Archives for July 2011

Music Review: Adele 21

adele21Once again, I must credit my daughter Kayla for pushing me to purchase Adele’s “21”. I’m not a big “jump-on-the-bandwagon” kind of guy, however, from the moment I put the disc in my player, I was hooked. I absolutely love this girl. Everything about her, expresses artist. There is no lying in her singing. She has such a talent for characterization in song, and a pure bluesy strength, the kind that could rips your heart out. Adele divided the new material between aggressive pieces, splashed by smart percussive flourishes and stripped-down ballads, rippling with soul.

“I’ll Be Waiting,” highlights Adele’s heartbroken resiliency. Produced by Paul Epworth and co-written with Adele, has a neo-soul sashay, swishing with confidence and brio, and it inspires the singer to push her vocal expressions into sweet howls reminiscent of Dusty Springfield, another Brit deeply influenced by American country and soul. “I’ll be somebody different,” Adele sings, not as concession but as exuberant promise, “I’ll be better to you.”

It figures then that the other track that gives Adele ample ground for theatrics, albeit of a more moody ilk, is another contribution from Epworth. “Rolling in the Deep,” the album’s first single, provides Adele with the perfect stormy vessel; her voice tossing and turning, shipwrecked and mad but never losing control.

There are other worthy tracks on “21,” like the Rick Rubin-produced “He Won’t Go,” with its elegant piano and ticking beat, and the softly sentimental “Turning Tables,” but they don’t scrape at an exciting greatness the way the other two do. Occasionally, Adele finds herself in lesser territory, like “Don’t You Remember,” which sounds overwrought in both construction and performance.

“Someone Like You” offers a 10-hankie wretch-fest, boasting lyrics that speak of surviving a rejection that clearly cut her to the core. Like everything here, it sounds like a classic but also a dare. “21″ draws an unequivocal line in the sand that announces to every other diva around: Beat this.

Thanks Kayla, even though it seems like most have already heard this album, I’m glad I finally jumped on…

Spectacular Underwater Bedroom in Maldives

Sleeping underwater amongst marine life is something many of us could only daydream about. For some lucky travelers, this dream has now turned into a reality.

A little over five years ago, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island opened the very first undersea restaurant. To celebrate their anniversary, the restaurant offered guests the chance to not only eat under the sea, but sleep under it as well. The 12-seat restaurant, which sits 16 feet below sea level of the Indian Ocean, was converted into a private bedroom suite for two, complete with a private champagne dinner and breakfast in bed. The view of the vibrant coral reef that surrounds the encased clear glass is utterly breathtaking.

The rest of the resort, which is above water, isn’t too shabby either. The Maldives hotel boasts 50 luxurious water villas, 79 exotic beach villas and 21 fabulous spa water villas with private treatment rooms. Stunning living areas are arranged around courtyards with a fountain, while huge outdoor garden-bathrooms offer a taste of the tropics, enormous glass doors substitute for walls and ingenious landscaping ensures total seclusion.




Above Ground


Acoustic Decor: Modular Interactive Music-Making Furniture

 

From chairs and benches to chests and tables, these modestly elegant objects are crafted with a subtle secondary purpose – each one can be tapped, slapped, pounded or hit to create a series of carefully-planned sounds.

Tor Clausen makes his interactive musical furniture out of his warehouse studio in nearby Olympia, Washington. You have got to see his work at MusicalFurnishings.com

He shapes everything from simple instruments to complex objects that have appeared in childhood learning centers, science museums, parks and homes around the country since he started adding acoustics to his craft two decades ago.

In his Rumba series of low-height tables, modulated music issues forth from different panels that can be rearranged as desired.

Each is distinguishable via different woods used and sounds made, including low, medium and high bong, shaker, chimes, bells, drums and cymbals created using combinations of carved wood and shaped metal.

It Is Easy, Being Green

kermit-the-frogI believe voluntary actions are the best way to bring about, affordable effective energy conservation and housing that is healthy, sustainable and Earth-friendly.

Consider improvements to your home that save energy, lower utility bills and are environmentally sustainable.Green-House-Picture

 

Click on home to see what modifications would be most beneficial for your situation.

King County Most ‘Resilient’ On West Coast

 

Using a new online tool, researchers have measured more than 360 U.S. metros for their capacity to handle stresses ranging from economic recession to natural disasters.

Overall, Northeastern and Midwestern regions tend to be more resilient than those in the South or West, largely because these regions earn high scores for affordability, the size of their health-insured population, rates of homeownership, and metropolitan stability, as measured by recent population change.

The Resilience Capacity Index (RCI), developed by Kathryn Foster, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo, produces a single statistic for each region based on the region’s performance across 12 economic, socio-demographic, and community connectivity indicators.

As a gauge for how well a region is positioned to adapt to stress, the index can help regional leaders identify strengths and weaknesses and target related policy changes toward building their resilience capacity.

“Conceiving of regions as capable of adapting and transforming in response to challenges allows researchers and practitioners to understand the conditions and interventions that may make one place more or less resilient and why,” says Foster.

Foster developed the index as part of Building Resilient Regions, a national network of experts on metropolitan regions funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and administered by the University of California, Berkeley. The index features maps revealing geographic patterns in resilience capacity, detailed data profiles for each metro and a “compare metros” tool.

The top-scoring metros are geographically diverse. Raleigh, N.C., with leading technology firms, medical centers and universities, heads the economic category. Ames, Iowa, ranks first for socio-demographic capacity due to its exceptionally high level of educational attainment (Iowa State University is located there). For community connectivity, Bismarck, N.D., scores highest given its critical mass of civic institutions as the state capital.

Metropolitan areas with populations over 1 million vary widely in their resilience capacity. The top-ranking large metropolitan area, Minneapolis-St. Paul, achieves its status with very high socio-demographic capacity and levels of community connection, the latter reflecting the region’s No. 1 rank for voter participation.

The lowest-ranking large metropolitan area is Miami, Fla., a region with very low regional affordability and income equality.

Foster points out that a region’s RCI score is not necessarily a sentence for success or failure in the face of the next population boom, economic recession, or industry shutdown.

“What it does tell us is that some regions are structurally more prepared than others, and thus have greater capacity to bounce back in the wake of stress,” she says. “Still, regions with a high capacity for resilience can squander their strengths just as those ranked low can rise to the occasion and perform above expectations.”

Additional research efforts, a number of which are highlighted on the Building Resilient Regions site, are under way to measure how regions actually respond to stress. Future studies will explore which resilience capacity measures matter most for different kinds of stresses as well as the significance of key governance and environmental factors not captured by the RCI.

Looks like King County is one of only two (both in Washington) areas resilient on the West Coast.

7 Reasons for Buying a Condo

condominium

Let me know how I can help Emmanuel@EmmanuelFonte.com

Air hockey rules (on so many levels)

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15 Fantastic Photo-Edited Dream Home Ideas

Would would your dream house look like if you could create architecture without structural limits, geographical borders and cost or client boundaries? It might look something like the myriad creations of Worth1000 users made for a photo-editing contest series aptly hybridizing the terms ‘bizarre’ and ‘architecture’.

Take structural integrity out of the equation and one can construct a sky-scraping sand castle the likes of which the world has never seen. Subtract gravity and cool cantilevered volumes can now literally float up into the air, mingling with cloud layers above. (Via Bizarrchitecture 3)

Material remixes are popular as well, with submissions that combine ultramodern architecture and ice flows, or water towers and castles, stone caves and prefab pods and more. (Via Bizarrchitecture 4)

Architectural hybrids turn familiar structures into novel forms, converting known sculptures into giant-sized dwellings, for instance, or infusing a famous building, with active red-hot volcanic mass. (Via Bizarrchitecture 7)

While you may not see an upside-down home with a private helipad, or an underwater dwelling with wood siding anytime soon, practicing architects could stand to learn a thing or two from such periodic forays into fantastical and physically impossible design. More such adventurous explorations and fantasy illustrations of built environments and dream dwellings can be found at Worth1000.

The Emerald City – Two Short Films

Take a look at our beautiful city – Seattle

“Last year I went to Seattle to shoot a commercial spot with the Deadliest Catch Captains. Seattle is one of my favorite spots in the U.S.A. – so I booked a few extra days and drove around the area shooting B-Roll for a few days. ” – Joel E.

Here is a collection of some nightfall sequences of the past year, mostly shot around downtown Seattle