Huh this makes sense now
Yes this Greentext introduced me to Casiopea and jazz fusion, Mint Jams is still my favorite album of theirs. Other notable works of the genre include Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way, Masayoshi Takanaka’s On Guitar, and ISSEI NORO INSPIRITS’ BEAUTY.
It’s that way in almost every country that isn’t America or America-light. Japan does it in over-the-top performative ways, but pretty much everywhere else, people care about random strangers, people invest time into their days and activities being nice just for the simple pleasure of human stuff and taking time to be a human and be pleasing with other people. Food, gifts, clothing, respect and value for travelers and gestures of good-will. If you’re from America, it feels “normal” here but something is clearly missing, and if you ever spend any length of time overseas you see exactly what it is and how badly wrong things are here, that it is missing.
I’m not trying to be prejudiced about it, just saying that every culture has its good stuff and its failings and not giving a shit about other people or life in general is definitely an American one.
If you’re from America, it feels “normal” here but something is clearly missing, and if you ever spend any length of time overseas you see exactly what it is and how badly wrong things are here, that it is missing.
What’s missing is walkability and “third-spaces.” Seriously. We are building our cities wrong as a matter of policy and it is absolutely destroying us.
See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHlpmxLTxpw
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/29/extreme-car-dependency-unhappiness-americans
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/2/the-negative-consequences-of-car-dependency
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/03/05/all-the-ways-that-cars-harm-our-communities-well-almost-all
Europe took a long stroll in that direction too, but there are some major differences. First, most of their cities were established before cars. Second, they’re making more of an active attempt (in some areas) to be walkable again.
In short, in America 75 years is a long time. In Europe, 75 miles (120km) is a long way.
First, most of their cities were established before cars.
That’s true for America too, and isn’t an excuse. American cities were not built for cars; they were demolished for cars!
For example, downtown Houston, TX in 1957:
vs downtown Houston, TX in 1978:
That’s so absurd it almost doesn’t seem real
(from my european perspective)Are those the same location? I can’t see any common landmarks
There are some blatant disinformation peddlers on Lemmy and it seems like Grue and yimby should have that reputation because the developed area in the second pic barely overlaps that of the first. How could this be anything but intentional?
Here’s a side-by-side with as close as I could get with current imagery:
Identified in each is the 1910 Harris County Courthouse which is many blocks away from the are of the second pic.
Here’s a comparison of the two and an intermediate perspective from modern imagery. The approximate area of the two pics are outlined in different colors, and a few buildings that are common in all three have been lettered. These are now some of the smaller buildings in the downtown area. It makes sense that lower-density / less-efficient buildings would be replaced with more modern structures (though one of them was replaced with a park 💚🌳). The implication from initial juxtaposition of the original pics that a bunch of tall buildings were torn down to make parking lots is a flat out lie.
This is an amazing analysis. I really appreciate how you located where the empty parking lots were, and now I can see them in both images. Yep, it definitely looks like the downtown area has only developed somewhat and that nothing was torn down.
I still believe somewhat OPs claim that areas were expanded more for cars than for walkability, but yeah a different set of images would be needed to cement that
Not sure what it has to do with America, but the European countries (or people’s relationship) I’ve lived in are extremely far from being that nice.
I’m in Germany, which feels pretty unfriendly to me (and I’m from Connecticut), but there’s still a back current of something. I don’t know if it’s best described as a sense of community, solidarity, or shared humanity, but I work at a bakery (culturally comparable to a diner, imo, and I worked in the US at a few diners) and the clientele as a rule sees me as a person in a way that they didn’t always in the US.
It’s also the first place I’ve worked in a city that didn’t have an oppositional relationship with the local homeless population, because my boss treats them like people, and doesn’t allow anyone to do any differently.
Wie just hate strangers, that’s all. Or rather people in general. If someone is friendly to me on the street, I look for an escape route and check if my wallet is still there.
I ws defining most of Europe as “America light” here. People in Central America, the Middle East, and Africa all have a particular human way of interacting with each other that is absent in America and sort of muted in a lot of Western Europe. Then at a certain point my perspective flipped and I realized their way was normal, and it’s us that have something unusual about us.
The world is a big place with a lot of variation, and I’m not trying to romanticize any particular place. Just saying that a lot of looking out for each other and being kind has been forgotten about in a lot of America.
Yeah, I have a European acquaintance who I’ve heard talk at length about how America is warm and friendly relative to Europe, and it’s a notion I’ve heard backed up by online accounts as well.
Good ad; didn’t get me into Japanese stuff because I’m already into anime and manga and underage looking girls and excessively gross porn and whatnot (could do without the pixelated junk, though), but it got me to listen to some Mint Jams.
Not exactly my thing (too much like elevator muzak for my taste, read Japanese jazz, expected something more like the Seatbelts 🤷♂️), but not bad, very eighties, could put it in the background while doing something else.
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I haven’t bought a record in a while but I used to buy a ton and buying used from Japan was always my favorite. It wasn’t like this if you bought from corporate stores obviously but almost every time I bought from just some dude on yahoo auctions or discogs or ebay or whatever I would have a similar experience. Handwritten note, candy, good luck charm from a shrine, etc. almost made up for the astronomical shipping
One time my friend ordered a book from Russia and got similar treatment except they got tea. We made it and it was the most horrible tea we had ever tried in our lives. It came with a sweet letter though so the sentiment was nice
That album fucking rules. Can also confirm the Japanese vinyl store experience, they love to add personal touches.
Japan does jazz really nice. Look up Soil and Pimp for a more spicy metal jazz experience.
Oh I love this one. It introduced me to Casiopea and they’re a PHENOMENAL band. Which sent me into a hole of finding more stuff like that, and now I love J-Jazz.
Recommendations? Not even limited to J-jazz — I used to do a lot more active music searching and I’m trying to get back into that, part of which involves asking random people who like different music than I do for recs
I’m not a huge Japanese jazz aficionado, but this is some stuff I’ve found over the years and enjoyed:
- Himiko Kikuchi - Flying Beagle
- Masayoshi Takanaka - All Of Me
- Jiro Inagaki - ファンキー・スタッフ (Funky Stuff)
If you like jazzy stuff in general, maybe you’d like:
- Lund Quartet - Lund Quartet
- Portico Quartet - Memory Streams
- Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory
- BADBADNOTGOOD - IV
- Snarky Puppy - Lingus
Ryo Fukui
The Album “Scenery” is a ride. I don’t know much about the genre/scene tbh, but this album cuts through whatever I’m experiencing at the time. It really feels like unfettered expression, and it sounds really pretty.
Also, the dude was insane on the keys. How the hell someone’s hands can do half of that stuff is beyond me.
