I spent last week on the French Riviera, in the south of France. We were constantly contemplating the Massif de l'Esterel, and its quite special red color. Saying that the whole place could look like one of the most beautiful on Earth would be an understatement. And yet, while it could truly be a paradise, we ruined it. We let cars ruin it entirely.
To stay on that urbanism theme and following yeserday's post Urban planning and the war on cars let's look briefly at Tallinn's example [Estonia's capital city - more about the city itself here - population being around half a million people].
I settled in Lyon, France 2 years ago. I came from Lisbon, Portugal where I spent 3 years in total and both my kids are born. People are usually surprised when they ask us why did we leave such a nice place [Lisbon is outstandingly beautiful] and I tell them: urban planning might be the worst I've seen since I walked around Jakarta, Indonesia.
I promised the list of books I've read in 2022 so here we are. If you'd want to dig into them, I've made such a list for 2021, 2020 and 2019. Interestingly, and while I stand behind a '2 books a month pace is kinda perfect for me' I kept reading slightly more books year after year: 21 in 2019, 26 in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 30 in 2022. We'll see what'll happen this year, I've read 25 books so far.
'Why is it so hard for really smart people to write well? One of the reason is: they have 20 years of bad habits.' That whole clip from Larry McEnerney is really worth a watch. Every time I watch it, I instantly get the urge to jump here, write and publish. And yet, while I contemplate the idea of writing and publishing every damn day for so long, I still never succeed to implement it in my life.
As far as I remember, I always loved magazines. I read them methodically from the first cover to the very end. And I read everything that's been written; readers letters sections included. I grew up in the 90s so back then, magazines were really THE medium to follow your passion, and dig even deeper into it. TV - at least in France - was way too mainstream.
Let's wrap up the list of books I've read in 2021. And yep, you guessed it already, the list of 2022 is coming shortly.
I'm sad. We got some tear gaz downstairs yesterday because the police was breaking up a local rally. I've seen/ heard/ read [on- & offline] things I couldn't have imagined possible. My only consolation prize is to know that my great-grand-ma [named Tiszelman; born in Poland and who ran away during the 30's to come to France] isn't here anymore to (re-)experience such darkness.
'I never considered myself a writer.' This is how Austin introduced their latest Public Record on Metalabel: Lonely Writers Club. Of course that resonated. I never considered myself a writer neither. And even though for Austin, everything apparently changed from 2019 onwards, I still don't consider one myself. That being said written, I did notice (and experience) the power of writing myself. And I did try a few times in the past to grow that side of me.
I've heard 'virtue signalling' a few times in the past few years - mostly on twitter actually - and while I understood the concept and critics pointed out behind it I also felt pretty distant. Like a 'oh here's something between some activists and companies'. And then recently I realised (a) that behavior is present all around me way more than anticipated/ thought at first (b) it affects me and my mood pretty often. Let's unpack this.