Building the Blogroll

I discovered a terrific site today called BLDG BLOG, which takes as its subtitle "Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures." It's packed with interesting posts on those themes -- like this one, this one, and this one -- and though it uses the same ol' Blogger that I do, it looks really good.

It seems BLDG BLOG is going to be relatively quiet while the author finishes a book, but the site's archives have enough to keep any new readers busy for a long time.

I was led to a recent post there about Los Angeles. A taste:

L.A. is the apocalypse: it's you and a bunch of parking lots. No one's going to save you; no one's looking out for you. It's the only city I know where that's the explicit premise of living there – that's the deal you make when you move to L.A.

The city, ironically, is emotionally authentic. It says: no one loves you; you're the least important person in the room; get over it. What matters is what you do there.

And maybe that means renting Hot Fuzz and eating too many pretzels; or maybe that means driving a Prius out to Malibu and surfing with Daryl Hannah as a means of protesting something; or maybe that means buying everything Fredric Jameson has ever written and even underlining significant passages as you visit the Westin Bonaventura. Maybe that just means getting into skateboarding, or into E!, or into Zen, Kabbalah, and Christian mysticism; or maybe you'll plunge yourself into gin-fueled all night Frank Sinatra marathons – or you'll lift weights and check email every two minutes on your Blackberry and watch old Bruce Willis films.

Who cares?

Literally no one cares, is the answer. No one cares. You're alone in the world. L.A. is explicit about that.

(Via The Frontal Cortex)