Review of the Vampire Film 'Only Lovers Left Alive'
It is one of the most striking films I have ever seen. Vampires Eve and Adam re-unite after a few decades, and the younger sister, Ava, tries to shatter their dreams by acting like a no-good Angelena. The premise is bizarre, yet fascinating.
Eve and Adam text about Adam's depression, and she, the ever-sprightly one, decides to travel from her base in Tangier to his place in Detroit, where she attempts to soothe him. Everything is weird—she is texting her lover on an iPhone via her Moroccan boudoir, which is decorated in embroidered fabrics and is probably suffused with various exotic scents. Gold, blue, and white are the main colours. He is consumed in a mess of guitars and violins in a decaying Detroit mansion.
Eve and Adam are humane vampires who acquire blood by bribing hospital staff and local friends to quench their thirst. They have no desire to feed on humans unless necessary. Much like modern-day human vegans refuse to consume animal products unless necessary. Until Eve's younger sister, Ava, arrives and starts acting like a total douche-bag. She drinks Adam's musical assistant to death, and Eve and Adam have to dispose of his corpse in a vat of acid somewhere in an abandoned building in Detroit.
After kicking Ava out on her own, Eve and Adam decide to return to Eve's favourite place—Tangier. Unfortunately, Tangier is infected with contaminated blood. Even Eve's reliable source of blood—Marlowe—lies dying of contaminated blood. Eve delicately lays her hand on the head of his human care-taker. It is actually a quite moving scene.
The last scene is amazing. Since Marlowe and his special source of blood are gone, Eve and Adam are forced to walk the streets of Tangier, seeking a source of blood. They are starving. Eve in particular catches the scent of blood. It is a couple making out. She convinces Adam to turn them. He acquiesces. The look in their glassy eyes is disturbing.
Only Lovers Left Alive is amazing not only because it is so cryptic and peaceful, but also because it forces the viewer to re-imagine the vampire as a creature with human emotions. After all, humans are just cattle in the eyes of the vampire.
Tags: feminism, film, gay, occult, Only Lovers Left Alive, Tilda, vampire, vampires, women
Categories : Art, Feminism, Film, Folklore, Gay & Lesbian, Gender Theory, Mythology, Sexuality, The Occult
My Halloween Night
You know how parents protect their children a little too much? How they enfold their children from a frightening sight?
Rubbish.
Halloween is supposed to be a little bit scary—a little bit unsettling. I understand if your child is very young—around the age of 5—but even then they should be allowed to experience a little bit of the macabre, in my opinion. I will modify my actions for a young child, but not for a frowning father or mother who cares nonetheless.
With that, I thought I would share with you my thoughts on my Halloween dressed in full drag as a witch-priest raised from the dead as a vampire passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. Ultimately I decided that she might be some sort of vampire Carrie, but they didn't know that. Nor did I until I looked in the mirror.
What a horror they must have beheld:
Can you imagine this camp queen spooning processed candy into the already-full baskets of your young ones?
It doesn't help to acknowledge that this vile image exists:
The satisfying thing was that I gave candy away to a tiny little girl dressed in full Superman costume. I have to give kudos to her parents for that.
But this other little boy said, as he was taking his candy away, 'Wow, she is a real vampire!' Well, thank you. Yes, I am.
But on this solemn date, I must implore you to treat your animals with care:
There are still superstitious assholes out there who hurt cats for no logical reason.
Halloween is a night when the fairies run afoul of men, but it is also a night when parents let their children enjoy being scared shitless. It used to be a time when parents themselves were scared shitless. Why can't we return to this, whether parents or their sweet, trick-or-treat child-things?
Tags: cat, costume, drag, gay, Halloween, occult, queen, Samhain, transgender
Categories : Art, Religion, Spirituality, The Occult
The Creepiest Vintage Halloween Costumes
What makes something creepy? YouTube user Vsauce cogently explains that creepiness arises from uncertainty over whether or not something is a threat. It is never straightforwardly frightening; rather, it is unsettling because it straddles the border between safety and danger. Humans have difficulty handling vagueness and ambiguity.
This is a natural topic to discuss in relation to the upcoming Halloween holiday. Halloween is about uncertainty. Very brief history: The Christians Christianized a Roman holiday of the dead called Lemuria, which occurred in mid-May. They christened it All Saints' Day. Then they realised there was another nasty pagan death holiday over in Ireland called Samhain (SOW-in) which occurred on 1 November, and they moved the Christianised holiday Lemuria forward six months to 1 November to co-opt the Irish holiday. That day became the new All Saints' Day. Hence Halloween, or All Hallows' Eve. For pagans, there lay uncertainty over the intentions of the dead, and it was deemed wise to propitiate them, often by dressing up to imitate them and offering them food.
So, Halloween was never really about running around trick-or-treating dressed up as Superman; it was about exploring the strange world of spirits, be they good, bad, or mercenary—we never know for sure. (In fact, trick-or-treating isn't even a hundred years old.) Well, I think Halloween celebrants have appropriately reflected this cognitive dissonance toward the dead in the form of some very disturbing masks and costumes. Below are some of the most unsettling vintage photographs and stills of humans mimicking the dead or otherworldly creatures. Importantly, they are utterly lacking in any modern-day commercialism or skimpy 'sexiness'.
Take the following portrait, for instance:
What a drear and dour portrait. The expressionless face and slightly smug grin creeps me out. I can't tell quite what she is thinking. Is she going to hex me, or ask me to go bobbing for apples (which, creepily enough, actually stems from a pagan divination ritual)?
But that one only scratches the surface. Consider some of the more clown-like masks and costumes, as in this image:
Holy shit. Look at the one in the bottom middle. Is that Michael Myers from Halloween in drag? I can't tell what she's thinking. Some of them are scowling, but others are smiling. Others yet are just characterless black masses. Um, I'll pass on this party. (Or will I?)
It gets even creepier when you put children in masks. Look at these little creeps:
Oh my God. These creeps outdo everyone at the local cosplay convention in terms of effect. It just goes to show you don't have to spend a thousand dollars on a costume to look like the spawn of Satan. Just dig it out of your grandmother's closet.
You know how they say clowns are creepy? Well, not as creepy as these gorgeous creatures:
Look at the creep on the bottom right with the triangle balloon head. Is he dressed for a German S&M porn film? Why don't we do this anymore? Old-timey Halloween was way creepier than modern-day Halloween.
But, still, children in masks are creepier:
I seriously feel concerned for that little kid in the foreground with the hat turned askew. Look at that fucked-up Uncle Sam behind him and the creepy rodent thing in the Boy George hat to his right with the garden tool in his hand.
But these little creeps, they are truly disturbing:
In 1985 when I was in Grade One our class watched an old film about Norwegian troll folklore. There were music trolls, graveyard trolls, and bedroom trolls. The bedroom troll lived under your bed and would reach up and grab your hand, trying to pull you under. The actor playing the bedroom troll had this matted fur covering his arm. Some of the others wore prosthetic skin masks. Ever since then, I have been unable to sleep with my hand dangling over the edge of the bed. These creeps remind me of that.
Look at these shady creeps:
This isn't creepy because of the masks they're wearing, but because they're a bunch of brown rabbits surrounding a little white rabbit like they're about to pounce, and they have these fucked-up grins on their faces. Especially the white one. And those ears are unnatural-looking.
Still, the masks are the creepiest, in my opinion:
Masks like these look like they're half-melted; they resemble the face of a terribly deformed burn victim. The ratty mime costumes don't help to allay my—fear?—no, uncertainty.
More little creeps from the suburbs:
I personally think these kids look creepier than Michael Myers or Jason. But again, they're not exactly scary—their masks have ambiguous half-smiles, which makes them even more disturbing.
The younger they get, the creepier they get:
I call this one China Doll Black Face KKK Bloated Child Corpse Mash-Up, because that is exactly what it looks like to me.
The little creep below is one of the most disturbing of all:
Not only is she creepy because she looks like one of those trolls in the classroom film I watched, but she is creepy because she is alone, like some solitary hunter, about to run at me with a hatchet concealed beneath her cowl.
But this, oh, this is the creepiest image of all:
This is actually a still from the Vsauce video I mentioned above about why things are creepy. I don't even know what these little creeps are supposed to be, let alone what they are thinking underneath their fucked-up masks. That is the unsettling part.
So, those are the images of the creepiest vintage Halloween costumes I could find. I really think Vsauce is spot-on in his observations—the creepiest things are those which straddle the border between our sense of safety and our sense of danger, those which toy with our need for certainty. And none of these costumes is in the least cute or sexy. They aren't princesses or fairies (unless you mean fairy in the sense of the Aos Sí [Ees Shee], the capricious spirits of ancient Irish folklore). Maybe we can stop with this trend of marketing sexy French maid costumes to women and revive the custom of disturbing people's minds.
Tags: clowns, costumes, creepy, fear, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, magic, masks, occult, pagan, photographs, religion, Samhain, scary, spirits, trick-or-treating, vintage, witches
Categories : Art, Popular Culture, Religion, Spirituality, The Occult
Brandon's Halloween Costume
I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years. As a child I was a firefighter, a clown, a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, a mime, and a vampire, but nothing lately. Well, Halloween was originally a time for adults to party, not for children to go trick-or-treating (which tradition is only about eighty years old).
My vampire was kind of shitty. It was inspired by the version of Dracula starring Christopher Lee. I had thick, opaque, stark white skin, black circles round my eyes, red lips, and blood pouring down my chin, and I wore a white shirt with some cheap pendant, black slacks, and black dress shoes. I made my own cape of black velvet on the outside and red polyester on the inside. And the collar was cut out of an old pizza box. Yes, I really did that.
At the drop of a hat, this year I decided to resurrect my vampire, but this time he will be less cheesy and more genuinely creepy. In fact, I'm not even sure he won't be a she–with a very flat chest. This time, he will be a priest raised from the dead as a vampire–or a priestess raised from the dead as a vampire. I guess in the latter case she'd have to be a Wiccan high-priestess or something, since Catholics still don't allow women to be priests. I know, even though it's supposed to be creepy, isn't my new goth vampire idea still kind of corny and stupid? I kind of like that though.
By genuinely creepy, I mean she will be realistically deathlike. No more big black raccoon eyes and blood-red lips–no, this bitch is gonna have red lines around her eyes surrounded by deep grey shadow, and grey-red lips which fade toward the lip edge rather than go over the edge drag queen-style. She won't have thick, stark white, drag queen-style pancake foundation, either, but a thin, translucent veil of white reminiscent of a corpse washed ashore on the beach in Blackpool in the dead of winter. She will have long black hair, but the wig I have is too glossy, so I think I'm going to rub some dirt in it. And then I am going to stick some twigs in it. She has to look like she has just climbed her way out of the grave, you know.
Naturally, she will have fangs. How can you have a vampire without fangs? Mine are those theatre-quality fangs with the thermoplastic granules that you melt in hot water, stick into the fangs–which you press upward into your canines–and mould around your molars. The result is highly realistic, natural-looking, bloodsucking feline jugular-rippers.
But she will have black nails. I want a little bit of Vampira's influence in there somewhere. I bought black nail polish because at first I thought I would just paint my nails black, but I have such stubby and unglamourous fingernails that I ultimately elected to buy the cheap, long, black, plastic, fake fingernails at the costume shop.
And of course there is the costume itself. My vampire won't look sexy, not even in the kitschy 1950s Vampira way–I find that a bit predictable and passé. I do like that look, but I just want to try something different, and, besides, I don't have Maila Nurmi's voluptuous, wasp-waisted physique, so I have decided to don a priest's cassock. The cassock actually looks rather like a High Victorian bustle dress without the bustle, including a short, tight-fitting bodice, so I think it suitable for a priestess who has just risen from the dead. On top I will wear a black, hooded mantle to create the appearance of a solid, matte, black column of unwelcoming gloom.
The cassock itself is something else–it was custom-made for me by the Victorian-style fashion designer Kambriel of North Carolina. I simply selected the article I wanted in the material I wanted and sent her my measurements. She produced a perfect-fitting cassock for me and sent it to me in the post, complete with a personalised handwritten thank-you note. It was a bit pricey–around USD$300–but for the style, quality, and service, perhaps it wasn't.
I can't remember where I came across Kambriel's Web site, and it may be too late now to order any of her items in time for Halloween, but she crafts the most sumptuously beautiful garments, for both women and men. Just visit her site in the link above and browse her catalogue to behold some of her creations. Oh, and the wig I bought came with a face-veil! So I can cover my ashen face with an ethereal, spiderwebby black net to scare the children! Madam Death. She will Fuck. You. Up.
I'm sure I'll tweak the outfit a little more before Halloween, but you get the basic idea. I know it doesn't sound very creative, but I like to look at Halloween costumes the way I look at dance music remixes: I prefer a complimentary homage to the classic, original version over a completely irrelevant oddball. The difference lies in the nuance. Maybe next year I will don a creepy vintage mask–I do love those–but I love makeup, and reinventing the classic vampire with an unexpected twist is a show of creativity in itself, isn't it?
Or maybe I'm a witch.
A vampire-witch?
A witch raised from the dead as a vampire!
Tags: cassock, Catholic, costume, goth, Halloween, Kambriel, makeup, mask, priest, vampire, Victorian, Wicca, Wiccan, witch
Categories : Fashion, Popular Culture, Religion, Spirituality, The Occult, Uncategorized
The Divine Feminine: an Iron Age Stepford Wife?
Maybe you are one of them–women, and even some men, who have secreted away from the church pew to summon the goddess in the sacred grove. The trend is growing, it seems. More people are searching for spiritual fulfillment by exploring the "feminine" side of spirituality which is central to so many pagan and New Age traditions, including Wicca, and generally absent from the supposedly more patriarchal male-god religions. But is this "divine feminine", which forms one half of a duotheistic theology, really such a fair-minded and forward-thinking alternative to male-dominated mainstream religion? As we will see, it might actually reinforce the very patriarchy it seeks to dismantle, and the implications are ominous for women and men alike.
To show how the "divine feminine" movement backfires in its attempt to overturn patriarchy, we must first establish what the concept means. Generally speaking, the "divine feminine" embodies a triad of female archetypes: the Maid, the Mother, and the Crone. Each archetype correlates with a different stage in a woman's life. The Maid represents the pure and innocent virgin, the mother, the nurturing life-giver and care-taker, and the crone, the wise old teacher–or, potentially, the wicked witch. She is every important aspect of womanhood, or so it would seem, and people pursue the pagan priesthood specifically to pay her homage. She functions as the polar opposite to the male god in a binary which consists of an aggressive, rational, dominant "male energy" and a passive, emotional, submissive "female energy".We worship her because she complements a strong, disciplinarian masculinity with a weak, nurturing femininity that males supposedly lack.
But, in the stereotypical binary of the weak goddess and strong god, we already see the failure of the divine feminine to dismantle patriarchy. An example of this binary in Chinese philosophy would be the yin and yang, in which a negative, dark, feminine principle complements a positive, bright, masculine one. The divine feminine movement attempts to reclaim female authority from obscurity by extolling the meek, nurturing, yielding nature of the goddess and ignoring her strong, confident, assertive nature—but this is oxymoronic, because it suggests that women's power lies in their powerlessness. How can women gain power and influence equal to that of men if they are essentially less powerful and influential than men? It just doesn't make sense. So, with its schizophrenically passive-aggressive, powerful yet powerless goddess, the divine feminine simply gives patriarchy room to flourish.
Now, critics of this view will argue that the binary isn't really that black and white. "Each man has a feminine side, and each woman, a masculine side", they will assure you, glowing with pride in their observation. They will point out, for example, that in the yin and yang model, each side has a little bit of the other within it. This is true, but it is also true that the yin is still overwhelmingly dominant and "masculine", and the yang, overwhelmingly passive and "feminine", so it doesn't achieve much to say "there's a little bit of the other in each". Besides, it's a circular argument. Arguing that there is no pure masculinity or femininity, and that each man is a little feminine, and each woman, a little masculine, is a homunculus fallacy, because it still relies on the use of the discrete terms "masculine" and "feminine" to explain gender. Once again, we see how the divine feminine fails to completely liberate male and female from oppressive sex roles.
In addition to the yin and yang model, the fact that the goddess exists almost entirely in relation to males and childbearing presents a problem for the "divine feminine". The most important role of the goddess is that of the fecund, life-giving, heterosexual mother. She is constantly associated with the earth, fertility, menstruation, pregnancy, and child-bearing. After all, only women can give birth, right? Yes, male fertility is also celebrated in the form of gods like Priapus and phallic cults, but this fertility forms only one aspect of the male god, who is also warrior, judge, poet, and leader, among many other things. The goddess, though, is overwhelmingly associated with nurturing, life-giving fertility, and her sexual relation with the god, as in the sovereignty goddess, an earth divinity whose purpose is to bequeath the land's power to a man through sexual relations. She is the pure Maid who is sexually desirable to males, as in the Teutonic fertility goddess Ēostre (related to "Easter" and "oestrus"), the Mother who bears her husband's children, as in Gaia, and the Crone who is useful for nothing more than giving advice and recalling how many miles she had to walk in the snow, and who sometimes represents death, sinister magic, and even cannibalism, as in the child-eating Slavic witch Baba Yaga or the Greek serpent-daemon Lamia. When the woman explores life beyond the hearth and nursery, her unbridled energy necessarily becomes an evil, a transgression against her husband, children, and community. But this isn't exactly fair. What about girls, sterile women, post-menopausal women, hysterectomized women, lesbians, and women who simply choose not to have children, or even to marry? Most of us would still call these people female, and the vast majority of them are not evil child-eaters, so obviously the "divine feminine", with its inordinate emphasis on female fertility, fails to represent the many different aspects of female virtue beyond that of childbirth and nursing. It is hard, then, to see a feminist ideal in this Triple Goddess.
The divine feminine is a well-meaning attempt to correct the historical repression of females in mainstream Western religion and spirituality, and in some ways it may have made inroads, but it still falls short of the goal: it presents an oxymoron in the powerlessly powerful goddess, it creates a contradiction by using the terms "masculine" and "feminine" to assure us that there is no pure masculine or feminine, and it describes a goddess whose identity exists almost wholly in relation to men and reproduction. This divinely powerful goddess begins to look like nothing more than an Iron Age Stepford wife. Of course there is nothing wrong with women being compassionate and nurturing, but there is something wrong with women being more compassionate and nurturing than men, especially if all of us are supposed to meet the same, ultimate standard of enlightenment. To reclaim female authority in religion and spirituality, then, we should be exploring the many other aspects of the divine feminine: the warrior, the judge, the poet, the leader, and the good witch. In fact, we should be expanding this to the scientist, the doctor, the politician, and the professor. After all, we no longer live in the Iron Age, and these roles meet the practical demands of the modern day. Simultaneously, we should be exploring the more yielding and nurturing side of the god. By performing this kind of self-scrutiny, we learn from each other and become truly whole human beings.
Tags: Age, binary, crone, Divine, divine feminine, dualism, duotheism, duotheistic, earth, female, feminine, feminism, feminist, film, gay, god, goddess, hag, lesbian, maid, maiden, male, masculine, mother, movie, neopagan, neopaganism, new, new age, pagan, paganism, patriarchy, sexism, sexist, sovereignty, Stepford, Stepford Wives, virgin, Wicca, Wiccan, wife, witch
Categories : Feminism, Gay & Lesbian, Gender Theory, History, Linguistics, Literature, Mythology, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Sexuality, Sociology, Spirituality, The Occult, Uncategorized
I think I may have discovered my new favourite band. That is hard for me to say, since Erasure have occupied the most prominent setting in my crown of musical gems since 1995. That may soon change. Their competitor is Austra, a synthpop/darkwave/indie electronica band from Toronto who just released their debut album, Feel It Break, last year. (Yes, I know, as usual I am late to the game.) However I am not yet ready to give the number one position to Austra, simply because Erasure have produced fourteen studio albums, and I have only heard one by Austra, but if they keep up the amazing work, they very well could earn that place. Besides, a tie between the two bands isn't entirely out of the question.
OK, so you want to know what the hype is all about, don't you? It's about their coherent, well-developed style, their professional-sounding technical wizardry, their eerily fun dance sensibility, lead singer Katie Stelmanis's chillingly pure, cold voice, their artistically spooky themes, their rich harmonies, their otherworldly melodies. All of these in combination produce a lush, full, satisfying sonic experience. Listening to their debut album, Feel It Break, one imagines opening up a book of occult lore and exploring the hidden mysteries within. I would liken them to a cross between Florence and the Machine, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, and Karin Dreijer of The Knife and Fever Ray. But at least as creepy as Karin Dreijer. Finally, an album that sounds weirdly Scandinavian without getting mired in slow, dissonant, undanceable experimentalism. It's musically exploratory, thematically fascinating, and fun to dance to.
Check out the video for their single Spellwork, taken from the debut album. In my opinion is encapsulates the overall deliciously spooky theme of the work:
This song gives me goosebumps. One thing that stands out is the strong verse-chorus structure characteristic of pop songs—but it's all done in such a beautifully strange and ethereal way that it doesn't sound commercial or formulaic. Stelmanis's eerily quavering vocals are spot-on, the melody soars like some dark-winged bird over bare tree branches, and those rich harmonies complete the vocal arrangements. And those layers upon layers of tinkling synthesisers just sweep you away into a glittering fairy world of yore. I can't get enough of the cryptic occult references, either. Lots of Youtube commenters have said that the video is "weird", but it's supposed to be. The song is about pagan rituals (or so I think), so obviously the video reflects that. It's so enticing because it's so arcane.
Then there is the light, bright, beautiful synthpop gem Lose It. This is probably as pure, pretty, and pristine as synthpop can get, and Austra have distilled the essence of the genre in this song, and yet we haven't quite heard synthpop done in such a fresh, clever way before. At least I don't think so. Just have a listen:
Isn't that just delightful? It makes me pee my pants. And it makes me pregnant. With twins. The most remarkable thing about this song, I think, is the perfect harmony between Stelmanis and the background singers in the chorus. Together, they create this plaintive, crystal-clear, birdlike song of hope and sorrow. It almost sounds like Enya in a strange way, but a cool, synthpoppy Enya. Delish.
OK, on to our last video. Showing their ability to master a range of synthpop sub-genres, Austra reveal their goth goth side in this video for their single Beat and the Pulse, and boy is it sexy. Be forewarned: I don't do censorship, so this video is not safe for work! (That means it's NSFW):
So what did ya think?? In my opinion, This is the difference between pornography and erotica. The models are portrayed in a seductive, tasteful manner, and they exude a mysterious power. It's not crass and exploitative; it's subtle and stylish. Besides, listen to the pulsating bassline that suddenly creeps into your ears when the beat kicks in. And, again, that rich texture of harmonies fills out the song and sends chills down one's spine. This is dark, sinister synthpop at its finest.
Speaking of weird Scandinavian-sounding dance music, compare Austra to Karin Dreijer when Dreijer accepted the award for best dance artist on behalf of her band Fever Ray at this Swedish music awards ceremony:
Kooky! And fabulous. Now that we've established that both Austra and Fever Ray are cool, creative bands with a statement to make, it's time to ask the question: which one is weirder? All that matters is that they are weird, and there's a rhyme and reason to it, even if the typical Beyonce-glamoured American can't see past his milquetoast Top 40 music collection. Consider this Youtube commenter's post about the above Fever Ray video: "Its unfortunate most people cannot understand the statement of the absurdity of award shows, come up, make a stupid speech and say thank you within 20 seconds and walk off stage for the next commercial, absolutely meaningless. If viewers can only see the surface level and think 'Man that lady is weird, whats with the face?', they need to start digging deeper past the surface [sic]". So true. So, so true. I cannot improve upon that observation, except to say that the average American isn't into the musical creativity of artists like Fever Ray and Austra, because they're only exposed to the commercially successful acts.
Anyway, I haven't written about a cool band in a while, so when I discovered Austra I just knew I had to say something about them and spread the word. I entreat you to do the same. Spread the word. As you would your seed. No, just kidding. Sort of. I can't wait to hear their next album! I'm thinking of writing about new releases by a few other bands who make me want to diddle myself, like Glass Candy and Chromatics, so keep visiting this blog. (Oh, and I'm posting another instalment of the fabulous lady-comic Julie Gentron and the Lady League very soon, so look for that too.) So go out and buy Austra's debut album Feel It Break—make sure it's the deluxe version—and support one of Canada's most talented and interesting musical products of recent times. (The album was released by Domino or Paper Bag—can't remember which—and it's on iTunes, of course.)
Tags: adult, album, alternative, and, arcane, art, Austra, band, bands, Beat, Beat and the Pulse, black, boob, boobies, boobs, booby, Break, breast, breasts, Canada, Canadian, cool, creative, dance, dance music, dance-pop, dancepop, dancer, dancers, darkwave, dream, dream pop, Dreijer, electronic, electronica, esoteric, Europe, European, experimental, fairy stories, fairy story, fairytale, fairytales, fantasy, Feel, Feel It Break, female, female singer, female singers, Fever, Fever Ray, Florence, Florence and the Machine, forest, goth, gothic, group, groups, Hagen, hipster, hipsters, horse, indie, indie electronic, indie electronica, indie pop, It, Karin, Karin Dreijer, Katie, Katie Stelmanis, Knife, ladies, Lady, Lene, Lene Lovich, Lose, Lose It, Lovish, Machine, magic, magical, model, models, music, music video, music videos, musical, mysterious, mystery, Nina, Nina Hagen, NSFW, occult, official, Ontario, pop, Pulse, Ray, Scandinavia, Scandinavian, singer, singers, single, singles, Sioux, Siouxsie, Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees, Spellwork, Stelmanis, strange, Sweden, synthpop, T.O., the, The Knife, TO, Toronto, Torontonian, uncensored, video, videos, weird, woman, women, woods, Youtube
Categories : Art, Fashion, Folklore, Music, Mythology, Popular Culture, Religion, Spirituality, The Occult, Uncategorized
Christians vs. Witches: the Atheists Arrive
Previously, we discussed how the armies of Republican Christian politician Sarah Palin and pagan high-priestess Laurie Cabot were bearing down on one another. After an initial onslaught, they decided to withdraw and hold a match between the choicest champions of either side. Palin was not impressed with "losing" her champion to the side of the witches, and called on her forces to resume the onslaught against Cabot's pagan forces. It is the ultimate duke-out. Thus, we continue.
Palin assumed the form of a huge and matted grizzly bear, wielding a Bible in one paw and a shotgun in the other. Cabot assumed the form of a flying cat-woman with a sleek, black body and batlike wings, wielding a staff in one paw—the staff, made of yew, was etched in an ancient Ogham incantation and glowed white—and a ball of blazing blue fire in the other. Palin levelled her gun on her shoulder, aimed at the flying witch-demon, and fired, but the shot was deflected partly by Palin's own poor marksmanship and partly by the ball of fire, which shot from Cabot's fist and burnt Palin's paw, sending the shotgun a-flying.
"You'll never best me, you Satan-worshipper!" cried Palin, rubbing her burnt paw.
"Satan?" asked Cabot, quizically. "I don't worship Satan, because I don't believe in him. How can I worship something I don't believe in?"
"Oh, he's real enough!" cried Palin. "And he's seducing you with his pretty words! He is the ultimate sleuth!" She was reading a page in her Bible when she said this. "Ever read C.S. Lewis?"
"Actually", responded Cabot, "I think evil is the work of man, not some demon scapegoat. Satan is just an excuse humans use when they don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. Humans cause evil, so humans should correct it. All evil comes from humanity, and it is the obligation of humanity to correct this error, not foist it conveniently on to some other force. It's all about personal responsibility."
"Lord in heaven above", pleaded Palin, scanning a page in her Bible, which boasted a pastel-coloured, floral-print book-jacket edged with lace, "smite mine evil enemy as you would have an innocent babe of Canaan for being the child of a tribe occupying the land that your chosen people sought to conquer!" With those words, a stream of blood shot forth from the book and knocked Cabot to the ground—well, not quite to the ground, but she crashed into the Christ Church Cathedral spire. From the mass of crumbling roof she rose upright to meet her nemesis.
"You may abide in such a bloodthirsty lord", spoke Cabot in a ringing baritone, "but I cannot!" With that, she pointed her staff at Palin, spoke a series of strange and mystical words, and shot a ray of pure light at her enemy, blasting her through a rooftop in the city-centre below. Her enemy struggled to her feet and found herself inside an Oxfam shop, asking, "What curious thing is this?"
"It is a shop where one selflessly donates to the poor and needy by buying things, such as books", cried the shopkeeper, a surprisingly spry old matron, "you know, those things one reads—without feeling the need to invoke capitalism or the myth of trickle-down economics in order to protect one's wealth! Not that you would know what that means, you daft old chattering voicebox", she snapped, pushing the bear-woman out the door and slamming it shut in her face.
"Curious indeed!" pondered Palin pawfully. "I never thought of that."
"Chief-witches", cried Cabot, "let us gather at the site of your fallen foe!" With that, Cabot and her chief battle-witches descended through the spires and steep roofs till they reached the cobble-stone street in a cluster before the pitiful Palin, who pawed vainly at the doorstep of the Oxfam shop. "Here", said Cabot, "we must consider our next course of action while the armies battle above, given her"—and here she pointed at the bear-woman—"temporary disadvantage."
"Well, we can't just kill her", said Doreen Virtue in a sweet voice. "At the very least, we have to judge her, but we have little time to spare at the present moment. Let us incarcerate her for the time being."
"Ugh, such minor tasks use up my power", sighed Cabot, considering both the army above and her fallen foe below. She could not await any further assaults, nor the re-ascent of Palin, either. She waved her staff in the air above, and the crystal atop the staff glowed with a beam of bright, opalescent, blue-white light. When this had acquired a sufficient luminosity, she pointed the crystal at the she-bear and blasted her with a cold ray of light, freezing her where she lay in a giant heap of ice. This task accomplished, she returned her glace to the enemy's host above. They had metamorphosed into a bevvy of flying, braying moose-women. Startled by this spectacle, she raised her staff in the air once more, this time holding it horizontally with both hands, and recited a mysterious, arcane incantation. There was a brief pause.
"Witches, assume panther mode!" she bellowed. With that, a purple mass of light burst forth from her, weaved through the spikey Oxford skyline, and showered her soldiers above, transforming them into a throng of giant black cat-beasts.
"We still haven't enough numbers!" yelled evolutionary psychologist Nigel Barber from the side.
"Nigel Barber?", mused Doreen Virtue with a soft but quizzical expression. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Oh, I don't know", he responded dully. "I guess I kind of like you guys!"
"Great!", she said. "We'll need all the help we can get. General Cabot, perhaps we can summon some friendly non-pagan forces with our psychic abilities!" she beamed, bloated with the soul of Michele Bachmann inside her.
"We are already here!" squawked Richard Dawkins, landing on a perch above in the form of a giant pteradactyl. "I have brought my forces to assist you, lady, as I see a need to protect humanity from the forces of evil." Behind him hovered philosopher Daniel Dennet and evolutionary psychologist Susan Blackmore, in their normal human forms, as well as a number of other hardcore classical materialists.
"The atheists!" rejoiced Cabot. "I never thought you'd have come to my aid, given our differences on spirituality, the afterlife, and the mind-brain relationship. Your reputation for being cold, mean, stubborn, and blindly egotistical does precede you. Obviously it is not entirely deserved!"
Stay tuned to find out how the witch-friendly atheists fare against the Christians, and how the atheists are able to cope. Also, stay tuned to find out how the Christians and witches begin to employ their greatest assets against one another. The battle is peaking, and we need some serious forces to ensure that it is as tumultuous as possible. Expect the oddest things to transpire.
Tags: America, atheism, atheist, Christianity, daniel dennett, doreen virtue, England, evangelical, evangelicalism, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, fundamentalists, GOP, grass roots, grizzly mom, grizzly moms, laurie cabot, magic, materialism, michele bachmann, Oxford, Palin, parody, politics, radical, religion, republican, Republicans, richard dawkins, right-wing, sarah palin, satire, spirituality, susan blackmore, Tea Party, U.S., U.S.A., witchcraft
Categories : Comedy, Mythology, Politics, Religion, Spirituality, The Occult


What Southern Baptists teach about the Lord's Table
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."
Today's post is about laying out in brief what Southern Baptists teach about the Lord's Supper. To discover the official teachings of the Southern Baptist Convention, one only needs to look at the SBC's webpage and click on the link to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 at http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 article on the Lord's Supper
Of the 18 articles or subjects covered in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (from hereon we willl call it BFM 2000), the issue of the Lord's Supper is covered in a short paragraph near the end of the 7th article. Here is the statement regarding the Lord's Supper:
"The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming."
When we consider this brief statement, we can break it down into three brief headings that aid in fleshing out the SBC's official position on the Lord's Supper.
1. "The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience...."
In the book "Baptist Faith and Message 2000 - Critical Issues in America's Largest Denomination", edited by Douglas Blount and Joseph D. Wooddell, the following explanation is given:
"(I)f baptism may be compared to a wedding ceremony, the Lord's supper may be compared to an anniversary celebration in which the vows taken at the wedding are renewed. Renewal takes place in the supper on a number of levels. First, the remembrance of our Lord's death should lead to a renewal of our repentance, because we remember that His body was broken to free us from sin. How can we live in sin when His body was broken to liberate us? Second, the supper should be an occasion to renew our faith. In partaking of it, we 'proclaim the Lord's death' (1 Cor 11:26). We remember that death is our only hope, and we renew our commitment to trust in Christ alone. That faith focuses on His death, the body broken and the blood shed, but it also emphasizes His resurrection, victory over death and promised return. As this document puts it, in the Supper we 'anticipate His second coming.' Finally, the Lord's Supper is also an occasion for renewing our commitment to the church. 1 Corinthians 11:18 see the Lord's Supper as a time when the church 'comes together.'"
I really like how the authors track out the idea of the Lord's supper being a repeated act of renewal. Whenever we see the phrase "symbolic act", we must not view the Lord's supper as an empty symbol or church ritual. Far from it. Partaking of the Lord's Supper is how the Lord Jesus Christ through the Person of the indwelling Spirit in each Christian reminds them of who they are and Whose they are. Jesus is especially present in and through His people when they do so, as He promised He would be with His church in passages such as Matthew 28:18-20. The "symbolic" nature of the supper is really a "sign" pointing to an abiding reality, that wherever the church is gathered, Jesus by His Spirit is present in them and through them.
2. "....whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine..."
It has been always the case in Southern Baptist life that in order for someone to partake of the Lord's supper, they must necessarily: a). Be born again, regenerate, saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone; b). The true believer must had been Biblically baptized by immersion, with a prior salvation experience. This strikes at the issue of "who then are members of the church"? As Blount and Wooddell in the book cited above note on page 78: "(I)t is a logical outgrowth of the Baptist view of the church and the Lord's Supper as an ordinance for the church."
They then offer the following set of logical statements:
1. If the Lord's supper is for the church
2. And the church is composed of properly baptized believers
3. then the Lord's Supper is for properly baptized believers.
The Baptist Faith and Message itself say the following about believer's baptism: "Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper."
Does the logic of baptized church members being the those properly admitted to the Lord's table square with scripture? With regards to the ordering of salvation, baptism and church membership in the early church, the evidence is quite clear. In Acts 2:38 the people were told to "believe and repent" of their sins. The baptism that they were told to do in the same passage was something they were to do following their salvation. Acts 2:41a demonstrates this by their response: "So then, those who had received his word were baptized....". So notice the progression: saving faith, believer's baptism.
Then we discover the next detail in Acts 2:41b "and that day there were added about three thousand souls." The tabulation of an official record was taken with regards to all who got saved and baptized on the day of Pentecost. This is the earliest indication we have of church membership! Whenever you read Acts 2:42, the picture is made complete: "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The phrase "breaking of bread" was a common first century phrase for either eating a meal or celebrating the Lord's supper. At least in Acts 2:42, the meaning is plain: these baptized believers were celebrating the Lord's supper. Paul's ordered mentioning of believer's baptism in 1 Corinthians 1 and the Lord's supper in 1 Corinthians 11 tells us that these two ordinances are given by Christ for each local church, with believers, properly baptized being the proper recipients.
3. ...."memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming."
In this final part of the BFM 2000 statement on the Lord's Supper, we focus upon the meaning of "memoralizing". In the commentary and study guide on the BFM 2000, edited by Charles S. Kelly Jr., Richard Land and R. Albert Mohler Jr., page 98, we read the following explanation:
"The Lord's supper is not merely a memorial to be received by Christians. it is a congregational act in which the covenant community, in obedience to God's command and united in one faith, one Lord and one Baptism (Eph 4:5), obeys Christ by memorializing His sacrifice (see Luke 22:19). The Lord's supper is not simply a reenactment of the Last Supper. It is a postresurrection celebration and commemoration of the completed work of Christ."
In-as-much as the Lord's supper focuses our attention upon the cross and Christ's achievement in His first coming, the meal points us ahead to what Jesus will do in His second coming. The church is after all a people of the two comings.
Closing thoughts:
The goal today was to layout in brief the SBC's teaching about the Lord's table. We saw from two official SBC publications the meanings about the Lord Supper's symbolism, participants and meaning regarding its memorialism of Christ's first coming and anticipation for His second coming. This author subscribes to the BFM 2000 and commends it to reader who may be interested in discovering what it has to say about the Lord's Supper and other issues. As a reminder, no doctrinal statement is infallible, including the BFM 2000. For this author, the BFM 2000 functions as a commentary that aids in more clearly understanding what the Bible teaches - which alone is the final, inerrant rule of every standard of faith, practice and life.
Labels: What Southern Baptists Believe


Tigers Open 4-Game Set With Red Sox
By Sean Yuille May 26, 2011, 12:58pm EDT
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(Sports Network) - Coming off their best offensive showing of the season, the Boston Red Sox will try to carry over that momentum and post a fifth straight victory over the Detroit Tigers when they open a four-game set against the American League Central residents today at Comerica Park.
The Red Sox absolutely dominated the Cleveland Indians in Wednesday's finale of a three-game series, putting up seven runs in the first inning on the way to a 14-2 rout. Carl Crawford led the onslaught by going 4-4, falling a triple shy of the cycle and connecting on one of four Boston home runs on the day.
Crawford was batting just .155 at the start of May, but has notched a .308 average in 23 games this month to up his season average to .229.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz also homered for the Red Sox, who won for the 10th time in 12 games by banging out 20 hits. They trail the Yankees by a half-game for first place in the AL East.
Jon Lester was handed a big lead before he even took the mound and held the Indians to just three hits over six scoreless innings to become baseball's first seven-game winner.
"Obviously it's good. Takes a lot of pressure off of not only me, but the defense," Lester said about working with a big lead. "You don't have to be perfect."
The Red Sox turned in their big day at the plate despite both J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis missing the game. Drew is nursing a right hamstring strain and isn't expected to play today either, while Youkilis could return after being a late scratch because of a sore left hand.
Boston will send Alfredo Aceves to the hill this afternoon for his second start of the season and seventh of his career.
Stepping in for an injured Daisuke Matsuzaka last Saturday versus the Cubs, Aceves gave up a run on three hits and two walks over five innings of a no- decision in his first start since July 9, 2009. He is 1-0 with a 2.42 earned run average in 12 games this season.
The 29-year-old righty is 1-0 with a 3.16 ERA in his career as a starter and owns a career record of 15-1 in 71 games. Aceves has won his last 11 decisions -- all in relief -- dating back to June 7, 2009, the longest active streak in the majors.
He has faced the Tigers just once before, giving up a run over an inning of relief.
Right-hander Max Scherzer will try to bounce back from his first loss of 2011 when he makes the start for the Tigers.
After winning his first six decisions of the season, Scherzer was charged with three runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings in Pittsburgh on Saturday, striking out seven without a walk. His ERA through 10 starts this year sits at 2.98.
"I wish I would've executed better," Scherzer told Detroit's website.
The 26-year-old stands a good chance of rebounding today given that he is 3-0 with a 0.77 ERA in five starts at home this year, yielding three earned runs over 35 innings.
Scherzer has faced Boston twice in his career, going 0-1 with a 5.56 ERA.
Detroit was aiming for a three-game sweep of Tampa Bay on Wednesday, but only made it through 2 1/2 innings of the finale before the game was postponed due to rain. It marked the third time in 11 days the Tigers have been rained out at Comerica Park.
The Tigers have won three straight following a five-game skid and continue today what is now a nine-game homestand that also includes a visit from the Twins next week. They trail the Indians by 5 1/2 games for first place in the AL Central.
The Red Sox swept a two-game home set from the Tigers last week and have won 15 of the past 20 games in this series.
Justin Verlander, Tigers Shut Out Red Sox, 3-0
Tigers Ride Justin Verlander Toward Shutout Of Red Sox, 3-0, To Split Doubleheader


Aaron Sorkin Confirms He is Considering Writing the Steve Jobs Biopic
by Gary Ng – Wed, November 23, 2011
The Academy Award winning writer, Aaron Sorkin, has confirmed he was asked by Sony to write a biopic about Steve Jobs in an interview with E! Online:
"Sony has asked me to write the movie and it's something I'm strongly considering.
Right now I'm just in the thinking-about-it stages…It's a really big movie and it's going to be a great movie no matter who writes it."
Sorkin won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook in the hit movie The Social Network. He praised Steve Jobs as a great entrepreneur, artist and thinker, and noted his young daughter was inspired by Steve as she 'plays with all his toys'.
To tackle yet another Silicon Valley mogul would add to the writer's resume. He last wrote the script for Moneyball, and one of my favourites from years back, A Few Good Men (which you can watch for free with Crackle). Considering the success he had with The Social Network, Sorkin seems destined to be 'the guy' people want to take on the mammoth task of putting Steve Jobs' life to the silver screen.
If it's not Sorkin, who else would be up for the job?
[e! Online via AppleInsider]
Opera Mini Users Growing Fast, 140 Million And Counting
Wed, November 23, 2011


Resilience Planning in Design and Construction
Published Date March 6, 2018
Author Roxanne Button
Roxanne Button is a Licensed Architect and Certified Specification Writer in New York State with 25 years of experience and a focus on environmentally sustainable design. In this article, Button discusses resiliency design, how it applies to buildings, and what designers and builders need to know about the future of resiliency planning.
What is resilience in design and construction?
If you Google the word "resilience," the first thing to come up is a definition that talks about the ability to recover quickly, to bounce back, or to be tough. As you scroll down through the search results, most of the links are psychology-related with one or two about the financial resiliency of businesses. You have to dig further to find a reference to environmental resiliency or to the resilient design of buildings.
That first definition fits all of those very different contexts. Whether it refers to a human being, a community, or a company, resilience is the ability to recover from adversity, to return to some sense of normalcy aftershock or stress, or to adapt to a changed environment. With respect to buildings and communities, resiliency is also the act of maintaining livable conditions – through deteriorating or even devastating circumstances - at all levels and scales of development.
Resilient design isn't the same as sustainable design, but they have a lot in common. According to the Resilient Design Institute, it is "the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, communities, and regions in order to respond to natural and manmade disasters and disturbances—as well as long-term changes resulting from climate change…."
Resilient design is, in a lot of ways, an expansion of the definition of sustainable design. For architects and designers, it is another layer in the design process. For building owners, it's an added cost, but at the same time, it is a necessary investment in their properties. Since Sandy, more owners and developers are recognizing the need for such investment.
While there is still debate and even dismissal of climate change and its known impacts around the world, people in coastal regions and flood-prone areas know what's really happening because they are living it. They understand that it isn't "a waste of money", as one government official stated just last year to invest in better buildings and infrastructure. Fortunately, much of the initiative to pursue resilience is coming (literally and figuratively) from the ground up, involving local and state governments, philanthropic organizations, and the building industry itself.
Lessons from Hurricane Sandy
After the devastation that swept over the coastlines of New Jersey and New York five years ago, New York State created the Governor's Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) to support and fund rebuilding projects. It also started the Institute for Storms and Emergencies (NYS RISE) to bring together the research expertise of five universities with the DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The GOSR tackles projects under four main programs:
Community Reconstruction
NYS RISE approaches these issues from the research side by looking for ways to bring research into practice.
New York City created its own Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, and opened an Office of Recovery and Resiliency. The highest-profile design proposal to come out of the resulting Hurricane Sandy Design Competition is The Big U (aka the "Dryline"), designed by a team led by Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels. At least six other large projects are in various stages of design and implementation in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The Rockefeller Foundation is a big supporter of both the design competition and their own 100 Resilient Cities initiative that launched in 2013. Its goal is to promote resilience strategies through access to resources and a global network of experts, and to enable cities to hire CRO's: Chief Resilience Officers.
In addition to – and often in partnership with – local and state governments, professional organizations in the building industry are also focusing more attention on resiliency. Although the American Institute of Architects (AIA) created its Disaster Assistance Program in 1972, long before the devastating natural disasters of the past decade, it has placed renewed emphasis on this program since Hurricane Sandy. AIA advocates for the Architect's role in resiliency planning and direct assistance to communities, through a network of experts who are available to help before, during, and after. The AIA's Resilience and Adaptation Initiative boosts that on-the-ground level of assistance with expanded education resources and helps Architects to become more engaged in other resiliency-focused programs.
What do Architects and Builders need to know?
Beyond the obvious ability to recover from a devastating event – from cleanup to repair or rebuilding - what does resiliency mean for design and construction?
About two months before Sandy, Alex Wilson – founder of BuildingGreen Inc.– created the nonprofit Resilient Design Institute to promote resiliency as part of sustainable design. RDI also provides consulting services to communities and to the design and building industry. In his first blog post on the new website, "Fundamentals of Resilient Design #1: Making the Case", Alex noted that many of the things that we already advocate for in green building mirror what we need to do to achieve more resiliency. Better insulated building envelopes, for example, will improve the ability to withstand periods of cold weather during a winter storm. Renewable energy sources, especially those that are site- or neighborhood-based, will reduce reliance on power plants that may fail during a storm event.
RDI has a list of recommended design strategies for making buildings and communities more resistant to damage. Third-party sustainability certification programs are also incorporating resiliency, which is an important step towards bringing it up to the same level of recognition and acceptance as sustainable design.
Building owners and developers in Manhattan who were hit hard in 2012 are being smarter about their new project. After the flooding seen during Sandy, not putting sensitive mechanical and electrical equipment in basements and sub-basements now seems like an obvious move, but it goes against conventional practice.
It helps that the City of New York quickly introduced new requirements into their zoning and building regulations for new buildings, such as requiring the ground level to be raised above the design flood elevation. Thicker – and heavier – concrete foundations help to anchor buildings and protect against hydrostatic pressure. More watertight construction for foundations paired with temporary flood shields, baffles, and other types of flood barriers help reduce the infiltration of water into buildings.
For more resilient infrastructure projects, the Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System provides guidance and support for both design professionals and projects. Developed by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, this program has 60 criteria that cover every aspect of sustainable design for infrastructure. It is modeled after the categories and credits of LEED, and provides an evaluation of completed projects as well as an accreditation program for professionals.
The U.S. Green Building Council introduced resiliency into its LEED Green Building Rating System in late 2015 with three new LEED Pilot Credits developed by the Resilient Design Institute. These credits focus on the design process and the integration of resiliency into the earliest phases of building planning and design.
At last year's GreenBuild conference in Boston, USGBC announced that it had adopted the RELi Resilience Rating System. RELi was created in 2012 by a group led by the Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability (MTS) and the Capital Markets Partnership, along with the design firm Perkins+Will. RELi is a stand-alone program that is now being refined by a USGBC Resilience Steering Committee for use under the LEED umbrella of rating systems. They have a credit catalog, much like LEED, that is focused on the specific issues related to resilient design, with almost 200 different metrics and indicators for projects at all scales of development from individual buildings to entire communities.
The future is resilient
For anyone who has lived through a tornado, hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster, the idea that your home or business should be built to be more resistant to damage is a no-brainer. Of course, we should do that. Why aren't we already building that way? The same question was asked when we used to talk about sustainable design as an add-on service and not as standard practice.
The key may be to make it mandatory through building codes, as New York City has done. Since codes represent the bare legal minimum standards for design and construction, then it seems reasonable to expect that incorporating both sustainability and resiliency into codes will make all new and renovated buildings that much better. That would set a baseline, as the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) and California's CALGreen building standard have done.
Having that consistently-applied baseline is critical because of the unpredictability of the risks. We know what has already happened as a result of stronger storm cycles, but we don't know what's coming. That was the starting point for a conference last December hosted by Bloomberg LIVE to talk about resiliency and the response to storms like Sandy. The clear message from speakers like Daniel Zarrilli, New York City's Chief Resilience Officer, was about taking a broader view and working on the issues in more multidisciplinary ways. "If we could see more broadly across disciplines, we would be much better off", said Janice Barnes, Global Resilience Director and a Principal with Perkins+Will. Resilient design must be collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and community-focused.
Roxanne is the Principal & Owner of Design Synergies, a licensed Architect, and a dual-credentialed LEED-Accredited Professional with over 25 years of experience in architecture, interior design, and sustainability consulting in the US and Canada. Her expertise in LEED and green buildings includes design consulting, certification management, and the development of educational programs. Photo cred: KC Kratt, NY
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