There are examples in most states I've seen, but Florida must have one of the greatest collections of small-town courthouses. Here is a google link that includes a pic of the Suwannee County courthouse in Live Oak FL:
That looks like very many small town courthouses in Indiana. Of course, my town tore ours down in the 60s and put up an abomination. We now have around 5 buildings that do what one used to do, and adding more all the time. We are not a huge or rich city, but that won't stop the crap in charge from spending all our money 10 times over.
The 1980's movie "Brazil" does a nice job linking the architectural and city planning hellscape depicted in the film, with the abject hopelessness of the movie's hero and his peers.
It is as brutal and destructive to tear down working existing architecture from previous ages as it was for the Taliban to demolish the Buddhas of Bamiyan. And it is done for the same ideological reasons.
I'll add that so many today have forgotten, or more likely never learned, how to repair things that have been neglected. The mentality of "just buy (build) a new one" applies to the built space we live in each day far too often.
In my area, this practice often applies to public schools. Older school buildings are intentionally under-maintained until it becomes "necessary" to build brand new schools. This is supported by the way that state building funding is allocated, and driven by the education mantra that "the only good school is a new school". So -- beautiful older school buildings are ripped down and replaced by wacky looking, shoddily built education warehouses.
That's a great point. All too true. I live in an area with a large Amish population, ironically they excel at ie small engine repair despite using the horse-power of actual horses for their transportation and farming needs.
I spent a few summers in Lone Pine and up in the mountains around Bridgeport when I was growing up.
My parents friends owned the Frontier Motel in Lone Pine. It’s still there, now operated by the 4th generation of the Powell family! We would drive up to Lone Pine from the Imperial Valley where we lived and go camping with the Powells. It was a long drive with many fond memories. And wonderful fresh tourist caught by my dad and Mr. Powell for dinner!
Ross Powell was my bestie back in the day. Maybe 1968/69 I went with Ross up to their deer camp in Ventura (near county line). Came home with the worst case of poison oak, but it was an enlightening experience I carried with me.
Who was Ross Powell? He was not a “Powell from Lone Pine”. The Powells of Lone Pine had two sons, neither was named Ross. Nor did they have a “deer camp in Ventura” to my knowledge. My Dad went deer hunting several times in the Eastern Sierra, with Raymond Powell and other Lone Pine Locals.
A few years ago, some desperados from the southland drove up Hwy 395 to escape justice. Near Independence, the Inyo County sheriffs cornered the criminals on a cold winter night.
The bad guys fled into the tree line of a creek bed. The sheriff deputies could have followed them into the bushes but that seemed dangerous and a lot of work.
So they set up some tables with donuts and hot coffee and heaters and called out for the lads to surrender. One by one the near frozen criminals came out peacefully.
We will be in Lone Pine, 11/11, at the Dow Villa for our anniversary.
We stayed at the Frontier after one of our backpacking trips in the Eastern Sierra. Lots to do in the area, even if you don’t hike.
The Museum of Western Film History was a hoot. Manzanar is fascinating — what a great job they’ve done with the visitor center and the reconstruction of buildings. I remember it in 2003, when it was just abandoned, and visitors were left to their own devices to figure out the site with just a few signs. And the small (but packed with stuff) Museum of Eastern California was surprisingly interesting and quirky.
And then there’s the beauty of the Sierra…
Trivia about the courthouse in Independence: 24 members of the Manson family were jailed there in 1969 (for charges unrelated to the Tate-LaBianca murders).
She had her 80th Birthday party there. I went. It was so much fun. They had just acquired the stagecoach from Quentin Tarantino from the film “Django Unchained”. Part of that movie was filmed in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine.
What are you referring to? Lone Pine or the Frontier Motel? Neither have ever been referred to as “Twin Pine”. There is a small town Big Pine, north of Lone Pine and south of Bishop.
Are you referring to the movie Back to the Future? …not exactly applicable to this discussion of the region of the eastern Sierra, Lone Pine and towns north on the 395.
It’s only “a joke” if people get it. It is a rather obscure reference if you ask me. But then , though I saw that movie and I had a friend in the film industry in LA that worked on that film and I went to the set of back to the Future, I would have not made that connection.
Important point about manners/behavior. And look at how people dress! It’s all of a piece. It’s fascinating to look at old photos from the 1940s or ’50s; it doesn’t matter what neighborhood it’s from — whether Central Park or Harlem — everyone looks amazing. These days I’ve gone to Michelin-rated, expensive restaurants only to find rowdy tables of people in T-shirts and baseball caps. This is where we’re at. No wonder everyone hates themselves and acts like public places are an extension of their living rooms.
This. Cruise lines for example have gone from having “formal” nights (black tie) to “gala” (at least put on a suit) to “dressy” (please don’t wear jeans). Or look at the way people used to dress to fly somewhere to how they dress now. Of course that one cuts both ways — I’m not going to put on a cocktail dress to wedge myself into an economy-class cattle car seat.
Favorite comment from one of the French detective shows I streamed a while back (name escapes me): "Dressing elegantly is a sign of politeness to the world." While I am not always able nor inclined to dress "elegantly," I am of the belief that it is a sign of respect to dress well, because someone has to look at me. The way some people dress . . . did they look in the mirror and say to themselves, "I look good!" (Don't start with the "nobody cares what you dress like." I have story after story that would defy that notion.)
Anyone who doesn’t think appearance matters is 100% fooling themselves. Humans, like many other species, are extremely visual, and it’s the primary way we navigate through the world. And I’m not saying that a guy has to be Paul Newman (or that a gal has to be a supermodel), but when you look unkempt, people will respond to you less positively. Elegance is a high bar; most of us are just happy to look neat and maybe a little stylish. If you’re in the grocery store in your pajamas, don’t be surprised if you feel depressed.
Since you mentioned the French…they have this concept of a “belle laide” (literal translation: a good-looking ugly person). And you see these people all over France. Although their features may be harsh and unattractive, they somehow pull off — through their clothing, posture, and personal style — looking quite attractive. It’s a bit hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you see it.
Yes, it seems a deliberate attempt to remove beauty from our surroundings, attempting to negatively affect our mental health by tearing down the beautiful & replacing it with ugly, non descript buildings - can’t really call it architecture. Been going on since the 60’s. The more the communist totalitarians gain control, the uglier the buildings.
It's the Communist break from the past, destroying what has been - all that civilizational beauty and effort - by the bulldozer of equality they call progress.
Just keep doing whatever you can to keep your own little corner of the world as beautiful and inspiring as possible. Invite others to witness and share your efforts. Hopefully, they'll carry that back to their little corner. Eventually, perhaps all the little corners will come together.
Yes! We finally did some proper native landscaping, getting rid of what remained of our dead lawn (a ridiculous thing to have in Southern California anyway) and now I love just hanging out at home enjoying my plants and the wildlife that comes to visit. And random passers-by do ask about it. Hopefully some will be inspired to do something similar.
🙂 Reminds me of a scene from The Matrix, where one character, as his 30 pieces of silver?, wants all the trappings of "success". What profiteth a man and all that ...
Well, the Dems/left have had control of all the major sense-making and organizing structures of Western society for 80+ years. And they hate America, Americanism, western society, western culture, western values and - most recently - white people. Self-loathing is their core identifying characteristic. So, it shouldn't be a surprise they have let things rot and/or actively built ugly things. No different than a self-loathing individual who mutilates their body and lives in squalor to deal with the pain and cognitive dissonance of self-hatred.
I would suggest putting the blame on the worship of money and Free Market Capitalism by the elites, not just the **notational** left or even the often notational right.
After all, beauty costs money, and after the Second World War the destruction of community, the worship of the corporation and money, by the elites meant that beauty was downgraded, then ignored, because not only does it cost money (and reduces profits) it suggests something **other** than money is worth being considered. It is not an accident (simplifying here) that International Modern, then Brutalism, which reminds me of the Fuhrer Bunker or his Wolf’s Lair, followed by abomination of Post Modernist became the dominant architectural styles. Adding all the buildings destroyed in Europe and all the businesses destroyed in the United States with their buildings replaced with the new styles along with the concurring increasing wealth inequality and Free Market Capitalism means that all the new structures became increasingly functional, cheap, and ugly.
Neoliberalism is the combing of free or unregulated markets, free movement of money and workers, and unregulated capitalism with the prevention of regulations of any sort by the government, which also means preventing the locals having any say in their environment including the architecture and the economy.
The elites wanted power and they wanted wealth, and destroying Western civilization to get them was just with them, but the process likely started before the Second World War with the counter-reaction of the American reactionaries who hated the New Deal and the European elites who hated anything at all that threatened their control of the economy. The creation of Neoliberalism was done to subvert and destroy the old, not notational, Left and Classical Liberalism and replacing them with the notational left, right, and liberalism that we have today.
I am deeply sorry i clicked on that link. After the discussion of all that’s good and beautiful, I had to see and hear the opposite. My fault, I clicked. I’ll try to unsee her.
As a country we would disagree about what is beautiful and what’s not. For example there’s a type of landscape sculpture that I notice on university campuses, flat panels of iron. Sometimes sort of box shaped, sometime twisted and contorted. Sometimes painted black or left to rust. They aren’t pretty or graceful or decorative.
Art for the unimaginative I guess. Maybe as people gravitate toward the interesting and away from the dull it will become more apparent what is good and what is ugly.
Just finished a trip to the Nothwest and back. Just to treat myself I upgraded to First class. No class would have better described many of my fellow travelers. Wife beater T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops were a treat but the capper was the morbidly Obese man with an ill fitting Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and shoes, which he kicked off placing his bare feet in the aisle. Somehow I regretted the choice to upgrade, what difference did it really make. We’ve become a culture of no class.
BTW. The small towns of Texas are often adorned with beautiful architecture centered around the county courthouse.
MABA: Make America Beautiful Again!
There are examples in most states I've seen, but Florida must have one of the greatest collections of small-town courthouses. Here is a google link that includes a pic of the Suwannee County courthouse in Live Oak FL:
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-motorola-rvo3&sca_esv=73801e2eee3e29d2&sxsrf=AE3TifMawkVLqJp3loqkfrjvS03RFQOF9A%3A1760223853090&kgmid=%2Fg%2F1tj4hwtp&q=Suwannee%20County%20Clerk%20of%20the%20Circuit%20Court&shndl=30&shem=lscta3&source=sh%2Fx%2Floc%2Fact%2Fm4%2F2#ebo=0
That looks like very many small town courthouses in Indiana. Of course, my town tore ours down in the 60s and put up an abomination. We now have around 5 buildings that do what one used to do, and adding more all the time. We are not a huge or rich city, but that won't stop the crap in charge from spending all our money 10 times over.
It never stops the idiots from building monuments to themselves
Very true!
we made amazing memories swinging from a random tree swing into the magnificent Suwannee River on a canoe trip there. a very special place!
Whatever ugly things we build end up building us.
If architecture is not beautiful, it is an error, imo.
The 1980's movie "Brazil" does a nice job linking the architectural and city planning hellscape depicted in the film, with the abject hopelessness of the movie's hero and his peers.
It has to - they're necessarily interdependent.
It is as brutal and destructive to tear down working existing architecture from previous ages as it was for the Taliban to demolish the Buddhas of Bamiyan. And it is done for the same ideological reasons.
I'll add that so many today have forgotten, or more likely never learned, how to repair things that have been neglected. The mentality of "just buy (build) a new one" applies to the built space we live in each day far too often.
In my area, this practice often applies to public schools. Older school buildings are intentionally under-maintained until it becomes "necessary" to build brand new schools. This is supported by the way that state building funding is allocated, and driven by the education mantra that "the only good school is a new school". So -- beautiful older school buildings are ripped down and replaced by wacky looking, shoddily built education warehouses.
That's a great point. All too true. I live in an area with a large Amish population, ironically they excel at ie small engine repair despite using the horse-power of actual horses for their transportation and farming needs.
^^This!^^
I spent a few summers in Lone Pine and up in the mountains around Bridgeport when I was growing up.
My parents friends owned the Frontier Motel in Lone Pine. It’s still there, now operated by the 4th generation of the Powell family! We would drive up to Lone Pine from the Imperial Valley where we lived and go camping with the Powells. It was a long drive with many fond memories. And wonderful fresh tourist caught by my dad and Mr. Powell for dinner!
There's a typo in here that I beg you to not fix.
Yes the tourists were quite tasty! That f**king iPhone auto correct! Do I dare change it. I swear I typed in trout! 😉🐟
Do you hunt the tourists with rifles, or do bow/crossbow?
I’ve had good luck with my suppressed 300 Blackout. Very ethical and they don’t suffer. Plus, it’s quiet so I don’t disturb the wildlife.
If you must “go there”, in this case it was a fishing hook and line. 😉🎏
I love it when you curse about your iPhone auto-correct, Frontera Lupita.
No pressure.....only do it when you're feeling it. Ha ha
Ha! Ha! I type all my s**t. I don’t use my microphone! And my index finger doesn’t always make contact with the right key! 😉🤣🤦🏼♀️
Ross Powell was my bestie back in the day. Maybe 1968/69 I went with Ross up to their deer camp in Ventura (near county line). Came home with the worst case of poison oak, but it was an enlightening experience I carried with me.
Who was Ross Powell? He was not a “Powell from Lone Pine”. The Powells of Lone Pine had two sons, neither was named Ross. Nor did they have a “deer camp in Ventura” to my knowledge. My Dad went deer hunting several times in the Eastern Sierra, with Raymond Powell and other Lone Pine Locals.
My favorite was to tell grandma that WTF actually meant Wow! That's terrific! She's been using it in her texts ever since.
Never Correct, Never Surrender!
One of my favorite Inyo county tales.
A few years ago, some desperados from the southland drove up Hwy 395 to escape justice. Near Independence, the Inyo County sheriffs cornered the criminals on a cold winter night.
The bad guys fled into the tree line of a creek bed. The sheriff deputies could have followed them into the bushes but that seemed dangerous and a lot of work.
So they set up some tables with donuts and hot coffee and heaters and called out for the lads to surrender. One by one the near frozen criminals came out peacefully.
We will be in Lone Pine, 11/11, at the Dow Villa for our anniversary.
Remember that place well. The Dow Villa.
🤣🤣
HILARIOUS
😉🤣
lol! Excellent. Nothing better than fresh tourists for dinner.
Pan fried in butter.
Like!
We stayed at the Frontier after one of our backpacking trips in the Eastern Sierra. Lots to do in the area, even if you don’t hike.
The Museum of Western Film History was a hoot. Manzanar is fascinating — what a great job they’ve done with the visitor center and the reconstruction of buildings. I remember it in 2003, when it was just abandoned, and visitors were left to their own devices to figure out the site with just a few signs. And the small (but packed with stuff) Museum of Eastern California was surprisingly interesting and quirky.
And then there’s the beauty of the Sierra…
Trivia about the courthouse in Independence: 24 members of the Manson family were jailed there in 1969 (for charges unrelated to the Tate-LaBianca murders).
One of the founders of The Museum of Western Film in Lone Pine was the wife of my parent’s friends, The Powells. She was Kerry Powell.
Cool. That place is clearly a labor of love.
She had her 80th Birthday party there. I went. It was so much fun. They had just acquired the stagecoach from Quentin Tarantino from the film “Django Unchained”. Part of that movie was filmed in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine.
It used to be Twin Pine until 1985.
I see what you did there. That’s heavy.
Like!
What are you referring to? Lone Pine or the Frontier Motel? Neither have ever been referred to as “Twin Pine”. There is a small town Big Pine, north of Lone Pine and south of Bishop.
It was Twin Pine until the Delorean knocked one down in 1955.
She's not going to get it.
Besides, wasn't there 3 pine trees and one was knocked down by the Delorean and that's where "Twin Pines" came from? 🤔
What was Twin Pine?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Are you referring to the movie Back to the Future? …not exactly applicable to this discussion of the region of the eastern Sierra, Lone Pine and towns north on the 395.
That was a “make believe” story.
It’s called a joke, a lightening of the conversation, which is something humans do.
It’s only “a joke” if people get it. It is a rather obscure reference if you ask me. But then , though I saw that movie and I had a friend in the film industry in LA that worked on that film and I went to the set of back to the Future, I would have not made that connection.
I loved that movie! I still love that movie. 😢
Our societal behaviors have coarsened with the architecture. Just look at what’s happened to what we used to refer to as “manners”.
Important point about manners/behavior. And look at how people dress! It’s all of a piece. It’s fascinating to look at old photos from the 1940s or ’50s; it doesn’t matter what neighborhood it’s from — whether Central Park or Harlem — everyone looks amazing. These days I’ve gone to Michelin-rated, expensive restaurants only to find rowdy tables of people in T-shirts and baseball caps. This is where we’re at. No wonder everyone hates themselves and acts like public places are an extension of their living rooms.
This. Cruise lines for example have gone from having “formal” nights (black tie) to “gala” (at least put on a suit) to “dressy” (please don’t wear jeans). Or look at the way people used to dress to fly somewhere to how they dress now. Of course that one cuts both ways — I’m not going to put on a cocktail dress to wedge myself into an economy-class cattle car seat.
Cocktail dress not needed, but a pair of slacks, flats, light sweater and a wrap (BYO blanket) can go a long way.
I’m with you PhD.
I found myself thinking how uncommon it was for the man in the video to have matched his socks with his blazer.
He is definitely one quirky dude.😉
Definitely British. We're all quirky.
His “doo” was rocking’
Favorite comment from one of the French detective shows I streamed a while back (name escapes me): "Dressing elegantly is a sign of politeness to the world." While I am not always able nor inclined to dress "elegantly," I am of the belief that it is a sign of respect to dress well, because someone has to look at me. The way some people dress . . . did they look in the mirror and say to themselves, "I look good!" (Don't start with the "nobody cares what you dress like." I have story after story that would defy that notion.)
Anyone who doesn’t think appearance matters is 100% fooling themselves. Humans, like many other species, are extremely visual, and it’s the primary way we navigate through the world. And I’m not saying that a guy has to be Paul Newman (or that a gal has to be a supermodel), but when you look unkempt, people will respond to you less positively. Elegance is a high bar; most of us are just happy to look neat and maybe a little stylish. If you’re in the grocery store in your pajamas, don’t be surprised if you feel depressed.
Since you mentioned the French…they have this concept of a “belle laide” (literal translation: a good-looking ugly person). And you see these people all over France. Although their features may be harsh and unattractive, they somehow pull off — through their clothing, posture, and personal style — looking quite attractive. It’s a bit hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you see it.
Exactly.
Yes, it seems a deliberate attempt to remove beauty from our surroundings, attempting to negatively affect our mental health by tearing down the beautiful & replacing it with ugly, non descript buildings - can’t really call it architecture. Been going on since the 60’s. The more the communist totalitarians gain control, the uglier the buildings.
What can be, unburdened by what has been.
Hahaha!
I had to like the laugh and did chuckle, but then sad reality stepped in as I realized Kamala means it. PROGRESS!
It's the Communist break from the past, destroying what has been - all that civilizational beauty and effort - by the bulldozer of equality they call progress.
Just keep doing whatever you can to keep your own little corner of the world as beautiful and inspiring as possible. Invite others to witness and share your efforts. Hopefully, they'll carry that back to their little corner. Eventually, perhaps all the little corners will come together.
Yes! We finally did some proper native landscaping, getting rid of what remained of our dead lawn (a ridiculous thing to have in Southern California anyway) and now I love just hanging out at home enjoying my plants and the wildlife that comes to visit. And random passers-by do ask about it. Hopefully some will be inspired to do something similar.
Maybe the bums won’t find your yard. Keep it hardscaped to deter them…
Amen, brother. We can only affect small groups of people, but didn't all great movements start with just a handful of believers?
🎼someone left the meth out in the rain…🎶
Gotta know it to understand it!
This is quite true. But later on when they put us all in pods once money is digitized, we will not miss the modern ugliness. So at least there’s that.
I want the prettiest buildings projected into my coma-pod consciousness
I’m partial to art decco.
Only one C in Art Deco! (I was an interior design/architecture major in college) 😉🕵🏼♀️
Art Necco
🙂 Reminds me of a scene from The Matrix, where one character, as his 30 pieces of silver?, wants all the trappings of "success". What profiteth a man and all that ...
and ladies!
Toxic masculinity! That's what im talking about.
My, man!
Nah, you get to suffer and nothing good will ever happen.
Socialism feeds the ghetto.
Well, the Dems/left have had control of all the major sense-making and organizing structures of Western society for 80+ years. And they hate America, Americanism, western society, western culture, western values and - most recently - white people. Self-loathing is their core identifying characteristic. So, it shouldn't be a surprise they have let things rot and/or actively built ugly things. No different than a self-loathing individual who mutilates their body and lives in squalor to deal with the pain and cognitive dissonance of self-hatred.
I would suggest putting the blame on the worship of money and Free Market Capitalism by the elites, not just the **notational** left or even the often notational right.
After all, beauty costs money, and after the Second World War the destruction of community, the worship of the corporation and money, by the elites meant that beauty was downgraded, then ignored, because not only does it cost money (and reduces profits) it suggests something **other** than money is worth being considered. It is not an accident (simplifying here) that International Modern, then Brutalism, which reminds me of the Fuhrer Bunker or his Wolf’s Lair, followed by abomination of Post Modernist became the dominant architectural styles. Adding all the buildings destroyed in Europe and all the businesses destroyed in the United States with their buildings replaced with the new styles along with the concurring increasing wealth inequality and Free Market Capitalism means that all the new structures became increasingly functional, cheap, and ugly.
Neoliberalism is the combing of free or unregulated markets, free movement of money and workers, and unregulated capitalism with the prevention of regulations of any sort by the government, which also means preventing the locals having any say in their environment including the architecture and the economy.
The elites wanted power and they wanted wealth, and destroying Western civilization to get them was just with them, but the process likely started before the Second World War with the counter-reaction of the American reactionaries who hated the New Deal and the European elites who hated anything at all that threatened their control of the economy. The creation of Neoliberalism was done to subvert and destroy the old, not notational, Left and Classical Liberalism and replacing them with the notational left, right, and liberalism that we have today.
Money really does change everything.
Whew! You wear me out…..
Excellent comment.
This was really sad 😞.
We have to get rid of this hag and maybe just maybe https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2CPFpFym3mc
I am deeply sorry i clicked on that link. After the discussion of all that’s good and beautiful, I had to see and hear the opposite. My fault, I clicked. I’ll try to unsee her.
We could insist on building beautiful things
As a country we would disagree about what is beautiful and what’s not. For example there’s a type of landscape sculpture that I notice on university campuses, flat panels of iron. Sometimes sort of box shaped, sometime twisted and contorted. Sometimes painted black or left to rust. They aren’t pretty or graceful or decorative.
Art for the unimaginative I guess. Maybe as people gravitate toward the interesting and away from the dull it will become more apparent what is good and what is ugly.
We know what beautiful is. Just track how many people take a picture of it to share with others.
James Howard Kunstler has an entertaining "Eyesore of the Month" featured in his blog. It's fun to see some of the things he posts.......
Just finished a trip to the Nothwest and back. Just to treat myself I upgraded to First class. No class would have better described many of my fellow travelers. Wife beater T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops were a treat but the capper was the morbidly Obese man with an ill fitting Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and shoes, which he kicked off placing his bare feet in the aisle. Somehow I regretted the choice to upgrade, what difference did it really make. We’ve become a culture of no class.
BTW. The small towns of Texas are often adorned with beautiful architecture centered around the county courthouse.
Ugh. Just ugh.