Assorted links from week43 to 44, 2024

πŸ„πŸ¦Š The Objet column in Dirt is getting crazier by the weeks. This time, Amelia shared with us her relationship with The Fox Skull and brought us on the thin veil between who we are and who we could be.

🌁 Patricia asked me great questions about the cities in my life and made me reflect on why San Francisco. Returning Home: Miracles and Ambition.

πŸ›Ή Some overlap between skateboarding and entrepreneurship by Arthur -and anyway always down for some skate video parts: Sport, the school of entrepreneurship.

🏯 Talking about skateboarding always makes me think of the streets and city centers. Noah made me discover the Japanese word "zakkyo". I love it. Something new to add to my already loooong list of reasons of why I'd like to spend more and more time in Japan every year. A better way to build a downtown.

In sum, zakkyo buildings are part of the reason why Japan is such a consumer paradise. Greater Tokyo has 160,000 restaurants, compared to only 13,000 in Paris and 25,000 in NYC. Some of that is because of the Japanese government’s strong support for small retail businesses. But some of it is probably due to zakkyo buildings making it possible to sustain more small independent shops.

❀️ An old banger by Simon that touched me -again- recently: Familiarity and Belonging.

Familiarity is a misunderstood virtue. Cultivating a sense of belonging is under-practiced. No matter where you live it is worth trying to improve the small things of your world.

πŸ›’ Talking about bangers, this compilation -to read in multiple times- by Jonathan is a master piece. Imagining a World Beyond Consumerism.

🏫 I can’t agree more with Simon here: School is Not Enough.

We should be thinking much harder about ensuring children can make meaningful contributions, and we should teach them in ways that are sensitive to the context of the real world.

πŸ‘• As a still young dad well immersed in clothing. I enjoyed that three-in-one fashion special with Kevin: Dadicated Follower of Fashion.

You are what you wear. It felt that way, back then. What you wore was intimately tied to your sense of self. What are clothes if not outward reflections of internal projections? […]

Focus moves from fashion to function.

πŸš‚ Wow, I’d never thought of private rail cars: The Private Train Car Edition.

There is something about this coexistence and codependency of the public and the private which feels even more important now than it was in our last Gilded Age.

🚐 There is an ID.BUZZ near my kids school and I’ve to admit the car looks quite cool. Even though, I strongly advocate for cars staying outside of high density zones. Then, minivan it could be. The Minivan Stigma Edition.