More Than Meets the Eye.

What Is This?



It's a tornado, right?

Wrong. It's steel, wool, cotton, ground parsley and moss. Constructed by Matthew Albanese, a man who is smarter than I could ever imagine myself to be, this is a meticulously-woven image of a real life event, except on a infinitely smaller scale. The artist has plenty more of his masterpieces on his website, Strange Worlds on the Behance Network. His work is certainly worth a marvel. Here's another image, but I'll let you take a guess at what it's actually made of.

Early Planning: Bahubali of Western India.

You've heard of the mysterious people who built Stonehenge, the Egyptians who constructed the Pyramids and the mighty Aztec civilization who built immense religious structures. Each of these civilizations had vast and massive undertakings to worship who they believed were the gods. But what else is out there that you haven't heard about? Take a moment and view this image with a sense of awe and wonder at the accomplishment.



These are the 620 steps one must take to reach Bahubali, a colossal 57-foot tall sculpture crafted in the 10th century in Western India. To this day it remains one of the largest freestanding sculptures in the world. From to Britannica Encyclopedia...

According to the traditions of the Indian religion Jainism, the son of the first Tirthankara (Ford-maker, i.e., saviour) Rishabhanatha. He is said to have lived many millions of years ago.

After winning a duel with his half-brother for control of the kingdom, Bahubali is believed by the Jains to have realized the transience of temporal affairs and renounced the world. According to legend he then stood immobile, with feet straight ahead and arms at his side, meditating for an entire year in the Yogic position of kayotsarga (“dismissing the body”). He was so unmindful of the world around him that vines grew undisturbed up his arms and legs and anthills rose around his feet. His meditation led him to true victory over human passion and, according to Digambara belief, enabled him to become the first human of this kalpa (world age) to gain liberation.

Several works of sculpture depict Bahubali, including an outstanding 9th-century bronze in the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India in Bombay. A colossal 10th-century sculpture stands atop a hill at Shravana Belgola (“White Lake of the Ascetics”), a centre for the Digambara sect in Karnataka state. Cut from a single block of gneiss, the figure stands 17.5 metres (57 feet) high and is one of the largest freestanding images in the world. Every 12 years, in one of the greatest Jain rites, the entire image is ceremonially bathed in curd, milk, and ghee before crowds of nearly a million people

Here is a map of where the Bahubali is located in Western India:




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Imagine the care and effort it would take to assemble a project like this. Consider the planning that would have to precede such an endeavor. How did they create, move and place these 620 individual slabs of stone? How were the people able to bring such an enormous amount of weight to the top of the hill to build such a piece of work? How many hundreds, if not thousands, of people were involved in this process? And all of it was in reverence to what we today would consider a primitive religion.



Yet think of it today--our society does this all the time. People spend thousands on Ebay for a piece of toast because it has the burnt image of Mary. Even here in Ohio we have that gawdy piece of gargantuan kitsch on I-75, lovingly known as "Touchdown Jesus". The people in this country--and all over the world, too--are doing the exact same things they did over a thousand years ago. The only difference is back then they built them to last.

While not a work as grand as the pyramids, the Bahubali is still an excellent example of the early minds of planners and engineers. In some ways we have come so far in a thousand years...and in other ways we haven't even budged.

The (Verbose) Update on Minneapolis.

I'm in Minnesota. It's amazing.

I'm not even really sure where to start on why I like it here so much, but I guess I can begin with biking. This city is designed with bikers in mind. Due to the plethora of bike trails, I have literally gone all over St. Paul, Minneapolis and even the suburbs via my bike. Beyond even the myriad designated biking lanes along the major streets, there are actual highways set up for bikers. I've hopped along the Midtown Greenway which connects to the Kenilworth Trail, Cedar Trail and a few others too, which can literally get you as far west as Lake Minnetonka (Like 10-20 miles I guess), and as east as Wisconsin. Along the Midtown Greenway there are exits and entrances just like a regular car highway. It's awesome! And even better, there are places you can store your bike, take a shower, have a cup of coffee and walk to the Uptown Transit station (which will connect you via buses anyway in the city).

Aside from this perk for bikers, both Minneapolis and St. Paul are very densely populated. Everything is very close together, yet it's not difficult at all to escape downtown and suddenly enter a moment of serenity while walking around a tranquil lake. It's really amazing how one moment you can be fighting busy city traffic and the next you can be sitting in the middle of a park and feel like you own it.

On Monday I hung out with some friends at Bryant Lake Bowl, a restaurant-slash-bar-slash-bowling alley. I impressed them with a competitive bowling score of 76 (ha!) and quickly learned that maybe bowling isn't my sport of choice.

Tuesday my friend from Ohio, James, and I explored the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, which was simply amazing. We then dined at Bombay Bistro, which has the absolute greatest Indian food I could have asked for (almost all vegetarian, too!). We then perused around Uptown, which is Minneapolis' trendy arts district. We argued over if it was better than The Short North, which I sat it is, he says it isn't. Regardless, they have a North Face store, Urban Outfitters, tons and tons of original local restaurants and it seems to go on forever. (Unlike the Short North which is a few blocks of galleries/restaurants).

After dropping James off so he could take a nap, I met up with my friend Sean at Chino Latino, an incredible restaurant that serves enormous portions of Mexican and Asian food. The restaurant itself was beautiful! After dining there (for four hours, literally), we explored St. Paul and I'm amazed at how it gets such a bad rap! St. Paul is a beautiful city, and I'm excited to learn more since most of the things I've done have been Minneapolis-based.

Wednesday I hit up the Birchwood Cafe, a great local restaurant that serves vegetarian and vegan food. It was so sweet! It reminded me a lot of North Star Cafe, just far more cheaper. (In a good way. Is it me or is North Star way overpriced?)

After breakfast I did a four-hour bike ride all around town. It was snowing, but luckily it didn't stick so basically the ride was just cold but doable. As previously stated, I did everything via my bike! It was simply fantastic!

That evening I met up with my friend Kevin for dinner at Spill the Wine, which was a beautiful restaurant with delicious food. They even had a great happy hour--$15 bottles of wine! After a great dinner, we headed over to the world-renowned Guthrie Theatre, which was awe-inspiring to say the least. We saw The Gentlemen of Verona and what a perfect performance it was. I absolutely loved it.

The interesting thing about The Guthrie is not only its three theatres, numerous restaurants and countless bars, but actually the massive structure that makes up the building. The architecture is just breath-taking! And to make it more impressive, there is a bridge called "The Bridge to Nowhere" which lets visitors view the St. Anthony Falls. Although I had heard of them, I had no idea what I was in for. I can't even begin to describe what a site it is--simply incredible. I was astounded by the falls!

After dinner we met up with Kevin's boyfriend, Kareem, and had drinks at the Minneapolis Eagle. It was great-- 3-for-1 special! Talk about a cheap night out!

That's been the trip so far. I think the world of this city and I can't wait til I'm packing my bags and moving out here! :-)

Oh, and PS, can we talk about Galactic Pizza, the pizza joint that delivers pizza in waay coolz space gear? Seriously. I couldn't make it up.

Minneapolis Art Sled Rally.

(Click here if video does not show)

There are so many interesting things going on in Minneapolis, and this Art Sled Rally is no difference. Seriously. We need to do this in Columbus!

(Thanks Bill for the link!)