Lisa Johnson
Clouds of Boston
Whenever I’m in an elevated location where I can see the city from a new perspective, if I can, I like to take pictures. This is my most recent photo seeing Boston from above. If you look at the far right, just where the land meets the sky, you can see the gas tank near the expressway.
It was a warm sunny day. Blue sky and white puffy clouds. I love the clouds.
Back in November 2007, I was doing 30 Days of Thanks on my old blog. One of the things I’ve always been thankful for is the ability to go outside, look up and see beauty in the clouds. I wrote about a new group that I had learned about called the Cloud Appreciation Society.
The group still exists. Last night I read an article about the founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, in the latest issue of Kinfolk. I learned that he gave a TED Talk, Cloudy with a chance of joy. Watch it, when you get a chance.
Pretor-Pinney is trying to get people to stop associating negativity with clouds and to focus on the beauty instead. He shows some amazing cloud pictures. Talks about the act of watching clouds. Doing nothing but letting our minds wander, which can spur creativity. He also gives a nice final quote.
Always remember to live life with your head in the clouds. ~ Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Scent and the City: Urban Planning Using Smellscapes
When I went on a smellwalk in Boston, I was interested to learn about how smell impacts our daily life. As someone with a keen sense of smell, this has always fascinated me.
Kate McLean, the leader of our smellwalk, recently wrote a paper with some other folks called Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes.
Sadly, it doesn’t appear that the data from the Boston smellwalk was used in the paper. But it’s interesting to think about the possibilities of urban planning with a different approach to designing cities.
It’s not just physical landscapes that should be considered. Smellscapes should also be taken into account with urban planning. I love how they note “good fragrances” like in Japan. Below (with edits) are the recommendations to city planners.
One hundred sites in Japan have been declared as protected because of their ‘good fragrance’. However, the general situation in the rest of the world greatly differs. Urban planners to date have tended to think about smells in terms of management of bad odors, rarely considering preserving and celebrating the smells that people like. There are a number of ways that the urban smellscape can be altered; manipulating the air flow by changing the street layout, pedestrianization to alter traffic emissions, the creation of restorative environments through the planting of trees, greenspaces and waterways, and the strategic placement of car stopping points are just a few examples. City officials do not fully consider the opportunities presented by the sense of smell simply because they have been the victims of a discipline’s negative perspective. We hope that our work might help them rethink their approaches and use olfactory opportunities to create stimulating multisensory places.
I recall so many good smells while walking around Boston. If you’ve ever walked through the North End, you know what I mean! We do have large green spaces and a beautiful clean waterfront, but I wonder if even more could be done using smellscapes to make Boston an even better city.
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Image: Boston’s Smellwalk Map Route
Binge-watching: Alpha House
Are you binge-watching any shows right now? If you like political shows like House of Cards and Scandal, but you also appreciate smart comedy and satire, then you’ll probably love Alpha House. Someone told me about it a few months ago and it sounded so good that I wrote it down. It was the first time that I learned that Amazon Prime has original programming, similar to Netflix. Garry Trudeau, known for Doonesbury, created the series. He also writes and produces it.
Bill Murray makes frequent appearances and the series premiere opened with him. The cast members blow me away. John Goodman, Clark Johnson, Wanda Sykes, Cynthia Nixon, Amy Sedaris, Haley Joel “I see dead people” Osment, Matt Malloy, Mark Consuelos and more.
The main characters are four Republican Senators living together in one house in Washington, D.C. and is inspired by the real life living arrangements of some Democrats.
There are a ton of celebrity appearances and many actual politicians, like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator John McCain appear as themselves too. One thing that I like about Alpha House is that while the main characters are fictional, President Obama is referred to as the President. So it feels a bit more deeply based in reality than other shows.
G and I have been binge-watching the show and we both love it. As I mentioned last week, I’m doing a free trial of Amazon Prime, so we are streaming it free online. We watched Season 1 this week and are deep into Season 2. Hopefully there will be a Season 3, but I have not been able to find out. If you’re looking for something new to watch, I highly recommend Alpha House!
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Screenshot: Here & Now (WBUR)
