roman invasion.

the wrong way: don't wear sunscreen.

the Wright solution: prevent blistering, downsize the peeling and heat, and help your sun poisoning heal faster by soaking yourself in cold tea.

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Well I haven't seen any Visigoths around, but there is in invasion that seems to continue in Rome even now; not by a German barbarian, but by a Frenchie perfectionist.

A street artist known as "Invader" has struck again, this time in Campo Di'Fiori. Invader conquers the urban landscape with his trademark tiles. He has "invaded" many European cities, France being the first to lose its pixel-virginity. This nonsense all began in 1990.

I first noticed his mosaics the first day we got here, and assumed that they were colorful markers of certain streets. After passing a few more, it became apparent that they didn't include street names; they were some kind of local artist's work. Ironically, as time has passed, I've started using them as landmarks.

All compositions are meticulously aligned and positioned in such a way as to be out of reach to those who have intentions of damaging the art, yet within easy view. These little touches are what made them stand out to me [and the colors, and the invader game, and the contrast, and the nostalgia...]. The city seems to positively respond to these invaders. They're very different than superficial vandalism, they have become a small, quirky element of the city's fabric.

The artist has a specific criteria for the placement of the images around cities, too. They're never randomly placed, but have "rules" set up for each individual city. Invader also keeps track of every single work and maps them out. I've heard he's published a book, too.

For example, Montpellier has been decoded: all the mosaics were installed so that, if placed on a map, the locations together form a giant invader character. Talk about keeping the larger context in mind during the design process.

The colorful mosaics Invader installs are made up of tiny squares forming a pixelated image of a little "invader" as influenced by the Space Invaders game. If you don't know what that is, it's a rad game from the 70's [there's a free Blackberry app available].

Since the game has such low graphics, the technique of using mosaic tiles to represent the pixels was clever.

Unlike a lot of urban artists, Invader has a face. He's had solo art exhibitions in many large cities, and shares my love of grids, pixels, squares, and colorful perfect forms; apparent in his studies of the Rubix Cube. I'd love to see one of his exhibitions one day. Steph Cervantes shares my fascination with this street artist.

More about urban artist 'Space Invader'

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A few CUArch went to the beach yesterday, and one of them forgot his sunscreen. It was so bad that we were able to find Justin's skin tone on Sally Hansen's interactive nailpolish color selector. his shade was "Cheerful Crimson."

Since I'm so susceptible to burning, I have a few strategies for dealing with sunburn as bad as this. It sounds strange, but if you soak your skin in cold tea, the tea will absorb the heat from your skin and help it to repair itself faster.

How:

Brew a bowl of Earl Grey or Breakfast Tea, [Lipton is fine, just TEA.] let it cool down in the fridge or on a table, and start soaking paper towels in it. Then lay the cool wet towels on the burnt areas of your body, changing them when they heat up or go dry.

I've had to do this a few times, once I even finished Gone With the Wind in the process. You'll have to soak yourself for awhile, but if it prevents the puffiness and blisters from forming, then 'Frankly, woman, I don't give a damn.'