Archive for Decay
November 7, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Science & Nature, Decay, Mind & Body
We have all heard of people who had their bodies cryogenically preserved after death in the hope that some day, medical science will be able to bring them back to life and cure whatever illness caused their demise. That hope may be overly optimistic, but I can at least respect the logic behind the decision. Unlikely though it may be, I can’t say categorically that such a restoration is beyond the reach of some future science. With that single exception, however, I have never understood the ages-old practice of keeping dead bodies from decaying naturally. It’s not that I’m some soulless pragmatist, but I believe that death is the point at which a body becomes superfluous to its erstwhile owner—keeping it intact thereafter seems superstitious and creepy. Of course, that’s just my opinion. Some of my best friends are superstitious and creepy, and I don’t hold it against them.
Grave Concerns
Each […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
January 11, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Interesting Places, Decay
Paris is a shockingly large city. There are many fine vantage points from which to view the panorama, including the Montparnasse Tower, Sacré Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, or the bell towers of Notre Dame. I’m sure everyone who looks out over the vast expanse of Paris has a different impression; mine has been, overwhelmingly, “Gosh, that’s a lot of limestone.” With very few exceptions, the buildings of Paris are uniformly beige, limestone being the preferred building material—and not just for the buildings either, but for bridges, sidewalks, and monuments. As far as the eye can see in every direction, the earth is covered with stone. A splash of green, like a park, or gray, like the Seine, seems strangely out of place. All that stone had to come from somewhere, but it never occurs to most people to wonder where that might have been. Most of it was quarried […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
November 9, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Interesting Places, Decay, History
by Morgen Jahnke
The 2001 documentary Rivers and Tides showcases artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates ephemeral works of art out of the natural materials around him. Whether it’s leaves, twigs, or icicles, Goldsworthy crafts them into breathtaking constructions that add to the beauty of the landscape while still remaining part of it. Although Goldsworthy invests significant effort in each work, after its completion he leaves it at the mercy of the natural processes of wind, rain, sun, and water, only taking a photo to document its momentary perfection.
Some of Goldsworthy’s most arresting works are the ones he creates out of stone. The film follows the progress of a few such projects, including one in which he creates an egg-shaped structure out of split pieces of stone, and another where he works with stonemasons to create a long serpentine wall in a park in New York state. While the wall is meant […]
Original post by Morgen Jahnke
October 17, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Interesting Places, Decay, History
by Morgen Jahnke
Throughout the night of January 29, 1996, a fire raged in the center of Venice, Italy, and by morning it had consumed its victim: the Teatro La Fenice, often called simply La Fenice. Luckily, the fire did not travel beyond the walls of La Fenice, but the destruction was profound. One of the great opera houses of Europe was gutted, and the city of Venice lost a treasured civic landmark.
Read the full post (1050 words, 9 images)
Original post by Morgen Jahnke
August 20, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Interesting Places, Decay, Guest Authors, History
by Morgen Jahnke
I like a good murder mystery now and then, and despite the violence inherent in the genre, often find these movies and TV shows fascinating. There’s something satisfying about following clues to reach the answers to those vexing questions—how, who, and why. The first two questions can be engrossing, but the last is sometimes the most consuming. Once the means and identity of the killer are known, knowing his or her motivation is the last piece to the puzzle. If no answer to that question is forthcoming, it can be maddening.
It’s human nature to want to know how the world works—and in the case of murder mysteries, to understand how another person thinks—when it is not obvious to us. This same phenomenon is at work when looking at history; there is no way, other than the evidence left to us, to know what was in the minds […]
Original post by Morgen Jahnke
August 13, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Decay, Society & Culture
When my mother returned from a vacation to Florida with her sister a number of months ago, I called to ask how it went. “Oh, we had the best time!” she said. “We spent most of the trip planning our funerals. It was hilarious!” Well, that wasn’t quite what I was expecting to hear. On previous vacations my mom has gone on cruises, even tried parasailing, and I thought I had a pretty good idea of what activities she considered fun. Funeral planning was a bit of a surprise. It’s not that she’s ill or expecting to die soon. But, as she put it, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
Read the full post (1122 words, 8 images)
Original post by Joe Kissell
July 27, 2007 at 10:00 am · Filed under Music & Sound, Decay, Clever Ideas
by Morgen Jahnke
The 20th-century American composer John Cage was well known for his experimental approach to making music. His most famous composition, titled 4’33” (four minutes and 33 seconds), playfully widens the boundaries of what is considered music. The piece consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of structured silence (although it was written to be performed for any length of time), during which time listeners are drawn to discover the ambient sounds going on all around them.
This idea that music can be found in unlikely circumstances has resonated in the works of other composers who followed Cage. In a similar, but unique vein, a group known as the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, or more simply the Vegetable Orchestra, creates music from an unlikely source: fresh vegetables.
Playing with Food
The orchestra, consisting of 11 musicians, a sound engineer, and a video artist, was first formed in 1998. Since then, the group has […]
Original post by Morgen Jahnke
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