Forgotten Detroit

The other day I was watching a video of Greece with my family, trying to decide where we would go after visiting family there next summer. Looking at all of the ruins, it made me start thinking about how we preserve things here in the states, or don’t preserve things I should say.

I do realize that the ruins in Greece were built several thousands of years before the United States even existed, but I feel like the general sentiment of appreciating your past, and not replacing something unless it’s broken is a different mentality than we have here.

In a significant part of Europe many of the buildings are original, and communities have not been re-build since they were originally erected. Because people have taken good care of these structures, and not just torn them down after they reach about 30 or 40 years old, they still exist and are now appreciated by generations many years down the line from when they were initially built.

I started to wonder if the United States would ever be able to reach a point where they would have anything preserved that was older than a few hundred years old. Obviously places that have historical significance, like Monticello, will stay around. What about the everyday neighborhoods? Will we just tear them down once they start getting older without keeping them up, or do we take such poor care of it that seeing it last generations won’t even be physically possible?

I found this website the other day called Forgotten Detroit. It shows some really beautiful photographs of buildings and theaters in Detroit, which in their prime must have been absolutely magnificent. Two of my favorites are the Lee Plaza Hotel, and the United Artist's Theater. Sadly, due to age, neglect, and vandalism, they are no more than abandoned remnants of what once was.

I think you can probably tell a lot about a society or culture by the way they take care of the things they create. When Americans are labeled as unappreciative and consumerist, I look at things like this and it makes me agree.

What is your music mood?

I’m very particular about my music, and how when I listen to it, it has to reflect/support the kind of mood I’m in. So, while I was stumbling today, I found this wonderful website called Musicovery.com. Using your current mood, you can place your target mark anywhere on four different parts of a quadrant; energetic, calm, dark, or positive. Depending on what your two axis points are, it will pull up this mind-map-like animation showing what songs the program things work best for your mood, and will automatically play the songs in full length

All the genres of music are color coded, so if you want to be a little more specific, you can use this feature to help narrow in on your perfect song. You also have another option which is ‘Dance’, which allows you to use the same quadrant axis to place your mood, except the different axis are labeled by tempo and dance. You can drag yourself into a different decade if you so desire, or pick a range of time, like 70’s-90’s for example.



HOW COOL

Dreamboards #2

Those with a star have been accomplished:
-Visit the Dali museum
*See the Sistine Chapel
-Take a roadtrip
*start my own business
-go scuba diving
-Visit St. Basil's cathedral
-Win 1st place at the Marion County talent contest
-See the statue of liberty
*Read Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Pay for college
*Be an OASC counselor
*ride a train
-go skiing or snowboarding
-volunteer for an important cause
-wait for love
-be in a musical production
-sing the national anthem at a blazer's game
*be a manager at The Gap
-get married
-see the mona Lisa
-Design 30 tattoos
*Visit lloyd in England
*See Birth of Venus
*Make someone else's dream come true

Dreamboards

This was my first dreamboard. In high school, a motivational speaker named Ed Gerety told me it’s statistically proven if you have a visual reminder of your goals to look at every day, you’re more likely to accomplish them. So, I make a dreamboard every year of things I want to see happen in my life, and a surprising amount have already been accomplished. Some things on my dreamboard will happen within a year, others might take 10. The one thing in they all have in common however, is that there's no doubt in my mind that every single one of these goals will be accomplished.

I first heard Ed during a national leadership conference in North Carolina, and then again when he came to Oregon to speak at the Oregon Association of Student Councils (OASC) statewide conference. He has undoubtedly changed my life, and helped me become the individual I am today. A few summers ago, I had an opportunity to be a counselor at the summer camp for OASC, which I jumped at. I begged the staff to incorporate dreamboards into camp, and they agreed. So, for the last two years, all 200+ high school students who attend camp make dreamboards, which to me is simply humbling. I hope that in my life I can inspire someone the way others like Ed have done for me, and make a difference so big that they'll want to pass that passion on to someone else .

Here's the full list, stuff that has been done has a star by it. Some things on the board have changed as the things I want from life are always evolving, but I've decided that as long as I have made the decision that something is not going to get done because it's no longer a goal of mine, and not because I dont think I'm capable, it's okay to let that go. I think thats an important realization to come to so that I'm not kicking myself if I dont get everything on there accomplished, and that I don't become hesitant to put anything on there for fear my desire to do it might change.
-Write a book
*Buy a piano
-See Taj Mahal
-Travel the World
-Be a motivational speaker
*Be an influential community member
*Have someone tell me I'm their role model
-Be someone's one phonecall
*Learn "Own Me" on the piano
-Learn "Fantaise Impromptu" on the piano
*Sell a peice of my art
*Take an art class
*Hear myself on the radio
-Hold a koala
*Record a CD
-Graduate college with a 3.5 or higher
-Sing at Radio City
-see my star
-learn to speak greek
*fall in love
-ride a hot air balloon
-See the pyramids
-buy a house
-pay for college
-sing the national anthem at the superbowl
*take a photography class.

Really interesting content

I was using Stumbleupon.com, and found Dave Werner’s website. Dave is a grad student at a portfolio school, and a really incredible artist. The website consists of several of the projects he has done, accompanied by video documentaries which share his creative process, brainstorming, idea sketches, and conceptual stages. I found this site to be inspiring on many levels. For one, just executing so many wonderful pieces in the number of mediums as Dave has is both impressive and admirable. He has animation, logo design, illustration, movies… you name it. I also was really inspired by watching the mini-documentaries and seeing the sketches of each process, which helped me understand his creative process and appreciate his final product even more. In his videos, he is both well spoken and thoughtful, and as a creative seems to really dig deep to create rich, original and meticulously created work. I will definitely be watching this site to see what other work he will produce. My favorite piece was one titled “Reflect/Respect”.

A little more Emerson!

I can't help myself, everything he has to say is brilliant! I must share it!

-To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to leave the world a better place; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived...This is to have succeeded.

- Today represents another opportunity on the walk to greatness

-Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, yet again.

Oh, This is why I love him- what an incredible mind!
Whoso would ever be a man, must be a nonconformist

-To believe in your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men- that is genius.

-Nature arms each man with some faculty that enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other. No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.

-Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

-In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.

-The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

-Nothing great was every achieved without enthusiasm.

If there were a second "Life philosophy" I had, this would probably be it. This was said by another incredible individual, Nelson Mandela

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God; your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. "-Nelson Mandela

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the great transcendentalist writers. His writings have unquestionably had a huge influence on my life, and I think it is fair to say that I lead my life by most of what is written in his essay, “Self Reliance”. I admire his ability to put into words what usually is indescribable, and think his wisdom is both empowering and inspirational. Here is the quote from the middle of my dreamboard, which I feel summarizes my own life philosophy:

“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance, that imitation is suicide. That he must take himself for better or worse as his portion. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whiteread

This is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I think I've seen. It is called "House", and the artist, Rachel Whiteread, is famous for making castings of things, one of her more famous pieces is the casting of a library as a memorial for the Jews killed in the holocaust. This peice is a casting of a house in a neighborhood full of row houses that was condemned for destruction. Before they tore down the whole neighborhood, she filled the house with cement and made a casting, and then peeled away the "skin" which was the frame of the house. The local government eventually destroyed this piece of art, and its presence gathered quite a bit of attention in the local community. There is a wonderful website by John Davies which captures the process of creating this piece of art. The most powerful image he captured, in my opinion, is the last one which an image of the empty space that now occupied where this casting once stood. It all feels very vacant to me, but I think that just means Whiteread's piece was successful.

It's just so incredible for me to see that space represented by a block of cement, especially with the background of a huge empty field where an entire neighborhood used to be. Maybe this resonates especially strong with me because this house looks very similar to the one my mother grew up in, in Philadelphia. That space is where a life used to exist. For somebody, their entire life happened in that small bit of space in the universe.... family dinners, birthday parties, first day of school, maybe more.. .who knows. That cement represents someone's existence in the universe, and I think that's what Whiteread has captured.

Some Favorite Artists

Just a few artists who totally inspire me, who are giving me some food for thought at the moment (and have been for quite some time now). The first is Robert Longo, and the second is Chuck Close. Chuck close in particular is incredible to me. His original paintings were larger than life, and so photorealistic you would swear on your mothers life even looking right at one of them they were actually photos, not paintings. Then, he got in an accident, but still continued to paint from his wheelchair a more mosaic-inspired realism. Incredible to be able to pick up a paintbrush again and have the strength to go back to your art after loosing so much of your capability. Both of his paintings (The two on the bottom) are self portraits...one from before, and one from after the accident. Enjoy

How to be Interesting

During Russell Davies' visit to UO last week, I had several opportunities to hear him speak. I love how sometimes it just takes somebody from the outside to say what's on everyone's mind for everyone to go, "Hey! I was thinking that too!". Or, things just get phrased the right way and make a world of sense more than they ever did. Some of my favorite things he said include:

"If you ask people for their opinion, usually they'll come up with one. That doesn't necessarily mean they care."
"They're just business cards."

...and so on and so on. But some of the most interesting things he said had to do with a lecture he led called "How to be Interesting". The link is to his blog, which explains in much more detail each thing on the lists, but here is the condensed (but equally wonderful) top 10 list:

BE INTERESTED
1. Always carry a camera, take at least one picture a day and post it to flickr.com
2. Keep a scrapbook
3. Start a blog (HEY LOOK AT ME GO), write at least one sentence a week.
4. Record a 20 min. interview with someone, podcast it, make them interesting- once a month
5. Sit in a coffee shop for an hour and make notes on other people's conversations.
6. Read a magazine every week you've never read before and write 50 words about what you've learned.
7. Collect something (Dingbats anyone? Advertisements? Magazine clippings?.. or does that just make me a packrat? HA!)
8. Read: Understanding Comics -Scott McCloud (twice already!), The Mezzanine- Nicholson Baker, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information-Edward Tufle
9. Every month write 50 words about one piece of art, music, piece of film or TV.
10. Talk to your parents.

Awesome.

Colorful

So, my guilty pleasure is a wonderful website called "Color Quiz". As the website describes it, "The test itself is based upon fundamentals in color psychology. With years of research by color psychologists the characteristics of certain colors has been identified to cause an emotional response in people. This was done by studying the response from hundreds of thousands of test subjects around the world in order to isolate how certain colors make us feel. By doing the reverse, using the colors people prefer to determine how people feel, we can get some interesting indicators about a person's current emotional state."

Basically what that comes down to is 8 color blocks appear on the screen, and you click on them in the order they naturally appeal to you. As you click each square it disappears. Then, you click a second set of 8 colored blocks- all the same colors but have been rearranged in a different order. The point is to not intentionally pick the same order, but what naturally appeals to you most. It then analyzes this information and offers a diagnosis on what your actual problem is. For me, it is usually pretty close. Here were my results today:

Nicole took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Seeks freedom from problems and a secure state of ..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Interesting. I feel like this time around, most of that is true for me. Some people take the test and it means nothing to them and feels totally random. I think maybe my Synesthesia might have something to do with me being a little more in touch with the color world. Who knows. Maybe I'm just the oddball! I'll post these color quizzes from time to time, just out of curiosity to see where I'm at for the moment. Cool.

So, here I am again.

After a year or so of neglecting this blog, I figure it's probably time to get back on it with a little more dedication. Actually, the truth of the matter is Russel Davies came to visit the UO this week and inspired me to get back on and start writing again. It's funny how sometimes, it's only a matter of somebody saying things just the right way for everything to start clicking upstairs...but it's refreshing, and I love it.