Category Archives: Architecture

Robert Stark & Brandon Adamsom talk about Predictions for the 2020’s

aesthetics, Alt Center, American Culture, Andrew Yang, Architecture, arcology, automation, Basic Income, Brandon Adamson, Culture, DECAY, demographics, Donald Trump, Economics, Elections, Futurism, Globalization, Hipsters, Immigration, Imperialism, income inequality, Iran, Mass Transit, Media, Middle Class, Middle East, Millennials, Oligarchy, Overpopulation, Political Correctness, Political Parties, Politics, technology, The Black Pill, Urbanism, Utopia, War, Wealth, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Brandon Adamson discuss their predictions for the next decade. Check out Brandon’s predictions on Twitter.

Topics:

The conflict with Iran, low probability of outright war, but continuation of foreign policy status quo under Trump
Prediction that Trump won’t be re-elected due to demographic change and lack of energy among intelligent online activists
Prediction that woke culture will become even more insane
Prediction that people won’t wake up in numbers to enact any significant change and in fact will get used to a lower standard of living
Woke urbanist vs. NIMBYs, and regular millennials getting screwed from both sides
The gig economy
The home delivery trend and it’s impact on urbanism
Micro apartments
Retrofitting Dead and Dying Suburban Malls
Self-contained cities
Decay’s urbanist predictions on Twitter
The stagnation of pop culture and how hipster culture has been superficially absorbed into pop culture
America existing in name only, with loyalty to tribes rather than abstract idea of America
The importance of being part of a small elite group rather than winning over the masses
American refugees will become a thing

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Mark Mollineaux about Georgism & Urbanism

aesthetics, Architecture, Class, Disneyland, Economics, Georgism, income inequality, Mark Mollineaux, Mass Transit, Middle Class, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Suburbia, Taxation, Urbanism, Wealth, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Mark Mollineaux about Georgist economic theory and its implications on urbanism. Mark is the host of The Henry George Program hosted by Stanford University’s Radio. Follow the show on Twitter.

Topics:

Ideological roots of Georgist thought
Georgist view on property ownership
How to better incentivize efficient land usage
How Georgism can facilitate better urbanism and prevent sprawl
The difference between a land value tax and general property tax
How a land value tax relates to zoning regulation
Concerns for land foreclosures
The issue of the middle class being forced to invest all their income into real estate
The Singapore Land Authority
The concept of having a local currency tied to the cost of living
Bay Area Housing Crisis
Disneyland as an urban model

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Vegas Photo Album(December 2019)

aesthetics, Architecture, California, Culture, Las Vegas, Mojave Desert, Neon, Photography, Skyscrapers, Travel, Urbanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album includes Baker, California and Primm, Nevada in the Mojave Desert, and the Flamingo, Venetian, Mirage, and Wynn on the Las Vegas Strip.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island

Continue reading Vegas Photo Album(December 2019) →

Solvang & Santa Ynez Photo Album

Architecture, California, Photography, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Travel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Album includes the Danish American town Solvang, the former Neverland Ranch, and the Old West Cold Spring Tavern in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, CA.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island

Continue reading Solvang & Santa Ynez Photo Album →

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about the Film Joker

1980's, aesthetics, alienation, Alternative Right, American Culture, Anarchism, Architecture, Art, Cinema, Cities, Class, comedy, Crime, Culture, Despair, Donald Trump, Economics, Film, Hollywood, humor, Incels, income inequality, Joker, Leftism, Loserdom, Matthew Pegas, Media, Memes, Mental illness, Millennials, Morality, Neoliberalism, Neon, New York, Nihilism, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Psychology, Race Relations, Sexuality, Social Isolation, Social Rejection, social status, Spree Shootings, Taxi Driver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about the film Joker (2019 ) and it’s sociological significance to our current zeitgeist of despair.

Topics:

The social crisis of despair in America
The alienated loner in our society
Theme of humiliation
Oppositions to the film from the Woke Neoliberal Establishment, while Michael Moore Calls ‘Joker’ a Masterpiece
Woke media’s allegations that ‘Joker’ validates White Male rage
Marc Maron on ‘Joker’: Don’t Blame Movies for Criminal Actions of the Mentally Ill
Dark comedic nihilism with no moralistic narrative of good vs. evil
Cult following online among memers and dissident rightests
Director Todd Phillips, his background in lighthearted sex comedies, and how he stopped making comedies due to “Woke Culture”
How the film is as controversial as it can afford to be within Hollywood
Plutocratic mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne who could symbolize a caricature of Trump, but also echoes Hillary Clinton’s Basket of deplorables phrase
Class warfare theme
The Anarchist theme of creating chaos and tearing down society
Symbolism of the clown
Mental health
Comparison’s to Taxi Driver
Aesthetics of the film set in Gotham City, based on gritty New York City in the early 80s

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews filmmaker Éva Gárdos about her film Budapest Noir

acting, aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Budapest Noir, Cinema, Culture, Éva Gárdos, Film, Film Noire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to filmmaker Éva Gárdos about her new film Budapest Noir.

Topics:

The historical setting of the film in 1936, just prior to Hungary turning fascist
The sense of what was about to happen and people not seeing what was going to happen to them
Éva’s experience as an editor
The costume and set design
The city as a character
The novel Budapest Noir and where it differs from the film
Location scouting
The set design for the Bauhaus mansion and significance of that architectural genre
The Film Noir genre and murder mystery angle
Selecting actors, and theater background of Hungarian actors
Éva’s film An American Rhapsody starring Nastassja Kinski and Scarlett Johansson
The American release for Budapest Noir planned for January of 2020

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about Urbanist observations from trip to San Diego

1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, American Culture, Andrew Yang, Architecture, Basic Income, Calexit, California, Cities, Class, Culture, demographics, Economics, Environment, Erasure, Historic Preservation, History, Immigration, John C. Portman Jr, Los Angeles, Malibu, Malls, Matthew Pegas, Mexico, Middle Class, Music, Politics, Postmodernism, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, Suburbia, SWPL, Travel, Urbanism, Wealth, Wilderness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about their recent trip to San Diego and their observations on cultural and urbanist trends.

Topics:

San Diego’s reputation as a smaller, cleaner, nicer version of LA and its unique attributes
The layout of the city with a centralized downtown near the waterfront surrounded by suburban sprawl
San Diego and Orange County among the largest areas of upper middle class sprawl in the nation
Politics of San Diego as a historically Republican stronghold that has trended Democratic in recent years
Demographics of San Diego and how they relate to overall CA trends
The most stereotypical American City located in CA while the State is culturally drifting apart from the rest of the Country
After decades of suburban sprawl, San Diego eyes big shift to dense development
The historic Gaslamp Quarter which is the one section that feels truly urban
Horton Plaza: Will this PoMo wonderland in San Diego be saved?
Architect Jon Jerde’s inspiration for Horton Plaza from Ray Bradbury’s “The Aesthetic of Lostness” extolling the virtues of getting “safely lost”
Wealthy beach community La Jolla and it’s village layout
The importance of investing in communal places that the public can enjoy, particularly in wealthy areas
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
The Victorian Hotel del Coronado
Friendship Park at the US/Mexico Border and political symbolism of the border wall
The Inland Empire
Heavenly Action by Erasure, the soundtrack of the trip with a message that friendship, love, and positivity can conquer anything

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Will Durham about the Nevada Neon Project

aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Cities, Culture, Gambling, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Mid-Century Modern, Neon, Reno, Will Durham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Durham has been collecting and preserving neon signs for over 25 years, and has one of the largest collections in the world. Check out the Nevada Neon Project on Instagram and Facebook.

Topics:

Collecting signs from closing businesses
The main focus of preserving signs
The process of rescuing a sign
Displaying signs to the public at events
Neon named Nevada’s official element
Walking tours of Downtown Reno
The decline of Reno as a gambling destination, revitalization, and what it means for neon
Newer signage, incorporating new neon, and businesses adopting older signs
The lack of historic preservation regulation
Collecting signage from larger casinos including the Peppermill, Harold’s Club, and Fitzgerald in Reno, and The Riviera in Las Vegas
Saving The Virginian’s Casino letters
The Eldorado Casino’s external neon silhouette
The Carson Nugget and Cactus Jacks in Carson City
The dwindling of neon at Lake Tahoe, and The Stardust Lodge

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Logo Daedalus

aesthetics, American Culture, Anarchism, Andrew Yang, Architecture, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Art Deco, automation, Basic Income, Cities, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Donald Trump, Economics, Futurism, Incels, Instagram, Italian Futurism, Logo Daedalus, Mid-Century Modern, New York, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Retro Futurism, Skyscrapers, Social Media, Steampunk, Suicide, Surrealism, technology, Urbanism, Wyndham Lewis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logo Daedalus is the author of Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull’s Blue Skiddoo and writes for Autistic Mercury. You can also check him out on Twitter.

Topics:

Logo’s novel Selfie, Suicide, a coming of age satire of a failed artist
Instagram inspired parody art museums
New York’s Staircase to Nowhere
How technology impacts politics
Wyndham Lewis
Andrew Yang
How the UBI could create a cultural renaissance
The Obama to Trump voters in the Rustbelt
Aesthetics as politics
Retro-futurist genres Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Cyberpunk
Underground comics

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Scarcity of Positional Goods is the basis for Aesthetic Socialism

Aesthetic Socialism, aesthetics, Architecture, Cities, Culture, demographics, Economics, Post-scarcity economy, social status, Urbanism, Wealth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aesthetic Socialism is the concept of viewing politics with aesthetics as one of the basic principles. I discussed the concept at length in my essay Aristocratic Aesthetic Socialism and show with Matthew Pegas and Giovanni Dannato. Aesthetics signifies one’s class and social status and influences and manipulates peoples decisions and economic output. Extreme inequality in aesthetics shapes the core foundations and social mechanisms of a society.

In politics the debate about the distribution wealth is primarily about the distribution of monetary assets and how to make basic needs widely available. Due to mass production and future trends in automation we are now entering a Post Scarcity Economy where many goods and services can be provided to a larger segment of the population.

We have the wealth, resources, and technology to provide basic services such as food and electronics that can be mass produced. In the future healthcare could be provided cheaply due to automation but the goods that are positional will remain increasingly scarce.

Positional Goods according to Lion of the Blogosphere “are goods and services that people value because of their limited supply and they convey a high relative standing within society.” These resources are positional because they are ranked in value to other resources.

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