The Magic Dogwood(Cornus florida subspecies urbiniana). A rare Mexican version of the common American Dogwood tree. This variety is noted for its flower bracts, which are fused together, resulting in an amazing display of spirals and shapes.
Renaissance ideal cities inspired by Vitruvius –
1. Filarete, 2. Fra Giocondo, 3. Girolamo Maggi, 4. Giorgio Vasari, 5. Antonio Lupicini, 6. Daniele Barbaro, 7. Pietro Cattaneo, 8.-9. Giorgio Martini.
In Renaissance Italy, artists and designers joined in the broader humanistic assertion that society could and should be shaped by human ideals. Hemmed in by the tangled, narrow medieval streets around them, they became fascinated with ideal cities, imagining serene and unpopulated spaces, out of time and out of any real place. The tools of perspective and the development of abstract rules of proportion and symmetry made space itself an object of study.
Renaissance ideal cities reveal a few of the fundamental powers — and also some of the shortcomings — of planning diagrams. First, they are every place and no place, clearly representing urban space in plan view but with no geographical references, and therefore none of the context or constraint that comes with building actual cities. Second, they contribute to a broader discourse about societal ideals and how they might be manifested in the good city. Finally, they provide a kind of formal DNA, a template repeatedly expressed, modified and reproduced both on paper and on the ground.
Alas, the mystical and gorgeously elaborated jacket worn by Alex Winter in his performance as Marko in The Lost Boys has been sold. No idea how much it cost, but it can’t have been enough.
Escapes from Apathy 