Totally Cool Conceptual House--Built!

Artists Arakawa, age 71, and Madeline Gins, 66, his wife, have come up with a house that reminds me of a surreal dream I once had. The East Hampton, NY house, with bumpy floors of no consistent level and other assorted strange features, is totally cool. The couple designed the structure to be uncomfortable, so that the people who wind up living in it can experience life the way young children do, always confronting the new. Arakawa and Gins believe such an environment will keep residents from ever getting sick.

Don't miss the slide show of this house, with an audio commentary by the architect couple!

The Birth of a Blog--Why and What

When I first created this blog, I thought it was going to be about the search for pure cosmetics and everything related to style in all realms--especially things designed with materials beneficial to ourselves and the environment. I created it because I don't see why there needs to be a gulf between design/fashion/architecture on the one hand, and health on the other. Unfortunately, the standard seems to be on the one hand, for designers to ignore healthful materials and on the other hand, for those makers who focus on health to ignore forward-thinking design.

I wanted to deal with topics like: "What constitutes a pure ingredient in a cosmetic?" and "Do raw foodists need to shun cosmetics and style?"

But then this blog developed a mind of its own, much like characters do when you write something creative. This blog wanted to include certain pop culture elements as well, whenever they touched upon raw food or healthful lifestyle. My other blog, sketchgrrl, which was born first, encompasses raw food, topical observations and humor. It would seem now that both of my blogs are veering in the same direction. Not a huge surprise, since are both coming from my imagination. But they already have their own links out there on the net, and to combine them would cut one of them off from from potential viewers. So as they develop, I imagine they will eventually have more distinct identities.

I refrained from creating any blogs for a long time, not seeing the point, as I've had an online magazine, Raw Foods News Magazine, since March 2001. I didn't understand why blogs were getting so much more media attention than online or print magazines. I still don't completely understand, although I can see three distinct advantages to blogs--it's easy to see what's new on them, it's easy to subscribe to their "feed", and it's easy to link them to other blogs. So--not wanting to be antediluvian--I jumped onboard. Feel free to post your comments or trackbacks any time.