last night...a night like a bad acid flashback. i went to christmas drinks held by a brighton based organisation beloved used to work for, in a bar i used to know the owners of, in an office complex; sorry 'media centre' i used to work in. and nothing had changed at all. it was like walking back into a former life, if the people wern't the same they were duplicates. many of the people were the same of course, though mostly fatter and older and more expensively dressed (everyone appears to be in 'innovation' now, its the new 'strategy'). some people still exactly the same with a rangier more desperate look. the same small buisnessmen - small and smug like only the members of a regional chamber of commerce can be. all trying to catch each others eye in sumo, the dirtiest bar in brighton (how much effort is it to mop a floor? or provide loo seats?). it was like a bad dream. for once i am greatful for the commuter train taking me away from this hell.
though of course i am on holiday now and theres no commuting to be done till the new year.
finally the secret gay agenda is available in print:
"it is time to acknowledge that homosexual behavior threatens the foundation of Western civilization – the nuclear family. An unmistakable manifestation of the attack on the family unit is the homosexual community's efforts to target children both for their own sexual pleasure and to enlarge the homosexual movement."
available now!
destroy western civilisation!
i am deck the halls with boughs of holly!
ta lalalalaaaaaaaa la la la laaaaaaaa
"You are 'Deck the Halls'! Let's be honest, it isn't Christmas you are celebrating, is it? In fact, you know full well that there were no shepherds in the fields in December, and that the date of Christmas was put at midwinter specifically to coincide with the older celebrations of Yule and the birth of Mithras. An unashamed Pagan, you take great glee in the number of carols referring to holly, evergreens and Winter's end, and will sing them with gusto. You know where they really came from. And you do enjoy the seasonal celebrations, regardless of their name... A merry Yule to you!"
john le carre on his latest book, deception and american foreign policy. double points for mentioning klemperer.
the international ice arena thingy proposed for blackrock has been approved, i wrote earlier about how much i preferred the winter gardens plan, clearly i'm out of step with the councils decisions; having wanted the wilkinson over the gehry, this is probably not a bad thing. mind you, now the better plan for the king alfred is out i'm looking forward to work starting on the tranny towers.
the interesting side effect of the gehry proposal is that its kick starting the debate on tall buildings in brighton. the council have thier draft tall buildings strategy document out for consultation (by 19th december), written by gillespies urban design consultants, who are also doing (ominous sounding) master plans for gloucester docks and weston super mare.
given brightons rather severe bounding problems; the soon to be national park of the downs to the north and the sea to the south, providing enough housing both for full time residents and for commuters is only accomplished by building up - having now run out of out. tall buildings may well be the only solution outside leaving the cities housing to the highly competitive housing market or encouraging affordable housing in the proposed south east commuter corridor new towns. even then the level of objections to these new town developments and the continued pressure of the brighton - london rail link makes these long terms solutions unacheivable without structral work on the transport links. even before considering the social failure of leaving to the market the job of addressing the needs of lower paid workers, the lower paid workers needed to teach in schools, nurse the sick; as well as staffing the expanding service and entertainment industries in the city.
tall buildings can provide a shorter term solution to the need for social, cooperative and key worker housing brighton so badly needs to continue functioning as a city; as well as the booming private sector. even so the type of housing provided by tall buildings is at odds with some of the deficiencies in the housing stock. high density verticle living is suited to a small section of society, albeit a section of society brighton has in some abundence; younger single people and couples, childless couples and older people, where it fails is for providing housing for people with families and for people seeking more space for whatever reason. all of which brings us back to what (or rather who) are these built for? more loft dwelling media refugees from london? key workers (but only before they have families). theres a shortage of housing yes, but who is there a shortage of housing for?
there are also clear aesthetic problems with this. one of the reasons i liked the wilkinson over the gehry was the preservation of views through the city to the sea and the downs. the earliest new town developments in brighton, the brunswick estate and the kemp town estate at either end of the towns development at the time did exactly this. the connection between and the views of the downs and the sea was at the time one of the prime reasons for the townhouses and their assembled stratified estates (spreading from town houses to merchants houses and marketplaces to artisans housing to support the central estates of the richer residents). the problem with removing the low rise limit on buildings in the city is that, unless sites are carefully chosen, the same mistakes that were made in the centre of the city in the 60s and 70s, mistakes like the bedford tower (seen here as the large tower on the seafront, who’s one contribution to the city is to provide roosts for peregrine falcons), could be made again.
but there are issues aside from the seafront itself, which due to the lack of any brownfield sites for development is probably protected from this. further back into the city there are plenty of brownfield sites. around preston circus a battle is being fought over the plans to build a multistory block on a derelict car sales yard that local residents consider will block their view of the beloved viaduct.
presumably the tall buildings strategy will take into account both how suitable various sites are for tall developments and take account of the views of parts of the cities architecture that are important to the people living around the sites in question. as well as the more pressing issues of who we are building for and what shape, both visually and socially, we want the city to be in ten years time. more when i finish reading the draft document.
send a cow
"Most of our livestock goes to women, because they are usually the poorest people in their communities and because this is the best way to ensure that help reaches the whole family. Our initial gifts go on multiplying indefinitely, as each woman who receives livestock promises to hand on her animal's first female offspring to another poor woman farmer, who will do the same in her turn. We also work particularly with disabled people, child-headed orphan families and families bringing up young orphaned relatives."
"My name is Florence Namukwaya and I am 19 years old. Our parents died of HIV/Aids: my mother died in 1989 when I was five and my father died two years later.....
Rita [the cow] has brought us respect in our town. She is pregnant by artificial insemination; if it is a female, the calf will eventually be given to help another family like ours where there are older children to help care for her. If it is a male we will raise it, then sell it. Other families with young children are given goats or poultry from the charity as they are a lot easier to manage.....
But there are still so many challenges: men pester girls and offer them food or soap in return for sex. It has happened to a number of other children but I am tough. Having a cow means I can look after the children myself and keep these men away."
numbers in 4500 languages......maps of the ancient world......Ovid's Metamorphoses......amazon's new search inside the book, search the books contents for references.........Edmund White reviews books on gay history....micheal rosen responds to another attempt to label critism of israel antisemitic......b3ta reveals the motherlode of kitten pictures.....cheeky girls mugged for cheeky badges....harvey fierstein is mrs claus.
