Are we architects? Are we artists? Are we designers? Are we all of that? My answer is yes we are! This lamp named Vortexx was made by the architect Zaha Hadid in collaboration with Patrick Schumacher. I think it is a very beautiful object, more than a lamp. Yet it is a lamp!Is this art? Architecture? Design? Again: I think it is everything combined. There is no way (Mel) that we have to categorize ourselves into architects. But yet we are!Confusing and strange world we live in!!

Is Zaha Hadid an architect or an artist? I think we are ARCHISTS...it sounds better!

I will try and stop smoking too... one day.

right now I feel like a bag of cigarette butts. and the only marks I make are these butts of cigarettes.

the only marks I make, I keep to myself, and share with you all.
for this image I placed a postcard on magazine article quote. this is a postcard I am sending out to you!
(the ones on my blog were secondary attempts with my slr. this one was taken with my sister's point and shoot! but really says much more, it's direct!)

To tell the truth I've never been on a camper. I've never liked the idea of living "on the move". But things change sometimes! Although I still prefer to sleep in a hotel and then drive a car and travel the day after, the other day I came across this idea. Wonderful!

It was announced at the Caravan Salon in Düsseldorf and apparently is already changing the concept of tourism. The idea comes from a thesis project developed by two architecture students of the Graz University.It is based on a cell-design (that's where the name comes from: Mehrzeller) that can be personalized by the client which is a brilliant idea since, like Freitag bags, there is not one same as another.I really love the architecture behind the idea but still I consider myself, in this specific case, a lazy tourist. I travel a lot, visit a lot of places, but on vacation I like doing absolutely nothing. No cooking, no laundry, no cleaning, no phone and no driving!!!

I guess I will have to go on vacation with someone who does because this camper is awesome!

Sometimes when I look at my blog I feel that I am just writing words on an old dirty wall. I feel that writing only about my life and its sourroundings isn't enough for my brain, and for my mental graffiti.
I see a lot in my life. I read a lot during the day. I capture a lot throough my camera. Yet, on this virtual wall what happens is just a fragment of the totality of my everyday, which, in a way, it is the point. But the point is also writing about stuff people read. Stuff that maybe some do not know about. Beautiful stuff. Stupid stuff. Poetic stuff. Stuff, stuff, stuff.
Stuff that are here to stay and that hopefully will not be washed down at the first big rain!
So, beside my personl messy life there is also a lot to think about!

Expo 2010 will be held in Shanghai, China. The theme of the exposition will be "Better City – Better Life". I am already quite intrigued by the announced architectures from the different countries attending the event.

To be honest I was somehow disappointed by many of the projects. The Swiss Pavillion, to say what needs to be said...SUCKS big time!

Two Pavillions though, really came out beautifully, at least on screen! The Polish and the Danish.

Great job! Let's hope reality is as good as these virtual images!

I received this video link to youtube! Really funny Nike commercial with Roger Federer!

I was talking about this "saying" with Mel: Just do it!

I have to apply the same for a different reason! So, as I said we had a blast of a weekend. Just one thing went actually wrong. I have the flu (which, thank god is getting better) with a cough that got evil on me and transformed itself into a kind of asthma.

I had a really major attack on saturday that I sooooo freaked out that I started wondering...

I know I shouldn't have been smoking with cough...but hey!

But let me tell you...I really got scared I couldn't breath...so I decided to try to quit smoking (again). Starting today!

I have to Just Do It!!!

I had an excellent weekend! Family, my friend Aris, good food and great wine.

Foie Gras, fiorentina, risotto with sea food, goat cheese (9 different ones!!!), and again foie gras! I adore it! I would eat it day and night!

We had, as usual, the apéro, and then a variety of wines that perfectly accompanied the food. Gattinara, Morellino di Scansano and so on!

And after all that...relax on the big terrasse facing the lake, with tons of magazines, a hot Nespresso (what else??) and a cigarette.

We'll do it again, hopefully next week.

I am still playing with my camera, still playing with my figurines, still creating what in a previous serie I called "Unvulnerable Grounds".

This time they are travelling through oceans, ads and who knows!

When we go to the lake we always go to have an aperitif down at the boardwalk. We always order either a Negroni or a Americano. The house is in Cannobio Italy and of course, when you order, they know exactly what you are talking about since Italians invented these two drinks.

But when you go here in Switzerland and order the same thing they look at you like you come from the edge of Hell!

so, here are the recipes for those freaky-waiters who do not know what Negroni or Americano are!!! In case of they come into this blog!!!

The Negroni cocktail is made of 1 part gin, 1 part vermouth, and 1 part bitter (normally Campari). It is considered an aperitif, or a pre-dinner cocktail intended to stimulate the appetite.

The Americano is a cocktail composed of Campari, sweet vermouth, and club soda.

So, this friend of mine had a brilliant idea. And a brilliant idea should not be shared with the public right away! Still the idea got me really excited and extremely happy. I guess good ideas always make people happy!

As I said I have a really bad flu, but since I got involved in "the idea" I suddently felt better, creative, thoughtful, imaginative, delirious, rythmical, asymmetrical, and completely insane! I feel like all the noises around me transformed themselves into a beautiful sound. Voices became sounds. And I just let the musicscape relax me!

Did I take too many medications?? Ah ah ah

I thought my cough was gone but it came back...with a vengeance! It came back stronger with a close friend called "Flu" and together they are killing me!

I am really tired and sick but I am extremely happy (or "violently Happy" as our friend Björk would say!). Writing, taking pictures, sharing and discussing ideas on Mel's blog, are things that make me really happy. Tomorrow I'll go to the lake. It is going to be a cool weekend and hopefully I'll be a little less sick... maybe a mojito and a Negroni would do it!!! Just kidding (yeah right!).

I'll go to bed now. Must take all meds to calm down all the freakin symptoms. It was a good day today (beside the flu). I ended up at my mother's home since she was alone tonite and we chatted, ate salmon and drunk some wine. I drove my dog crazy making him jump all over the place. Funny dog! A sickly happy dog! When I left my mom's home he was eating a kiwi! sickly-happy-crazy-dog!

It's early today, I just got in at work since I was was at the doctor at 8 Am. So I started thinking about trust. It's a word that I usually do not use because I guess it is psychologically implied in every action, every relationship. You trust your self, trust your friends, trust your decisions because you ultimately believe they are the right ones. What if they are not? Ah Ah Ah! Who cares! But at the end of my thoughts I think I still do not believe I would use the word trust. Too complicated, too intense, it implies too many things that it's better to let it beused by someone else!

I don't trust my friends enough to actually give the word its real and deepest meaning...therefore it is disrespectful to use it in an appropriate way! Better to just trust your own self and let the rest just be...

The other day I found this book in a trash can. Do not take me wrong! I do not usually get stuff from trash cans but this ... I couldn't let it there!

It's a french version of "The Godfather", Mario Puzo's awesome book dated 1970 (year of the translation). It's very nice, it's cover is all thorned and it gives the book a sense of maturity! The cover is designed as many pieces of articles from an old newspaper. So, I took it home and today, as I was already playing with my camera and my little figurines, I decided to recreate the scene of a funeral. Mario Puzo's french book's funeral. Amen!

I put more images on facebook.

just a fragment...waiting to shoot the big picture!

Today there isn't much to do since I am waiting for my associate to move his ass and start digging the hole for our new building I am playing around with my camera. I decided to put back in action my little figures I bought ages ago and let them create a new scape around the room.
A trip with a fictitious vespa inside an improbable super flat architecture.

They say every swiss person owns a swiss army knife. It's a must and apparently it is part of our national identity same as banks, chocolate, Heidi and Swatch! I do not have an army knife though! But I own something even better! The VictorInox SwissCard! I lost mine couple of years ago and today my father gave me a new one (he prefers knives with the swiss flag on them!!!). Beautiful!!

So, I am helping my mother doing some graphics for a conference. She will talk about urbanism/architecture/food! Quite interesting subject for a conference. My mother is a little nut like her daughter..I saw some of her drawings (I will post them as soon as she gives them to me) and they are quite impressive. So, I am doing couple of montages with photoshop and I was looking for images of plates I can later manipulate and I came across a website which sells and promotes funky "architectural plates and mugs". Soooo sweet...I want them!!!!

www.peoplewillalwaysneedplates.co.uk/

I was telling Mel that I just ordered 5 books from Amazon yesterday. I've been reading a lot since I came back to Switzerland. Mostly I read mysteries, thrillers and sometimes i put in also a theory book (the last is "The Wal-Mart Effect").
I am totally in love with authors from Scandinavia. Years ago, after going to Sweden for a conference I've realized how much I like that country! As I said, I love reading books from authors of whatever country I visit. I totally adore Henning Mankell, Björn Larsson ("Celtic Ring" is one of the best book ever written), love Jo Nesbo with his Harry Hole detective, Arnaldur Indridason from Iceland, Anne Holt and so on.
Right now though I am in a pause...no scandinavian author for couple of weeks (hopefully amazon will deliver my books sooner). I just discovered this french author named Muriel Barbery. Mel you will like her books (maybe you've read them already). Right now I am reading "Une gourmandise" which is really sweet. Everything happens in a bourgeois building on the left bank of Paris. A culinary critic is dying and...I am not sure what's happening, but up til now I love it!
I've already bought her 2nd book which is called "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" and I am dying to start reading it!
Alerady the back summ is quite intriguing:
"Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated an ideal concierge. But Renée has a secret. Beneath this conventional façade she is passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives..."

Everybody leaves a mark in the world. Those who write a book, those who paint, sculpt. There are those whose philosophical thinking, mathematical awareness or chemical discovers are still present in our lives eventhough the left this world centuries ago! Still, they left a permanent mark in our society, in our books in our everyday actions. We all imagine that one day we will remembered for something. Not that we all expect to be included in books or discover a new atom or particle, yet we write in our notebooks, write on walls, and so on. We all leave a mark. Dogs who pee on a house, pasta on your new Burberry shirt, grass on your jeans. It's a duality though. We constantly leave mark in the world and the world leaves them on us.
Bottom line of this very deep thought???
I woke up this morning and since I live on the floor above the office I usually go down there to fix a good Nespresso. Well...As I wanted to check my email, still wearing my Abercrombie anf Fitch pyjamas and flip flops, and suddently I trip on something! I left a mark too this morning. Coffee all over the place!! My computer, my camera, on my bills and worst of all on my taxes!!
Unfortunately my mark in the world stayed there for only a couple of minutes. I had to clean it up!

i wished i was in hogans instaed. but they make me look like donald duck!

I love the rain. I relaxes my senses. I sleep wonderfully. And the city assumes a color, shades of colors, that makes its reality completely different. More inviting? Just different. But today the experts said it would be a splendid day. Sun, a little colder (yes! the summer is unfortunately over). Yet, as I opened the window this morning I didn't see the sun. People running to work with their anonymous umbrellas, grey or beige coats and the sky so gray that would make the most beautiful gray cashmere sweater jealous! Yet I wasn't that happy it was raining! For only one stupid superficial reason! I bought these shoes this past weekend and I was dying to wear them today! But I do not want to ruin them their first day out of the box. Guess what color are they? Gray, with shades and silver! Just as beautiful as the sky today! Well, after the rain comes the sun! And my new Hogan would stay home in my most beautiful corner of the apartment! I just put them there to make them feel a lttle artistic at at home!!!

I hope it is going to come to Switzerland too. I've read that Jar City was made into a movie! Hopefully it is going to be as good as the book. I love mystery books and everytime I travel to some country new to me I search for mytery books written by local authors. I discovered Arnaldur Indriðason while in Iceland and I have to say his books are amazingly written. I have already read all of them (at least those that were translated).

This weekend I decided to just run away! A whole weekend at the lake. Relax, shopping, reading, turkish bath, eating really good food, drinking amazing red wine and amazing mojitos!

a great weekend! Seriously, ohhhh, what can mint, sugarcane, limes and rhum do for your tired senses!!!! I just walked around the house with the glass! Or was the glass following me??

It has been quite a while since he was asked to participate in this blog. so, after chasing him with a virtual ax, our buddy with the ponytail finally decided to come on board!

We are all waiting for his beautiful writing to appear on screen!

How hard it is to relax lately!

You relax one minute and the next you freak out! You wake up in the morning all pumped up and you discover that internet isn't working! You restart the computer and the fax machine gets into a coma! Fix that and...something else cause you a problem that transform your life into a huge inferno! Technology is a beautiful thing...when everything works out perfectly. If that doesn't happen it just drives your nerves into the jammest freeway you have ever taken! But still, technology allows you to create (obviusly when your damn PC works!!!) virtual objects, virtual realities that do not really exist. They exist in a screen in front of your tired face!!! But they are there. And from your chair your can imagine yourself laying down in a virtual beach locatd somewhere in the technological world!

...Yet there is a place where I found the ultimate relaxing experience. Couple of months ago (I will not go into details!) I was really lost. Got really into a major crisis. So one day my mother just gets on my case really brutally...you know the kind of discussion like "I can't stand see you like this" or "you need to focus on important things and stop worrying about it" ( I worked for months on my "political campaign and I lost it in the most miserable way) so basically she proposes me to go with her to Iceland. She had a conference there so...I said yes. I know about Iceland through Björk but that's about it (eventhough I guess the Björk way is very accurate!!). Let me tell you: the trip was amazing. I went to this place called BlueLagoon which I believe now being heaven on earth. After laying down in the water for some time the sensation I felt afterwards was of perfect balance between body and mind. And, believe or not, I do not know if it was the water, the right time, or the entire island itself but the experience was magical and I came back a different person, still crazy, but changed and more focused on things that are important to me...and politics is not one of them!

One thing is for sure...I will go back to Iceland one day!

www.bluelagoon.com

ignore them all.

only YOU matter.

I woke up really pissed today. I want to say something out loud but for some reason I don't have enough energy... so I just write it on this blog, since it's mine I can say whatever I want! I was just wondering where are all those people who called you 10 times every f*?!°* day? Who text messaged you 20 times a day when they were needy, whiny, or just wanted to share with you all their freakin problems? And even if you didn't care, didn't have time you listen to them eventhough you didn't give a damn? Well, I guess they dont need you anymore. If they went to some other planet well...do yourself and myself a favour you whiny, needy freaks once called "friends": just stay there...

We had this event back at school called "Friday's @ five"! At five pm everything stopped just for one reason. Barbecue and beer... a lot of beer! Everything costed 50ç. We would drink like mad and spend basically nothing. We would sit out at the old SCI-Arc in this place called "the dome" and just chat and look at the stars and moon (yeah right!). The dome was a construction (a dome!!) built by an instructor called Nader Kahlili who used to build everything with the earth (adobe architecture). The environment was really amazing and soo peaceful. It felt like you were in the desert eventhough you were in an industrial area! The "Baywatch" headquarter was next door and thank god at the dome we would not see David Hasselhof running in his swimming suit trying to save some lost soul drowning in alcohol!

Here my friday @ five is totally different. First of all because it starts @ six! Second because there is no dome but still, the place is sometimes breath taking! Third... for 50 ç you do not even buy the waiter's attention!!!

I've never thought one day I will be writing about shoes! But since I read this morning Mel's blog about her throwing away her shoes I started thinking about mine!!!

I have an obsession with shoes. Not any kind, just one brand. And not all shoes from this brand, just one particular model: TWINS from Camper! I just adore them. I am so fascinated by them for a simple reason: they are calles twins, and obviously not identical ones since the left shoe is different from the right one! They have basically paintings on them, detail that are fantastic! In the past 6 years I bought all of them. And here I am the only one who wears them(figure out why!!!). But today was a sad one! The new collection still has twins but not the funky model I was the number one fan of!!!

I guess they changed the designer or maybe the designer got his/her brain back in focus...what a shame!!!

I first heard this song through my crazy friend Mel back at SCI-Arc. She would play it a lot and ultimately I bought it too (Malcolm Mc Laren)! So hot! And hearing Cathrine Deneuve sing is quite strange!

It used to be a long time ago when I first got knowledge of this word. It was through an amazing instructor (remember Margaret?) that we started developing the concept of the "subjective city" through the eyes of the flaneur.

Who is a flaneur (or flaneuse)? Is a person who is having a key role in understanding, participating in and portraying the city. The exemples we studied at school all happened in the beautiful city of Paris, because that's where the real flaneur was born thanks to Charles Baudelaire. He/she is part of the city but at the same time detached from it. The flaneur would sit at a café watching and analizing what happens around him/her. Would walk around and drift (la dérive as we used to say) through the city experiencing moods and feeling different states of mind depending from the location he/she would find himself/herself in. Today the flaneur still exist, but instead of just sitting at a café he/she would also walk around, maybe with a camera (like I would do!) depicting what lays around his/her existence from a one shot point of view. A shot of reality bound by the frame of the camera and discover hidden layers of society and of the urban landscape.

Like someone once said (I have this quote but I do not recall who said it!) :

"The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world 'picturesque".

I can't wait to go to Paris! Sit down au Café de Flore like Hemingway and watch people during their everyday routines. Take out my notebook/sketchbook and just write, write and write. Whatever comes to my mind. And then walk around the Quartier Latin, go eat at the Brasserie Lipp or at La Coupole. Go to the Beaubourg, to the Fondation Cartier, to every corner of this amazing city and just enjoy it's everyday essence.

It's quite funny actually!
This morning I woke up with a thought that's been in my head for so long. I just wanted to put it out, to write it out loud in this space. But first I checked Facebook. That's when I realized I am not alone. My dear friend Mel just wrote the same thought I had. Same feeling about life. Well, that's how it is:
I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my life. It hasn't been easy here. At the beginning it was fun coming back to Switzerland after spending 7 years in LA. Now though the fun is gone. After living my life here for the past 7 years I started wondering about friendship, about self improvement, about happiness and about a lot of other stuff. Am I happy? What is friendship? Do I have real friends here? I can't say I'm unhappy but I can say I do not believe I have real friends. My mind start flipping through the pages of my life. Real friends are those I left around the world. Those I shared stuff with: art, fellings, literature, movies, laughs, discussions, parties and fun. Here nothing like that happens. The people I am sourrounded with are somewhat empty. I honestly came to realizaton that I've almost nothing in common if not the same fucking nights out during weekends. Drinks (many) and same superficial conversations everytime. No talks about exhibitions, about taking a plane to nowhere, well that we talk about but nobody is really interested in taking a plane and fly to Paris to go to the Pompidou or the Palais de Tokyo...here all they think about is going out and get wasted...tomorrow is another day. Well, I do not need nor want this type of relationships and this type of life anymore. I know that many of my old friends feel the same way.
I need a big change in my daily routine. Maybe I just dont need a routine anymore.

As I was cleaning up a little in my office I found a very interesting art book. It's called "il rumore del tempo" (The sound of time) by Gaetano Pesce. The book is about his exhibition at the Triennale of Milan couple of years ago. Its form is not the usual. The pages are broken on their sides. The more you open it the more the pages brake. Colorful and at the same time B&W. And the cover is hairy!! It is sooooo inspiring it makes you want to start building beautiful things. Because time is passing very fast. Because is full of colors, of shadows of gray, of smells and sounds. The "Sound of time"! Can you hear it?