It was just like last time

or something like that anyway

with my boys gone,

in their own ways displaced from the advantageous

cavernous black hole of sound

that consumed us.

swallowed and birthed us in its gloomy dungeon

floating amidst the waves

twirling

bad boys, skinny girls with that look on their face like,

fuck off

and everybody in between hazing into the black cement tattered walls

blue lighting seeping through the ceilings

dips between the pure

gray industrial gradients

drifting through the halls

like we’ve been here before

we came here to dance

the feelings fall somewhere in between

on point for you boo

let’s stay in the shadows

the air we breathe heavy and wet

drips down the wall

boom

slide

finesse

vogue

taking it

the warm wet sea of strangers glides and sly

fall further

above the black

below the fracture

distorted

faded

gravel in our mouths

cold spins backwards filter into the hard scene

dissipates

step one two baby

tender though

 

Poem by Alex Helfand

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“They keep going higher ​and higher, ​so they won’t have to smell the smell down below,” Mr. Kim said of the tower dwellers. 

In Seoul, wealth is measured by how high you live, said Kim Nam-sik, a real estate agent in Seoul’s quiet Seongbuk district, home to dozens of foreign ambassadors’ residences and where the rich family  lives.

“The taller your apartment tower​ and the higher floor you live on in the tower, ​ the more expensive your apartment,” ​he said.

Many of the richest of the rich in Seongbuk,  live in luxurious, multimillion-dollar, single-family homes with large backyards, shaded by graceful pine trees. These islands of affluence are secluded behind ​imposing walls topped with spikes and security cameras."

Extract from the New York Times

 

 

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"Their good conduct and their willingness to blend into this new milieu - this new space - cannot improve the smell that they carry with them  in spite of themselves." Continue reading

"At my gym there's a sign saying "This is a fragrance-free zone". I thought about it and, yes, perfume in a gym might be kind of weird, like smelling cooking bacon when trying to fall asleep at night. And then last week a younger male gym-goer showed up and as he walked across the floor, everyone's eyes started burning and their nostrils flared. This wasn't  because he was in some way, hot. It was because he was wearing a male body spray. The odour was half industrial, half ultra-cheap soap, and had he been waring any more, he would have resembled Pigpen from Charlie Brown, going through life with his own visible weather system. Fortunately, the staff at my gym are fearless and they landed on this guy  like hawks. He won't be wearing Satan's Tears there again anytime soon. " Douglas Coupland Continue reading

"The apple was delicious. It snapped cleanly to my bite, was crisp without being hard, and was oh so juicy. I sat in the truck‘s cab, savouring its tart, pear-like notes. It was a Braeburn variety that had been hand-pollinated in a boutique apple ranch in Southern Oregon.

The parallels  between the dildo-ization of corn and the crunchification of apples are hard to miss. Braeburns grew quickly, produced heavily and stored well. Braeburn was the right apple at the right time. Ufortunately, when the bees vanishes, they were totally fucked." Douglas Coupland

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"Un soir assommé d'ennui et ivre d'envies, Wam embarque  pour une virée sur "Paname". Pas d'argent, pas de plan, mais un sens aigu de la vanne et du défi: il ne lui en faudra pas plus pour vivre en quelques heures, ce que beaucoup n'ont pas vécu en une vie. " Wam by Slimane Kader 

One evening stunned with boredom and drunken cravings, Wam embarks on a trip to "Paname". No money, no plan, but a strong sense of the valve and the challenge: it won't take more to live in a few hours, which many have not experienced in a lifetime." Wam by Slimane Kader

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Spanish photographer Arnau Bach (b. Barcelona, 1981) created a series documenting the unrest of the banlieue titled “Suburbia”. Interested in finding stories and images outside of those sensationalized by mainstream media, starting in 2006 he would spend years in Seine-Saint-Denis, one of Paris's largest suburbs populated by over a million people. His photo series depicts the shocking violence and riots, but also shows facets of youth lifestyle and culture; one that is lacking in opportunities, venerates hip hop and finds ways to rebel. Continue reading

Île-de-France, has lost over 100,000 jobs since COVID, with the banlieues hit especially hard. Familial contagion is common here with many families living in cramped spaces. This has been compounded by the fact that starting in March authorities have given the public only four preapproved reasons for venturing out of their homes. With sentiments of mistrust and poor treatment surrounding the relationship between banlieue residents and the police, George Floyd's death brought thousands of protesters into the streets in June, a demonstration against police brutality in France as well.

Despite these turbulent conditions, it appears that changes are on the horizon for the banlieues. The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo has been pushing a new ecological agenda with plans to convert the Périphérique highway, which surrounds Paris and seperates it from the banlieues, into park spaces with reduced traffic. Another promising update is the Grand Paris Express; expected to be completed in 2030, it will be the biggest public transport system in Europe. This will also create a bridge to the banlieues, which are currently lacking in accessible transportation into the city.

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