Romo the homo is staying with me till tomorrow, (and he’s got all kinds of stage and curtain drawings all over my coffee table), and spanky and his girl are getting here tonight. I don’t know where to put all these good people.
Monthly Archive for March, 2002
The new Planning news feed at the right of this page is already reaping interesting rewards — among the interesting links, an article that discusses Boston and it’s neighborhoods. Mayor Menino has made neighborhood-based commercial development a priority over the past decade or so, and it’s just the kind of thing that makes economic sense. In awarding grants to individual small business owners, (most of which is federal money anyway), for little improvements such as new store facades, Boston has cultivated a neighborhood approach to development. Occasionally, big “urban-renewal” projects, such as the new Ritz-Carlton monstrosity in Chinatown, do get built, but usually they include some kind of mixed-use, (even if that mixed-use is upscale in this very working-class neighborhood).
It’s never been a very sexy thing to talk about, but the successes of this program can’t be ignored, and many cities are starting to emulate Menino. Buffalo is trying to cultivate this, through the creation and encouragement of city neighborhoods such as the “Pan-Am District” around Elmwood Ave in North Buffalo. Even private college campuses such as Canisius are contributing to the quality of their surrounding neighborhoods by providing low-interest mortgages to professors and staff, to encourage them to live near the schools. Now, answer me this: Why is the major state school, SUNY at Buffalo, located in Amherst (not buffalo)?
I just got a piece of junk-mail from ‘Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Cambridge‘, and it’s the most attractive piece of junk-mail i’ve ever received. Also, it’s probably the best church website i’ve ever seen (scientology doesn’t count as a ‘church’, per se).
Getting ready for the show. Presley is crimping her hair, and wearing boots up to her yin. Can’t wait. I have a Mini-Disc Recorder. Now where do I get a decent mic?
God damn, the priest scandal is out of control here in Boston. Both the NY Times-owned Globe, and the NY Post-like Herald have written Editorials demanding that Cardinal Law step down.
I can’t believe that Cardinal Law is going to last many more weeks.
So, you’re an 80 year-old mother of 11, and former Catholic school teacher… What happens when you write a letter to your bishop, demanding an explanation for why he covered up a child-pornographer-priest? You get yelled at:
Archbishop’s letter to Jeanne Bast
Dear Ms. Bast,
I am surprised that a woman your age and with your background would write such a negative letter in the secular press against me without any previous dialogue. You should be ashamed of yourself! At least you should have reviewed my statement regarding Father Allgaier and checked the facts before making such a statement.
The Church has enough trouble defending herself against non-Catholic attacks without having to contend with disloyal Catholics.
For your penance you say one Hail Mary for me.
I am sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha
Is it any wonder people don’t find spirituality in organized religion? This asinine shit?
Memo to: Bishop Curtiss, cc: the Pope
Wake UP! it’s time for another Reformation. No more kissing rings and dressing up in pink robes. No more of this ‘infallibility’ bullshit. If a priest touches you, he is being incredibly fallible. God, I feel so bad for the majority of good priests. Still, there is a culture of secrecy and hierarchy, and it’s time for it to end. it’s time to rethink the celibacy requirement, and maybe it’s time to give women more of an opportunity to lead, spiritually.
This is still an incredibly medieval institution, which is fucking depressing to me. Think of that. There were popes in the 9th and 10th century who had wives and children. Shit was fucked up then.
What makes a good neighborhood? I’ve started reading everything I can get my hands on regarding urban planning and issues surrounding sprawl, and I think it’s so inspiring that Jane Jacobs had it all figured out in 1961. I think it would not be magnanimous to say that she saved Greenwich Village from becoming another Robert Moses highway. Check out this discussion about Jane’s life and the state of urban planning. (Real Audio)
As a designer, I’ve always loved modernist design — it’s big, it’s humanist in the sense that it is utopian and egalitarian, and it shows off our wonderful technology. Look at Empire Plaza in Albany, NY, and you can’t help but think that we are capable of amazing things. However, this HUGE plaza is mostly useless, except on sunny days during noon and 1pm, when workers might stroll outside for fresh air. Nevermind that there aren’t any delis or convenience stores within a 5 minute walk. Also, think of a place like this in the evening, or at night. Dead. I’ve been there! Probably unsafe. But the 19th century State Capitol is wonderful, and human-scaled. One might imagine shops or restaurants on the surrounding streets. It’s dignified, and worthy of a civic building. I think our post-60s mistrust of government makes us think that spending the money and time to build lasting monuments to public life is somehow wasteful or bad. Albany Dan’s own neighborhood (not far from Empire Plaza) is a testament to How We Used to Do Things. It’s a mishmash of income levels and uses. It’s wonderful too.
Urban renewal is a fucking sham. No news there. Look at Boston’s own place of civic activity, city hall. Modernist architects can argue all they want about the ‘greatness’ of buildings and plazas like this, but I doubt anyone but a few intellectuals actually appreciate it as such. (Myself included) It flies in the face of hundreds of years of precedent and expertise, and yet we call it ‘brilliant’. Listen to the architect’s own words:
“Kallmann: ‘We distrust and have reacted against an architecture that is absolute, uninvolved and abstract. We have moved towards an architecture that is specific and concrete, involving itself with the social and geographic context, the program, and methods of construction, in order to produce a building that exists strongly and irrevocably, rather than an uncommitted abstract structure that could be any place and, therefore, like modern man’ without identity or presence.”
Does the building and plaza create a good urban space? nope. The language itself is specifically crafted to sound unintelligible, and to elevate the architect to the status of some Ayn Randian demi-God. Even the weird geometry of the plaza is psychologically unsettling, not to mention what I feel from the building itself. There is something profoundly anti-social in a building that is set back from the street so far with that much brick. The ‘style’, (if the modernists let you call it that), is Brutalist Modern, for christ’s sake.
I don’t know if I quite get emo kids, but I try. It’s kinda fascinating how much the word ‘emo’ has penetrated into our cultural dialogue, yet so many people can’t agree on what ‘emo’ actually stands for. I mean, by some accounts, straight emo music is dead. What happens when someone decides to label Weezer, a very successful melodic rock band, emo? Or when very good bands, try desperately to attach themselves to the emerging bandwagon?
And yet, it affects culture — in music and style. It’s hard to ignore the reality that the Gap last fall looked more like a retail punk rock glam store than the usual bland pastel plaid shirts and acid-wash jeans store. Maybe I have an urban bias here, but it seems to me that no one wants to dress like fred dirst. Don’t dismiss that observation as obvious — it’s not obvious given the dominance of the Limp in the music scene of the past few years (is Creed still number 1?!). But, even the Gap has moved on. Even Honolulu has Emo kids now. I’m sure Peoria and Duluth do too. Isn’t that odd?
Albany Dan and I walked around a lot this weekend. Saturday we spent in Providence, taking an improvised architecture tour, and looking in bookshops and cafes.
Today we spent in the Back Bay taking photos of his grandmother’s dorm room from 1938, on Commonwealth Ave, and also managed to squeeze into newbury comics where I bought Summer Teeth by Wilco, and then I found a Stereolab bootleg at Smash City Records. I’ve bought bootlegs at this record store since ’96… how come no one has called them on it? PLEEEASE don’t. but I can’t believe some elektra exec hasn’t wandered in there and spotted them. the cds are $15, but I used to pay like $10 for cassette tapes back then. and they’re totally just ordinary TDK audio tapes. well, money well spent I always say.
there is something beautifully cerebral about stereolab – they’ve gotten me through 50-page papers, all-night photoshopping, 60-minute T (subway) rides, and god knows what else. For some reason they allow for both hyper-focus, and zoned-out dreaming. What a glorious noise. Which reminds me, we had tickets to see them in 2000 (or was it 99?), and we couldn’t go because I had a nasty research paper on 19th c. russian lit due…. which, of course, I had put off to the last minute.
I’m looking on E-bay for those high-quality tour posters they’re known for – so if anybody knows where I can find some, do tell.
Also, we talked to 666 tonight by telephone, and she was as vivid and charming as ever. I heart her and I may even heart her more once I get more acquainted with this Wilco Album.
Remember the Real World New Orleans? I don’t either. I think I remember Melissa, the stripping alcoholic though. she was fun.
