ashram or the hartford-group

A happy commune of people living together, pooling their time and resources to care for one another, in a big mansion in Connecticut are being threatened with eviction by over-zealous zoning ordinances that prevent such arrangements from becoming cemented.

Friends not related by blood or bond cannot cohabitate—though a household may have an unlimited amount of live-in domestics on hand. I remember that a similar thing happened to the Golden Girls when the neighbourhood board declared that Blanche could not have roommates. She solved their dilemma by making the others co-owners, which I suppose wouldn’t work for the constellation above but neither should they have to stoop to the fiction of indentured servitude to one another for the sake of compliance. What do you think? Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) in the States and beyond already impose enough extra onerous regulations, it seems. Do such regulations against alternate, extended families have a place in municipal code any more?

mos eisley or in popular culture

While there are far more serious and bedeviled threats to cultural heritage in the region with the purging of ancient Persian and Assyrian archaeological sites by ISIL and civil wars, and none need convincing of how the world will be the poorer for their loss for the undiscovered, under-appreciated and the suffering of the people under this marauding terror, maybe there is trivially a new hope in a dedicated, cult fan-base.

There’s already mounting awareness and concern over the set of the Skywalker Ranch in Tunisia, the moisture farm being threatened by increased desertification and local conflicts—and next in the cross-hairs of the Caliphate are the ruins of Hatra. This temple, under threat of the bulldozer and wrecking-ball was the backdrop of the opening scenes of the 1976 British film The Omen, with Ambassador Gregory Peck unwittingly adopting Damien, the Anti-Christ. UNESCO has already significantly levied accusations of crimes against humanity for this wanton destruction, but maybe the sentimentality of cinema-buffs (Petra/the resting place of the Holy Grail, Palmyra, Krak des Chevaliers, Hama, Apamea, Homs) can lend some volume to the outcry.

bathwater or hearty and hale

A strange twaining of two articles that I read about cultural norms—well the first is more an ageless tradition while the second is maybe a marketing gimmick.

In Iceland, not even the most fretful first time parent would bat an eye about leaving their babies, safely cocooned out of doors to doze in sub-zero temperatures while at home or on the go, strollers left seemingly unattended, but the Icelanders and all the Nordic peoples having assuredly developed—out of custom, extra-sensory perception to know baby’s comfortable and safe, lining the sidewalks in front of shops and cafes. Of course, this fuss-adverse method and exposing the infants to the elements is happily spartan, better equipping them to handle the cold and dark winters through their lives. The other example, a US patent for a baby-cage, came at a time before helicopter-parenting, and while I suppose it never caught on, I bet home-makers liked the little bit of extra space. I imagine that the air outside, however, in the areas where high-rise apartment dwellers lived was not the best quality and nowadays only window unit air-conditioners are perched precariously on the sides of buildings.

five-by-five

callin’ oates: a hotline for your Hall and Oates needs

noachian deluge: fully one hemisphere of the red planet may have been covered by a vast ocean

thrilla in manila: the city with the distinction of being the selfie-capital of the world has a new museum exhibition that puts visitors in the art

acme: some cartoon rules of etiquette from animator Chuck Jones

product-placement: creative illustrations seen in every day, random objects as they lay

nave and apse

Globe-trotting photographer Richard Silver has developed and perfected a technique to capture the panoramic sweep of the beauty and majesty of the ceilings of churches and cathedrals. Too big to be contained in one image by the usual methods, these vertical wide-angle shots certainly don’t diminish the scope and grandeur of the architecture (to a much greater affect than pictured here and maybe a little better behaved than crawling around on the floor vying for the right position—places of worship are meant for another type of crawling around on the floor), with a dizzying quality that feels almost circular but they are certainly places all to visit in person.