Got a blog tip? Contact us

« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »

Closed-Caption Cover-Up

Sometimes my role as a Luddite assists in my more prominent role as defender of the underdog. In this instance, the underdogs in question are users of television's closed-captioning feature. (This group consists of the hearing impaired, viewers of any BBC series, and hammered fans in loud sports bars.)

I was watching a VHS tape of the final episode of the sadly ignored sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I. No, I don't have TiVo or DVR. Yes, I could've watched the episode ("The Lady Varnishes") online, but since a friend had been kind enough to record it for me, I felt obliged to watch the tape.

Unfortunately, my friend is even more technologically inept than me, and the recording's sound quality was dreadful. More than once, I had to revert to those trusty closed captions to catch a particularly garbled word.

Imagine my shock, then, when reviewing a scene in subtitle mode, to read that the background music was Def Leppard's "Photograph." Any student of mid-80's top-40 hard rock—and I include myself in these shameful ranks—could instantly recognize the actual audio, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by Scorpions.

Oh, sure, maybe the episode was submitted for captioning before the music had been switched. Or maybe that caption guy just likes to sneak in the word "def" as often as possible. Well, let it be known: I'm watching you, caption guy. And I'm watching you with the captions on.

A Magazine You Can Read in Your Underwear

I've been spammed for a lot of things that I neither need nor want. Out of all the junk I've received, however, I can think of nothing I want less than Blogger & Podcaster magazine. Finally, a print magazine worth leaving my computer for!

And it is apparently part of a trend, as I received this email on the same day that Boing Boing wrote about dubious net-to-paper daily Boston Now. I don't think that I can top the Boing Boing commenter who wrote "their slogan should be 'Bringing you yesterday's news tomorrow."

B&P—why not give them a snappy acronym—says that you can get the print magazine and podcast from their homepage. I hope that the podcast isn't just some dude reading the magazine.

The High Cost of Free Parking

Slate has a nice column about Donald Shoup's pathbreaking book The High Cost of Free Parking, called "Why Parking Your Car Is More Environmentally Destructive Than Driving It."

Urban on-street parking is almost always underpriced, which is why you can almost never find a spot. In many cases, it would be better to have no on-street parking at all, freeing up that real estate for expanded homes, shops and cafes or additional driving lanes.

Clearly, the New York City administration could stand to read Shoup's book. A new study out illustrates much unnecesssary  parking and driving in New York, including this factoid:

The average cost of parking on-street at a meter is $1.73 compared with $21 to $27 (depending on duration) for off-street parking in the Manhattan central business district.

I made a really big joystick.

So about a month ago, the curator of the i am 8 bit art show, Jon Gibson, commissoned me to make a giant, working, Atari 2600 joystick. I said yes, but, honestly, I wasn't 100% certain I could do it. But, I did! For once, this is not a post about what a big failure I am! I made the joystick 15x the size of the actual one, worked with a skilled cabinetmaker named Dan Fill to make those nice big round holes, wired it all up, and it works. Last night we unveiled it at the opening of the show, hooked up to an Atari projected on the outside wall of the gallery. And boy, did it get the crap beat out of it. Hundreds of happy, drunk, art-and-old videogame lovers were there to hop on, stomp the button and yank that stick around. That's why I made it, so I can't complain, but oh man was it hard seeing scrapes and footprints all over the finish I was fussing over like an effete furniture restorer not three hours before. Still, it's a great, fun show and I'm excited to just be a part of it. There's a writeup here and a bunch of pictures of all the amazing art here. Oh, and I later found out that there's an even bigger Atari joystick made by a Mary Flanagan. I think it's in the UK. So I really made the most Secondest Biggest Atari 2600 Joystick.

Take A Look at the Smartest Breasts in Town

This image came from the website for Allergan Silicone Breast Implants.

I have nothing to add.

(Via Heaneyland!)

Beer Goes With Everything

A study by the Cardiff University Violence and Society Research Group found that the price of beer correlates with the number of violence-related injuries.

A follow-up study should be done to check birth rates against a nine-month delay of beer prices.

(Via MindHacks)

Who Knew?

This whole time, underneath those filthy old Manhattan streets, there were gorgeous hardwood floors!

The sociology of transit

I've been reading about urban planning and transportation lately and thought I'd share an observation gleaned from a couple of books—namely, The Geography of Nowhere by Howard Kunstler and How Cities Work by Alex Marshall. The observation goes something like this: seemingly simple changes to city streets or pathways can change entire ways of living. In the same way that removing a particular insect can spark a chain of events that ultimately transforms the "natural" world, the design of roads, trains, and city spaces can radically alter the social environment — the way people live.

One of the very few cities to fully recognize this in the U.S. is Portland, Oregon. For a couple of decades now, Portland has been working toward stopping sprawl and encouraging mass transit. In a way, you could say it's becoming "New York-ified."

To discourage driving downtown, Portland's regional government has reducing parking and increased the cost. People who can't afford the new rates now take light rail to work. Alex Marshall interviewed a typical commuter—a middle-aged woman—who, at first, hated the public rail.

"I didn't want to ride it at all. I didn't like being so close to other people... But now I really like it...It's turned me into a reader. I didn't used to read at all, but now I read about 20 books a month. I've become so accustomed to using the MAX [light rail] that now I forget I have a car."

As Marshall writes, Portland's policies have not only changed how this woman gets to work, it has given her a new hobby and a new comfort amid strangers. While surrounded by a standing-room-only car filled with workers, execs, and kids from all walks of life, she now feels at ease.

Portland's planners have also encouraged the co-mingling of retail and residential buildings. We New Yorkers tend to take this for granted, but mixing retail and residential allows us to do our shopping by walking—saving the time, expense, noise, and pollutants associated with driving. By walking, we stay in better shape and also benefit from a safer and more vibrant street life. Areas where commercial is separated from residential building tend to be the lifeless and scary after shops or offices close for the day. Think Wall Street in the 1980s.

The Geography of Nowhere is the more entertaining of the two books; Kunstler is funnier and a better wordsmith. But How Cities Work, by focusing on transportation, arguably brings us closer to the truth.

Kunstler is an advocate of "New Urbanism," a school of planniing that focus on aesthetics and ignores the radical force that is transportation. New Urbanists purport to build community by bringing back front porches and sidewalks, hiding garages, and planning small shopping areas within walking distance of neighborhoods.

But Marshall cuts to the heart of the problem with the New Urbanist critique:

The classic suburban home with the double-wide garage doors facing the street is a symbol of suburban banality and the triumph of the car. But in an automobile-dominated setting, this is an appropriate an honest way to build.... If you don't like houses with garage doors on their front, then you have to change the overall transportation system... Putting alleys and garages behind houses will not magically create a streetcar system. It will just mean that residents have sacrificed both their front and back yards for the sake of appearances.... Hiding the driveway is a kind of urban puritanism, hiding the real workings of our society.

Kinda like astroturf.

The Curious Tale of the Advertising Illness

In response to my post about autism and TV, reader Bernardo tipped me off to this story from China Daily about autistic kids' penchant for reciting advertising:

"Liang Liang, come here to use the washroom," asked the teacher, but the five-year-old boy astonished his teacher with an advertisement punch line "frequent urination, urgent urination, and delayed urination."

Liang Liang, who keeps himself in fashion of the latest advertisements by frequently speaking them out, is a kid suffering autism in Qiseguang Children Potentiality Exploration Center in Northeast China's Jilin Province. A lot of other kids in the center suffering from the same disease do not like to talk much, but once they open their mouths, it's usually an advertisement line.

I guess this shouldn't be all that surprising. Advertising is designed to stick in your brain... and if you don't have a firm grasp on social parameters, whatever sticks in your brain is likely what you'll repeat.

Are old houses really built to last?

This is the second of two interviews about obsolescence. Part one focuses on planned obsolescence and consumer products.

While it's often said that consumer products—from electronic devices to Ikea furniture—are "made to break," a little over a year ago I started wondering about buildings. Do real estate interests, I wondered, plan for obsolescence in the same way product designers do?

At the time, I was partaking of the great American dream: buying a house. In Brooklyn, there was very little my sweetie and I could afford. We knew we were going to be an as-of-yet-ungentrified neighborhood, but we had a choice between old "fixer-upper" brownstones or new construction. While new construction appeared to be the most economical route, I wasn't so sure. Though I know next to nothing about construction, the new places I visited struck me as the architectural equivalent of Ikea bookshelves. I saw sheetrocked walls that looked like they'd been left out in the rain, poorly aligned doors, and uneven floorboards—really shoddy work. On the other hand, the old brownstones had sloped floors, cracked plaster, and decades of dirt and grime.

Ultimately, we got lucky and snagged a 100 year-old limestone that was heads and shoulders above everything else in our price range. But in the year that we've spent working on the house, I keep coming back to the question: are old houses really built better than new ones, or is there just a lot of nostalgic thinking going around?

To find out, I talked to Robert Zagaroli, associate professor of architectural technology at New York City College of Technology. Born and bred in Brookyn, Mr. Zagaroli—a working architect—knows more than a thing or two about brownstone restoration.

STAY FREE! (CARRIE McLAREN): You often hear people say that old houses are built better than new ones, but is that true?

ROBERT ZAGAROLI: It's a cliché, but brownstones truly were built to last. New construction tends to be cheaper in two senses: it costs less and is lower quality. Today, it's perfectly legal to build with half-inch gypsum board, but most people can put their fist through it. If the house gets wet or moldy, the walls can't handle the wear and tear.

The standard in brownstones was plaster. You still have plaster walls in 200-year-old houses because plaster is very durable. The materials used in 18th and 19th century construction lasted longer: plaster, brick, and wood from old-growth forests. Today, the labor doesn't exist to install those products. The technology has changed. All wood now is farmed. There is no old-growth forest to tear down, so the wood industry has harvested trees for the last 30 years. It plants fast-growing trees, but the wood shrinks and therefore it's not as reliable, not as durable, not as sturdy, accurate, or dimensionally accurate. Newer wood has a shorter shelf life.

STAY FREE!: Why isn't the labor there?

ZAGAROLI: Economics. A mason can't afford to live in New York City. The economy doesn't support it. It's like the problem that New York City has with police and firemen. Many of the police and firemen don't live in the city boundaries because they don't earn enough. It would be incredibly expensive to build a brownstone today. We don't lay brick walls anymore. We only use brick for facing or re-surfacing. Today, it's concrete block or metal stud. Metal stud is very economical --  it's lighter than concrete, so the shipping, trucking, and manufacturing costs are less. And it's very green, because aluminum and other metals can be recycled or reused.

STAY FREE!: Do buildings have shorter lifespans now than they had in the 1940s or 1950s?

ZAGAROLI: New York buildings have a shorter shelf life in retail and office spaces. Office spaces don't have the same tenant for more than five or 10 years. But, yes, there's also a lower expectation for construction materials; they simply have to meet the building code. The New York City building code, which is going to be revised again shortly, is really minimal.
    You know the polyester stucco that you see on the lot line walls of buildings? That's a brand new building material, but it has a very short shelf life. Within 10 years you're going to need to rebuild that surface. If you build with brick, it'll be 50 years before you even need to touch it.

STAY FREE!: Is the building code still mostly geared to safety issues? Does it include any environmental concerns?

ZAGAROLI: The building code is concerned with the health and life-safety of the residents, not environmental matters. The LEED certification program [a rating system for green building] is intended to fill that gap, but LEED is voluntary.

STAY FREE!: Are buildings designed with a lifespan in mind, like consumer products?

ZAGAROLI: That's something manufacturers deal with more than builders. Whoever makes the materials for your roof determines the lifespan and warranty. A flat roof is traditionally a tar-paper roof, which is quite durable: it lasts about 15 years. There's a newer technology, a rubber membrane, that a typical manufacturer will guarantee for 25 years.

STAY FREE!: I read that big box stores are designed to last no more than 25 years . . .

ZAGAROLI: I believe that. Retail stores are never designed to last more than 20 years, and even 20 years is a long time. The Fisher Family built all the stores for the Gap and Banana Republic stores on a 7- or 10-year plan, because the company never wants a Gap to look old. If Home Depot is building stores on a 20-year lifespan, does that mean they're going to get out of the business in 20 years? It's possible. I think Blockbuster has that strategy. “We'll be in business 20 years, make our money, plan an exit strategy, and sell our properties." Other institutions sneak into real estate that way. McDonald's has done that.

STAY FREE!: Steel or brick should last longer than wood construction, but a study of non-residential buildings in Minneapolis found the opposite was true: buildings made of wood survived longer than brick. It turned out that the building materials were largely irrelevant. Places were destroyed because the neighborhood changed or they needed to serve a different purpose—not because of failing construction.

ZAGAROLI: In New York City, where I come from, zoning trumps everything. If a neighborhood gets rezoned, the stock of buildings is up for grabs. You can see that in New York City. The structure of a building becomes irrelevant if planners don't value it. Buildings in SOHO or DUMBO are made of steel or concrete, which have incredibly long lifespans. There, zoning boards and city planners have rezoned manufacturing districts into residential, and it's cost-effective to keep those old structures because it's a less-invasive use: there is less wear-and-tear in residential. In a city that values keeping populations where they are, those structures are going to be more valuable. But in a city like Minneapolis, which is trying to reinvent itself, planners may want to wipe the slate clean and create low-income housing.

STAY FREE!: I've read that people will sometimes buy a house and then demolish it to create something more suited to their taste. Is there any architectural fashion that stands out for you as being a financial sinkhole?

ZAGAROLI: I think, as a trend: stainless steel kitchens. Already we're hearing from consumers who see a 10-year-old renovation and groan, "urgh! I can't clean stainless steel. I don't want that kitchen; it's so 90s!" Stainless steel is the new avocado green. What smarter people are saying now is, "Let me build a neutral kitchen. This way the next person can buy what they want."

STAY FREE!: I tend to go for vintage looks, not because I don't like modern stuff, but because I don't want to have to redo my bathroom in 10 years.

ZAGAROLI: Newer developers that want to do buildings with a timeless look are going with an Art Deco style. It's clean, it's geometric, people like it. I like to build modernist; most of my architecture friends do too. But people don't like living in modernist buildings. They say there's too much glass. It's too harsh, too cold.

STAY FREE!: Hell, who wants to clean all of those windows?! I can see why Deco would be popular because it has some of the advantages of modern design and yet still has a kind of retro appeal. I think one reason people like a “vintage" look is because, unconsciously, they associate it with durability, with something that lasts and maintains value. It's not so throwaway. Even modern fixtures and furniture often have faux finishes to make them look antique.

STAY FREE!: Do you have any thoughts about the future of building in Brooklyn?

ZAGAROLI: In New York, I see a growth pattern that centers on the World Trade Center site. So imagine concentric circles radiating out and you get an idea of how development is expanding. There are more people coming here now; there's a lot of growth. There's been rezoning throughout Brooklyn; downtown Brooklyn is the third business district in New York City, after midtown Manhattan and downtown Manhattan. In downtown Brooklyn there's going to be six to eight 60-story buildings in the next 10 to 20 years. It's the next skyscraper district.