the beginnings of an obsession

Most of you know, my thesis project last year was about painted advertisements on walls in St. Louis (In case you are unfamiliar, check it out here stlwalls.com).

Well, now that I work downtown I have gotten into this topic more, and someday I'm going to update that site with research about the specific buildings and add more pictures. I have also become obsessed recently with urban decay and what I think of as the life cycle of a city. Basically, you have buildings from around 1900 to 1930 that have been used by several different businesses, services, or factorys over the years that have come and gone. These buildings usually have something beautiful about them - architectural details which you don't see in buildings today. However they have decayed to the point where they either need to be torn down or renovated. Doing either of those completes the life cycle of the building because it is either being torn down and then a new building goes up in its place, or it is renovated (or basically gutted to a brick shell and rebuilt) which also makes it mostly a new building.

So why am I going on and on about this? Well, my new obsession (in addition to the wall paintings) is this urban decay - it's ugly but it's beautiful idea.

Here are some websites you can check out to help you figure out what I'm talking about:

• Irrational Ecstasy Blog
• Ecology of Absence Blog
• St. Louis City Hospital: A History
• Built St. Louis (I love this site!)

Venezuelans pose nude in public for art

Yes, you read it right. Straight from cnn.com, 1,500 Venezuelans posed naked on a main city street for American photographer Spencer Tunick. Interesting huh? How do you get a huge number of people to shed their clothes and pose naked for your artwork? Aparently he's been arrested in the United States at least a couple times trying to shoot such photography in public here.

So I had to visit Spencer Tunick's website to find out more, and what did I find? The first link on the website is "sign up to participate" where you give your name, email, city, state, sex, age and skin tone. I guess he contacts you when he's in your area...

The human body is a beautiful thing - the curves and shapes of the body. If you dare, check out the pictures on his website. What do you think. They are interesting, and not pornographic. It is interesting how he places people over the landscape so the nude figures blend into the rolling hills of the landscape and overlaps people to create curves.

Time never stops.

Lately I've been thinking about how fast time has been going. When you're a kid, it seems like forever from the beginning of the school year to the end. Nine whole months. Tom and I have been engaged for nine months now, and it feels like we just got engaged yesterday.

It's funny how time works. Tomorrow I'm spending the afternoon/evening with some family friends that I haven't seen since July 2003. Two and a half years, and I've finally found time to get together with them again. Where does the time go? The weeks have been flying by. I mean to reply to an email and before I know it, it's been 2 or 3 months and I still haven't talked to the person. Another six months pass and I don't even know where the person lives anymore. Another year and it's like we never even met.

Hold on to good friends. It seems that you have to work to stay together sometimes.

I just want to publicly announce...

Just some random things on my mind at the moment:

1. I finally took down the christmas lights off the front of the house yesterday afternoon. We are no longer "that" house in the neighborhood.
2. I have watched 10 episodes of the Gilmore Girls in the last 3 days.
   
3. I hate "that time of the month."
4. Weekends are way too short.
   
5. Wedding planning sucks...it's amazing that anyone actually gets married what with all the planning, marriage prep classes, bridesmaid disasters and money spent.

Gilmore Girls

For good or for bad, I have recently become addicted to the Gilmore Girls...all thanks to Melissa. She is obsessed with the Gilmore Girls (about as much as I am obsessed with 7th Heaven) and loaned me the first season to watch.

Well, after holding on the first season dvd set for at least three months I started watching them last week, and now, after the first 6 episodes, I find myself wanting to watch more and wanting to find out what happens with Rory and Dean!!! The best part is that there are 5 more seasons so I'll be watching for awhile.

I hate when my favorite television shows end...even tho shows generally end when they are so bad that it's really a waste of time watching them, but still, I really do miss them once they are over. Just a sampling of shows that I have been obsessed with over the years (and have seen nearly every episode of) Full House, Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, and now Seventh Heaven is ending at the end of this season.

Wedding Shoes

So I purchased the shoes that I am going to wear for the wedding this weekend...skechers!

I Love Toys!

VH1 is running a new show in it's highly popular "I Love" series. This time it's "I Love Toys" and they are counting the top 100 toys of all time. Last night they showed numbers 100-81, including such favorites as Spirograph (#97), Chutes & Ladders (#95), My Little Pony (#85) and the Little Golden Books (#82). I decided to make a list of my top 20 favorite toys (I have not included toys that I love now but did not have as a child such as a nintendo, care bears...)

1. Barbie
2. Wooden Blocks
3. My Little Pony
   
4. Baby Dolls
5. Pound Puppies
6. Baby-Sitters Club Books
7. Sweet Valley Twins Books
8. Lite Brite
9. Crayons
10. Candy Land
    
11. Chutes & Ladders
12. Legos
13. Teddy Bear
14. Etch-A-Sketch
    
15. Spirograph
    
16. Little Golden Books
    
17. Play Dough
    
18. Jump Rope
    
19. View Master
20. Goosebumps books by RL Stine

Guitar Hero

I have discovered a new favorite video game...GUITAR HERO for the Playstation 2. It is the same idea as Dance Dance Revolution and Donkey Konga. Find out more on the official website.

Picture of the Day

I've decided to institute a new feature on my blog: Picture of the day!

The idea is that I post an interesting, weird, cute etc. picture that I've taken and you comment on it. Sound fun? So here goes!

This picture is the mysterious "Women" door. The door is on the north side of the Drury Inn building on Broadway by the Ed Jones dome. This building was built in the 1920s (I think) and it has a parking garage on 3 floors and 3 or so floors of hotel above that. Currently this door (which is not accessable from the outside) goes to a stairwell that leads from the parking garage to the street level. What was this door originally for? There's no "men" door on the building. The only other engraved writing on the building is above the enterance and exit to the parking garage and the basement enterance to the basement parking garage. So if you have any ideas about what this door might have been for, please let me know!