General Robots

New Age Cavemen and the Butcher-Rockstars

Anfang des Jahres gab’s schonmal einen Artikel in der New York Times, der mich etwas ratlos zurückließ: The New Age Cavemen and the City.

Damals ging’s um Leute, die sich riesige Gefrierschränke in die städtische Wohnung stellen und leben, wie Höhlenmenschen (zumindest, was die Essgewohnheiten angeht). Urbane Neanderthaler, quasi: „The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture.“

Jetzt lese ich etwas ganz ähnliches: In New York, New Orleans und San Francisco finden „Butcher-Parties“ statt, auf denen ganze Tiere zerlegt, geschlachtet und verspeist werden und in Sydney eröffnen „Designer-Metzgereien“ (oder so ähnlich). Ich erkenne da ein Muster: New School Cavemen feiern urbane Schlachtfeste und ‘ne komplette Rinderhüfte is the new Neonrubiks80shipster, oder so ähnlich. Soll mir ja recht sein, ich bin eh Fleisch-Fan, solange sich das mit den zu engen Röhrenjeans dann mal schnell erledigt hat.

“The first butcher party,” Ryan Farr says, “was called ‘Hop, Hop, Hop, Into the Burning Ring of Fire.’ That was on Easter last year, and we did rabbits.”

Farr is the star of San Francisco’s 4505 Meats, “Home of Revival Butchery,” and he is taking his gospel to the barroom. He is one of a handful of young practitioners across the country who are staging bacchanalian “butcher parties,” where they bring whole carcasses — from rabbits to steer — to bars, hang them up, take them apart, and cook them while wide-eyed partyers wash down the resultant meaty snacks with cocktails and beer. The resurgence of artisan butchery is supposed to be about respect for traditional craft, an emphasis on ethical, sustainable meat eating, and a renewed awareness of where our meat really comes from. Do blood-and-booze-soaked butcher parties cheapen these ideals?

Farr doesn’t think so. “It’s very educational,” he says. “You get to see the whole animal, it gets processed in front of you, and then you eat it. And at the same time you get to have martinis or beer. It’s just a good time all around.”

Salon.com: Meathead fad? The rock star butcher, New York Times: Young Idols With Cleavers Rule the Stage, Coolhunter: Victor Churchill Butcher – Sydney, Behomia: Viscera and Voyeurism – Watching butchers cut up whole animals is the newest live entertainment. Could this fresh group of hipster foodies save tradition? (via MeFi, Notcot)

Urban-Transformation Stopmotion-Shortfilm


(Vimeo Direkturban, via KFMW, Mister Honk)

Sehr schönes Stop Motion-Video von Rob Carter, das die Veränderungen einer Stadt aus der Vogelperspektive in Stop Motion zeigt. Unbedingt die komplette, knapp 10 Minuten lange Version anschauen, die im Jahr 1755 mit ein paar Hütten im Wald anfängt und ganz langsam zur modernen Stadt Charlotte heranwächst, die man in den letzten drei Minuten oben sieht.

Metropolis is a quirky and very abridged narrative history of the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It uses stop motion video animation to physically manipulate aerial still images of the city (both real and fictional), creating a landscape in constant motion. Starting around 1755 on a Native American trading path, the viewer is presented with the building of the first house in Charlotte.

From there we see the town develop through the historic dismissal of the English, to the prosperity made by the discovery of gold and the subsequent roots of the building of the multitude of churches that the city is famous for. Now the landscape turns white with cotton, and the modern city is ‘born’, with a more detailed re-creation of the economic boom and surprising architectural transformation that has occurred in the past 20 years.

Metropolis

Unfinished London – A Documentary by Jay Foreman (beardyman’s brother) and Paul Kendler


(Youtube Direktlondon, via MeFi)

Es gibt ein paar Sachen, die interessieren mich eher so periphär, also so einen Hauch mehr als gar nicht. Städte- und Verkehrsplanung gehört dazu (ich war auch nie besonders gut in Sim City und habe nach zwei Minuten Zockerei immer Katastrophen über meine Sims geschickt.) Und das hier ist eine ziemlich großartige Mini-Doku über genau das: „This is the story of a town-planning cock-up known as the Northern Heights Plan which, if completed, would have meant miles of extra houses and tube stations to the North West of London.“

Und die kommt von Jay Foreman (Beardymans Bruder, falls das hilft, aber sorry: Kein Beatboxing weit und breit) und ist ziemlich großartig, superunterhaltsam, witzig (echt!) und extrem gut erzählt. Und ich liebe es, wenn man es schafft, mir Themen nahezubringen, mit denen ich eigentlich nichts anfangen kann, indem man mir den Stoff originell erzählt und so unterhaltsam wie möglich dabei ist.

Unbedingt ansehen, hat teilweise schon was pythoneskes, etwa wenn er seine Omi fragt: „You don’t want your house knocked down, do you?“ – „Nooooo!“.

Die fünf besten Städte in Comics


(Vimeo Direktcities, via Notcot)

Das Architects Journal hat ein sehr schönes Video zu den fünf besten Städten in Comics gemacht.

From Radiant City to Mega City One, the Architects’ Journal presents a selection of the greatest illustrated urban spaces.

Video: Top 5 comic book cities

Video-Interview mit Streetartistin Swoon über ihre Swimming Cities

swimmingcities


Youyoung vom Gestalten-Verlag schreibt mir: „I thought I’d point out our latest video interview that your readers would be into — it’s with Swoon, and the imagery is quite beautiful… She’s Berlin-based and really quite bit, possibly the most famous female graffiti / street artist.“

Ich hatte Swoons „Swimming Cities“-Projekt schon lange auf dem Schirm, im obigen Video-Interview spricht sie unter anderem genau darüber.

Oh, you’ve seen her: from New York’s P.S. 1 and Deitch Projects to Hui No’eau on Maui and Berlin’s gritty street corners. Notorious for constructing a giant floating raft and sailing it down river (twice!), she is neither a pirate nor a street artist. And even if her real name is known these days, that is also neither here nor there. Join us as we swing by Berlin’s Urban Art Info Gallery to see what else the ineffable Swoon has got up her sleeve in Gestalten.tv’s latest interview.

Swoon – Ashore and Afloat

Run DMC kriegen eine eigene Straße in New York

In Brooklyn Queens wurde eine Straße nach Run DMC benannt. Und um das klarzustellen: Ja, ich kann durchaus Run DMC mögen und mit Hip Hop generell trotzdem nix anfangen. Klingt komisch, is aber so.

A legendary hip-hop trio which emerged from the streets of Queens was honored Sunday. NY1’s CeFaan Kim was in Hollis where a street was renamed for Run-DMC.

Hollis Avenue and 205th Street will now be known as Run-DMC/JMJ Way. The legendary hip-hop trio is the first rap group to have a city street renamed in their honor, in the neighborhood where they were born and raised.

Hollis Street Renamed For Run-DMC (via MeFi)

How Bush Street Was Changed To Obama Street In San Francisco


(Youtube Direkt)

In der Nacht nach Obamas Amtseinführung haben ein paar Leute die Bush Street in San Francisco mit Aufklebern in Obama Street umbenannt, jetzt haben sich die wahrscheinlich nicht republikanischen Prankster „Concerned Republicans Assaulting Posterity (C.R.A.P.)“ zur Aktion geäußert und ein Video vom Prank ins Internet gestellt.

The San Francisco-based organization Concerned Republicans Assaulting Posterity (C.R.A.P.) is claiming full and complete responsibility for the street sign changing of Bush Street to Obama Street the morning of Tuesday, January 20. A small but mighty group of about 40 fairly intelligent individuals joined together Monday evening and distributed the signs amongst C.R.A.P. members and loyalists in an unusual moment of solidarity with Barack Obama supporters.

The group began changing the signs shortly after midnight. “Even though at first we thought Bush Street was named for our beloved Bush family, we realized that wasn’t true after we did some reading,” said one shirtless and bearded group member, who called himself Molotov II. “We wanted to show people that even we and our world renown organization, vehement supporters of the Republican party — we believe 92 percent of all Democrats are dirty — we are all still Americans, just like Mexico said on 9/11.

How Bush Street Was Changed To Obama Street In San Francisco

Lost Detroit

Urban Exploration in und um Detroit mit Schiffswracks, verlassenen Satelliten-Stationen, Kraftwerken und Polizei-Revieren. Detroit hat nicht nur den coolsten Namen aller amerikanischen Städte, es zerfällt auch am „schönsten“. Gibt es sowas eigentlich auch aus Deutschland? Es muss doch alleine in Berlin mindestens drei Millionen erkundenswerte Architektur-Wracks geben…

Link (via)

Cities at Night: A View From Space

To an observer in space, humanity’s footprints on the surface of the Earth are large and varied. They include the regular patterns of irrigated cropland, straight lines of roads and railways running across continents, reservoirs on river systems, and the cement rectangles of ports and seawalls along coastlines. But what about humanity’s signature footprint—cities? By day, cities viewed from space can blend into the countryside, or appear as gray smudges, depending on the style of development and size of the urban area.

(via)

[update] Hier ein Video dazu.

10 Impressive Parkour and Free Running Videos: Urban Buildering and Building Jumping in Action

Parkour and free running have increasingly hit the big time, being featured in mainstream movies and prime-time commercial spots. Still, it’s important to remember that these amazing arts of urban building jumping, climbing and running originated in offbeat locations and abandoned buildings. These videos feature some of the more raw and original free runners who made this extreme urban sport what it is today.

Link

Megacities

neontiger.jpg

Urbane Architektur als verschlingenden Moloch: Neontigers von Peter Bialobrzeski.

(via)