Archive: 2005-05
Futurism
I’m writing this from however-many-thousand feet [update from somewhere between Novosibirsk and Ulan Bataar: 36,500 feet] up in the air, on board my Lufthansa flight to Japan. Sipping a gin and tonic, and connected to the internet, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the future is finally here.
The People’s Republic of Birmingham
On my first visit to Birmingham since graduation the other day, I was amazed by how much it had changed—for the better. The Bull Ring is no longer a squalid cautionary tale of 60s urban design; it is now a clean, light, and pleasant area. Unlike its predecessor, the design is not determinedly avant-garde and therefore much less likely to date as badly.