Composition on doormat

Stanley Brutus
Composition on doormat #35, 2024
Mixed media

Birds, Brancusi and Starling; Autoxylopyrocycloboros

Simon Starling - Two Birds, No Birds — A Mirrored Displacement (Proposal for an Inter-Institutional Exchange)

Some days ago, I wrote about ‘Bird,’ Brancusi’s artwork, which I stumbled upon in Bucharest’s National Gallery. Steichen bought it and paid a premium to import it into the US.
Yesterday, I watched a video about Simon Starling, a conceptual artist and photographer from the UK. Starling created a work in 2004 with the exuberant name Two Birds, No Birds — A Mirrored Displacement (Proposal for an Inter-Institutional Exchange). This work is a diptych of two photographs of ‘Bird’ in a particular exhibition space.
A nice loop.
(Omitting pun re bird named starling)

Autoxylopyrocycloboros

Unrelated, I found Autoxylopyrocycloboros is an interesting conceptual work by Starling about a wooden steamboat that eats its own tail, being fueled by its own hull.

Hiking Shoes: Meindl Laredo – grand and ugly

A review mode post about hiking shoes.

I bought a new pair of shoes for our three-month New Zealand and Japan trip in 2023. My requirements for these were:

  • Comfortable for long days of walking
  • Suitable for the warm February in New Zealand
  • Suitable for the colder March and April months in Japan
  • Nice-to-have: low shoes, not too expensive.

In January 2023, I did some research and eventually bought these Meindl Laredo’s. They were quite expensive, but considering their durability, they were actually quite affordable.

Further benefits:

  • Great, comfortable fit.
  • Very durable.

Main drawback:

  • Ugly. Which, of course, is subjective.

I walked about 2 million steps on these shoes in February, March, and April. Flawless. The only problem was that a crack in the rubber between the sole and the shoe began to appear in one of them. I returned to Bever to get this fixed, but they replaced the boots for free.

With the new pair, I walked another 3 million steps during the rest of the year and a few months in 2024 until the Vibram sole wore out. Unfortunately, the sole can not be replaced in this model, so I had to trash the pair.

Meindl Laredo wandelschoen

The Bucharest metro system

I wrote about our trip to Bucharest and got questions about the metro system there.

This is a very convenient system.

Finding the right train is easily accomplished through the big maps on the walls of the stations.

You can get individual tickets or tickets for a certain period. The metro is relatively cheap. The tariffs are here. You can buy a ticket at ticket vending machines at all stations. The machines are straightforward to use, have an English interface, and accept many cards and contactless options such as Apple Pay.

We bought a week’s ticket for 30 RON (6 euros) per person.

The ticket is a thick paper card with a magnetic strip. You use the card to enter through the gates. YOu slide the strip in, wait a few seconds for the validation, and the machine spits out the card again and opens the gate.

When you arrive at your destination, you can pass through the gates without presenting your ticket. The gates open automatically.

PS. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Bolt provides a fine taxi service in Bucharest.