May 2012
1 post
“A few times in my life I’ve had moments of clarity, where the silence drowns out...”
– Tom Ford, writing the last line in ‘A Single Man’ (Style Forum Special)
February 2012
1 post
January 2012
2 posts
“Lloyd Blankfein doesn’t get up in the morning and say, “OK. How are we going to...”
– Marbury: the erosion of constraint (via ninakix)
3 tags
December 2011
4 posts
4 tags
4 tags
November 2011
7 posts
Rural-Municipal Irony
In the late 20st Century, Georgia’s Constitution was amended to allow counties to provide municipal services. This gave citizens living in unincorporated areas permission to pretend they live in the city.
In the early 21st Century, new cities formed in Georgia so that citizens living in newly incorporated areas could pretend they live on the farm.
SOPA Bill *NOT* Rejected →
There’s a rumor going around Tumblr that the Senate rejected SOPA. Wrong.
The Senate rejected a measure to reverse an FCC ruling on Net Neutrality. Thankfully, Net Neutrality won that battle.
There are now two more bills floating through Congress: SOPA (HR 3261), and the Protect IP Act (S 968). Follow those links and learn about them. Open Congress is a wonderful site that will let anyone...
Protect The Internet →
ATL Urbanist: The cost of car dependency in... →
atlurbanist:
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports some sobering stats from AAA’s “Crashes vs. Congestion – What’s the Cost to Society?” publication.
…metro Atlanta’s car crashes cost the area $10.8 billion, or $1,979 per person, in 2009. The report also noted 498 deaths and 62,263 injuries…
“Just the very idea that a mom … she’s put in this position to cross...”
– David Goldberg, who flew a long distance to accept a Golden Shoe award from pedestrian advocacy group PEDS.
Listen to the whole speech — he traveled a long way to make this speech, and it’s worth your six minutes.
October 2011
1 post
August 2011
8 posts
6 tags
“Millennials appear to have developed a very different view of the automobile....”
– Study of licensed drivers finds that 45% of millennials had consciously made an effort to reduce how much they drive, and 64% would drive less if alternative options including public transportation, car sharing or convenient carpooling (ride sharing) were available in their area. Consequently, Ford...
6 tags
Whether to laugh, cry or destroy.: JAY'S GUIDE TO... →
bloodsweatdesign:
Hey guys a lot of people seem to be freaking out and maybe over planning a bit for Hurricane Irene. I know NYC is definitely over-hyping the storm and I understand because of how bad they screwed up the Blizzard. So here is just a quick list of things that I do for most hurricanes. I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, including Katrina.
Water: It’s best to get a case or...
4 tags
“…When asked by a television reporter: Is rioting the correct way to...”
– Martin Fletcher, NBC
2 tags
Does software create value?
The NY Times recently asked several people to comment on whether there is a coming rise in manufacturing in the U.S., which would mean a reversal of a long trend.
Bob Lutz began his argument by recalling an old adage that there have always been only three ways to add value: drill it (mining), grow it (agriculture), or make it (manufacturing). Services, he argues, help but do not create wealth in...
July 2011
4 posts
A Bit Of Atlanta’s Transit History →
June 2011
12 posts
“People have this notion of the artist as this solitary genius. I think we need...”
– Zach Lieberman at the EyeO Festival (via curiositycounts)
ATL Urbanist: Job growth for young & educated:... →
atlurbanist:
Is job growth for the young and educated slipping all over the Atlanta metro or just in the outer regions?
Bizjournals.com reports that the metro area ranks low when it comes to providing opportunities for men and women getting started in their careers (#52 out of 65 metros in the US). Their criteria for the ranking: strong growth rates, moderate costs of living, and substantial...
“By midcentury, professional urban planners were developing and sometimes...”
– Sarah Williams Goldhagen, architecture critic for the New Republic
May 2011
6 posts
@jasongrote et. al. on Mamet
@kbyrne91: David Mamet now calls himself "a newly-minted Conservative." Does that mean he'll also consider his profanity-laced writing "offensive"?
@tmccool: David Mamet: Rich Person Discovers He is a Republican. http://slate.me/kdOUbU @tomscocca
@jasongrote: @scharpling I'm probably alone in thinking Oleanna was garbage, but I think it's consensus among my peers that Mamet's sucked since the 90s.
@dmandl: @jasongrote @scharpling But he was very good before then. And I like some of his essays as much as his films. Now, he can go jump in a lake.
@jasongrote: @dmandl @scharpling Glengarry holds up. American Buffalo & Sexual Perversity are not my thing but I admire them. Hate his ideas on acting.
@scratchbomb: @jasongrote @scharpling what, you don't like "Bearded Guys Curse at Each Other Parts 1-17"?
@jasongrote: @scratchbomb LOL
@jasongrote: @dmandl I agree re. those two films -- everything after that's pretty bad.
@dmandl: @jasongrote @scharpling I like "House of Games" and "Spanish Prisoner." Yes, his views on acting are bizarre.
@scharpling: @dmandl @jasongrote I read his book on acting. It now seems like a variant on this garbage - deliberately provocative and contrarian.
@jasongrote: @scharpling @dmandl Yeah, he's been like that for years. That's my big problem with Oleanna - so every woman claiming harassment is a loon?
@jasongrote: This is the other thing about David Mamet; he'd be nobody w/o public arts funding in the 70s and 80s.
@jasongrote: Like most wealthy conservatives, if he had to get his start in the world he espouses, he'd be a failure.
@jasongrote: In Denver, a critic asked me why there hasn't been a great American play since Angels in America,
@jasongrote: There have in fact been hundreds of great American plays since Angels in America. But in 1995, the GOP congress slashed arts funding.
@jasongrote: So nonprofit theaters are scared to do those great American plays; no $ to publicize them means no one knows or cares.
@jasongrote: American theater mostly occupies itself with domesticity and identity politics (which haven't threatened the status quo since the mid-90s).
@jasongrote: And fewer and fewer people care! Thankfully we still have musicals and TV. And TV about musicals!
@jasongrote: By the way, I like plenty plays about domesticity and identity politics. But can not live by bread alone, etc.
@jasongrote: I am lucky in that I write epic, difficult plays and they get produced. But they will probably never enter the canon.
@jasongrote: And that's OK with me. But I do take issue with the fact that there isn't a canon of American plays at all anymore.
@JamesUrbaniak: @scharpling @dmandl @jasongrote The generous take on his prose is that he forces the reader to ferret out the "truth" within.
@jasongrote: @JamesUrbaniak @scharpling @dmandl I never realized he was a situationist!
“Social change theory has a fancy label for individuals like Nujood Ali:...”
– National Geographic Magazine - NGM.com (via eggrollstan)
April 2011
5 posts
“When arts venues are decentralized across cities and suburbs, it amplifies the...”
– The Artistic Dividend: The Arts’ Hidden Contributions to Regional Development (pdf)
