Parsnip Pie: an assortium of sites on Architecture, Theater, Books, Art, and Family
Ranked #8,286 in Arts & Design, #146,240 overall | Donates to Northwest Washington Theater Group
All the Arts and Design under one Crust!
All the good stuff in life - art and design - and people (like kids!) to share it with.
It's a bit of a puzzle to know what category to put this Lens under, since there doesn't seem to be one labeled "Everything Worthwhile." A strange omission, really.
Here you, Dear Reader, will find a strange assortment of links to an assortium of architecture, art, design, film, and theater sites plus a few kid/family ones. Full of unexpected goodies - like that parrot's parsnip pie - tasty stuff and good for you! A few sites will be kid-friendly or at least useful as research sources for home-school or after-school projects, but artists aren't always PG, so peek under the crust first, huh?
Enjoy! More servings coming along all the time.
(PS The image is from http://public-domain.zorger.com - 'till I messed with it)
It's a bit of a puzzle to know what category to put this Lens under, since there doesn't seem to be one labeled "Everything Worthwhile." A strange omission, really.
Here you, Dear Reader, will find a strange assortment of links to an assortium of architecture, art, design, film, and theater sites plus a few kid/family ones. Full of unexpected goodies - like that parrot's parsnip pie - tasty stuff and good for you! A few sites will be kid-friendly or at least useful as research sources for home-school or after-school projects, but artists aren't always PG, so peek under the crust first, huh?
Enjoy! More servings coming along all the time.
(PS The image is from http://public-domain.zorger.com - 'till I messed with it)
Pie Filling:
What's in the pie filling? All sorts of stuff! Tasty goodness from all over the design world - whatever catches that parrot's eye. (Maybe he's really a jackdaw or mag-PIE?)
How to Cook and Eat this Pie
Let's tackle this Turnip Pie alphabetically. Why not?Start with C for crust and work our way to P for Parsnip or T for Turnip. Or start with A for - - -
Architecture
AKA the Mother of the Arts
This was back in the days when most of the other arts were handmaidens to architecture: when painting, sculpture, stained glass, and all the "applied" arts like furniture design, weaving, etc. were integral parts of any important building. Alas, times have changed - what with Modernism kicking decoration out of buildings, like Christ sending the money-lenders packing from the temple.But you know what? Decoration and art may be sneaking back in. Welcome!
Architecture Links
(starting, naturally, with my own)
- DeVries Design Diary Blog
- From the desk of architect and theater set designer Clare Floyd DeVries - architecture, theater, books, film, whatever catches her eye.
- Area Rugs - Top 40 Architecture Blogs
- A links page to architecture blogs.
- Life of an Architect
- Architect's blog
- Archicentral
- Architecture news from around the world
- Architect magazine
- The AIA's magazine. (AIA being the American Institute of Architects, of course)
- Architectural Record magazine
- The most established American architectural magazine
- Residential Architect
- A magazine about residential architecture.
- Great Buildings
- An online architecture directory of great architecture
- Digital Archive of American Architecture
- Mainly historic buildings.
- The Gamble House
- One of the most beautiful bungalow style houses - by architects Greene and Greene
- Watts Towers
- The wild architectural whimsy made by a mason for fun from broken crockery. Maybe this should be a parsnip? Or a turnip?
- Architecture for Humanity
- Architecture for Humanity is a pro-bono, professional design organization dedicated to building a more sustainable future.
- Architecture of Theaters
- A link site to other sites on (mostly) Art Deco film theaters and drive-ins. So should this be under Architecture? Or Theater?
- TED Talk: Using Nature's Genius in Architecture
- A talk by Michael Pawlyn about the importance of mimicking nature's methods in finding "green" architectural solutions.
- Paper Architecture by Ingrid Siliakus
- Buildings cut and folded... often from a single sheet of paper. Fascinating.
- Surviving Remodeling
- Tips and preparation you can do to ease the process of home remodeling.
- Gifts for Architects
- Gifts ideas for your pickiest loved-ones!
- Easy Green Yard
- Well it's ALMOST architecture! Landscaping in a sustainable way.
- Easy Green Home
- Annnd here's the Architecture "green" Lens.
- The Architecture of Palladio
- A short intro to the work (and book) of this most influential Italian classical architect.
- Outsider Art and Houston's The Orange Show
- A fascinating hand-built environment celebrating The Orange!
Andrea Palladio
Renaissance Architect
Palladio's architecture is breath-takingly beautiful.
It's influenced everyone from the British and French neo-classicists to Thomas Jefferson. (Palladio may be the real reason the U.S. Congress and the White House are classic in style rather than, say, Gothic.) His work is still influencing us today.
This book looks equally gorgeous, filled with Giaconi's watercolor renderings and original woodcut illustrations from Palladio's Four Books of Architecture. (See more at www.arcspace.com) Palladio's own book is in the row of suggested books a bit further down. Kinda cool to be continuously in print since 1570, huh?
It's influenced everyone from the British and French neo-classicists to Thomas Jefferson. (Palladio may be the real reason the U.S. Congress and the White House are classic in style rather than, say, Gothic.) His work is still influencing us today.
This book looks equally gorgeous, filled with Giaconi's watercolor renderings and original woodcut illustrations from Palladio's Four Books of Architecture. (See more at www.arcspace.com) Palladio's own book is in the row of suggested books a bit further down. Kinda cool to be continuously in print since 1570, huh?
The Villas of Palladio
Amazon Price: $233.53 (as of 05/30/2012)
Favorites for Architecture
Toys, favorite books, and the best desk lamp in the world.
What Architecture is on eBay?
(Like a slot machine - pull the arm - cherry, cherry, cherry, apple!)
Art
Under Art I'd include anything "artful" including crafts - in fact, I think the border fences between Fine Art, Applied Art, Industrial Art, and Craft etc. are pretty silly. Who cares anyway?So my list includes all sorts of art - mainly visual.
Art Links
- Google Art Project
- Explore art museums around the world
- Kimbell Art Museum
- The Kimbell Art Museum, in Fort Worth, Texas isn't as well known to the public as, say, The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Chicago Art Institute, but it's just as select (maybe more) in its collection. Take a look.
It's building is by architect Louis Kahn - one of the most beautiful in the world. (No kiddin' there was a vote - it barely got beat by the Parthenon.) And so loved that an earlier attempt to add on to it was stopped by public outcry. Let's hope the new addition by Renzo Piano (a good designer) lives up to it, eh? - The Collage Museum
- All collage, all the time
- The Complete Steampunker
- Steampunk design Lens
- Art Junk
- An artists blog
- The Best Part
- Art/design blog
- 50 Watts
- A blog/site/thingee mostly about the graphics of book covers and illustrations.
- Fast Company
- This business/idea blog has a lot on product design.
- Lines and Colors
- A wonderful blog that shows a wide range of art by (mostly) living artists.
- Naked City
- art e-zine of Wichita Kansas
- etsy
- One of the best places on the internet to find arts and crafts direct from the artists.
- Blick's Art Materials
- Great online (and Chicago brick N' mortar) art supply store.
- Banksy - the famous anonymous street artist
- Great stuff. Seen the documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" yet?
- Julian Beever
- The fantastic sidewalk chalk art of Julian Beever. Lots of anamorphic illusions (fool the eye fake 3D).
- Paris Parfait
- Tara Bradford's blog - a Paris photographer (These alphabet blocks? Hers.)
- Nicole Caulfield Fine Art
- An artist's blog - with gorgeous colored pencil work.
- Punch & Judy
- Beautiful book illustrations, graphic art, and theater design
- CjMiller art
- The portfolio page of painter (and advertising/PR guru) C J Miller.
- Zombie Pinups
- The strange, imaginative artwork of Monique Motil
- Theater Posters
- A Lens on, um, theater posters? With links to more.
- Junk Culture
- Cool art!
- Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop
- A Squidoo lens devoted to Banky's work, with a review of his fascinating film, Exit Through the Gift Shop. (A perfect title, that.)
- Romantic Gifts for Designers, Artists, and Architects
- Like it says... gifts for your artistic sweetie.
Art Explained
Sister Wendy
It's an unexpected thing, that one of the best teachers of Art should be a cloistered English nun, living an isolated, contemplative life, who appears on TV (she'd never seen TV until she was on it herself). Ineffable indeed.
Sister Wendy explaining Bernini's sculpture "Apollo and Daphne" - shows how perfect she is to interpret for us.
Sister Wendy explaining Bernini's sculpture "Apollo and Daphne" - shows how perfect she is to interpret for us.
Favorites for Art
Fun stuff to read or experiment with - don't you just love little wooden poseable mannequins?
Art books on eBay?
(cherry, cherry, apple, pistachio)
Books and Writing
Only the single most important invention of Man(and Woman - she's been known to pick up a pen too). At least since fire...
It's practical time-travel, isn't it? Working telepathy? Pretty cool technology!
Book and Writing Links
- Virtual Theater Book Shop
- Theater books
- Wing'd Tower Press
- Art and Design micro-press
- Alice Through the Proscenium
- The theater design how-to book.
- World Building: Intro, Pirates & Castaways
- An oddball turnip-y site that talks a lot about books.
- World Building: Supernatural
- section 2 in this series - this time about vampires and that ilk
- Books and Letters Live
- Lots of book reviews, mainly non-fiction.
- Touching Paper
- Book reviews, often of classics.
- Ask Allison
- Allison Winn's helpful blog on writing and being published, getting an agent etc.
- The Plagiarism Checker
- Alert! Alert! Alert! When that paragraph you just wrote sounds so so familiar? Check it here.
- Project Gutenberg
- If you have any electronic device that reads the ePub (or some other formats) visit Project Gutenberg to stock up on our species' great classics. Or volunteer your time!
- Publitariat
- A site for Indie writers and publishers.
- The Bujold Nexus
- News, reviews etc. for writer Lois McMaster Bujold.
- Diana Gadaldon
- News and a blog (good writer's questions answered) for Dians Gabaldon - writer of Outlander and its sequels.
- Neil Gaiman Website & Blog
- Fantastic writer of novels, graphic novels, children's books, horror (kinda), short stories, films. What next?
- Terry Pratchett Books
- Website for author Terry Pratchett.
- John Siddique
- The British poet's blog.
- Summer Reading for Writers
- Inspiring books on writing!
- Book Care and Repair
- a very helpful Lens.
- Enchanted April
- The romantic set-in-Italy novel by Elizabeth von Arnim and its theater and film adaptations.
- Why Buy a NOOK?
- Books and eBooks... Choose the right eReader for you.
- Mystery Writer Josephine Tey
- One of my all-time favorite books is her Bratt Farrar.
- Mystery Fiction from the 1980s
- Um, like the title? "Period" books, films, and TV.
- Best Writing Advice
- Advice from writers to aspiring writers. Some great quotes!
- Mystery Writers' Advice on Writing
- Specifically mystery-writing advice.
- A Pretty Book
- A blog about books, bookstores, and libraries world wide.
- eBooks Library
- How to compile a personal, virtual library.
- Books About Books
- There are some personal favorites here.
Books and Writers on YouTube
Here's a favorite poem from John Siddique, nicely animated.
Favorites for Books
Ah! books. And ways to write or e-read them.
Books on books on eBay?
(cherry, rutabaga, cherry, cherry)
Design
Okay, maybe sometimes this laps over into Art or Architecture or... well, all these borders are unclear.But cool design-y stuff of all kinds that didn't quite fit - so I had to add this giant letter D. More to come I betcha.
Design, Craft, and Creativity Lenses
Design Links
- 42 Concepts
- Design, art, architecture, floating pirate ship kid's bedrooms. Hard to categorize, but definitely design-y.
- Daveland
- A fantastic site that documents Disneyland from its beginning - with many early photos and great details of ride designs.
- Design History
- This page is an absolutely fascination history of the Poster... but you can click from there to the homepage for a history of Graphic Design. Really good!
- Generating Ideas
- How to increase your creativity and your idea-output!
- Fortune Teller
- A little about fortune telling... and even more about decorating a fortune teller's lair for Halloween
- Mid-Century Modern Gifts
- All sorts of things to delight the eye of a Modernist!
Design Books
A few intriguing books on design and designed objects. Check 'em out!
Film and TV
If you love story, if you love books, you're pretty well doomed to like the movies. Doomed, doooooomed! to spend hours in the darkness watching that silver screen flicker, eating all that popcorn. (Read Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures yet? A funny take on sorta-Hollywood.)Here are some of my favorite links to the world of the silver or blue-flickery screens.
Film and TV Links
- Reelviews
- James Berardinelli's film reviews - very good!
- Ain't It Cool News .com
- Film news, interviews, and reviews.
- John August
- A screenwriter's blog - semi-arbitrarily plunked down here under "Film" rather than under "Books and Writing."
- Whedonesque
- Followers of Joss Whedon's work. You know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Firefly? Dr. Horrible? What's next?
- Slayage
- The online scholarly journal of Whedon studies.
- Wordplay
- A screen writing site by Terry Rossio (one of the writers of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series) with wonderful essays and a lively community who kindly answer many questions.
- Internet Movie Database
- The who-dunnit list of the film world. (Though, I'm told, the credits are not always absolutely accurate. Find me under "Ciao - production designer" So cool!)
- Production Designers Talk
- A Squidoo Lens that gathers interviews with film and TV production designers.
Favorites for TV and Film
Books on film on eBay?
(cherry, apple, cherry, pineapple)
Theater
The Granddaddy of film and probably of books too, live people in the same room or cave, telling stories and acting them out. Some of our species' best stories and story tellers (Shakespeare anyone?) work on-stage."All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts"
Like he said.
I spend my days playing in theaters, so naturally I'm a bit partial. Beware: it's even more fun to get involved with the stage, than to merely sit watching it. Addictive.
Theater Links
- DeVries Design
- From the desk of architect and theater set designer Clare Floyd DeVries - this site is mainly theater work.
- 3 Ways to Improve Your Theater Set
- Like it says! Meant to help community, civic, school, and start-up theater groups and developing designers.
- 3 More Ways to Improve Your Theater Set
- The Sequel
- Alice Through the Proscenium
- My new how-to set design book. Please check it out!
- Virtual Theater Book Shop
- Some helpful theater resource books
- Dallas / Fort Worth Area Theater
- There's a lot going on in the DFW metroplex. See for yourself!
- Theater for Children
- Um, like it says? The dramatic arts for kids.
- Children's Stages and Theaters
- How-to
- Internet Broadway Database
- Lists credits for Broadway shows: writers, casts, designers, directors etc.
- Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop
- Victorian toy theaters!
- Gifts for Theater Folk
- Ideas for gifts to theater people: actors, designers, directors, etc.
- Commedia dell'Arte
- The historic Italian comedy and its characters.
- Sweeney Todd the Musical
- About Stephen Sondheim's musical, the original Sweeney Todd story, the film versions, barber shops, and English meat pies!
- Decorative Painting Techniques
- Scenic painting methods... you can use at home too.
Favorites for Theater
Theater on eBay?
(cherry, apple, cherry, potato?)
Venetian Masks
- Mask Italia
- Venetian masks
Parsnips (okay, TURNIPS 'cause the picture was better, so there):
Who knows what category these belong in?
All the weird and wonderful uncategorizable stuff.The stuff it takes minutes to explain, and then your friend stares at you, puzzled. "Huh?"
Turnip-y Links
Strange adventures await!
- World Building: Intro, Pirates & Castaways
- The beginning of an intended series on imaginary worlds
- World Building : Supernatural
- Oh, vampires, eventually werewolves, zombies and all that ilk. The alternate world of Darkness.
- 2D Goggles: or the Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Baggage
- A great steampunk-science online comic, based on the Victoria era scientist Charles Babbage and (probably) the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace.
- Make Magazine
- A how-to techno DIY magazine full of cool ideas to build. You gotta love a group whose slogan is, "Void Your Warranty!"
- Time Traveler Outfitters
- I mean, what else would you pack?
- Dressing Steampunk
- A how-to Lens on Steampunk attire.
- Creativity
- This SAYS it's about advertising, and at first I was going to cook this under Art, but there's just too much weirdity on this site: a definite Turnip. A Turnip - - - or a Parsnip?
- Monstropedia
- Encyclopedia of monsters o' course!
- Thrifty Shopping for Home Decor
- Thrift stores, flea markets, junk & antique shops... adventure!
YouTube Turnip-y Glory
Purdue University's Rube Goldberg-esque Machine
Rube Goldgerg designed fanciful over-complicated machines to do simple tasks - he would have loved this, um, clock? history? It does tell time, sorta. Maybe it's a turnip-y time diorama? Whatever it is, it's huge fun.
Rube Goldberg Pencil Sharpener
Simplified pencil-sharpener: Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.
(I believe this image is in the public domain, if this use infringes on copyright, please let me know and I'll remove it.)
Rube Goldberg
If ever there was an inventor of turnips, parsnips, or strangely twisted carrot-mechanisms, it has to have been Rube Goldgerg.
The Best of Rube Goldberg
Amazon Price: $29.17 (as of 05/30/2012)
In Related News...
Here's a Lens with all kinds of information on building your own marble machine!
(Master this and then you can add in Goldberg-esque parrots, parsnips, etc. etc.)
(Master this and then you can add in Goldberg-esque parrots, parsnips, etc. etc.)
Favorites in turnips, parsnips, carrots, other root vegetables
Weirdities. What can I say?
Turnips on eBay?
(cherry, turnip, turnip, parsnip)
Let's not get silly. If Not Turnips... Oranges?
Children and Family
What fun is all this without loved ones to share with? Go have adventures, then talk about it all at dinner. Children and Family Links
- Theater for Children
- Like it says! A how-to for playing at the dramatic arts with kids. Fun!
- Children's Stages and Theaters
- How-to create at-home theaters for children, from table top sized to full kid-sized.
- Family Dinner Conversations
- Now open for business!
- Architecture and Building Toys
- Toys! For building with.
Favorites for family and kids
Children on eBay?
Please, no!
I wouldn't dare even type "children" in, would you? (Unless followed by: " 's socks")Hope you enjoyed this list of oddities and favorites. Please visit again as the lists grow.
GapingVoid Cartoons
More About this Lensmaker
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by cdevries
I am an architect, a theater set designer, a collage artist, and, just lately, a writer on all that. What's next week?
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This is my theater set design how-to book and I'd like to show it off to you.
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