roastebeefe

Design

A lot of proverbial ink has been spilled suggesting that the success of the Mona Lisa is her mysterious expression. While that's true, an additional idea occurred to me that I'd like to share.

The virgin & child motif is one of the most compelling and ubiquitous pieces of art. I believe this is not just due to its religious value, but its universal biological appeal: the simple theme of mother and child.

The Mona Lisa, I feel, is a sort of virgin without the child. In terms of composition, it's strikingly similar to depictions of Mary. Yes, secular portraits of everyday people had already existed since antiquity. But they weren't that common (yet) in the Renaissance. In fact, they wouldn't become so common until the Dutch painters in Protestant low countries made them so.

So here we have a woman, looking very much in the style of your typical virgin painting, without the child. It's instantly mysterious and intriguing. Where is the child? Something is missing from the picture...we can feel it. It's a sort of bareness that gives the viewer pause and adds to the air of mystery.

What do you think?


What makes the Mona Lisa so appealing? A new idea...

Recently watched a walkthrough of Disney Hollywood Studios on YouTube. Absolutely fascinated by the design and layout of this park. The entryway is essentially the same composition as Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom, only with a Los Angeles Art Deco decor instead of the 1890s Victorian facades of small town America. The focal point of the axis is a replica of Grauman’s Chinese Theater instead of the Cinderella Castle, suggesting that the central theme of the park is the magic of the Silver Screen. Overall struck me as an engaging “remix” of the Disney theme park layout—eg a Main Street and focal point in the distance. Suggest watching a walkthrough yourself if you love Disney design and art deco. 

Disneyworld Hollywood Studios

I’ve noticed that abstract art is the go-to style for most home decorating. This is the style I see most often advertised by Instagram artists, and much (if not most) of what I see sold in home decor stores. 

It’s not my favorite style and I think it has much less artistic merit than more realistic styles of art. No offense to such artists—I just feel that it takes considerably less skill to paint a canvas into a fading gradient and then splash contrasting colors on it, than it does to paint a human figure or a detailed landscape, which demands a command of anatomy, detail, depth perception, perspective, lighting, shading, coloration, etc.

My simple theory is just that the average person is already so bombarded by the white noise of their smart devices—social media, email, notifications—that they’re brains no longer find pleasure in anything other than simplicity.

Much easier to stare at a canvas of shapes and colors than a baroque ceiling stuffed with clouds and angels. The solace of simplicity in a world of overstimulation is a driving force behind the market demand for abstract art.

Just my opinion—I know some people actually prefer abstraction. 

Prevalence of abstract art in home decor

alter_native

Reasons for low fertility rates and the wokeism cancer

Shugard

Feminism is the greatest societal cancer to rock the Western world. Feminism is just Marxism for your home. Whereas Marxism is typically rejected by the average “working bloke” feminism has crept in through the back door.

Politics_And_Law

I don't really care to dance on eggshells. I don't care if you think Trump is "literally Hitler" or the Orange Messiah. If you're going to get triggered toward the first appellation, you'll only be confirming my point. The presentation around Trump (whatever you think of him) by the MSM has created tangible harmful effects on people's health.

Most of this presentation has been hyperbolic and deceptive, but I'm not here to spill ink on that. He's not a Russian asset, he's not Hitler, he's not going to deport the Muslims, he's not building concentration camps to exterminate the gays.

What have you guys seen among your own immediate social circle? We have family chats where people are super depressed. They're deeply distraught that Trump is going to "erase women" and take away their right to have an ectopic pregnancy aborted. Because, you know, Trump once raped a 13 year old (lawsuit dropped in 2016) and has threatened to BAN ABORTION EVERYWHERE!

I've seen some sad stories about people threatening to kill themselves or actually doing it. So here's the deal...if a food product killed even one person, they'd yank it off the shelves. If a medication created harmful side effects in a significant number of people, there'd be a class action lawsuit.

People are depressed and even suicidal over Trump, which is to say, over nothing really. The few times I've turned on the MSM I can see why. It's just become pure, mindless brainwashing of repeating the ORANGE MAN BAD, ORANGE MAN SUPER BAD, ORANGE MAN HITLER trope. The panic and distress around Trump is (in my opinion) 100% manufactured by our mainstream media.

This has created some tangible mental health issues. I think there needs to be a massive class action lawsuit against the MSM over their deceptive and weaponized presentation of Trump. 



Massive Class Action Lawsuit against MSM Needed

I'm just going to come out and ask the question we're all asking (I'm kind of joking here, but I certainly find this trend annoying). What's up with fast food restaurants revamping their facades and interiors to look more "contemporary" and marginally upscale? Who are they trying to fool?

We all know the food and the building materials are the same stuff, even if it looks like Panera or Starbucks. This style simply screams "wifi inside, bring a laptop!" Is there going to be some crackhead in the corner, using his gov-funded Chromebook to browse YouTube while chowing down on a McFish?

Sorry if this comes across as a bit harsh, but the aesthetic is weird. I understand that businesses need to revamp their image after a while, but woodgrain laminate, steel-frame windows, and monochrome color palettes don't seem to be the right fit.



Fast Food Chain Revamp RANT

Amazing New AI Workflow for Blogs

thank you, I hope you did not find it spammy though. 

Hello. I'm like 10% joking but 90% serious. Drop a contact. Thanks!

Sorry for the click-baiting nature of the title, but I do find it genuinely amazing. For a while I'd given up on the internet guru gospel of build it and they will come. But the AI thing has really changed things. Here is a fascinating workflow I've finally stumbled upon myself (I'm sure others have realized this already) using Google Gemini, GoDaddy, Cavna, and Facebook.

First things first, there probably should be some genuine interest in what you're blogging about. For me, that's travel and culture. I started a blog on GoDaddy for $18 per month, not bad, not bad. Simple layout, not a lot of backend UX experience needed. Check.

Next I go to Google Gemini. I try to create content webs, but let's get into that later. I recommend "news (hi)jacking" popular, trending, or seasonal topics. Some people like to use Google Trends for this. But I find that seasonals are a bit easier to sustain through dozens or hundreds of posts. For instance, last month it was (drumroll please) October, so I with Halloween coming up, I did a whole "haunted" series.

Gemini, can you write a listicle about 7 haunted places in San Antonio? Cleveland? Los Angeles? New York? You get the idea. I did all major metro areas in the US, and then moved on to states. Back to that content "web" idea. With listicles about states, you can insert hyperlinks to specific cities within the article. This internal linking sends out strong pheromones to Google, or so they say.

I like to stick to 7 places, since that's a good attention-holding number. Beyond that, too much. They say odd numbers get more clicks, so whatever. Each paragraph shouldn't be more than 3-5 sentences. These are light articles. Punctuating them with pics is better, but that's extra work. 

Now on to the image. This is SUPER important. Any old visual will NOT DO. They need to be compelling. For this, I used Canva. Think of those stupid YouTube videos you keep clicking on. Basic formula: background picture, BIG TEXT, and some dude or woman with an expression of shock and surprise. IS CLEVELAND HAUNTED? in glowing red letters, with a dark picture of the city behind a screaming woman, and a creepy ass clown poking his head in from the edge of the frame. Damn, I want to click on that.

Next I post the article on Facebook. I hate Facebook and mainly use it to post inflammatory posts that I know will upset my friends on there. But that aside, I post the blog here because FB is super great at pushing content to users through hashtags. You can use 30 hashtags, so use them all. #halloween, #halloweennails, #halloweencostume, #pumpkinspice, #october, are some of the seasonal tags I use to draw in in white women (please, I'm only partially joking), and then I use "evergreen" tags like #travel as well. Then there are local tags like the state and city or perhaps sports team. Some offbeat or cultural tags might include #foodie, which I strangely found to be "fire" as the kids say.

So to summarize, you've got (1) themed/seasonal (2) evergreen and (3) local hashtags to push your content out. If you're using a builder like GoDaddy, FB shows your blog image as part of the post, which is where the Money is AT. This is why you need to make the blog image super click-baity.

And that's really all there is to it. I firmly believe if you sat there and did this all day, you could get dozens or hundreds of people to your blog page PER DAY. I know this because whereas before I was getting like maybe 10 clicks per month, I'm now getting between 10-30 per day from just 3-5 posts. If I were to rinse and repeat, which I don't have time to do, I'm sure I could get 10,000 viewers per month, easily.

You'll see similar workflows advertised by self-proclaimed gurus for youtube (e.g. go to Google Trends, generate a video with invidio.ai, make a cool image, upload, etc.). There are some "missing pieces" they'll charge you $10K for, but I truly believe one of them is one they don't want to advertise, which is just volume.

Thanks for reading, if you're trying to monetize a site or have a legit business you're trying to get traffic to, I firmly believe this AI-assisted workflow can help. Before AI, this would have taken more manpower hours than most people could afford or put into it.

I'm here to gush about Caesar's Palace Atlantic City. As someone interested in architectural design, this is one of the most fascinating properties I've come across. What makes it so interesting is that the property expanded in several stages, so while they've made obvious attempts to keep the theme cohesive, you can clearly see the historical growth of the hotel (not something you could see in a resort that was one-and-done and never expanded).

The first phase of the hotel was (I believe) a Howard Johnson. Probably a "typical" beach hotel with a courtyard and pool. I can't prove that from any old photographs (I've searched) but you can tell from the current configuration of the lobby, which is surrounded by rooms that look down into the lobby floor (e.g. once upon a time they would have faced an inner courtyard). Caesars must've eventually roofed over the courtyard, making an interior space for the Roman-forum-like interior you see today. THIS squat low-rise tower is the "original" structure, and you can still see it if you get a room that's eye-level with what they now call the Forum Tower. 

Fascinating, I know. Anyway, the next phase was a sort of brutalist glass highrise (Ocean Tower). Then they expanded across the street and built a secondary, Wild-West-themed casino. On top of this casino is a tower with a neoclassical facade (that Roman look).

The Wild West casino is pretty dope, btw. There used to be a great slot parlor surrounded by old-time facades, like a sort of Main Street USA (a la Disney) for vagrant crackheads to wander in and try their luck at the slots. Well, they closed most of it off for some sort of burlesque dinner show. Luckily, the huge room next door is still standing, with a bar featuring a model train, the sportsbook, and a dope-ass AMAZING mural depicting the Wild West which I honestly feel should get some sort of historical site protection. Behind the sports book there used to be some poker room spaces (eg for cash games and tourneys).

I talked to a security guard and he said the word is they can't get any dealers, so it's basically been gone for years. But damn, that was one of the most magnificent poker rooms I've ever seen. It was a Wild West saloon inside a larger "street" of old Western buildings. Helpful hint, don't walk out the exit to explore the faux rocks, because you'll be locked out.

Anyhoo.

So basically, you've got a sort of collage of three time periods showing evidence of the hotel's expanding footprint. A lot of the properties have the same story, like Bally's next door and the Tropicana. Interesting thing about Bally's is that they incorporated one of the oldest Atlantic City hotels into the property. There's a magnificent room on the mezzanine level with huge pictures of Atlantic City "back in the days" of Boardwalk Empire.

Used to really confuse me because the facade of that old hotel fits in completely with the Wild West facade of Caesar's expansion casino. For years I thought Bally's owned the Wild West casino and Caeasar's just had one of its towers on top, which would be pretty odd (even though they used to own Bally's brand as well). 

Probably not even remotely interesting to the average vacationer but it's fascinating to me. I was pretty stoked last time I stayed at Caesars's and was at eye level with the "original" hotel, which is pretty hard to see from most of the rooms. Incidentally, I think a lot of successful casino properties go through the same growth stages, resulting in a sort of collage of different buildings. 

So ya'll, any interesting thoughts on Atlantic City architecture?

Caesar's Palace Atlantic City Architectural RANT/RAVE

The Old Las Vegas

I agree, but I think the demand is low. The "average" gambler is expecting the contemporary look of your local (Indian Tribe) casino, which, now looks the same as the ones in Vegas. One surprise bucking the trend is Caeasar's replacing Harrah's New Orleans with a Caesar's property, Roman-themed and all. But I don't see anyone going back to the days of Old Vegas.

@b88f4b4056's bio

Am I the only one watching YouTube videos of people walking through casinos with a selfie stick? Anyway, recently enjoyed some YouTube tours of the older properties in Vegas, particularly downtown, with a few on the strip (actually, just one, Casino Royal, as they tore down O'Sheas recently and replaced it with a gentrified version and also turned the Barbary Coast into a bro/beta destination). 

They don't make 'em like these anymore. Low ceilings, jam-packed with slot machines, none of those wide aisles. Celebrity chef restaurants? No thank you, we'll do with Pizza Hut and Hot Dog on a Stick.

Anyway, the casinos downtown are particularly interesting to me. Their exteriors have that flashing neon-bulb look that's entirely disappeared from Vegas since themed hotels like the Mirage became the norm (don't get me started on the soulless, boring contemporary aesthetic that's popular today).

The interiors have that low-ceiling, slot-stuffed feel, but with a touch of the old west. You know, wood paneling, chandeliers that look like gas lamps in a saloon. This aesthetic combination (flashy vegas neon exterior and Old West interior) is f*ckign awesome and I hope it never goes away. Of course, it probably will, as all good things come to an end. 

Queue comment thread reminiscing about the good old days of Binions, Four Queens, and stuff like the $1 shrimp cocktail (long since gone from Gold Gate, relocated to Circa).

Hi everyone, I'm here to stack (hopefully). Personal interests include the weird fiction / cosmic horror of HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and August Derleth. Also a big fan of Star Trek (particularly Voyager). Not sure what else to say here, so I'll just bow out with some farting noises. 