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Why is everything so ugly?

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Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#181

Post by topaz0 »

nostromo wrote: post #167
topaz0 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure where you're getting this. Zero of my millenial friends like this look -- and we represent a wide range of the millenial years.

> Not sure where you're getting this. No, it is (or was) definitely a trend. Google "millennial gray" -- it's so common it became a meme.

I've observed the trend. I'm unsurprised that it was named after the generation that was putatively buying the most houses at the time. But I haven't observed any people my age actually liking this fact.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#182

Post by j4yav »

dylan604 wrote: post #171
j4yav wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Do you like Raffi? I've been a big children's music fan ever since the release of his classic album, "Singable Songs for the Very Young." Before that, I really didn't understand any of the kiddie tunes. Too jingly, too toddler-tastic. It was on "Singable Songs" where Raffi's catchy melodies became more apparent. I think "Baby Beluga" was the artist's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic lullaby on ocean adventures.…

I do believe this is the first time I've ever read such an adult critique of a children's performer. I have no idea about anything you just said though, but you clearly feel passionately about ABCs and 123s. Or you're decent at the GPT prompt

It was meant as a parody of one of Patrick Bateman’s monologues in American Psycho.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#183

Post by j4yav »

topaz0 wrote: post #176
j4yav wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know if it’s millennials per se but subreddits about cozy, nice living spaces are upvoting for whatever reason quite uniformly empty and gray minimalist designs. Like a distopian hospital from the future or something.

Since when are redditors representative of the population?

Just noting the existence of a trend, not making any broader statement about redditors being representative of the population. Hopefully we can at least agree there are millennials on Reddit upvoting the style, or if not there’s always plenty of articles like https://millennialmagazine.com/2019/10/02/why-are-millennial.... Or, if that isn’t compelling either, there are replies from other millennials here indicating they like it.

In any case try not to worry too much about it, there are plenty of people with (arguably) bad taste in every generation.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#184

Post by esafak »

achileas wrote: post #149
renewiltord wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these aesthetic criticism people are just conservative people. They don't like change. The world was best when they arrived somewhere. That's pretty much it. SF is full of a similar kind.

This is the only real takeaway of the article. “I don’t like this because it’s new to me, therefore it’s universally bad.” I live in Boston and there was a similar freakout about the gas lamps in Beacon Hill being replaced by LEDs. Not a single person I talked to about it knew that the gas lamps were only added to the neighborhood in the late 70s to make it look more quaint and historic.

So they were added to suit the character of the neighborhood? That is a great selection criterion.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#185

Post by hooverd »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #101
Throw84949 wrote: post #85

Go and spend summer in Russia, it is the perfect antidote. St. Petersburg is amazingly beautiful! Museums, architecture, cultural performances, no morbidly obese people on streets, no graffiti, even metro is nice!

I'd rather visit sunny Magnitogorsk: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fn... (Actually I'd rather visit Kyiv but I've heard that now's not a good time.)

Hey, you forgot to add the grey filter.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#186

Post by doubled112 »

yostrovs wrote: post #55
jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

When selling our previous property, the seller agent recommended we paint it in "agreeable gray," supposedly the current color that is neutral and will not affect anyone negatively.

Like when you look at new builds.

You have builder grey, builder white, builder off white, and builder beige.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#187

Post by twiddling »

argiopetech wrote: post #173
mp05 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People of my age view them as a nuisance born out of the austerity of the 1970s, a temporary suboptimal fix that persisted due to inertia. A reminder of the rot and desperation of the that era. > Now this dude is nostalgic for them? You could just as readily be talking about a cassette tape.

The cassette tape has a lot of things going for it. They play for longer than CDs, they don't skip, they are simple to duplicate and record onto (with most cassette decks capable of one, if not both, actions), and the occasional tape tangle teaches patience and encourages mechanical understanding of the system. They can't compete with my phone and a bunch of FLAC for fidelity, but I wish they weren't effectively dead…

Best television I had was a HD Sony CRT. Incredible picture.

Also weighed over 230 pounds.

My back does not miss CRTs

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#188

Post by TheCleric »

Call me overly practical, but as long as we have a shortage of housing, build all the ugly you can. I’d rather have people housed in ugly buildings they can afford over waiting for something aesthetically beautiful.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#189

Post by jszymborski »

account-5 wrote: post #53
jszymborski wrote: post #38

I just wanted to echo the gray frustration here. I went to buy vinyl flooring (I can't afford hardwood) and the sheer amount of inexplicably "grey wood" planks was staggering. Why! Like, it's as if some alien only saw wood in an episode of I Love Lucy and wanted to replicate it.

Nothing wrong with vinyl, you can get some real good quality vinyl flooring.

Totally, I'm really happy with the functional properties of the vinyl I ended up buying. That said, I truly love how hardwood looks.

Re: Why is everything so ugly?

#190

Post by keenmaster »

It’s possible for everyone to like beautiful things but not build them when given the chance.

The “problem” is, everyone has a different preference.

Let’s say I like mid-century modern, and spend $75,000 extra on building (tastefully) in that style.

Now it’s 10 years later and I want to sell the house. A potential buyer likes everything except the mid-century modern. Their favorite style is neoclassical.

To them, mid-century modern styling has a value of zero or even -$25,000. So if I didn’t build in that style, they might have been willing to pay 75k-100k more.

The paradox here is that a divergence in preferences, due to cultural atomization and the internet, has led to lower returns on investment in beauty (and atrophying of craftsmanship and the ability to build beautifully to begin with).

If you ask me, a tasteful aesthetic monoculture is a good thing, and can result in timeless beauty which will be appreciated long after that monoculture evolves/ends. Sameness is not inherently bad! See: Florence, Venice, Andalucia, 1800’s Paris, etc…

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