Jun. 7th, 2008

sqwook: (Default)

If I wanted to buy a cotton kimono somewhere nearby, does anyone have any idea where I could do so?

(My backup solution will be to make one.)

(Humidity is dumb.)


sqwook: (Shieldmaiden)
"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
-Thoreau

There's this great cartoon by Tom Toles called "The Other Infrastructure" that shows a sweeping landscape with various components labeled- ozone shield, global climate, old-growth forest, habitat, speciies diversity, topsoil, air quality, natural scenery, water quality, aquifers... and then a little guy down in the corner saying "Think of it as an investment."  Right on.

"...We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never clearly understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For it is only on the condition of humiity and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it."
-Wendell Berry

"The preservation movement has one great curiousity. There is never retrospective controversy or regret. Presrvationists are the only people in the world who are invariably confirmed in their wisdom after the fact."
-John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Economic and Social Returns of Preservation" (I think he's referring to preservation of historic structures, but you know, it's all related.)
sqwook: (meander)

I feel the need to get rid of stuff lately.   --Perhaps I should just actually *clean*, but that's not as satisfying. :)

So I'm clearing out some books, mostly related to land-use. Because I'm unlikely to re-read them- but they were part of what got me where I am, as far as philosophy of lifestyle. It makes me try to think of how various interests have led to today. Potential timeline (backwards):
Protecting nature -> land use planning / zoning / urban revitalization / strong distaste for sprawl & its environmental & social implications -> historic preservation -> medieval castles etc in europe -> arts & crafts movement of Wm Morris' day -> art nouveau -> ???

And voila why I live downtown in an old house.

It's actually hard to do this, to think of the things I used to really love; it all becomes distorted by what I feel is important now.

Anyway, the books:
Better Not Bigger; How to take control of urban growth and improve your community (Fodor)
The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition (Kunstler)
Home from Nowhere (Kunstler)
Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (Garreau)
Changing Places: Rebuilding community in the age of sprawl (Moe/Wilkie)
Historic Preservation (Barthel)
How Cities Work: Suburbs, sprawl, and the roads not taken (Marshall)

The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History (Kostof)

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