Ark Activity Centre, Ulanqab, by Buro Ziyu Zhuang
Buro Ziyu Zhuang describes its new landmark in Ulanqab as appearing like "an alien craft fell from space". The Ark Activity Centre's sloping form contrasts with the vast flatland of the site.
A series of openings on the surface of the building, as well as an open viewing platform on the roof, will offer visitors a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape.
Image courtesy of Buro Ziyu Zhuang
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DM: Anyway, Galwyn withdraws from his monastery with the blessings of his master. All the way home he has a spring in his step, talking excitedly about what he might do with his retirement. He asks each of you for ideas based on your experiences.
Hamish (playing Thaddeus): Fishing. Whittling. Join the army.
DM: He writes down fishing and whittling but not soldiering.
Rach (playing Ashiok): I suggest growing mushrooms or otherwise gardening.
Adam (playing Billie): Baking.
DM: He does a bit of everything and goes through a phase of trying things for a week and then moving on. He cooks one dish, nobody likes it, he abandons cooking. He tries crafting potions-
M (playing Kjell): Oh god. I confiscate those.
DM: He creates a horrible plant that looks and feels exactly like stone and plants it in the manor garden. He whittles a terrible shape that doesn't resemble anything you can think of. He happily pounds on musical instruments and plays with mud. He's finding himself.
M: *facepalms* And I'm running around behind him stopping his creations from killing my friends.
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Bonjour et bienvenue from a cloudy Bar-sur-Aube where the temperature is only 6c. It has been windy and yesterday did it pour with rain! It was wet inside and outside of my house, I really do wish that on one dry day the roofer will arrive and fix this problem. I can’t see it being done this side of Christmas but I have been wrong before 😉.
So what have I been doing this week? Well it has been week three of radiotherapy so that’s 15 sessions “under my belt” which means there are just two more sessions to go 😁. That gives me the opportunity to plan my Christmas and New Year meals. I think I have decided on the starter, Marinated Goats Cheese with Pears and Walnuts 😋, I think a light dessert too so thought pavlova or meringue with fruit and cream. I was going to have filet mignon (pork) but am contemplating a turkey breast with sage and onion stuffing, bread sauce, roast potatoes, roasted parsnips and sprouts.
The car went to the garage as it had been recalled. I waited the 45 minutes and everything was fine. That was really good news as at the moment I am out in the car every day.
With all the rain and frost we have been having the cyclamen were getting waterlogged and I really don’t want to lose them. I moved them under the laurel bush, thinking it may be a bit drier there for them. The chrysanthemums now have brown heads on the flowers but I have left them where they are.
The other afternoon I came out of the house and running up my driveway was something brown, aaargh I thought a rat then realised it was a hedgehog, what on earth was it doing out in the daylight and should it not have been curled up sleeping for the winter? I managed to get quite close to get a photo (but not close enough to see fleas etc). The next day, about lunchtime, I was going out in the car and saw the young hedgehog again walking along the grass verge, I decided if it was still out and about when I got back I would put it into a box. Well yes it was still pootling around, did I go and get a box, no I didn’t, he looked happy enough “grubbing along the verge” then he decided to cross the road, so standing downwind of him I was the “lollipop lady” I would have jumped in front of a car if it had approached (well maybe). He limboed under a neighbours gate and proceeded down his driveway. Now I had seen this neighbour walking home from the shop so I waited to tell him he had a hedgehog in his garden, he spoke to me as if to a child who had seen it’s first hedgehog 😂😂. My next door neighbour was telling me that they had had a rat in the garden (shiver) and it had come right up to their French doors and stood on its hind legs and looked inside the window (was he winding me up?). Anyway the next he knew there was a BIG hedgehog in the garden seeing off the rat (not into my garden thank goodness) was he “pulling my leg?”
I read “online” (so it must be true) that from 1 January 2024, here in France, food waste is not to be put in your dustbin, it must be composted. Well I will put my fruit and vegetable waste into my own composter but any other waste, bread, skin off meat and fish won’t be going anywhere near my own composter, I hope they have bins in town as, if that’s what they want, I will put it in there. I have been putting the sunflower heads (minus seeds) dead flowers and my vegetable peelings into the composter, not that I expect any grubs, snails etc to be in there to turn them into compost but I can just hope.
Last Sunday I went to the Marche de Noel in Bayel. What a surprise I got when I went into the Salle there were about 30 exhibitors selling all kinds of items, artists with their paintings, authors with their books, of course the association of which the knitting workshop is part, but there were stained glass items, woodworked items and the knitted, crocheted and sewn items. Although not a lot of sales on the knitted, crocheted items a lot of the stained glass items were sold. I found out afterwards that Marlene had been there but we never saw each other. What a shame, it would have been nice to catch up.
On Monday, I got a bit of a shock, according to the newspaper there was a fire at “La Pomme d’Or”hotel/bar, a woman and her daughter were taken to hospital. The fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning! On Friday I read that a man in his 50’s had been charged with attempted assassination and destruction of property by dangerous means. Then yesterday I read that the towns Mayor has filed a complaint for alleged theft against his deputy. Blimey it all happens in this town!
Anie is preparing for her trip to Indonesia, I have wrapped her presents and will deliver them when she returns. Monique tested positive for Covid so has not been to see me and she messages that she hopes to visit as soon as she can.
On Friday evening I met Pauline, we went to the travelling exhibition from the Centre Pompidou in Paris which had rolled up in town. I had seen it advertised weeks before and sent the piece from the journal to inform Pauline. What an exhibition! I am not big on art and to wander around a huge place looking at works is overload for me, so this grand camion with the display was perfect, a bite sized chunk not too much to overload the senses. I wanted to take photos of the lights in the street so I drove us back to town, parked by the river and we walked to opposite her grandmas house. I got one photo then we stood talking for goodness knows how long, my feet felt rooted to the spot! I had such a lovely evening that when I got home my mind was just so active and I was on a bit of a “high”.
Music slot puts in an appearance and again it’s two different songs, same title and these two were from the same year, 1979. The title is “Angel Eyes” by ABBA and Roxy Music.
“The Trainee Solicitor” and “The Ex-Graduate” have both felt a little unwell this week, is it a cold, ‘flu or Covid??? “The Trainee Solicitor” waved goodbye to his motor vehicle it has gone to the car graveyard. Good news for “The Ex-Graduate” an interview is on the cards for this week for a “real” job, she is fed up of working this interim job now so fingers crossed.
“The Daddy” had one works Xmas “do” last night, at Sneaton Hall in Whitby. I asked what was on the menu and he had no idea! Blimey me shows where my thoughts lie all the time doesn’t it? Is it a mum thing or just the thoughts of someone who loves food 😂😂.
I had mentioned to Maud that in the New Year we will go to “La Belvedere” again and have already checked out the menu 😂😂.
The cinema in town posted their programme on social media, I noticed that Napoleon was on but not in VO so I emailed and asked if they would be showing it in the original version. They replied that they are showing the film through to 19 December hopefully with a few sessions in VO but they have to get approval for that from the films distributor. Fingers crossed folks!
Last night, I decided to stuff a few dates to put with some chocolates for my ladies at the knitting group on Friday. I also found a recipe for fudge made in the microwave, sounds easy, so I may give it a try this year.
Wow there has been a lot happening this week.
The photos are of the Chateau in Vendeuvre -sur-Barse and taken from the brochure, the painting that I found caught my eye at the exhibition.
Jusqu’à la semaine prochaine
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what do you think makes a well balanced group. your kepler ask mentions how skills and personality is important but is there a secret formula that you think is most potent. there are groups where each member is good at a specific thing, and groups where every member is equally skilled in dancing and singing. on one hand, if a group has the dynamic where everyone is equally skilled in all aspects it may make them lackluster. but would it be appropriate if say, 1 member is a weak dancer and the strongest vocalist and vice versa the same group has a strong dancer and weak vocal. maybe this dynamic would work in a small group, but not a large one? the trouble with large groups being, if all members have the same skills no one pays attention to them, or there will always be a standout member of a large group because realistically a group with 6 members and up cant be equally skilled with z e r o quirks or differences
well. this is kind of a multi-faceted answer, because although i don't think there's a specific 'secret formula' for a perfect group, kpop already has a structure that members get slotted into that actually does work. so yes, but also no? it's complicated.
so the whole system of assigned positions is essentially the formula that makes a well balanced group. that's literally the point of each of the positions; they're there in order to organize the roles so the group is balanced. now, do companies get it right all the time? no. do fans agree with it? absolutely not. but that IS what it's there for, and, in my opinion, it does work. most of the time. i think it's stupid and naive for fans to argue for equal line distribution yadda yadda because being a vocal is not going to be everyone's strong point. a main vocal SHOULD have the majority of the singing, that's their job. a main dancer SHOULD be leading dance breaks etc, that's their job. and an assigned centre SHOULD be in centre position, because they're there to be the hook. i've talked about how centre position is important before so i won't hash over that again, but my point is that those assigned positions aren't random, they're there in order to establish a balance within a group, so that people know what your place is. it's a job description.
however, those are just general positions, and obviously not every person and group has the same distribution of skills. what actually makes a balanced group is the people in that group understanding that they need to be balanced. no group is ever going to have the same interpersonal or skill related dynamics, but if all the members understand the parts they play and work together to fill in gaps and create a unified image, that's what makes the whole thing work.
of course this also feeds into my own personal beliefs about group composition, which i think are probably uncommon: i don't think there should be any large groups at all. five is the perfect size, seven is fine, nine is the MAXIMUM. groups larger than that have difficulty maintaining focal points and also have a higher likelihood of having filler members who may be able to keep up technically, but don't do much other than bolster numbers. everyone jokes about nct being too big, but the reality is that nct almost never promotes with more than nine members in a subunit, because sm intimately knows that if a group gets too big, it gets messy. you keep the member numbers down, and all those members have more of an equal reason to be there, even if it's not 'equal' in the songs or performances. there's a lot of other things that idols do that require different skills that aren't used in performance, and those are distributed differently depending on the group.
obvs none of these are hard and fast rules, and often a lot of groups settle into shapes that go beyond their 'job descriptions' and that's fine, because they're usually working through that together. it's all about negotiation
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Ceramic Vessels : An Anthropological Inner Space. by Russell Moreton
Via Flickr:
russellmoreton.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Solnit explores Susan Bordo’s claim that ‘if the body is a metaphor for our locatedness in space and time and thus for the finitude of human perception and knowledge, then the post modern body is no body at all.’ Solnit comments on this post modern body that it is more of a passive object, appearing most often laid out upon an examining table or in bed. ‘A medical and sexual phenomenon, it is site of sensations, processes, and desires rather than a source of action and production, this body has nothing left but the erotic as a residue of what it means to be embodied. Which is not to disparage sex and the erotic as fascinating and profound, only to propose that they are so emphasised because other aspects of being embodied have atrophied for many people.’(Solnit, 2002) We return back to the urgent need to make and experience things that in someway that lead us back to ourselves. The creative architectural work of Peter Zumthor is something that I am engaging with. He has developed architectural design practices that consider each project in terms of a comprehensive and encompassing sensory experience. He looks beyond the mere physical form and its fabric. He attempts to address issues of the body and how it may interact within a built environment. The use of memory as a spatial narrative to accompany the atmosphere of his spaces is realised through evocative material surfaces and densities. I feel that there is a synergy here between the opening up of the interior of a pot and the opening up of a space to dwell in. In sensing a pots interior from its surface, we are as it were in some intimate tacit correspondence with its spatial sensing centre. We become known to it through its maker’s creative gesture of innerness. This anthropological inner space linking us to the potter is both sensual and distant; its vacancy allows us dwell in the maker’s absence. We become part of the vessel, we enter its philosophy of solitude.
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