mohit.santram

This Old House

When I was ten years old, if not younger, I started watching This Old House with my parents on PBS. For some reason, I was hooked. I watched as often as I could and looked forward to seeing the weekly progress with Bob Vila and Norm Abram. I could go on about my obsession with the show and how I started visiting contruction sites in my neighborhood, solely to pretend I was Bob or better yet, Norm. A friend and I would scavenge the site looking for carpenter’s pencil and woodworking relics. It was really comical in an odd sort of way.

Oddly enough, though I became a woodworking enthusiast (I took wood shop three times in high school); I never used my passion to study architecture. Instead I followed my interests in computers and blah blah blah. But in the past several years, my appreciation of architecture, construction, and woodworking has been coming back. Maybe I’m getting old, who knows.

Over the summer when I went driving cross country, I made it a point to go to Falling Water to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s epic masterpiece. Along with stops to the Ray and Charles Eames house in Santa Monica, I checked out houses and buildings all over the country. Two weeks ago, I went to Denver for the day and spent some time studying the new wing of the Denver Art Museum. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the new museum wing boasts some rather impressive angles and form. If nothing else, just the design and construction challenges alone require a hefty amount of thought and planning. I now have a reason to head back to Denver for a visit. Who knew?

Getting back to This Old House, the team is currently working on rebuilding a modern house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The home’s owner, George Mabry seems an interesting study. He’s been working on the redesign of the home for over 6 years or so. Needless to say, I’ve been glued to the tv set every Sunday or Monday night for the past two months. My trusty TiVo has been recording the episodes for me, along with all the New Yankee Workshops, as I’ve been secretly contemplating selling everything and buying a workshop somewhere upstate. I’m hoping to watch as the This Old House crew finishes the project, and then travel up to Cambridge to see the house myself. Trouble is, I wonder if George would consider this “home stalking”?

A few links, including a project description from This Old House:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tvprograms/houseproject/overview/0,16542,1062246,00.html

http://www.icynene.com/TOHCambridge.aspx

http://www.kcts.org/seriesdetail.asp?N1=THOH

http://www.denverartmuseum.org/

I also plan to visit MIT and see the new Computer Science building. It’s an impressive piece, hopefully you’ll see some pictures on flickr by the end of February!

http://www.buildings.com/Articles/detail2.asp?articleID=100736

http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa05/tech/wollman/html/slide_12.html

http://www.cio.com/archive/051504/mit.html

Every Bit You Make

Here is our class blog. We’ve already got quite a bit of great information online.

http://itp.nyu.edu/everybit/blog

More to come daily. Stay tuned.

Game On

Game On

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

anyone for foos?

damn you sambuca!

damn you sambuca!

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

little did i think that someone would name a restaurant after jeff’s favorite triumph moment.

Institute of Cake Related Art

Institute of Cake Related Art

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

“maybe one of the best postings on a feedback board. dee i saw this one and thought of you.”

dee! did you see this?

7 things mr. pigeon can’t do in denver

7 things mr. pigeon can’t do in denver

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

that’s right pigeon, the denver po-po is watching.

i went to denver a few weeks back for a day. waiting for some friends to arrive later that evening, i explored downtown denver. my friends jeff and anh were in new orleans at the same time. as i walked around, i kept wondering what they were seeing as tourists in n.o. as i was one in denver. is it possible for n.o. to be rebuilt?

i’m not so sure about this anymore. will all the displaced people ever return to the city and pick up the pieces? perhaps, though there is much work to be done there, i wonder why it is not moreso in our nation’s collective thoughts.

last night over a few beers, a few friends and i were discussing the direction of the nation. where are the alito proceedings taking us? if the religious right continues it’s march on washington, where will our rights (no pun intended) go? similar to the time after september 2001, when nyc was re-opened for business for business, will this happen to new orleans?

i’m not convinced of anything much will change unless people begin to become more involved, myself included. think globally, act locally, right? i’m interested to see where the rebuilding of new orleans goes. is it possible for people to overtake a city? what i mean is that would it be possible for a group of concerned environmentalists, artists, and rebuilders to go down and change the direction of the reconstruction into a positve direction?

the first thing he does after a cup of coffee in the morning

the first thing he does after a cup of coffee in the morning

Originally uploaded by makomoo.

and i laughed for a good ten minutes. it reminds me of the great gary larson cartoon depicting a nervous little dog waking up at 6am to brew some coffee.

we’ve gotten the airport

we’ve gotten the airport

Originally uploaded by makomoo.

i’m not usually a small dog type of person, but booboo is amazing as are makiko’s shots of him.

booboo is watching…

booboo is watching…

Originally uploaded by makomoo.

makiko has an uncanny knack of weaving a great narrative with her dog booboo. i am constantly impressed with her skill and booboo’s attentiveness as a model.

oh wait, there’s cake involved.

Album Cover

Album Cover

Originally uploaded by variable resistance.

though this one really takes the cake.

this photo was shot with jeff’s camera.

stickrock

stickrock

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

this is complete cheese.

jeff

jeff

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

run jeff, run! climb that hill. do the monkey.

the waves.

b+w surf texture

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

okay i know this is my overdone ansel adams shot, but it works.

the one with me and the sky

mo

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

i took this one on the beach at montauk. spending new years at the beach watching the waves roll in was just the relaxation i needed.

i took jeff, dee, seth, and shagun with me. after a night of partying in a hotel room in sag harbor, we managed to go our own ways on the beach. and all i can think of now is the great quote chris used on his senior page.

“sometimes good friends are the like the pillars in your life, sometimes it;s good to know that they’re just around.”

modern art!

modern art!

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

i had to get of new york city for new years. i had spent the last two in mexico and italy and i wanted to keep the trend going. spending new years in new york city is madness. especially when there is modern art all around us! even on the beach!

a salty hojo makes seaneas ponder life

a salty hojo makes seaneas ponder life

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

oh the jaded twosome that is michael and sean.

the jelloCube

the jelloCube

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

our homage to Tony Rosenthal’s Alamo. Thankfully it is back, although our battlecry will remain. viva la cube!

with a REBEL YELL

with a REBEL YELL

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

this may be one of the best pics i have ever taken. i stopped over to see my friends jeff and emily. jeff needed a haircut, so emily started cutting. she cut, and cut, and continued to cut. although she didn’t use a bowl, jeff was looking a lot john denver…. which wasn’t the goal. luckily i had brought jeff some a sample of hair gel i had gotten from work which i wasn’t using, and he was able to fix it.

emily’s so mod, jeff’s doing his best billy effing idol impression, and i’m trying not to drop the camera after laughing so hard. good times!

ooooh i thought it was the internets…

ooooh i thought it was the internets…

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

this was the inspiration for the laser etching. though you see jeff gray’s hand in the picture, it was me who drew the internet cloud.

The Mini Alamo

The Mini Alamo

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

we went to montauk for new years ‘06. along the way through sag harbor, where we spent the night, i happened to drive by tony rosenthal’s mini alamo. cute little bugger, though she wouldn’t turn like her elder sibling.