation caused the current clots.

again, he is feeling fine but is still confined to his hospital room. furthermore, today he discovered room service and with it their nice selection of ice cream. i promise i'll tell his donkey delivery story soon.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

m.a.t.

my dad went into the hospital late last night because of a blood clot in his leg. a CAT scan revealed that he had further clotting in his lungs. considering all this, he's not in pain and is more annoyed by the fact that he has to sleep on his back until it clears up. hell he can't be anywhere but his back for the next few days. at first i was quick to point out his poor diet of red meat and ice cream, but it's more likely hereditary or caused by cancer. the tests haven't come back yet.

because of this, he's having to back out saturday of his first wedding in thirty whatever years of photographing weddings. possibly the saturday after that too. he had asked me to shoot this weekend's, but he found a replacement. an old coworker of his back from when he first started off.

it's nice to see that he's confident enough in me to take over one wedding. however i definitely don't feel ready to take over the family part time business and hopefully he's not ready to give it up. after all, this is the same man who two days after having replacement shoulder surgery, rented a gasoline powered trencher and tore up the back yard.

Friday, July 22, 2005

turn and face the strain

once again, it all changes. my life got flip turned upsidedown. three times this week i step outside of casa myrtle and actually make friends here and now it's time for them to leave. it's in between sad and annoying. soon enough too, the fall semester starts up and i lose any of the few casual summer visits that i've had anyway. in adulthood there is no summer, just hotter workdays.

even if i don't see any human faces outside of the cast of everybody loves raymond, there's always my love for correspondence. within the last few days i've gotten letters/emails/postcards/phone calls from austin, malibu, boston, vancouver, san fransisco, tehran, london, barcelona, paris, and seabrook, texas of all places. actually i think it's easier to be friends if you never have to meet face to face, which is why the upcoming weeks scare the hell out of me.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

christmas in july and the porkchop shaped stocking

a cool front came through and my family was in town bearing random gifts of cranberry juice, tortilla chips, and porkchops. honestly i love porkchops as much as anyone else who eats porkchops, but now i have enough to make anyone who eats porkchops very sick of eating porkchops very soon. and this is right as i'm starting to eat less meat anyway so i'll have to put that on hold for a while.

i introduced them to all things lf including my office and us "accidentally" coming across 5 or 6 buildings across downtown. it's great when we're just walking along and my mom points out jokingly "is that yours too?" and i say yes. oh and my dad elaborated on his donkey at the strip club story for the inlaws. one day i'll tell you.

if you'll excuse me it's a blistery 81 degrees outside and my mittens are primed for sledding and snowball skirmishes. ta ta.

Monday, July 11, 2005

the ice cream man cometh (steve, willy, and kevin too)

i had been hearing his rendition of the entertainer outside for a few weeks now, but it wasn't until i saw his tricked out special school bus painted blue that i understood. furthermore, i drove by what i guess was his house the other night cause i spotted the 300 pound hairy backed (how did i know he was hairy?) mexican man clearing out his ice cream inventory shirtless (that's how i knew) and maybe doing a little dance.

my next favorite character is fifty cent steve. i call him that cause he looks like a steve and keeps asking me in my front yard for change to make a phone call. he's a waifish hippy type, looking a month unwashed so i guess he's calling his stock broker.

i chose willy's barber shop from the yellowpages yet the description didn't tell me that i'd be the only white kid amongst three 60 year old men chatting in spanish over the piped in selena dance numbers. turns out willy himself is is an seventy year old, 8 times married, world war II dischargee, whose youngest son is 17. after showing me miguel's prom picture, willy proceeded to give advice to my generation including what to do with those wild girls who wear the short skirts and the thongs.

maybe not my favorite but definitely the most talkative is kiosk kevin. he called out to me from his european frangrance booth at the mall only to ask what i was shopping for. that led to discussing my office's dress code, to discussing architecture in general, to comparing the interior of nearby abercrombie and fitch to that of historic russian cathedrals. no kidding. in the end, i think i convinced him to be an architect. i like san antonio.

Friday, July 08, 2005

"you picked the wrong city"


the more i think about it the more i loved london. at any given second there's a million things going on and you can't possibly perceive everything all at once. in effect you find your little nitch somewhere in there and go about life knowing that nitch passionately well. it's hard to stop something so big and diverse and that quick on its feet.

i'm glad all my friends there are safe and well.

as for san antonio, it's been very hot. my attempt at eating lunch at alamo plaza was shortened by 102 degrees of pure fahrenheit. and it's been staying in the hundreds up until 8pm sometimes. i did spot a few strikes of lightning last night yet found even fewer drops of rain on my car this morning, so i think i'll basically be staying high and dry here until one of my neighbors leaves a sprinkler on and unattended.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

le tour de tejas


i'll call it the great extended indepence weekend of reccuring themes 2005.

canada day friday started with me going to cycle world again to buy bike tubes and soon after figuring out that new tubes also refuse to fill up. after drowning my flat tire sorrows in a two-for-one pizza deal from pizza classics, i find myself with nick and others on our way to hang out with the real world austin cast at some san antonio bar that i forget the name of. for legal reasons, plans changed at the last second which was fine since i hadn't seen the show and could generally care less for the show. the plan change involved us and dissolved real world groupies hanging out in line for popular downtown gay dance club. me not being gay and nick not being gay and neither of us having homosexual worthy dance moves, back out at the last second and called it a canada day night soon after.

saturday morning i downed a few more pieces of my wonderful discount pizza, which was cold seeing as i still didn't have a microwave, and threw my discount bike tubes in my trunk. third trip in a week to cycle world discovered that my pump bought in trip one and not the tubes bought in trip two was the problem. also being in a bike shop that often makes you catch lance fever and almost makes you almost want to buy a yellow wrist band. from there i was out of town. i stopped in austin to pick up jennifer, picked up a bit more of the lance vibe with banners draped everywhere, and picked up some austin nostalgia seeing as i hadn't been back since i moved out. our ride to conroe involved jen warning me not to see war of the worlds, agreeing that the real world was the stupiest thing ever, and her repeatedly ejecting my ben folds cd i had just bought at cheapos. at home i soon discovered that my nephew's 6th birthday involved not surprisingly a pizza party. four more pieces of pizza accomplished my mom and i decided to check out the new conroe theater and see the only late showing which of course was war of the worlds. in an even later showing back at the house i was about asleep when an hour and a half showing of real world austin came on. i mean, come on, i was feeling all nostalgic for atx so how could i resist?

the late owlness and all day pizza diet apparently put me out until 12:30pm on sunday which may be the latest i've ever slept. a chat with dad over mom's pork roast lunch attempted to teach me that i should never go near another gay dance club. soon after my mom and i were off to watch fireworks at my aunt's lake house and my dad was off to photograph a wedding that i would later find out was done by a gay preacher who proceeded to take advantage of the first slow dance of the recpetion with his partner. my dad didn't tell me if he took a picture. oh, and at my aunt had luckliy just cooked a nice big pork roast for dinner.

america day monday was pretty unique seeing as it involved cliff diving with david and tacos and gretchen all back in austin - though jennifer is still a music nazi on the way back. oh yeah, i jammed my knee into some rock climbing out of the water and gretchen jammed her knee through a glass pane in her door and so we were both sitting there pretty gimp with various amounts of blood coming out of both of us. the late drive last night involved the windows rolled down, fireworks going off all the way down I-35, ben folds playing loudly on the speakers, and my parent's 30 year old wedding present microwave nesteled in the back seat alongside a new bike pump and a pair of inflated schwinn tires.

today i overslept and ate warm leftover pizza.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

summer reading list

where the sidewalk ends is quite possibly the greatest combination of paper and ink ever created. that's why i'm giving it to nephew alex for his sixth birthday this weekend and that's why i'm reading his copy now. i'm reading these poems and looking at the illustrations and each one is taking me back fifteen years and conjuring up vivid memories of sitting in the b.b. rice elementary school library being read these poems and shown those illustrations in the typical 180-degree-make-sure-all-the-children-see-it fashion. good god it's like yesterday. damnit "iclke me, pickle me, tickle me too" is beautiful.

so you can see why i'm turning off the endless everybody loves raymond and friends blocks to actually read a bit more this summer. i've already run though the da vinci code (very interesting topic, very horrible writing) like the rest of america and spent a good couple hours at the laundromat last sunday starting a "brave new world." i raided my closet in conroe for all the old classics my dad had stolen from libraries of all the schools he's worked at since the late sixties and with that i rediscovered my love for that old book smell. after those i end my harry potter protest, and after those i should begin my correspondence course on creative writing which takes care of my elusive humanities credit, and after all that i write my own great american (or in most cases, britsh) novel and hopefully, just hopefully learn to communicate a complex thought without resorting to overly-hyphenated and drawn out run-on sentences.

i think i will name my son shel.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

hallelujah


you could say i'm now situated and full on into the routine of work, eat, sleep like all the other little adults. granted i do love my job so the hours kinda fly by and friday afternoon i stayed there a bit longer before heading back into my one room isolation chamber.

small things work well to break up the normalcy like winning nba championships. immediately after the game thursday i witnessed what seemed to be a southern texas apocolypse complete with car horns, car crashes, fireworks shooting at me on the freeway, and a giant neon star of david which i think means the second coming of jesus christ.

this evening was the parade and enough player introductions to get me caught up with the san antonians. tomorrow i try again with the bike pump and see if i can explore beyond my front porch.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

stir crazy in spanish america

i made a trip to HEB for the second night in a row to pick up a new box of floss and to simply see other living beings after the sun went down. box of floss? or is it floss container? am i having conversations with myself?

the nights only get longer from here...literally!

Thursday, June 16, 2005

go spurs go?

i can't really hear the game from the computer too well cause the window unit is on full throttle and they're losing quite badly anyway. it was neat to see from the time i first interviewed in april to now that the ubiquitous "go spurs go" signs have become more ubiquitous and the entire city seems to be naming their children manu.

i gave the riverwalk a few attempts today in search of the perfect father's day gift but unless dad want's a don't mess with texas tshirt or a cd of peruvian flute music, i got nothin.

also today i finished the 3 day training of the CAD program that lf bought back in the reagan administration and i swear bears a striking resemblance to LOGO. if you don't know what i'm talking about then maybe you didn't take keyboarding with ms. parsley back in fifth grade and you don't know to not "copy that floppy." seriously i think that film introduced the idea that we were even capable of copying that floppy.

Monday, June 13, 2005

saint anthony and me

hola. i'm quickly learning what's it's like to live alone, work a full time job, and be a san antonian. basically it's really quiet and you get lost a lot.

but hell i like it here. i live in the historic tobin hill neighborhood just north of downtown. i say it has a lot of character, yet my parents say don't go outside at night. i've filled the hardwood floors to the brim with empty seats and now the fridge is full of HEB produce. THIS is the HEB mecca.

work is good even though i failed to learn many of the 50 new names. i can't even remember the company dog's name. i think when i get my own desk and do more than play with scotch tape all day, i might meet people. i foresee great things.

and then while walking through downtown a family asked me how to get to the alamo. tourists! but i guess that means that i'm a local now even though i'm pretty sure i pointed in a completely wrong direction. i want to keep on exploring and eat in every restaurant i come across but the first round of bills has left me bankrupt so i think i'll just stay in and keep eating soup left over from austin.

both the irish and the scots had magical powers. the irish made pots of gold and the scots made tape.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

here i go

conroe. austin. castiglion fiorentino...san antonio.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

cabin fervor

my dad and I are out to find the end of the mississippi. not the minnesota end of course but the vast delta, marshy, louisiana end. conquistador style. it's good cause i need an escape from all things cable tv and central air conditioning. i came down with some nauseous headache the other night i think cause i had been inside all day.

just for a dramaic touch, imagine this as huckleberry finn's escape from the tedium of st. petersburg only my dad isn't a large black man named jim and the river raft role will be played by a 1999 honda accord.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

check the papers and the tv

the oasis is gone. that definitely is a sign it was time to leave austin, with all it's beauiful sunsets and huge burning decks and all. i know they'll rebuild it eventually but it's just sad to see. watch the video.

at the same time i saw that in my inbox, the AIM ad reminded me of a little show premiering tonight on WB called Beauty and the Geek. Read more here. Fans of this blog will remember Lauren B. and her rise to fame in the Lingerie Bowl 2005 but this one is big and she'll be mostly clothed this time. oh wait i was wrong, watch the video.

making conroe even prouder and again proving that CHS cheerleaders turned homecoming queen candidates turned underwear models can make a difference, '00 graduate Blair T. is apparently gracing the pages of playboy, earning co-ed of the week honors. i guess that means she actually followed through with college. i'd link to a picture but i try to keep this blog parental advisory free.

other than petty gossip and yellow journalism, i do use my time in conroe to catch up on the world. deep throat has revealed himself and my dad's long standing belief that it was Bush (41) is wrong. my parents we're in DC when it happened and remember reading the washington post in the morning and wondering why someone would want to steal campaign buttons. i don't know but apparently it changed america.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

the hot hot humidity

i guess it's mother nature's not so gentle way of saying summer is here and it's time to move out. this house at the end of whitis avenue is nearly empty and though i'll be the last to close the door this weekend i take my first small load to san antonio tomorrow. between then and then i'll try to pack in plenty more hill country springs/west campus pool swimming. good lord it is hot.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

dear grace,


there's not much to say other than life is fine here in conroe. i went to alex's last t-ball game ever as he matures into the world of coach's pitch. garrison proved he is very unlike alex in that he's not afraid of dogs, even flea covered cow dogs. and i went water skiing and realized i didn't want to answer another water-sports question again. that's not true. take care, marc.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

revelations

i think i planned to write something that would tie together this past semester and would make sense of it all. about how i had learned a little more about the brutally banal real world of architecture in practice but had still managed to be that much more optimistic about what architecture could do. how my focus had switched from this little thing called college to thinking about my future outside of school. how i felt fundamentally different about the whole thing.

well apparently somethings never change. my grades are all back and i am an average student. i tried holding a job like thousands of other students and i get fired from that. girls come and go and really were never there in the first place. i sit on my little stool thinking somehow i'm slightly different and can see things slightly clearer but in reality i've got nothing to show. it's amazing how much someone can work the system by being in the top 10% of their high school to automatically get into a good university, be in a good university and automatically get into a good firm, and god knows what else one can work oneself into. simon told me repeatedly i'm a good talker but i figure talk IS cheap and ultimately gets you nowhere. and here's the point where i digress and note that it's not that bad and i tend to exaggerate.

so in this pitstop along the great roadtrip i will find myself now not going to new orleans in order to sit here in conroe and watch tball games and hear about how my dad and his friend sold a donkey to a strip club. it really is a funny story though the summary of "my dad and his friend sold a donkey to a strip club" pretty much says it all.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

exodus

well that's it kids. finals all complete and the grades are rolling in. i've come to accept the fact that i'm a borderline student and all the great ideas are built on the borderlines. anyway, i've gotten so much more out of this semester that couldn't be transcribed into alpha-numeric-check-plus-minus code. it took reading back on a few of these past entries to realize that.

now as the air starts to smell like summer, i hit the road. austin. conroe. new orleans. austin. san antonio. austin. san antonio. conroe. galveston. conroe. and the back to san antonio to live the rest of my 7 month days. that's a lot of central southern soul searching and gas stops across this great land of america. i'll see you along the way.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

pizza flavored friday

seeing as i've been going in and out of consciousness for the past 12 hours i'll write my little summary and call it a day. review happened this morning so i'm in that period where all your cares in the world seem gone and the future shines bright. on the other side of a review you see how much you can really accomplish when you dedicate yourself to something, espcially when it's something you care about. this thing coupled with the theory papers have really kept me going over the past month of unemployment. it's a natural high we're talking about kids. of course that's all grand and well until you realize you've fallen back into three months of horrible summer laziness.

hell, i've earned lazy for a few days before i take on any more worldly issues. my wittle brain is worn and my xacto induced wounds need a vacation.

p.s. i'm listening to the dj abortion and pretty show on wtul. it's been great listening to these girls late fridays over the past four years but sadly this is the last show. thanks nicole and kristen for the memories...of me sitting alone at my computer on a friday night.

Monday, May 09, 2005

tussin flavored monday

one week from now it really won't matter. with finals over, this project completed, and this hacking sickness but a memory, i'll be made in the metaphorical shade. until then, let's dock the sleeping hours and become that robotic marc we all know and love.

i'm tired.

Friday, May 06, 2005

GREAT MOMENTS IN ARCHITECTURE (a manifesto)

We’ve found ourselves now at a point of apathy. This is not to say the average person doesn’t tie themself into some sort of passion – be it religion, political cause, or pop star – but these are just manifestations of large scale ideas. They give significance to people by the millions. I mean to say we’ve lost care for the smaller, everyday events that truly dominate our lives without our much knowing it. What happened to the individual? I’ll stop myself before I get too general because the subject at hand is just architecture and I don’t believe it alone can amend the world. If you want to start a revolution you should try being a minister, politician, or pop star, but if you want to make the way a person goes about their everyday a bit more enjoyable then architecture is the appropriate scale. We’re constantly surrounded by the built world so why not allow an evocative emotion or two to be evoked by it.

The question now is if one can actively create the small scale moments that incrementally add to our experience and burn in our minds. Can you match that sensation of a lightening bug at dusk, unable to fly yet still pulsing a second at a time from the ground until it stops and the remaining blue sky fades to obscure the insect against the adjacent twig or leaf? If architecture can even touch on that sensation then something is right. What about the similar flashing of red lighted radio towers far in the distance that you catch at surprising moments from surprising angles and always seems to remind you of that time in your childhood riding across a freeway overpass that gave you the same such glimpse. Good architecture should read as a run on sentence.

Though architects around the world have successfully crafted the great pieces of architecture that catch our attention and cover our magazine pages, what happens when you turn the corner and run into the local office park? We have fallen too far into the “weekend mentality” of biting the bullet Monday through Friday only to enjoy Saturday and Sunday and in turn again dread the following Monday. The side streets, shopping centers, and storage sheds of the world have just as much to offer as our symphony halls. Good architecture has no beginning or end.

This is not to say that a master architect is needed to design the world. In fact it is when we try to see the world as a large canvas to be painted upon that we lose its multifaceted character. This was the failing of the International style and the shortcoming of most city planning endeavors. We are not all the same, as political correctness might imply. The world is full of inconsistencies and variables amongst its people and landscapes so let them exist and thrive in that character. Good architecture is erratic.

We must avoid, however, the manufactured character of Disney World sets that our neighborhoods and cities have become. It’s not simply architecture at issue here because most of the man made world has been filtered and focus group tested to death so that we arrive at highly polished and processed environments. Furthermore, though a building’s primary purpose is to protect us from the elements, we’ve now shielded ourselves to the point of no surprises. Hot and cold mean nothing other than that they frame 72˚ on each side of the dial. When problems do arise, we are left astonished and ill prepared. Good architecture is full of chance.

Interestingly enough though, these individual persons, buildings, and moments do not exist completely independent of each other. Everything is infinitely intertwined and the beauty is that we’re constantly ebbing and flowing alongside each other. This adds to the overall complexity. The key is to not get lost in the tide and to allow that one evocative flash of emotion to stick out in the blinking crowd every so often. With that, you revolutionize that one space on earth at that one place in time, and in that moment nothing else matters.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

architecture or revolution?

maybe the reservations we have about manifesting our thoughts on architecture, life, and everything in between into a two page essay stems from our reluctance to take a stance on what we're not sure of. i came into college almost four years ago anxious to tackle intellectual subjects and wax philosophical in coffee shops (with me of course drinking hot chocolate) so as to come up with the grand answer to it all. needless to say, both me and the world have changed greatly in the past four years and the tiny little issue of all-the-world's-problems seems a bit more complex than it did to my eighteen year old eyes.

so i played devil's advocate and then played no one's advocate. this semester has finally forced me to advocate my own thoughts for a change. really you have to draw a line somewhere between the Sun-Ridge-Grove Mansions and the Bricklane slums. where do you stand? what is your manifesto destiny?

for now i'm still unsure but i'm definitely tackling the subjects with some sort of passion.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

gregarious new york

i need to get to new york city. they're calling me. the people, the buildings, the idea. they're all calling.

Saturday, April 30, 2005

thirty days has april

i got a step closer to a manifesto on architecture this evening as i watched a lightening bug unable to fly yet still pulsing a second at at time in the grass until it stopped and eventually became too dark to discern from the adjacent twig or leaf. good architecture can only be described as a run-on sentence.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

adventures in america online instant messenger

as i close in on this scarpa paper, let's not forget the simple pleasures in life like screwing around on aim. i'll be playing the part of mr. diesel.

Nutball123: I need girl advice MR Diesel
VinDiesel is xXx: yo, just make hit movies like chronicles of riddick
Nutball123: thanks vin
Nutball123: errr
Nutball123: I mean, Mr Diesel
VinDiesel is xXx: yo, that's right. keep it respectable.
Nutball123: thanks again your advice is book worthy
VinDiesel is xXx: yo, you're right. i should write the chronicles of riddick:the book.
VinDiesel is xXx: get some intellectual ass
Nutball123: i meant about your life
Nutball123: but i bet that would work
VinDiesel is xXx: yo, the chronicles of riddick is a true story
VinDiesel is xXx: VinDiesel is Riddick
Nutball123: i guess your right mr monkey head

the following presentation has been edited for time and content...

Nutball123: ice cube i have a question about the ladies
Ice Cube is xXx: sup sup sup?
Nutball123: when you were in jail for being a mass murderer did you fantasize about ladies, or did you just screw men
Ice Cube is xXx: i don't know what you talkin bout fool. have you seen my new family friendly movie, are we there yet?
Nutball123: why do you keep mentioning that one?
Nutball123: what about XXX?
Nutball123: i thought that was your new one, i hate your old ones
Nutball123: all but saving private ryan when you dressed up as a little girl and got rescued by Vin Diesel
Ice Cube is xXx: yo, just showin the ladies how i can blow up stuff, make them laugh, AND take care of the kids
Ice Cube is xXx: yo, that matt damon is pimp
Ice Cube is xXx: i'd take him in jail or not
Ice Cube is xXx: err, i mean
Ice Cube is xXx: i'd bust that monkey faced diesel up in a second
Nutball123: i think your gay
Nutball123: except when you play straight like in Three Kings
Ice Cube is xXx: yo, let's just say that it was all real in boogie nights
Nutball123: you weren't in boogie nights
Nutball123: thats marky mark
Ice Cube is xXx: yeah, but i saw his little king
Nutball123: so you are gay
Ice Cube is xXx: yo, have you seen my new family friendly movie, are we there yet?
Nutball123: way to change the subject you master of distraction you

57˚

once again, we caught the rat. and by "we" and "caught" i mean joanna and hale repeatedly smashed and bludgeoned the thing to death with the big street trash can until it screamed its last little rat scream and lay still as a ball of hair and rat fluid, packed in the brown paper bag from whence it came. sadly i wasn't here at the time or else i would have chipped in while vomiting at the horror of it all.

meanwhile, the cool front from this past weekend has continued on and i wake up every morning with a good chill and the sound of birds chirping "my ass is freezing." maybe i should close the window.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

a man named carlo and the london overground

it's a good old fashioned custody dispute as simon and speck fight for visitation rights. this is my life now, and will be for the next two weeks. it's actually nice to know that as soon as i leave the goodsyard i've got lots of books with pretty pictures waiting for me at home, yet a diversion or four is in order for this weekend before i smell grindstone.

i'm not sure why i have issues with design. architecture right now is one of the few pleasures in my world that gets me excited and doesn't have a guilty aftertaste. just pick up the pencil and draw to force the world to make a bit more sense.

maybe the new sauna feature in our house will encourage me to go get more work done. or maybe the fact that we have a new rat who is smarter, braver, smaller, and thus more maneuverable .

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

meet the parents

if you're just joining us it's 4:19 in the a.m. and i'm wide awake. chalk this one up to tomorrow being the least busy tuesday on record, consisting of my new found unemployment and only one hour long class. luckily i'll get my schooling through chinese history lessons seeing as mom and dad are in town.

in just their few hours in austin so far, i've further realized i am my father's son. which other gene pool of xy chromosones would find out their aunt/great aunt had died of alzheimer's that day and make forgetful memory jokes that night to play it off? i didn't actually know the woman well but i imagine how marshall/marc should be feeling.

now on the brink of 4:30 and the subsequent morning i think i'll try some reading which will hopefully turn into "reading" which for those of you outside of the whitis house means sleeping. today i'll tell mom and dad something new.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

god doesn't open a window without closing a door

i lost my job. for those of you out in tv land who can't keep up, i got this job back in january with james larue and i got a new job on tuesday with lf that starts in june. i wasn't necessarily expecting this gap of unemployment but i can't say i'm surprised.

in between missing redlines and repeatedly messing up copying documents, i sucked. yes, i was wanting to leave the job since day one, and maybe that reflected in my work, but that doesn't keep me from feeling like a guy who just got fired. am i automatically going to stop sucking in san antonio?

good news is jim said i always showed up on time, dressed well, and had a nice haircut. maybe my good interview skills and friendly good mornings got me this far, but this far gets you fired. my supposed charm is mere eye candy where i need to be serving up the eye meat.

today ended up being the new beginning i needed after all.

Monday, April 11, 2005

double twosy

typing that title, in all its infinite wit, made me realize that tomorrow i will be old. halfway between teeball practice and social security checks. maybe not that old but enough to feel i belong to a new demographic group. goodbye mtv, hello biography channel.

furthermore tomorrow i get to play grown up and have a job interview in san antonio. it's not that i'm not capable of having a full time job and living alone (though i return to normalcy in january) but i just don't think i'm fully equipped enough to be a full time adult. i'm a few edge pieces short of puzzle. and they're all sky pieces which quite frankly are the hardest to figure out.

so in conclusion i'd be content with coke floats at the rainbow roller rink. come to my party or i'll cry.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

i see london...


i'm currently pouring over the bus maps of london, trying to make sense of this city that i spent last week in. if ever there was a city to be deemed organic, this winding maze of tubes and double deckers seems to get it right. now begins the five week process of being the little architect in the big city, simultaneously detailing glass facades and fixing socioeconomic injustice. i hope i get a good grade!

it took a trip to midnight rodeo and a good dose of sleep last night to reamericanize and get my schedule back on. after the dead week before spring break, spring break, and globetrotting week, getting back on to just a normal school/work schedule seems hard enough. back to reading, cleaning, CADing, no napping, and emailing london and paris.

Monday, March 28, 2005

an american boy in london


it's been about a week though it's blended all together. hard to summarize it all so far but i wanted to make a short appearance before the last couple days.

i'm quite a fan of the undergound despite jessica's protests...i've spent a bit of money and will thus have to survive on pb&j for the rest of the semester...i've spent way too much time watching tv yet it's nice to just hang out in a flat...a girl named kate came from paris and i think i have a good new friend.

i'll see you in america.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

sprung

spring break 2005 will go down as a mixed success. lists were checked off, video games vegging out happened, home towns were visited, and multiple lakes were ridden upon with various kinds of boats. now i'm getting ready for this thing called london.

i leave for london on tuesday so i'm getting a much underserved 2 and a half week break. maybe i should have gotten a head a bit more for my classes i'm missing but hey, i'm going to london.

hey, i'm going to london!

Monday, March 07, 2005

site plans, marathons, and that portico alongside the communications building

another weekend, another blur of cold morning rain and LIFE CHANGING decisions. despite my last second optimism and can do attitude I am not going to have the dream job in seattle this summerfall. anyway, who said it was a dream job and working in san fransisco would be a bad thing?

i went into yesterday knowing i had to just make it thorugh the next 24 hours and dj abortion and dj pretty's 24 hour marathon helped me along the way to the point where review went quite well and the weather became beautiful. spring is on the verge. yes i see the buds on trees right now and a blue bonnet was spotted the other day so let's enjoy this season and screw the next. afterall i get london and everything that goes with that in just sixteen days.

my phone beeps.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

can i hear you say wayo?

i fell off my bike again. we have fifth room mate named benito IV. he is a rat. i've chosen seattle.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

the day it rained all day

unknown phone numbers are great.

this is me at my most masochistic

the midlife crisis continues as i have taken in the idea that i might spend next june through december working in a firm far, far from austin. the application, portfolio, and possible firm/city decision are due monday so here goes, as we enter the weekend.

hey marc, what are you gonna do with your life?
whatever i feel like, gosh!

apparently others are going through the same such decisions.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

she came from oklahoma

i'm at another one of those crossroads where the future of my life and possibly the world is at stake.

how very dramatic, eh? see the problem is, i went to a lecture today by local architect chris krager and seeing his work made me realize how much more i want from architecture than the traditional life story that could very easily become my life story. (that being design tuscan villas...graduate from college so i can design tuscan villas with a degree...become principle architect in america's leading tuscan villa firm). and not only is this guy chris progressing architecture in terms of materials and thought but he seems to be doing pretty well for himself. what seems to have set him apart and actually led to his success is that he takes chances.

i realize that i'm not doing residency and that doing so would have been a great experience and catalyst for everything but now i have to make the most of it. here's the plan. (design tuscan villas through the end of may...at that point i will have acquired a job in austin for the summer that actually excites me...graduate and will be that point have a acquired an even more exciting job in portland, oregon which requires weekly trips to vancouver...go to grad school in the most exciting city ever (wherever that might be) only to later get a job in a city that makes any thoughts of the previously stated exciting cities seem silly and mundane...become principle architect of the most exciting firm ever...in a city of my own creation.)

i think for most people at this point, they've come across a certain someone or something that will guide such decisions but i'm going on this one free of restrictions and am thus suffocated by the range of options.

who ever said i didn't have a life plan?

Friday, February 18, 2005

ev'ryone gather round

now three weeks into my job i can say i'm happy to have finally joined the ranks of the educated/employed. James La Rue and his architects are a strange group of people that create neighborhoodfuls of big houses, many of the big houses that i could care less for and on another level want to see an end to.

so why, marc, are you helping such creations come about through the art of detailing broom closets? well there's money. i'm tired of living off my parents and their endowing of a little trip to Italy was very generous so this is a way to say thanks. secondly, i'm actually getting experience that could help me get cooler jobs along the way that i feel passionate about.

then there are times when i wonder if maybe Jim and his houses aren't the end of our architectural world as we know it. i appreciate his layed back attitude, his care for details, and that he is obviously passionate about his work. so maybe i've got something to learn from him and all his arcaded porches, and maybe i'm just holding my breath until i get a raise.

did i ever mention i might want to move to oregon?

Sunday, February 13, 2005

conroe, texas

seeing everyone from high school is quite surreal. makes you realize that you spent more years of your life with them than anyone from college and the fact that those years ranged from childhood to age 18 means a lot. the slide show before the wedding made me miss those days and wish i could go back and do it again. not so much to change my adolescence but to just experience it again and appreciate it that much more.

then again, maybe we have all gone on our seperate paths now and have little in common. do we just all say goodbye once and for all. personally i look forward to more of these weddings a another year down the road where we can retell the same stories just the like the day after the stories originally happened. are you following me?

it's late saturday night in the world of conroe so i think i'll head to my familiar old room and familiar old bed. goodnight.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

why did robert stack wear a trench coat? (update)

so apparently people read this. i started this thing to keep track of italy but it seems austin, texas is just as exciting.

i've always been a pretty organized person but keeping a calendar never seemed that important. looking back that was because i didn't have that much to schedule. sure, studio has always kept me busy but a constant white bar of studio 1-6 MWF would look pretty lame in microsoft outlook. let's take a look at his week: dinner with katie, chinese new year night one, meet design group, SOM lecturer in town, chinese new year ngiht two, marketing research study, mr. belding in town, design review, faculty-student mixer, and christina murdock's wedding back in conroe. is it lame to brag about all the stuff you do? well half of the stuff may be lame but at least i'm not bored.

speaking of lame and boring, this entry is lame and boring. sending/receiving emails from paris and london on a daily basis is fun enough.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

vrooom!


Feast your eyes on my shiny new blue schwinn. It's wicked awesome. After me and the guys go bike riding, we're gonna go play stick ball then head down to the shake n' fries.