sonnabug

[sonnabug]

Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信 (1724-1770)

Neko ni chō 猫に蝶 (Butterflies on a cat) - Japan - 1756

Source 太田記念美術館 Ota Memorial Museum of Art

[sonnabug]

[sonnabug]

My apologies, but isn't california not built like new york city because of the earthquakes? I thought the sprawling aspects of the west coast were an intentional choice

I'm fascinated to hear what "Exasperated American urbanists" think are the necessary qualities of a city. Like I get that this is kind of a joke, but you're clearly also kind of serious about it, and I want to understand the mindset that *only* this one megacity is worth living in or caring about.

It's not about living in/caring about it, it's more poking fun at the density. Most American cities consist of an urban core that's maybe 12 blocks to a side, surrounded by miles of low-density housing punctuated by occasional apartments. And I'm not even talking about the suburbs, I mean that even the city proper is like this.

Take Seattle. Here's a map of the whole thing:

That red circle in the middle is basically the only part with actual density, the rest is mostly detached homes and a few areas of build-up around the major roads, plus the university and the warehouse district in the south. Although Seattle is doing a decent job upzoning its single-family lots and there are a zillion townhouses and 5-on-1s getting built right now, the city portion of it is tiny.

By contrast, here are some photos of Buenos Aires I took from my trip last year:

Now that's a fuckin' city! And in the US, pretty much only New York and kinda Philly look like that. Everywhere else, the dense part gives way to the low-rises long before you get to the horizon.

And I want to emphasize that this isn't coming from snobbery: there are real material consequences to the fact that American cities have low densities. Both inside and outside the country, everyone makes fun of our dire public transit situation, but it's kind of an inevitable consequence of lower density: the more spread out everyone is, the more expensive it is to provide equivalent service (buses have to go further and pick up fewer passengers per stop). It also makes housing more expensive, makes our cities not as energy-efficient as they could be (even though they're still much more so than the suburbs/rural areas), etc.

[sonnabug]

[sonnabug]

i'm officially leaving tumblr. i spend too much time over here. take care everyone. i'll be back in 5 seconds.

[sonnabug]

[sonnabug]

reblog if you're corny and insufferable

[sonnabug]

[sonnabug]

The Ocean at Dusk -  Kate Jarvik Birch 

American , b. 1977 -

Gouache on paper , 10 x 10 in.

[sonnabug]

🐟🐟🌕🐟🐟🐟🐟 // swallowtail shiners // gouache on hot press paper

[sonnabug]

A stunning blued, silvered, and gilt Storta made for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II,

OaL: 39.8 in/101 cm

Weight: 2.8 lbs/1.25 kg

Italy, ca. 1545-1575, housed at the Kunsthistorischesmuseum, Vienna.

[sonnabug]

simply unbelievable eggplant my mother grew

[sonnabug]

[sonnabug]

We need to study the powerful psychic field around tumblr posts that causes people to hallucinate entire lines and paragraphs that are not present in the actual text

[sonnabug]

If your ex can ‘bait’ you into having a meltdown and reacting poorly because she posted a video of herself and her new boyfriend 3 years after you divorced, that is totally on you and not her. If you’re so fragile that you can be set off by the tiniest irritant then I think she SHOULD be able to use that in court against you. Unfortunately, like many cases with domestic violence lingo, the term ‘reactive abuse’ has been co-opted by abusers. If you are so unhinged and full of rage that your ex moving on makes you seethe and lash out, that is not ‘reactive abuse’, that is you lacking all self control.