Scattered Thoughts

“Lily is a Great Dane that has been blind since a bizarre medical condition required that she have both eyes removed. For the last 5 years, Maddison, another Great Dane, has been her sight. The two are, of course, inseparable.”

The 22-story Flatiron Building, at the intersection of New York City’s Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street, is instantly recognizable for its triangular shape. At the time of completion in 1902, it was among the first and tallest of New York City’s signature skyscrapers. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989. During the US financial crisis, a top Italian real-estate investment firm, Sorgente Holdings, acquired majority stock in the iconic Flatiron Building. Amos Eno purchased the land the buillding stands on in 1857 for $30,000. He owned and developed the land around it, building a hotel as well as commercial buildings and an apartment building. He resisted selling this triangular piece of land that had become known as “Eno’s Flatiron,” due to the shape resembling the flatirons of the day. When he died in 1989, his assets were put up for sale and his son purchased the lot for $690,000, leaving one to wonder what his relationship with his father was all about. Three weeks later, the son sold it for $800,000, to people who in turn sold it 2 years later for $2,000,000 to Harry Black, CEO of the Fuller Company, general contractors who specialized in building skyscrapers. Black selected Daniel Burnham to be the architect and designer of his soon-to-be skyscraper. Burnham had been chief of construction and master designer at the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago.

The 22-story Flatiron Building, at the intersection of New York City’s Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and 23rd Street, is instantly recognizable for its triangular shape. At the time of completion in 1902, it was among the first and tallest of New York City’s signature skyscrapers. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1989. During the US financial crisis, a top Italian real-estate investment firm, Sorgente Holdings, acquired majority stock in the iconic Flatiron Building.

Amos Eno purchased the land the buillding stands on in 1857 for $30,000. He owned and developed the land around it, building a hotel as well as commercial buildings and an apartment building. He resisted selling this triangular piece of land that had become known as “Eno’s Flatiron,” due to the shape resembling the flatirons of the day. When he died in 1989, his assets were put up for sale and his son purchased the lot for $690,000, leaving one to wonder what his relationship with his father was all about. Three weeks later, the son sold it for $800,000, to people who in turn sold it 2 years later for $2,000,000 to Harry Black, CEO of the Fuller Company, general contractors who specialized in building skyscrapers. Black selected Daniel Burnham to be the architect and designer of his soon-to-be skyscraper. Burnham had been chief of construction and master designer at the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago.


Think Different: Tribute Video to Steve Jobs (via @Gizmodo) ⇒

Rather than writing his obituary , I thought it would be better to pay tribute to Steve Jobs by stealing one of his ideas. That’s why I made this last Think Different video, in memoriam.

I’m sure he would have hated it, but whatever. You’re dead now, Steve, you crazy round peg in the square hole, you handsome bastard, you insufferable and unrepeatable genius you, you awesome man with The Vision. Deal with it, because now the world will suck a bit more without your love for perfection, your hyperbolic obsession with magical devices, your insanely great ideas andbooms and one more things.

Fanboys and haters, friends and foes—especially your foes, who now will not be able to copy your ideas anymore—will miss you dearly.

I know I will.

(Jesus Diaz)

“sono stupendi i trent’anni, ed anche i trentuno, i trentadue, i trentatré, i trentaquattro, i trentacinque! Sono stupendi perché sono liberi, ribelli, fuorilegge, perché è finita l’angoscia dell’attesa, non è cominciata la malinconia del declino, perché siamo lucidi, finalmente, a trent’anni! Se siamo religiosi, siamo religiosi convinti. Se siamo atei, siamo atei convinti. Se siamo dubbiosi, siamo dubbiosi senza vergogna. E non temiamo le beffe dei ragazzi perché anche noi siamo giovani, non temiamo i rimproveri degli adulti perché anche noi siamo adulti. Non temiamo il peccato perché abbiamo capito che il peccato è un punto di vista, non temiamo la disubbidienza perché abbiamo scoperto che la disubbidienza è nobile. Non temiamo la punizione perché abbiamo concluso che non c’è nulla di male ad amarci se ci incontriamo, ad abbandonarci se ci perdiamo: i conti non dobbiamo più farli con la maestra di scuola e non dobbiamo ancora farli col prete dell’olio santo. Li facciamo con noi stessi e basta, col nostro dolore, da grandi”

– Fallaci (Avec le diable au corps?)

(Source: anarchaia)

The first photograph of a person (source: http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/the-first-photograph-of-a-person/)

The first photograph of a person (source: http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/the-first-photograph-of-a-person/)

“Devoid of passion, either for a thing, a person or an idea, incapable or unwilling to reveal himself under any circumstances, he had managed to keep himself at a distance from life, to avoid immersion in the quick of things. He ate, he went to work, he had friends, he played tennis, and yet for all that he was not there. In the deepest, most unalterable sense, he was an invisible man. If, while he was alive, I kept looking for him, kept trying to find the father who was not there, now that he is dead I still feel as though I must go on looking for him. Death has not changed anything. The only difference is that I have run out of time.”

– The invention of solitude, Paul Auster (via rostoptchine)