Livable streets
November 10, 2010
We used to live on a busy street, directly across from a hospital. In front of our house the street split, throwing an uninhabited triangle patch of lawn in between us and our across-the-street neighbors.
Connections were sparse. We barely knew our neighbors.
Now we do.
Our new house is situated away from the main traffic vein; the houses are directly across from each other. And, according to a fantastic study conducted in 1969, it should be no surprise that we’re closer to our neighbors than we ever had been in our old neighborhood.
It’s social science.
According to a study on the livability of cities by Donald Appleyard, a former Professor of Urban Design, “just the mere presence of cars, with their implied aspects of danger, noise and pollution, crushes the quality of life in neighborhoods.”
From “Research: Mapping the Impact of Traffic on the Livability of Streets” (from Information Aesthetics):
…One chart conveys the social interactions on the 3 different streets, with each line denoting a unique connection between one person on the street and another. There are much fewer lines on the heavily traffic street as opposed to the moderate or the light traffic street, which clearly has a lot more interconnections. This chart also includes clusters of little dots that indicate where people physically gather. So it shows how on the heavily traffic street, there are a much smaller number of dots and there are only a handful of places where people would gather on their street.
Traffic forms a wall in between people, and proximity plays just as much a part in being good neighbors as personality. The same could be said about a bunch of things, I’d assume. Mall design. Festival planning. Most importantly: office arrangement. The closer and more open the environment – free from traffic, clutter and walls – the better the interaction between employees.
We all need our space. But we also need to feel close to something.
Tags: Random |
2 Comments
What I’ve Been Reading – FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History
November 3, 2010
What I’ve Read:
FreeDarko Presents: The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History by FreeDarko
I’m going to keep this short.
I love basketball. Love it. It’s the best. Absolutely the greatest sport ever created.
I love basketball history. I love everything from Mikan to Shaq, West to Paul. And I love reading books about basketball history.
I love great writing. I worship at the altar of Steinbeck, always searching for beautiful prose. And for that reason, I’ve always found a lot of enjoyment in Free Darko – basketball writing with a literary slant.
With a joy for the game unlike any other. With passion. With soul.
The Free Darko collective’s first book (FreeDarko Presents: The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac) was sublime. But combine that with the history of America’s most beautiful game, illuminate it with Jacob “Big Baby Belafonte” Weinstein’s illustrations, and you’ve got a masterpiece.
That’s all. I promised to keep it short.
The treat days are killing me
December 4, 2009
There is a box of malted milk balls on the table by my desk. Lynell’s candy jar is filled with leftover Halloween candy, and will be constantly half-full – like an optimist’s sweet tooth – for the rest of the season. Boxes arrive daily with summer sausage, crackers, spreads, chocolates, bars.
Sometimes the treats are homemade. Other times, they’re prepackaged with preservatives and archaic logos, their origination betrayed by “made in South Dakota” rustic charm.
And that’s just what we get from vendors. Factor in a couple of potlucks, a Christmas party, and a holiday “treat day” countdown, and there’s no wonder I roll home every night.
I like carrots too. But I certainly never see those landing on the break room counter. What, are they all being saved for the Easter bunny?
Alltop
March 15, 2009
This happened a few weeks ago, but I’m a little behind.
Black Marks on Wood Pulp is (one of) the newest site(s) on Alltop.
I can be found in the Twenty-Something category. That’s what happens when there’s no central topic – you get lumped into a category you’ve already grown out of.
But until there’s a “Nothing” category, here I am. Go check out the site. It’s pretty awesome.
Tags: Random |
2 Comments
Do it better
January 22, 2009
Eyes watering, lying on my back, I stared into a fluorescent light. Metal scraped against my teeth, the taste of plaque cascading across my palate. I thought about how fitting it would be to write about how much I hate the dentist – how it’s both cliché and intensely real; a necessary evil that we’re all forced to live with in order to keep, you know, chewing things.
And then I got to work. I started to type. Something hit me.
I’ve already talked about this.
”Intrusive. Awkward. Banal. Antisepticised and stretched taut with rubber.
Have you ever chewed on your fingernails? You know the taste you get, like a grinded piece of old plastic, dark and deep yet earthy and natural?
Mix that taste with cinnamon, then scrape at your eyelid.
That, to me, is the dentist.”
That’s from June of 2007. From this site. From my mind.
With over 1,000 posts in the backlog of Black Marks on Wood Pulp, I’m finding it increasingly harder to find topics I haven’t already written about. And at work, after only three years of writing copy, I’m discovering a newfound mental block, where the only ideas I can come up with are old ideas.
It’s not writer’s block – that would assume I can’t think of anything at all. It’s more like writer’s blockage, with thousands of previously written ideas are flooding back at once, blocking the progress of anything new or creative.
When this happens to us – in any form of creative work – it’s easy to give up. To say, “Oh, all of my ideas are dry,” and move along with something trivial, or accept a less than stellar idea in the name of Getting Work Done. We are led down the simple path. The path to hackdom.
But it’s important to realize that, indeed, thoughts are rarely original. Except in the case of new forms of media, everything’s been done. Creativity isn’t coming up with new ideas – it’s taking the existing ideas and mixing them in a way you don’t expect.
There’s a quote from director Jim Jarmusch (which I discovered just a few weeks ago on Please Feed the Animals) that sums this up:
”Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.
Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.
Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it.
In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.’”
So I can write about going to the dentist again. Or, I can write about writing about the dentist. Or, I can forgo the dentist completely and talk about what would happen if I didn’t go. I can write an ad for a dentist. I can look for anagrams. Describe my walk from the car to the dental office in the same vein as an executioner’s walk. Speak from the vantage point of my teeth.
It doesn’t matter if it’s been done. It matter if it’s done well.
Facebookery
December 16, 2008
It’s the slow season around the BMOWP offices. Actually, it’s the busy season everywhere else, which leaves the phones at BMOWP on “Away.” Or something.
In the meantime, you can check us out on Facebook. Kind of. Through the “Blog Networks” add on, you can become a fan/friend/follower/whatever of Black Marks on Wood Pulp.
So do it, to it. Join the BMOWP Blog Network. I think that link works – it’s hard to tell, Facebook sucks most of the time.
New domains
July 31, 2008
It’s been busy around the office and at home, and it doesn’t look like things are letting up.
With that, a quick note. I have been sitting on two domains – mrvilhauer.com and coreyvilhauer.com – for a few months now. I’ve finally gotten around to activating them and sending them here.
So go ahead. Now you have three ways to get a hold of me! HOORAY!
More real BMOWP goodness to come. Eventually. I think.
About
Black Marks on Wood Pulp has been commenting on life and everything associated with it since February 2005. He's also photoblogging at Much More Sure. Everything you've ever wanted to know about Black Marks on Wood Pulp and Corey Vilhauer is located here, on the About Page.
Posts
- On productivity
- Adoration is not a commodity
- Where’s My Jetpack goes on hiatus. Damn it.
- Web-based driveway moments
- Over-security questions
- The usability gap
- P.O.S., “Why Go?” – 8.20.09
- Black Marks on Wood Pulp wins South Dakota Socies Award, Crowd Sorta Rejoices.
- On personal taste, and why sometimes I want to quit the Internet
- Bowles on “bloggers’ disease”
Comments
- Corey Vilhauer on On productivity: "So, essentially, what you’re saying is that we need to get rid of product managers. I concur."
- Brian Rupert on On productivity: "Well said. I enjoy the principles from Rework about turning off email and chat for x amount of time and focusing on producing. I find that the real problem is..."
- Brandon on Over-security questions: "I had a similar issue the other day with Wells Fargo. I was leaving the country and thought I’d notify them so that they wouldn’t shut down my..."
- Terri on Black Marks on Wood Pulp wins South Dakota Socies Award, Crowd Sorta Rejoices.: "Congratulations on the award, Corey!"
- Dave on Where’s My Jetpack goes on hiatus. Damn it.: "Thanks, Corey. That was very nice."
