Entry #14: A Tribute to Fruits.. in Helsinki

My friend currently studying fashion in Italy sent me an email regarding street fashion. She is about to start a series similar to other street fashion websites in Italy and I'm excited about it because the various nuances of fashion is good eye candy. Differences in street fashion is subtle, maybe even obsolete within musical genres. I think my next research paper will be on the "End of Borders in Fashion (& How to Transfer That Politically)."

Here is a sampling of the street fashion in Helsinki, Finland. Go to this website to check out what they said about their fashion and to check out over 40 pages of street fashion. I think you'll love or at least enjoy it!

A great project would be to take a picture of what you wear everyday or whenever you change outfits. I would love to be directed to such a website- so pray- do tell!

Entry #13: Introducing some worthy pictures

To be honest: I'm not very cute when I eat, sleep, or cry. Dammit. The following records, however, are very lovely. I haven't actually heard the music (sorry).

Entry #12: Rooftop Gardens, O fantasy!

What: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) made a mandatory regulation for contractors to submit a greening plan for the rooftops of new buildings in 2001 in order to combat rising temperatures in the urban environment.

In the heart of Tokyo, Japan, the skyline is a picture of modernization with touches of elegant and deceptively simplistic designs. A closer inspection reveals outlines of cherry blossoms and haphazard greenery sprouting from roofs.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government would say that their plan has been a success, far beyond their expectations when they made a mandatory regulation for contractors to submit a greening plan for the rooftops of new buildings in 2001. For public buildings, 30-percent of the accessible part of the roof must be covered with vegetation on land over 250 square meters. The requirement is 20-percent for the private sector whose development is over 1,000 square meters. Companies who do not comply face hefty yearly fines. The law is aimed at reducing rising temperatures in the metropolitan city, but it has taken on its own path.

Rooftop gardens have become a competition between larger companies, particularly between hotels and malls. It has fueled older buildings into renovating their structure in order to place a garden over their roofs. And finally, it has caught the attention of developed nations all over the world. In a culture well known for the quality of their products from superconductors to cars, Japan has been able to blend modernization with ancient beliefs and values. For crane maker Komat’su, time is finally catching up.


Thirty eight years ago, the chairman of Komat’su began to plant greenery on top of the ten story building. Now, there are 1,000 different types of plants and flowers covering 1,300 square meters of the roof. There is an intricate irrigation system as well as research about rooftop gardens which has led to the installation of spongy floors and ways to deal with tree roots. The garden is a source of pride for the company, and the government has used it as a model when working out the details of the law.

On the seventh floor of the Tamagawa Takashimaya shopping center, there is a garden that has pushed the envelope for future developments. Covering over 4,100 square meters, the garden is complete with a waterfall that cascades down to a rock garden, as well as thirty different types of fruit trees that tower well over four meters tall, a pond, and various sculptures. You can click here for a bird's eye view map of the shopping center.

We now see that the role of the garden is the same as its early beginnings. The garden is a symbol of power over nature. The rooftop garden, in particular, is a strong message about power because the ability to wield nature from its natural environment and have it thrive is mythical. Kings used it as their way of showing the lowly class that they were, in some way "touched by God."

Entry #11: Monograms are amazing

Monograms were made popular a few years back with canvas bags, shirts, sandals, towels, and even slippers having monograms on them. The typography generally had a modern touch with curvy letters, but still had an ode to the past with the trademark three initals.

The little used middle name experienced a moment of much needed love.

As did the Proper Name.

The Rules of Monograms were first created in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. The simple beauty of the monogram is enough to start a passionate affair with the subject, but monograms go back to a time where traditions are followed and strictly adhered to. This is often lost in the commercial art world (sometimes for good reasons), which makes Monograms refreshing (say Ahhhh!). In the world of monograms, Bill is "William," Bob is "Robert" and Chuck is...

Anyways.

The monogram began hundreds of years ago and was popularized by Charlemagne who was illiterate and used it to sign his name to important documents, according to "Crane's Blue Book of Stationary."

For most of us, a monogram consists of the initials of our birth, or "given" names. When the letters are all the same size, the monogram reads in order, first initial, middle initial, and last initial. When the monogram style includes a larger center letter (which many of them do) the order is first initial, last initial (the larger one), and then middle initial.

For married women the formal style is to use initials representing first name, maiden name and married name. For single women and married women retaining their married name, then the usual first initial, middle initial and last initial rule applies. You can learn more about the rules of monograms at The Rules of Monogramming.