What happened to the Brazilian National Museum is truly tragic and borderline criminal, but it gave me a reason to catch up with my Brazilian friend who lives in Buenos Aires, and that was nice.
I had no idea their currency got so destroyed that she can’t even go back to Brazil.
This is what the skyline looks like now, instead of the iconic two bridges – Brooklyn and Manhattan.
I hope they call this tower, still under construction, but completely dominating them, “Corruption Building”, or “diBlasio Tower”. It skirted every code, every zoning regulation, and the developer stands to make many millions.
I also hope Hollywood make sure they don’t forget to include this ugly thing into every rendering in every sci fi movie where they have the speculative Future-NYC skyline – because it’s not going away now, not for many many years.
A thoroughly enjoyable day – I have become convinced that Governor Island is now officially my favorite place in the city. It’s complete lack of hustle and aggression, diversity without antagonism, good design with zero corporate profit motive, authenticity without decrepitude, just a lot of different people and bikes, activities of every kind, good and not too expensive food from every kind of the world, accessible but not stupid or exploitive art – and no cars!
This is just what happens when a government spends enough money, hires people who care, and then runs something well.
Of course, there is also a new fenced off area that I didn’t see earlier this summer, proclaiming a “spa and hotel, coming in 2020”, which tells me that the last remaining summer of 2019 when this place belongs to all people will be all the more precious.
next time you have a thought or opinion about someone you see on the street or in passing, ask who put it there. who taught you to think this way? who does your opinion serve? who planted this seed in you, and do you want it?
The thing that never fails about IKEA is the shockwave when its bright, well-designed, functional organized flatpack Scandinavian first-world collides with America, and the simmering contempt that its low-wage workers have for its visitors.
Imagining a dystopian future in which majority of people don’t bother learning to read, and rely instead on AR devices that read to you any text you point them at, in any language.
They work, reliably, most of the time, while collecting data on your reading habits, unless it is deemed subversive, in which case it supplies you with a sanitized version, or something else altogether. But you don’t know when it does.
tinfoilparachute 