Environments Are Landscapes When Manufactured

Mary Fugle, my warrior abs instructor gave me the heads up on the new exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Only today did I find out that the title shares an uncanny resemblence to my friends Daniel and Faust.

Dan and Faust run the relatively popular blog at Manufactured Environments. The new BMA exhibit is Manufactured Landscapes, photography by Edward Burtynsky. From the press release:

Burtynsky, a modern-day counterpart to nineteenth-century landscape photographers, examines the intersection between land and technology, creating images of unorthodox beauty. His subjects include locations that have been changed by modern industrial activity such as mining, quarrying, rail cutting, recycling, and oil refining.

This seems right up Dan's alley, so perhaps there will be a convergence of Environments and Landscapes in Brooklyn before the show closes in mid January. You can see more samples at Space & Culture.

Summer Schedule for Irregular Blogging

I know my posting stuff about stuff has been slow of late and will be slow for the rest of July. But here's my dance card:

• Monday July 11-- I get to see my Aunt Barb, in town for the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians Conference
• Thursday July 14-- I fly to Minnesota
• Friday July 15-- I get to see Grandma Tostenson
• Saturday July 16-- Judy's (not a) Suprise Birthday Bash for all "'45-ers"
• Tuesday July 19-- Head up to Duluth en route to the BWCA
• Wednesday July 20-- Get in the water
• Monday July 25-- Wish Whitney a telepathic happy birthday
  
• Tuesday July 26-- Get out of the water
• Wednesday July 27-- Fly to New York
• Thursday July 28-- Go to work, resume blogging
• Monday August 1-- Greenwall Foundation Proposal Deadline, resume Warrior Abs, celebrate my birthday (shameless plug, I know)
  

It's Not Pilates

Jason, Joe and I are still going to our men's pilates class on Monday evenings. Except that Jason and Joe read in the Times how men don't really do "classes." So instead we've informed our instructor Mary that we come for our weekly "Warrior Abs"

A "Man Date" is not a directive

Discussed all over the city yesterday was the NYTimes' article on "man dates." The idea is that straight men going on outings that would otherwise, or ideally be with a woman are on a man date, and thus have some social navigating to work out. Though the concept was new to Times readers, followers of Kick.Ball.Action got a primer on Friday.

So my pals Joe, Jason, and I went on a guy outing Sunday: we saw Frank Miller's Sin City. It was good old fashion adolescent male fantasy pulp action. We saw bloody action, naked chicks, and all sorts of proper delinquency to disqualify us from a "man date."

Despite the dudity of Sunday, on Mondays, the three of us are taking a men's session of Pilates... no escaping the man date label here. It's held a private gym, where at the same time--as if to purposely turn up the gender irony, some ladies are taking boxing lessons as we are pilating. Any one who thinks Pilates isn't as taxing hasn't tried it.

We're going to keep it up for a few more weeks at least. In the mean time, we'll try to balance this out with some mean time: hit a few in the cage, muse about the NBA playoffs, discuss power tools.... (in truth, none of us swing a bat too well, and Whitney's a bigger fan of hoops than Joe and more enthusiastic about power tools than Jason).