April 30, 2007
Thom Mayne on NPR: A New Tower to Soar over Paris
Recreation Symbols
Gotta love these Recreation Symbols from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Fukuyama on L'Enfant
L'Enfant Map, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Francis Fukuyama has what is billed as a book review, L’Enfant’s Washington which ostensibly discusses Pierre Charles L'Enfant design for 1791 Plan for Washington , but I don't quite know what to make of this review:
The Washington that resulted from all of this planning and Federal money is not a Jane Jacobs type of city. It reflects the vision of Alexander Hamilton, not Thomas Jefferson. It is an imperial capital, seat of the world’s hyperpower, a place where decisions affecting much of the rest of the world are made. Americans are very uncomfortable admitting this to themselves. The humbler Jeffersonian vision of what the nation was or should be still commands substantial support. Given their anti-statist political culture, Americans also have trouble admitting to themselves that this national greatness would not have come about but for the strong hand of the Federal government—an observation no less true in foreign and security policy than in the design of the country’s capital city.
It is obvious that the world of architecture and urban design is still grappling with the question of who is right: Jane Jacobs or Le Corbusier. Are cities and urban spaces the result of happenstance and grass-roots social capital? Or is it by grand plans which humanity merely filters into the holes and slots allocated to them. This is a larger questions which is being asked and asked throughout the world, especially in American cities which have neither the established history to guide them nor often the long-term political will to effect needed change for all residents.
One way to read this is that the (reformed???) Neocon author is seemingly still searching for the idealized world using state power. Alternatively, it seems that Fukuyama is still coming to grips on the fact that centralized, authoritarian power can create great evils and injustices in the world: from the Iraq war to Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes or Cabrini-Green.
Yet Fukuyama solution to seems to be vesting power in the "right" kind of authoritarians such as the New Urbanists, who are neither new or urban, or overly-grand plans such as L'Enfant's or perhaps Burnham's Chicago Plan or the National Capital Planning Commission's plan Extending the Legacy.
This very much an example the Incompetence Dodge, except instead of Iraq, it is urban planning. That the problem isn't the mechanism, but rather the people at the helm seems to be overly trustful of the institutions which often have very limited transparency. Not that I do not think central planning and organization has its' merits, but Fukuyama's blind trust in this power should be suspect. Because it did give us Robert Taylor Homes, Cabrini-Green, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and a whole host of urban ills.
Read the article, and ask yourself which side of the dialectic you favor: Jane or Corb?
April 29, 2007
Photos of Chicago Type
April 28, 2007
The kids at Vimeo must have the best job EVAR: Vimeo / Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
April 27, 2007
Adam's Urban Computing round 1 wrapup is well worth perusing for interesting ideas
Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River - see bigger
April must be Asshole Month: Rush Limbaugh created a song entitled,
Obama the Magic Negro
& features racially charged songs about Rev. Sharptonyour modern GOP
More discussions about the Jabbour NYC Subway map: Helpful distortion at NYC & London subway maps
Say it with me: pretty colors and 3 magnitudes additional lines a good map does not make
Amateur - Lasse Gjertsen
Can someone with exactly zero skills on the drums and piano create excellent music?
Proof in the pudding:
In Amateur Lasse Gjertsen cut together multiple clips of himself hitting single notes on the piano and on the drum and edited them together in quick cuts. Quite excellent. (via sweetchuck via email)
Swiss Graphic Design
Swiss Graphic Design, originally uploaded by Alki1
A Flickr Photoset: Swiss Graphic Design History.
April 26, 2007
How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran
What they said before the Iraq War
notice how each one of those presented have had exactly zero damage to their careers or any ramification for words and ideas which were so blatantly wrong
McCarren Park Pool, Highbridge to reopen (Curbed asks, Where will the Hipsters go?)
Video frames printed onto transparency film with an inkjet and cut down and projected
A fairly accurate description of Cincinnati & Cincinnati Sports: Cincy looks for virtue amid the Bengals' vices
Alternative history: CODE Guardian: Nazi robots attack! (part 2)
Via Shanghaiist, check out this CCTV
report
, Uniqueness of 10 hot female stars in China, which is a "devastatingly" in-depth review of Chinese women; sample:Huang Shengyi has a horse face, and big nose. When she smiles, she is fatally attractive.
I can't tell if this is straight reporting or satire...
Palace of Soviets Montages
07_панорама_набережная, originally uploaded by samsebeya
What would the Palace of Soviets look like if built? Here is a Gallery of Palace of Soviets Photo montages which makes the case that some things are better left unbuilt.
What unbuilt project would you most like to see built (Freedom Tower and 2nd Avenue Subway doesn't count).
The blanding of NYC: FDNY Cleans up Unit's Patches
FDNY Patches by Tod Heisler/New York Times
Regarding this NY Times article, Firefighters' Symbol of Pride Gets Image Upgrade I wonder who exactly thinks this is a good idea? As is evident I have a real interest in FDNY heraldry and history, so what is distressing is thischange represents a real death of history right before our eyes.
Adam Greenfield has an excellent point about this, so I will quote at length:
But anybody who’s ever spent time in any kind of uniformed service will understand immediately and intimately how crucial elements like unique insignia, heraldry, and slogans are to small-unit cohesion - how displays of unit pride that seem trivial or silly to outsiders function to hold a group together under pressure, and how easily morale can be crushed when they’re taken away. I can’t imagine that the nominal offense caused by allowing a stationhouse to dub itself “Southern Comfort” outweighs the benefit to the community inherent in that stationhouse having a vivid sense of itself and its heritage of service.
More importantly still, names like these are part of the swagger, the vigor and the vibrancy of the city I love - I’d almost say, of any city worth loving. If the suits and quants upstairs decree that “professionalizing” the Fire Department means that a hook-and-ladder company can no longer dub itself the Happy Hookers, I’m not really sure who benefits from it, but I’ll tell you who loses out: we do. Our city is subtly but immeasurably the poorer for it. And if you don’t like it, I’m sure you’ll feel at home in plenty of other places - Salt Lake City comes to mind, or Colorado Springs. This is New York, baby.
Adam was a PSYOP sergeant in the US Army Special Operations Command, so his point about unit cohesion is as well taken as his point about the blanding of New York City.
April 25, 2007
April 24, 2007
Giuliani warns of 'new 9/11' if Dems win
Giuliani warns of 'new 9/11' if Dems win:
Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.
But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.
A few words: Fuck you.
April 23, 2007
Everyone is talking about the MTA's non adoption of the Kick Map, but the proposed map is magnitudes more difficult than the current verion, so I don't understand what the fuss is about
Serra at MoMA: Approaching the religious
agreed; name another artist who creates space which both interrogates your personal space and allows introspection
Super-sized malls raise concerns
It is ironic that developers are creating artificial "town centers" down the road from actual town centers (downtowns) which formed over decades
April 22, 2007
Christian Group Attacks Brooklyn Monologist
insane - sometimes people think freedom is for me and not for thee
April 20, 2007
The World According to Richard Perle
Will he please go away?
April 19, 2007
April 17, 2007
On saving digital detritus: Archival Quality
how do we save digital bits, along with its' context is a bigger question than I can even start to answer
April 13, 2007
Map: Demolition permits issued in Brooklyn
last year, Brooklyn lost five buildings and gained four buildings daily
My First Day with the Yankees as a Bat Boy:
Hi, I’m Don Mattingly... and I need you to find me a bat stretcher
(via)Large collection of WWII Cutaway Renderings
Zero-Emissions Building Act of 2007
Stacks, originally uploaded by Jim Frazier
Senator Clinton and Senator Kerry are co-sponsoring S. 1059 (pdf) the Zero-Emissions Building Act of 2007 (Thomas link) which would require all new or renovated Federal building to be "carbon neutral" by 2030. Design methods and energy efficient technologies to reduce energy use & demand, on-site renewable energy generation and any additional strategies not mentioned. The GSA already mandates that all new construction to achieve, at minimum, LEED Silver level certification.
This is excellent news and tracks with what the AIA has petitioned been asking Congress for the last few years. Unfortunately, there are only two co-sponsors now, and both are Democrats. If this has a chance to pass (either standalone or part of the Omnibus Energy Bill) it needs more support. Contact your Senator!
April 12, 2007
Marine General in Iraq sent a Priority 1 request for renewable power stations, equipped with
solar panels and wind turbines
(via)-
Team Evil: Pot, Lucifer (in goal), Calgula, Ripper (as in Jack), Impaler (as in Vlad the), Hitler, Macbeth (as in Lady), Hyde, Klebb (as in Rosa), Amin, Catcher (as in the Child). versus Team Good: Claus (as in Santa), More (as in Sir Thomas), Moore (as in Bobby), Gordon (as in Flash), Robin (as in Christopher), God (in goal), Assisi, Jekyll, Poppins, Teresa, M.K. Gandhi.
The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel
The tunnel must be down; I haven't had a good burrito in years (Chipotle sadly does not count)
Huge collection of Phots of Cities Around the World
Seattle's 1962 Century 21 Exposition Renderings
Space Needle Rendering, Paul Thiry
Great renderings of Seattle's 1962 Century 21 Exposition; Paul Thiry was appointed principal architect in 1957.
Here is a 1983 interview with Thiry prior to the announcement of winning the AIA Seattle Medalist 1984 (interesting stuff).
Anyone else have links to cool Mid Century Modernist renderings?
Airbag Blog Advisory System
According to the Airbag Blog Advisory System, this blog is:
So there you go.
April 11, 2007
NYC appraises the value of the 592,130 non-park trees in the five boroughs at $122 million
Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'
Don't we already have a position like this, which coordinates all of the different agencies, departments and cabinet positions? Last time I looked, that position was called President. God help us.
April 10, 2007
The Airbag Department of Security Blog Advisory System
This whole "incivility" in blogging discussion is stupid. Don't be an ass should be the only rule
Thomas Struth: Art’s Audiences Become Artworks Themselves - I have, for some time, have been doing something similar: Photos of People Taking Photos of Art
Just proves that there is nothing new in the art world.
On the CCTV design: Koolhaas and His Omnipotent Masters
Nick Sherman's Intercut wood typeface project typeface design and printing blocks & Thesis ideas are a type-lover's dream (via)
Universal Studios Employee Video Directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker
April 9, 2007
Video: Milgram Experiment & AskMe Thread
How They Make a Fake:
The redesign of American currency was meant to foil counterfeiters. But in Colombia, a highly specialized criminal subculture has stayed barely one step behind.
article is from 2000, but informitive
April 8, 2007
Pearls Before Breakfast Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?
Ford CEO saves President Bush’s life
the exec had top stop Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of a hybrid car
He is Risen!
April 7, 2007
Marriage Quotes
I know that someone my age shouldn't be watching so much MTV, especially dreck like Bam's Unholy Union with Jackass "star" Bam Margera. This show charts Bam & his fiancee Missy through their wedding planning, leading up to the wedding itself.
Anyway, best quote from the final episode (the eponymous wedding) is from a highly intoxicated Dave England - not because I agree with the statement, but rather for its' formulaic stereotype and the delivery by a man who appears broken, shattered and embittered:
I'm married. Ehhh...
God, it sucks.
And hey, welcome to the sucky shit club, bitches!
Funny Strange how so many movies, TV and comedy has this stereotype of the embittered friend who is married and who welcomes "people to the club."
Where did that come from?
April 6, 2007
Pelosi Goes to Syria, Press Loses Mind
And they wonder why faith in the traditional media has eroded so much
Video of the Patriot Guard Riders who shield families from the hate of the Phelps family during funerals, which I linked to previously
Michael Bierut: Typography, Our Little Secret
How sad am I that I haven't seen the documentary, Helvetica? So sad!
Video in which Bill O'Reilly makes Geraldo look sane (backstory)
Friday Funnies - Mister Sprinkles
You need to watch Mister Sprinkles, part of Jack Blacks Acceptable.TV:
April 5, 2007
BBC's documentary, The Most Hated Family in America (with Louis Theroux) chronicles the Westboro Baptist Church - watch, but be warned: this doc contains hateful people and bigotry; YouTube version of The Most Hated Family in America
Please, please, please go away. Video of the Patriot Guard Riders who shield families from the hate of the Phelps family during funerals
On Lazy Criticism
Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle, originally uploaded by douglas
Here is a silly article concerning Steven Holl's Chapel of St. Ignatius by Charles Mudede entitled, A Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the Chapel of St. Ignatius:
This is what it all comes down to: Can a God-fearing man who needs a moment with his perpetually man-mad God kneel in this chapel and feel the Lord's presence?
…
I believe that it's hard, if not impossible, for God to hear the prayers in the Chapel of St. Ignatius. When you are in the Chapel of St. Ignatius, it's hard to pray because prayer is supposed to be done with closed eyes but all one wants to do is look at the pretty lights pouring through skylights and colored windows, particularly the blue one above the altar and the cross that hangs Jesus. There hasn't been a time that I have entered the chapel and felt the seriousness of God; what I notice are the play of light, the curves, the crazy-looking tree growing out of the floor in the Reconciliation Chapel. The space is too complex for God, too designed for His simple presence. God is simple, he is just one thing, one All, and all you need to praise His oneness is a clearing, a direct space of worship. As at Ronchamp, the architect, not God, is worshiped in this box with bottles of light.The building is not about Him, but about its architect, Steven Holl, who lives in New York City.
I haven't read a criticism of architecture this inane since Herbert Muschamp left The New York Times. Two quick points: First, this review is not a A Post-Occupancy Evaluation
, being that no actual research into the building was done besides complaining it has too much light. Second, nice jab at New York City, since it really matters.
The author's thesis (which he only supports with a few sentences) boils down to this: churches can't be shiny, light-filled or too complex
because this reflects man's glory, not Gods and cites Ronchamp as glorifying Corbusier, not God.
In a word: crap.
Cathedrals, churches, & chapels celebrate both God and man. Who pays for the chapels? Rich people who want to secure a place in their community or in the afterlife. Twas was, and will be.
Are we to believe, reading his article at face value, that God does not reside at religious buildings with too much light and too much "complexity?" Is he really saying this? Because it appears like he is.
So, according to Mr. Mudede's conception of "acceptable" religious space, the following spaces God does not reside:
The Stained Glass of Sainte-Chapelle by * Toshio *
It's obvious that Sainte-Chapelle in Paris is way too distracting, and lets too much light in. Better not go there to pray since God isn't there.
Let's look at another one:
Whoa, whoa! Hold still, buster. What are those things? Are those flying buttresses? Why is it so complex? Couldn't they just build a flat wall? I mean, come one! Give me a simple, blank wall and I can pray there.
OK, so if French Gothic is not your style what about something a bit newer:
And this one! Why would the US Air Force build such a distracting edifice which would discombobulate the cadets? Didn't they realize how much concentration those fly boys (& girls) need?
All joking aside, it seems that while Mudede has been called a leftist culture critic, it appears that he left his Marxist analysis at the door; rather than analyzing why religious buildings are they way they are (see white, rich men) by analyzing wealth and structural inequalities, Mudede falls back on the laziest canard possible:
It isn't good because I don't like it.
April 4, 2007
Senator Orein Hatch's Comical Lie
Your Republican Senators for you
Pixelator :
an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists.
US Home prices adjusted for inflation plotted as a roller coaster
Im In Ur Garden...
What's Cheney Doing over There?
Im In Ur Garden... Stealin ur country!
What's Cheney Doing Over There?
President Bush in the Rose Garden on Tuesday - Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Bizarre. Yesterday, I linked to a video of the Vice President sulking in the shrubs, and today The New York Times runs a photo of the VP with the story.
Strange. This White House is so spot on in their choreography. In the past, there would have been a giant banner there or a similar stage set.
[This was for you, Jeff]
Later:
I've found out what Cheney is doing: Im In Ur Garden... Stealin ur country!
April 3, 2007
What was Cheney doing in the weeds?
So strange, what was Big Time doing over there?
This would be my bad luck: Cincinnati Mayor's Bad Pitch (via chuck)
Surprise, surprise: British Hostage Letter Written by Tehran
Two videos to watch: Mr. Sprinkles & Mr. Sprinkles 2
Friday at MoMA, the exhibition 50 Years of Helvetica opens
Two Times in One Year...
So what if this is childish?
Twice in the same year Florida beat the Buckeyes for the National Championship, this time by a score of 84-75.
Just not our year.
April 2, 2007
Helvetica: The little typeface that leaves a big mark
not to quibble: American Apparel uses Helvetica Neue
Awash in Data
Dopplr Map, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd
If I worked in, say, DARPA or the CIA I would be giddy as a school girl about the trending developments in the so-called Web 2.0 area. Giddy since, perhaps for the first time, humans are keeping more and more track of the most minutia data concerning everything from what they are doing (Twitter), what they are thinking (weblogs), photos of themselves (Flickr) and now where they are flying with Dopplr. It has already been alleged that Facebook is a CIA front, and the DoD has already begun using Social software and data-mining for intelligence activities. No one really knows what NSA is doing, but it is virtually guaranteed that at the very least neural network study and connection theory is being tested on similar systems.
All of this is to say that with the availability of nearly unlimited processing power and a dataset which is close to becoming infinite, one of two results will occur in our lifetime:
- Government and Commercial networks will approach near-perfect collection of data on individual's lives, or
- There will be so much data, so distributed across a near-infinite number of databases, that the combined dataset will be corrupted and individual movements and data will become lost in a sea of aggregation
In other words, will Ohm's Moore's Law overcome the inherent entropy of social networks?
Either way I expect that, if it hasn't been built yet, someone will create a program which will create accounts across a spectrum of social networks and add random data in order to pollute the data system. How both commercial interests and the government handle this will be interesting. I could foresee a law forbidding fraudulent data entry on the horizon if commerce of governmental usefulness is impeded (c/f the Friendster Fakester imbroglio).
A more pressing and practical concern is whether your personal data can be readily discerned from the mass of data floating around in the ether; and if that data can be discerned in a timely matter. If both parts of the question are "yes," then you have to ask yourself if it really matters.
[Slightly off topic: if anyone has a Dopplr User Invite I would appreciate the invite (privacy be damned) - ima AT grubbykid DOT com!]
April 1, 2007
Video: Disney World's The Tower of Terror recreated in Half Life
amazing detail
April Fools Day
Ugh.
April Fool's Day is today, thus rendering a majority of the internet unreadable due to stupid April Fools jokes. It wouldn't be that bad, if (if) the jokes were funny. Metafilter used to do good April Fools Jokes - one time the website was changed into a wiki; however, a majority of "jokes" end up being silly press releases and the like.
Not to be a Scrooge, but count me out.
Later
Spoke too soon: Ask MeFI has some interesting questions.