Synth. Numero 2

Alright, here we go! I decided that for this one I wanted to take a look deeper into the observations of my classmates about the Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. I will say that I know Carolyn did a thorough job of her research so I'm going to use her quote first. She, like myself, noticed that clearly, "Both [the] Romanesque and Gothic style has a certain ornate radiance...but [the] Gothic seemed to be the next evolutionary step." And this is a valid point. I know that I personally will agree with her, but i like the clean, simple and austere lines of the Romanesque style better myself. I also liked the way Carlos looked more into the spirit of worship and compared the two styles on the basis of not only appearance but also by the way people worshiped under the different roofs. He says, "the Romanesque style of architecture was very restrained...[t]he people that created these Cathedrals were more concerned with the worship of God as being an intimate practice rather than an external practice. Because of this type of belief, the construction of their Cathedrals ran along the same line. Such as, smaller buildings to take up less space for meditation distracting furniture and smaller windows to keep out the meditation distracting sun or the peering eyes of agonistic peasants." I like the way he looks at things. It is very important that the peasantry not have anything else to focus on and it's also more important to focus on God and not on your surroundings. Will those help you when you die? Hell no! And there are few better examples of the Gothic flare and pomp than that of the stained glass window. I think Anjy will give you an idea of how tedious this whole process was, she was a glass pane maker, after all. And as she says, "One of the pieces of art work in the churches that fascinates me the most is the stained glass windows. Has anyone ever taken a stained glass class before? I did for two years and even though I was pretty good at it, let me tell you it is hard. It used to take me about seven hours to make a twelve piece product. The only tools you need is a glass cutter, lead, and solder iron. Sometimes it would take me seven tries to cut out a piece that is an awkward shape. (An awkward shape is pretty much any shape but a square). After you spend literally four hours cutting and grinding your pieces to perfection, you have to wrap each one with lead then solder each piece together. Then you have to "mud" the pieces. This basically means you mix almost like a cement mixture and spread it on your piece. This hardens the piece so it can withstand pressure. I am not sure if this is the same process they used back when they were building these Gothic cathedrals, but I can imagine that is was very different. When I go into cathedrals I am flabbergasted at the windows, because I don't think many people realize the process it must have taken to create them. I cannot imagine cutting out all of these intricate pieces." As she shows, the tools are simple but the process is both tedious and labor-intensive. Maybe this is why only the most ornate cathedrals had the huge stained glass windows like the Rose Window. It does stand to reason. At any rate, I think you can see that there are a good deal of different views on the matter of cathedral as art and architecture. I always find it refreshing to see things from a new point of view and each of these three helped my to see that a cathedral as a whole is a massive undertaking with many ramifications built right into the design.

By A Pool, By a River

Where have you gone?
Bathing in the slight sunlight
I realized your reflection had left my side
Perhaps just beyond timid fog
Your heart filling the void,
A pure beam through lusterless cloud
Reflected light piercing the shroud around...
I wish I had the Polaroid, once.


Not that I'm complaining,
Not that I'm contemplating
What i wish was changed,
Each experience is sacred.

consider that you are out of balance by the very nature of your existence as a distinct being outside the being of a universe dictated by the force of myriad concentration gradients, momentum, gravity and forces outside the scope of your understanding and knowledge. kinda fun, isn't it?

finally, a blog for fun! it's been a while. i've had some group projects that demanded a lot of time but now i'm down to just one and it's almost done. so here i am doing the blogging thing. i know sara likes to read about herself in my blogs so i'll add a little part of this about how great she is. not only is she phenominally beautiful(and i do mean that, she's gorgeous) but she's also a very intelligent girl and an amazing student. you know those classes you hate and never want to go to? i know that usually i just don't go. chalk me up as an example of the able but bad student. she makes it every time. chalk her up as an example of a great student. i'm proud that at least one of us makes it in that category. and i've now run out of time. evidently this blog will be primarily about how amazing my girlfriend is. i'm sure you're all quite amazed at this little bit of mooshieness, lol. it's all alright. until i next see you all, be well, ciao.

The Romanesque style of architecture is much simpler than that of the Gothic style. The churches are solidly built but are unadorned with the sculpture, gargoyles, stained glass and huge windows of the Gothic style. What adornments there were in the Romanesque church were confined mostly to the relequaries, psalters, altars and the like. The architectural designs were geometric, simple and formed easy patterns that relied on contrast for their visual effectiveness. The Gothic church took the religious decorations to the extreme. It also evinces complex windows to be seen on the interior and incredibly ornate, numerous and detailed sculptural elements covering the church exterior. The apex of the roof in these Gothic cathedrals was also equal to that of the towers in the Romanesque church. The differences between these two styles show a clear movement from the austere simplicity of Romanesque design and the simple, rugged cultures that created these churches to the ornate, grandiose designs of a society with money to spare and a taste for luxury.

Consider contemporary times and ways people go on pilgrimages. Are there pilgrimages geared around a religious journey? Are aspects of rock groupies (say the cult around The Grateful Dead) similar to pilgrimages in the medieval times? Do some research and show ways you might find a modern version of aspects of The Canterbury Tales.

There are still religious pilgrimages. The best example of this is the hajj, the pilgrimage to mecca by muslims. another example would be that of christians and jews visiting the holy land, going to jerusalem, bethlehem and other holy cities and sites. the basic idea behind the term is a long journey for a religious experience, so yeah, dead-heads would qualify. they're basically a cult, anyway. i mean, anyone who would still go and see jerry within the last 10 years before his death was in love with him or revered him like a god. he couldn't even remember how to play the songs and that's why people have cut down on the drug use. well, jerry and ozzy in tandem, perhaps. no one wants to end up like that. I think the best spot to look for a modern-day Canterbury Tales would the the hajj. This is a pilgrimage to see a holy site taken on by members of all classes from all over the world, much like Canterbury drew pilgrims from all over England from all social classes. doubtless there are some tensions between them when they're staying at inns along the way(they do make it by foot, after all) and i'd bet there are some great stories told.

To all you workers out there, stop the shit production!

i can't believe how boring i am. it's lame. oh, and a la brendan, i'm totally addicted to chili's burgers. i have at least one a week. i did smoke a good cigar over the weekend, though. it was a romeo y julietta anniversario corona. it was really tasty. only a little spicy with a smooth, peppermint finish, almost. it was a light, spicy mint taste on the end. very enjoyable. yeah, then i ended up picking up my sister and her two loud, hyper friends from a concert. then i figured out that my former-gf and current friend lori needed a pickup at a party a few blocks farther on. ridiculous night. so we all ended up at home, my sister et al cooking up a pizza, lori crashed out on one of our spare beds and me tossing around trying to get a few hours of sleep before my 5 a.m. start time for work. so maybe not so boring... still, i feel like i'm into a rut that i don't necessarily like to be in. on the plus side, i learned a vocal fry! i'm very excited. for anyone who isn't a singer or wanna be(this is my catagory here), a vocal fry is a skill set that includes screaming, growling, sounding strained, basically it's anything that makes your voice morph without hurting it. to do it you need to use the soft palate and make it vibrate like a buzzer, basically. then it's a matter of how much vibe, where on the palate, possition of the mouth and soft palate and a few other things that determine how you sound. it's wicked cool. so yeah, i'm done now before i get too far into this and end up boring you all. have a great day. ciao.

I'm feeling a bit depressed. i'll not lie, part of it is the fact that i'm not with sara but part of it is that carolyn has been being quite rude to me lately. i'll admit that i perhaps deserved a bit of the abuse but not what i got. i really don't deal well with being affronted regularly. i'm used to being treated well by friends and i think i usually treat them well, too. i really meant no harm by poking fun at fiercefully, but it is hard for me to get past(as is my way of saying things in an intellectual way to avoid sounding emotional at all, like i did above). i'm very set in my english ways as well as many others. there are certain things i do everyday, or every week, that are essential to my normal schedule. but yeah, i'm in on a monday working on a few things. doing research. yay! research! it's beggining to be boring so i'm wasting some time on here. makes me a happier camper. well alright, i'm going to go ahead and get back to my work and quit my playing. see you all tomorrow, have a great night. ciao.

Eo Jesu Domine

I'm not quite sure how to respond to the whole "monastery experience." I liked the walking during class part. and it was new not to talk for an entire class when we were doing something. i remember a lot of ethics classes like that but that's because it was all lecture and nothing fun some days. i really thought the coolest part was looking at the set-up of the monastery itself on the overhead. i'd have liked to have seen some pictures of an actually monastery, though. i had this image in my head of what it would look like with its rough, stone walls, monks in brown working silently in the garden with the peas, in the fields with a scythe in hand. like carolyn was saying, it was like we were playing kindergarten. i had a good time with my imagination for once. that's what was the best part of the whole day.

Since then it's been a book you read in reverse, so you understand less as the pages turn. or a movie so crass and inexpertly cast even i could be the star.

So it turns out that i'm an asshole sometimes. i was trying for sarcasm, i suck at it. i feel bad now. this is why i make a really bad asshole. i always feel bad and i always end up taking things back. this is why i try to control my reactions to things. perhaps i'm just taking out my feelings on everyone else. i'm sorry to anyone i offended. but yeah, i had a very uneventful weekend. very, very uneventful. so i'll end this now. suffer no more.