Beautiful cities
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Paul Watson wrote:
I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
I wouldn't lie outdoors anywhere in Manhattan.
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Bits of every city can be really beautiful, but large bits of every city have to be kinda unattractive - it is the nature of the beast. Its a bit like the public and employee areas of a company building - carpet and pictures for the public and executives, breezeblock / cinderblock for the workers. I was going to say that no-one can make sewage processing plants attractive, but of course the Victorians did. So maybe it's a money thing - if a bit doesn't need to be be pretty we don't spend money making it that way. Even the Swiss haven't managed to make their cities beautiful throughout, and I'm pretty sure the Swiss Tourist Board drives down every road in the country to assess it's visual appeal. And then builds a waterfall, or plants a cow if it falls below a certain level.
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Someone suggested to me that in a lot of cities the East end is worst and the West end is the nice end. Any corroborating experience?
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I find some cities quite beautiful. I grew up in a smaller city on the Mississippi. The city is a in a valley surrounded by beautiful bluffs. The colors in the fall are spectacular. But really it is qutie spectacular in the spring, summer, and winter as well. I tell you this for percpective. The city is also beautiful. Granted it depends on the city, but that is true anywhere (countryside, sea-side etc.) Sometimes beauty comes just from not have being seen or noticed. For example, I grew up in said city but really took it for granted. After I moved away to college etc. I now enjoy the scenery much more when I return to my home town. I appreciated it before, but not in the same way. My dad once told me a story. He has lived in the above city most of his life. He works for parks and rec so he is outdoors qutie often. He was driving along one of the prairie drives and there was a guy sort of standing in the road setting up a tri-pod. At first he thought "What the heck is that screw ball doing?!?" Then he looked at what he was aiming his tripod (with camera at) and was amazed. At the time he realized he drives that road almost everyday but never really noticed the beauty. The same is true for city lights and structures. Sometimes you just have to stop and look around to admire it all.
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Cities contain beautiful elements but I've yet to find one that at a whole can be called beautiful. Highways, industrial sections, unkept river fronts, litter, multi level car parks, brutalistic architecture, airports, railways, belching buses, 10 road signs on a lamp post, neon etc. I've often stopped on the side of a city road to get out my tripod and camera to capture a beautiful moment, but invariably it's shattered by a dump truck roaring past or the 1980's council flats just out of shot. You'd have to plan every kerb side to please me :)
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
What I saw of Vancouver 25 years ago was pretty. So was Quebec City. Toronto is Gawd-awful. Forty years back, washington, DC was a joy to behold. Now it is crap. Canberra is dull beyond belief. I think most cities have been elephanted up beyond belief in the last 40 years.
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Someone suggested to me that in a lot of cities the East end is worst and the West end is the nice end. Any corroborating experience?
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Paul Watson wrote:
Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful.
What nonsense. Of course a city can be beautiful if that is how you see it. Just because you don't see it doesn't make you right. In the same way that I can admire the beauty of architecture, I can also appreciate the natural beauty of, for instance, the Appalachian mountains or the Mojave desert or the Derby dales, etc, etc. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Madrid is a beautiful city, and Florence, Durham for that matter is a very pleasant place to be.
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rham for that matter is a very pleasant place to be.
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Paul Watson wrote:
443 meters of concrete
I think people appreciate the security of those 443 meters of suburbia. ;)
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Paul Watson wrote:
Dublin
yeah OK.
Paul Watson wrote:
Cape Town
Eeek! Hey, wait till you see Luxembourg. Wait till you have a drink at Scotts bar or Liquid in the Grund. Then you will know beauty. Beauty and beer. Damn, does it get any better! :)
============================== Nothing to say.
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Paul Watson wrote:
Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful.
What nonsense. Of course a city can be beautiful if that is how you see it. Just because you don't see it doesn't make you right. In the same way that I can admire the beauty of architecture, I can also appreciate the natural beauty of, for instance, the Appalachian mountains or the Mojave desert or the Derby dales, etc, etc. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
You speak of specifics, of buildings and sections within a larger whole which in my experience fails to be beautiful. Cities fail to blend different periods together, they erect monstrous multi level car parks and lay 4 lane high-ways through their middles. Whole neighbourhoods go unmaintained. The route from airport to many a city center is bland concrete. As a whole cities are not beautiful. You have to stick to very defined areas to remain in beauty and even then an ugly alleyway is a few steps away.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
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Whenever I hear someone describing a city as beautiful I have to wonder have they ever been outside of a city. I fear these are the same people who call gilt edging and purple drapes tasteful. Not that cities don't have their charms, and as a city boy I much prefer living in a city than a town, but beauty is not the word I would use. Some people say it is the concentrated humanity that is the beauty of it and I too like to be amongst the bustle of a energised city, but it's not beautiful. It's not that nature is always beautiful and right, I just think we are fooling ourselves when we call 443 meters of concrete "beautiful". I live in Dublin, a small city, and the majority of it is badly planned and poorly built. I've lived in Cape Town, a big, ugly city with a beautiful mountain in the middle of it. Durban city is just manky. Harare could do with realising it is in Africa and not Europe. London sprawls, Las Vegas boasts tastelessness, Athens destroys its history, Edinburgh looks best from Arthur's seat on a foggy day, Glasgow is downright medieval, Paris makes you too dizzy to notice the dirt, Windhoek has no charm, Johannesburg should be leveled, Bloemfontein makes me suicidal and Jakarta needs a biblical flood. I haven't been to New York but from the looks of it the best part is smack bang in the middle of Central Park on your back looking up at the sky.
cheers, Paul M. Watson.
Stand on Scotland Road in Liverpool - "Scotty Road" to the locals - or the East Lancs' Road. Preferably, a stretch where all the buildings around you are grey, as is the tarmac / pavement, the bus shelters, and the other people. It needs to be almost dusk, so that the sky, too, is grey. Preferably on a Sunday, so there's no welcoming light coming from the (closed) shops. Also preferably, raining, with a light wind, so that the rain goes down the back of your neck and up your trouser leg at the same time. Stand by one of the vandalized bus shelters, waiting for a bus that will likely never come. And if you were born in Liverpool (like me), and rarely get back there, that experience - the view, the greyness and the rain - will be the most beautiful you've ever had.
