Saturday 30th of March 2024

contemplation from inside a barrel...

sydney town hall

Sydney Town Hall — picture by Gus Leonisky


From Casey Chalk:

Though I spent over an hour at Our Lady of Aparecida, trying to pray and meditate, I kept being confronted by the fact that the church was not so much a place of solemn worship as a circus attraction to be gawked at. A group of Brazilian youth practicing some form of liturgical dance on the altar, with apparently no appreciation for the tabernacle, only compounded my frustration. The confessionals, meanwhile, were glass boxes unconnected from any wall. I’ll presume they were soundproof, but even so, who wants to confess your sins when everyone can watch you? Gimmicky and unique, certainly, but, in my humble opinion, not a proper church.



The modernist utopian vision of Brasilia has been labeled a “cautionary tale,” and rightly so. Hubristic central planners dictating to everyday people what they’re going to like, and that they’re going to like it good and hard regardless of the outcome, is a recipe for socio-economic disaster. To take one example, the city has 800,000 people (a third of the city’s population) daily passing through Brasilia’s central bus terminal, located where two many-laned avenues intersect. Strict monofunctional zoning laws, in turn, compound socio-economic disparities. 

As two Brasilia-based architectural experts have argued, the capital is “hindered by imprecise definitions of cultural heritage values and an obsession with its founding fathers, instead of taking into account today’s material and social realities.” In their obsession with creating the model civitas, its designers neglected the realities and needs of the everyday urbs. There’s nothing wrong with trying to create something new and beautiful, as long as novelty and aesthetics are respectfully and creatively paired with functionality and reference to the success of traditional approaches. Unfortunately for Brasilia, because of Costa and Niemeyer’s fascination with modernist absurdities, its inhabitants get to enjoy neither.

Casey Chalk covers religion and other issues for The American Conservative and is a senior writer for Crisis Magazine. He has degrees in history and teaching from the University of Virginia, and a masters in theology from Christendom College.

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From Gus:
Casey, Brasilia is one of the architectural sins of recent yesterday. Please, do not blame the architects too much, but the brief… For example, in Sydney, the Sydney Opera House was a concept that had its own problems, but its success has surpassed the original brief.

Another key advocate was Joseph Cahill, a railway worker who entered politics and became NSW Premier in 1952. A former Minister for Public Works, Cahill shared Sir Eugene’s belief that all people, regardless of their class or background, had the right to enjoy fine music. Soon after he became Premier, Cahill promised an opera house for Sydney and in 1954 convened a conference to build support for the idea.

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/our-story/sydney-opera-house-history/the-competition.html


Architecture is a funny beast… The medieval, gothic and baroque churches — and the church-goers — were developed in a synergy that was symbiotic in the idea of god, but mostly to belittle believers into submission. This was before gross tourism. Tourism is a gawking activity, in which the fully-brochured individual can say: “I’ve been there…” and only later on, the philosophical weight of the visit starts to mature in the memory. 

I’ve not been to Brasilia… I heard about it when it was conceived though… I have "no reason" for going there. If I travelled to the USA or Europe, I went there to see friends and family, who have emigrated. Emigration at the time was a necessity of idealised survival… and it still is.

A lower level of necessity too was the concept of a capital city like Canberra, meaning “meeting place” in the local Aboriginal language apparently… After federation of the Australian States, Sydney and Melbourne rivalry forbade any one of them becoming the capital of Australia, though temporarily, the federal government was housed in Melbourne. By the late 1910s, the idea of a new city half-way was the solution.

A contest was organised around the Western world for the design of this new city. Walter Burley-Griffin, an American, and his wife won. There again, the design had its problems. It was based on the new bourgeois freedom — contrarily to the medieval city contained behind walls — and on the technological marvels such as the vacuum cleaner and washing machine. The future was here. Housing was based on larger one storey cottages in the middle of manicured gardens that made used of the local flora, while administrative buildings became like modern-styled wedding-cakes implants around a fake lake, on a set of circular patterns, intersected by straight avenues.  

Canberra nearly worked… For Gus, there are too many trees between people and bars...

On the other hand, in the 1850s, the need for new suburbs in Sydney, to escape the congestion, the noise and the choking smokestacks of the harbour, made planners open some sheep farms lands (lands taken from the Aboriginal people) for new estates, such as the heights of Stanmore for the gentry in search of clean air. Doctors, bankers, rich bourgeois could travel to the city in less than one hour on their own horse and cart (kept in their stables) or the first omnibus — of for an extra five minutes, go on foot. Soon the trains reduced the journey to about ten minutes...

Then (or first) came Newtown. Newtown is special. Like Sydney town, it was planned by following a goat, a few dogs, possibly avoiding some wombat holes. Or the surveyors were drunk. Who knows. What I mean is that there are very few Newtown streets that are straight and they intersect at impossible angles, while being very narrow. Houses were mostly for workers and are tiny. Today, Newtown is a hub of fun, of students, of gently mad people, of punks, of cafés with bands (until the fuckervirus came along) in which the unruly architecture, not unlike medieval limited streets, is charming and provides LIVING for the livings. 

The proximity of the University of Sydney first gothic building built in 1858 provides an interesting imposing contrast, as if a part of Oxford had been transplanted to the colonies. The main street of Newtown, King street, the “main highway” number 1, with only two lanes plus parking for buggies, is bustling like a hive. Tourists who come here soon blend in, as the many colours of the locals and the Newtown Black, absorb them and their huge obsolete through-the-lens camera, into a crowd of joyful madness. No-one stick out. Everyone is different. Smiles all around. Another Sydney suburb, Paddington, is also a goat track realisation.

Amongst the Newtown workers houses, there were artisans shops and warehouses, some of which were converted in the 1950s to the 1970s into ugly apartment blocks. Some owners of these rented apartment BLOCKS, probably ashamed (or forced by the council), eventually cement-rendered the awful feature-bricks and prettied up the balconies. 

Presently the Inner West Council, with a city planner paid a fortune to fuck up this lovely conservation arrangement, is trying to “develop” the tiny houses, on the edges, into towering apartments, a bit like nearby Dulwich Hill where old factories have been reclaimed for “high density housing” — or what is called in the industry “rabbit boxes for the Chinese”. Please this is not racist, but a fact of life that until a few virus-free months ago, most of these low ceiling one bedroom/2 bedrooms warrens, were bought by investors in China. The shitholevirus might put a stop to this council development madness...

The Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida in Brasilia may not have been Mr Chalk’s cup of tea as far as meditation and prayers are concerned but do not blame the architect for this. Blame the tourism industry… which I supposed brought you to Brasilia, unless you were there for a Christian conference, or a business meeting, like the people who go to “Aspen”… Or blame yourself. 
One can meditate and pray from inside a barrel like Diogenes. It’s a question of closing one’s eyes and using imagination. Perhaps the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida is too much like a democratic theatre in the round. Some of the "new” Catholic churches were designed to incorporate the public rather than pillars. 

Meanwhile, the Sydney Opera hall was transformed, even before being finished, into a concert hall, with the orchestra pit set middle-ish, leaving room for a massive choir behind or for the public as required. The massive turning opera stage was sent to the wreckers. The opera space was sent to the smaller play theatre and the play theatre was sent below… The architect was furious, but the government prevailed…

The Sydney Town Hall, with its massive organ, the biggest in the world till the 1970s, was home to the Freemasons and recently was hosting Senior Week’s sex comedy routine, where pretend retired comedians make bawdy jokes about impossible dreams… 

A spectacular and versatile setting for grand banquets, balls, concerts, conferences and large scale events of every description, the Centennial Hall comfortably seats up to 800 people for dinner, 1,500 for cocktail events and 2,000 people seated theatre-style. A ceiling height of 20 metres enhances audio-visual presentations.

This glorious venue features a Tasmanian blackwood and tallowwood floor and the famous 25 metre wide Grand Organ,
[see picture at top] which spans the entire width of the western wall. There are 21 stained glass windows featuring Australian flora, a stunning ornate ceiling and twelve giant marbled pillars in the corners of the Hall.

Renowned for its high Victorian interiors and rich decoration, Sydney Town Hall is the largest and most ornate late 19th century civic building in Australia. When completed in 1889, it was the colony’s most daring, technologically innovative and controversial building. It dominated the Sydney skyline for almost a century. The history of the construction and design of this large iconic building was very complex and was ‘interspersed with scandal, subterfuge, suicide and lengthy delays, and a roll call of architects, designers, engineers and builders whose associations with the project and with council were not always amicable or professional.’ 


That’s life. Awaiting the Sydney crownovirus lock-down. Meanwhile, I’ve heard they’ve just had a small shipment of toilet paper at the local corner-store. See you later. Bum rush, you know...

freedom (of speech) corner...

freedom corner


I saw John Webster there... This free-speech, free-thought and intellectual argy-bargy corner was the place to come on Sundays... At times there were more than 20 arrangers on soap-boxes competing with the "official spot"... This was freedom at its best, though the government of New South Wales was deemed corrupt and repressive... Police and politicians could be bought... The series of Les Norton books by the butcher of Newcastle, Barrett, was a funny exposé of the riffraff dealing with the city.

 

Meanwhile, as the crowncrappovirus has been deemed ten times more virulent than the flu and that a vaccine is about 18 months away, we, oldies, need to limit our exposure to others or use surgical masks that could choke us to death... May as well live in heaven... This has been the serious study of oldies who want to die earlier than nature intended, because "life ain't worth living..."

 

 

Latest from the Science CEO, Sudip S. Parikh, in the USA:

 

I’m writing to alert you about an important matter and to ask for your help in addressing it. As many of you many know, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been considering a proposal informally known as the “Transparency Rule.” {Though the rule’s true aim is anything but transparent.} If implemented, this policy would fundamentally change the way science is used to inform regulations and policies that aim to protect public health and the environment, as well as the information it shares with the public — cornerstones of the EPA’s mission.


A link to my statement on this proposed policy is here. In short, this move risks eliminating wide swaths of science that can be used to inform EPA actions and policies. It sets a dangerous precedent and puts public health at risk. We at AAAS have consistently expressed our concerns regarding this proposal as it has moved through EPA’s rulemaking process. My predecessors, Alan Leshner and Rush Holt, have written to Congress and the administration, testified on Capitol Hill, and joined with nearly 70 scientific and health organizations in voicing opposition to the proposed rule. In addition, the editors of the world’s major scientific journals, led by Science, have voiced their concerns. Perhaps most alarming, though, is that this policy has advanced despite concerns from the EPA’s own independent Science Advisory Board. The agency is ignoring the advice of its own scientific advisors and the larger scientific community.


Why am I writing you now? Because this is the last time the public can weigh in before the proposed rule goes into effect. The EPA has just published an update to the rule, called a supplemental, and the public now has 30 days to comment.


AAAS will submit a request to EPA to extend the comment period to a full 90-days and is drafting more technical comments to the supplemental rule. I am calling on you, our members, to follow our lead and request an extension and submit your own comments to defend science, and why this proposed rule jeopardizes the way science is used to protect public health and the environment.


Let me be clear: the issue before us is much greater than environmental regulation. This is just a symptom of a larger problem. When science is sidelined, we all suffer. We must come together as a scientific enterprise—from astronomy to zoology—to stand up and speak out for the essential role that science must play in our policymaking process.


To submit comments by the deadline of April 17, 2020, do so here.


Thank you for all that you do...

 

 

When science is muzzled, terror will reign...

 

 

a limiting narrow-focused hindrance...

 

Recently, porn star Brandi Love writing at The Federalist cited Alexis de Tocqueville and his use of the phrase, “the tyranny of the majority,” in her defense of pornography, arguing that “the First Amendment, as part of the Bill of Rights, protects the viewpoints of those in the minority from being oppressed.” Another recent article at Being Libertarian, in turn, suggests that excessive enforcement of quarantine restrictions — vis-a-vis the COVID-19 epidemic— tends toward a “tyranny of the majority.” And, quite curiously, one can find those who label the electoral college a deterrent against the “tyranny of the majority,” or a clear example of it. What, exactly, is the “tyranny of the majority,” what did it’s originators intend when they coined it, and what contemporary examples accurately manifest it?

… Blah blah blah...


Thus, as a political concept, warnings of a “tyranny of the majority” must be tethered to other fundamental principles, lest it lose its probity and political potency, and be wielded as carelessly as the words “freedom” or “liberty.” Many of these principles can be found elsewhere in Tocqueville: the perpetuation of important American habits and customs that encourage virtue and sacrifice; the encouragement of religious belief and practice to instil virtue in citizens; and active participation in local civic and voluntary organizations. Viewed through this lens, informed by a more robust conception of “the common good,” it’s hard to imagine Adams, Madison, Jefferson, or Tocqueville viewing restrictions on pornography—with its many well-established detrimental effects—as “tyrannical.” Nor would they label the electoral college as such, given they viewed that precise political lever as a moderating force against majoritarian tyranny. As for enforcement of quarantine restrictions… well, tackling that would require another article.

Casey Chalk covers religion and other issues for The American Conservative and is a senior writer for Crisis Magazine. He has degrees in history and teaching from the University of Virginia, and a masters in theology from Christendom College.


Read more:https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/are-porn-laws-and-quarantines-part-of-the-tyranny-of-the-majority/

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From Gus:

Though the “majority” seems to embrace religious beliefs, virtue and sacrifice, for the “common good”, some people might see this as a limiting narrow-focused hindrance to the betterment of the US — and of humanity in general… A lot of worse "sins" than “porn” have been committed under the banner of religious beliefs.

The electoral colleges, rather than the majority of people, was the process that gave Trump instead of Hillary, to the USA. Both persons were poor presidential options in a country where educational institutions are famous for creating geniuses, but obviously bad thinkers…
Instilling virtues through religious beliefs is retrograde and demeaning because all religious beliefs are nonsensical. Ethical humanism is much closer to what is needed to improve the social moires. One has to be aware that slavery for example was installed under the auspices of religious organisations and profit makers who often work(ed) hand in hand.

One can have views about the porn industry, which at times can be horrid, but in many ways, the religious beliefs are more despicable than porn because of the hypocrisy and deceit within. 

The "Tyranny of the Majority” which has for a long time ignored the racial prejudices in the USA has now cascaded via various steps and created the Floyd protests… Let’s hope that the people in power see this as a HUMANISTIC opportunity to improve the situation with economic empathy and REAL equality, rather than police force which could be at the source of the problem since the American revolution...

See also: http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/37019

Read from top.
See also: https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-white-privilege-and-the-responsibility-to-enact-change/a-53697905