It’s interesting how you and Nicholas Grimshaw and Richard Rogers were all drawn to Bucky in your formative years. What drew all of you into his orbit?

It was his philosophy, his optimism, his belief in friendly clean technology that would enable the species to survive if they used their intelligence.

Here is Norman Foster's recreation of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car:

And here is Fuller's original in action:

Buy the new book on the Dymaxion car at Stout Books.

“My weapon was my cello.” - Vedran Smailovic

During the Siege of Sarajevo, Vedran Smailovic, principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera, played his cello every day in the ruins of the National Library, to honour all those who were killed by shellings and snipers and to provide some peace and hope for those who were still trying to survive. The piece he played every day was Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor.

As Fela said, "Music is the weapon of the future."

Dream theory In Malaya is titled after a paper by visionary anthropologist Kilton Stewart, who in 1935 visited a remarkable highland tribe of Malayan aborigines, the Senoi, whose happiness and well-being were linked to their morning custom of family dream-telling, where a child's fearful dream of falling was praised as a gift to learn to fly the next night and where a dream-song or dance was taught to a neighbouring tribe to create a common bond beyond differences of custom. The Semelai are another tribe not far from the Senoi but who live in the largest swamp area of Malaya, A recorded fragment of their joy-filled watersplash rhythm was re-structured and became the the generating force for the composition Malay, as well as providing a thematic guide for the entire recording.

Last night, I dreamt of having to negotiate a series of ladders, ropes and other gymnastic feats to get to the seats of a theater to watch a performance I really wanted to see. The heights were too much for me and I couldn't get to the seats to watch-- maybe tonight I'll make it to the show.

sitzfleisch

PRONUNCIATION:

(SITZ-flaish, ZITS-)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The ability to sit through or tolerate something boring.
2. The ability to endure or persist in a task.

ETYMOLOGY:

[From German Sitzfleisch, from sitzen (to sit) + Fleisch (flesh). Earliest documented use: Before 1930.

NOTES:

Sitzfleisch is a fancy term for what's commonly known as chair glue: the ability to sit still and get through the task at hand. It's often the difference between, for example, an aspiring writer and a writer. Sometimes the word is used in the sense of the ability to sit out a problem -- ignore it long enough in the hope it will go away.

When post-punk pioneers Wire reformed in 1986 after little more than a half-decade hiatus, they toured with an opening band, The Ex-Lion Tamers, whose set consisted of a note-perfect track-by-track recreation of Wire's debut album Pink Flag. This was a clever sop to the old guard fans who had come hoping to hear the oldies that the band clearly was no longer interested in performing, and it freed the band to concentrate on their new material.

Clearly such integrity is, unlike these many newly zombified bands, a thing of the past.