Making simple a mandate but forgetting that eventually someone is going to have to change bulbs 35 feet up…
Category: ARCHITECTURE
Gimme Shelter
Hope the roof on this baby wasn’t built by the same contractor who installed the one on the Olympic Stadium
I really wish local government would get with the program and accept that not all tourists to our fair city are francophone: Such a great PS installation should at least be bilingual and then everyone could go home and say they saw the world’s largest and not wonder what that was all about.
Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Cities
Sherbrooke Street: no edit, no filter, no cropping – just like real life
I can’t number the times I’ve walked this stretch, watching it change with the seasons and the years, taking on the vibrancy of the good times and the pall of the bad, rush hour busy or Sunday morning sweet and quiet. It always calls to me of my own embedded past, reminds of a very fluid present and whispers that it will still be here even if I am not.
I owed someone a photo of my city and while this one may not be the first thing a tourist would think of, it does say much for what the island has come to represent. Mark Twain, who visited in 1881seeking a copyright for his literary works, is often quoted as saying that it was the first time he was ever in “a city where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window”.
Very much a City of Spires, today despite what detractors might say, it has grown to be more representative of the multitude of languages, religions and ethnicities than ever in its colonial incarnations. The banner on the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul (or the A&P as some of us nick-named it) above says it all: College, Church, School, Faith, Nursery, Friendship, Worship, Tradition. No matter who you are, you can come to Montreal and make something of yourself, find a place for your family. It won’t be easy but it will be interesting.
The Two Cents Tuesday Challenge puts forward that this is what makes it home to many, opens our eyes to the wide world, and keeps us discovering just what it is that makes us stay. Even just for a little while…
“What is your corner of the world like?” Feel free to leave your two cents about one or many of your favourite Cities in the comments…
We would love to see your vision.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?
- I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
- Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or opinion of yours or attributed to someone else, a piece of music, a song, a video, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble – but it has to be about the topic!
- Please, don’t just link to an old post… challenge yourself.
- ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.
SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post
- Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
- To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
- If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on your own blog.
- Feel free to pick up your badge on the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge page
- Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.
Illuminating the Underground
Great Ideas from Garbage
A recent rather heated conversation on the water bottle dilemma only hinted at the the size of the iceberg that is rapidly melting and affecting much of our global health. In Nigeria, Kaduna-based NGO Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE), with the assistance of London-based NGO Africa Community Trust, are actively addressing homelessness and environmental impact with their program to build plastic bottle homes. More proof of necessity being the mother of invention: perhaps we should fly some of our Environment, Employment and Social Development bureaucrats there to pick up a few pointers and start cleaning up our own act…
Changing Viewpoints
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Abandoned Buildings or Barns
it broke my heart
when you tore down the past
choosing instead to fence me in
stonewall the truth
shut out the sun
with rusty corrugation
and you wonder why
i shake the bars
and scream
when you ask me to sing
to blue skies
∏
Dare to explore the entries in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Abandoned Buildings or Barns
Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic
poor george has seen better days
≏
Remember what has gone before in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Relic.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Squares, Triangles and Angles
we are all on the same stairway to heaven
⟗
Find some geometry in the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Squares, Triangles and Angles.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Straight Lines
new sign, expanded market space, underground parking
a little make-over can be a good thing
⩎
Proceed directly to the entries in
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Straight Lines.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Crooked and Squiggly Lines
Not stylistically harmonious but still serviceable
~
Wrap yourself around the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Crooked and Squiggly Lines.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Things with Edges
someone got the deluxe set of drafting triangles for christmas
⊠
Go to the limit in the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Things with Edges.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition
in the view from here
change is inevitable
so new and old
walk hand in hand
⧋
Put the dissimilar together
in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition.
A Word a Week Challenge – High
what nimble lighthouseman dares scramble
up that slippery incline to set things aright?
⫯
Get right on top of the entries in the Word A Week Photo Challenge – High.
A Word a Week Challenge – Lines
i can construct
with lines
circles, squares
and angles
but
the math
still eludes me
≣
Set yourself straight in the entries of the Word A Week Photo Challenge – Lines.
Travel Theme: Connections
The montreal museum of fine arts consists of the original beaux arts building
on the north side, the modern, relatively new addition to the south
and the appropriated erskine & american united church to the east.
These 3 disparate buildings are connected by underground walkways
which run under the busy main thoroughfare….
⫵
Join in the entries of Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Connections.
Travel Theme: Delicate
such steel webs
sing vertigo
as cables, pulleys delicate
strain against gravity
and lift us off our feet
towards skewed horizons
⥥
Find the fragile in the entries of Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Delicate.
Travel Theme: Height
look up to glory writ large in stone
♕
Reach the pinnacle in the entries of
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Height.
Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns
pity the poor window-washer
⋕
See every manner of configuration in the entries of
the Weekly Photo Challenge: From Lines to Patterns.
A Word a Week Challenge – Arch
leave behind your burdens
for where we wander
there is no need for chattel and fixtures
Go under and through the entries of
A Word in your Ear’s Word A Week Photo Challenge – Arch.
∩
A Word a Week Challenge – Square
windows are the eyes of the city
See what’s inside, outside and around the box in the entries of
A Word in your Ear’s Word A Week Photo Challenge – Square.
Travel Theme: Big
big plans for a big hole become a big condo
big change in the neighbourhood
⧠
Have a look at this location one year ago at A Word a Week Photography Challenge – Worker then go and live large in the entries of Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Big.
Travel Theme: Architecture
where walls are but a canvas for desire
䷕
Build on the entries in Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Architecture.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bridges
Weekly Photo Challenge: Change
nothing a little love couldn’t heal
See what’s in flux in the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Change.
Δ
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Roads
unharnessed and unchained
riveted into place by gravity
Native sons of steel
make all roads seem small by comparison
◊
Cruise on down the highway to the entries
in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Roads.
iPhoneography Monday: Black & White
that’s what they say
Shot with the iPhone 5 native camera, edited in WordFoto
for iPhoneography Monday: Black & White.
Have a look at Frames & Focus, Lens and Pens by Sally and Watching Photo Reels to see the originators of this challenge and their interpretation of this week’s theme. You may also join the challenge by clicking here.
So much for Sunday
Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate
Strong and light as the horse hair in a violinist’s bow, cables pulled tight strike a delicate balance between technology and faith.
See the many variants of this state at the Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate.