April 30, 2004
Back at the Hotel with Scrabble and an Orange
Posted by nerdling | April 30, 2004 11:03 AM
A rather lengthy (yet entertaining) excerpt from Marc Simpson's book, Saint Morrissey, on sex and the pop star who made "is he or isn't he?" a way of life.
Is there any sex in Morrissey?
"None whatsoever. Which in itself is quite sexy." Hah! Cheeky bastard!
Speaking of being trapped by sexuality, look out 2005! Under construction now in Wilton Manors, FL is Wilton Station, the first gated community—"upscale village"—marketed specifically to gays. As though building gated ghettos, destroying urban centers and further stratifying the population wasn't bad enough, now the housing industry is working it's way into marketing through identity politics. The complex will offer a martini bar, dry cleaning, lap pool, spas, waterfalls and a "Tiki Hut" on site for everyone out there willing to accept the rampant gay stereotypes and buy a home to support them!
"These people care greatly about their bodies," says the project's architect Vernon Pierce, a straight man who grew up with a gay sister. "The health club was viewed as extremely important, so we designed a facility that will be second to none."
"Another key area of concern was entertaining," says Pierce. "So we upgraded the kitchens' size, and made sure they're open to the rest of the unit." The gay contingent, he says, responded to the prospect of cooking while hobnobbing with guests. Pierce also expanded the terraces in many units to a whopping 7 feet by 19 feet.
"Because the gay community is gregarious," says Pierce, "we thought: Why not create a bunch of public spaces? We changed the design of certain units to incorporate a 9-foot-square front porch." Their research indicated that gays would actually furnish and use these porches.
All in all, the gay customer remained mostly true to stereotype. "They do demand a higher level of design," Pierce says. "So we put in a lot more detail. Nicer columns, nicer paving patterns." The result, judging from renderings, is a handsome development, not overly original, but "upscale" in that sun-drenched Florida way.
I care about my body, love to cook and entertain, pine for a yard but would settle for a balcony or better yet, a porch; I feel I'm very gregarious and am a veritable fascist about design quality. Thus, according to the builders' criteria, I am obviously one of "these people"—er, gay.
On an architectural note, I'd like to point out that I'm not very impressed with the overall design of the place. It's fussy and overly contrived. Further, the floorplans need some help. Who wants the laundry room and water heater right outside the master suite? Further, why is the study inside the master, and why is the walk-in closet inside the study inside the master? And what's with the big, L-shaped empty space between the master bath and private terrace?
Google goes public with a double-tiered stockholder structure and a fuck-you letter to Wall Street.
The Dandy Warhols have released a two-CD set of previously unreleased material, The Black Album/Come On Feel The Dandy Warhols, presently available only from the band's website. (And the most unattractive picture of the usually uber-sexy Courtney Taylor-Taylor that I've seen.)
Random piece in Chart Attack about the band that yours truly and company released an album for, once upon a long time ago.
Lead singer Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand gave a lecture about the merits of file sharing at Edinburgh University:
Alex had earlier told BBC news: "To be honest I'm all for song swapping online. Downloading music from the Internet is something I do myself and something that I'd be keen to encourage.
"From my experience it isn't necessarily the musicians themselves that are against it, but those companies involved in the music industry. The way the music industry is trying to regulate online sites at the minute is very heavy-handed - fining kids for downloading songs is just crazy." An excellent point sir, and well taken.
