Long day

My latin american design class nearly doubled in size. It's a bit intimidating with five or six graduate students in the class, and all the architecture students in higher levels of the program. Half the class is also interior design students. We looked at a lot of slides today, mostly concerning the Arab presence in Spain. One might wonder what that has to do with Latin American design. However, before Spain was ever unified as a kingdom, before it could develop a national identity, it was under the ocupation of the Moors (Muslims) for more than 400 years. Thus, the slow reconquering of the iberian peninsula took place, until the main Catholic Kings of the territories won from the Moors united and pushed the Moors all the way to their final stronghold, the Alhambra in Grenada. They left a cultural legacy which became integral with the Spanish national identity. One has only to look at the alhambra's use of tile, interior courtyards, water features, arcades, and bioclimatic architecture to see mainstays in what became "spanish" architecture. When the Spaniards came to the new world, they brought that Christian-Moorish fusion with them, where over time it combined with African slave influences and indiginous culture to become an entirely new and modern culture.

Interesting reading in that class. Makes me want to re-read 100 Years of Solitdude and Bless Me, Ultima. I need to go back and finish the Motorcycle Diaries of Che.

History of architecture: II The Empire Strikes Back was pretty boring, as we reviewed the last time period we covered in the class last semester. As we don't have any new students in the class, and he confessed it wouldn't be necessary to know for our final, I considered it a waste of time. Structures was also more review. I was a bit confused at first, but quickly remembed how to calculate sheer and moment in beams.

I've been using my ipod a lot on the bike from home to school and between classes. Between our history class and structures, we have a two-hour break. I spent mine toying with bits of wood thinking about bridges. One way to solve a problem in architecture is to ask the right question. I started by asking "what makes a bridge fun?" and proceeded from there.

Anyway, after finishing Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, a book on the origin of nursery rhymes, I became intrigued with the british use of rhyming slang. For instance, in the movie Ocean's 11, the black british "technology" guy said "we're in a load of barney. Barney Rubble. Trouble." Explaining his slang to the Americans. It is clear to me now that half of the dialogue in the movie Snatch is rhyming slang. Apparently is a very underclass type of slang, Cockney and used mostly in London. It has also worked its way into the American lexicon of slang, although as Americans we have no idea what we're actually rhyming, nor are we aware of rhyming.

For instance, the epithet "tart" is actually a degraded term from the British Cockney "Jam Tart" which is rhyming slang for "Sweetheart." Facinating stuff, I know. Ok, time to shelve some books.