Peugeot Touch Car by Enache Florin

Peugeot Touch Car by Enache Florin » Yanko Design


you guessed it - i want one! perfect for driving in Kaohsiung :0)

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Gayborhoods: Intersections of Land Use Regulation, Sexual Minorities, and the Creative Class

[By:] Charles J. Ten Brink 

Michigan State University - College of Law
Georgia State University Law Review, Forthcoming
MSU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-03 
Abstract:      
This Article advocates the municipal encouragement and maintenance of diversity, specifically the inclusion of sexual minorities, through changes in the traditional application of the forms of land use regulation. Bringing together previously distinct conversations about the societal goals of land use planning and the social value placed on diversity by increasing numbers of consumer voters, the Article draws on New Urbanism and Richard Florida’s concept of the creative class to argue that the presence in a municipality of a visible, accepted, and integrated LGBTQ community signifies and stimulates not only the social but the fiscal health of that municipality. Building on and distinguishing the historical development of naturally occurring gayborhoods, this Article suggests a rationale and mechanisms for encouraging the growth of such communities. Land use regulation is one means by which a diversity-sensitive municipality can establish marginal advantages over otherwise similarly situated municipalities; in a society offering a wide variety of choices to members of the creative class, this competitive advantage is significant.



[Paper linked here.]

a walk in the park

there is nothing quite like a beautiful day in the park. having lived in a conservancy in SA (i.o.w. being surrounded by nature), i pretty much took parks for granted. here in Taiwan, though, parks are embraced for the jewels they are. everybody comes out to play with the kids and each other, fly their (many, gorgeous) kites, walk the dogs and just have a gorgeous time in nature. it really is a magical experience - one that i should indulge in more often.

i am fortunate enough to live right next to an amazing park - the one surrounding the Kaohsiung Museum of Modern Art :0) and today i too strolled through it's loveliness on my way to take in the Andy Warhol "Pope of Pop" exhibition.

it was fantastic! i thank my patient parents' indulgence of my forays into art studies at Pretoria University (where i perfected vacillating into an expensive 3-year play-date) for the background necessary to enjoy the comedy of Warhol's genius. seeing his works up close was brilliant! i think some of my fellow exhibition-goers might've been concerned about my sanity, though. not only do i look funny (super big & tall, fair fur covering my exposed flesh) - but i also frequently chuckled and giggled for no apparent reason. (is the Campbell's Soup box with Warhol's signature on funny? crazy foreigner...)

after wandering through the other exhibits, i decided to take a different route home. the main route *lol*

and boy was it fun! all the vendors and local artists peddling their wares, wonderful and weird locals cycling, skating, strolling around and taking many, many photographs. i regretted not taking my camera earlier (i was going into the museum, after all). Kaohsiung City government really did an excellent job with the grounds - and the little café-setup within strolling distance from everything has turned into an oasis of flavors and vibes.

i did snap this with my phone. it's in Engrish, but in that moment it didn't matter:

i wish Peter could've joined me - but i'm sure Tokyo is a blast!

i love banksy

IMG_0455.JPG on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


Big love to Jockohomo for posting the link to photos of the opening of Banksy's Cans Festival in London.

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amen sister!

now here's a quote that actually makes me want to go to new york and flaunt my pantones!

New Yorkers Are Ultra-Sensitive About Color
Guy at bar: And so I keep trying to tell my wife that sienna is not a color.
Girl passing by: Yes it is! Burnt sienna is a crayon you slanderous prick!

--Restaurant, Bleecker Street
via Overheard in New York, Apr 11, 2008

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY @ 50 Victoria Street

I got this fom my friends at Moss Grahic Design. (It probably took Quentin all of 5 minutes to walk out, take the picture and slap it all together - but we loves it.

Creepy but cool

I found this via Digg... this must have taken hours and hours and days and days and...

New York Decay (JPEG Image, 2000x1351 pixels) - Scaled (51%)

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Seen on the streets of Vancouver

Wooster Collective

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Of Nerds and Geeks

NERD
An 'individual', i.e. a person who does not conform to society's beliefs that all people should follow trends and do what their peers do. Often highly intelligent but socially rejected because of their obesssion with a given subject, usually computers. Unfortunately, nerds seem to have problems breeding, to the detriment of mankind as a whole.

GEEK
The term "geek" originally referred to the carnival performers whose act consisted of biting the heads off chickens and eating glass. Over time it came to be applied to anyone who got paid to do work considered odd or bizarre by mainstream society.

The term now enjoys a special status within the technical community, particularly among particularly knowledgable computer programmers. To identify oneself as a "geek" indicates a recognition that most people still consider programming computers to be a bizarre act, along with a certain fierce satisfaction in being very good at their inglorious profession.

That most software geeks now easily earn twice as much as the average laborer just sweetens their defiant embrace of the term.

Note: Unlike the word "nerd," which is always pejorative, "geek" often carries a positive connotation when used by one of the group. The use of the term by outsiders is considered insulting.

courtesy of the Urban Dictionary

Urbex Inspirations

Rejected Memories.com

How beautiful is this? I've decided to braden the scope of my blog to include images, words and experiences that move me. (I could probably go on about the urban vernacular, but will spare you, for now at least.)

Desolate Metropolis.com

Kirkbride Buildings

"Once state-of-the-art mental healthcare facilities, Kirkbride buildings have long been relics of an obsolete therapeutic method known as Moral Treatment. These massive structures were conceived as ideal sanctuaries for the mentally ill in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Careful attention was given to every detail of their design in order to promote a healthy environment and to convey a sense of respectable decorum. Placed in secluded areas within expansive grounds, many seemed almost palace-like from the outside. But growing populations and insufficient funding led to unfortunate conditions that spoiled their idealistic promise.

Within decades of their first conception, new treatment methods and hospital design concepts emerged and the Kirkbride design was eventually discarded. Many existing Kirkbride buildings maintained a central place in the institutions which began within their walls, but by the end of the twentieth century many had been abandoned; several had been destroyed. Although a few have managed to survive into the twenty-first century intact and still in use, many that survive sit abandoned and decaying—their mysterious grandeur intensified by their derelict condition."