bloggers blogging. or not.

recently a favourite blog of mine became for the invited only. that was disappointing but i can think of many reasons why a blogger would choose to do that. yesterday an all time, all over, all encompassing favourite blog of mine closed down. i don't want to use the word 'tragedy' about blogging yet it feels close to that for me.

there are millions of blogs out there but i find it hard to find the ones i like to read (for reasons too many to get into in this post) and therefore i cherish the ones i do find as gemstones or flowers.
there are quite a few blogs i like to check once in a while but only a handful i check every day i'm near the screen.
out of the few on my regular read list there are only 3 blogs that i have read and continued to read in their entirety. old posts, comments, pictures... i have been through it all.
or, rather, now i should write "2 blogs".

yesterday itelli wrote his Last Post.
the first blog i ever read. the blog my eyes considered home almost as much as my own. the blog i would go to when i needed to either laugh or understand complicated political matters better.
the blogger who writes so wonderfully witty. the blogger with a sharp yet thorough style. the blogger who was a major reason why i started blogging, why i enjoy it and why i've continued even after the novelty of the whole thing was gone.
the blogger who, when he took up the mosaic challenge, looked like this:

boy, i'll miss you. boxing gloves and all. i will miss the read. i will miss your comments.
i hope you'll find another venue for you brilliant words.
and i hope the resting place for your blog looks as nice as this:


R.I.P. :-)

orange autumn

oslo - the new opera house - part V

the origami like sections of wall - wish i could have something like that at home!


the beautiful and well functioning hall...


the amazing coffee is made on the best (and most expensive?) coffee machine in the world... and it's pretty too:

and of course they have had their own porcelain designed! for the fancy receptions, i imagine:

and here, finally, is the snow clad mountain top that was the inspiration for the architects at Snøhetta, who did such an amazing job:

what it reminded me of? an iceberg. a giant of white ice floating on water, reflecting the colours of sea & sky.

oslo - the new opera house - part IV - SOS

more shots of this magnificent building.
i hear everyone is not happy with it. i hear they cancel a lot. and i didn't see the concert hall itself. but still. i. love. it.

this post will also - i promise - be the second to last about this opera thingy. and the last before i reveal exactly what it is that it reminded me of.



anyhow, the concept of today is what you step on. the italian Very White marble and its design. it is layed out in a angular pattern with lines shooting in all direction and as mentioned before it is sloping, some places so much that you really have to work it to get up to the top of the roof. furthermore, there are small differences in height that appears out of nowhere, murderous steps. this makes you walk in funny ways. as you can see in these images, people seem to be almost rolling upwards, dancing, climbing, etching their way to the top.

those words and these last two pictures must be the ultimate clue.
so come on,
please,
tell me what it looks like? there's no price, i'm just having fun...
with the idea of something
white
sharp
angular
dazzling
almost blinding
floating on water...

oslo - the new opera house - part III

as you venture inside you find that there is (somewhat surprising after all the cold whiteness) colour and texture to be found at the opera house. the colour is in the large, lovely and very lively wooden panel. the texture is in the sheep skins covering the small sofas and the origami-like texture of some of the walls.






















i found that every little detail fitted perfectly in with the overriding aesthetics of the place - the coffee cup was very fancy & the coffee was divine.

this place reminded me of something. not the CERN lab, not Legoland, something out of the natural world...
the sharp yet sloping angles, the whiteness and the blue hues of ocean & sky...

oslo - the new opera house - part II

views from around the building...





every view is so bright with the white, whiter, wash out of the white (Italian) marble that i started to look for some colour...


i repeat my question: what does it remind you of? look here:

oslo - the new opera house - part I

i could write several pages in raving awe of this place... but i wont scare you off, so i'll simply post a few of the hundreds of pix i took...
from afar:
from a distance, with road:

from a distance only but with more sun:

from a distance with busy business man:

from another distance, with cyclists:

and pedestrians & their shadows:

last distant detail before one actually gets there:

now, is it not dazzling? and of what does it remind you?

artistic necessities

close by oslo lives an artist i admire -
here's a few of his work tools:



more from this visit can be seen over at the kompostellarium...

oslo

location, location, location...
of the cities i know, only Vancouver has a similar kind of perfection when it comes to location.

even rainbows live in oslo:
...differing kinds of rainbows...
yes, pink hair and the famous blue rain coat...
but what is hardly visible on this picture is that the ribbon in her hair was a rainbow.


i actually used to think this city was the dullest place on earth.

but now! apart from perfect location, a flowering music scene and people starting to dress up as if they live in a big city, there's also a lot of interesting new galleries. like this fancy one where i was sent to check out how the street art is moving into the money world in this city too.
liked this guy (think it was Anders Gjennestad) a lot for his ever changing but extremely inventive choices of 'canvas' - old doors and other pieces that could have been ripped right out of the city itself or scavenged at any dump.
a last great thing about oslo for today (more will follow - lots more) is that you only have to transport yourself for a very short time in order to be in a place like this:
or this:
however, even out there, in what seems to be close to the wild, there are those Scandinavian rules....





..............he he,
eh?!