Life in world class cities vs. everywhere else

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by Manton

The food in Lyon is great.

Yup, actually like the people from there too, rant was just for effect. Honestly France isn't even approaching Italy as far as good food goes except for Lyon and a few examples of southern cuisine.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by Dashaansafin

I would change that from every city in Asia to every city in China. Korea, Taiwan, Japan arent bad.

ROR. Not really, all bad for me and even offensive in their rhythm, Not bad in the absolute sense mind you, in a more serious post I even recommended some Asian cities.

 

[impolyt_one]

Alpha city? when the hookers are proud to live here, and are polite to everybody. Woke up when some dude outside pulled up hard in a 458 Italia around noon, then we went out and ate two Michelin star meals consecutively without trying today, went shopping but didn't really feel like picking around a select shop with Lattanzi and Borrelli because it seemed a bit gross, went to the Carol Christian Poell exhibit instead, ate Neapolitan pizza for a snack and drank whisky til the bartender gave me a free shot on the clear first mash of Bowmore (which fucked me up), and then let me sit over test tubes of Bowmore peat and malt to sniff them out. It's been a good day in Tokyo. I would not expect this much from anywhere else.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

Alpha city? when the hookers are proud to live here, and are polite to everybody. Woke up when some dude outside pulled up hard in a 458 Italia around noon, then we went out and ate two Michelin star meals consecutively without trying today, went shopping but didn't really feel like picking around a select shop with Lattanzi and Borrelli because it seemed a bit gross, went to the Carol Christian Poell exhibit instead, ate Neapolitan pizza for a snack and drank whisky til the bartender gave me a free shot on the clear first mash of Bowmore (which fucked me up), and then let me sit over test tubes of Bowmore peat and malt to sniff them out. It's been a good day in Tokyo. I would not expect this much from anywhere else.
You forgot the overpriced everything, ****** apt. prone to cockroaches infestation (well any apt really, even the luxury ones), generally awful and disposable architecture, cramped public transportation, hypocritical obsession with face over actual human connection, homogeneous population and thinking, almost complete lack of intellectual life, top-down everything from magazines to politics and geeky obsession with western "art of life" that makes the reification of daily living practices unbearable. Did I mention the work culture, bad teeth, distance from cities with white people that aren't descended from prisoners, chronic misogyny, lack of dressing style that aren't tribal signifier, emptying out of youth ideology with the external signs left as pathetic ruins of a formerly rich world;punks without the rebellion, goths without the nihilism, hell bikers that are more like an army squad? The Japanese are so uncool they don't have their own version of Le Baron (its just not possible in Japan) they have a franchise called "Le Baron de Paris" without the 17 y/o cokehead models and trashy hype members. There's a reason the king of superflat is Japanese. In Japan even the prostitutes, gang members and models think like salarymen. As if turning eating into some sort of nerdy obsession wasn't enough they're almost through doing the same with defecating, nice toilet technology you losers!

 

[CBrown85]

Is it bad that I'm content in a seaside suburb of Vancouver? It's mainly old people and stoners but the traffic is light and I walk everywhere.

Summer is coming up pretty fast- would Montreal be worth a trip if I'm on a budget? (asking Fuuma mainly, or anyone else who has maybe lived there)

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by CBrown85

Is it bad that I'm content in a seaside suburb of Vancouver? It's mainly old people and stoners but the traffic is light and I walk everywhere. Summer is coming up pretty fast- would Montreal be worth a trip if I'm on a budget? (asking Fuuma mainly, or anyone else who has maybe lived there)
Summer in Montreal is a hellish season of festival after festival (it's the festival capital of the world-yuck) so if a horde of shorts wearing tourists and stupid outdoor shows is your thing you'll have a mindgasm. Weather is very nice and people are friendly, they should just do that stuff indoor so I can walk around with having some security guard ask to see whats in my bag every 5 minutes cause "the street is closed for blablafestival and we don't want people bringing food or bottles". Not that I don't tell them to fuckoff and get a policeman if they want to search me but I'm probably the only person in the city doing this. It's nice if you visit I guess, friendly locals, good food, nice outdoor terraces and events, cheap accommodation, good nightlife.

 

[Tangfastic]

For me the main defining factor of any city is (horrible term, but it best describes what I'm trying to say) the psychogeography. The juxtaposition of old and new, what I know of the history of the place, the views that lead the mind to wonder in certain directions and see new possibilities and opportunities is what defines a place for me. This hard to define character of a city is richer and more complicated in older cities for me, for example I found Boston more intriguing than New York in my brief visits to those cities. London's 2000 years of continuous existence as an important city and its ongoing evolution gives it an atmosphere that, aside from its size and wealth, really makes it world class.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by Tangfastic

For me the main defining factor of any city is (horrible term, but it best describes what I'm trying to say) the psychogeography. The juxtaposition of old and new, what I know of the history of the place, the views that lead the mind to wonder in certain directions and see new possibilities and opportunities is what defines a place for me. This hard to define character of a city is richer and more complicated in older cities for me, for example I found Boston more intriguing than New York in my brief visits to those cities. London's 2000 years of continuous existence as an important city and its ongoing evolution gives it an atmosphere that, aside from its size and wealth, really makes it world class.

London has its history etched into its territory, you have various architectural styles and ruins in very close areas. This simply isn't true for a place like Paris with a comparatively rich history but relatively homogeneous architectural landscape (the aforementioned Haussmann with flashy shops on ground level that totally ******* up making the whole city visually unappealing).

 

[globetrotter]

I guess also we haven't really defined what a world class city is.

I took a course in school about market geographies, and one of the things was how far people came to use the services. Fargo might get all the farmers from the area, then the people in Fargo do business with Minneapolis when they need something that isn't available at home, the business in Minneapolis work with regional HQ in Chicago, and they all have corporate headquarters in, for sake of arguement, the greater NY metro.

I think of places with the absolute best museums, for instance. people in academia might spend a month doing research in DC, NY, London or Paris at a museum or library, the cultural institutions in some of those cities serve the whole world. ditto the financial instituations. if you live in Fargo, your the secondary market for your house loan might trace back to NY (in my understanding of things).



there is also another class of cities - at any given time there are handful of places that are "hot". HoChiMin might be hard to define as a world class city in the same way that London and Tokyo are, but it is hot right now.

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

Yup, actually like the people from there too, rant was just for effect. Honestly France isn't even approaching Italy as far as good food goes except for Lyon and a few examples of southern cuisine.

I think it's better overall.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by Manton

I think it's better overall.
I like to be walking down the street, be "I'm hungry", stop at some random place, be served relatively quickly and have an average to good meal, this happens waaaay more often in Rome than Paris, for example. If you're a star hunter who makes reservations and plan things it is different but I rarely do that. I also find that the halfway between these two extremes (friends call each other at like 17h and plan a meal for 21h the same day at a place one person has tried and likes) usually yields better results in Italy. YMMV. When I see SFer planning eating trips and doing everything in advance in a frantic attempt to cram all the "must try" places in four days I feel totally alienated from the forum. As I stated numerous times the elevation of art of living into a sort of art (food for food) really goes against how I want to approach day to day activities.

 

[dusty]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

You forgot the overpriced everything, ****** apt. prone to cockroaches infestation (well any apt really, even the luxury ones), generally awful and disposable architecture, cramped public transportation, hypocritical obsession with face over actual human connection, homogeneous population and thinking, almost complete lack of intellectual life, top-down everything from magazines to politics and geeky obsession with western "art of life" that makes the reification of daily living practices unbearable. Did I mention the work culture, bad teeth, distance from cities with white people that aren't descended from prisoners, chronic misogyny, lack of dressing style that aren't tribal signifier, emptying out of youth ideology with the external signs left as pathetic ruins of a formerly rich world;punks without the rebellion, goths without the nihilism, hell bikers that are more like an army squad? The Japanese are so uncool they don't have their own version of Le Baron (its just not possible in Japan) they have a franchise called "Le Baron de Paris" without the 17 y/o cokehead models and trashy hype members. There's a reason the king of superflat is Japanese. In Japan even the prostitutes, gang members and models think like salarymen. As if turning eating into some sort of nerdy obsession wasn't enough they're almost through doing the same with defecating, nice toilet technology you losers!
This is a world-class diss, and I love Japan (but I wouldn't want to live there)

 

[Manton]

I've had very good luck eating at randome places all over France.

I just like French food better than Italian so that probably explains my preference.

 

[brimley]

Thread should be renamed to "Post your five favorite cities and Fuuma will mock and generalize them." Would subscribe.

For reference: http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=36802

 

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

London has its history etched into its territory, you have various architectural styles and ruins in very close areas. This simply isn't true for a place like Paris with a comparatively rich history but relatively homogeneous architectural landscape (the aforementioned Haussmann with flashy shops on ground level that totally ******* up making the whole city visually unappealing).
Disagree completely. Paris' ancient history is contained in its structure and layout rather than its buildings. Aside from 4-5 notable roads pierced through the centre and the clearing of the Ile de la CitÃ

, the urban fabric of nearly all that is contained within the Grands Boulevards is essentially untouched since it was built. Buildings are another thing, but I prefer the harmony of a coherent landscape to the chaotic discord of heterogeneous North American cities where buildings are plopped down randomly and expected to magically create a sense of place. Parisian neighbourhoods are unmistakable in terms of their feel and look; neighbourhoods in dozens of US and Canadian cities are completely interchangeable. And in any case I deny that Parisian architecture is homogeneous; the bourgeois apartment building predates Haussmann, and building continued in that same style long after (my girlfriends' parents live in a 'Haussmannian' building built in 1913). Each has similiar structural elements, but shifts in the details make them subtly unique. Think of it as the difference between the Golden Gate bridge and the Verrazano Narrows bridge in New York. Both have essentially the same design, but the former is more complex.

In any case there are enough ancient buildings lying around, from the tour St-Jacques to the Sorbonne, to inject a thorough sense of history into the landscape. You are also wrong to complain about the stores and restaurants at ground-level. La commerce de dÃ

tail, et en gÃ

nÃ

ral toutes les activitÃ

s qui vivent de la voie de passage, contribuent à crÃ

er plus qu'aucun autre Ã

lÃ

ment de la structure urbaine, la vie de la rue et par consÃ

quent le caractère d'un quartier. Otherwise you may as well live in the suburbs.

Originally Posted by Fuuma

When I see SFer planning eating trips and doing everything in advance in a frantic attempt to cram all the "must try" places in four days I feel totally alienated from the forum. As I stated numerous times the elevation of art of living into a sort of art (food for food) really goes against how I want to approach day to day activities.
Agree 100%. I can't stand those threads.