Thanks to all of you..Some pretty cool info...

Yep, I don't buy it either. He claims "if nothing is properly criticised, mediocrity triumphs."- how true (and how bloody obvious too), but combined with the rest of his article this implies that "mediocrity" is worse than "bad". What a stupid, uniquely late 20th/early 21st century notion. Criticism is inevitably subjective, but that doesn't mean a critic shouldn't strive to be objective. Objectivity is developed through knowledge and analysis of a field and a good critic should be able to identify and observe trends and patterns and develop his/her opinions based on them. If I wanted gut-instinct subjectivity I'd ask a taxi driver or my Uncle Rab rather than buy a newspaper who pay the wages of self-proclaimed critics. Nevertheless, gut-instinct can absolutely be relevant in criticism. I am about 95% certain that even if I knew nothing about art, had never been in a gallery, never seen a painting, and knew nothing of artists' lives or historical importance I would still have stood, captivated for 15 minutes in front of van Gogh's painting of an olive orchard in the garden of a psychiatric hospital he was committed to, when I saw it at an exhibition a couple of years ago. Of course you could analyse it, but it pretty much transcends critique- it was just breathtaking. When friends asked what I thought of the exhibition, to see if it was worth the queues, the crowds and the entry fee my reply couldn't have been more subjective: "Just go and see it, it's fantastic." What's the point of that article anyway? It sounds like this geezer is an old-enough-to-know-better example of the "keeping it real" generation i.e. "Yeah, I might be an arrogant @rse, but that's just the way I am. At least I'm keeping it real!" Yep... real dumb. Don't take this as a flame Stinkie, as an ex-critic yourself I'm not having a go at you or your peers, I just don't like this guy's stance. BTW I think his portrait at the top of the article gives him away as an arrogant, self-important tosser... you can almost smell the "smug". How's that for subjectivity? LOL [image: Badge-Jonathan-Jones-on-A-001.jpg]

Ahh, and who could forget ThomThom.....the people's champ!!!

Thanks a lot for the help!

Tom, You and I good buddy are older'n dirt. Got 'em all too. Allen

Thanks for posting this I always love having a look at these illustrations.

That often happens with GE actually. Between my city and our airport, you seem to need to jump about 10-20 metres aside to continue on the same road. Sure it's not 500 metres. Oops.kmz

http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/2009/06/minute-by-minute-with-revolution.html

I think you're probably looking at at least 5 grand, Dave. It might be an idea to contact Christies in NY, or a good auction house nearer home. Ther link below is likely to be Henry Stannard's grandson. I'd expect the senior to be worth even more. http://www.mailchristies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5161460 Edit: Strike that. The older Stannard seems to be much cheaper. http://www.lawrences.co.uk/Catalogues/FS191007/page3.htm

awesome guys. Thank you...very much appreciated. They all seem to be very good resources and its great that they all seem to have minimal fees.

Shit! It went for NZ$5,160!!!! (about €2,350)!

Hahaha Thats it......Im going back to Podium

Hi folks. If you need images taken from a hundred meters or so of altitude to get more details, you can consider using Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). Much cheaper than renting a plane or an helicopter. Of course you need steady winds and a place to launch an retrieve the kites. If you are curious, look for "kite aerial photography", "kap" and "kaper" on the Internet. You will certainly find the sites of some of the best pfotographers using this technique (some call themselves "kaper"). I know a few kapers. Among them is Craig Wilson from Madison, Wisconsin, USA, who took splendid photographies of downton Madison buildings. Just ideas.

Couldn't resist a Marion Mahoney Griffin tree render. In case people don't know she was responsible for most of Frank Lloyd Wrights renderings, and certainly the development of that style. [image: Picture 11.jpg]

Reading between the lines I think it was the BBC who came up with the "bereavement" tag- it sounds to me like "The Rubble Club" (the name is a giveaway) has got less to do with helping architects cope with the loss of their buildings (they're too busy mourning the loss of their jobs anyway) as it is a tongue-in-cheek poke at the effects modern political wrangling and economic forces have on the increasingly disposable built environment. On the other hand, maybe I should apply for membership on the grounds that in my 2nd year at university I spent a week building a physical model of that term's project, well ahead of schedule.... then came home drunk from a night out and stood right on it. The sad thing about the demolition of the Forth Road Bridge toll gantries was that for 40 or so years they were just ugly engineer-designed (sorry) grey columns and beams with no aesthetic consideration evident whatsoever in the design. Finally, when this mundane structure, which is driven through by tens of thousands of commuters and Highland-bound tourists every day came to the end of it's life somone decided that its replacement ought to be elegant, interesting and given a little more thought than is normally afforded to scaffolding. Reich & Hall Architects delivered the goods and everyone who I heard comment on them (mostly non-architects) liked them and then 1 year later they were demolished... it just feels wrong.

@unknownuser said: HI ALL!! These videos about Sagrada Familia are simply awesome. Where did you get them from? Can you tell me how to find a similiar one for Notre Dame - Paris? Thanks. Youtube and Flickr search. If I have authorization of the owner I will upload new videos and images soon of the Sagrada Familia.

There's a bewildering choice of London hotels. It all depends on your priorities/travel arrangements/budget. Obviously, you know more or less what you are going to get with the big chains like Best Western or Holiday Inn. You also need to balance cost against location. There's a decent website here that allows you to search according to date and proximity to central London, along with a rough guide as to standard. http://www.laterooms.com/en/k16295585_london-hotels.aspx Obviously, if you see one you fancy then you can double check its ratings and reviews elsewhere. You can search in Canadian Dollars too.

Yeah, I have to admit that's the site as I remember

It's my understanding that the underlying engine in SolidWorks has been Mental Ray (for about a decade), yet the implementation of the interface in SolidWorks is so bad to this very day that it is easily worth paying up to $1K for a plug-in renderer like Hypershot, VRay, or one of the newer commercial offerings, if you are doing commercial work where time is money, and quality cannot be compromised. I've also used Mental Ray in XSI, and the complexity is pretty high, and necessarily so due to the need to enable features used for moving, deformable objects in an animation, special effects used primarily in movies, and so on. The power is there, but the ease of use wasn't, as of a year or two ago. My personal preference is something like Podium or Hypershot that does much of the work for you, taking away confusing options in the process, while still enabling renders as good as, or likely better than you could obtain in Solidworks' MR-based renderer (PhotoDoesn'tWorks) after hours and hours of PAIN. Yeah, as noted already, I'm sure they left off Max because no one would use the native renderer for product design renders, especially when it ships with MR included.