John Menick's Blog » Architecture http://www.johnmenick.com Art, film, prose, and politics Thu, 17 May 2012 03:49:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Ceauşescu would be proud http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/06/ceausescu-would-be-proud http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/06/ceausescu-would-be-proud#comments Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:13:18 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2007/06/06/ceausescu-would-be-proud The Colossus of Baghdad.]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/06/ceausescu-would-be-proud/feed 0 A Collection of Hotel Implosions http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/03/a-collection-of-hotel-implosions http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/03/a-collection-of-hotel-implosions#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:45:17 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2007/03/20/a-collection-of-hotel-implosions Stardust in Vegas is an occasion for a mini-museum of hotel demolitions. The Stardust The Aladdin Desert Inn/Wynn Parking Garage Implosion ]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/03/a-collection-of-hotel-implosions/feed 0 Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/01/abandoned-little-known-airfields http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/01/abandoned-little-known-airfields#comments Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:05:16 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2007/01/27/abandoned-little-known-airfields flight simulator A fascinating archive of (mostly) abandoned US airfields compiled by Paul Freeman. The above photo is the first helicopter flight simulator, also featured on the site.]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2007/01/abandoned-little-known-airfields/feed 1 Another bunch of random links and quotes http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/12/another-bunch-of-random-links-and-quotes http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/12/another-bunch-of-random-links-and-quotes#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:04:03 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/12/19/another-bunch-of-random-links-and-quotes he wrote in his popular, long-running Village Voice column, "and we may yet have a rebirth of American cinema." * "The original plan for the film was that every shot would be digitally placed over archival footage. So that literally, the film would be "shot" in 1945 Berlin; the actors would be green-screened over archival. There was a scene in a butcher shop, for example, and I had to find every camera angle we needed in a butcher shop in 1945 Berlin. If there was a scene outdoors, a destroyed park or a zoo, I had to find those camera angles. There was interplay between the writing, directing, and archival research: what I could find that was in Paul Attanasio's script, and whatever else I found in my research that might work or that piqued Paul's interest, or Steven Soderbergh's... A colleague of mine in the art department, Joanna Bush, created an amazing database of all the footage I'd collected. It was organized based on the geography of Berlin. So that on Steven's computer, he could click on a map of Berlin and it would find all the archival footage that I had gotten on a particular plaza or a particular street or a particular location, and pull up all that archival footage and all the stills. Steven could know where he was situated in Berlin, and the art department could recreate a particular strasse. We'd know the ruins and we'd know how much that area was bombed out and all that." More... * "My first exposure to the subject came in a book by another medical anthropologist, Margaret Lock, whose Twice Dead (2002) is a brilliant comparative anthropology of Japanese and North American attitudes to brain-death as the criterion of death. Hence the title: a person is ‘once dead’ when technical criteria establish that the brain has stopped, while the body is still ticking over quietly on a ventilator; ‘twice dead’ when the heart is stopped and the organs harvested." * "What, he wondered, did we want to do? Did we want to eat, to drink, to fuck? Uh, dinner sounds cool." * And last, but not least, the Athanasius Kircher Society 2006]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/12/another-bunch-of-random-links-and-quotes/feed 0 A Gallery of Cell Phone Trees http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/a-gallery-of-cell-phone-trees http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/a-gallery-of-cell-phone-trees#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:59:19 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/09/27/a-gallery-of-cell-phone-trees cell phone trees]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/a-gallery-of-cell-phone-trees/feed 0 Conflux http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/conflux http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/conflux#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:58:31 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/09/27/conflux As it describes itself:]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/conflux/feed 0 David Byrne and the ruins of Essen http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/david-byrne-and-the-ruins-of-essen http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/david-byrne-and-the-ruins-of-essen#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:30:17 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/09/15/david-byrne-and-the-ruins-of-essen My video The Disappearance ends with a passage discussing how factory locations are often used as the setting for the closing scenes of sci-fi films and thrillers. Most of the photographs in this portion of the video are of the coal mine in Essen, a site I learned about for the first time while researching the piece, and since then have seen in several other books and Web sites concerning the history of factory architecture and film.]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/david-byrne-and-the-ruins-of-essen/feed 0 Turnstile http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/turnstile http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/turnstile#comments Sat, 02 Sep 2006 03:49:40 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/09/01/turnstile Open Democracy has a short essay by Jason Orton about his photos taken in the abandoned underground UK bunker, Turnstile. Interestingly called a "cold war city" by the photographer, Turnstile was to server as a gigantic safe room for the UK government in the event of a nuclear war. (Via Subtopia.)]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/09/turnstile/feed 0 The Wrong Way to Floyd Bennett Field http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/08/the-wrong-way-to-floyd-bennett-field http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/08/the-wrong-way-to-floyd-bennett-field#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 00:53:54 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/08/21/the-wrong-way-to-floyd-bennett-field Art in General:
Help launch the eteam’s departing flight from a historic and fully operational, but dormant airfield in Brooklyn. Play a role in an eteam film- be the passenger, the pilot, the engine, or the fuselage of a plane as it exits from the gates of historic Hanger B. Learn the history of Floyd Bennett Field, New York’s first airport and now a Gateway National Recreation Area by participating in a guided tour by Linc Hallowell, a historian and park ranger of the National Park Service, who will introduce you to the airfield’s peek moments, its decline, and the process of renovation that is underway. The afternoon winds down with a BBQ.
]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/08/the-wrong-way-to-floyd-bennett-field/feed 0 Pro Geo-Domes http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/07/pro-geo-domes http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/07/pro-geo-domes#comments Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:20:45 +0000 John Menick http://localhost/johnmenick/blog/2006/07/03/pro-geo-domes Looking for a pro geodesic dome? Pacific Domes is your answer, and ZDNet has a profile. From the article:]]> http://www.johnmenick.com/2006/07/pro-geo-domes/feed 0