Dormitories: All the modern conveniences

The book Almost a Revolution by Shen Tong is the story of Chinese student demonstrator during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Aside from the rest of the book the descriptions of the dormitories at Beida University, the school he attended made me think a lot about the living conditions of American students today compared to students in other countries. In his freshman year he was assigned to room with 5 other roommates. 5! I had a hard time living in a room with two last year. The rooms contained bunk beds only, no desks dressers or closets. There was a single cold water shower on his entire floor. In his bathroom there was a long troth to urinate in and this would often overflow. Their toilets were described as holes in the floor and the stalls had no doors. There was a lights out policy. In order to read after a certain time they had to have a lead cord to go out into the hallway to use one of the electrical sockets in the hall since their room was not equiped with one. To me these living conditions seem completely unbearable. It's no wonder they focussed so much on their studies if only to get out of the hell hole the called a dormitory. Now I'll compare this to when I lived in the dorms last year. I had my own bed, my own desk, computer, closet, dresser. We had a couch, T.V. and about 4 or 5 different video game systems. Each section of the hallway was equiped with 8 showers, and I think it goes without saying the quality of toilets were infintely better than theirs. The grounds surrounding the Ellicott dorms were also made to have certain aesthetic qualities such as the meandering bike paths, the abundance of trees, and lovely views of the polluted yet serene lake lasalle. I assume that the grounds surrounding theirs were not manicured to be pleasing to the eye. It made me thing that although our dorms were built with a utilitarian philosophy the Chinese took things to a whole nother level.

Thruway rest stops: Islands on the road

As I drive along I-90 from Buffalo to Albany I encounter countless forms of rest stops. The quick pull off for the tired trucker, the mega-stop with an assortment of eateries a gift shop and gas station, and the rare scenic picnic area. I wonder what kind of people take time out of their trip to enjoy a scenic picnic with the sounds of mac trucks and cars barrelling down the road behind them while they eat and enjoy the smells of car exhaust. These areas are very interesting to me because aside from the mega stops that have alternate entrances for non-thruway motorists, the other rest stops are completely cut off from the world outside of the thruway, the people there are all just passers by who may never come by that spot again in their lives. These areas must see the most turnover in terms of people who occupy that space that most places in the country. In these areas you'll usually find a bathroom of some sort, a few picnic tables, a pay phone, and if you're lucky a vending machine or two. One development that I have noticed recently is the addition of wifi to many of these places. I wonder if anyone ever takes the time to just walk around these places and look around, other than sexual deviants I mean.

In the Garage I feel safe, no one cares about my ways

The American Garage, a place where we laugh, we cry, we shout obsceneties at our malfunctioning automobile. Jackson's interpretation of the garage is quite accurate. Although I'd like to modify his analysis a little. He stated that the garage was a place of recreation. I agree with that but I see it as somewhat of a medium in terms of domestication between being outside and being in the house. For example a work bench could easily be in the house but of course that won't do, a place that has all the modern conveniences such as light and electricity but also has the ability to be trashed from time to time is needed. The garage band will also shares the experience with the tinkerer, of course it would be easy to play inside but this would inconvenience other people living in the house due to the loud nature of jam sessions. Electricity is needed so the garage becomes the perfect habitat. One aspect that has changed since Jackson's article, the perfection of the garage door opener. Of course it had been invented by '97 but these days you will be extremely hard pressed to find a garage lacking in one.

Home for a Week

While a lot of people prefer to spend their spring breaks in places with tropical climates I shy away from this tradition. Why go to Florida with its comfortable temperatures and weather when you could go to Albany where you can witness every type of precipitation known to man. And go to Albany I did where I got to see the rain, the snow, the sleet, the freezing rain, all from the comfort of my own house most days for lack of anything to do. Of course it is always nice to catch up with friends and family as well, but I really did as close to nothing on this spring break as was humanly possible. I spent most of my days sleeping until around 2 then getting up and playing guitar or reading for a few hours until my friends got home from work/school since none of them were on break at the time. Then the rest of the day was spent just hanging out with them playing video games and the like. Like I said it was one of the more uneventful weeks of my life. I often feel like breaks home from school are more like breaks from partying than breaks from actual school since school isn't really that hard and theres so little going on at home when compared to school.

panoramas

When I look at the Panorama of Chicago it gives off a very cold corporate feel, now of course any major city these days will, but Chicago does it to me even more so. I think it has to do with the blandness of mid western culture when compared to places like the northeast and California. None of the buildings looks like its older than the 1930's, not to mention they don't look to have many decorative elements to them.




When compared to Chicago the panorama of London has a sense of regalness given off by structures such as the westminister palace which glows with Englands past imperial wealth.

Creedence Classical Revival

Unfortunately I'm the guy in the class without a camera so I'm going to take you on a photo tour of a few classical revival structures right here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Ah Soldier Field, one of the most hallowed sites of the football world. This is one of the oldest and most storied stadiums in the country a place where grid iron greats such as Walter Peyton, Gale Sayers, and Dick Butkis played. Say, here comes Dick now, "Mr. Butkis, you played most of your career in Soldier field what's your favorite aspect of the stadium?"

"Well thats a good question Tom, there are many factors to consider but I'd have to say I'm quite the fan of Greek Revival Archetecture, I just got finished getting a paper published for a reputable historical journal, so I would have to say the colonnades are my favorite structure."

Though Dick may have had one too many concussions in his hall of fame career and now believes he is a history buff he does know his a classical revival architecture when he sees it. On one of the sides of Soldier field there is a parthenonesque structure. The columns and triangular shaped roof are dead give aways.

As we are whisked away from Chicago we find ourselves back at good ol' UB where Baird point stands to show the link between the Greek traditions of education and people ripping off their architecture. I'll bet the Greeks wish they had cranes to assemble their columns like these guys did in '78.













This beauty on the right here is Thomas Jefferson's Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. The enlightenment and classical revival were definitely on his mind (amidst promiscuous thoughts about his slaves) when he had this home designed. It probably impressed European dignitaries who looked down upon wealthy Americans as wannabe Aristocracy.

Exile on Main St. Buffalo

As I walked down main street this evening; catching curious glances from people as I stopped here and there to take notes and pictures of this and that, I saw a basically two kinds of establishments. There were those that were very old establishments such as the various churches and the university itself, or those that were considerably younger and not built to last as long as the churches and university, made to be within walking distance as to capitalize on the student population. I feel as though the University and the churches have been the only constants. The other places, the bars, the pizza places, the gas stations, the book stores, youth centers, and so on, have been built and rebuilt through the years with various business' coming and going to cash in on the students money.

I wonder when the electrical wires were moved underground. I wonder if it was sometime in the past 5 years since there are very young trees lining both sides of the street. Or maybe this is just because they redid the cobblestones or maybe there were no cobble stones and the city just added them for aesthetic effect. One of the most interesting relics I found during my walk was an old fire alarm station rising out of the ground in front of one of the churches. I looks like completely out dated. But the paint just is almost perfect and appears to have been kept up by someone as there was no grafitti as there was on almost everything else. The fire alarm looks rather charming, it was definately made during a time when cost effectiveness wasn't the end goal. A peppermint monilith of safety with a little red house on the top with a fire alarm lever for a door.