my next experiment in alternative means.
i am surrounded by people who own homes or who are looking to purchase homes. it has prompted me to look around at what is out there even though i am in no position financially or settled in enough to actively pursue this for myself. what i have noticed most about the places on offer is how much useless run-down space you can get for a hefty price tag. what is the point of having a huge basement with countless oddly shaped rooms if the whole thing is damp and musty. what use is having three bedrooms upstairs if they are all tiny with warped floors and battered walls. many places that have photos of the interior rooms leave out the kitchen all together, which can't be a good sign, and who wants to go through the expense and annoyance of having to rip out an entire bathroom's worth of peptobismal pink tile. barf.
mixed into these real estate sites are vacant lots for sale. from what i have investigated, they are over-run with weedy wilderness or useless crumbling parking lots. but what if you bought one of these $3,000 lots and ripped out the asphalt and staked up a privacy fence around it. you could build this little $4,000 cabin, or one of these cabin kits, or any of the variety of these prefab cabins on it. plant trees and shrubs and a garden. string up a hammock. if the lot were sizable enough and the cabin small enough, you could plant enough nature around to feel like you were out of the city and in your own private urban wilderness.
Don't You Remember by Wax Tailor
Heaven by I Monster
Made by Greg Weeks
Mystereons by Portishead
Aguas de Amazonia: Paru River by Philip Glass
Mars by Micatone
Early Moss by Chris Clark
Misco by Ms. John Soda
Idlelow by RF
New Light of Tomorrow by Husky Rescue
Dial by Deaf Center
Anywhere Anyone by Dntel
I am to You by A Lily
I Close the Door Upon Myself by Susumu Yokoto
My Kingdom by The Future Sounds of London
Idlewild by Julia Kent
Night Knuckles by Clark
Six Arms and One Leg by Minilogue
contact me if you would like a copy
]]>my next experiment in alternative means.
The history of Cnossos goes back as far as the history of Egypt; the two countries were trading actively across the sea by 4000 BC. by 2500 BC, that is between the time of Sargon I and Hammurabi, Cretan civilization was at its zenith.
Cnossos was not so much a town as a great palace for the Cretan monarch and his people. It was not even fortified. It was only fortified later as the Phoenicians grew strong, and as a new and more terrible breed of pirates, the Greeks, came upon the sea from the north.
The monarch was called Minos, as the Egyptian monarch was called Pharaoh; and he kept his state in a palace fitted with running water, with bathrooms and the like conveniences such as we know of in no other ancient remains. There he held great festivals and shows. There was bullfighting, singularly like the bullfighting that still survives in Spain; there was resemblance even in the costumes of the bullfighters; and there were gymnastic displays. The women's clothes were remarkably modern in spirit; they wore corsets and flounced dresses. The pottery, the textile manufacturers, the sculpture, painting, jewellery, ivory, metal and inlay work of these Cretans was often astonishingly beautiful And they had a system of writing, but that still remains to be deciphered.
This happy and sunny civilized life lasted for some score of centuries. About 2000 BC Cnossos and Babylon abounded in comfortable and cultivated people who probably led very pleasant lives. They had shows and they had religious festivals, they had domestic slaves to look after them and industrial slaves to make a profit for them. Life must have seemed very secure in Cnossos for such people, sunlit and girdled by the blue sea. Egypt of course must have appeared rather a declining country in those days under the rule of her half-barbaric shepherd kings.
There were some active and curious minds in Cnossos, because later on the Greeks told legends of a certain skillful Cretan artificer, Daedalus, who attempted to make some sort of flying machine, perhaps a glider, which collapsed and fell into the sea.
A Short History of the World by H. G. Wells
however, Daedelus is an unrelated contemporary musician.
how can i have such a messy apartment when i hardly have any stuff? why do i think i have so little stuff? is it just comparative to other people's quantity of stuff? since i can't afford a cleaning service, i probably need to be even more minimalist.
i have been pondering the ideas in this article: how to live with just 100 things. and what constitutes a "thing" for me. i am thinking that a thing is something that is not consumable. soap, food, etc. are examples of non-things for the purpose of the counting.
SHED =
Separate the treasures
Heave the
trash
Embrace your identity from within
Drive yourself forward
while the word "embrace" makes me gag a little bit with its sentimentality, i still like the general SHED idea and the 100 Things Challenge. tonight i think i may start an itemization of my things. should be enlightening.
that is the goal. the smell of motor oil and welding. a little metallic smell of tools and curls of metal scattered on the cement floor. a hint of air compressor. how can i find this? here are the fruits of my search:
Mechanical Phoenix by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab
while this scent is the most promising, it is also out of production. damn!
"A mechanical construct: illustrating strong work ethic, determination, creativity, and innovation. Copper gears, brass cogs, fused wiring, scorched iron, and motor oil."
Garage by Comme des Garcons Series 6: Synthetic
this one sounds promising, but not as good as the first. at least there is a sample size available.
"Garage brings to mind images grease, oil and rubber, your father's workbench or your grandpa's old toolshed. notes: Laurel aldehyde, traces of kerosene, leather notes, plastic floral
notes, vetiver acetate, Chinese cedarwood."
Nostalgia by Santa Maria Novella
this fragrance sounds like it would smell fantastic, but not necessarily what i am looking for. this sounds like it is something that a mechanic might wish to wear as cologne, but not necessarily the smell of the mechanic work itself.
"it is racing car, mechanic all rolled together. Notes of South American woods, vegetable musk, patchouli, citrus wood, tobacco, amber, and vanilla."
Odeur 71 by Comme des Garcons
the oddball of the group. i am guessing this showed up in my search because it has a metal element. however, it just sounds.... weird.
"The ultimate anti-perfume. The notes are inspired by dust on a hot
lightbulb, bamboo, metal, electricity and lettuce juice…no lie! But
what does it smell like? Surprisingly, it's a completely wearable
scent; metal and electricity manifest as the invigorating smell of
ozone just before a storm, and the combination of we-don't-know-what
makes for a familiar soapy freshness. Hot laundry right out of the
dryer served up on your clean, sexy Xerox machine. Released in 2000,
Odeur 71 continues to make huge stir-not just for its revolutionary
scent structure, but because it's a testament that a combination of the
truly weird can make a truly fantastic fragrance."