I spent the last week traveling through Switzerland. The first stop was Zurich. It was a very classy, upscale city with noticeable wealth. Next up was Interlaken. It was a beautiful serene town located in-between two large lakes and the Swiss Mountains. It is known as the adventure center of the country; and with good reason! Last up was Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Bern actually stands for ‘Bear’ which is the cities mascot. The city is also labeled as a World Heritage site, and it’s no surprise. The city has changed very little in the last 300 years. 

Overall, the trip was fun, exhilarating, and calming all at once. I had the opportunity to paraglide in Interlaken. It was a serene feeling to be floating above the city four thousand feet up. All my worries escaped me as I maneuvered around such a beautiful city with ease. I will never forget the feeling.

John Ronan giving our class a tour of his Poetry Foundation Building. 

Monday Morning Media / Start each week off by viewing an Inspirational video

Silent Transitions

The Poetry Foundation by John Ronan, located at 61 West Superior Street, is easily one of the finest buildings constructed within Chicago within the last ten years. The result is a simple black box that offers a place to contemplate within. It carries a limited material palate but the choices have been clever. If you examine the building closer you’ll begin to realize that craftsmanship is still present in the profession. The detailing in and around the building are a joy to look. A move that I have never seen before is the slight gap between the existing sidewalk and the area around the entire project site. Overall, the project asks for attention but without begging. It is simply proud of what it is and what it is protecting within. Nicely done.

Monday Morning Media / Start each week off by viewing an Inspirational video

AS IT HAPPENS : Simply Amazing! That’s all I can really say about this clip. 

raw, inspired, video:::: camp4collective.com
from the field art:::: rockmonkeyart.com
from the field photos::: crichardsphoto.com/
support:::: thenorthface.com, bdel.com, sportiva.com/

Electric Charging Stations and iGO car sharing service at IIT! They also have the bike sharing program as well. I’m impressed to see the school doing their part to be environmentally conscious. We need more of these around the city! 

Just another typical day walking around IIT. 

Monday Morning Media / Start each week off by viewing an Inspirational video

Time-lapse of beautiful Barcelona. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit this wonderful place twice and I am hoping that one day I’ll be able to actually live here for a couple months or maybe even years. The city had such wonderful energy! It’s not hard to see that it was built for people. One can never really become bored here; just so much to see and do. I just can’t wait to return! 

This is where I am spending my Spring Break 2012;working on a custom single family residence in a very small town about 4 hours south of Chicago.  For now I will only present photos of progress but at the end of the week I will write a recap of my full experience and all the lessons I have learned. This should be fun. 

Monday Morning Media / Start each week off by viewing an Inspirational video

This video was shot at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. Their annual Festival of Colors was a great opportunity to test the slow-mo capabilities of my Cannon 7D. After hearing Zoe Keating perform this song in Portland, OR I was inspired to edit this footage to her beautiful music. I hope that she and her son enjoy the video.

What does it take to become inspired?

As the car wash began, I quickly spaced out and started staring out of the window in front of me. I was in that place where everything around me slowly faded away. A place where I became intensely focused on a particular moment or object. I was in it; it was my moment of Zen.

As the jets began, I sat there in silence. Water soon covered the entirety of my car. My focus was now on the water that was playing around on my windshield. It seemed so lost yet still somehow managed to follow a path. An invisible path. How does that happen? Each droplet wandering aimlessly soon start to combine with one another to form lines. These lines begin to march across my windshield. It reminded me of how ants behave. Individually they become lost, then are guided by their sense of scent, but once they join forces they become a powerful and insanely efficient force. Does that idea apply to humans as well? Are we a greater force individually or collectively?

Next up, the soap! My window has now become a Jackson Pollock-esque painting. The colors change as they crash. They become brighter as they combine. It all moves so quickly. What you see as a brilliant painting one second quickly disappears in the next leaving no trace of its existence behind. How perfect, how pure. The soap had a purpose, and that was to simply wash the exterior of my car. What it gave me instead was a brief shot of artistic brilliance.

The water washed the dirt off my car while the soap cleaned it. They work well separately but work beautifully together.

Should our world behave similarly? Allowing unique people of all backgrounds to move about and think freely; enjoying themselves but then coming together for a common good. A bond formed not from greed nor envy but from a mutual respect. Or is the machine the vital part - the overall mechanism that directs and orders the water or soap. Without direction one can and will become lost. So is that what is needed? Does the world lack this type of leadership? These are some of the questions I struggle with. Individuality is important but so is a collective.

The wash seemed so simple, so unimportant. It came and went so quickly but it did its job. All it took for me to understand its importance was to give it some attention. That’s all it asked of me. We live in a world that’s full of distractions. Sometimes we just need to let our surroundings wash over us.

Monday Morning Media / Start each week off by viewing an Inspirational video

The Ritson Gap is a magical place - one of the first highline sites opened in France. 
Overlooking the town of Annecy, the site makes for a highly aesthetic location. I didn’t need any further convincing to film the girls’ trip. Ingrid and Jelena warned me - “no other guys allowed on their mini expedition…!”

This filming was proudly supported by columbia.com & tifosioptics.fr thanks guys for trusting Jelena and Ingrid !