Monoculture, That's The Word I Was Looking For

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The Gothamist ran this question and answer about gentrification and it's SO GOOD.

The Question:

Dear Native New Yorker,

I live in Hamilton Heights in West Harlem. Recently, a number of bars and restaurants have been opening that don't exactly cater toward the traditional residents of the area. They have that "hipster Williamsburg" or even "Village" vibe to them: Delicious craft beers, swanky cocktails and gourmet entrees. Near these places developers are snatching up properties and building barely-affordable door-man condos and chains such as Starbucks.

To be honest, I welcome these developments. I think it's good to have some economic vitality and choice in a neighborhood. I wonder, though, if as a white man from Minnesota if I'm not just another cog in the wheel of gentrification in Manhattan and elsewhere in the City? Is it wrong to celebrate gentrification, especially as a transplant?

Gerald G. Gentrifier

The answer is epic and thoughtful and makes me want to meet the author of the response, Jake Dobkin, and shake his hand. (Then do the native Park Slopers' secret handshake, which no, I'm not about to reveal the details of the Internet.)

I obviously recommend reading the whole thing, but here are a few bits that really resonated with me:

On countering that gentrification has made that house you bought back in the day super valuable:

Sure, grandma bought her house in 1960 and is sitting on a huge paper profit, but she knows that if she ever sells, she will have to move to a tiny apartment or to Florida. And even if she wanted to do that, she still worries about her kids, who can't afford to live in the old neighborhood anymore. So grandma also hates you.

On Jane Jacobs' thoughts about the nature of gentrification:

She was right to point out the essential restlessness of gentrification, and warn us about the monoculture that can result from uncontrolled redevelopment.

MONOCULTURE! That's the word I've been looking for! A few weeks ago I spent a Saturday afternoon in rapidly gentrifying Crown Heights and as I wandered I was struck by just how much it felt like two different neighborhoods living side by side but barely interacting. It looked like an old guard/new guard checkerboard: bodega, craft beer bar, storefront church, farm-to-table brunch spot. It was so fucking obvious what was "new" there and frankly, IT ALL LOOKED THE SAME.

Why? What is with this reluctance to do anything but dress up fetishized booze and food in reclaimed wood, letterpress, and other faux-authentic-old-shit? The beauty of cities is in their diversity and gentrification is becoming ONE THING. People are supposed to come to New York City because their small towns just couldn't support their think-outside-the-box wild creativity. They're supposed to blossom into visionary citizens that make NYC even nuttier, not monoculture zombies that feed on Bloody Mary brunches on Marais stools and Instagram.

Remember when Stuff White People Like came out in 2008 and it was funny? It still makes me laugh aloud, but then I'm left with this terrible feeling that it's becoming way too true. Yes, I like a lot of those things, and yes, I'm fine with being predictable in some ways because I'm not a teenager stomping around the world pretending that being unique/underground is the only thing worth trying to be. But I don't want my city to be predictable. I want it to INSPIRE me. To confuse and challenge me. To show me new things I didn't even know I would like. I want it to act like New York City goddamnit!

Which by the way, so much of the time it does. I'm just desperately afraid of coming home from a trip one day to find out that it's no longer true.

 

I Love Lamp: Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge

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Last week Steven interviewed Grace Bonney, creator of the website that became my gateway drug to design: Design*Sponge.

She's basically my Elvis. Or Mick Jagger. Or One Direction. (I would make a joke about showing my age here, but frankly I've confused even myself with this range.)

The interview series format is 5 questions: 4 that always stay the same and 1 that is personalized. When it came time for Steven to brainstorm ideas for the 5th one I had a FUCKING FIELD DAY making suggestions. I'm pretty sure I sounded like a sugar-high six year old given the opportunity to ask Santa about the elves.

I suppose the enthusiasm spilled over as Steven wound up asking her waaaay more than 5 questions. Perhaps my favorite bit of the whole thing is the end:

You heard it here people, LET IT GO.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: Let's Go Back To Greece, Ok?

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Look. I know it's September. I know school has begun and everybody is back at it. But it's REALLY hot in my apartment right now and I am VERY MUCH NOT READY to let go of summer no matter how enticing a cup of tea, a good book, and cashmere sweater can be. With that in mind, I'm returning to the beginning of the summer when Steven and I went to Greece. Had I known about this little place before I just might have insisted we swing by Koroni to shack up here for a bit:

Thank you Style-Files for the tip (and photos)!

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

Everyone is Climbing!

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Calling all rock climbers! And parents of kids who climb! And lovers of hilarious, adorable, and informative children's books! My man Steven has got a book coming out with Brooklyn Boulders this Saturday! It's called EVERYONE IS CLIMBIING! and to celebrate, there'll be a reading, some drawing, and lots eating of/learning to tie climbing knots with Red Vines. 10-11am. Come one come all!

If we're lucky, Steven might even show off his crazy skills live!

More details on Steven's website here.

Untranslatable Words

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Being a language nerd, (next time you come by, ask to see my homemade Arabic, Chinese, and Bambara flashcard collection) I was unduly excited to come across this link to 11 untranslatable words illustrated by Ella Frances Sanders via Cup of Jo. Here are my favorite of the bunch: And thank GOD someone's finally come up with a term other than "dappled sunlight" to describe this:

This reminded me that little while back, I wrote 5 Need-to-Know Words When Traveling the World for Huffington Post which Steven illustrated. My favorite term that we included was yala yala:

As long as we're on the topic of language, I'm going to go on the record saying that I think the whole "Inuits have a thousand words for snow" and "There's no word for 'never' in Swahili so they embrace life more" thing is BULLSHIT. Ok, the Inuits probably have a few more snow related terms that are a bit more descriptive than "slushy" but that's all I'm giving you. There's just NO WAY that Swahili speakers don't understand the whole concept of "oh hells no never ever" simply because they don't have one word for it.

The NY Times (my source of too many things if you've noticed by now) ran this great article on the whole discussion a while back.

I'm especially fond of this bit:

If a language has no future tense, for instance, its speakers would simply not be able to grasp our notion of future time. It seems barely comprehensible that this line of argument could ever have achieved such success, given that so much contrary evidence confronts you wherever you look. When you ask, in perfectly normal English, and in the present tense, “Are you coming tomorrow?” do you feel your grip on the notion of futurity slipping away? Do English speakers who have never heard the German word Schadenfreude find it difficult to understand the concept of relishing someone else’s misfortune? Or think about it this way: If the inventory of ready-made words in your language determined which concepts you were able to understand, how would you ever learn anything new? [Bold emphasis mine.]

It's a good read and goes into depth about some language quirks that do seem to affect perception, like gendered objects (a female fork in French and a male fork in Spanish lead speakers to assign female and male voices to the inanimate objects accordingly) and certain cultures that use the cardinal directions instead of left/right etc and how that can wreak havoc on a dance lesson.

All in all it just makes me glad that I'm not a Matses speaker who has to justify every sentence like a lawyer:

So if, for instance, you ask a Matses man how many wives he has, unless he can actually see his wives at that very moment, he would have to answer in the past tense and would say something like “There were two last time I checked.” After all, given that the wives are not present, he cannot be absolutely certain that one of them hasn’t died or run off with another man since he last saw them, even if this was only five minutes ago.

It also just cracks me up that this was the author's example. Not something like, "How many apples did you buy"/ "Last time I checked there were two in the bag". Nope. More like "Did you wife run off with your best friend or die? I mean, are you married?"

Anyway. I've got go have some lunch and sobremesa now.

I Love Lamp: Give me Your House in the Catskills

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Steven and I have all but lived in the Catskills this summer. So I'm thinking Jason Gnewikow and Jeff Madalena should just go ahead and share their Catskills house with us. I mean, it only makes sense, right?

I mean, Steven would catch them dinner every night:

Sometimes even PRE-SMOKED:

Non-trout photos via Design*Sponge.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: AirBnB

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Steven and I went to LA for a wedding a couple of weeks ago and stayed in Echo Park in an AirBnB spot.

The place was totally artist-bachelor hip and I have zero complaints about the friendly dude who usually calls the place home. But I've got to say: bottom line, it just felt kind of WEIRD to be in someone else's apartment. And oh yeah, illegal.

So while I have mixed feelings about AirBnB in general, I've enjoyed cruising the round-ups that they curate. Smells like Eames Spirit just cracked me up.

Because no, at this point the words "mid-century modern" do NOT send chills down my spine, but rather, make me want to start throwing Eames chairs at people's heads and what not.  Which probably means that it's time for another spin around the best design website ever: Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table.

I Love Lamp: Intelligentsia Coffee, LA

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Ya'll know how I feel about tiles. So I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that one of my favorite parts of strolling around Sunset Junction in LA last week was communing with the geometric, ceramic deliciousness at Intelligentisa Coffee face to face.

I'm also a big fan of their stools:

Simply in theory though, because I never actually sat down on them.

Also. I wish I had a dog in LA so I could hire this woman to walk it:

Sorry Kids, You CAN'T Do Anything

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I was sobbing as I read George Saunders' convocation speech about regret and kindness and the passage of time. I was fist-pumping, grinning, and yelling "I KNOW!" as I read this piece by Luke Epplin in The Atlantic on kids' movies and the "cult of self-esteem".

Steven and I have spent many-an-hour discussing how kids' movies all feel the same now and the wonders/evils of being pumped with outrageous self-esteem from a young age. This article does that thing that good writing does: concisely and convincingly puts your scattered thoughts into words, then takes it one level higher.

I'm not even going to BOTHER explaining the plots of "Planes" and "Turbo" to contextualize these quotes, that's how depressingly obvious they are. Instead I'll cut straight to some of those moments from the article that made me go, "YEAH!":

The restless protagonists of these films never have to wake up to the reality that crop-dusters simply can't fly faster than sleek racing aircraft. Instead, it's the naysaying authority figures who need to be enlightened about the importance of never giving up on your dreams, no matter how irrational, improbable, or disruptive to the larger community...Their attitudes are all part of an ethos that privileges self-fulfillment over the communal good. (Bold emphasis is mine.)

Right? I mean, I'm not saying we've all got to pick up some Little Red Books and throw away any personal ambition for the sake of the commune; but there's something to be said for learning how to rationally assess your own skills and cooperate with others to succeed at something larger than you could accomplish alone. AND:

In addition to disparaging routine labor, these films discount the hard work that enables individuals to reach the top of their professions. Turbo and Dusty don't need to hone their craft for years in minor-league circuits like their racing peers presumably did. It's enough for them simply to show up with no experience at the world's most competitive races, dig deep within themselves, and out-believe their opponents. They are, in many ways, the perfect role models for a generation weaned on instant gratification.

Life doesn't happen like that kids! It takes hard work to get good at something. And hard work is TEDIOUS, even when it's for something you enjoy. (Ahem WRITING. Or ANYTHING really.) To pretend otherwise is to set yourself up for that thing that anyone who grew up watching movies like this isn't particularly prepared to face: failure.

Last year when Anne-Marie Slaughter's much talked about article "Why Women Still Can't Have It All" came out, I wrote about how rock climbing came to embody the general betrayal I felt in my early 20s of having been told all my life I could do anything if I just put my mind to it. I still stand by that. Which isn't to say that I wish I'd never received any positive encouragement-- far from it! That's the only way I survive! (All those people who are like, "The more Coach yelled in my face and told me I couldn't do it, the more I wanted to show him"? NOT MY PEOPLE.) But again, it's a real shame that so many kids' movies out there are promoting this cocktail of instant gratification and mass uniqueness (a paradox I know!).

The rest of the article looks at how "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (1969) is pretty much the opposite of every movie out there right now in its relentless themes of failure and non-exceptionalism. It all makes me want to high-five Charlie, Linus, and Lucy-- Linus especially when he tells Charlie:

"You worked hard studying for the spelling bee [that you lost], and I suppose you feel you let everyone down and you made a fool out of yourself and everything. But did you notice something, Charlie Brown?...The world didn't come to an end."

So go read this article, then please, go make a kids' movie that we can all actually learn something valuable from. It's an "out-believing" wasteland out there right now.

I Love Lamp: Let's Run Away To Morocco and Start An Artist Colony in Taroudant

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Let's run away to Morocco and start an artist colony in Taroudant, okay? That may or may not be what I said to anyone and everyone I met after reading this piece in the NY Times T Magazine a couple months ago.

Seriously though. Let's do it. Okay? I'll take care of the cacti.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

All photos via T Magazine.

I Love Lamp: Living in a Cave

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One of the coolest spots Steven and I stayed during our trip to Greece was in Falasarna on the island of Crete.

Cruising AirBnB, we found this crazy cave villa carved out of the side of a mountain. The accommodations themselves were pretty basic--

But the grounds and surrounding views were fairytale fantastic.

By the way, that's an outdoor shower spigot on the castle portion of the house. And while the place is pretty far up a private road I may or may not have gotten a honk or two while enjoying it. Ah well.

We had an especially good time making dinner from freshly picked onions and other goodies from the owners' garden (the owner being a middle aged woman with whom we shared coffee and cigarettes and stories when we traded cash for keys, avoiding the AirBnB fee, all of which felt VERY Greek) which we then enjoyed alfresco.

The surprise hit was the cat. And I say "surprise" because Steven is one of those assholes who hates cats, but for this one he fell pretty damn hard. Here is a shot right after he has scratched her belly with a rock for fear of having his usual allergic reaction:

And here is when he killed a giant grasshopper for her which she found somehow distasteful, much to his disappointment:

Bottom line, my new favorite amenities: vegetable gardens, outdoor showers, cats.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: Cabin Porn

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Steven and I recently went back up to the Catskills for a couple of days to escape the city heat. We stayed at The Graham & Co again and this time around got to enjoy the pooool.

We also did a bit of exploring in the area, falling rather desperately in love with a few valleys and creeks and old country churches.

So this week's I Love Lamp is dedicated to the aptly named website Cabin Porn that shows, yes, beautiful cabins in compromising sexual-- wait, no, I mean, just absolutely beautiful cabins.

While I'm usually a fan of a lovingly remodeled old farm house over any kind of new construction, I've recently found myself drawn to the more modern, Scandinavian, clean line, even prefab cabins. The contrast to bucolic nature is delicious.

All photos via Cabin Porn.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

I Love Lamp: Hotel from Heaven

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I have been drooling over photos of the San Giorgio in Mykonos ever since it opened a year ago. So needless to say, when Steven and I decided to go to Greece I knew EXACTLY where we would be staying. For at least a night or two. Guys. It was HOTEL HEAVEN. Every damn detail was beautiful, the service impeccable, I just... I just... need to go back asap.

You check in here:

When you get a complimentary honeymoon upgrade, your room looks like this:

Hanging poolside, champagne in hand, looks like this:

Reading in hammocks in the palm grove looks like this:

Taking a dip off the dock looks like this:

And everywhere else your eyes might rest looks like this:

We loved it all so much, we fully committed to living the "gypset" bohemian luxury lifestyle and bought this private yacht:

I mean, drank beers on the dock and pretended it was ours.

If you or anyone you know is going to Greece GO TO THIS HOTEL. And take me with you!

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

Off to GREECE!

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So far summer in Brooklyn has treated us well with bike rides, Gowanus Canal parties, and other good old fashioned fun with friends.

But tomorrow we are off to GREECE for a honeymoon adventure!

We are madly packing at the moment, which I have to admit is one of my favorite things. The packing part that is, not so much the "madly".

I don't think I'll be posting much here, but you can always follow me on Instagram at @caseyscieszka!

I'm excited for beaches and feta cheese and cobble stones and things that are thousands of years old. I'm also very much looking forward to doing one my absolute favorite things in the world: sitting somewhere with a drink and a view as Steven draws and I scribble away about the day and whatever other things have come to mind on the road.

I Love Lamp: LA Fantasy

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When these photos were taken for Freundevon Freundevon, Claire Cottrell had moved into this LA home a mere 10 days before. She is apparently a professional mover.

Cottrell is a creative director and producer for a film company. She also has a Masters in landscape architecture and runs this uber cool online bookstore called Book Stand where she sells rare art/photography/vintage books. (I'm currently sweating this book of hers.)

She is a BALLER.

The whole thing taps into this fantasy I have where Steven and I move to LA and live in an adorable bungalow in Silver Lake where the windows are always open and we have an amazing succulents garden in our backyard that's always filled with our hip, laughing friends who surf and are in bands. In this fantasy there is of course no traffic and no smog and Brooklyn is only a forty minute train ride away.

TOTALLY possible, right? I thought so.

Writing About Writing

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I'm usually wary of writing about writing and reading about writing, because (as this sentence probably already illustrates) it can get rather circular and confusing. That said, I've found myself thoroughly enjoying The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. And while I don't agree with her stance on work spaces, there are plenty of other bits that I've underlined, circled, and generally found very worthy of further thought.

For example, THIS bit about movies vs. books:

Why would anyone read a book instead of watching big people move on a screen? Because a book can be literature. It is a subtle thing-- a poor thing, but our own. In my view, the more literary the book--the more purely verbal, crafted sentence by sentence, the more imaginative, reasoned, and deep--the more likely people are to read it. The people who read are the people who like literature, after all, whatever that might be. They like, or require, what books alone have. If they want to see films that evening, they will find films. People who read are not too lazy to flip on the television; they prefer books. I cannot imagine a sorrier pursuit than struggling for years to write a book that attempts to appeal to people who do not read in the first place.

(Bold emphasis is my own.)

It can feel like the book world is dominated by this urge to win more readership by creating a reading experience that mimics all the good TV out there nowadays, but what a mistake! Thank you Annie.

I also had to laugh out loud at the way she described a day of failed writing that ended as such:

I decided to hate myself, to make popcorn and read.

I've been there girl. I've been at the bottom of that popcorn bowl before.