{"id":801,"date":"2006-01-11T07:59:59","date_gmt":"2006-01-11T12:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/romance-romance-why-arent-we-thinking-up-romance\/"},"modified":"2006-01-11T08:06:48","modified_gmt":"2006-01-11T13:06:48","slug":"romance-romance-why-arent-we-thinking-up-romance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/romance-romance-why-arent-we-thinking-up-romance","title":{"rendered":"Romance, romance, why aren’t we thinking up romance?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite songs is Slit Skirts, by Pete Townshend<\/a>. It begins with<\/p>\n

I was just 34 years old and I was still wandering in a haze
\nI was wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were lost in a maze<\/p>\n

I don’t know why I thought I should have some kind of divine right to the blues
\nIt’s sympathy not tears people need when they’re the front page sad news.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I turned 35 today, so I can now look back on that song fondly, in my decrepitude.<\/p>\n

Cartoonist and painter William Stout offers some advice for living well<\/a>. (Thanks, Tom<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Also, here’s a passage from the book I’m reading, Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[I]t is understandable that men who were young in the 1920’s were captivated by the vision of the freeway Radiant City, with the specious promise that it would be appropriate to an automobile age. At least it was then a new idea; to men of the generation of New York’s Robert Moses, for example, it was radical and exciting in the days when their minds were growing and their ideas forming. Some men tend to cling to old intellectual excitements, just as some belles, when they are old ladies, still cling to the fashions and coiffures of their exciting youth. But it is harder to understand why this form of arrested mental development should be passed on intact to succeeding generations of planners and designers. It is disturbing to think that men who are young today, men who are being trained now for their careers, should accept on the grounds that they must be “modern” in their thinking, conceptions about cities and traffic which are not only unworkable, but also to which nothing new of any significance has been added since their fathers were children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At which point Springsteen’s New York City Serenade<\/a> starts playing, and I feel like I’m going to have a wonderful birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite songs is Slit Skirts, by Pete Townshend. It begins with I was just 34 years old and I was still wandering in a haze I was wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were lost in a maze I don’t know why I thought I should have some kind of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Romance, romance, why aren’t we thinking up romance?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-cV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1914,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/a-fantabulous-night-to-make-romance","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":0},"title":"A fantabulous night to make romance","author":"Gil","date":"February 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Belfast pictures now up and caption-ed!","rel":"","context":"In "Belfast"","block_context":{"text":"Belfast","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/belfast"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2300,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/till-lethal-injection-do-us-part","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":1},"title":"Till Lethal Injection Do Us Part","author":"Gil","date":"August 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything about this NYPost article on people who date, marry and otherwise romance imprisoned psychotic murderers is bizarre, as you'd expect. But I don't think the goofiness of this Polaroid of Gerard John Schaefer proposing to his girlfriend -- -- prepares you for the impossibly ghastly crimes that he committed.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gerard John Schaefer\"","block_context":{"text":"Gerard John Schaefer","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/gerard-john-schaefer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/news020b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11769,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-287-audrey-niffenegger","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":2},"title":"Episode 287 – Audrey Niffenegger","author":"Gil","date":"September 19, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 287: Audrey Niffenegger \"The success of The Time-Traveler's Wife didn't change me as an artist, it changed me as a person who was able to control her own time.\" In NYC for the Brooklyn Book Festival, author\/artist Audrey Niffenegger joins the show to talk about her work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0811.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0811.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0811.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0811.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0811.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5558,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-august-27-2010","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: August 27, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"August 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long week at work, dear readers, but that won't stop me from bringing you an awesome collection of weird links. Let's start off this week's installment with a bang! * * * Let's go from near-death in a lab to death in a classroom. * * *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2049,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/ya-got-my-vote","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":4},"title":"Ya got MY vote!","author":"Gil","date":"May 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The government of France and Italy are clearly waging a massive buildup . . . of hot chicks! In response to Nicholas Sarkozy's romance and wedding with hottie Carla Bruni, recently-restored-to-power Silvio Berlusconi appointed Mara Cafagna to the obviously BS cabinet post of equal opportunities minister! How do you say,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (implicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (implicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-implicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"I have an equal opportunity for you...","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/mara_carfagna.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11838,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-292-eddie-campbell","url_meta":{"origin":801,"position":5},"title":"Episode 292 – Eddie Campbell","author":"Gil","date":"October 23, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 292: Eddie Campbell \"What if you could be employed just sitting in a pub telling stories? I think that's where it began for me.\" Legendary cartoonist Eddie Campbell joins the show to talk about his first (sorta) prose book, The Goat Getters: Jack Johnson, the Fight of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Alan Moore\"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Moore","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/alan-moore"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0853.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0853.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0853.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0853.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0853.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}