i have been looking at the pictures of dublin on fantasyjackpalance.com for a few months now. i love the randomness of it all, so ive spent a few minutes looking through google for an equivilant site based on new york city.

a nice one, but not enough photos (click on the photo):

i remember seeing a scene in an early james bond movie. where james is getting tortured or something in a room. and there is a large circle in the roof, covered in glass. looked so cool. then i remember talking with my mate elena about something similar. anyway, here is a tadao ando building that is based around a similar idea. (its a swimming pool in naoshima, japan)

i bought a book in new york a few years ago. pretty randomly. one of those books i have lying around to make me feel as if i have some architectural knowledge. its a book about the work by a japanese architect called shin takamatsu. the book is an essay and interview with the architect and is really interesting (although a lot of it does go over my head).

there is a few buildings in the book that stick in my mind.

above: origin (osaka)

below left: karin plaza (osaka)
below right: ela tower (somewhere, maybe, its not in the book.. just saw it on the website)

pretty cool stuff. the book also gives loads of sketchs that show the evolution of the ideas that lead up to the buildings.

the fella (genndy tartakovsky) who brought us “dexters laboratory” and “samurai jack” on cartoon network is now bringing (in conjunction with george lucas) a series of short cartoons based around the events between star wars 2: attack of the clones and (the unreleased) star wars 3.

the story is here

ive been watching loads of samurai jack over the last month or so, and its amazing! really really good. with loads of little brilliant moments in there (like the crazy scientist who keeps asking jack to “high five”). precious moments.

looking through that design site from the previous post.. i had a bit of a shock..i saw “pringle” in there as one of their other clients.

anyone who knows me knows that i hate “pringles” at all costs. i have avoided consumption of them for most of my life now (any drunken consumption doesnt count).

anyway, i click on it and i saw this:

thankfully it is the golf company, not the evil crisp manufacturing empire (with the worst ads ever)