Not an eyesore....

[faraway]

[billonions]

Wow!

[onthemovenow08]

I like seeing these "eye candies".

[billonions]

  We must have balance in our lives, to be able to discern beauty, even out of ugliness.

  Like the 'glass half full', or 'half empty' thing.  The trick is to be able to acknowledge both states simultaneously.  Doing so creates another dimension of observance and can evoke, perhaps, a deeper level of understanding and satisfaction.

  In a way this is my favourite thread.  I do believe that when all is said and done humans can create wonderful things.  We however are unsure of beauty because we are unsure of positive emotions, a certain anxiety of such.  Indeed anxiety is what keeps people in line, keeps them consuming. Consumer society is about anxiety, fear.  With 'things' being the conduit to happiness.

  If people could sit and allow the awe of the beauty of life as it is to wash over them, I would say we would be well on the way to healing ourselves of the perennial fears and anxiety, real and manufactured, that 'consume' us.

  If we can feel beauty, we will create it.

  If we feel fear then we create fearful things.

[Ro]

That's a great post bill. Nothing to add really, although I do find it difficult to live like that. It's often easier (but not more worthwhile) to just go along and get consumed by all those 'things' it seems.

A couple more pictures:

Pedestrian only street in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Central train station in Antwerp, Belgium.

[billonions]

Well Ro, I try myself, don't always get there though.  If one can define, one can understand and perhaps gain.

Gorgeous places.

[faraway]

Residential architecture of Detroit, much of it abandoned
http://detroit1701.org/residences.htm

[kevinm]

Great site Far!  Thanks!

[billonions]

  Thanks far...

  I've cruised some of these streets.  At the time I was shocked that such beauty was left to rot.  I still can't comprehend it.  My only insight would be the cost of maintenance for some of these places would have been very high.  Particularly once the original wealth moved from the neighborhood.  Beyond the budgets of most really, and certainly beyond the skill level of most home owners.  I myself have looked into picking up some great stone pile and attempting to do something with it.  The reality, apart from community dynamics, is that I could not even begin to do justice to such an edifice.  Perhaps a significant insight.  How many others have gone by and went holy moly gorgeous but completely unpractical?

  Many of these of homes were built not so much for practical purposes but as an expression of a triumphant ego.  Those entrepreneurs of an earlier industrial age may have had a pragmatic side, however they definitely had a risk seeking personality.  Flamboyancy a hallmark of such a person.  The net result is a collection of jaw dropping architecture directly tied to a collection of a jaw dropping immense gain in community wealth.  Just as an ego that has grown a huge appetite before it can be sated, and sated only temporarily, is driven to ever seek greater levels of consumption, so perhaps the past architectural glory of Detroit is both a result of such, and the current state of such also the expression of this same process.  Magnificence created, but at the end of the day completely unsustainable, mirroring the source of the wealth and the way that wealth was husbanded.  There is a parallel between these unsustainable buildings and the acres of unsustainable McMansions found ringing present day Detroit.  The main difference was that these places built in an earlier time used material and craftsmanship that was available.  What was available was much more durable and log lasting.  Stone, brick and oak having a resiliency that OSB and vinyl siding have yet to prove.  Architects and builders in that era built to last, after all it was also their ego at stake, the owner went along because it was the fashion, the meme.
  The lime stone and brick of that era, is replaced in this era by granite top kitchen counters and stainless steel appliances.  Ironic to a degree.  Kitchen remodeling is something that happens every decade or so in a house, in the modern era, yet there is a draw to the idea of permanence in the choice of the materials used to finish the kitchen.  Temporary forever.  Disposable permanence.  Modern builders have figured this out.  The lesson learned in the recent past is build for today, the future is a wrecking ball.  Today's high fashion is tomorrows sideburns and platform shoes.  

 Be that as it may.  These buildings are a legacy and a gift, perhaps unintended as it is now being realized.  They still make me flop in wonder.  There is also a stream of thought that flows through some of us, collectively, that beauty once created is a thing of it's own and needs to be protected, sometimes from the very forces that created it in the first place.

[billonions]

Thought this to be a cool pic.  These too...vintage San Francisco