London 2012 Olympics...

Just like the football World Cup in South Africa and the Euro 2012 (which once again confirmed my lack of faith in a "civilised" Europe), the Olympic games have become yet another farcical event, a true opiate for the modern "liberal" masses... It purports to celebrate "human spirit" or whatever, but that same spirit dies in this sanitised and tightly regulated environment of exclusion, copyrights, and cheap commercialisation. What is worse, this ideology at work conveniently slips under the overblown spectacle and media frenzy...and we stand in its awe as if someone were pointing a gun at us (or get up at 4.30 in the morning Australian Eastern time to watch the opening ceremony).

Indifference...

In these times of rules and regs

They demand an action

To change ourselves 

To grow

With changing times 

Of market crashes 

And New Age love.

An action 

Without a cause

Without reaction

Like de-caf coffee with no sugar

And love without passion

So things can really 

Stay the same.

When all the battles

Have been won

What’s left is just 

To sit back be quiet

And enjoy.

And like free-range chickens

We roam about

To false beliefs

We sing a praise

And when its our time

We die all the same.

By Z.Basic

CEBRA Denmark

I'm not a big believer in contemporary architectural literature (particularly the glossy kind), or architecture-related travel (more on that another time). I usually have no desire in seeing buildings they talk about in books and magazines. But one way to tell a good architect is by conceptual drawings they produce. And I can find few better than a group in Denmark called CEBRA architects. I stumbled upon them while searching for some watercolour paintings, and one of their principals is a dedicated watercolourist who has produced an astonishing set of drawings documenting their firm's portfolio of work. Every drawing represents a single project and is painted in a distinct, free-flowing, and brightly-coloured style. This quirky nature seems to translate, truthfuly, to the office's built work, even if I can only say so superficially, as far as the photos allow judgement.

CEBRA website

CEBRA_toons - watercolours