Weekend Listening Post
Sep. 25th, 2023 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricFriends fear they're having another Fleetwood Mac phase, courtesy of the You're Wrong About episode on the making of Rumours. I've managed to obtain a copy of the original Peter Green era "Fleetwood Mac" album, and a best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
Also on the rotation: an album by The Whirling Furphies, and a particular fondness for this one, which is a fave of my partner:
Audio Fiction:
Lara Elena Donnelly, Amberlough. Sort of... 1930s-ish fantasy political thrillier? I'm only partway through, but enjoying Mary Robinette Kowal's narration. I do find I glaze over on the sexy bits: not sure if that's a product of My Temperament At This Time, or that MRK's voice is "voice I associate with cat videos".
Ben Aaronovitch, Winter's Gifts. Despite myself, I really liked this one. Points for the conscious handling of the "vengeful ??native?? spirit" trope, beats the last not-actually-urban fantasy set in the US I read.
Ben Aaronovitch, Amongst Our Weapons - as reviewed in last book post.
Derek Des Anges, A Change of Clothes (Podcastle). Delightful selkie story. A trick was missed in not naming the protagonist Gregory, however.
Monstrous Agonies, a podcast featuring agony aunt type columns for supernatural problems. I particularly enjoyed this episode. The "ad segments" are fun.
The Magnus Archives: Making further sporadic progress with my partner. Particularly delighted in centenary episode, which was a HILARIOUSLY realistic representation of what everyday people giving evidence is like. Apparently they gave a bunch of comedians a spec, rather than a script, and had them improv the four scenarios. DELIGHTFUL.
Non-Fiction Audio:
The History Listen, two episodes, The Buried Tea Chests: in which a stamp collector buys some personal mail belonging to the ancestors of the program's collector, and we all get to find out about the Blau family's migration, internship, bankruptcy, and more.
The History Listen, Finding Fanny Finch: on a London-Born African-descended woman who made a name for herself in the Victorian goldfields.
What the Duck, Purely for pleasure. Did you know snakes have TWO clitorises? Now you do.
You're Gonna Die Out There, The Flannan Isle Mystery: disappearing lighthouse keepers! Also Choose your weapons for octopus defense, which is an overview of cool things about octopuses; and A Bottle of Monkey Butt Powder, which is, depsite the baffling title, about American trapper and trader Hugh Glass and his many, many near-misses with death.
Behind the Bastards, two episodes, Stockton Rush: Inventor of the Deathsub. Just. So many bad choices!
Loremen Pod, various. The Ghostbusting Parsons of Penzance was particularly good. The first part of Spiritualism Down Under was great, not least because it's very rare for a white British person commenting on Australian colonialism/racism to realise that they are as much the descendants of the culprits and beneficiaries of the colonial system as the Australian they're talking to (in this case, comedian Bec Hill).
Knock Knock Hi (the podcast of "Dr Glaucomflecken", the TikTok comedy doctor guy), Hypermobility Problems with Linda S Bluestein.
Sounds Gay (a new-ish podcast on queer music history), Opening episode with Sandy Stone. Sara Esocoff spends a weekend with Sandy, discussing Olivia Records, Sandy's current projects, and her life history at large. Absolute delight.
Jo's Boys, various episodes (currently on my favourite chapter, the one where Amy goes to a ball in Nice). I remain annoyed at some of the clanging wrongesses Peyton, a person who has apparently read Anne of Green Gables, comes out with sometimes. No, white is not primarily a bridal colour at this time! It's VIRGINAL, and has that primary meaning even after it comes into strong fashion for wedding gowns! But I did particularly enjoy the Scrap Bag episode on the LLM short story Enigmas.
Odd Lots, What It Really Takes To Convert An Office Block Into Housing.
Democracy Sausage, Hangovers and Hard Landings, which advertises itself as about the inflation crisis. What I found most interesting was the discussion of the history and methods of the "AnuPoll", a cohort study which aims to follow changes in individual experience and political alignment over time.
Also on the rotation: an album by The Whirling Furphies, and a particular fondness for this one, which is a fave of my partner:
Audio Fiction:
Non-Fiction Audio:
no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 11:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 01:22 pm (UTC)Yes! The interviewee is from a development & consulting company that specialises in this, in NY: they buy & renovate, and in so doing have built up a network of contractors who have the experience for these jobs & so can be hired to consult by people wishing to redevelop an office block or work out if theirs can be sold for such a development.
If I recall correctly the complications sort into two types: Capitalism and Architecture. In the first basket you have zoning & planning laws, investment strategies, speculative markets, and the fact that there’s actually not a surplus of mediocre office space in NY - it might not be worthwhile selling up such a property if you have it.
Architecturally you have: issues of load and structural beams/walls. An open plan office with visible structural beams & scattered poles is fine, but less desirable in housing (mind you I had an apartment with a random pole. I put tinsel on it). Worse, the structural walls can’t be knocked down.
This leads to two further problems: office buildings built AFTER the widespread introduction of air conditioning don’t chunk down into apartments easily because there’s not enough lightflow. Older office buildings tend to have smaller spaces and better depth for apartments, but are more likely to have inconvenient structural walls.
Apparently fixing these, and the kind of problems that come up mid-renovation, is pretty different to fixing the common problems of, say, subdividing a big house, so there’s also the knowledge gap: not many people know which office blocks will convert well, so it isn’t an efficient/secure use of time and skill in many cases. Especially if your alternatives include knocking down and starting from scratch, or redeveloping existing residential. (And we’re back to the capitalism problems.)
no subject
Date: 2023-09-25 08:43 pm (UTC)