Monday, July 18, 2005
Over the puddle to the UK & France
London....well as Samuel Johnson said, "When a man is tired of
London, he is tired of life."
I couldn't agree more. I love Paris, NY, and San Francisco for
different reasons, and I don't love London more, but there is something
about London that puts it at the top of my favorite cities.
It may be the organic nature of London.
Paris is planned, New York (Manhattan) is a grid, and undulating San Francisco is incomparably beautiful. Chicago is mighty, Rome is ancient. But London...
London is spaghetti, a coral reef of humanity, a city of unexpected
twists and turns, a 2000 year old aggregate of architecture and
streets, a city that should not be as efficient or easy as it is.
London is perhaps the most fascinating city I have visited. London is always new, or in the midst of revitalizing.
A hodge-podge of everything about cities and humanity thrown together
willy-nilly...yet it works!! It swings like a pendulum do.
Being in London this time round will have special meaning, as I add my silent respect for the strength and resiliency of its people, and as I remember how beloved London is to me.
London, he is tired of life."
I couldn't agree more. I love Paris, NY, and San Francisco for
different reasons, and I don't love London more, but there is something
about London that puts it at the top of my favorite cities.
It may be the organic nature of London.
Paris is planned, New York (Manhattan) is a grid, and undulating San Francisco is incomparably beautiful. Chicago is mighty, Rome is ancient. But London...
London is spaghetti, a coral reef of humanity, a city of unexpected
twists and turns, a 2000 year old aggregate of architecture and
streets, a city that should not be as efficient or easy as it is.
London is perhaps the most fascinating city I have visited. London is always new, or in the midst of revitalizing.
A hodge-podge of everything about cities and humanity thrown together
willy-nilly...yet it works!! It swings like a pendulum do.
Being in London this time round will have special meaning, as I add my silent respect for the strength and resiliency of its people, and as I remember how beloved London is to me.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
I love America, I love France
I wrote the following in response to posts (here and here) discussing the difference between US and Euro work culture, which were in reaction to Tom Friedman's recent columns. Tom,if you don't know, is the guru of flatness.
The posters made some good points, had some compelling laments, but started to veer into the old, "hate where I am, grass is greener..." sort of thing. Most of this was along the lines of "French women are so beautiful, and we are so fat", or "France is so beautiful, America is so ugly". "The French have cool architecture, we have strip malls."
I agree with most of this-to a point. I have seen ugliness in Paris and other parts of Europe, and fat boorish people.
Our cities have much to offer. I travel in America plenty, and there are some extremely beautiful women here, and plenty of folks who are in shape, are cultured, can think for themselves, care about experience over stuff, enjoy life...and so on.
As we are fighting to free ourselves from the grip of the idiot wind, from the frightened half of the country, we need to keep in mind the great architecture, the incredible natural beauty, the vigour and creativity, the sheer exuberance of the American people, the resiliency, the great cultural and technolgical gifts we have given the world.
I go to the uk and france 2-3 times a year for business, and I always take time for west and welaxation when I am there. I am developing warm friendships there.
I hope to live in either England or France on a permanent basis one day. I agree with most of the thoughts expressed here today, and I love being over there. I feel like I fit there, and don't fit here. When I come back I have the same types of reactions mentioned above.
But I think it is good to attempt to maintain perspective during this Dark Night of the American Soul.
I have met and seen beautiful French women, but I have seen a fair amount of fat French women. Frankly, the Brits, Americans, Swedes, Italians, Indonesians, Persians, and most of the world have equally beautiful women, and many are friendlier as well.
America, as a society is still widely admired for its vigour and creativity. Granted, we are losing that, it is being repressed by our dumb other half.
The last time I flew across the US, on a glorious day, I kept hearing America the Beautiful in my head, and looking at the spectacular topography below, I choked up many times.
I agree that we are sacrificing much of what I just mentioned to the almighty profit. Much of our country is in the grip of consumerism, fear and complacency. We need to keep what we are capable of and the gifts we have in mind, if for nothing else other than incentive.
So, let's be critical of what is wrong or should be changed about America, but let us not stop loving the land, the ideal, the dream.
Let's be willing to go through hell, and fight for something that isn't as far out of reach as we think.
Let's learn our lessons where we should, and remember our own beauty.
I love America! Vive la France!
The posters made some good points, had some compelling laments, but started to veer into the old, "hate where I am, grass is greener..." sort of thing. Most of this was along the lines of "French women are so beautiful, and we are so fat", or "France is so beautiful, America is so ugly". "The French have cool architecture, we have strip malls."
I agree with most of this-to a point. I have seen ugliness in Paris and other parts of Europe, and fat boorish people.
Our cities have much to offer. I travel in America plenty, and there are some extremely beautiful women here, and plenty of folks who are in shape, are cultured, can think for themselves, care about experience over stuff, enjoy life...and so on.
As we are fighting to free ourselves from the grip of the idiot wind, from the frightened half of the country, we need to keep in mind the great architecture, the incredible natural beauty, the vigour and creativity, the sheer exuberance of the American people, the resiliency, the great cultural and technolgical gifts we have given the world.
I go to the uk and france 2-3 times a year for business, and I always take time for west and welaxation when I am there. I am developing warm friendships there.
I hope to live in either England or France on a permanent basis one day. I agree with most of the thoughts expressed here today, and I love being over there. I feel like I fit there, and don't fit here. When I come back I have the same types of reactions mentioned above.
But I think it is good to attempt to maintain perspective during this Dark Night of the American Soul.
I have met and seen beautiful French women, but I have seen a fair amount of fat French women. Frankly, the Brits, Americans, Swedes, Italians, Indonesians, Persians, and most of the world have equally beautiful women, and many are friendlier as well.
America, as a society is still widely admired for its vigour and creativity. Granted, we are losing that, it is being repressed by our dumb other half.
The last time I flew across the US, on a glorious day, I kept hearing America the Beautiful in my head, and looking at the spectacular topography below, I choked up many times.
I agree that we are sacrificing much of what I just mentioned to the almighty profit. Much of our country is in the grip of consumerism, fear and complacency. We need to keep what we are capable of and the gifts we have in mind, if for nothing else other than incentive.
So, let's be critical of what is wrong or should be changed about America, but let us not stop loving the land, the ideal, the dream.
Let's be willing to go through hell, and fight for something that isn't as far out of reach as we think.
Let's learn our lessons where we should, and remember our own beauty.
I love America! Vive la France!
