eating milk and honey

This is my mate Sandamali's blog.

Hmmm.... When was the last time I met her? Most probably 15 years ago. I think it was during my uni days (as a student). Being a self confessed lousy writer I have never ever written to her, though I have kept in touch with her through my mate Sujeewa, who as usual keep me updated on everybody who have gone on their separate way to different parts of the world.

Eating Milk with Honey

jonas eliasson: how to solve traffic jams

oscar niemeyer dies at 104

Brazil is mourning the loss of one of the country's best and brightest creative minds, famed architect Oscar Niemeyer.

A couple of weeks ago the Brasilia architect Oscar Niemeyer passed away at 104. His architecture redefined the Brazilian identity in postwar era. An unabashed modernist and dyed in the wool communist he never took a foot back from his architectural style and his political ideology. As famous as he was, still he had to pay a heavy price for his convictions.

During the military dictatorship of the 1960-70 he he had to live in France on a self imposed exile to avoid the wrath of the military dictatorship. Being the man who provided the identity for the the newly created capital of Brasilia was not good enough for the dictators.

More than his modernist architectural style, it was how he managed to interpret his political ideology through that style that left a deep impact on the common man in Brazil. He designed for his people, most of whom are poorest of the poor in the world.

Can we feel the same about leftist / socialist ideologists or for that matter architects of Sri Lanka?

Wikipedia
Obituary @ the Economist
Pictorial Essay @ The Guardian

who's pink? pink floyd drummer awarded honorary architecture degree

Mason, Barrett, Gilmour (seated), Waters and Wright

British rock band Pink Floyd famously opined, “We don’t need no education,” and maybe they were right. The band was founded by a group of architecture students—Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright—at the Regent Street Polytechnic, now the University of Westminster, which served as the band’s first rehearsal space and performance venue in the early 1960s. As the band gained popularity, the architecture students left school to focus on their music.

Fifty years later, Westminster has brought the boys back home, awarding drummer Nick Mason an Honorary Doctor of Letters for his contributions to music, officially completing his architecture degree. Head of Music and Interim Dean of the School of Media, Arts, and Design Alan Fisher noted that Mason “helped found Pink Floyd, a band which is internationally renowned for innovation, both musically and in terms of stage design and production, aspects of which were undoubtedly influenced by the band members’ architectural education at the University.”

Mason said of the honor, “Not only did studying architecture teach us some useful stuff, but it also gave us an opportunity to develop and put us in touch with some fantastic mentors and industry contacts that have helped us along the way.” All in all, we’re just bricks in the wall.

house at madinnagoda rd (#63)

Photos: Kolitha Perera
Architect Russel Dandeniya