Monday, June 20, 2011
Back in the USA
So I've been back in the US for a while, and I have decided to turn this blog into my random project/stuff blog. This first post is engine teardown progress photos from my '77 cb750 cafe project. Taken on my phone with the Vignette app.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
North trip, part 2
For the second half of our north field trip we went to Venice and Verona.
In Verona we visited a few specific sites and then were free to roam on our own. We all went to the Castelvecchio Museum, a castel containing a museum designed by Carlo Scarpa. The building itself was a very cool mixture of old and new. Carlo Scarpa did an excellent job of integrating the redesigned museum into the existing castle.
We also climbed to the top of Torre dei Lamberti, which provided some cool views over the city. We waited around at the top until the bells rang at noon, which was not at all quiet...
We hung out by the river, John got attacked by birds after some crazy Italian lady came and threw a bunch of bread by us...
Later in the day Mike and I met a friend of mine who is living near Verona and she showed us around the city. We had some amazing gelato, wandered around the city streets and went up to a castle on the hill, the name escapes me, but the view was spectacular.
From Verona we headed to Venice. Venice is a pretty cool city, with its maze of streets and canals. I can't say I really enjoyed it too much despite it romanticism and beauty, it was just a little too touristy for my taste.
Thats the quick rundown on our trip to the north. We recently got back from a day trip to Villa d'este and Villa Adriana near Tivoli, expect that post sometime...
In Verona we visited a few specific sites and then were free to roam on our own. We all went to the Castelvecchio Museum, a castel containing a museum designed by Carlo Scarpa. The building itself was a very cool mixture of old and new. Carlo Scarpa did an excellent job of integrating the redesigned museum into the existing castle.
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| Stairway in the Castelvecchio Museum |
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| Stairway to the tower, which was sort of blocked off... |
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| But we figured they wouldn't mind and went up for a look |
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| The stairs to the top of Torre dei Lamberti |
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| A view from the tower, looking over the city |
Later in the day Mike and I met a friend of mine who is living near Verona and she showed us around the city. We had some amazing gelato, wandered around the city streets and went up to a castle on the hill, the name escapes me, but the view was spectacular.
From Verona we headed to Venice. Venice is a pretty cool city, with its maze of streets and canals. I can't say I really enjoyed it too much despite it romanticism and beauty, it was just a little too touristy for my taste.
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| A view down one of the many canals of Venice |
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| Part of the maze of narrow streets |
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| A boat moves through one of the larger canals at night |
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| A Venice street at night |
Its been a while
So it has been a long while since my last post. I have been overwhelmingly busy with the typical end of the year business. I've been busy with things pretty constantly since spring break. The break was nice, especially since I got the chance to see my family and show them around Rome. I had a great time with that, and actually surprised myself with how much I have learned about the city. I just wish we would have had the weather we have now when they were here... For only a weeks time though, we still saw a ton of stuff!
We stumbled across a reenactment of the murder of Julius Caesar at the 'cat ruins'...
Morgan and I ordered cappuccino from a famous cappuccino artist at the Bar del Cappuccino..
I showed them around some of the highlights of Rome like the Theater of Marcellus...
The Circo Massimo...
St Peter's and the Vatican Museums...
We saw a lot of other things around Rome, most of which I don't have photos from, or at least not photos with my family or me in them. Mom and Morgan were taking plenty of those...
Highlights from those other places include The Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Palatine Hill, the Ara Pacis, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Maxxi Museum (sort of), had dinner in Piazza Navona, ate at a great restaurant called Jero after being invited by the owner while riding the bus, among other things! I had a fantastic time pretending to be the knowledgeable tour guide.
We also took a day trip to Orvieto. There we saw an old castle/fort, an old well, the Duomo, and wandered around the town a bit. We tried to make it back in time for Morgan to make it to the non-Catholic Cemetery in Ostiense, but apparently it closed at 5.00pm...
Spring break was a great time and I'm so glad that I got to see my family! Thanks for coming over to see me guys!
I just realized that I forgot to post the other half of the North field trip. I'll do that in the next post.
We stumbled across a reenactment of the murder of Julius Caesar at the 'cat ruins'...
Morgan and I ordered cappuccino from a famous cappuccino artist at the Bar del Cappuccino..
I showed them around some of the highlights of Rome like the Theater of Marcellus...
Highlights from those other places include The Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Palatine Hill, the Ara Pacis, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Maxxi Museum (sort of), had dinner in Piazza Navona, ate at a great restaurant called Jero after being invited by the owner while riding the bus, among other things! I had a fantastic time pretending to be the knowledgeable tour guide.
We also took a day trip to Orvieto. There we saw an old castle/fort, an old well, the Duomo, and wandered around the town a bit. We tried to make it back in time for Morgan to make it to the non-Catholic Cemetery in Ostiense, but apparently it closed at 5.00pm...
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| The view from the castle/fort in Orvieto |
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| The Duomo (cathedral) |
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| Inside the Duomo, photos weren't allowed but my camera 'accidentally' took a few... |
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| Streets of Orvieto |
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| These boar heads were all over town. I have no idea why... |
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| The view down into the well |
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| Dad at the bottom |
I just realized that I forgot to post the other half of the North field trip. I'll do that in the next post.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Back from the north
Over the last few days we were all off exploring northern Italy. We went to a few smaller towns, then Verona and Venice. I have given up reporting on the south field trip, and will keep the description of the north short so that I actually complete it. The first stop on our whirlwind tour of the north was the Villa Barbaro. Designed by Palladio, this rural villa had some pretty fantastic illusionistic frescoes and some pretty awesome looking wood floors, photos were not allowed, I took some anyway. Karma got me back, as my camera failed to save any photos taken within and I was forced to reformat my memory card....
The second stop was the Carlo Scarpa cemetery addition in Brion. I loved Scarpa's work here, the detailing and overall spatial considerations were fantastic. The whole place had a very unique and reverent feel to it, all while still retaining a level of playfulness. Scarpa's fusion of brass, concrete, steel, wood, bronze and water created some very dynamic and interesting spaces. The photos I have hardly come close to capturing the essence of the place. I was very impressed.
We then traveled on to Vicenza where we went to Teatro Olimpico and a couple other sites. These were much less impressive than the Scarpa cemetery, which became my frame of reference for the remainder of the north trip, but it was still nice. The Teatro Olimpico was only ever officially used for the performance of one play. It is entirely constructed out of wood and plaster, and it is amazing it has survived as long as it has (mentioned by our instructor Mikesh many times). I am not entirely sure what the other sites we visited in Vicenza were, I apparently wasn't paying quite enough attention. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on the fact that I was wearing and t-shirt and was freezing cold.
I'm going to end part one here. Part two will cover Verona and Venezia (Venice)
On a side note, its raining in Rome today, my family was supposed to have arrived by now, but their first flight was delayed due to ice and they missed their connection. They will arrive tomorrow morning. Today has been quite the lazy day for me, I have just sorted photos, and lounged around the house listening to mash-ups. Of course the one time I do venture out into the rain I find the Chinese restaurant I wanted to eat at closed... I'll try again later I guess.
Lots of new photos up on my photobucket account
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g198/b82ta/Roma/
is the link for those who dont know.
Adam
The second stop was the Carlo Scarpa cemetery addition in Brion. I loved Scarpa's work here, the detailing and overall spatial considerations were fantastic. The whole place had a very unique and reverent feel to it, all while still retaining a level of playfulness. Scarpa's fusion of brass, concrete, steel, wood, bronze and water created some very dynamic and interesting spaces. The photos I have hardly come close to capturing the essence of the place. I was very impressed.
We then traveled on to Vicenza where we went to Teatro Olimpico and a couple other sites. These were much less impressive than the Scarpa cemetery, which became my frame of reference for the remainder of the north trip, but it was still nice. The Teatro Olimpico was only ever officially used for the performance of one play. It is entirely constructed out of wood and plaster, and it is amazing it has survived as long as it has (mentioned by our instructor Mikesh many times). I am not entirely sure what the other sites we visited in Vicenza were, I apparently wasn't paying quite enough attention. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on the fact that I was wearing and t-shirt and was freezing cold.
I'm going to end part one here. Part two will cover Verona and Venezia (Venice)
On a side note, its raining in Rome today, my family was supposed to have arrived by now, but their first flight was delayed due to ice and they missed their connection. They will arrive tomorrow morning. Today has been quite the lazy day for me, I have just sorted photos, and lounged around the house listening to mash-ups. Of course the one time I do venture out into the rain I find the Chinese restaurant I wanted to eat at closed... I'll try again later I guess.
Lots of new photos up on my photobucket account
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g198/b82ta/Roma/
is the link for those who dont know.
Adam
Monday, March 7, 2011
Post review
Alright, its been a while since I have had some new stuff on here, but I have been busy lately. We had our project 2 review today, and it took a considerable amount of work to get the project finished up. Now I just have to survive my drawing class tomorrow and I'm basically on spring break. We leave on our north field trip EARLY (4 something in the morning) on Wednesday. I am really excited for that, as well as spending spring break with my family! However, I'm not really in the mood to blog right now. Just wanted to put something up since it has been so long.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Pompeii
Continuing with the last trip...
We left Paestum and moved on to Pompeii. Pompeii was really awesome to see. Everything in the city was so well preserved, thanks to being buried under ash from Mt Vesuvius. If I remember right the eruption was in 79 AD, the city of Pompeii was actually trying to rebuild itself from an earthquake that had happened some years earlier. This earthquake is responsible for some of the damage caused to buildings around the city. The plaster casts of the voids created in the ash (where people and animals were buried) gave an eerie sense of what the final moments of the city were like. Unfortunately many of these have been moved to a museum in Napoli. Wandering around Pompeii I really could almost imagine myself living in that time period. It was really an interesting experience. I took a lot of photos in and around Pompeii. They don't really even come close to matching the experience of being there, but I've attached a few to sort of give a sense...
We left Paestum and moved on to Pompeii. Pompeii was really awesome to see. Everything in the city was so well preserved, thanks to being buried under ash from Mt Vesuvius. If I remember right the eruption was in 79 AD, the city of Pompeii was actually trying to rebuild itself from an earthquake that had happened some years earlier. This earthquake is responsible for some of the damage caused to buildings around the city. The plaster casts of the voids created in the ash (where people and animals were buried) gave an eerie sense of what the final moments of the city were like. Unfortunately many of these have been moved to a museum in Napoli. Wandering around Pompeii I really could almost imagine myself living in that time period. It was really an interesting experience. I took a lot of photos in and around Pompeii. They don't really even come close to matching the experience of being there, but I've attached a few to sort of give a sense...
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| The view down one of the streets, you can see the ruts worn by wagons/chariots |
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| An interior, all of the color on the walls is original and preserved from the ash it was buried under. |
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| Interior court in one of the houses, all coloration here is original... |
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| Metal inlay, found in the bath complex |
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| One of the plaster casts that remains in Pompeii |
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| The metal gate to the this area was left open, so we figured it'd be ok to wander around... |
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| A view down a another roman street. |
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| Sam and I at the circus/colosseum in Pompeii |
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