James Howard Kunstler's "Eyesore of the Month"
Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has a section on his website called "Eyesore of the Month." It includes photos of things in and around his town (Saratoga Springs, NY) he doesn't like, along with comments explaining why they irk him so. In August, he trained his crosshairs on a tattoo parlor.
The building itself, shown here, is a sturdy but unspectacular business building on the main street (Broadway) of Saratoga Springs, NY. ... The activity taking place here, however, is a symptom of the growing barbarism in American life. Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity among civilized people, the calling card of cannibals, sailors, and whores. The appropriate place for it is on the margins, in the back alleys, the skid rows. The mainstreaming of tattoos (on main street) is a harbinger of social dysfunction.James Howard Kunstler's "Eyesore of the Month"
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Wow, Mark, my brain just asplode.
The real eyesore is in Kunstler's painting gallery.
Hilarious. Kunstler seems like basically the antithesis of the boing boing.
For your daily dose of cthulian coolness.
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200712.html
old fart, much?
I am not a sailor.
Eyesore #1: Every local link I click opens in a new tab.
I don't like anything. Why does the world vex me so?
And will nobody re-design my website for me?
If a sex worker gets a tattoo of one of his landscape paintings across her back, would he still consider it art?
sounds like he'd be lots of fun at a party. woot.
i had a professor in college who was a "neo-tory" and didn't think we should have receded from britain.
this man suffers from a similar diseasw—romanticizing the past.
The real eyesore is in Kunstler's painting gallery.
Entartete Kunstler.
These damn kids better get off my lawn!
I am no fan of tattoos but the notion that society is getting worse is perhaps one of the earliest signs that you are turning into an old elitist bastard.
You guys are so wrong, this dude is AWESOME - one of his "eyesores" is the damn Parthenon!
What a pedant!
Why stay in Saratoga Springs when Alaska is so FULL of empty spaces with little to offend his delicate sensibilities..
"The mainstreaming of tattoos (on main street) is a harbinger of social dysfunction.'
Just like women in pants, race mixing, dogs and cats living together!
Cannibals, sailors, and whores! Oh my!
Hate to explain to this guy what a hipster is, but James Howard Kunstler had better get ready to bump into a lot of iPod DJs and t-shirt designers.
The phrase "harbinger of social dysfunction" is evidence of a highly effective compression scheme, as it unpacks to "I have a large selection of undergraduate sociology textbooks, but none of them were published later than 1978."
Lighten up, Francis.
You know, social commentary aside... it IS an eyesore. I find that many business do not take into consideration how their neon lights and loud posters sully the ambiance of historic (or "historic looking") districts.
Harbinger of social dysfunction is a bit much, but tattoos are just temporarily trendy and permanently ugly.
Sure, he is a crank, but he also wrote a great book called Geography of Nowhere, detailing how America became a nation of strip malls and, well, eyesores. It's also about how any city in America looks pretty much like any other and how ugly surroundings can affect behavior and culture. I'm a fan of his, so his old fart rants are sort of endearing to me somehow.
if you can, rent the movie "radiant city", which features Kunstler riding around some horrible suburbs in a city bus, explaining in over-the-top apocalyptic terms why it's all so horrible: the big box stores, the tract houses, the chain-link-covered bike path.
He's great. Take the old fart ranting with a grain of salt, I think he tongue is firmly in his cheek. He's on Our Side.
I find the proliferation of tattoos odd but even more so the fact that most seem to be mere doodles rather than thought out pieces.
heh!
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200804.html
As a reminder of misspent youth, I'd take a tattoo over, say, a liver transplant.
Hey, he wants to marginalize anyone who chooses to give or receive a tattoo. He just doesn't have a clue that expression can take many forms and openness to those forms is something to at least consider, if not value. Best for him not to blatantly sequester, put aside or disrespect.
He's calling people names and putting them into unfair and extreme categories. Let's teach him a lesson by ridiculing his attempt to express himself. Let's call him names, yeah, that kind of inspired critical dialogue has been working for us since kindergarten!
When I saw the headline and the picture, I thought he was talking about that ugly addition on the building.... beauty in the eye of the beholder.
While almost funny sometimes, Kunstler seems basically to be an a-hole -- he doesn't distinguish between high architecture with a capital A and total non-design.
Longtime reader here.
I think it's interesting that everyone has reflexively ripped into Kunstler for being an old fart and elitist because he has attacked one of BoingBoing's sacred cows: tattoos.
Kunstler argues cogently and at length for New Urbanism, which is something that BoingBoing seems to like. He argues for a craft-based DIY ethos that BoingBoing seems to like. He argues against the economic and aesthetic squalor created by ubiquity of the automobile, which is something that BoingBoing mostly likely agrees with.
But tattoos? Now you've gone too far, James Howard Kunstler.
I keep forgetting to go check that out every month; thanks for reminding me, BB!
I'm not a fan of all things Kuntsler, but the Eyesore is bang on month after month. For those of us who find most modern architecture useless, showoffy and downright ugly, he has a way of pointing out some of the worst possible examples.
That said, last I checked his own Web site is kind of an eyesore itself.
Well put, Ladyfingers. For those of you who so quickly dismissed James Kunstler, you should really take a look at his book, "Geography of Nowhere." He is irreverent, sure, but his criticism of our car-dependent culture is spot-on.
You know, social commentary aside... it IS an eyesore. I find that many business do not take into consideration how their neon lights and loud posters sully the ambiance of historic (or "historic looking") districts.
That would be a fair point but Kunstler's criticism wasn't directed at the storefront itself. His main complaint was the activity going on inside, and that it wasn't being kept in the back alleys and skid rows where it "belongs."
Hmm... Look at his pic in the header of his site, then check out the pics in his bio. http://www.kunstler.com/bio.html
Looks a lot like a photo crop in place of a combover there in the header pic. Would that be a cropover?
Sweet. Now I need me two jobs: something on a ship and something just off Central avenue. Gotta quit this whole grad school thing and go back to the alleys I apparently belong in.
BTW, if you swallow, does that technically make you a cannibal?
And I agree that this is not the prettiest shop ever, but tattoo culture comes with a certain fun little kitsch factor that makes it generally more full of differentiation (and therefore soul and culture) than box stores, tract housing and malls. I would think that Kunstler could cut it a little slack just based on the fact that the shops tend to be so different from the neighborhoods around them and quite a few (but not all) shop owners collect 40s and 50s memorabilia and antiques and customize them. I mean, there are some classy looking joints out there, including one in this town that has an interior which alternates dark gray and green slate with inlaid fossils and overgrown jungle plants and a giant snake, which is an interesting design choice, to my mind. Kind of upscale office meets anthropology museum in one of those kinds of bordellos. You know, the ones with the whips.
Aaawww, he just misses the good old days.
Hah! I've read Geography of Nowhere, as well as Home from Nowhere, plus I'm an actual working urban planner. This rant was funny but it's very much par for the course for Kunstler's strict small-town conservatism. Mind you, I'm no fan of postwar suburban development either, and am working to help build real urban spaces in Los Angeles. But Kunstler is just an articulate crank. He's basically somebody who decided that the pattern of development and architecture in his small town in New York is pretty much the only valid way to build a town anywhere. Kunstler lives in a world where everyone has the same needs, everyone's ideal situation is the same, and if you think differently you're a deluded fool. Meanwhile, those of us who actually deal with the public know that different stakeholders all have different needs and their own ideas about what the city needs. Part of being an urban planner is balancing those needs while at the same time looking toward the future and nudging development in that direction. Kunstler is nothing but an ideologue who has some interesting things to say but is far too inflexible to really be taken seriously.
Damn man, that's a harsh indictment of tattooing and tattooers there, based on this one little shop.
Especially from a guy that paints a K Mart parking lot and calls it "Spiritual Night Landscape".
Whoa! I'm from the Saratoga area - and I even know some people who have gotten tats there before, and a couple guys that worked there. I'd never seen the building personally, and I'd agree it doesn't look great. But really now, so much hate at tattoos and those who have them!
Also, crying elitism is a little rich. The volume of smug elitism here at BoingBoing is frequently stifling.
I am, if anything, a bit of a goth (black wardrobe, depressing music collection, helped run a nightclub), but criticism of the subculture hardly offended me. If accurate: it was valid, if not: dismissed.
I'm certainly not one to take sides in the high/low art debate (both sides are far too self-congratulatory for my liking), but I do think that the schoolbook scribbles people brand themselves with lately are generally intensely ugly. I kind of thought that was the point of a tattoo or body mod.
Poor old crank.
His paintings aren't terrible but not great either. The clouds (colour use) in particular bug me no end.
The sailors and whores comment, sadly, marks him as an almost dead codger. His bio page however shows him at a party where he "ate a sensimilla bud and did stoly shots" I assume stolichnaya vodka, but the sensimilla bud, if I am not mistaken, would coun't as illegal drug use... ;)
A druggie criticising tattoo parlours. What, do tattoo parlours not condone drug use or something? Whoring and working on a ship are indicators of a declining society but eating weed seeds in a fancy publication party is of course the mark of an upstanding citizen.
Innit?
Ladyfingers: I've always thought of a tattoo as the attempt to beautify, not uglify. I suppose it could go either way, depending on the skill of the artist and the choice of the person being tattooed, but I've always thought of it as a beauty or a bravery.
Why else sink thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours of pain in the chair and stiffness while the scars are healing into something? I suppose you could uglify to differentiate yourself from the culture and people around you, but why would that always be so?
I've always thought of a tattoo as the attempt to beautify, not uglify.
It seems most people fail in this attempt, spectacularly.
ink, I suppose, is its own language. So is the line and wrinkle of time, the battle scar, the sun's work, the birth stretches and callouses of training.
For those who wish to read them.
MouthyB: tattooing has deep roots in many cultures. I would argue that it has long been purposely exactly what Kunstler describes it as: the brand of danger.
Maori face tattoos, Yakuza designs... Absolutely stunning, yes, but intentionally deeply aggressive (transgressive?) and hardly pretty.
I'm busy writing a quick blog entry on my site about it. Check in a few minutes.
i think the Maori would disagree with you there Ladyfingers. Cultural norm is cultural norm.
Now, I've been to Saratogy NY a couple times. There's this nice little jazz club / wine bar around the corner from this place. And in the 50's some other retired professor was very probably railing on about jazz being a gateway to hell, flailing hopelessly around the editorial pages in search of a fainting couch, whinging on about the degradation of society before his very eyes.
I think we all need to stay off his lawn.
Takuan, you are a poet and a throughly lovely person.
I have spent a lot of time and thought in the ink I have; it commemorates survival and beauty and my own progress toward being (for lack of a better word) enlightened. I tattoo those symbols which remind me to be truthful and tireless and tough-minded and an advocate of people. I am here for a reason, and while I suppose that not everyone who gets tattooed thinks the way I do, I've met very few people in the studio who were not thoughtful about the process. I've met a lot of protectors and thinkers and lovely people who have experienced more than perhaps they should have been asked to.
And I read scars and sun and wrinkles, but maybe that's because I look toward continued learning and perhaps wisdom as I age. I do not look forward with a fear of decay. I love to see what people have made of the templates we are born with. Depending on where the marks are, I know quite a bit about the person. I'm not terribly comfortable with people who try their hardest to go through life utterly untouched.
Dang, I was in Saratoga Springs for two weeks this summer, and I saw some absolutely stunning tattoos. I doubt they came from this parlor, though, as I think most of them were on fellow out-of-towners. Still. I mentally associate Saratoga and above-average tattoos, and this is a funny thing to see.
Also, there are much bigger eyesores in Saratoga than this. You go far enough down the main drag and it's all cheap hotels and abandoned gas stations. Vacant, run-down concrete seems more unattractive to me than a tattoo parlor.
I think I'd like some ink done at some point, but I'm a vegetarian and I get seasick easily. I guess I'll have to go start turning tricks.
Thanks Ladyfingers, his blog is one of the best old fart blogs on the tubes.
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/
James Howard Kunstler kicks ass.
I like his "Eyesores of the Month"... and his other peevish moniker "Places Not Worth Caring About"... and even his paintings.
I recommend his book The Long Emergency, before it's too late.
Why is it an eyesore? And if it was why is he putting it on his website? So that the world will visit it and see his latest eyesore? ha
Well, I can agree with you that tattooing can be a mark of danger in the sense that it once and sometimes still represents a break with societal mores. However, frequency, alas, extinguishes the effect of tattooing in terms of societal break. I am not enamored of the society I live in and I am glad to signal that aggravation in specific ways with the portion of my tattoos which directly pertains to the things I have survived (which are a direct result of willful blindness as a society.) I'll concede that tattooing is loosely correlated with aggressiveness with the stipulation that correlation is not causation and that aggression is not violence.
I am quite aggressive, in debate and class, but this is not an indication that I'm a violent person. I believe aggression to be a useful trait. I also have an aggressive and assertive personality. The presence of those traits occurs, sometimes, in a natural sense and is not necessarily an indicator of criminal intent. (Though I freely admit that I have a devious mind.)
I'm not sure you can make the case that all tattooing is ugly and intended to make ugly. And not just because it is a judgment call on a highly disparate group of people. I would think it would be difficult to prove that everyone who goes in to be tattooed is there for the same reason and that everyone has the same reaction to tattoos as you seem to.
I tend to think of (well-thought out) tattoos as an indication of a willingness to stand apart and think about the tendencies of groups. Therefore I find them comforting. Such has been my experience.
kunstler's just kidding around with the cannibal stuff... he's almost always sarcastic and over-the-top. i'm a very tattooed person and i appreciate his humour.
i agree that the mainstreaming of tattoos is a harbinger of social dysfunction. tattooing is approached by many as just another consumer choice, fashion statement, or form of entertainment. and so the potential meaning and power of the tattooing experience is often overlooked.
check out kunstler's TED talk if you haven't already... sure, he doesn't have everything figured out, but he's brilliant.
#29 theLadyfingers
Hear! Hear! I too find the excoriating of Mr. Kunstler completely undeserved and find his post insightful.
Beyond that, at least with this thread we know all the people who have a tattoo on their ass. Or have a secret desire to hook up with a carnival.
What a jerk. You know what his problem is? In a nutshell, it's this: the things he's crotchety and intolerant about are different things from the things I'm crotchety and intolerant about. For example, whereas he gets on his high horse and condemns things he shouldn't, I get on my high horse and condemn things that deserve it.
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm serious. Now, if you'll excuse me, other internet forums await!
My thoughts on tattoos.
Sorry, #55 was supposed to be this link: http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/2008/09/tattoos.html
Mark, you deserve a serious strike against you for bringing a thoughtless waste of time to the boing boing masses. The only upside is, that by introducing me to this Mr Kunstler in the fashion you have, has saved me a lot of valuable time, for now I will never check out this cranky old man's website.
Keep it up, and I will be forced to start a petition against you being a regular contributor on this site. The relevance of a lot of your contributions to this website has been, in my opinion, extremely poor and your overall performance has been lack luster. Honestly, just give some heavy thought to finding something better to do. I dunno, maybe you and mr cranky old man can start protesting tattoo shops and other signs of the devils power in this corrupt world....
Anyways, the entire point that the aforementioned cranky old man tries to make is outdated and irrelevant. He lost the argument the moment he said "Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity..."
This is the thoughts and ravings of an old man who apprently is no longer 'with' it. Just give grandpa his pills and put him back to bed...
The point is that, Tattooing WAS a marginal activity, The key word here being WAS. Tattooing is, and has been in the mainstream for quite some time, so much so, that there is no point in trying to further the case in support of that fact. For fucks sake, they carry tattooing magazines in Walmart.... It honestly doesnt get more mainstream than that.
All we have here is a case of a whiny old man, who for whatever reasons, doesnt like tattoos and obviously thinks it is just another sign of the downfall of modern culture, when it is only culture leaving behind those such as him.
Frank Herbert Said it best with this quote from one of the books in the dune series(sorry, dont know which one)
"A lot of older people believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed."
Seriously, I was initially expecting the argument to be something along the lines of the lack of cohesion of the shop as compared to the rest of the buildings on the street, or something to that effect.
Please stop bringing down the content value of thie wonderful website.
/rant off
Tattoos are dumb, and I am incredibly grateful that stupid people helpfully mark themselves so permanently :P
You know, you have the option of, just, skipping over articles that don't interest you, rather than whining.
Just a friendly suggestion.
There is no law saying you must read every article on boingboing. If someone informed you otherwise they were sadly mistaken.
I mean we all love to whine now and then, but this really isnt the time or place.
I know I'm not the first to mention it, but his stupid 'every-link-opens-in-a-new-window' webpage is the eyesore of the century.
Worse, there's no contact information for him (other than his agent) or the webmaster to have your say about the situation.
Thanks for introducing me to this guy's site! I think his curmudeonly rants are amusing, and he seems to have a lot of ideas I agree with--and would have thought BoingBoing would agree with as well. (His other eyesores are mainly suburban monstrosities, like a playground that looks more like a prison yard). His opinion of tattoos is no less hostile than his opinion of the Whig Party.
Wow, great post.
JHK has a couple of brilliant entries a few years back in the archives, by which I mean entries I completely agree with, such as Toronto's hideous car-wreck addition to the ROM. The Liebeskind-designed addition is currently causing lasting water damage to the side of the pre-existing building. It will also totally grow five to ten foot long ice stalactites this winter and have to be fenced off so they don't impale the tourists, who are now the only people who can afford to get into the damn museum.
Kunstler also makes some interesting points about the complete lack of feminine design elements in many of the expensive and god-awfully designed buildings he's got on the list. I think that could be the most interesting part of his site, and is certainly a detail of contemp architecture that deserves some analysis. Virus models look more interesting.
The defensive and kneejerk fuss over tattoos is kinda buggin' - seriously, it's some ink and three weeks recovery time and everyone you know has one, or possibly full sleeves. Not that special. Dude's entitled to his opinion.
#52, thanks for that TED link. I've been reading Clusterfuck Nation for quite a while, but I hadn't seen that yet. Kunstler gets so many things right - or at least thought-provoking - that I think he's more than earned the right to a little crankishness on the subject of tattoos.
After looking at his "art" maybe he needs to get strapped down and inked? There hasn't been an artist posted on boingboing who couldn't crap better works that his. What is he a 12 year old trapped in a old mans mind?
@ Pretentiousgit, I KNOW! The addition to the ROM looks like an alien growth on a beautiful old building. I hadn't even thought about the potential for ice impalings.
Ummm...topic at hand. Personally I think that's a rather attractive tattoo parlour, as tattoo parlours go. Imagine passing by on a winter evening, looking in and seeing the happy tattoo artists and the customers with their faces all screwed up with pain.
In general he seems like an entertaining old fart - I especially like his "Arguments againsts reparations to descendants of slaves" - though I agree that his website sucks.
I'm about halfway through his post-apocalyptic novel, World Made By Hand. It takes place in the near future, after the world has run out of energy, has had major cities nuked, and has been hit with population-decimating disease epidemics. It's a gripping read so far!
derelictmindset@57: "Keep it up, and I will be forced to start a petition against you being a regular contributor on this site."
Please note that we only accept petitions submitted on parchment made of caecilian skin. Please mail it to:
Boing Boing
/dev/null Department
13547 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91412
Thanks!
I've read his The Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere back to back with Ballard's War Fever and A User's Guide to the Millenium, and found that in many ways they're covering the same subject matter, and both have a lot to say about it.
If you're pissed at him for marginalizing tatooing, I can understand that. But he did get your attention.
He's a fellow traveler. Give him a little slack.
"As a reminder of misspent youth, I'd take a tattoo over, say, a liver transplant."
...And keep in mind that a tattoo *can* still lead to a liver transplant.
"Keep it up, and I will be forced to start a petition against you being a regular contributor on this site."
...Start your damn petition. I'll start a counterpetition to have Mark kept around here as well as having you barred from BB for being a troll.
Of course, you could make it easy on yourself and not let your ass get stuck on the doorknob on the way out...
#57
You know you're writing Kunstler's argument for him, there.
Ever do business with Wal-Mart? I have missing fingers from shaking their hand.
There's an awful lot of ageism going on around here. I think I agree with the "old fart", and I'm only 33. I agree that things like tattooing are better left on the fringes. Tattoos, piercings, and crazy haircuts, once signified a unique, progressive person - now it can also mean you shop at Hot Topic and listen to My Chemical Romance... I mean, once punk rock was scary and "out there". Now it's on the radio.
I think he's just bemoaning the homogenization of our society, and he's right in that sense.
This little nugget from his home page pretty much sums it up:
Cybernetics
MY HIP REPLACEMENT: A medical comedy
My Grandma has a strong visceral reaction to tattoos, but I love her because she's my Nana, and even she knows that tattoos are mainstream now because of her soap operas. It's not the old fart stuff that irks me, it's that he insists on living in the past, which not every old fart does...
His website, which highlights his obvious lack of understanding of the concept of usability and design flow, is an eyesore of the weak.
Here's an example of the kind of gentle civility that companies like Wal-Mart are bringing to our culture:
http://cats.about.com/b/2005/01/04/wal-mart-cat-shooting-angers-advocates.htm
If that's not evidence of deranged psychopathology, the kind that Ballard and Kunstler would both find rich subject matter, I don't know what is. Who could shoot a cat multiple times with a pellet gun? Seriously, could you shoot a house cat?
And, do you know who they could have called to have the cat rescued?
http://www.vhslifesaver.org/shelter/surrenders.html
Or the college-age barista working in the Borders Cafe across the street, for that matter. The one with the silver kitty cat pendant on her necklace.
I did business with the people named in this story. IT stuff. That was just a few weeks before the shooting.
Would this story lead you to believe these same people care about employee welfare or how their business effects the communities they move in to?
What does this say about our culture? No, not the ivory tower one. The real one that you and I partake in.
@ Chronophobe, subcultures entering the mainstream is nothing new. Successful subcultures are bound to be co-opted eventually - punk starts as a revolutionary underground movement and ends up with Avril Lavigne. (And I KNOW she isn't really punk, but she calls her music punk and no one blinks.) Where the mainstream ends and the fringe begins is always shifting (when I got my nose pierced 10 years ago, it was a big deal; now it's an unremarkable and common fashion statement), but there's always something. It used to be tattoos and punk, now it's scarification and those enormous earlobe-stretching rings. 20 years from now it'll be something else.
I don't think it's ageist to call this guy an "entertaining old fart". He's playing up his curmudgeonliness for comedy value, and he's doing it well. Good for him.
If you liike the idea of New Urbanism, there are many people who can speak about it with more authority than Kunstler, who is like a talk radio host for the movement, at once advancing the cause and embarrassing its proponents. For Kunstler it was a lucky happenstance that he came across New Urbanism and was able to ride it to some celebrity. Prior to that? Well go have a read of one of his novels, like "Holloween Party", if you can find a copy. He's a lucky bastard he found another way to make a living.
I don't even like tattoos and I think the guy is really annoying.
"Sorry, Roger, you Tiger now!"
(for those lucky enuff not to have Comcast, that's the tag line of an ad featuring a fella w/ one butt-ugly set of tattoos)
Look: if ya wanna get covered w/ body art, get it painted on. that way when you sober up, you can take it off again. The problem, I suppose, is that to a teen or twenty-something, saying a tattoo is "forever" means like maybe 5 years, since they can't imagine ever being 30.
Act in haste, repent at leisure.
@78, because adults are so good at foreseeing and planning for the future - like all those responsible homeowners who took out 0% downpayment ARMs based on an eternal housing bubble.
ummm...cannibals?
What concerns/irks me about these Eyesore of the Day/Week/Month dealies is that too often they’re indicative of conservative, even regressive, Golden Age arguments yearning for a past that never was or that one hasn’t personally experienced but wishes on everyone else all the same.
But it’s the public denunciation that I find especially troubling. “Let’s all glare disapprovingly at it and hope it recedes into â€the margins, … the back alleys, the skid rows,’” it seems to be saying. The local rag used to run an eyesore column, and recently appointed a veteran columnist its “Public Citizen” (now with more tautology!) whose job it is to crusade against the same sort of thing. Last week it was a derelict building, this week a run-down social housing project (and its residents, natch!). And we are all encouraged, of course, to submit our own “blights and nuisances.” Ultimately, this sort of thing replaces civism with “If You See Something, Say Something” finger pointing and not much else.
The indigenous Iban in Sarawak Borneo, a long time ago comprised of headhunting tribes, used tattoos on their body to glorify the individual members of the tribe.
The guy had a hip replacement. I JUST EMAILED HIM and said that only whores need hip replacements. (As well as the fact that he instantly discredited his intellect in every way with that generalization)
Yeah, the comment is crotchety and dumb, but all it really tells us is that James Howard Kunstler is somebody who's developed an emotional kneejerk reaction to a thing based on the interaction between his experiences with it and his conscious and subconscious prejudices and then made up some reasonably plausible justifications for how he feels. Just like pretty much everyone everywhere since the beginning of history.
Of course it's stupid. It's an opinion. Yours are pretty stupid, too. So are mine, if it makes you feel better.
James Howard Kunstler's writing is an eyesore in my opinion. He has his and I have mine.
Paging Adolf Loos! I never knew living people completely backed "Ornament and Crime." You learn something new every day.
The building is definitely an eyesore - but that's because of the tasteless neon signs and blatant url plastered on the molding.
I think his reasons for hating it are silly and really quite out of touch with the reality of tatooing, but I'm one guy on the internet. There's no reaching anybody.
He seems typical of the so-called liberal types in Saratoga, who are, as far as I can tell, much more Old Guard than anything else. I grew up in Saratoga and actually bought my very first *ahem* tobacco water pipe from the head shop that used to be where this tattoo parlour is now. I'm sure he wouldn't approve of that either. And though I didn't think too much of his paintings themselves, I've recognized most of the places he depicted and it made me a touch homesick for upstate in the fall.
Thank God we don't live in this dude's Nazi world.
You know what they call someone who already has a label for everything?
A narrow mind.
Ooh, what to add to this thread...Personally, I don't like tattoos (and I'm not an old fart) but go ahead and do that to yourself. You're one in a million!
More importantly, take a look at "The Long Emergency" or "Geography of Nowhere". Kunstler's not perfect: "The Long Emergency" has a distinct lack of quoted sources for a book so wide-ranging. He also has a tendency to romanticize the pre-car era. However, a lot of what he says makes more and more sense every day. We are entering an era of resource shortages and financial calamity. In "Clusterfuck Nation" Kunstler predicted that 2007 would be the last year of the obscene Xmas bonuses for the Wall Street boys. See http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/01/political-econo.html He got that right.
When we are worried about where the next tank of gas is coming from we might wonder about the days when we got so worked up about trivial stuff like tattoos.
To #89
I call Godwin's Law!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
What a well argued criticism.
@89, BRYANWHITE,
Aren't labels useful tools for categorization in formal disciplines, such as science, cultural criticism, etc.? They function as an organizational tool and to set a temporary standard that might serve to aid formal discourse. (ex.: brown and white bird with a narrow beak)
And that's where I put a period on the subject's more life-affirming use. Then we get to the life-alienating use of labels, which has zero information value except to describe the state or character of the "labeler".
The use of labels to describe other human beings (i.e. calling them names) is a basic dehumanizing practice. It's really successful too; you might observe how it serves and perpetuates domination structures by turning people into manipulatable entities. It's a great way to erode basic human dignity.
I don't like it when Kunstler does it and I don't like it when you do it.
...Isn't 'Nazi' a label?
Just a thought.
--Devin
And with Kunstler posting this pic, and boingboing picking up his "eyesore" post = some free ad space for www.truetattoostudio.com
ahhh hahaha
mmm delicious irony, hey Mr. Kunstler?
#78 - re tattoo's: Act in haste, repent at leisure.
repent?
#79 - like all those responsible homeowners who took out 0% downpayment ARMs based on an eternal housing bubble.
bwahahaha.
I have received no tattoo's and no mortgages in the last 10 years.
I know which one I would regret more.
The shop is pretty much an eyesore per that photo.
However, concerning his views on tattooing in general his head could not be further up his ass and it is hard to imagine how he could be more wrong on pretty much every level.
Pretentiousgit @62:
"Feminine design elements?" What exactly do you mean? I'm interested. I've thought about this a lot, have a degree in urban studies, and have studied the work of both female and male architects, and haven't found a lot of work being done that in and of itself creates a gendered space, or genders a space, that isn't either:
1.) A art/architecture museum installation meant to gender space, but not meant to be a permanent place to live or work in, or...
2.) Pink-tiled bathrooms and spa design.
adamnvillani @36:
Hah! I've read Geography of Nowhere
I think I need to reread it, although I'm a bit concerned about reading his books after I noticed several misspellings on the page where he summarizes his novels to date.
plus I'm an actual working urban planner....he's basically somebody who decided that the pattern of development and architecture in his small town in New York is pretty much the only valid way to build a town anywhere.
I lived in upstate NY, and I think that the biggest problem I've seen with New Urbanism is the same one I found upstate: you need a car to get anywhere.
Theoretically, New Urbanists are supposed to design these mixed-use, walkable towns, with everything ~30 min. away from the town center. Those are goals I support; New Urbanists haven't gotten there yet. That's one reason I live in the city despite pining for the (frankly) bucolic nature of Upstate NY.
If people like Kuntsler really supported New Urbanism, they'd realize that when there's a critical mass of people who want a tatto parlor, there will be a tattoo parlor, and it needs to go somewhere--that is, if you want a genuine mixed-use, multiclass, multi-ethnic, society, with artists and hipsters and people with kids and the elderly all living in the same area together--which is another component of the view the New Urbanists espouse.
I feel like people like Kuntsler have a lot of good ideas, but would like to engineer the edgy bits of society into back alleys, and then engineer out the alleys, but then they wonder why no one is staying in the hometown anymore because there's nothing there for them.
perhaps we should invite Kunstler as a guest blogger?
I for one found great enjoyment in reading it as Rorschach:
"*Hurm* Activity taking place symptom of growing barbarism in American life and harbinger of social dysfunction. What will be the icons of country in Long Emergency? Truman would be disgusted. *Ronch* *Ronch*"
Takuan - that would be fun.
You guys are so wrong, this dude is AWESOME - one of his "eyesores" is the damn Parthenon!
Unfortunately 'twas an April Fools Joke:
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200804.html
I think this is one of his best eyesores:
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200709.html
Shades of Xzibit saying " I heard you like to drive so we put a car in your car, so you can drive while you drive! "
As for hating on tattoos, either you admit to yourself that you got a tattoo to be "apart" and thus welcome a man telling you that you are an outcast. Alternately, you can get offended because being called an outcast is the worst thing imaginable to you. You think your tattoo demands acceptance from the world at large, that's why you got it at a strip mall.
Also two more words to those hating on Kunstler:
1. TED
2. talk
Kunstler is one of the few living American writers who has the balls to tell it like it is without fearing what other people think of him. He's almost always right even if he is almost always controversial. He has for years, for example, sounded the tocsin bell to warn of both the impending financial crisis and the end of cheap oil.
His books about suburbia and the urban realm criticize our living arrangements as being foolish and unsustainable which have produced a dysfunctional society. Within this dystopia there is a lot aberrant and low brow behavior.
There is lots of evidence of American decay. Why should it be so hard to imagine that the prevalence of tattoos is a symptom? Is there anyone who would like to argue that they weren't borrowed from whores cannibals, sailors, and convicts and are still usually displayed by these groups?
Oh, it's so hard to look inward. Without some dire consequence, who can admit that they're wrong?
#101: Why unfortunate? His description of why the Parthenon is an eyesore was obviously sarcastic, regardless of whether it was for April Fools' Day or not.
Oh no, kitschy idiosyncratic window displays and avant-garde architecture are ruining our cities! Quick, someone build more Victorian townhouses and Old-Tymey looking "authentic English Pubs" that serve mediocre hamburgers for $11! Phew, that's much better.
Why do his ideas about urban development somehow negate his outdated, prejudicial (almost bigoted) views on counter culture?
@97 Cassandra:
I mean elements grouped into the (theory-head) category of the symbolic feminine, rather than the actual gender/sex feminine. So no, not (necessarily) spas. Although they can be interesting too.
Um, in Toronto the best head-to-head would be the unvarnished and heinous ROM development versus the materially similar, sinuous yet context-sensitive Gehry work going on at the AGO. JHK uses the word "curves" and I would agree. It's curves, elements of decor, and elements of human-scale sizing versus the flat square boxes on their side, or shattered into a bazillion pieces, etc. It's not actually about gendering a space so much as balancing a space between the elements of style, so that you get a coherant and total language in the space, rather than a partial vocabulary made up of harshness. Using "feminine" is always gonna be a loaded term, though.
I think it's possibly about having a hand-of-the-artist around, as well as human-scale. Most of the starchitecture/stark-itecture is just that. Starkers. It's really dehumanizing, and for a wide array of material reasons, smells as bad as two-day-old polyester shorts. Forms that have no balance or restraint, and in making A Statement disconnect themselves from the actual world they've actually been built in and actually have to interact with.
But mostly it's about decoration, curves, and context interaction/useability.
Two things are offensive about that store: the URL on the building (IMHO, urls are always ugly), and the possible lack of wheelchair accessibility.
That said, I think pops is just doing his shtick: he picks a random subject related to America and rolls with it. "No suburbs without cars". "The decline of the Catskills due to the arrival of affordable air fair". This time he rolled right into it, and now it's stuck to his foot and stinking.
I dig tattoo and ladies with tattoos; if pops doesn't, well, that just means more tattooed ladies for me.
Haha, give 'em hell, cnt-slur!
ne kulturny!
Kunstler is, of course, right that "Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity among civilized people, the calling card of cannibals, sailors, and whores."
When I was (long ago) growing up, that was absolutely the case. Guys who'd gotten tattoos in the navy during WW2 kept them out of sight because of that. (Most of them used to be really cheezy, which didn't help.)
But that doesn't excuse the fact that he's kept his mind locked in solitary for too long. I'm guessing they got popular explicitly to -piss off- such mundanes. I've seen some amazingly attractive tats in the past few years ... the art's come a loooong ways.
@97 Cassandra - actually he loves back alleys and regrets that they have been designed out of towns. It's where the trash, electric poles, cars and garages go and then you can have a street of houses, porches, trees close enough to walk around in. Alleys are a big part of a return to a less auto-centric design.
Everyone here should listen to the podcast he did in reaction to all the tattooed critics of this eyesore of the month. In it he expounds in a very non PC way (for this crowd) about hip-hop clothes that make the wearer look like "violent babies" and the materialist ethos that surrounds tattoos these days and the conformity they now represent.
You can get it on itunes under "kunslercast". Other installments are mostly about urbanism and design of course.
What I find interesting is how the indelible nature of tattoos will almost certainly cause a new generation to react against them by staying "tattoo virgins" and thereby set themselves apart from the crass, trite and commercial older generation by embracing a claim of sanctity and pureness that cannot be easily countered by a tattooed person. Thus ageism and generational change will steadily carry on and this crowd will be fighting insults from the younger ones.
#106
I'll give you two reasons.
1. Anyone who wants to destroy Suburbia in its current form is part of the solution. When I first read Geography of Nowhere, I understood exactly why Suburbia was the symbol of alienation and isolation within the 80's-90's hardcore punk scene. A lot of upper middle class suburban kids that I knew from that time put on a hyper-street-smart facade (including conspicuous tattoos). I think they were trying to synthesize a missing sense of place, so they could exist on their own terms.
2. When Kunstler is on, he's really on.
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200307.html
This could have been penned by Jello Biafra in 1986. It's perfect!
From 103:
"Is there anyone who would like to argue that they weren't borrowed from whores cannibals, sailors, and convicts and are still usually displayed by these groups?"
Sure, I'd be happy to - not that those who think such things would be prone to listen to such rationale discourse. Nor would I be the first.
One by one:
Whores - only recently began getting tattoos as they began to be more popular and considered attractive. As with strippers, they often model their appearance by the preference of their clients and it is still very common for strippers to have hard time gettign work and making money in many areas if they are too heavily tattooed. The prevalence of tattooing among sex workers in general is a very modern occurence which draws from existing tattooing culture and not vice versa.
Cannibals - fairly rare and none of the tribes from which the western world re-discovered tattooing exhibited such practices. Tattoos in the popular culture of the west are generally traced back to Prince Omai - not a cannibal nor were those who followed.
Sailors - certainly got tattooed and are justifably assosciated with it, however, modern tattooing draws little other than imagery from it which would have lasted on it own and.
Convicts - do they get tattooed certainly but the idea that modern tattooing borrows much from them is a tougher road to go than most would like to try. Do you really think that the soccer mom who gets a butterfly or her kids name tattooed on her is emulating a dude in a prison gang?
The people who usually display tattoos are an estimated one in four of the US population and I don't think that your groups account for one in four even all added together.
Modern tattooing draws from all of history as do all art forms but it comes from the hard work of artists like Spider Webb seeking new mediums over old and the willingness of a society to recognize the legitimate talents of people like Stoney St Clair, Cliff Raven, and others. Tattooing is what it is today because talented artists chose it as their preferred medium not because people are trying to be or be like your list of undesirables - though I know some upstanding sailors who would likely enjoy kicking your ass for lumping them in with the rest.
Blah. Blah. Blah. One of my best friends is an ex-whore and the other one is an ex-whore and an ex-sailor. No cannibals yet. Or at least not anyone admitting it.
@95 a) I have no mortgage either, thank God;
b) and the tattoo I got when I was 18 I got on my lower back where, in spite of my having gained 70 pounds and lost 40 (on a 5'2" frame), it has stayed exactly the same over the past 10 years. Contrary to Chronophobe's ageist beliefs, I did think of the future and got it in an inconspicuous place where weight gain/loss wouldn't affect it and I could hide it easily.
And you're right - a tattoo can always be removed or covered with clothes. Bankruptcy is much more embarrassing.
I mean, "cellocgx's ageist beliefs".
@114:
I never said sailors, whores, convicts, etc. were undesirables, first of all. I am not against people who have tattoos. In fact, never have I seen a tattoo equal to the canvass upon which it was placed.
Tattooing has become more popular of late, but it is certainly something that was borrowed from those on the fringes of society--from those who could give a damn about what opinion others might hold of them--sailors, convicts, whores, etc. You won't convince me otherwise.
One of the main themes of Kunstler's writing concerns the deterioration of the urban realm, and the degree to which American culture has become increasingly profane. He cites the prevalence of tattoo parlors, tanning salons, check cashing outlets, strip malls, fast food restaurants, parking lagoons and a host of other things sprouting up everywhere and becoming synonymous with what might be classified as "American culture" as evidence of this. I don't think this point of view is without merit.
Tattoos are often meant to signal a certain roughness of character, butterflies and all notwithstanding, so that others around those who display them will not think them weak. This is why virtually everyone in prison has at least one, and usually an array of tattoos. Of course there are many other reasons, but this is one of the main ones. It is, in my opinion, also at the center of America's pandemic self-absorption and narcissism since, people with tattoos presume to think that others care about the message they're trying to get across with their tattoos.
As conditions in America worsen by the day, and as we become more restless and violent, I expect that tattoos will eventually probably become de rigueur for everyone. I realize, I too will have to sport some kind of menacing tattoo to survive just like many of our friends tragically entangled in the American Gulag.
I expect that in more civilized society like Sweden, one observes fewer tattoos?
I remember when sitting in a lawn chair and yelling at passing children to get off your lawn was enough.
@118
Your words are the best proof that your knowledge of modern tattooing is at best lacking. Regardless of origins and influences which we could debate ad nauseum and probably not concur upon, tattooing in the current day and as it pertains to popular mainstream culture is primarily an art medium. The practice of tattooing is one that explores and utilizes the very same concepts, philosophies, and motivations of any other art form. Condemnation of tattooing along the lines you attempting to work works no better than applying the same to painting or scuplture at this juncture in history. If you arguing against all art then fine but I don't think you are.
I strongly believe that the inclusion of tattoo shops with those other is the result of an outdated and ignorant view of tattooing. Of course, quality counts though and I would agree that having a 'scratcher' shop in the neighborhood would suck and be indicative of a sort of decay. However, high end shops do nothing but improve their locales and are more akin to opening of an art gallery. Good shops benefit the community and I have known popular artists to more or less save a block by bringing in new traffic as their customers began to frequent nearby businesses infusing them with new customers.
As for Sweden, funny you shoiuld pick them as in less than two weeks I will in Malmoe, Sweden (my second visit to the country) for a very large tattoo convention and if my last visit ealier this year for a similar convention was any indication I will be seeing several thousand modified people as my audience.
Wow, such vitriol in this discussion! I'm almost afraid to admit it, but, um, I don't have any tattoos, and I don't want any.
At least where I live (west coast college town), most of the "edgy, cool" tattoos I see fall into two broad categories: barbed wire/fake tribal motif around the bicep for guys, flower/butterfly/bunny on the ankle for gals.
That said, I also know someone with a truly stunning multicolor Maneki Neko (Japanese lucky cat) covering her entire back, and it looks good.
But...I still think most tattoos I see are ugly, poorly thought out, and sometimes of questionable execution...and I still don't want one.
Am I kicked out of the treehouse now?
Are you sure his "eyesores" editorials aren't just his sense of humor in action? It seems just a bit too over-the-top to be serious; rather, it reads like very dry, tongue-in-cheek humor.
That said, the tattoo parlor would look better without the neon in the window. Toss the neon crap and spend the cash on a nice, traditional-looking hanging sign out front. In the big display window, they could post a few examples of their work, and maybe have a sort of community bulletin board - updates for concerts, charity drives and other such stuff. Make the parlor into an active member of the community, you know? People would really respond well to that.
Wow. Tattoos are very mainstream now, and I can't believe (and am really saddened by) the story and some of the comments here.
lolz
I walk by that place on the way to work many days, and it really doesn't look as bad or out of place as his picture suggests. It took me a minute to recognize it! If he pointed his camera the other direction, ya'll would see that there's a record store right down the street. Of course, music (and dancing!) is a harbinger of social dysfunction.
Kunstler has a serious and legitimate problem with strip development, chain stores, and suburbanization. It also seems that he can set those objections aside when promoting _The Long Emergency_ at the Borders on our beautiful town's overdeveloped main street.
Also, his choice of eyesores seem to indicate that he lacks a certain respect for the preservation of artifacts (especially post-world war 2 artifacts!) that demonstrate the American ethos of the time.
Uncle Sam is one of those (you'll find it on his site), and the tatoo parlor highlighted here is another.
As time passes, the eyesores of today become the classics of tomorrow.
I think most (but not all) of you missed the point... go look at his website!
The tattoo 'eyesore' is a bit inscrutable, but the rest are pretty hilarious. Yeah, he's on "our side".
The 'long emergency' is a target too.
well, at least he gave us three categories to fit into: cannibals, sailors, and whores. so we have an choice as to which he views us as.
i personally love sailing.
and meat, and sex...
"I expect that in more civilized society like Sweden, one observes fewer tattoos?"
...Because bodies like that don't *need* to be covered by tats?
Wake up! There were no good ol days.
MagicalFairyOne - really? I mean, really? How's the rarified air in your orbit? If you ever come down to earth, let us know.
In otherwords, false sense of superiority much?
Now get off my lawn you @!*damn kids!
@129 MDH
Are you impugning my Xzibit comment? Or are you mad because I don't think that your ink makes you a special snowflake?
Falsely accused of having a false sense of superiority, I feel personally attacked.
I live on earth, where tattoos do not make you unique or better. They make you ugly, and they say "I am happy to be uglified because I do not care what anyone thinks." To not embrace the otherness of tattoos is missing the point.
@120 The Lizardman
Please do not come to Sweden, Copenhagen is very close and would love to have you. If you must come to Sweden, please stay South of Lund, if you can, and don't try to speak Swedish. We know you are American.
@ 131
Too late - as stated I have aleady been to Sweden and I will be back in about 8 days from now. I am actually flying into Copenhagen where you are correct they also enjoy my presence and shows. I never pander by attempting to speak languages in which I am not fluent. Besides, during my last visit I found most Swedes spoke better English than most Americans and hada great appreciation for linguistic (and other forms) of humor.
I somewhat suspect, given my reception in Sweden and the Swedes I have met that perhaps you are more the 'odd man out' there than I
He REPLIED to my email! Where I said:
"Jim,
I have not one drop of ink on my body, but the first thing I ever read from you has instantly discredited your intellect in every way: "Tattooing has traditionally been a marginal activity among civilized people, the calling card of cannibals, sailors, and whores."
Only whores need hip replacements. Get it now?"
(he had hip replacement surgery btw)
He said:
"Go fuck yourself."
Jim
James Howard Kunstler
“It’s All Good”
I replied:
"If I could do that, I would never leave the house. And then I'd need a hip replaced after too long."
#134, how clever. Now you can e-mail John Stilgoe and make fun of his broken arm.
@114 " #114 posted by The Lizardman Author Profile Page, September 28, 2008 7:45 PM
From 103:
"Is there anyone who would like to argue that they weren't borrowed from whores cannibals, sailors, and convicts and are still usually displayed by these groups?"
Sure, I'd be happy to - not that those who think such things would be prone to listen to such rationale discourse. Nor would I be the first.
One by one:
Whores - only recently began getting tattoos as they began to be more popular and considered attractive. As with strippers, they often model their appearance by the preference of their clients and it is still very common for strippers to have hard time gettign work and making money in many areas if they are too heavily tattooed. The prevalence of tattooing among sex workers in general is a very modern occurence which draws from existing tattooing culture and not vice versa.
Cannibals - fairly rare and none of the tribes from which the western world re-discovered tattooing exhibited such practices. Tattoos in the popular culture of the west are generally traced back to Prince Omai - not a cannibal nor were those who followed.
Sailors - certainly got tattooed and are justifably assosciated with it, however, modern tattooing draws little other than imagery from it which would have lasted on it own and.
Convicts - do they get tattooed certainly but the idea that modern tattooing borrows much from them is a tougher road to go than most would like to try. Do you really think that the soccer mom who gets a butterfly or her kids name tattooed on her is emulating a dude in a prison gang?
The people who usually display tattoos are an estimated one in four of the US population and I don't think that your groups account for one in four even all added together.
Modern tattooing draws from all of history as do all art forms but it comes from the hard work of artists like Spider Webb seeking new mediums over old and the willingness of a society to recognize the legitimate talents of people like Stoney St Clair, Cliff Raven, and others. Tattooing is what it is today because talented artists chose it as their preferred medium not because people are trying to be or be like your list of undesirables - though I know some upstanding sailors who would likely enjoy kicking your ass for lumping them in with the rest."
Thankyou for taking the time to write a sensible response.
Tattooing and many other forms of body modification have been around for as long as human beings have felt the need to differentiate themselves from one another. We don't feel the need to comment on one persons choice of clothes over anothers (unless we are still in school...)
I think that the debate created by one little comment is more interesting than the comment itself. So what if some guy thiks tattoos suck, at least we live in a world where someone can express an opinion and we are free to argue and discuss it rather than all having to live in the opinions of one person.
Bruce Sterling pwns James Howard Kunstler.
@135
You didn't get it either. The point is that having hip replacement surgery doesn't make him a whore any more than my fiance for having a tattoo. Wake up.