M-am uitat pe coloana de «blogroll» din dreapta sau stânga unor bloguri româneşti şi, după ce-am stressat Firefoxu’ cu un număr innombrabil de tab-uri (cum se spune onglet pe româneşte? oare loc de băgat deştu’? în software?!), am hotărât să «copiază şi lipeşte» câteva chestii de la lume adunate şi înapoi pe ţeavă date.
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This was inspired by the reading of “Rethinking the Mall”, in the NYT.

I hate the malls because they mark the demise of the proximity shopping. I prefer to have a butcher who knows what kind of steak I like to buy. And I hate being forced to go to the mall for each and every small item I might be missing.

I hate the malls because they are placed in the city outskirts, thus forcing people to waste time and fuel. In North America, you literally need a car to reach a mall. Even the socialist urban planning used to think of what people need in their neighborhood. What happened to common sense? Oh, the price of the land…

I hate the malls because they are inhuman citadels of the consumerism, symbols of the standardization, slaughterhouses of the individuality. Malls should have been invented by Mao Zedong, not by the capitalists. I am going to the mall like would go to a prison…

I hate the malls because they are not practical. Yes, you have all kind of stores under the same roof, but this also happens in the more classical several-floor department stores that used to be located in the very center of the towns. Yes, you can find almost everything in those discount stores or hypermarkets that form the core of any shopping mall. Everything, except for the good stuff, the merchandise pour la bonne bouche. If the masses don’t buy what you would buy, then you won’t find it. Plus, the large-scale retailing frightens me: all those huge surfaces! I must be agoraphobic. Oh, and then you have all kind of expensive clothing stores nobody would buy from: I am calling them “exhibitions of non-apparel for whores and stupid pussies”. Ugly design, low-quality fabric, prêt-à-porter often Made in China… for the price of custom-made clothing! And don’t start me on the difficulty to find good quality and decent looking footwear!

I hate the malls for many other reasons…
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When stressed, depressed and not in the mood for anything, what could a blogger post? A bunch of links, with limited comments and occasional excerpts. Multilingual, sort of: the text is mostly in Romanian, but follow the links names, as they might lead to pages in English or French.
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N-am vizitat Casa Horta când am fost la Bruxelles acum doi ani. Dommage. Acum aflu că printre operele sale, în afară de deja văzutul muzeu al benzilor desenate, se găseşte şi hotelul Tassel. (Cineva a scris şi o cărticică pe tema asta, de negăsit.)

Am ajuns să aflu despre casa Tassel de pe un sait românesc de artă, cam varză fiind el, dar găzduind şi poza de mai jos:
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That was the perfect self-gift to be made to an obsolete, “legacy” (vintage?) guy like me: Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration, and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties, by Patricia Bayer.

It’s much more than a coffee-table book, it’s a delight! Highly recommended to those who watched Agatha Christie’s Poirot for the Art Deco scenery.
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There is one main reason I keep watching and watching again the 50-min episodes of the “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” TV series featuring David Suchet, whenever available: I love the Art Deco architecture, and many such episodes show such a building fictitiously labeled “Whitehaven Mansions”, when the actual building does exist in Charterhouse Square, Smithfield, London, under the name of “Florin Court”!
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