yesterday's bad art theory is today's great gift shop
photo 3
more greed architecture
The small cylindrical building in the lower left was a PATH train entrance that stood alone in a vacant lot for years. Then, the awkward parabuilding on the right was added, using the cylinder as a support for a multi-story hotel (Marriott Residence Inn). "Parabuilding" was New York Times architecture critic's Herbert Muschamp's euphemism for what could also be called "the architecture of greed," where squeezing every last nickel of rent takes precedence over style. Note how the sleek futuristic columns attempt to distract from the silliness of the design.
The hotel exploits monetizable floor area on the opposite side, too -- its wraparound floors nudge into the space of the adjacent building, a la the infamous shot of George Bush trying to squeeze past Bill Clinton in a public doorway:
Here's an image that a tourist bureau might like, where everything appears neat and symmetrical. Photos can lie.
desktop computer photos, new Bandcamp release(s)
I made these images as cover photos for my newest music release, Generic PC (Vols. 1-5) on Bandcamp. 50 songs from 2016 -- please buy some, for the music, or, if you prefer, to support the efforts of the last blogger on earth.
These aren't old PCs but rather, a form of personal rebellion against the "design award" aesthetic for computer hardware, popularized by the late, unlamented Steve Jobs.
Just stick some wires in them and they work; they don't have to look "cool."
my raspberry pi
The back side of the Qu-Bit Nebulae module, showing the Raspberry Pi it uses for an operating system (for cv-controlled granular sample manipulation).
Although still functioning perfectly, this is a five year old relic, like the bone of a saint ensconced in an ornamental cabinet. Qu-Bit is no longer making the Nebulae because Raspberry Pi changed its design and/or specs. So I have a dedicated general purpose computer humming away inside an obsolete musical instrument. There is something kind of poignant about that. Or perhaps not.
