GOOSE

My song is love
Love to the lovely song
And it goes on
You don't have to be alone
Your heavy heart
Is made of stone
And it's so hard to see you clearly
You don't have to be on your own
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
got to get that message home

My song is love
My song is love, unknown
But I'm on fire for you, clearly
You don't have to be alone
You don't have to be on your own

And I'm not gonna take it back
Oh I'm not gonna say I don't mean that
You're the target that I'm aiming at
And I'm nothing on my own
Got to get that message home

And I'm not gonna stand and wait
Not gonna be there until it's much too late
On a platform I'm gonna stand and say
That I'm nothing on my own
And I love you, please come home

And my song is love, is love unknown
And I've got to get that message home

wow! i came across this picture on the web today and i was instantly filled with memories. Calvin and Hobbes were my teachers, entertainers, and company back in the day.... at first i would only look at the pictures because i didn't know any english at all; as time went by i could read some of the more basic stuff. but no matter how much i didn't understand, i was always interested. not only did they teach me about the language, but they also introduced the culture. not to mention all the crazy adventures that i could only dream of having...man, i want to be that kid again. just for one instant. then again, i think i never stopped being that same kid... what has been will always be... i keep on dreaming (only i've added things to dream of...). dream gustavo dream.

i found this site the other day, its a really cool store. the name is ELSEWARES, and its an online store that supports independent designers. it's a real good place to find cool stuff that is unique and well made.

man, this sucks. i don't know what to do. should i do the right thing, or should i follow my feelings? what if what i feel is the right thing? i really want to do what my heart tells me to do, i've always done it. i can't ignore what i feel, it hurts! but i don't want to mess things up... and to make it worse, my f*#@ing fortune cookie said "If you feel you are right, stand firmly by your convictions." i have never been so confussed in my life. somebody please HELP ME or shoot me.

Man... this semester has been a little crazy in studio. this was supposed to be our "construction documents" studio, but as many of you guys know- i hate the autoCAD. well, maybe not hate, but i definitely don't enjoy it (especially when you have to stare at the dammed black screen of death for days and days at a time). anything else i can deal with and in fact, love to do - free hand drawing, model making, and also just plain out drafting by hand - to name a few. this is the reason i've designed the same building so many times over... i love with a passion the freedom of schematic design and if i could, i would have the entire semester be like that.

the following are a series of images that sum up what i've done this semester. keep in mind that it's all the same project.















this is just a little taste of the big cake (a cake that doesn't include much autoCAD).
my professor is probably going to flunk me.

autoCAD is not architecture. Architecture does not exist without life.

nine months ago i was asked one of the most important questions in my life. what is more important: architecture or life? i will never forget that moment. as i thought about an answer to give him, alberto said - you shouldn't even have to think about it. Life is more important. he went on to explain that one should never forget about living and also expressed how important it was to not get caught up in this so called "architecture life". i've enjoyed life more ever since that moment. that doesn't mean i don't want to be an architect anymore, it just means that i value other things more. i really enjoy architecture (and i respect the practice so much...), but my goal is not be limited by it. there are just so many other things to experience! i don't want to trick my self into thinking that architecture is absolutely everything. i want to be true to myself. Thank you alberto campo baeza.

...it's not worth sacrificing the sensory for the material...

what does it mean to touch? what does it mean to hear? what does it mean to see? what does it mean to smell? what does it mean to taste? what does it mean to love?

to be human.

a person is born, the person experiences, and not to long after that, the person is gone. what good is it to have everything, but yet be sedated as a result. man does not own, man feels. too many people forget this. how can you say you lived, if you didn't live by your senses? i say never give up your senses, not even for one second. i think the richest person in the world is one who has used the senses at every moment. what a woderful life that would be... i don't think anybody is like that anymore. we are all slaves to this sort of numbness, some more than others. as for me, i know i'm not innocent... but i'm working on it, how else could i be happier?

L'aube est moins claire, l'air moins chaud, le ciel moins pur ;
Les longs jours sont passés ; les mois charmants finissent.
Hélas ! voici déjà les arbres qui jaunissent !
L'automne est triste avec sa bise et son brouillard,
Et l'été qui s'enfuit est un ami qui part.

this is a poem about Fall. i learned it in my french class some time ago. when i learned that poem, i was still discovering this season. i never had it when i grew up. who would have tought that it would become my favorite season of the year?

i am tortured everyday as i am forced to go indoors and stare at a computer screen all day long. what a waste.

the poem talks about Fall in a way different than my thoughts. the poem talks about Fall as something that simply follows summer. it also says that things are less clear in the Fall. NOT TRUE. what about the leaves? what about the crispness of the air?

i posted several pictures of leaves. i love them. the bottom picture shows some leaves that i've been collecting for some weeks now. i go by the most amazing set of trees everyday i work. so i decided that i was going to collect a leaf every few days just so that i could always remember those trees. it works. sometimes when i don't want work on autocad, i just pull out those leaves and look at them. it reminds me of how beautiful the world is, and it makes happy.

one of the other things i love about Fall is the cold wind. somedays the wind and the temperature create the perfect condition where all the scents are eliminated. man, i really love that! i never wear gloves, (as weird as it maybe..) i really enjoy the feeling of cold on my hands, this is also accompanied by the natural instinct of sticking my hands in my pockets. if i wore gloves, i would never stick my hands in my pockets, so that's why i don't do it. i just love everything about it, i love Fall.

this past thursday charlie, colleen and i headed southwest of manhattan to explore new territory. the konza prairie. it was indeed a magnificent place. apparently this area is an undisturbed environment, which i think means that no one has ever farmed or inhabited this land. it was a good trip, for the longest time i had always wanted to walk the infamous trails. i always heard good things about it.

there is a kind beauty in removing yourself. at one point my life was simplified to only a few elements-lines, wind and sky-and i was happy. it was simply amazing, the three of us walked and talked for about 4 glorious hours during which nothing else mattered, not even time.

what a great thing. to be in a timeless place filled with lines, wind and sky and in the middle three friends walking and talking.

interesting if nothing else. check it out man!

Autoban is cool. straight from Istanbul, they are a design group that does everything from Architecture and interiors to product design. they have some nice interiors that they've done, but it's amateur compared to thier furniture.

this one is pretty good. Yamagiwa is a japanese product distributor that carries mostly lighting products. most of this stuff is pretty expensive but the good thing is that looking at the pretty pictures doesn't cost anything...

Right now i like Coca-Cola. Not for the taste, but for the following reason. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola asked 5 design groups from 5 continents to create and share visions of optimism. each of the 5 groups created an animation to convey their ideas and thoughts about the subject. the project is called M5 and it's actually pretty cool, in some cases you can definetly tell where the animations where created and what message they are trying carry. one thing is for sure, all the groups have created video images that i recommend everyone should see. although i'm a Pepsi fan, i will bow down to Coke for this deed.

whoa! these guys have become one of my favorites. MK12 Studios is a graphics and animations design firm. they are based out of kansas city and let me tell you... they are representing pretty damn well. the animations are my favorite, but how could you have good animations without good graphics? i just think these guys are kick-ass. they know what they are doing and they know how to do it well.

as you guys have noticed, i haven't posted anything for many days.... but don't be worried. i have been extremely busy with my studio project lately and now that i have a break to do anything that i want to do i want to have some alone time with blogger. over the last weeks (even thought i haven't posted anything...) i haven't forgotten to do my homework, take a look 'cause i think some of the next few post will be pretty interesting...