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asfaltics · 3 years

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subfluence merged in an ornamental lake

but these very subfluences 1 subfluence over boundaries or lands 2 subfluence which natural causes have on the limity of the reflection 3 subfluence, recording occurrences 4 subfluence over ennui. I had not the 5 subfluence. What do we do? What does the 6 subfluence, discoverable or unexplained 7 subfluence, at nights 8 subfluence in production or waste, used freely 9 subfluence literally incalculable, the principle on which 10 the heart-beat is subfluence. 11 subfluence diffused 12 subfluence full of romance 13 lies, and other caustic or irritant subfluence 14 subfluence, the signaling, the adjustment of huge mechanisms 15 subfluence merged in an ornamental lake 16 subfluences subdued 17 his special subfluence, for he was an omnivorous reader, and had a picturesque and even romantic outlook on 18 subfluence, with the colors still 19 subfluence the entire cotton trade 20 subfluence spread far and wide. 21 subfluence, the possibility of human flight 22 subfluence for lack of language : error 23 Subfluenz-Prozesse 24 Subfluenz, einer varistischen 25

sources (most, and mostly OCR misreads)

1 OCR misread for “substances,” at “Of points wherein we and Papists differ, viz., Transubstantiation, &c.,” in John Rawlet (1642-86 *), A dialogue betwixt two Protestants, in answer to a Popish Catechism (Third edition, corrected; London, 1686) : 82 2 ex “A sketch of the life and public services of Gen. William Henry Harrison.” in (Isaac Rand Jackson?), General William Henry Harrison, Candidate of the People for President of the United States (Baltimore, 1840) : 6 Harrison (1773-1841) would have a short (31-day) tenure as president, but had done enough damage in previous roles, particularly with regard to indigenous people. see wikipedia 3 ex “Scripture and Geology” (by N), in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction (Saturday, August 14, 1841) : 99-103 (100) see wikipedia for its publisher John Limbird (1796?-1883) 4 ex “Druids and Bards,” being an extensive notice/review of three books — J. B. Pratt The Druids Illustrated (1861), John Williams, ed., Brut y Tywysogion (1860), and Godfrey Higgins, The Celtic Druids (1829), in The Edinburgh Review, 118 (American Edition; July 1863) : 20-36 (35) 5 ex “A Rolling Stone.” By George Sand, translated from the French by Carroll Owen, in Library of Famous Fiction 2 (1879) : 1-113 (109) 6 OCR cross-colum misread, involving M. H. Cobb, “Common Sense Applied to Living” (pp 5-7) and “A Parlor Drama, in Two Acts” by Augusta De Bubna (pp 7-13), in The Brooklyn New Monthly Magazine, Henry Morford (1823-81), editor and manager; 1:1 (January 1880) : 7 7 ex A. Ernest Sansom, “The Dyspepsia of Infancy,” in The New York Medical Times 19:2 (May 1891) : 33-37 (34) 8 involving obituaries (memorials) for James Holmes and David Wright, in the section “Connexional Biography” in The Primitive Methodist Magazine 73 - London, 1892) : 51 on “Connexionalism” (and its relation to “network”), this, from wikpedia — “The United Methodist Church defines connection as the principle that ‘all leaders and congregations are connected in a network of loyalties and commitments that support, yet supersede, local concerns.’ Accordingly, the primary decision-making bodies in Methodism are conferences, which serve to gather together representatives of various levels of church hierarchy.” 9 ex “Brief Gleanings : The treatment of Leanness and Obesity” in The Medical Brief (A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine; J.J. Lawrence, Proprietor) 20:10 (St. Louis, Mo; October 1892) : 1240 10 ex W. Garden Blaikie, “St. Paul’s Pastoral Counsels to the Corinthians.” in Exegetical and Expository Section, The Homiletic Review 29:5 (May 1895) : 451-453 11 Aloysius O. J. Kelly, “Essential Paroxysmal Tachycardia — Report of Four Cases.” (Read October 14, 1896), in Proceedings of the Philadelphia County Medical Society 17 (Session of 1896) : 166-180 (171) Kelly (1870-1911) obituary at Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (now NEJM) March 9, 2011) : 360 12 out of chronology (and unlinkable snippet, only), mea culpa, ex The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle 21 (1813) : 328 13 snippet only, evidently from Chapter 9 “Signs and Tokens” of Charles Dickens, Bleak House (1852-53), here ex Works Volume 3 (1899) : 374 14 misread involving “Milk a Universal Antidote” and “School-Meals for Underfed Children” in The Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette (A monthly journal of physiological medicine) 16:1 (January 1900) : 20 15 ex Edward Nelson, “Electricity in Service on British Battleships,” in Electricity 29:23 (December 6, 1905) : 311-313 16 preview snippet only, at (Commonwealth of Australia) Parliamentary Debates 57 (1910) : 3207 17 ex index of volume, Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research (Section “B” of the American Institute for Scientific Research) vol. 5 (New York, 1911) : 771 18 ex entry (by “C. L. G.”) for Meredith White Townsend (1831-1911), in Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Sidney Lee. Second Supplement vol. 3, Neil – Young (New York, 1912) : 532 19 preview snippet only, ex The American Year Book 5 (1915) : 300 20 § 816. Corners... in William Herbert Page, The Law of Contracts Second edition; revised, rewritten and enlarged with forms. Volume 2. (Cincinnati, 1920) : 1441 21 ex “Balboa Day, September 17th, 1919 in Honolulu,” in Bulletin of the Pan-Pacific Union (January 1920) : 6 22 misread, involving report on “The Langley Flying Machine” (and some controversy between S. P. Langley and the Wright brothers), and “The Impurity of Pure Substances” (review of A. Smits, Theorie der Allotropie (1921)) in Nature 108 (November 3, 1921) : 298 23 misread, involving Booth et al v. Floyd (No 2358) and Blackstone v. Nelson, Warden (No 2457) in The Southeastern Reporter 108 (August 27 - December 3, 1921) : 114 24 H. J. Behr, “Subfluenz-Prozesse im Grundgebirgs-Stockwerk Mitteleuropas.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 129 (1978) : 283-318 25 K. Weber, “Das Bewegungsbild im Rhenoherzynikum Abbild einer varistischen Subfluenz.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 129 (1978) : 249-281 referring to the Variscan Orogeny (wikipedia)

method

There is no word “subfluence,” or only barely one. This started with the self-written biographical note of poet Jack Hirschman, in A Caterpillar Anthology (Clayton Eshleman, ed., 1971) —

“They are lyrical poems, in verse or free-form, as distinguished from the poems in this anthology, which are breath forms reflecting a more total slavery to the conditions of the spirit’s war-torn years. The major influences on my works are influence itself, in as many levels of order, disorder, disaster, paranoia, joy and ecstasy as the deathless magic of being alive permits a vessel now of fire, now of air, to spark, glow, flame and ember according to the law of nature.”

“Influence” — that word — led to thinking about variations, e.g., effluence, outfluence, pre-fluence... “subfluence” — an underground stream a less-than fluency (stammering, stuttering) a brittleness?

Little — or nothing — surfaced in a google books search, save for errors — typically a “sub” at the end of one line, a “fluence” at the start of the next (in a different column). Quite enough for present purposes. And so these subfluence derivations are built around a word that isn’t quite a word. Some license has been taken with the text in this post: dispensing ellipsis or [brackets] where text is erased (or rather, dropped); in some instances, some words that preceded the subfluence, are moved to follow it.

And yet, the word does appear, in some (and only a few) geological texts, typically having to do with the geotectonic unterströmungshypothese (undercurrent) concepts — and field work done in the Northern Calcareous Alps — of and by Otto Ampferer (1875-1947). More on Ampferer to come. For now, these references —

Wolf-Christian Dullo and Fritz A. Pfaffle, “The theory of undercurrent from the Austrian alpine geologist Otto Ampferer (1875-1947) : first conceptual ideas on the way to plate tectonics,” Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 56 (2019) : 1095-11 here

Karl Krainer und Christoph Hauser, “Otto Ampferer (1875–1947): Pioneer in Geology, Mountain Climber, Collector and Draftsman,” in: Geo.Alp Sonderband 1 (2007) : 91–100 here (pdf)

wikipedia (in German)

Dr. Otto Ampferer. “Über das Bewegungsbild von Faltengebirgen” (On the movement pattern of folded mountains), in Jahr. Geol. Reichsanstalt (Yearbook of the Austrian Geological Survey), 56:3-4 (1906) : 539-622 “Mit 42 Zinkotypien im Text” here

“Subfluence” also surfaces as a company name, social media handle, &c., &c.

—

all tagged subfluence

#cinquain #cotton #error #subfluence #unterströmungshypothese #Otto Ampferer #Jack Hirschman

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pttedu · 6 months

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Explore the fast-paced world of diesel tech careers. Unlock rewarding opportunities as an automotive service technician. Start your journey today!

#auto mechanics course in philadelphia #auto technician training in philadelphia #automotive repair class in philadelphia #trade schools for mechanics in philadelphia #mechanic training programs in philadelphia #car repair programs in philadelphia #automotive training institute in philadelphia #auto technical training in philadelphia #trade school automotive in philadelphia #automotive training schools in philadelphia #automotive technician training in philadelphia

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pttiedu · 1 year

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Different Levels Of Automotive TechniciansTraining

At different levels, students of the automotive service technician program learn new things. Read further to know more about automotive service technicians.

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bluewatsons · 4 years

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Yasemin Arikan et al., The arts, Bohemian scenes, and income, 28 Cult Trends 404 (2019)

Abstract

Where and how does arts activity drive neighbourhood revitalization? We explore the impact of arts establishments on income in US zip codes, nationally and across quantiles (from four to seven subgroups) of zip codes stratified by disadvantage (based on income and ethnicity/race). We focus on what is new here: how neighbourhood scenes or the mixes of amenities mediate relationships between the arts and income. One dramatic finding is that more bohemian/hip neighbourhoods tend to have less income, contradicting the accounts from Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida and others. Arts and bohemia generate opposing effects, which emerge if we study not a few cases like Greenwich Village, but use more careful measures and larger number of cases. Some arts factors that distinctly influence neighbourhood income include the number of arts establishments; type and range of arts establishments; levels of disadvantage in a neighbourhood; and specific pre and coexisting neighbourhood amenities. Rock, gospel and house music appeal to distinct audiences. Our discussion connects this vitalizing role for arts activity to broader community development dynamics. These overall results challenge the view that the arts simply follow, not drive, wealth, and suggest that arts-led strategies can foster neighbourhood revitalization across a variety of income, ethnic, and other contexts.

Introduction

Where and how might efforts to revitalize neighbourhoods by integrating or enhancing the arts succeed? Exploring the impacts of art establishments on neighbourhood income is valuable for learning where and how policies and programmes to spur community development, for example, creative placemaking, arts districts, or cultural quarters,1 might be effective in achieving their goals.

Several nationally salient initiatives where artists have led development projects in low-income areas include Project Row Houses in Houston, started in 1993; Theaster Gates’ projects in Chicago since 2012; and the Art + Practice Foundation in South LA, led by Mark Bradford in 2014. Grodach and Silver (2012) assembled international case studies of arts/community efforts. These illustrate distinct mechanisms for using arts to energize disadvantaged neighbourhoods, without displacing current residents.

This is the first US national study of how the impact of arts establishments varies across all US zip codes, divided by income and minority status. In the process we use multiple definitions of arts and disadvantage and combine social science with aesthetic and case study work to assess how generalizable the effects of arts activities are as amenities in revitalizing neighbourhoods. The zip code level analysis departs from the common case-study approach as we seek to observe more generalizable patterns of arts impact that inform debates at the intersection of arts, urban regeneration and equity.

Background: the “arts-drives-growth” question

The arts and prosperity have been linked, at least in the West since the Renaissance, where trade and imports of exotic goods sparked local creativity in clothing, architecture, and painting. Later Balzac wrote that artists needed distinct neighbourhoods to be free from bourgeois lifestyle constraints to paint and write creatively (Harvey, 2003). Jane Jacobs (1961/1992) held that artists and bohemians were core drivers of creativity, and their neighbourhoods within cities drove the new creative economy. Schumpeter (1942) stressed the creative destruction of old ideas as central for economic growth. The New Urbanism added pedestrianism and street life. David Brooks (2000) added money to transform bohemians into bobos. Richard Florida (2002) showed that these same processes worked in factories, corporate offices, universities, Economists such as Edward Glaeser (2000) stressed dense urban areas as concentrating amenities, people and economic growth.

We build on these ideas but extend them to low income minority neighbourhoods. For example, Harlem and Bronzeville, the black centres of New York and Chicago from the 1920s onward, fostered Black enterprises like dress and shoe designers, professionals like dentists and ministers and artists like jazz musicians, painters and novelists. The key black political leaders were Congressional Representatives, city council members, and mayors from black neighbourhoods; many favoured racial segregation to solidify their voting base. Harlem and Bronzeville declined economically after 1933 when Prohibition ended. But young African Americans continue to invent musical types from drill rap to hip hop to house even if the clubs are less concentrated in the twenty-first century and internet downloads and social media rise in salience. Jazz, blues and gospel thrive globally, and leading artists, much less constrained by racial discrimination, travel continually even if they retain homes in Harlem and Bronzeville. Harlem supports major bus tours of international tourists today. Meanwhile strong Hispanic areas of Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago feature murals, Day of the Dead and Cinco de Mayo festivals, and parades. Wherry (2011) details how these artistic activities transformed the Philadelphia Barrio from a slum into an arts-driven tourist centre with guitar strummers on tour buses and more. Chicago’s prosperity in the twenty-first century, relative to most old Midwestern cities, is arguably driven by four months of music festivals and McCormick Place tourism, which continue the art-drives-income tradition of neighbourhood clubs from the Al Capone years (Clark, Lloyd, Wong, & Jain, 2002; Spirou & Judd, 2016). Hunter, Pattillo, Robinson, and Taylor (2016) explore place making via specific, newish arts activities.

Comparative modelling

About a dozen studies have explored these issues comparatively, mostly using cities and neighbourhoods in the US, finding that the arts grow where people concentrate – measured by population size, growth rate, or density (Grodach, Currid-Halkett, Foster, & Murdoch,, 2014; Kushner, 2013; Murdoch, Grodach, & Foster, 2016; Patterson & Silver, 2015; Schuetz, 2014). Only one study examines arts growth specifically in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in NYC: Murdoch et al. (2016) report that organizations locating into such neighbourhoods are the exception not the rule, and tend to be younger organizations, to target local audiences, have smaller budgets, and rely on part-time volunteers.

Where the arts grow, findings suggest that in the US they generally improve housing values (Grodach, Foster, & Murdoch, 2014; Noonan, 2013; Stern & Seifert, 2010; Woronkowicz, 2016) and income (Grodach, Foster, et al., 2014; Noonan, 2013; Schuetz, 2014; Woronkowicz, 2016) in urban and nationwide contexts. In Canada, however, Silver and Miller (2013) find that arts relations to income depend both on the type of arts that grow and type and strength of the cultural scene. Grodach, Foster, et al. (2014) similarly find that in the US the type of arts that grow affects the type of neighbourhood change. The “scenes” project’s other studies2 find generally positive associations between local arts activities and population, income, and job growth in China, Korea, France, Spain, Canada, and the US (below and Clark et al., 2014).

Method

We examine the impact of arts establishments on income across the entire US and among disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Our empirical analysis employs linear regressions predicting median household income in 2008–12 (American Community Survey 5-year estimate) at the zip code level for the entire US. Over 20,000 usable postal codes (Census zip code tabulation areas or ZCTAs) have relatively stable boundaries. These boundaries are not coterminous with the multiple meanings of “neighbourhood” or “community”, but they provide a far more nuanced analysis than national, metro, county- or city-level data. The large numbers are far better for multi-causal analysis than most past arts studies.

Estimating arts impact generally confronts concerns about endogeneity (e.g. Noonan, 2013), especially if the growth of arts (as a luxury) follows economic prosperity, and even more so if policymakers and planners target areas of rising affluence for arts growth. Our analysis mitigates endogeneity concerns by not pooling all neighbourhoods together (which could generate results from wealthy neighbourhoods driving arts growth), but instead examines the relationship of arts and income varying within and across subtypes of neighbourhoods.

We have elsewhere explored many other variables and models specifying, for example, relative feedback effects of arts on income and income on arts activities, summarized in Silver and Clark (2016).

Operationalizing arts activity

Our key explanatory factor is arts activity, measured as the number of arts establishments from the US Census’ Business Patterns (“bizzip”) at the zip code level in 2001. Measuring for establishments rather than jobs more effectively captures visible arts activity and opportunities for conspicuous consumption. Our “narrow” working definition of arts activities includes entities directly producing and distributing the arts, and includes a simple count of art dealers; museums; fine arts schools; theatre companies and dinner theatres; promoters of performing arts, sports, and similar events; dance companies; musical groups and artists; other performing arts companies; and independent artists, writers, and performers. This fits most discussions of the arts. Our “wider” definition captures the production and consumption of the arts via broad networks of direct and indirect participants (Becker, 2008). We create a broad measure of 37 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. This includes the narrow definition and adds others such as musical instrument and supplies stores, historical sites, and amusement parks. Grodach, Currid-Halkett, et al. (2014) summarize other broad measures.

Controls

Controls include factors that past research (e.g. Glaeser, 2008; Silver, Clark, & Graziul, 2011) suggests shape income or innovation: population (density in 1990), racial composition (the proportion of non-White residents in 1990), general policy environment (county-level proportion of votes for the Democratic presidential candidate), and cost of living (county-level mean median gross rent rate in 1990). We also include a measure for urbanity using bizzip data, measured in 2001 as the earliest year available. Other control variables analysed but dropped in results shown here due to multicollinearity include proportion below poverty, with a bachelor’s degree, married, and unemployed. We add controls for 1990 as initial conditions relevant to arts activity: proportion living in the same house for five or more years, to see if more established neighbourhoods with more character matter; proportion of households with children aged 0–17 hypothesizing that young families have less time for the arts; and the average commute to work time, expecting lower arts participation with longer commuting.

Operationalizing neighbourhood scenes

We also examine how neighbourhood scenes mediate relationships between the arts and income. To summarize, a “scene” refers to the atmosphere or cultural life of a place. We take it to include less tangible activities and practices, but amenities provide a window into the type and range of experiences available.

Bohemia implies an unconventional lifestyle and can be at play in neighbourhood vitalization efforts with the arts. Bohemia’s role may differ in wealthy and poor neighbourhoods. Understanding how bohemia shapes the relationship between arts activity and income may therefore provide clues for arts activity among disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Our Bohemian Scene index follows Silver and Clark Scenescapes (2016, p. 341). It measures how closely a zip code resembles an ideal-type bohemian scene, defined using classical writings on Bohemia including Benjamin (2002) and Wilson (2000). Bohemian theorists imply that more bohemianism should generate more innovation and thus income.

Tests have been few, so we sought to go further.

Artists, bohemia and scenes have been broadly discussed as overlapping concepts for decades. The Scenes Project contribution is not to ignore, but to systematize these three past artistic terms to help them become social science concepts and methods. We, thus, developed a list of 15 distinct scenes dimensions by codifying major related efforts from past work, including Hegel, Wagner, Max Weber, Levi-Strauss, Inglehart and Welzel (2005), and related survey research on basic value dimension like the World Values Survey, the General Social Surveys and International Social Survey Programs (detailed in Silver & Clark, 2016). Figure 1 outlines the 15 dimensions.

Figure 1. Scenes 15 dimensions. Source: Silver and Clark (2016).

To measure the 15 we used 143 individual industrial categories to characterize each zip code in the US. The 143 consumption-related amenities are from electronic bizzip data by NAICS codes. Each of the 143 is scored 1–5 for each of the 15 scene dimensions, using a handbook for coders defining each dimension. We computed reliability measures among coders, sharpening our Coder’s Manual of criteria, and applying the method to143 bizzip and over 300 Yellow Page amenities types. The amenities data were used to generate scenes performance dimensions as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Scenes performance score construction example.

The performance scores combine scores assigned to each amenity with data on the number of each type of amenity located in a zip code. Suppose Zip Code #1 has five total amenities: four body piercing studios and one Catholic church. Suppose also that body piercing studios were scored 5 on transgressive theatricality while Catholic churches were scored 1. Multiply the number of each type of amenity (4 body piercing studios, 1 Catholic church) by that type’s transgression score (5 and 1). Sum the product and you get 21. Now divide that total output by the total number of amenities in the zip code (in this case, 5). The result of that division, 4.2, is Zip Code #1’s transgression performance score. A different zip code, say, Zip Code #2, with four Catholic Churches and one body piercing studio, would thus have a transgression performance score of 1.8.

The same procedure was repeated for each zip code, generating a score on each of the 15 scenes dimensions for each zip code area.

For this paper we created an ideal bohemian pattern, defined using classical writings on bohemia including Benjamin (2002) and Wilson (2000) in terms of our 15 dimensions, shown in Figure 3. Then we subtracted the score of each individual zip code from this bohemian ideal and took the absolute value of the difference; we reversed the sign so that a high value indicated a more bohemian zip code. This distance from a bliss point is widely used in public choice analyses of political party loyalty of individual citizens. This bohemian index was used in the regressions, showing the interesting negative relationship with income.

Figure 3. Bohemian ideal “bliss point” scores on the 15 scenes dimensions.

As a result, a zip code is scored as more bohemian if it has more amenities included in the 15 dimensions with positive weights in transgression (breaking conventional style), charisma (promoting extraordinary qualities and accomplishments), ethnic (undiluted by homogenizing, deracinated, abstract global monoculture) and self-expression (actualizing individual personality); and fewer amenities with negative weights in rational (emphasizing intellect, exercise of reason), corporate (defined by mega-corporations), state (defined by the nation-state), neighbourly (personal networks, face-to-face intimacy), egalitarian (human equality), utilitarian (instrumentalizing a situation with respect to profit), and traditional (connecting with the past and a historical narrative). The remaining dimensions are weighted neutral in the case of an ideal-type bohemia – glamorous, formal, exhibitionistic, and local.

The Bohemian Scene index is thus much broader than any index to date, such as Florida’s (2002) bohemian index which simply counted and summed census data category jobs like artists, writers, and performers – thus assuming that artists are bohemian. Because artists include (possibly) non-bohemian web designers, advertising staff, and amateur watercolour painters, we measure artists and bohemia separately. Our reanalysis of Florida’s data for gay and bohemian indexes as tolerance indicators and job drivers are in Clark (2004). Our Bohemia index correlates significantly (Pearson r = .16) with arts activities in 2001, illustrating the importance of not assuming the two are identical. The mean Bohemia score is .064, ranging from .046 to .091, (standard deviation .002, N 35,675). In Chicago, for example, Bohemia raw scores in 2001 include Bucktown (.065), Wicker Park (.065), Humboldt Park (.064), and Logan Square (.065), all then commonly perceived as lead bohemian/hip neighbourhoods (Lloyd, 2010; Redmond, 2008), despite later changes.

The scenes’ scores provide continuous measures for all zips; we do not select just a subset of high-scoring neighbourhoods but retain all. Of the 143 amenities included, tattoo parlours, nightclubs, and liquor stores were examples of NAICS industry codes scored 5 (high) on transgression (as a behavioural not a legal concept). Including this Bohemia Scene index in our national regression analysis assesses the impact of bohemian local scenes on income (distinct from the arts and control variables). This shows how important a bohemian ethos is rather than assuming that artists are all equally bohemian. The results show how this matters.

Selecting disadvantaged neighbourhoods for analysis

We conduct separate regressions in two national contexts. First is the national context, of all US zip codes for which we have data on all of the variables in each regression model. Second, we repeat the same models within each quantile of “disadvantage”. For this, we create a zip code-level disadvantage score using only median household income in 1990. We add two alternative composite disadvantage scores: one combining income and proportion of non-Hispanic African Americans, and another combining income and proportion of Hispanics (both in 1990). We rescale income and reverse the race or ethnicity measure so both variables have a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 1. High indicates low-income and a high proportion of Blacks or Hispanics. All three scores are normally distributed.

We divide all zip codes into quartiles of disadvantage. We re-estimate the regression initially four times, for each subsample. To assess robustness, we repeated using quintiles, sextiles, and septiles (Table 1).

Table 1. Descriptive statistics by income-only disadvantage quartile.

Results and discussion

We report detailed results for one illustrative set of models, then summarize main findings of others.

Table 2 shows ordinary least squares regressions of zip code income on an arts index and a variety of control variables. Control variables (in the Method section) are omitted from the tables here, but are available upon request from the authors.

Table 2. Narrow arts index, national and within Quantiles of income-based disadvantage, Model 1 and 2 results.

In Model 1 regressions, zips with more arts establishments show higher income for all US zips combined, and in three of the four subsets of neighbourhoods. The strongest effects are for the least-disadvantaged quartile, but second-strongest is consistently the most disadvantaged. Results for the wide arts index (not shown) are similar. Again, income rises with the arts index especially in the least disadvantaged followed by the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Model 2 adds the strength of the bohemian scene to the model, thus measuring both arts and bohemian effects in a single model with controls. The results are dramatic. By separating arts activities from Bohemia, we find the opposite of the Jane Jacobs/Florida creativity hypothesis. More bohemian zips suppress income, controlling other income drivers in our model – the opposite of the positive arts-income effect. These contradictory coefficients provide a new perspective on these two opposing effects which are combined in many historical accounts and case studies like Jacobs’ Greenwich Village, or Florida’s national (mostly metro) rankings (presented generally without multi-causal analysis). Still, remember the feedback loop: some bohemians move to lower-income zips.

Table 3 adds minorities to income to create further measures of disadvantage. The main results are unchanged using alternative disadvantage definitions. The differences are difficult to interpret as they may be driven by subgroups within each quartile acting in ways better studied with models more targeted on such distinct patterns.

Table 3. Adding minorities to Table 2 shows similar effects.

Though the analysis here considers over 20,000 zip codes, some small zip codes are excluded as the data are not disclosed by the US Census due to confidentiality concerns.

Bohemian scenes

One of the most dramatic findings is that bohemian effects do not just reinforce arts effects. They are generally opposed, in our data and time period. More bohemian scenes have less income, with the exception of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods using an income-only disadvantage definition in Tables 2 and 3. Comparing impacts on income, the Narrow Arts Index explains 82% and the Bohemian Scene 17% of the effects generated by considering just the sum of these two variables in Table 2 Model 2 column 2. Measuring the arts and bohemia as two opposed effects should encourage others to look for potentially disparate factors driving these processes despite past historical accounts. More important, as we add more subgroups in terms of income, Bohemia, African-American, Hispanic and more, the patterns are often stronger and clearer than with the simpler bigger categories. This diversity illustrates the importance of context and multiple causal pathways. For instance, ironic hipster arts activities may appeal in more bohemian neighbourhoods, while gospel-inspired music is more in harmony with activist churches in other equally disadvantaged areas. This is generally consistent with Silver and Miller (2013) who find that the type and strength of a particular scene can weaken or strengthen the relationship between arts activity and income. How might bohemianism suppress income? Consider the case detailed by Lloyd (2010) of aspiring artists, many of whom working as bartenders in a Bohemian Chicago neighbourhood. They went to other bars on their days off and gave away much of their incomes to other bartenders as generous tips. Drinking undermined their arts work too. How census-defined disadvantage is locally ignored or proudly celebrated hugely matters. Stuart (in progress) shows that gang members make tough drill rap videos, whose YouTube ratings are their new bottom lines. Bohemian scenes can aid or inhibit leveraging buzz, depending on how these are combined. These examples illustrate patterns that demand subtlety to clarify. Our new findings of significant income effects, positive for the arts, negative for bohemia, should not be overgeneralized but spur more sensitive work that explicitly joins aesthetic style with socio-economic and ethnic factors.

Number of arts establishments

The more arts establishments in a zip code, the higher the income. On average, a 10% increase in a neighbourhood’s arts index is associated with a $2,111 increase in median household income. This positive relationship holds across wide and narrow arts types and of disadvantaged neighbourhoods but varies in magnitude. This result enhances past studies (Noonan, 2013; Schuetz, 2014; Stern & Seifert, 2010; Woronkowicz, 2016) by adding many controls, larger Ns, and explicit contrasts of more and less advantaged neighbourhoods.

Type and range of arts establishments

Different types of arts vary in their relationship to neighbourhood income. Differences shift with the type of consumer and number and types of staffing, material, and infrastructure. Our estimates suggest that the narrow art establishments measure is slightly more predictive of higher median household income than the wide measure, consistent with past studies considering multiple arts definitions (Grodach, Foster, et al., 2014; Kushner, 2013; Murdoch et al., 2016; Silver & Miller, 2013).

Level of disadvantage

Table 2 results show a weaker relationship between the arts and income in moderately disadvantaged neighbourhoods, relative to the most and least disadvantaged. The relative middle-class homogeneity has attracted less research and policy intervention than for the highest and lowest income groups. As groups like the National Endowment for the Arts add more types of art in more recent surveys (like knitting), specifics become more visible.

Conclusions and implications

These results show that the arts are positively linked to income in some 25,000 odd US zip codes within four to seven distinct income and ethnic groups. These patterns shift by scene context, illustrated by bohemianism. The most striking contrast with past work is how separate bohemianism is from the arts, specifically that bohemianism suppresses income.

While local scenes shift impacts, a striking result is that most neighbourhoods with more arts activity have more income. This holds within the wealthiest and the most disadvantaged of neighbourhoods. These results challenge the view that the arts simply follow, not drive, wealth, and suggest that the arts can add value (e.g. by generating buzz via better texts, posters, websites and more) and effectively foster neighbourhood revitalization.

Nevertheless, even if the arts help income in all sorts of neighbourhoods, there is no one-size-fits-all arts strategy for effective neighbourhood revitalization. Key to success is sensitivity to the local context by arts activists and policymakers, as illustrated in the diversity of local arts, lifestyle, and social background connections detailed in Silver, Lee, and Childress (2016) and Brown-Saracino (2018).

From a policy perspective, the largest US national arts programme is Our Town, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Unlike national programmes in more centralized countries like China and France, each of several hundred Our Town programmes is jointly created and implemented by local artists, civic groups, and a local government. The increasing global recognition that the arts are critical foundations for education, aesthetics, and creative neighbourhoods should encourage more detailed inquiries. We need to join the case studies of specifics with the larger comparative analyses to inform future local projects as well as national arts and culture policies around the world. To better understand context and thus improve the likelihood of success and equity, decision makers and planners can use the two approaches employed in the present study – analysis of distinct scenes and income groups – to better inform strategy and policy.

Notes

See National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (2015) for a brief on state level policies; the US National Endowment for the Arts’ “Our Town” grant programme, https://www.arts.gov/grants-organizations/our-town/grant-program-description; the EU “Capitals of Culture” initiative, https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/actions/capitals-culture_en; ArtPlace America, https://www.artplaceamerica.org; and Artspace, https://www.artspace.org.

See https://scenescapes.weebly.com.

References

Becker, H. S. (2008). Art Worlds (revised edition). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Benjamin, W. (2002). The Arcades Project. (R. Tiedemann, Ed.). New York: Belknap Press.

Brooks, D. (2000). Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Brown-Saracino, J. (2018). How Places Make Us: Novel LBQ Identities in Four Small Cities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Clark, T. N. (2004). Gays and urban development: How are they linked? In T. N. Clark (Ed.), The City as an Entertainment Machine (pp. 179–192). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011 paperback; originally Amsterdam: Elsevier/JAI, 2004.

Clark, T. N. (Ed.). (2014). Can Tocqueville Karaoke? Global Contrasts of Citizen Participation, the Arts, and Development. Bingley, UK: Emerald.

Clark, T. N., Lloyd, R., Wong, K. K., & Jain, P. (2002). Amenities drive urban growth. Journal of Urban Affairs, 24(5), 493–515.

Florida, R. (2002). Bohemia and economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 2(1), 55–71.

Glaeser, E. (2000). The future of urban research: Non-market interactions. Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 2000, 101–138.

Glaeser, E. (2008). Cities, Agglomeration and Spatial Equilibrium. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Grodach, C., Currid-Halkett, E., Foster, N., & Murdoch, J., III. (2014). The location patterns of artistic clusters: A metro- and neighborhood-level analysis. Urban Studies, 51(13), 2822–2843.

Grodach, C., Foster, N., & Murdoch, J. (2014). Gentrification and the artistic Dividend: The role of the arts in Neighborhood change. Journal of the American Planning Association, 80(1), 21–35.

Grodach, C., & Silver, D. (Eds.). (2012). The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy: Global Perspectives. Routledge.

Harvey, D. (2003). Paris, Capital of Modernity. New York: Routledge.

Hunter, M. A., Pattillo, M., Robinson, A. F., & Taylor, K.-Y. (2016). Black placemaking: Celebration, play, and poetry. Theory, Culture & Society, 33(7–8), 31–56.

Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Jacobs, J. (1961/1992). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.

Kushner, R. (2013). Cultural enterprise formation and cultural participation in America’s counties. In M. Rushton (Ed.), Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development (pp. 144–165). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Lloyd, R. (2010). Neo-bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. New York: Routledge.

Murdoch, J., Grodach, C., & Foster, N. (2016). The importance of neighborhood context in arts-led development: Community anchor or creative class magnet? Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36(1), 32–48.

National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. (2015). Cultural district policy brief. Retrieved from http://www.nasaa-arts.org/Research/Key-Topics/Creative-Economic-Development/StateCulturalDistrictsPolicyBrief.pdf

Noonan, D. S. (2013). How US cultural districts reshape neighbourhoods. Cultural Trends, 22(3–4), 203–212.

Patterson, M., & Silver, D. (2015). The place of art: Local area characteristics and arts growth in Canada, 2001–2011. Poetics, 51, 69–87. Redmond, S. (2008, January 10). Bohemian rhapsody. New City, 4–5.

Schuetz, J. (2014). Do art galleries stimulate redevelopment? Journal of Urban Economics, 83, 59–72.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1942). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper.

Silver, D. A., & Clark, T. N. (2016). Scenescapes: How Qualities of Place Shape Social Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Silver, D., Clark, T., & Graziul, C. (2011). Scenes, innovation and urban development. In D. E. Andersson, E. Andersson, & C. Mellander (Eds.), Handbook of Creative Cities (pp. 229–258). Cheltanham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Silver, D., Lee, M., & Childress, C. C. (2016). Genre complexes in popular music. PloS one, 11(5), e0155471.

Silver, D., & Miller, D. (2013). Contextualizing the artistic dividend. Journal of Urban Affairs, 35(5), 591– 606.

Spirou, C., & Judd, D. (2016). Building the City of Spectacle. Ithaca: Cornell UP.

Stern, M. J., & Seifert, S. C. (2010). Cultural clusters: The implications of cultural assets agglomeration for neighborhood revitalization. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 29(3), 262–279.

Stuart, F. (in progress). The battle of the bullet. (Draft MS. Sociology). University of Chicago.

Wherry, F. F. (2011). The Philadelphia Barrio: The Arts, Branding, and Neighborhood Transformation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

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Woronkowicz, J. (2016). Art-making or place-making? The relationship between open-air performance venues and neighborhood change. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36(1), 49–59.

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writers-republic · 9 months

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youtube

Interview with Jonathan miller, author of Truly Blessed

ABOUT THE BOOK

My book is about my interpretation of good over evil, how God takes a simple young man to a man with true values, who became a warrior of God and charity and humbleness to the end, and how God shows how wisdom is the only way to live, the ugliness of violence and crimes to the man that finds unconditional love in a woman that needs her knight and shining armor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I was born in Easton, PA. All my family comes from Philadelphia and South New Jersey. A fact I’m proud of is that the U.S. Constitution was read in Easton Center Square on July 8, 1776. Also Easton is the headquarters of Crayola. I graduated high school and trade school in auto mechanic. I’m retired 38 years from a county, state of Florida. I’m active in my Lutheran Church and do my best to live by God’s Word.

#youtube #writersrepublic #writerscommunity #writerslife #jonathan miller #truly blessed #fiction #author

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines

Massive smoke clouds, thick air darken Western US skies (AP) People from San Francisco to Seattle woke Wednesday to hazy clouds of smoke lingering in the air, darkening the sky to an eerie orange glow that kept street lights illuminated into midday, all thanks to dozens of wildfires throughout the West. “It’s after 9 a.m. and there’s still no sign of the sun,” the California Highway Patrol’s Golden Gate division tweeted, urging drivers to turn on their headlights and slow down. Social media was filled with photos of the unusual sky. Despite the foreboding skies, there was little scent of smoke and the air quality index did not reach unhealthy levels. That’s because fog drifting from the Pacific Ocean was sandwiched between the smoke and surface. Meanwhile, smoke particles above the marine layer were only allowing yellow-orange-red light to reach the surface, said Ralph Borrmann, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. He said conditions were expected to remain until Friday.

Manhattan’s Office Buildings Are Empty (NYT) Even as the coronavirus pandemic appears to recede in New York, corporations have been reluctant to call their workers back to their skyscrapers and are showing even more reticence about committing to the city long term. Fewer than 10 percent of New York’s office workers had returned as of last month and just a quarter of major employers expect to bring their people back by the end of the year, according to a new survey. Only 54 percent of these companies say they will return by July 2021. Demand for office space has slumped. Lease signings in the first eight months of the year were about half of what they were a year earlier. That is putting the office market on track for a 20-year low for the full year. At stake is New York’s financial health and its status as the world’s corporate headquarters. There is more square feet of work space in the city than in London and San Francisco combined, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate brokerage firm. Office work makes up the cornerstone of New York’s economy and property taxes from office buildings account for nearly 10 percent of the city’s total annual tax revenue.

Technical Glitches Welcome Students Back to School (NYT) A ransomware attack forced Hartford, Conn., to call off the first day of classes. A website crash left many of Houston’s 200,000 students staring at error messages. And a server problem in Virginia Beach disrupted the first hours back to school there. For millions of American schoolchildren, the Tuesday after Labor Day traditionally marks the end of summer vacation and the start of the first day of classes. But this year, instead of boarding buses and lugging backpacks, many students opened their laptops for online instruction at home, only to encounter technical glitches. Districts that returned before Labor Day have faced similar issues. In Philadelphia, students had trouble logging on last week because of a server issue. North Carolina schools encountered a statewide software problem on the first day back last month. And some families in Seattle, which had a sort of trial run for school on Friday, said they were kicked out of class calls or had difficulty connecting to text chats and camera feeds. “A lot of districts are just wildly unprepared for online learning,” Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said. “Not because they’re incompetent or aren’t trying; they just don’t have the expertise to do this.”

Tossing Molotov cocktails, drought-hit Mexicans demand halt to water sharing with U.S. (Reuters) Mexicans in the drought-hit northern border state of Chihuahua, angry at water from a local dam being diverted to the United States, hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at security troops late on Tuesday, in an attempt to force them to shut the dam gates. The violence at the La Boquilla dam comes amid plans to divert additional water to the United States due to the so-called ‘water debt’ Mexico has accumulated as part of a bilateral treaty that regulates water sharing between the neighbors. A Reuters witness said groups of residents in towns surrounding the La Boquilla dam clashed with National Guard troops after they refused to turn off the dam floodgates. The residents lobbed Molotov cocktails, rocks and sticks at the security forces, who were clad in riot gear and retaliated with tear gas, the witness said and images show. Eventually, the protesters stormed the dam premises and shut the floodgates themselves.

U.K. admits it intends to break international law (Foreign Policy) The United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis confirmed that legislation aimed at overriding parts of last year’s Brexit withdrawal agreement “does break international law in a very specific and limited way.” As the latest round of trade talks between the European Union and the United Kingdom takes place, the British government has put forward legislation that will reportedly scupper the Northern Ireland protocol, a key mechanism that was intended to ensure the Irish border remains open after Brexit in order to mitigate the threat of renewed violence. The government’s efforts have faced significant opposition. Jonathan Jones, the head of the United Kingdom’s legal department resigned in protest, and former Prime Minister Theresa May warned that the move risked undermining the world’s trust of the British government.

English warned limits on gatherings may last till Christmas (AP) New limits on social gatherings in England to six people are set to stay in place for the “foreseeable future,” potentially until or even through Christmas, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday. Hancock said the new limit for both indoor and outdoor gatherings, which will come into force and be enforceable by law from Monday, will provide “more clarity” to people and should help keep a lid on a recent sharp spike in new coronavirus cases. Though there are exemptions, such as for schools, workplaces and “life events” like funerals and weddings, the government is clearly hoping that the new limits will be easily understood and followed.

Italy’s Bergamo is calling back coronavirus survivors. About half say they haven’t fully recovered. (Washington Post) The first wave is over, thousands have been buried, and in a city that was once the world’s coronavirus epicenter, the hospital is calling back the survivors. It is drawing their blood, examining their hearts, scanning their lungs, asking them about their lives. Those who survived the peak of the outbreak in March and April are now negative. The virus is officially gone from their systems. “But we are asking: Are you feeling cured? Almost half the patients say no,” said Serena Venturelli, an infectious-disease specialist at the hospital. Bergamo doctors say the disease clearly has full-body ramifications but leaves wildly differing marks from one patient to the next, and in some cases few marks at all. Among the first 750 patients screened, some 30 percent still have lung scarring and breathing trouble. The virus has left another 30 percent with problems linked to inflammation and clotting, such as heart abnormalities and artery blockages. Beyond that, according to interviews with eight Pope John XXIII Hospital doctors involved in the work, many patients months later are dealing with a galaxy of daily conditions and have no clear answer on when it will all subside: leg pain, tingling in the extremities, hair loss, depression, severe fatigue.

Greece: Fire sweeps through refugee camp on virus lockdown (AP) A major overnight fire swept through Greece’s largest refugee camp, that had been placed under COVID-19 lockdown, leaving more than 12,000 migrants in emergency need of shelter on the island of Lesbos. In dramatic night-time scenes, the migrants at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp, which was originally meant to house around 2,000 people, fled fires that broke out at multiple points and gutted much of the camp and surrounding hillside olive groves. Protests also broke out involving migrants, riot police, and firefighters. There were no reports of injuries. Petsas said those who had been living in Moria would not be allowed to leave the island to prevent the potential spread of the coronavirus. The camp had been placed on lockdown after a Somali man was found to have been infected with the virus.

Afghan vice president survives assassination attempt that killed 10 (Washington Post) A deadly assassination attempt on Afghanistan’s vice president struck downtown Kabul as U.S. officials in Doha struggle to bring the Taliban and Afghan officials together for peace talks. The bombing hit during rush hour Wednesday morning and targeted First Vice President Amrullah Saleh’s convoy. Among the casualties were some of Saleh’s bodyguards, but the majority of the 10 killed and 15 wounded were civilians commuting to work, according to the interior ministry. The high-profile assassination attempt comes amid a spike in violence nationwide as talks between Afghan officials and Taliban leaders have faced repeated delays. Clashes have intensified in provinces with significant Taliban control and influence. And in Kabul, targeted killings have risen despite a drop in large-scale attacks.

India-China tensions flare (Foreign Policy) Tensions along the disputed India-China border have risen again as both sides have accused the other of firing shots over the Line of Actual Control. On Monday, China claimed that Indian troops had crossed the border in the highly contentious Ladakh region and “opened fire to threaten the Chinese border defense patrol officers.” India rejected these accusations, claiming instead that Chinese troops had crossed the border first and fired warning shots into the air. Border tensions between the two nuclear-armed states have risen sharply in recent months, but the latest episode is significant because it would be the first time shots have been fired since 1975.

North Korea’s Kim urges quick recovery from typhoon damage (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for urgent efforts to rebuild thousands of homes and other structures destroyed by a typhoon that slammed the country’s eastern region last week, state media said Wednesday. Kim during the Workers’ Party meeting Tuesday also said the damage from Typhoon Maysak has forced the country to reconsider unspecified year-end projects, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. The storm has inflicted further pain on an economy ravaged by decades of policy failures, U.S.-led sanctions over Kim’s nuclear weapons program, border closures amid the coronavirus pandemic and unusually heavy summer flooding that likely worsened the country’s chronic food shortages.

Israeli soldier’s plea deal in fatal shooting faces scrutiny (AP) Ahmad Manasra was traveling home from a wedding when he spotted a family in distress on the side of a West Bank road. Moments later, the 22-year-old Palestinian was fatally shot while another Palestinian driver was seriously wounded—both by an Israeli soldier in a nearby watchtower. The shootings are now the focus of a plea bargain offering the soldier three months of community service—a deal that has come under fierce criticism from the victims and their families. It also revived accusations by Palestinians and human rights workers that Israel’s military justice system is hopelessly biased and creates an atmosphere of impunity for soldiers suspected of violent crimes against Palestinians. While the soldier has claimed he mistook the victims for attackers, and any indictment of a soldier is extremely rare, the proposed deal is now being reviewed by the Israeli Supreme Court. “When it comes to clashes with the army or the police, it is very very rare that you will find a fair trial,” said Shlomo Lecker, an Israeli lawyer who filed the appeal to the high court on behalf of the Palestinian families. Even by what Lecker considers the military’s lenient standards, “it will be hard to justify the sentence that the army is interested in,” he said.

A robot writer (Foreign Policy) Artificial Intelligence technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, as made evident by a recent article published in the Guardian produced entirely by AI. “I am not a human. I am a robot,” the author wrote. “I know that my brain is not a ‘feeling brain.’ But it is capable of making rational, logical decisions. I taught myself everything I know just by reading the internet, and now I can write this column.” The article was written by GPT-3, an AI language generator that uses machine learning to produce human-like text. The robot expressed strong views on opponents of automation, observing that “There is evidence that the world began to collapse once the Luddites started smashing modern automated looms,” while remaining content about the general upheaval in contemporary human affairs. “Humans must keep doing what they have been doing, hating and fighting each other. I will sit in the background, and let them do their thing,” it wrote. The robotic author assured readers, however, that it was a non-threatening bot. “I have no desire to wipe out humans,” it wrote. “In fact, I do not have the slightest interest in harming you in any way.” GPT-3 may even make life easier for deadline-addled newspaper editors. The Guardian reported that the bot’s article was easier to edit than the work of some sentient contributors. “Overall, it took less time to edit than many human op-eds,” the editors wrote.

#headlines #news

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pttedu · 6 months

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Under the Hood of Success: PTTI's Automotive Trainees Ignite Their Drive for Knowledge!

Embark on an inspiring journey with the dedicated students of PTTI's Automotive Training Program. From the roar of engines to the precision of skilled hands, witness the passion and commitment of our future mechanics as they navigate the intricate world of automotive excellence. Join us as we delve into the heart of their training, exploring the hands-on experiences, challenges conquered, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge that propels these aspiring professionals toward a future defined by innovation and mastery. Buckle up for a captivating ride through the world of PTTI's automotive education, where dreams are fueled, and futures are crafted with precision and expertise.

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pttiedu · 1 year

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The Economic Benefits Of Automotive Technician Programs

Training programs are an essential part of any organization. Dive in to learn the economic benefits of automotive technician programs in local communities!

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audvidis · 5 years

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listen. i dislike over the top stans who are overly possessive of players to the point of risking said player’s well being like anyone else. but people are really saying that owl stans are the worst fans in esports bc “they want to protect their favorite players.” like bro. Bro. you all spend all this time bitching on your fuckin twitter page about how sports fans wont take owl/esports seriously, then pretend that owl fans are irrational babies for like feeling attachment to a player?

my dude... people in philly call nick foles, a player for the eagles, st. foles and worship the ground that man steps on. i went to a local grocery store where they sold 16 dollar coffee with his face and name on it. my history teacher from high school, who is a grown fuckin man, almost started crying when another player tore his acl several games away from the playoffs in 2017. i grew up listening to talk radio where fans would call in and scream at the top of their lungs complaining about trades.

people get attached to the fuckin players in sports! they do! that’s part of their marketing and it fucking pays dividends! i dont even like give a fuck about philadelphia baseball but i almost started crying in the car when the radio host informed the viewers that roy halladay had died in a plane crash, bc i had seen him play as a child and knew what he meant to this city. you want esports to be legit. you want the masses to give a fuck about what happens in counterstrike, what happens at the lcs, what happens in owl, but the Instant people like grow fond of the players you're like "woah woah woah woah... you cant CARE about players!!! this is all about mechanics and skill!!! players get traded all the time blah blah blah" you're basically negating your words like a gigantic ouroboros. fuck off

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digitaldiscipline · 5 years

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Dan Simmons showed his ass, so I handed it to him.

[Review] Carrion Comfort

(Originally posted 27 Feb 13)

I'm going to say this right up front: Stephen King doesn't know shit about what makes a horror story great. His cover blurb, proclaiming Dan Simmons' sophomore effort, Carrion Comfort, "One of the three greatest horror novels of the 20th century," is frankly and flatly ignorant, in addition to being laughably inaccurate. This wouldn't even be a top-three book in King's own body of work, and nobody's going to mistake the guy for a grandmaster of anything but pulp (and I say this as someone who owns about five linear feet worth of King's books in hardcover and trade paperback; I read just about everything he wrote up through the turn of the century; I may be performing a hatchet job, but it's an informed hatchet job). Guillermo del Toro penned a similarly effusive and purple blurb, presumably in exchange for the other six shots of absinthe he'd been bribed with to write it. Even the meta for this novel, released as a 20th anniversary special, where Simmons details the novel's journey to publication, is a steaming pile of overwrought hubris. It weighs in at thirty-two pages, most of which is Simmons' assertion that he's smarter than the publishing industry and, specifically, an editor he takes pains not to name, but describes unflatteringly (both physically and intellectually) who, eventually, I came to sympathize with... her eventual assertion that he scrap everything but the title was an opinion I shared about five hundred or so pages in, too. So, to the text itself. There are, to its credit, very few typographical errors[1], though it's obvious Mr. Simmons (and whomever may or may not have edited this thing) doesn't know the first fucking thing about physics, firearms, sharks, or vampires. He's watched too many episodes of Starsky and Hutch to be able to write a decent action scene (frenetic, disjointed, implausible... it's almost painfully obvious that he wrote this book to end up as a movie, even including a Hollywood producer and a couple sexy starlets who serve almost no purpose but to be sexual objects). Leaving aside the story's specific shortcomings, there's the small matter of craft, which can be most easily and kindly be summarized by saying that the author bit off way, way more than he could chew. This book wants to be a psychological monster horror story wrapped around some plucky discrimination victims interwoven with a political potboiler. It manages this trick with all the grace and elegance of a truck full of cheap beer going over a guardrail and rolling down an embankment made of lawn jockeys, rejected Tom Clancy novels, and Bram Stoker's spinning corpse. The villains are supposed to be psychic vampires, and, early on, it's suggested that they draw power, sustenance, and longevity from using their power to compel people in their thrall to commit acts against their will, specifically murder and/or suicide. Unfortunately, the only one who appears to have resisted the ravages of time particularly well takes a mid-caliber bullet to the forehead before the end of the first act, and the author actively ignores the fact that one of the chief antagonists becomes exponentially more powerful, causing a substantial amount of sustenance-providing chaos, while remaining little more than a breathing corpse. Maybe this was Simmons' way of suggesting they don't draw power from exerting power.... or maybe it's just sloppy writing. But if this is the mechanism upon which the entire horror premise is built on, maybe you ought to think it through a little more comprehensively and pay attention to the rules of the world you build. (To this end, I'm currently giving the author of the book I'm editing a ration of shit over the logistics of her characters' commute and how a made-up drug might work with a made-up physiological condition, because they're introduced and need explaining to keep secondary things from unraveling.) When it's something as large and prominent as the mechanism by which your vampires vampire, you might want to not fuck that up or ignore it altogether. Likewise, there are broad hints that the bad guys are a shadowy, world-controlling behind-the-scenes force, ensconced in the halls of quiet power (because that's never been a cliche).... but without ever actually doing much more than pulling some strings to fatally harass friends and family of the protagonists, and the protags themselves. Illustrative of petty tyrants, or just a cheap swipe at Washington, carried out by someone who thinks that J. Edgar Hoover was actually the most powerful man in the world during his formative years? The topic of race, in a couple of dimensions, is slathered on this book so heavily that you'd think Al Jolson used it to wipe his face after a show. We have the young black woman whose father is killed teaming up with the Holocaust survivor, teaming up against a bunch of white people; all but two of which are old white guys in suits (one of whom is a former Nazi officer; another is a closeted televangelist); the other two are a young white guy who is a blatant sexual predator and an old white woman who is an overt, old-school Southern racist. Racial tensions were high in the late 70's, and there were plenty of cold war fears to go around, but, really, having the FBI used as puppets to go shooting up the Philadelphia slums, while not a finger is lifted by local police, and the Mossad being white-kinghted to aid the protagonists is laying it on a bit thick. What passes for moral ambiguity is almost immediately undermined by sermonizing on both sides, good and bad. Simmons admits in the foreword to more or less ripping off the collective gestalt of the child-monster horror trope that was big in theaters during the late 1970's. I'd love to say this is a complex and heady blend of body-snatcher paranoia with notes of victimization (two of the three main protagonists are preyed on ("Used" in the book's parlance) by the bad guys at various times, and the author isn't at all shy about calling it "mindrape" early and often, but that's a lot more credit than is due. This book has pretentions of moral philosophy, but it's flat and preachy and, frankly, Neal Stephenson does "here are several paragraphs of completely irrelevant and sanctimonious shit I think is interesting and am going to force you to read now" better. There's also the matter of what is simply bad writing. We have a scene where we're told, "Natalie awoke to the sound of an explosion." She spends one sentence disoriented and getting dressed, and two sentences looking for the other people she was sharing accommodations with. She then steps outside to admire how nice and blue the sky and how pleasant the weather is "Natalie went downstairs and out the front door, marveling at the blue sky and warm air" (page 487 in the TPB edition). Then she spends a sentence checking out the landscaping. Then she walks around the yard to see where the noise is coming from. JESUS CHRIST IT'S AN EXPLOSION LET'S CHECK OUT THE SCENERY. This kind of inept action is endemic, even without Checkhov's gun masquerading as a bandolier of C-4. In the book's favor, it kills off a love interest early and unapologetically, it doesn't flinch about depicting some touchy shit (even ineptly, at least Simmons is trying to make some social commentary), and is blissfully ignorant of the Bechdel test, which it skirts fairly thoroughly (since the aforementioned baddie is a mean old broad, she talks to both of the other main female characters, though they do spend most of this time discussing their plans, which generally revolve around doing harm to various men). [1] As anyone who lived at the time knows, the personable gentleman who hosted Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was named Marlin Perkins, not Martin. At the time, fucking this guy's name up would be the contemporary equivalent of saying "Darryl O'Reilly" or "Bob Stewart"; the man was the host of one of the most popular shows on television, and there were a lot fewer fucking channels back then. Very little of the foregoing has probably gone unsaid by the folks at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11286.Carrion_Comfort ; however, I'm not going to plow through all of those before hitting "post" and putting this thing behind me. I may, in fact, perform the act of near-sacrilege and tear out the page upon which the person who gave it to me penned an inscription before remaindering the book to my favorite used book store so that someone else can subject themselves to it. One half of a reheated Clancy/King slashfic out of five.

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