Have you ever seen such a beautiful super market in your life? I’m moving five blocks from the brand new Berkeley Bowl West in just over a week, and I’m so excited!
SFGate describes it as having “a spacious, almost warehouse-like feel with open floor plan and high industrial-looking ceilings. The building includes a cafe, prep kitchen, modest wine tasting bar, warehouse and offices…”
Sounds divine.
Architect George John designed these beach huts with an eye toward conserving the natural environment. Made of chattai straw mats, each one is nestled into the coconut forests that lie at the doorsteps of two of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Palolem, and Agonda Beaches, in southern Goa. Drift into dreamland to the rhythm of the Indian Ocean.
{Image courtesy of Chattai Beach Huts}
The New York guitarist Marc Ribot plays Issue Project Room’s Floating Points Festival at the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn, tomorrow night. Read an interview I did with him in 2002, and then get your tickets for the show.
There’s an art exhibition opening tonight in LA that I sure wish I could go to. Drew Denny and Kyoung Kim made an eight-foot-high geodesic dome, wrapped it in a quilt of recycled paper, and installed a hand-cranked bulb that projects constellations on its interior. It’s the first project in their series called Reclamation, which presents works that look at the environment without harming it, while employing kinetic energy generated by people. Planetarium sounds like something every kid needs. Could Denny and Kim’s planetarium be the new back yard tree house? Or why not turn it into a tent? Sleeping under the stars never sounded so good.
Tuesday, while Ram was getting his new iPhone at the SoHo Apple store, I watched a Q&A session with the director and screenwriters of 500 Days of Summer. It was a fun way to spend an hour, and I especially liked it when director Marc Webb talked about how Zooey Deschanel played her own music during the scenes without dialogue. “Music energizes her,” he said. Music energizes me too. Thanks for the reminder Marc! Now I think I’ll go listen to Britney Spears.
“Twenty-five years widowed. But I love all the time,” says Estella, a Mexican house cleaner who slips in to the quiet abode of her employers, maybe once a week, to straighten up the mess, and wash away the dust – putting a household in order during the time between living. But this is Estella’s life, or at least part of it. The part that’s mostly overlooked. By others.
Birgit Richter, a German photographer, who I met in Berlin last year, sees beauty in these oft unnoticed moments. Her series on Los Angeles cleaning ladies takes the mundane, and turns it into a graceful choreography. A fascinating short film by Danish director Christian Svanes Kolding portrays a truly meaningful exchange between two lives in just five minutes.
“When you take your time and look close enough – everything is original,” Richter says in the film.
Watch Everything is Original, and then take a look at some more photos from Richter’s “Invisible People” series.
BAM’s screening the 1969 Truffaut classic Mississippi Mermaid all week, starting tomorrow! I’ve never seen this movie, but it looks really good, not only because Catherine Deneuve is in it, but because it’s based on a William Irish book, the same author who penned much of the material for one of my favorite Truffaut flicks, The Bride Wore Black. I think I’ll go ahead and order a ticket, because I’ll be in New York next week. Yippee!
Been thinking a lot about Science blogs. Do you have a favorite?
{Photo: Gregory Tobias via The Chemical Heritage Foundation on Flickr}
How are you celebrating the 233rd anniversary of our independence from England? We’re heading to New Hampshire where we’ll have our very own fireworks display (it’s legal there!)
PS – Sorry for the inconsistent posting this week. We left Berlin Sunday and are spending the month traveling around the Northeast, visiting family, and collecting our things before settling down in Berkeley, California in August. I’ll try to post something new every day, but please forgive me if I miss a day or two here or there…
Have a great long weekend! xoxo.
{Photo: Celikins}
