Laborless Weekend
“Waiting” by sergeyloie
Time to revel in the celebration of relaxing from the fruits of labor. Now time to go squander all that hard earned money on some frivolous bit of tourism driven enterprise.
Ohs Noes!
Gilding is at a bit of a conundrum. If you’ll scroll down the page you’ll notice that most of Gilding’s lovely images have been replaced by Photobucket’s ugly “Exceeds Bandwidth” sticker. On the one hand that ugly intrusion means that you readers have made Gilding the Lily rather popular. Popular enough at least to, well, exceed the bandwidth. On the other hand, that means that if Gilding doesn’t want this to happen every month that she’ll have to start forking out money to pay for an increase in bandwidth with Photobucket. That means forking out money for a blog that doesn’t make money. But without the images, Gilding the Lily isn’t so popular. Popular, but not that popular. That could be interpreted as either without the images the blog isn’t as I catching in the great wide web. Or, that no one really wants to read Gilding’s rants–but the pictures are pretty! Its ok, Gilding knows the truth of the matter. No need to lie to sooth her ego. You can do that with monetary donations and all will be forgiven.
Anyhoo, just be a little patient. Remember, Gilding is a college student. Which means she’s fucking poor. The pictures will be back up at the end of the month when her bandwidth limit resets. We’ll have to see just how long it takes to run up the bandwidth at that point. In the meantime, Gilding will be thinking about what she wants to do–spend money and starve for her art of ranting on the interweb. Or deal with this rude intrusion in her creative process by Photobucket.
Love me, hold me, keep my blog warm in the cold, cold bareness of no images.
The New…er, Old…Livin’ Room Sexin
Forget all the other sex chairs that Gilding has shown you — all one, no two, of the them — because this chair trumps them — at least in the “that’s so dirty” category. No matter how you look at it, there is no mistaking that this chair is meant for hardcore romping — not to be mistaken with a modern curvy-linear chaise that just happens to be a chair for the dirty mambo.
Commissioned by Edward VII of Britain in 1890, this “Two’s company, three’s a sex throne” creation was designed for orgiastic indulgence. Named fauteuil d’amour, or the “armchair of love,” Edward VII used the chair when he visited the brothel of Le Chabanais, one of the great bordellos of Paris. This chair, however, which can be seen in Prague, is actaully a replica of the original. In a fit of post-war Puritanism, the bordellos were shut down, the ladies and their gentleman “punters” scattered, and the chair? The chair was bought in auction in 1946 by an industrialist. It was then resold at Drouot, another Parisian auction house. In 1996 the chair was auctioned for a final time and thus still resides with its owner, one Herve Poulain.
And when journalist Sean Thomas asked Poulain if the chair was still in use he replied…”Naturellement.”
Atta Boy, Poulain!
[Via Chair Blog, Filthy Gorgeous Things, and "Two's company, three's a sex throne]
Speaker Birdie
Have you missed your Gilded Mistress? It has been a while since she has made a post of merit. She’s had quite a bit on her mind and even more to stuff it with on her plate.
And with that, there is ever so much she could share, but why speak of stress when she can dote on this?
We do all remember Gilding’s love affair with birdcages. For these Gilding would not only willingly but adoringly allow Mr. Gilding to hook up an external set of speakers to that monstrosity of a television that lives in our living room.
The Music Cage is a wireless speaker system from Japanese company Nendo. Not only do you get great stereo sound, you get classy, elegant, and cleverly disguised speakers that won’t make you cringe when you look at them. Comes in your choice of black or white and can be suspended from the ceiling or placed on a shelf. Other features: they have the ability to stream music via a Wi-Fi network, computer, or Blutooth enabled mobile phone. [Via Home Tone and dezeen]
Home Office Dreamin’
Gilding is dreaming of a home office setup — well, at least one that suits her needs and want and doesn’t break her budget. Is that so much to ask! So how about some inspiration:
Yep, that’s a flat screen monitor in the center vanity mirror. How hot is that!
Castle Mesen
Photo by aerialphotographer on panoramio.
Located in Lede, the smallest of Belgium’s municipalities, in a park close to the village center, stands the decayed castle Koninklijk Gesticht van Mesen, named after its last owner. At least, according to this photoblog by Rene Knoop, compiled in 2008, the castle still stands, though talks of demolishing the castle have been in circulation since the late 70′s, after procedural mistakes revoked the once in place historic preservation act that had been protecting it. A more recent protection request was submitted for the preservation of the castle, but the ravages of time and nature on its remnants outweighed the proverbial costs it would take the repair it, so the protections proposal failed.
Built in the 16th century, the castle remained in the family Bette until the 1800′s when it was used for the local gin distillery, a sugar refinery, a potash refinery, and a tobacco factory, which was housed in the caves of the castle.
In the 1900′s the castle was sold to a religious order who bult an impressive neo-gothic chapel. After the First World War an institution bought the castle and established a school for the local children, in which a new aisle was added as well as a Dutch pavillion and a boarding school. adding more buildings to the already expansive property that included several outbuildings, like stables and an orangery. In total, Mesen takes up a total of 7 hectares, half the total size of the city of Ledes itself.
Photo by Past Glory.
Sentinels, photo by Opacity.
Forbidden-Places has some really nice comparison images of the current building and the way that same photograph looked in the castle’s prime, as well as more history on the castle. Past Glory also has more photographs and history on Castle Mesen. Both websites, also, have several archives of other abandoned ruins explored.
And just for shits and giggles, telefuncker has a whole thread on abandoned Belgium castles — or slightly smaller but equally majestic mansion.
Structural Sapling
Gilding once told her Dad, she didn’t want a tree house unless it was made out of a tree. Guess what, she never got a tree house. But there is just something so magical about literally being inside of a tree.
These installations by artist Patrick Dougherty bring all those whimsical dreams back.
Spinoffs, Decordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusettes, 1990. Ph: George Vasquez.
Crossing Over, American Craft Museum, New York, New York, 1996. Ph: Dennis Cowley.
Trailheads, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, 2005.
Ph: Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art.
Around the Corner, University of Southern Indiana, New Harmony Gallery, New Harmony, IN, 2003. Ph: Doyle Dean.
Call of the Wild, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, 2002. Ph: Duncan Price.
The Summer Palace, Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2009. Ph: Rob Cardillo.
With his skills in carpentry and a love of nature, Dougherty began studying primitive techniques of building. From there he began to experiment with tree saplings as construction material. His first work, MapleBodyWrap, built in 1982, was included in the North Carolina Biennial Artist’s Exhibition. By the following year, he had his first one person show. Since then he has build over 150 works throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. The above works are just a sampling — Gilding’s favorites, so to speak. Trust when she says, it was hard to narrow it down to these. More of his works can be seen on Patrick Dougherty’s site.
Axis Mundi Unveils Design for New MoMA
This Jenga puzzle of a building is the proposed design of John Beckmann and his firm, Axis Mundi, for the much-discussed 53 W. 53rd site for the New York City’s Museum of Modern Art planned expansion. The building’s design is an homage to the works of art that will be housed in the new building, its concept a way of outward expression as well as a method for organizing the tall building as a sort of “Vertical Neighborhood.” As inhabitat explains Vertical Neighborhoods, imagine taking a row of several city blocks, rip them off their foundation, turn them on their sides, stack, and voila.
Unlike the traditional school of thought of a stand alone museum, Axis Mundi’s MoMA Vertical Neighborhood mixes and mingles museum space, offices, brownstones, apartment buildings, hotels, restaurants, shops, green spaces, and clubs. In essence a person could live on one floor, which just happens sit above a gallery of priceless works of art, and in the morning, walk the open air corridors and vista bridges to another floor or few to their office, and that even make their way to, say, the third floor to buy groceries to take home — all without ever having to leave the building.
But unlike similar designs — designs such as this are popular in Japan and exist in Manhattan — and their otherwise conventionally industrial, slick design meant to reflect uniformity and cohesion, Axis Mundi’s design reflects the cultural diversity of the city and its inhabitants.
Because of the jenga block-like construction, calld “Smart Blocks,” a myriad of configurations are possible. Meaning single units can exist next to duplexes while holding up triplexes. The units can shift in and out. And each block can be constructed with its own unique surface texture — think floor to ceiling windows spanning three floors in one, next to a single floor unit in wood slatting, underneath a duplex with a concrete veneer, parallel to a living vertical garden.
Keep in mind, this is just one of the designs being considered for the MoMA expansion. Architect Jean Nouvel has also created a design, of which can be seen here as well. [Via inhabitat]
I Wanna Live Like A Jetsen
And to thing, Gilding could have lived a little like a Jetsen.
Nestled along a short stretch of coastline in Northern Taiwan sits this abandoned complex known as The San-Zhi Pod Village. The futuristic, what would have been luxury vacation spot, is a hulking mystery amongst tourists and locals alike as several stories float around as to they Why? they were abandoned and the cirsumstances that led up to its abandonment. What is known is that it was originally constructed for wealthy urbanites looking to escape the city on the weekends.
The most popular of the stories explaining the complex’s sudden abandonment is that there were a number of mysterious accidents ending in several deaths. Locals believe the area then to be haunted by their unresting souls. For this reason too, no one will tear down the abandoned complex — you know, bad feng shui, juju, and all.
Other theories about this 1970′s era construction’s abandonment include poor insulation in a difficult climate. In fact, this first hand account of traversing the abandoned site talks about its obvious poor construction and craftsmanship. Another theory is that of a dissolution of partnetships, though that one doesn’t make too much sense as it was supposedly built by the government of Taipei. Lastly is a prediciton that the failure of a regional real estate bubble as the cause.
More pictures of the pod city can be seen on Craig Ferguson Images along with his first-hand account of touring the ruins, and Cypherone has a flickr set, as well as this flickr set by Yusheng. This site is in Taiwanese but it has some really neat pictures of the complex as it was being built — just keep scrolling, they’re located throughout the page.
Editors Note: According to Cypherone, Taipei government ordered the demolition of San Zhi after it was decided that the structures were a public hazard and an eyesore to the image of the capital city. Demolition of the site began in December 2008. The pod city has since been demolished and the land cleared.
Solar Eclipse Good JuJu with Violent Predictions
So apparently the apocalypse begins tomorrow with the Solar Eclipse. Wonder if Gilding’s Emergency Hurrican Kit is equipped for the apocalypse…?
In truth, Indian astrologers are predicting violence and turmoil across the world will result of tomorrows solar eclipse — which the superstitious and religious view as a sign of potential doom.
In Hindu mythology, two demons, Rahu and Ketu, are said to “swallow” the sun during the eclipse, snuffing out its life-giving light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable. Wonder what the mythos has to say about the two demons regurgitating the sun?
Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors, preventing impending birth defects, while praying and fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, are encouraged. You know, Gilding read once that India, per capita, has the most birth defects resulting in severe physical mutations (i.e. Cyclops Baby, the Khan Family, Devendra Harne, and the other half a million babies born in India each year with birth defects).
And while families in India are doing every thing they can to have their June 22nd scheduled caesarian’s rescheduled for any day but that day, astrologers are predicting that with this deeply rooted belief in Indian society, there will be a rise in communal and regional violence in the days that follow the eclipse, particularly in India, China and other Southeast Asian nations — where the eclipse will be seen on Wednesday morning. Why does it have to be violence? Think about it, with such a “cataclismic” event in your belief about to happen, why would you want to react to choas with choas? Isn’t that a bit ironic — or would that be moronic?
One astrologer, Raj Kumar Sharma, has even predicted that some sort of terrorist attack and a natural disaster shall result of the eclipse. To be more specific, he predicts that an Indian political leader could be killed, increasing tensions between the West and Iran, escalating into possible US military action after Saturn moves from Leo into Virgo. For the non-astrology following, that’s “what’s your sign” speak for September.
Sharma says, “The last 200 years, whenever Saturn has gone into Virgo there has been either a world war or a mini world war,” he told AFP.
But, while one astrologer warns of evil portent with Wednesday’s upcoming eclipse, Siva Prasad Tata, who runs the Astro Jyoti website, writes that while eclipses, and their subsequent wacky pull on nature, are a natural phenomenon, there is an upside. During the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very powerful, and from a spiritual point of view, that makes for good worshipping juju.
Related Article: Yahoo News– Solar eclipse pits superstition against science
For the people who lived there, their views are different…
Gilding came across an article on Kowloon Walled City, in Hong Kong, last night and while ruminating the things she remembered about it to her husband, she directed him to the post she was sure she made on it — only to not find it on Gilding the Lily any damn where. Was it a lost post? A subject she made note to post on but never got around to it? And while searching today for information on the city it donned on her that perhaps there was no gilded post because the subject, quite frankly, was overly posted, overly talked about, and seemed even a little too gilded already to worry about gilding any further on here.
But after reading article after article and post after bloody friekin’ blog post, Gilding had about had it with all the Western World whining about the fetid decay and inhuman living conditions of the city; its brow-beaten, finger wagged damnation of its very existence.
She had decided by that point that she wouldn’t post on this Walled City and that perhaps this current feeling of disgust, both for the city and the continued reports on it, was what had in fact prevented her original posting on it.
Then she came across this site, and it was one paragraph that caught her attention:
“U.S. News & World Report made a brief notice of the demolition of KWC a few months previous to the actual event. Their description of the city is indicative of outsider’s perceptions about a place, a place not fitting into their ideas of normal, urban living. Although their physical portrayal of the city is accurate – “alleys choked with rubbish, rat-infested alleys and dark stairwells” – the article makes judgments based on these characteristics and ignores that a thriving community survived for over half a century. In fact much of the physical problems that gave the walled city its notoriety were, and are, problems in the rest of Hong Kong (and other world cities); the walled city merely exaggerated these conditions. As KWC, in the piece, is called, “a fetid conglomeration of 359 tenement buildings…[festering] on a 7-acre plot” and, “the cancer of Kowloon” the reader has little choice but to believe the city was an unlivable slum, not a self-organized community (the former implying a second-party perpetuating bad conditions for selfish gain). For people who lived in KWC their views are different…”
The paragraph begins much the same as all the others, but it quickly points out the same thought that Gilding had on the subject — that the reports view it from the eyes of outsider, bent on its high moral views and personal comforts, but never sees beyond that to what else lies in such an environment.
Gilding encourages reading the rest of the article. While Kowloon Walled City isn’t the place she would ever want to live, the author of the site makes an admirable demonstration of the narrowmindedness demonstrated on the subject, both in example (that the rest of the country outside of the wall of KWC has areas just as impoverished) and in deomstrating that there thrived a whole culture that was orderly in its chaos and rich and beautiful and strong.
Though the city was demolished, its existence and the buzz of opinions surrounding it just months before it was torn down demonstrates the importance of cultural reletiveness. Oh, and a lesson best said in a few frank words — not everyone wants to be Americans. Seriously, if America could just learn that, all its best efforts could be just that, best efforts, not overbearing attitudes destined to create embitterment.
Link: Kowloon Walled City
One Wild Shower
Just for the environmentally concious who are pulling out their hair and screeching “the end of water is near…
The “Phyto-Purification Bathroom,” designed by Jun Yasumoto, uses a natural filtering principle, called phyto-purification, for recycling waste water, and thereby reducing the amount of water used while showering. Serving as a mini eco-system, the shower filters and recycles the water used and purifies it via its neat little cleaning system in the wash-basin for re-use.
Surrounded by lemnas and water hyacinths ans reeds and rushes planted next to eachother, the plants offer privacy, are watered in as much as they aid in the filtration process by pulling larger particles and heavy metals from the water. The filtration system is completed by passing through a carbon filter that gathers the remaining micro-particles and returns to you clean, fresh water.
Sounds neat. Looks nice and green and lush. But Gildingcan’t seem to remove the image from her mind that one day soon you’ll have to use a machete to chop your way clear through the reeds and brush just to make an opening to get into your shower. Call the Florida in her, but this is just a little too close to trecking the everglades in her own bathroom for her comfort.
[Via The Design Blog]
Inspired…
Gilding should be cleaning, but instead she is feeling inspired by these two series.
The first set, Bench Monday, Gilding saw a couple of weeks ago and has since been holding onto it. The second, The Sea, The Surge & The Seamstress, she found today, and the two combined have sparked a sort of inspired buzz in Gilding’s bloodstream.
The first, Bench Monday, was seen on Apartment therapy and, as a friend pointed out, had the cartoon remembrance of Tom & Jerry, when the occasional appearance of the Lady of House was seen from the knee down only. Of course, this particular image, which was the first one in the set we saw, helped cement that comical idea.
Gilding wonders just how many places she can think of to perch her feet upon and photograph. She also ponders just how much ambition doing so would take. You can see the entirety of the photographs in this group on their flckr.
The second set, The Sea, The Surge & The Seamstress, came via Twig & Thistle. The series is the creation of Samantha Lamb, and reminds Gilding of this bizarrely random movie — who’s name she can’t recall — that Mr. Gilding made her watch in which the exhuberant girl — and love interest of this rather boring, hum-drum of a guy — took pictures of apples every place that she went — she would literally carry an apple(s) with her to place about in an orderly random fashion to photograph it in that place at that time to commemorate it in her life.
That’s what this series reminds Gilding of. And though these photographs are not so random and are of a compositionally complete nature, they inspired that memory and how Gilding was somehow taken with it even though she rather hated the movie.
The Sea, The Surge & The Seamstress in its entirety can be seen here on Samantha Lamb’s flickr.
Post-traumatic embitterment disorder
Ever had that thought that doctors are either very bored or very greedy? On current debate at the American Psychiatric Association conference is whether or not bitterness is a diagnosable disease. Post-traumatic embitterment disorder, as the new mental health problem will be known, as argued by Dr. Michael Linden, drives people to endless rumination and seething for revenge, which itself isn’t a cure — his opinion, mind you, not Gilding. For Linden, bitterness is a psychiatric problem and requires diagnosis.
Gilding can’t help but feel this is yet one more place the medical professionals are trying to medicate what is a moral belief into something that is tangible and objective and therefore a medicinally treatable problem. As this article agreeably points out, an example of this is the pursuit of homosexuality as a medical “problem”. Just because a person habors what you or society considers an undesirable trait doesn’t mean its a medical problem. And its hard not to see this recent debate as one of two things — hell, probably both — a way of correcting what this doctor sees as an undesirable and/or a way to make profit with (studies, drugs, practice, etc.). As writer Ben Goldacre says, “drug companies with serotonin pills to sell foster a belief that depression is down to serotonin ‑ even though the evidence is contradictory ‑ to a public eager for simple, molecular answers.”
Bitterness just is. Its an undesirable trait, both personally and in others, but its not a medicinal one. Sometimes the tried and true measures of upbringing and learning your lesson are the answer. And while that doesn’t mean we have control over how the other person behaves — as we would with medicinal control — and that often means that we have to deal with people with disdainable personalities and behaviors, that’s all part of being human — so get over it. Really, the need to control everything in life isn’t necessarily a better path, its just more responsibility.
By the way, there was a study done on this. Kevin Carlsmith, Timothy Wilson, and Daniel Gilbert from Colgate, Virginia and Harvard universities conducted an experiment in which players of a game could earn money for co-operating with fellow players, but a player could earn more money at the expense of their fellow players by turning on them.
With the use of programed computer algorithms to be either very nice or very nasty, several trials were taken in which one of the players would warmly encourage co-operation, but by the end would turn on the fellow player, robbing them of “both reward and piece of mind.”
Some of the students were then offered the opportunity to exact payback — an opportunity to punish the one who ripped them off. For every 5 cents they spent, they were able to confiscate 15 cents from the free-loading backstabber. But, guess what, by the end the students reported that the revenge made them feel no better, in fact, they felt worse afterwards. And isn’t that the old parable, the one we’re taught as children by almost every authority figure we come across — that revenge won’t bring us back what we lost, that it won’t make us feel any better.
There’s no accounting for people who behave disdainably, who go against the moral grain of society, its simply human. Doctors need to get a handle on this — or they could be even more ironic and create a pill that makes them get a handle on this.
