The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Monday, February 14, 2011

Venezia II

The church of San Simeone Piccolo (also called San Simeone e Giuda) is a noted landmark in the Sestiere of  Santa Croce of Venice. In part, it is memorable, because from across the Grand Canal it faces the railroad terminal serving as entrypoint for most visitors to the city.
Built during the years 1718-38 by Giovanni Antonio Scalfarotto (1690-1764); this church shows the emerging eclecticism of neoclassical architecture. It accumulates academic architectural quotations, much like the contemporaneous Karlskirche in Vienna.


Ponti degli Scalzi
The Ponte degli Scalzi (or Ponte dei Scalzi), literally, "Bridge of The Barefoot", is one of only four bridges in Venice to span The Grand Canal.

The bridge connects the
 Sestieri of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. On the north side, Cannaregio, are the Chiesa degli Scalzi (Church of The Barefoot) and the Santa Lucia (Ferrovia) railway station. The south side, Santa Croce, is close to the bus station Piazzale Roma.

Designed by
 Eugenio Miozzi, it was completed in 1934, replacing an Austrian iron bridge.


The Rialto Bridge (Italian: Ponte di Rialto) is one of the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is the oldest bridge across the canal.
The first dry crossing of the Grand Canal was a pontoon bridge built in 1181 by Nicol  Barattieri. It was called the Ponte della Moneta, presumably because of the mint that stood near its eastern entrance.

The development and importance of the_Rialto_market on the eastern bank increased traffic on the floating bridge, so it was replaced in 1255 by a wooden bridge. This structure had two inclined ramps meeting at a movable central section, that could be raised to allow the passage of tall ships. The connection with the market eventually led to a change of name for the bridge. During the first half of the 15th century two rows of shops were built along the sides of the bridge. The rents brought an income to the State Treasury, which helped maintain the bridge.

Happy Valentine's Day!
-
Feliz Día del Amor y la Amistad!



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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Venezia I



Santa Maria della Salute

Punta della Dogana
Mapping The Studio - Palazzo Grassi
Google Earth



The surface of Venice is constantly metamorphosing [and] painting Venice is almost like being a restorer, peeling off the layers to find the picture after picture underneath.”
~Arbit Blatas

Happy Sunday!

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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Venus

Art and Science
How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.  ~Isaac Asimov



Happy Weekend!

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Bronze and Flesh


Installation of sculptures in main square of Cuernavaca (not finished yet)
Street Vendor in rural Mexico

Mexico's rampant poverty, lagged social development and general public welfare is strongly tied to its politics. Historically, the political system of Mexico has not favored the general population, mainly because it focused to become and be a single-party system of government, largely dubbed "institutionalized" where those in charge had a one-voice, unquestionable plan of action mainly focused to favor the few elite while ignoring the welfare of the rest of population. From the 1800s to the end of the 20th century, as presidential administration came and went, the forms of government has been described as authoritarian, semi-democracy, centralized government, untouchable presidencies, mass-controlling, corporatist and elite-controlled. As each administration took turn, some changes have occurred, sometimes as to contribute to the welfare of the least fortunates but history has clearly shown that poverty has remained constant at any given time in the history of Mexico. Overall, the political framework behind the economic and social structure of the country continues to be the greatest contributor to inequality. The political economy of the country has been inadequate and unfair for many decades.

Corruption is rampant in Mexico. Mexico's government has been historically corrupt at all hierarchical levels: federal, state, and local. Mexico ranks high-to-very high among most corrupted countries in the world. The cost of corruption in Mexico is equal to 9 percent of the country's GDP. Business companies admit to spend as much as 10 percent of their revenue in bureaucratic bribes. 39 percent is spent on bribing high-ranking policy makers and 61 percent on lower-ranking bureaucratic-administrative office holders. At least 30 percent of all public spending ends up in the pockets of the corrupt. With these rankings, it is clear that the unethical practices by government officials directly affect the population, their development and the state of poverty in which they remain. [Wiki]


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Thursday, February 10, 2011

Kaleidoscake

To Mavie

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Fisherman's Village





Boca Chica Beach
“Dip him in the river who loves water.” / “Sumerge en el río a aquel que ama el agua.”
~William Blake

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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Under The Volcano

Mirando Mirar

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Saturday, February 5, 2011

Saturday Blues




Happy Weekend!

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Friday, February 4, 2011

Rest

Taking a break in Tepoztlan Sunday street market.


Irina from Irina's Paintings  and  Moscow Daily Photo honored me with this great sketch of the above photo.  Thank you very much! 

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Battery Park








Battery Park (The Battery) is a 25-acre (10 hectare) public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for the DutchBritish, and finally American artillery batteries that was stationed there at various times in order to protect the settlements behind it. At the north end of the park is Castle Clinton, the often re-purposed last remnant of the defensive works that inspried the name of the park; Pier A, formerly a fireboat station; and Hope Garden, a memorial to AIDS victims. At the other end is Battery Gardens restaurant, next to the United States Coast Guard Battery Building. Along the waterfront, ferries depart for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. There is also a stop on the New York Water Taxi route between the Statue of Liberty Ferry and Pier A. The park is also the site of the East Coast Memorial which commemorates U.S. servicemen who died in coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean during World War II.
To the northwest of the park lies Battery Park City, a planned community built on landfill in the 1970s and 80s, which includes Robert F. Wagner Park and the Battery Park City Promenade. Together with Hudson River Park, a system of greenspaces, bikeways and promenades now extend up the Hudson shoreline. A bikeway is being built through the park that will connect the Hudson River and East River parts of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. Across State Street to the northeast stands the old U.S. Customs House, now used as a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian and the district U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Peter Minuit Plaza abuts the southeast end of the park, directly in front of the South Ferry Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry. [Wiki]



-Lyrics-

Cymbaline


The path you tread is narrow 
And the drop is sheer and very high 
The ravens all are watching 
From a vantage point nearby 
Apprehension creeping 
Like a tube-train up your spine 
Will the tightrope reach the end 
Will the final couplet rhyme 

And it's high time 
Cymbaline 
It's high time 
Cymbaline 
Please wake me 

A butterfly with broken wings 
Is falling by your side 
The ravens all are closing in 
And there's nowhere you can hide 
Your manager and agent 
Are both busy on the phone 
Selling coloured photographs 
To magazines back home 

And it's high time 
Cymbaline 
It's high time 
Cymbaline 
Please wake me 

The lines converging where you stand 
They must have moved the picture plane 
The leaves are heavy around your feet 
You feel the thunder of the train 
And suddenly it strikes you 
That they're moving into range 
Doctor Strange is always changing size 

And it's high time 
Cymbaline 
It's high time 
Cymbaline 
Please wake me 

And it's high time 
Cymbaline 
It's high time 
Cymbaline 
Please wake me

~ Pink Floyd


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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Versions

Diana Fountain

Waves

Blue

Trumer Pils. Vienna 2010

Abstract Truth


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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

February 2011 Theme Day: Fountains

Fray Bartolome de las Casas St. Cuernavaca

Cuernavaca Cathedral Atrium
(Dry fountains)

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

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Monday, January 31, 2011

Devoured


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Friday, January 28, 2011

Umbrellas

On The Road


Happy Weekend!

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Could Be Everywhere


I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, 
- and the stars through his soul.”  ~Victor Hugo

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

David


David  Fountain
(Rio de Janeiro Park)

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Monday, January 24, 2011

Time


Man on Ice
(take at The Ice Skating Rink at Rockefeller Center. NYC)


Cro-Magnon
(take at American Museum of Natural History. NYC)


The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans (early Homo sapiens sapiens) of the European Upper Paleolithic in Europe. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present.
Etymology

The name derives from the Abri de Crô-Magnon (Frenchrock shelter of Crô-Magnon) near the commune of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil in southwest France, where the first specimen was found. Being the oldest known modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Europe, the Cro-Magnon were from the outset linked to the well-known Lascaux cave paintings and the Aurignacian culture that flourished in southern France and Germany. As additional remains of early modern humans were discovered in archaeological sites from Western Europe and elsewhere, and dating techniques improved in the early 20th century, new finds were added to the taxonomic classification.   Absolute Astronomy


The Future of Human Evolution

Our Future
As we look toward the future, experts debate whether we might alter the course of human evolution.
What does the future hold for humanity? It is beyond the reach of science to peer ahead hundreds, thousands or millions of years with any certainty. But it is clear that our survival, like that of any species, depends on the potential of our species to adapt to a changing environment. While humans have adapted to such changes many times in the past, the future presents new challenges.
Humans are no longer passive agents in the evolutionary process. The environment will always shape us, but we in turn are now shaping the environment. Today our world is changing rapidly, largely because of human activity. The atmosphere is getting hotter, wild habitats are disappearing and countless species are going extinct. These changes pose threats to the natural resources we depend on—and could ultimately threaten our quality of life and even survival.
At the same time, humans have an extraordinary capacity to improve the future. Given the wondrous achievements in human history, from the wheel to computers and spacecraft, our potential for advances in art, science and technology is incalculable. By taking an active role in transforming our world and ourselves, we will affect our destiny, for better or worse. How might we use—or abuse—our capacity? Will we really change the course of human evolution?

ARE HUMANS STILL EVOLVING? 

In this era of global travel and interconnected societies, we no longer have small, isolated populations evolving in different directions, as was the case earlier in human evolution, helping to drive the emergence of new species. The human genome continues to change in minor ways, but under present conditions a new human species more than likely will not emerge.


COULD A NEW HUMAN SPECIES EVOLVE?

Human populations might once again become small and isolated and a new species might then emerge if humans experienced environmental collapse, war, pandemic disease or geological catastrophe on a massive, global scale.

Certain experts think another scenario is also possible. By directly manipulating the human genome, some humans could be altered so significantly that, if reproductively isolated from other humans, they might become a separate species. Critics disagree, claiming that there will be enormous technical, political or moral barriers to making significant changes to the human genome.

More about:
Dance of The Tiger by Björn Kurtén
The Inheritor by William Golding

Friendship
(Photomanipulation)


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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Workers


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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Third Order


The cathedral, began life as a Franciscan friary, founded by Hernán Cortés in 1529. Work started on the fortress-like complex in 1533. The side portal of the church has a fine colonial-Plateresque façade with, above the gable, the symbols of a crown, cross, skull and bones framed by an alfiz.

During restoration of the cathedral interior in the 1950s, some early murals were uncovered depicting the departure of 24 Mexican Franciscan friars, embarking at the start of their missionary journey to Japan, and their subsequent martyrdom on the cross in 1597. Among them was Mexico's only saint, San Felipe de Jesús.

The Chapel of the Third Order, at the rear of the monastery building, has a very typical Mexican Baroque façade, embellished with a small figure representing Hernán Cortés. Like the chapel's lovely carved wooden altar (1735), the façade shows strong Indian influence.

Adjoining the cathedral stands the spacious Open Chapel, its vaulting supported on three arches. Two buttresses reinforce the central columns. Remains of murals showing the lineage of the Franciscan order can be seen in the cloister.

Every Sunday a folk mass is celebrated in the cathedral to the accompaniment of mariachi music.

If you wish you can see another views of this magnificent building here and here.


Today in Sketches of Cities : Vienna

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bargains Month


Bazaar. Cuernavaca, Mx.


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