DUBAI OPERA HOUSE

We are surprised the closest architect Zaha Hadid has reached our radars is metonymic Dongdaemun World Design Park near the Teardrop post. This is an example of Zaha's work. This is her firm's recently-announced Dubai Opera House.


The reason I find this most amazing? Most of the popular buildings being built now, like Burj Dubai, Chicago Spire and almost any Gehry project is that it stands out from its surroundings.


See a city of bricks and glass? Throw a building that's all curved metal. Why put up a building when you could put up a building that twists? but there's something dreamy about Hadid's projects where she embraces the surroundings. Look at this project again.

This looks like a pile of sand dunes to me. It is being built on a new island off the city of Dubai (new islands are so the rage these days).


Inside this project, we find a 2,500-seat opera house, an 800-seat playhouse, arts gallery with 54,000 square feet of space (5,000 square meters), performing arts school and a themed hotel. Of course, everything's state of the art, as is the norm in Dubai these days. The island:
Here's the entrance to the opera house.


The interior will be just as amazing.



I can't get over how elegant and appropriate this project is. It's like an eroded mound sticking out of sand dunes. Jaw on floor.


Here are some more photos for your digestion. Construction on the island started in 2006, but we'll keep tabs as this project develops and is completed at an un-announced future date.

GUITAR BOAT

Singer-songwriter Josh Pyke might have considered playing an upbeat version of Handel’s Water Music as he sailed across Sydney Harbour - but he was too busy keeping his floating guitar under control.


Tourists stared in amazement as Josh steered the large guitar, complete with outboard motor, around the harbour, creating one of the strangest sights since the arrival of the First Fleet from England back in 1788.


Josh’s voyage on board the SS Maton - named after Australian guitar manufacturer Maton, who designed the curious vessel - was caught on film for the video that will be coming out with his new single Make You Happy.



It is a giant-sized replica of the acoustic instrument Josh uses in the video.
Dressed in ancient mariner’s clothes, Josh, a maritime history fan, did not even get his feet wet as he cruised among the yachts and the ferries crossing the harbour.
‘I remember thinking that whenever I would see videos that had huge props, I’d never get a chance to copy anything like that,’ he said.



Then someone asked if I wanted to drive around Sydney Harbour for a couple of days in a boat shaped as a huge guitar.
‘I jumped at the chance, even though it sounded quite absurd at first.’


To be fair, it wasn’t the first time a sailor had taken to sea in a guitar-shaped boat. US singer Lenny Kravitz did the same thing in 1990 - but he wasn’t on Sydney Harbour. ‘I also saw a picture on the internet from the 1960s of a man in a boat fashioned in the shape of a guitar but I suspect the one that I was provided with was a bit more sophisticated.’

SNUGWOW!!!

Commercial for the SnugWow!

CELEBRITY CARICATURES BY COURT JONES

This is the outstanding and really awesome work of Court Jones who is an award winning caricature illustrator.

"In Court's caricature illustrations, he draws upon elements of traditional illustration and portrait painting. It has been said that all art is a form of caricature. It's only a matter of how much and to what end you push the forms".

BATHTUB IV

Bathtub IV by Keith Loutit - Sweet Time lapse. This is all 100% `real,` but there are some new techniques and a cool animated, 3-D effect.

AMAZING PHOTO MANIPULATIONS

Check out this amazing work by a young and talented Swedish guy, Erik Johansson. All the photos are taken with his own camera and if I had a hundredth of his talent I would be a very happy guy….