todays beauty against yesterdays

[sun of sand]

Was the man made and man-altered world
western world, i guess
more interesting to look at 50+ years ago than it is now

simpler
rugged
weathered
natural

structured
safe
sterile
renewable
artificial


are any homes built within the last 20 years going to be treasures in 30
excluding the best of the best modern homes/buildings


the southernmost i've spent any time in and also the poorest-seeming is southern west virginia
but
it's still full of junk
i'm sure there was lots of junk always
but that junk I assume had for the most part character
now it's old and rundown ..stuff
plastic and cheap wood products
just trash

poles
wires


One thing I really dislike on any trip I go on
anywhere
all the signposts and reflectors lining the roads at all different angles and

your eyes/brain never get a minute
oh, here's more crap to have to look at and we didn't even attempt to make it decorative at all
just straight utility without craftsmanship or careful installation
I think we take synchronicity for charm or

[Oren Grad]

One thing I really like on any trip I go on, anywhere, is all the signposts and reflectors lining the roads at all different angles. I make pictures of them all the time - mostly small format, though, because that's what I use when I'm on the go.

Poles and wires, too. They fly off in all directions and structure spaces in interesting ways.

[Vaughn]

Fifty years ago. I was 9 years old in a white white white (but the Chinese on the horizon) suburbia outside the Los Angeles City limits. They were building crap all over the hills back then. Still are where there are bare hills left (southern Orange County, etc). Don't see much change there.

[Mark Sawyer]

There's always been junk and there's always been enduring beauty. What's odd is the evolution and interplay between them.

When Levittown was built in the 1950's it was ridiculed as the sort of cheap, cookie-cutter architecture on a landscape scraped bare by bulldozers. Today it's a desirable historic neighborhood with mature landscaping and houses that have developed their own character over time.

70 years from now, there'll be a rusted-out Cadillac Escapade in some rural Virginia front yard, with a tree grown through the front frame where the engine and hood used to be.

[sun of sand]

I was actually wanting to compare today with the 30's and 20's but figured I'd better back off that a little as very few here were back then

the 50's+ had much more of that period left than today
like how those my age remember the 80's eventhough the 80's weren't truly OUR time


Maybe that's why Kodak had it's glory days in the 40's and into 50's with a gradual decline thereafter if not in quality then because of consumer ..demand?



Im sure in some ways the world is healthier than before
but in some ways im sure the ways in which it was less healthy contributed to a better quality of life



can you make pictures today like the ones that were made then? when you can
have those same photos already been photographed because there are so few of the scenes left that everyone can recognize them


I understand their are photos everywhere and always
but theyre different

[Winger]

I've been going through some of my great-grandfather's negatives from 1900-1947 and he shot a lot of the same stuff I'd shoot. And many of the buildings in my home town that he shot are still there.

[sun of sand]

okay

old barns

people love them universally
nobody is building them
most of them aren't even taken care of and are falling in on themselves
today we get metal pole barns metal siding roofing

the same or equal or better?

will they be here in 75 years?
if so, will people adore them?

or will they be leveled and recyled into new pole barns in 25 years or less



are these dodos?
find something new to love equally or has something truly special been replaced with something we've been led to believe is better because it's more economical or "healthier" or simpler or an advancement


when you see a new home being built -average to nicer home- do you see something lasting or something new and fresh thats stale

charm


is what is charming today as charming as an older example

[sun of sand]

to my right on the desk is a plastic fan
holmes blizzard


who is taking a picture of that ever?
it's junk

it works
it's functional
design?
it may look like a vintage fan in some ways in the dark

junk
i can find a vintage fan at auction or yard sale from the 40's or whenever and I wish i had two
could be rusty
piece broken
missing the plug
not working
I don't buy them because there are other things more important at the time
but it's artful

own that nonworking fan or be cool on a hot day? simple choice
but is it wise
i think about the vintage fans
dream about them

[John Kasaian]

There is evidential power revealed in beauty. I think that is the unique-ness that separates beauty from sentimentality.
How's that observation for 7:59 in the morning?

[Bill_1856]

"Yesterday's" POV was developed from centuries of paintings and drawings. "Today's" POV is a result of exposure to movies and TV, (plus the old stuff).

[ROL]

Was the man made and man-altered world
western world, i guess
more interesting to look at 50+ years ago than it is now

simpler
rugged
weathered
natural

structured
safe
sterile
renewable
artificial


are any homes built within the last 20 years going to be treasures in 30
excluding the best of the best modern homes/buildings


the southernmost i've spent any time in and also the poorest-seeming is southern west virginia
but
it's still full of junk
i'm sure there was lots of junk always
but that junk I assume had for the most part character
now it's old and rundown ..stuff
plastic and cheap wood products
just trash

poles
wires


One thing I really dislike on any trip I go on
anywhere
all the signposts and reflectors lining the roads at all different angles and

your eyes/brain never get a minute
oh, here's more crap to have to look at and we didn't even attempt to make it decorative at all
just straight utility without craftsmanship or careful installation
I think we take synchronicity for charm or

Hey, I'm still trying to figure out whether style of writing is free form poetry, unconstructed prose, poor sentence construction, lack of punctuation, all (or no) thumbs "smart" phone texting, written diarrhea, stroke... :confused:




One thing I really dislike on any trip I go on
anywhere
all the signposts and reflectors lining the roads at all different angles and

your eyes/brain never get a minute
oh, here's more crap to have to look at and we didn't even attempt to make it decorative at all
just straight utility without craftsmanship or careful installation
I think we take synchronicity for charm or

I would think a road trip (or maybe a visit to a protected wilderness area) across Nevada, or any number of western states would prove a cure for that.

[Jody_S]

There are many objects of indescribable beauty being made today, just as there are classic buildings (and barns) being built. You're falling for the trap of the 'oldies radio station', where music from the past seems so much better than today's.... forgetting that the oldies station only plays that 1 song in 10,000 that people still want to hear. The vast majority of houses, barns, everyday objects from 100 years ago are either torn down or went to a landfill, and justifiably so, because they were ugly and they had outlived their usefulness. However, the brass table fan from 1920 was not thrown in the landfill because it was, and still is, an object of beauty. It is that 1 object in 10,000.

I have owned 2, I think I paid @ $125/ea. Neither one worked. I resold them, and used part of the profit to buy an air conditioner from Costco. Or I could have bought an entire crate of Holmes $8 fans from Wally-world.

[sun of sand]

I wasn't raised in an age or by a family much into sentimentality
I listen to rap and hip hop and R&B as well as as everything else
ANyone who knows rap and has some sense
at the very least
KNOWS
that rap up to the mid 90's was its golden age.
occasionally a few good ones came out after that by the usual suspects
then everything changed and fewer now come out

it is not the same
and it is not as good

only those coming up in this age believe it's as good as any



i don't personally subscribe to the dodo/extinction theory of that which should die does
I think mentality changes often for good or bad based on good or bad information
people don't care after a while
want "new" things
they feel stuck in the mud and desire change
good or bad


ok

how many would say that WWII was our best generation of men?

isn't that a commonly held belief

attitudes better?
harder working on average?
less societal ills?

who is to blame?
first, is it true? Just more people now?

I think there is much more to this question that is hidden from view just like those whales and huge beasts in the sea you can't see except for when they pop up to the top
otherwise ...they're not really in existence to us


I've driven the way from LA to Vegas and spent time in death valley, ridgecrest, trona
yeah
but not the same


what do we lose in effort to maintain safety?




stroke
now you're forced to shut it