Category Archives: Chicago

Robert Stark interviews Architect Adam Mayer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Mayer is an architect based out of San Francisco. Check out his TwitterInstagram, and Architectural Portfolio.

Topics:

Growing up in Los Gatos which is a small town on the edge of the Silicon Valley
Studying architecture at USC and observations on LA
Art Deco and Mid Century Modern Architecture in LA
New Urbanism and Retrofitting suburbia
The Bay Area Housing Crisis and the importance of developing smartly while protecting greenbelts
How ugly architecture leads to NIMBY sentiment and why the YIMBY movement needs to address aesthetics
California Senate bill would force more dense housing near transit hubs
Working on a redevelopment project at the Walnut Creek BART Station
San Francisco’s SOMA district’s new skyline
San Francisco’s new Transbay Terminal
Architect John C. Portman; The Embarcadero Center and Hyatt in San Francisco and the extension of the urban realm to the inside
Architect Jon Jerde; his projects including Westside Pavilion and the Universal City Walk in LA, Horton Plaza in San Diego, and the Wynn and Bellagio in Las Vegas
Architect William Pereira who designed the Trans-America Pyramid in San Francisco
Brutalism
1980’s architecture and whether it will make a comeback
Frank Gehry
Modernism vs. Postmodernism and where to draw the boundary
How current architecture lacks one cohesive aesthetic
Adam’s work as an architect in China, master planned projects, and observations on architecture in China
Winner Take All? Richard Florida’s ‘New Urban Crisis’
How to accommodate families in cities

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews J. David Spurlock about Margaret Brundage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to J. David Spurlock about his book The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage. He is an award-winning author, historian, educator, advocate for artists’ rights, documentary filmmaker, and editor of Vanguard Productions.

Topics:

Background as a comic artist and his shift from comics to books on the careers of artist including AL WILLIAMSON SKETCHBOOK
Teaching art at The University of Texas at Arlington, the Joe Kubert School for Comic Art, and the School of Visual Arts in New York
The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art
First Fandom, the early science fiction community
The Pulp Genre which predates comics
The Pulp Magazine Weird Tales, which published Brundage’s work as well as other artist including H.P. Lovecraft
PAINTINGS OF J ALLEN ST JOHN PB: Grand Master of Fantasy
How Brundage was a very mysterious figure and there was very little known about her
J. David Spurlock’s journey investigating Brundage’s life and interviewing the few people left who knew her
Her husband Slim Brundage who was a leftist radical
Their protest against WWI which was illegal at the time
The Bughouse Square Debates and the Dil Pickle Club in Chicago
Hobo culture and involvement with the Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World)
Censorship, controversies about the sexual nature of Brundage’s art, and rumors spread about her
How there were hardly any women illustrating pulps at the time
The Chicago Black Renaissance
The Federal Government’s work program for opening art centers and the South Side Community Art Center which is the only surviving one
The effects of McCarthyism on Brundage and her friendship with Paul Robeson
J David Spurlock’s point that things Brundage was considered a radical for are things we take for granted today
Brundage’s connection to Walk Disney
MTV’s review of the book stating “her story could be the basis for a great Hollywood film” and The Village Voice naming it one of the best graphic novels of 2013
Science Fiction artist Frank Frazetta and Conan the Barbarian
J David Spurlock’s pilot for a reality show called “Franzetta Girls”


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Robert Stark interviews Anatoly Karlin about his American Decade, Futurism, & Political Trends

san-francisco-karlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Anatoly Karlin. He blogs at The Unz Review

Topics include:

Anatoly’s article at the Unz Review about his American Decade
Why Anatoly is leaving the United States and going back to Russia
How the United States is becoming more like Europe
T.R. Reid’s book The United States of Europe, where he argued that the EU was emerging as a superpower rivaling the US, but has latter been disproved
How during the Bush era Americans perceived Europeans as “Cheese Eating Surrender Moneys,” but latter Sarkozy became the architect of the war in Libya, and arming Syrian rebels
Another element of America’s Europeanization is the decline in social conservatism, the surge in support for gay marriage, and drug legalization
Anatoly’s political views, which are fairly socially liberal(except for rejecting political correctness, and radical feminism),  economically centrist, and closest to Rabbit’s AltLeft
U.S. Millennials More Likely to Support Censoring Offensive Speech, especially among university students who are the future elites
The decline in American fertility rates toward European levels
How American politics now resembles Europe in the sense that there are five distinct blocs: Clinton democrats, Sanders socialists, Rubio/Bush etablishment conservatives, Cruz Bible-bashers, and Trump nationalists.
Anatoly’s pre election prediction article US Elections 2016: Let’s MAGA, Not War, and Trump’s support in the rust belt
Trump’s economic policies as a hybrid of supply side economics, and economic nationalism, and the similarities to Putin’s economic policies in Russia
The GINI index of income inequality
The pros and cons of economic automation, and the basic income
Transhumanism, Zoltan Istvan, and his book The Transhumanist Wager
The Bay Area where Anatoly spent most of his time in the US, and how it’s pretty much ideal, but also the most expensive macro-region of the US
California is also home to Ron Unz, Steve Sailer, as well as the “Alt Left” movement(the tiny group of thinkers combining leftist economics with HBD, sane views on gender relations, and a penchant for futurism )
The futurist scene in the Bay Area including Scott Jackisch’s Bay Area Futurists meetup, Health Extensions Salons, Mike Johnson’s Qualia Research Institute, Effective Altruism, and the “techno” faction of NRx
Mass Transit, Bay Area Rapid Transit, how older cities tend to have more integrated transit systems, and why conservatives oppose mass transit
Global Warming, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius who discovered climate change, debunking climate change deniers, and whether it will benefit arctic regions such as Russia
Observations on other American cities including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, and Pittsburgh
Anatoly’s experience ridding across the nation on Amtrak
Architecture: Skyscrapers, Brutalism, architect John Portman’s 70’s Neofuturism, and Rabbit’s ideal city based on the film Logan’s run
America’s great wilderness and National Park System


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Robert Stark interviews Adam Hengels about Market Urbanism

Adam Hengels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Adam Hengels.

Adam is SVP and Director of Development of PAD, a real estate development start-up that builds communities for young professionals.  PAD’s developments will feature micro-apartments and other product innovations.

From Mega-Projects to Micro-Apartments, Adam has brought his development expertise to several high profile projects such as the $5B Barclays Center Arena and Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, New York .  Adam earned his Masters in Real Estate Development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has a BS and MS in Structural Engineering.

Adam is passionate about urbanism, and is known as a pioneer in the Market Urbanism movement.  His mission is to improve the urban experience, and overcoming obstacles that prevent aspiring city dwellers from living where they want.  He considers the conventional apartment layout to be stale.  Product innovations such as micro-apartments are a key part of the next wave in urbanism.

Topics include:

Why Adam advocates for the liberalization of zoning laws
The debate between absolute private property rights vs. the argument that regulations are necessary to prevent landowners from harming their communities
Zoning laws that contribute to suburban sprawl(ex. parking requirements, limits on density in suburbs, and government subsidies of roads and highways)
Retrofitting Suburbia
How demographic and economic changes are leading to the decline of suburbia
How to attract middle class families back to cities by improving education and increasing housing supply
New Urbanism
How zoning laws can prevent bad developments, but can also lead to increases in costs of living
Whether zoning laws are necessary to preserve the aesthetic and historic character of cities
How original mixed use communities declined due to zoning regulation and the rise of the automobile
Robert Stark’s point that even though he supports historic preservation and wilderness conservation, he acknowledges that many zoning laws have negative affects on cities and encourage sprawl
How the Lack of New Housing On The Westside of LA Is Causing Gentrification Of East And South LA
Height limit restrictions in cities
Minimum lot size requirements, and how they stifle creativity in urbanism
Whether highrises can provide housing for the middle class, and Adam’s point that new highrises are expensive but over time they decline in cost and eases the overall demand for housing
Whether mass transit can function in a free market, and how New York City’s Subway System started out as private, and Tokyo’s Subway System is semi private
Transit-oriented development
Adam’s development of micro apartments and how they can address the housing crisis for young people
How zoning laws make it difficult to create micro apartments
The role that Zoning and Urban planning plays in income inequality

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Transcript of interview:

Continue reading Robert Stark interviews Adam Hengels about Market Urbanism

Robert Stark interviews Matt Forney about the NPI Conference, US Cities, Houellebecq, & the Paris Terror Attack

Matt-Forney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

Matt’s experience at the recent National Policy Institute’s Conference in Washington DC
How the theme of the conference Become Who We Are was about creating a new identity
How Left-Wing Activists Tried to Shut Down This Year’s NPI Conference”
Matt take on Washington DC, and how it would be a great city if it weren’t for it’s people
How transplants tend to fulfill the obnoxious stereotypes of cities(ex. DC, NY, LA, Portland)
Obnoxious broke hipsters in Portland vs. obnoxious trust fund hipster in NYC
How NY hipster transplants benefited from the same Police enforcement and gentrification which they agitate against
How New York’s gentrification has made the city sterile and killed it’s creative energy
Kill Your Idols documentary about the punk scene in NY in the early 80’s
Matt’s life in Chicago, and how despite it’s crime it has a cohesive culture and affordable living
How Chicago shutting down it’s public housing projects such as  Cabrini–Green dispersed crime over a larger area
Matt experience living in Portland, Oregon, and how Portlandia is so accurate it’s not even funny
Why Matt favors urban living over suburban or rural living
Why Matt views the suburbs as an unfortunate social development but they developed because the left destroyed cities and forced out the middle class
How major cities such as NY once had vibrant urban middle classes
E. Michael Jones’s The Slaughter of Cities: Urban Renewal As Ethnic Cleansing
How the further away we get  from nature the greater increase in social dysfunction we see
Matt’s trip to Las Vegas and how his friend Davis Aurini describes the city as an “honest whore”
Anti-Natalism and how it’s an interesting philosophical question but attempts to apply reason to interfere with nature
How Anti-Natalism appeals to the most thoughtful and intelligent  individuals thus removing them from the gene pool
Michel Houellebecq The Father Of The Term “Sexual Marketplace”
Houellebecq’s Whatever which is about people who lost out on the sexual revolution
Houellebecq’s Submission which is about an Islamist takeover of France and whether that scenario is likely
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
The recent terrorist attack in Paris and future scenarios in Europe


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Part II: Robert Stark interviews Charles Lincoln about Cities

San Francisco Art Deco

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

Charles’s experience living in London as a child in the 1960’s and an adult in the 1980’s, and Robert’s visit in 2002
Charles’s experiences in New York in the 1980’s and that era in film
The Brownstones of  New York and Boston and how they originally started out as single family homes
Art Deco
Mass Transit systems
The demographic transformations of London, New York, and Los Angeles
How mass immigration has led to an increase in the demand for housing in cities
Robert’s recent trip to San Francisco
Chicago’s grid pattern
How Los Angeles started out as car oriented suburbia but latter became denser while not upgrading it’s transit infrastructure
Santa Monica, California and how the 1994 Earthquake transformed the city
The revitalization of downtown Los Angeles
Dallas, Texas and how it’s following the patterns of LA
How whites are moving back to cities while non-whites  are moving to suburbs
How single family homes are being replaced by apartments
Why Charles’s views the single family home as the ideal for autonomy of living
How the increase in apartment living coincides with the decline of families
Whether the key issue is density itself or the quality of architecture
The appeal of urban living and why people are willing to sacrifice living space for that lifestyle
The New Urbanist movement which seeks to recreate walkable communities

Robert Stark interviews Daiva Sanda

Daiva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Daiva Sanda about her ongoing nightmare. Daiva is originally from Lithuania and resides in Chicago. You can contact her at daivas8888@gmail.com.

 

Topics Include:

Daiva’s experience living in Lithuania and her view that Lithuanian culture in much more altruistic than America’s

How she views Americans in general as distant and not willing to help those who are down on their luck

Her experience with the Family Court System

How her assets were stolen by her landlord

How she was arrested for trespassing in her own apartment

How her sucessful import business was destroyed

How the Chicago Police Department are one of the most corrupt in the Nation

How the Police offer little help for victims

Racism among the Chicago Police Department and Court Staff

How she was rejected when seeking help from private charities

How the audience can help her

 

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