no2self.net

I promised a series of more haptic entries and then disappeared back into the Real World to deal with the all too haptic experience of moving house. So, where were we?

Amidst the colours, shapes, sounds and smells of childhood rests the memories of certain TV personalities. Delia Smith, Ken Hom, Madhur Jaffrey - all regulars on our TV thanks to my Mother’s interest in cooking.

Nestled in there, alongside Delia’s half hearted smile, Madhur’s sari, and Ken’s wok, is the nameless domestic godess from the cover of the Be-Ro recipe book.

My mother’s cookery skills have long since surpassed the need for recipe books so I recently liberated it in order to share it with you. I tried the ‘Eve’s pudding’ a couple of weeks ago and can report that it’s fantastic with custard. Put down your Jamie Oliver and get back to basics.

The aforemontioned Mr Alan Morrissey has been shortlisted for this year’s RIBA Silver Medal Awards.

Fill your boots here: The President’s Medals Students Awards

Joins Shuttleworth one week, makes the cut for the Silver Medal the next - the boy done good. Almost too good, I’m getting uncharacteristically jealous.

Related entry: 2004 results

I was thinking, during my journey along the motorway this morning, about how I should best convey the news to new readers that this isn’t purely an architecture blog. Perhaps 50% is Architecture, another 20% is architecture and the remaining 30% is more general notes to self which may (or, more usually, may not) be loosely connected to architecturification architecturing making stuff.

Checking my latest stats at mybloglog.com when I arrived at the office gave me the solution. Here are a sample of some number one ranking Google queries that have brought people to my door over the last week.

• giotto, joachim and anna at the beautiful gate¹
• the words to grandad sung by clive dunn
• Darcy Bradell
• tschumi and poststructuralism
• ‘Sex Shop Boys’ ‘big tits’

I fear there may actually be more stuff than Architecture.

1. UPDATE: OK, much weirdness - this one seems to have fallen off the radar, I swear it was working a few days ago. It’s a shame, I was hoping that the high art of the first one would balance out the low art of the last one.

A note to explain the image in the AR article: It’s one of two sent to me by my friend Avril in New York and you need the second one to get the full story. In her words:

…that photo was taken at the NY Milkshake Company, on St. Mark’s Place, in NYC … Cooper Union (the Arch. and Engineering school) is right down the block, so I assume the original image had something to do with that. However I couldn’t resist adding the addendum. I mean, I gotta stick up for my favourite architect and all.

I like to think I’m keeping the British end up, as they say.

I received a text message last night from Tom the caveman:

Marcus Novak lecture on friday at UCL

Since one of his past articles was the inspiration for my obligatory internet pseudonym I felt compelled to attend. Two minutes later I realised I couldn’t make it - I’m picking the kids up from nursery. This is a fact that I feel compelled to mention in case any Architectural Review readers get the wrong impression that I’m some rock and roll starchitect, having arrived here after reading Sutherland Lyall’s all too generous write up this month.

If you’re free of parental responsibilities on Friday night, go along and tell me all about it afterwards.

More on the UCL lecture series here: Bartlett International Lecture Series.

Hello.

I’m back in the saddle after a little time away from work and information technology. The office is a little quieter than usual at the moment; partly due to a touch of autumnal melancholy, partly due to the fact that we’re a man down. My colleague, friend and axe mentor, Alan Morrissey, has jumped ship and taken a job with the new Birmingham outpost of Ken Shuttleworth’s practice Make. He’ll be working on the new extension to the Mailbox development that I mentioned a few months ago.

Good luck Al, I’ll be thinking of you every time a Loudon Wainwright track shuffles to the top of the office Wurlitzer. He doesn’t have a web site, but you could still join me in wishing him good luck, as I’ve just caught him posting a comment over at City Of Sound: Paper buildings force the return of maintenance?

I’m sure Dan won’t mind us hijacking his thread for well wishing.

For the next few entries you and I are going to get out and about more. We’ll get some fresh air, be more haptic and allow our eyes to be bigger than our bellies.

During my break I’ve seen some stuff and made some stuff worth sharing. Here’s the agenda:

• Simeon Solomon & the Pre-Raphaelites
• Chinese Woodblock Printing
• Weather Guitar
• Eve’s Pudding
• How to get felt
• Pumpkin Pie
• Architecture, you and me
• Climbing to stand still

I’ll add links as we go and with a bit of luck we’ll also catch a couple of long neglected entry categories along the way. Somewhere in the midst of all that I suppose I’ll have to stop shirking and say something about the Stirling Prize. No promises though.

p.s. - Great news: Joel is back. Bad news: I’ve had to switch comments off temporarily while I deal with some spam. V. Bad news: Comment spam continues - mail me instead.