What Ever Happened to Beauty?
The Cultural Tutor perfectly sums up why beauty matters: “what’s the danger of a world without beauty?” they ask. “If everything is simply functional, simply useful, then life becomes a mere conveyor belt. It turn humans into machines of consumption, labour, & reproduction. Aren’t we more than that?”
Cultivating a Vibe
how do the physical places in which we live, work, and play shape us?
Ariel Sabar • Heart of the City: Nine Stories of Love and Serendipity on the Streets of New York
Maybe another way to ask all these questions at once is to wonder what exactly is being sold when you sell the character of a place? Not just the amenities or the architecture per se, but how do you put a price tag on the vibe of a town?
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
But these tasks of meaning making require the small town, precisely, not to change too fast. Meanwhile, we demand that such places upend their entire local economy as soon as their fragile node in the regional economy is disrupted, often by some far-off decision over which the town had no control. It’s impossible. A place will certainly be grumpy i... See more