Author: harold

I’m just reading Herbie Hancock’s autobiography. It’s about music and life choices and creativity.

Herbie like me, like black in men is an ambassador of loving one another. He had the luck to avoid most of the rough and hard racism most of his life.

Nevertheless, he speaks about Emmett Till who was his age and coming from the same neighborhood in Chicago. He was shook when it happened, enough that he writes a few pages about it in his biography. Who wouldn’t be traumatized after seeing those pictures.

Well, we just learned yesterday that the white woman confirmed that she lied about Emmett Till doing anything to her. He did not. He got lynched for no reason.

It’s shit like this, people. It’s shit like this. Black people don’t look after racism or proof of racism. We’d rather have none of that. We’d rather have no proof, no statements, no pictures, no trauma, no trust issues, no tears, no pain.

We’d rather just live.

Man, those four years are going to be long.

It rained a lot –almost a full week of water, cray- and everything is luscious and green.

Working four different jobs, no insurance, living the dream. I probably will go to the GDC this year, I won a ticket at the lottery. Still have to find a place to crash.

4 billion people. I counted.

It was great and it also showed the divide, the absence of trust. Everyone in his own bubble from people who are “still with Her” to people who “voted for Bernie so it’s not my fault”, to interracial couples –when intersectionality exists for real- who are definitely the exception and not the rule. Virtual Unity.

I live with three white folks, two women and one dude. I’m the only one who went to the march and I know they could all have been there in the morning. I’m not even surprised and I’m mad that I’m not surprised. I just know it fits this world where a whole lot of fake shit is happening and people are OK with that.

So back to work. Back to being a fuck ton better without a smart ass sign, no bragging rights, just plain making the world better, silently. That works wonder.

Information-wise, nothing has been the same since November 8th.

Too much sarcasm, too much butthurt, too much nonsense, too many people gaming search engines, news and social media.

The thing it does to people is that they forget about the past. They forget about history. There’s too much new data everyday to keep up with while remembering the important bits from five, ten, twenty years ago. Younger generations erase everything before 2000 and broadband internet. That’s a big issue.

People indulge in pouring oil on fires, it’s so easy online. A click, two clicks it’s off to dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people. People are addicted to that new power. Hyperconnectivity. We can say whatever about FB  and we had tons of debates about it but real identity definitely curves the fuck out of trolls. I’ve seen countless amazing and great conversations there. Twitter is pretty much dead.

There is so, so much noise. It’s very difficult to believe anything ever, which is a bad thing if you want to communicate, solve, understand. Which is what we need.

Damn I should be supreme commander in chief.

I watched the first OVAs. I have seen all the movies. It’s a different vibe from anything with mecha coming from Japan. Mamoru Oshii –Ghost in the Shell- is/was the director. Production backstory:

In the late 1980s, Oshii was solicited by his friend Kazunori Itō to join Headgear as a director. The group was composed of Kazunori Itō (screenwriter), Masami Yuki (manga artist), Yutaka Izubuchi (mechanical designer), Akemi Takada (character designer) and Mamoru Oshii (director). Together they were responsible for the Patlabor TV series, OVA, and films. Released in the midst of Japan’s economic crisis, the Patlabor series and films projected a dynamic near-future world in which grave social crisis and ecological challenges were overcome by technological ingenuity, and were a big success in the mecha genre.

This show is not about mechas. it’s a dad mecha world. It focuses on responsibilities and consequences of having giant robots working in cities, Operating Systems that can fuck up or hackers who are up to no good.

It feels very real now that we have the first tests of giant robots happening. It feels like it’s here but I remember being a kid in 89 and being annoyed at that “serious” angle. When you’re a kid you want the fantasy mecha, flying at mach 2, 300 missiles shot at the same time etc. None of that in Patlabor (do you have 300 missiles launching money?). The unit that operates those police robots is under scrutiny, they’re broke, they’re trying to save money/keep their jobs. Their missions are mostly about heavy construction robots accidents and making sure they don’t damage the city when they operate. They are an elite crew of mechanics and pilots doing boring cop stuff.

There is just a tension, a melancolia in this universe that I haven’t felt in anything else with robots. It makes it unique, it makes me care more. It’s philosophy-based but not going all nuts like Oshii’s future work. It’s simpler: how can we balance our lives with technology? Is technology really that necessary?

It blows my mind that some guys were actively thinking about and designing that world in 1985 and on. Japanese culture is so absurdly good at the “what if” game.

I forgot something in my plans: tons of people live alone or will. Divorces, couples without kids, younger generations scared to love so they end up on their own for a long time… Plenty of social patterns that are not going to fill pretty big family houses anytime soon.

It’s OK! That just means that the subdivision would be smaller, which means a denser density akin to SoCal, but also less spread than the acre plan was creating. I can work with that.

It’s simple. I think about houses and suburbs not just because of LA’s structure and culture but because of the state of the world.

We have got to have more space between us. Regardless of how you think “those” people should be or not be, the best way to nurture empathy and respect is to have your own space. When people who live a very different life and participate into a very different culture are 24/7 in your face, it creates anger and resentment, it is just a matter of time. When you have your safe space you think differently, you don’t feel attacked like when your upstairs neighbor is having a party on a week day. What I mean is that current politics and the entire human history are telling me that we need to flatten a lot of things, starting by cities.

Let’s spread out privilege to everyone. Let’s erase the “being in the good part of the city” or the “most convenient and hip 2017 neighborhood”. The idea is that wherever you live will be on par with anywhere else. For that, you need standards.

That’s too big of a lot. 1 acre is a lot of maintenance to do. 0.5 or 0.4 (1600m²) would be fine.

FLW’s Brodacre City was a good start. Except for the acre subdivision, that might be a little too much (that’s 4000 m²). People immediately lose their shit on the infinite suburbs promises like it’s bad but I just think it would be the best for peace and quality of life. It’s interesting that people want cities like the 19th and 20th centuries created, disregarding how much more diverse population is, disregarding the online and telecommuting possibilities. Those facts change everything about how to design and make cities thrive.

Franky Goes to Taliesin thought that people would drive around –the car was getting mainstream when he designed the Broadacre utopia- which was definitely the case but yeah, we went through the constant driving paradigm from the 50s to 2010s and I guess we are done with that.

Good news is that this ForeverDrivin’ issue has been solved, isn’t that wonderful? Imagine: you’re living in your cool little house with front and back yards, your kids, your pets. You get ready to go see your auntie who lives 150 kms away. You wait on the sidewalk, get in that vehicle that has panoramic views allowing you to look everywhere around. You sit there, listening to music, talking, reading while the vehicle moves you and your family to your destination. You didn’t even flinch or stress out, you are there in no time and the kids were able to do their homework.

You arrive and it’s another suburban house, totally different style and environment but it’s still the same. Your kids ride their bikes around and come back for dinner.

I think it’s the only setting that would suppress the rat race we’re currently living and change the paradigm.

WHAT ABOUT SHOPPING

Well, I think it’s going to be a lot of little stores that you will go to. Local stores. Everything else will be delivered. It’s already so much the case: people don’t want to move to obtain stuff unless it’s special stuff, or if it’s kind of an entertaining thing to do like going to a cool looking coffee shop and flirt, that’s good motivation.

THIS SOUNDS BORING AS HELL

Go live in a warzone tf? Batshit crazy NYC or Paris will still be around for a while, have fun. I’m focusing on what matters to me, you do you.