"Power from the street light made the place dark" (c) Krs-One
For those that didn't understand that quote let me break it down: When Hip Hop first started, DJ's would have block parties outside, lacking electrical outlets for their turntables, DJ's often used the city street light as their source of power thereby dimming the light for the turntables and speakers.
Now it's easy to point out the influence of cities on music genres such as Hip Hop. This genre was born out of the severely blighted blocks of the South Bronx housing projects in the 1970's and eventually grew out to other parts of New York City and beyond to other inner cities.
But Hip Hop was not the only genre that focused on the city life, blues, rock, r&B, folk and reggae all have past histories speaking on the ills and pleasures of city life.
Here are some videos about the city. Comment on what's your favorite or post your your own videos about the city.
Stevie Wonder - Living for the City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRT3Te21sXM
Blackstar - Respiration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNwTL0HQRI
(Raps about the city being a living breathing being)
Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Makes me Holler)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5llhskH59o
Lovin' Spoonful - Summer in the city
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91uLJ00B1h4
Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9_8vwx2w8
Elton John - Philadelphia Freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkMXnk16kiE
Billy Joel - Allentown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62DdoFoNeg
Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEkyaoPdar8
Randy Newman - I Love L.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lpxPUbn8y8
2Pac - To live and die in L.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTqAn7UC1ec
Cheech Marin - Born in East L.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiFGr51ubV4
Frank Sinatra - New York, New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM52Xsvw5NQ
Cynda Williams - Harlem Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpDefKKEsXs
Crooklyn Dodgers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfXJ_IUlBA4
Will Smith - Miami
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDp5IP76PeY
Ras Kass - Miami Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf52bbcfTjo
Billie Holliday & Louis Armstrong - Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROEWiNsb754
U2 & Greenday - The Saints are Coming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seGhTWE98DU
The Beatles - Kansas City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOTKrnBtDg0
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Great Planning Quotes
Here's the link:
http://www.aboutplanning.org/quotes.html
But let's start with the very first quote on City Planning by Horace Bushnell:
Considering the immense importance of a right location, and a right planning for cities, no step should ever be taken by the parties concerned, without employing some person who is qualifies by a special culture, to assist and direct. Our engineers are trained for a very different kind of service, and are partially disqualified for this by the habit of a study more strictly linear, more rigidly scientific, and less artistic. The qualifications of surveyors are commonly more meagre still...Nothing is more to be regretted, in this view, than that the American nation, having a new world to make, and clean map on which to place it, should be sacrificing their advantage so cheaply, in the extempore planning of towns and cities. The peoples of the old world have their cities built for times gone by, when railroads and gunpowder were unknown. We can have cities for the new age that has come, adopted to its better conditions and ornament. So great an advantage ought not to be thrown away. We want, therefore, a city planning profession..."
Horace Bushnell
"City Plans" 1864
So check out the quotes from the link above and leave a comment about your favorite planning quote.
http://www.aboutplanning.org/quotes.html
But let's start with the very first quote on City Planning by Horace Bushnell:
Considering the immense importance of a right location, and a right planning for cities, no step should ever be taken by the parties concerned, without employing some person who is qualifies by a special culture, to assist and direct. Our engineers are trained for a very different kind of service, and are partially disqualified for this by the habit of a study more strictly linear, more rigidly scientific, and less artistic. The qualifications of surveyors are commonly more meagre still...Nothing is more to be regretted, in this view, than that the American nation, having a new world to make, and clean map on which to place it, should be sacrificing their advantage so cheaply, in the extempore planning of towns and cities. The peoples of the old world have their cities built for times gone by, when railroads and gunpowder were unknown. We can have cities for the new age that has come, adopted to its better conditions and ornament. So great an advantage ought not to be thrown away. We want, therefore, a city planning profession..."
Horace Bushnell
"City Plans" 1864
So check out the quotes from the link above and leave a comment about your favorite planning quote.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Philadelphia Murals
Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program, which started as the anti-graffiti network in 1984, is the largest mural program in the world.
Which Mural is your favorite?
Which Mural is your favorite?
Great City Planning Documentaries
The City, Parts I, II (1939)
A documentary which pleas for less development in the inner city while promoting what we call today, urban sprawl.
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939_2
A Place to Live (1948)
This documentary was about slum clearance in Philadelphia. For any who has lived in Philadelphia, you will get a kick out of the new upscale housing project known as "The Richard Allen Housing Projects." These projects were some of the worse projects in the country. They were eventually torn down in 1999.
http://www.archive.org/details/PlacetoL1948_2
The Dynamic American City (1956)
A 1950's documentary which is advocating the removal of blighted neighborhoods through Urban Renewal.
http://www.archive.org/details/DynamicA1956_2
Community Growth & Crisis (1959)
Every Planner should watch this film. This is a documentary about homebuilders decrying unplanned urban sprawl. Their solution? Planned Unit Developments, Cluster Zoning, Flexible zoning controls and Pro Land Use laws... if only we had listened
http://www.archive.org/details/Communit1959
Detroit: City on the Move (1965)
And after the King riots in 1968, the city residents were on the move to the suburbs. Such high hopes for the city in the mid 1960's. Has there been a major American city that has fallen harder than Detroit?
http://www.archive.org/details/DetroitC1965
A documentary which pleas for less development in the inner city while promoting what we call today, urban sprawl.
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939
http://www.archive.org/details/CityTheP1939_2
A Place to Live (1948)
This documentary was about slum clearance in Philadelphia. For any who has lived in Philadelphia, you will get a kick out of the new upscale housing project known as "The Richard Allen Housing Projects." These projects were some of the worse projects in the country. They were eventually torn down in 1999.
http://www.archive.org/details/PlacetoL1948_2
The Dynamic American City (1956)
A 1950's documentary which is advocating the removal of blighted neighborhoods through Urban Renewal.
http://www.archive.org/details/DynamicA1956_2
Community Growth & Crisis (1959)
Every Planner should watch this film. This is a documentary about homebuilders decrying unplanned urban sprawl. Their solution? Planned Unit Developments, Cluster Zoning, Flexible zoning controls and Pro Land Use laws... if only we had listened
http://www.archive.org/details/Communit1959
Detroit: City on the Move (1965)
And after the King riots in 1968, the city residents were on the move to the suburbs. Such high hopes for the city in the mid 1960's. Has there been a major American city that has fallen harder than Detroit?
http://www.archive.org/details/DetroitC1965
The Streetscapes of Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1917, Jacob Lawrence emerged as one of America's leading figurative artists and the first to document the history of African Americans through widely-viewed and influential artworks. Lawrence and his family moved to Harlem in 1924, where he experienced the vibrancy of black intellectual, cultural, and artistic life in what was seen as the Harlem Renaissance.
Here are some images of Lawrence's paintings of Harlem street scenes.
Tell us what you think and what is your favorite streetscape by Lawrence.
1. Harlem Street
2. This is Harlem
3. Street Scene
4. The Ice Man
5. Harlem Scene
Hip Hop & City Planning
Hip Hop and City Planning are intertwined with one antoher. Cities are plans and developments that are built on the plans of previous generations that are upgraded, modified and changed over time. However they use the past to build a new creation. Today we rehabilitate past structures to make a new construction and adapt it so current conditions.
Well to me that's what HIp Hop is, a music built on the backs of past music stemming from blues, rock, soul and jazz. Hip Hop uses the foundations of past music samples is and makes a new creation. Hip Hop "rehabilitates" past songs and uses their elements to adapt to a current form.
Well to me that's what HIp Hop is, a music built on the backs of past music stemming from blues, rock, soul and jazz. Hip Hop uses the foundations of past music samples is and makes a new creation. Hip Hop "rehabilitates" past songs and uses their elements to adapt to a current form.
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