This is brilliant - Had no idea about this: how shopping malls were invented...
when, why and by whom.
According to this, it's Victor Gruen - who had the best of intentions...
In 1968, Gruen moved from L.A. back to Vienna, back to the greenery and plazas he had been trying to imitate. But he could not escape his own creation.
A shopping mall was being built on the edge of town. In Gruen’s mind, Vienna was already perfect; it didn’t need a mall the way the broken American suburbs did. As he saw it, his original vision had been totally skewed.
About 10 years after his return to Vienna, Gruen gave a speech in which he declared, “I refuse to pay alimony for these bastard developments.”
I know that this year is the optimum xmas year for my two kids, so I'm trying to log the little pleasures along the way during these 48 hours...
Here goes.
Christmas Pleasures #1
Laughing with my son like Beavis & Butthead for five minutes at The Boy From The Snowman's bum.
Christmas Pleasures #2
Giving my 4 yr old daughter a ride on my back like The Snowman with my chest hair for reins.
(This is the nearest picture I could get. Any closer, and it looks like utter filth).
Christmas Pleasures #3
Wife begging me to get the kids "outside" for some "air".
Christmas Pleasures #4
Being Jolly with the delivery men who've already been round three times while we're out cutting no ice whatsoever.
Christmas Pleasures #5
Laughing with my boy some more like Beavis & Butthead at Santa's bum.
Christmas Pleasures #14
Stopping the kids from playing until all the important notices have been read and kept in a safe place for future reference.
Christmas Pleasures #15
Writing the wi-fi code as big as I can on the living room mirror.
Christmas Pleasures #16
Pointing out which of Band Aid are dead to completely uninterested kids every time it's on like my parents did with Dad's Army.
Christmas Pleasures #16
Personalised Nutella!
(Love that they used the correct brand colours).
So this is the next round for my British Dad Stuff Gameshow:
Fishing things out that have been jammed behind the radiators...
with only a single strip of Hot Wheels™ track.
Had a bit of a problem developing this round.
We threw out a load of the plastic stuff on the last plastic purge
- there should be a national holiday for that, with it's own character.
(He's going to be called the "Night-time Midnight Plastic, Crap Toy Bin Bag Man".
I've written a song and everything)
Anyway, got the son to film the pilot and might post the video to share the road test.
Tip: The trick with this round is that you spend 5 minutes with a single track before working out that you need a section bit of track to pincer and scissor out the toys from the bottom up, to get the bulkier ones like Big Jigs™ train carriages round the skirting...
There's a theory that when you combined the SACRED with the PROFANE,
...you end up with art (actual art, or drama, or comedy, or music) that's a little bit more powerful.
Every Friday I add to the list, and this is literally my very last bunch of "Sacreds" I could scrape together...
(I've got another 21 profanes...
can anyone help out with some more sacreds to take this up to Christmas???)
Shot this video below last year, and using it as an intro to Part 3 of Nan talking about life in Wartime London (and Brighton and Bournemouth, where she was stationed).
This video includes:
0:00 On buying a wedding ring in wartime Bournemouth
1:10 Waching the doodlebugs (flying bombs) from her maternity hospital bed flying across Shepherd's Bush
2:00 More on working for the Royal Australian Air Force as a WAAF.
3:50 On planning for a wartime wedding in Ealing
6:00 Everyday sexism from a British RAF sergeant
6:30 Kath's engagement in 1942
22:14 So you were sent to Brighton, when you go to Brighton, do you know for how long it's going to be?
No. I didn't know that. No. 'Cos it's was Bournemouth, I didn't know how long we were gonna be at Bournemouth. 'Cos I bought my wedding ring there. It was a jewellers along there. And I could only get platinum.
22:38 So when you went to Brighton, you were still coming home to London?
That's right, I didn't get home so quick from Bournemouth. I can't remember how long we were in Bournemouth. If your Dad were here, if Grandad were here, he'd know.
22:56
It's funny I can blot out things. I do blot out things. And some things you know really clearly. Yes, I can see it. But other things I can blot out and forget it completely.
23:10 So when you're in Brighton, you're working on the seafront, basically?
Yes, in the Metropole. And was it odd, did you see planes flying over?
No, no.
23:24
It was worse when I got back and had your Dad.
I was in Queen Charlotte's (Stamford Brook August 1944) and we could watch the Doodlebugs going across, you know, with all the flame outside the back of it.
We knew it was going to drop it somewhere.
Didn't have anything like that at (Brighton) - we had barbed wire across the front, of course, but nothing else...
23:57 I wanted to ask again about... because dad's quite hazy about... the later years of the war... but um, so basically it sounds like quite an office job?
Office work, that's right.
Typing the same as I'd been doing.
Stencilling for the officers, for the Australian Officers.
Some had died, you know and some had got illness, it was all on there.
24:30 So all the information would come into Brighton, and it would be typed up and would go off to different records?
I suppose it would. I don't know where we put them.
We had a sergeant in charge of us. Was that a WAAF sergeant?
No, it was a man sargeant. Was he Australian? No he was English. That's funny, isn't it... It feels odd that all the British organised their admin.
25:00
This girl, Georgina, she did their laundry. She patches the Australian's laundry that needed to go out. So were the Australians in Brighton?
Yes they were actually in the hotel, in the rest of the hotel. The Metropole. Were they just the officers?
No, not only the officers. Other airmen as well. I think there were flyers...
25.35 And this was their base, and then they'd send them off to an airfield?
They must do... send them to an airfield yes. We'd have some fun with those. They'd come in the office, you know... They must've been really far from home. Yes, they were, weren't they.
25.55 So you said you had a couple of friends. One of them did the laundry.
Yes, I can't remember what Anne did now... it was the other girl. She lived in Southampton. She recommended the woman where we went to, like a B&B in Torquay for our honeymoon. And she'd recommended it.
I think she came to our wedding... When you think really, they're quite selfish, aren't you. Because I think my Dad saw to her. I'm sure he did. I don't know whether she stayed the night at home. My Dad was... I didn't even ask how much you know, the cost of the wedding or anything. I've looked back and thought, "how selfish I must've been". That's the whole point of a wedding. "I'm spoilt" as my sister would say. That's the whole point isn't it, it's supposed to be a family event for the bride. I think Carolyn did more, didn't she. And I think your Mum had to get insurance for that wedding. Did she? That's what Jean told me, I didn't even know that. Cos Jean said she doesn't know if she could've done that. I think you can buy them off the shelf, can't you. I don't know what it covers. Well of course Kirsty is going to get married, isn't she. When she can afford it.
27:38 Because I've not even got to the wedding yet. Can you remember any of the Australians? Can you remember what they were like? Or who they were? Or... anything.
No, just a bit of fun you know when we'd meet up. I don't think I ever went out with one. I used to go out with a Canadian in Bournemouth. And one of the Canadians taught me how to play snooker.
Was this in Bournemouth?
That's in Bournemouth, yes. But we didn't go out with any of the Australians - none of us.
28:12 What was your day like? Was it a 9-5? Was it quite military?
Yes it'd be like that - I can't remember the time, but that's what it would be like. Because it sounds like - you had to be there in office time. It sounds like it was organised like an office, rather than a military... it was... office-like.
28:36
Because I didn't like the sergeant - that male sergeant. I had my ring taken off - because it had to be made smaller. And of course he'd make jibes then. Oh, you're trying to leave your wedding ring behind... and make out your not married. These kind of things. He wasn't a very nice man. There's other things he probably said, that's why I didn't like him.
28:59 And were you engaged at the time?
Yes I was engaged. When did you get engaged? At 21? When I was 21. So that was 1942, when you went to Brighton.
I think it was before then... It was before my birthday. Before I was called up. So you were called up after your birthday?
I'm sure it must've been. In the probably towards the end of the year. I think it must've been November. Oh god, so you were in Morecambe in November/December? Mmmm.
I can't remember if I came home that first Christmas. I can't remember. Can't remember that.
As a Dad, I have many roles to play within the family.
But none is more cherished than that of "Netflix Projectionist."
I say that.
But from the industry I'm in, it's not quite as grand.
It's more of an assistant video playback operator.
And one who's constantly missing his cues.
"Dad, can you pause it?"
"Dad, it's stopped."
"Dad can you press play."
"Dad, the sound's not there."
"Dad, I need a wee. Pause it again please."
It's just a war of attrition to get me to let them have direct access to the Netflix.
They will not win.
I will be playing the Netflix when they are in their twenties.
That's if they don't crack our access all areas passcode.
Always shield our PIN.
And then there's decoding the titles.
So I'd like to think I'm Artistic Director, or Channel Controller.
But it's more like translator/psychic.
"Dad, that's for girls."
"No Daddy, that's boys."
"No not that one. The other one.
The one with the gaps at the beginning."
"Wooly and the Jungle Book." (huh?)
"Mogler, Daddy. Mogler, please. Mogler? Mogler."
Funny that.
My YouTube home page looks like a deranged maniac.
Every Friday I add to my lists of Sacred and Profane.
Two opposites, which if you put them together sometimes generates funnier or more dramatic prompts and ideas.
I think next year, I'll put all of these into two hats and draw them out each week.
Like some kind of Euromillions draw...
Anyway, here's the ten of each for this week.
Dogs pooing in the back of family photos.
At first sight, it looks like
Family photos (sacred) vs. Excretion (profane)
But it could also be...
Natural behaviour (sacred) vs. Posing (profane)
Dogs (nature=sacred) vs. Photography (technology=profane)
