#Office Space for Rent St Louis

[svninfinity]

SVN infinity is the leading Commercial Real Estate Firm St. Louis. SVN infinity St. Louis mo, we share the best property listings on our website with complete detail of location and price. Visit our website now.   

[commercial-brokerage]

Unlocking Lucrative Opportunities: Office Space for Rent in St. Louis and Commercial Sale-Leaseback Investment Properties

In today's fast-paced business world, finding the perfect office space for your growing enterprise can be a daunting task. However, the vibrant city of St. Louis offers a range of exceptional opportunities for businesses seeking office space for rent. Additionally, the commercial real estate market has witnessed the emergence of a lucrative investment strategy known as commercial sale-leaseback. In this blog post, we will explore the advantages of office space for rent in St. Louis and delve into the potential benefits of commercial sale leaseback investment properties.

Office Space for Rent in St. Louis:

St. Louis, known for its rich history, iconic landmarks, and thriving business environment, has become a hotspot for companies seeking prime office spaces. Whether you are a startup, a small business, or an established corporation, St. Louis offers a diverse range of office spaces to meet your unique needs. From modern high-rise buildings in downtown to renovated warehouses in trendy neighborhoods, there is a perfect office space waiting for you in St. Louis.

Why choose St. Louis for office space rental?

Strategic Location: St. Louis boasts a central location within the United States, making it easily accessible to clients and partners across the country.

Thriving Business Community: St. Louis is home to a dynamic business community with a diverse range of industries, fostering collaboration and growth opportunities.

Affordable Rental Rates: Compared to other major cities, office space for rent in St. Louis offers competitive pricing, allowing businesses to allocate their budgets effectively.

Cultural Attractions and Amenities: St. Louis offers an exceptional quality of life with a vibrant arts scene, world-class dining options, and an array of recreational activities.

Commercial Sale-Leaseback Investment Properties:

Commercial sale-leaseback is an investment strategy that has gained popularity among savvy investors. It involves a business owner selling their property to an investor and then leasing it back for a predetermined period. This arrangement provides numerous advantages for both parties involved.

Benefits of commercial sale-leaseback investment properties:

Unlock Capital: By selling the property and leasing it back, businesses can free up capital that was previously tied up in real estate. This capital infusion can be utilized for expansion, operational expenses, or other strategic initiatives.

Long-Term Stability: For investors, commercial sale-leaseback properties offer a stable income stream with a reliable tenant. Lease terms are typically long, ensuring consistent cash flow over an extended period.

Tax Advantages: This investment strategy can provide tax benefits for both the business owner and the investor, such as depreciation deductions and potential capital gains tax deferral.

Conclusion:

St. Louis provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses seeking office space for rent, with its strategic location, thriving business community, and competitive rental rates. Additionally, the commercial sale-leaseback investment strategy offers a compelling option for investors and business owners alike, unlocking capital and providing long-term stability. Whether you are searching for the ideal office space or considering investment opportunities, exploring St. Louis and commercial sale-leaseback properties can lead you to lucrative prospects in today's ever-evolving business landscape.

[sirfrogsworth]

Looking Forward

If I trust my brother... and he did my dad's will properly... and set up my trust correctly... then I should be able to stay in the house for roughly 2 years.

If I trust my brother.

Then I can either sell the house and use that money for a small apartment or try to find a roommate situation to help me stay in the house a little longer. The nice thing about paying the mortgage is I can get most of that money back if I ever do sell the house. It's almost like a savings account with all my stuff inside.

Let's just hope the property value doesn't plummet for some reason. Though it has been around the same amount for many years.

I like living in my house. It's what I've known for 30 years. But being alone in the house is going to be a hard adjustment. After two years (or sooner) I may want to move near Katrina or Delling so I am closer to a support system. I wish we could all live next door to each other. Or live on a farm/ranch situation. And instead of chickens it is just a bunch of free range corgis.

I tried convincing Katrina to build a pool house, but she has a small backyard and no pool. HOWEVER... Apparently Florida has a lot of "mother-in-law suites." I had no idea that had a name, but I could be Katrina's mother-in-law. I have the skill set to guilt trip, make passive-aggressive comments, and judge how she raises her future kids. (And any other outdated stereotypes I've learned from 80s comedians.)

But I also like the idea of having a roommate. I could accommodate a single person or a small family. And I'd love to have an animal of some kind around. We have a huge fenced-in area left over from Otis.

I think I could offer someone a pretty sweet living situation. I have a full basement apartment that I reside in and so the entire upstairs is available for people to live in. I could charge cheaper rent than a cheap apartment in exchange for helping with chores that I struggle to do.

There is plenty of furniture and appliances ready to use. Full laundry room. I've got a really nice home theater in the living room so they can watch movies in style. I also have a few hundred TV series and several thousand movies on Plex. They get a full kitchen and bathroom to themselves. Plenty of garage space and a long driveway to park vehicles. They can have up to 5 rooms to do whatever in. They could do 3 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a small den area. My mom liked the den because she could watch her Judge Judy shows while my dad watched JAG in the living room.

If they don't have a family, they could convert 2 of the bedrooms into office space or craft rooms or S&M dungeons. They can decorate any way they'd like. But they have to keep the sex swing clean so I can use it. Not for sex--I just enjoy centripetal forces. And they'll have great privacy as I will be in the downstairs apartment. They'd only see me if I exit the house or if they invite me to dinner or movie night.

All they would have to pay is whatever I can't cover. I'd estimate in the $600-$800 range once the trust fund runs out. Plus the chores like cleaning and yard duty. That's a good deal, right?

The only downside is the house is in a deteriorating neighborhood. Businesses are closing and people are moving away. Our street is pretty isolated so there isn't much danger or crime. But we are adjacent to a dangerous neighborhood and the schools aren't great. That said, while there isn't much around here, in St. Louis you are always ~25 minutes from anything you need. The highway is literally down the street so driving to anywhere is fairly hassle free.

Also, I'd be happy to lend out the car for transport to a job. I'll only need it to get groceries every few weeks. They'd have to get added to my insurance and help with gas and maintenance.

Soooo... yeah, I think I have a lot to offer with my house.

They do have to be okay with my big subwoofer rattling things. The sound doesn't really travel through the floor, but the vibrations can. I can tone it down if they are sleeping though.

Oh! We also have a huge workshop on the property too. It could be used for working on cars or woodworking or an art space. It has electricity, lighting, heating and is perfect for anything that requires getting dirty. If that makes sense.

One idea I have been considering is seeking out an unhoused queer individual who was kicked out or is struggling to afford a decent place. If their parents don't want them, maybe I could provide a safe place. Things are so scary for LGBTQ+ folks right now. Especially in Missouri. St. Louis is a pretty blue city, but Missouri is a blood red state. If I could do something small for someone like that, I would be happy to help. Could be mutually beneficial.

So those are all of my thoughts and ideas as of now.

Again, if I trust my brother, I should have a decent amount of time to figure things out.

If things go sideways, I might be screwed.

So far he seems to be doing all the things he should be doing to get me sorted.

I'm going to choose to trust him.

With my life.

Oof.

[beardedmrbean]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans City Council voted Thursday to change the locks on a coveted city-owned apartment in its latest dispute with Mayor LaToya Cantrell, whose use of the French Quarter property drew scrutiny and figured in a failed recall effort.

The newly flaring dispute centers on one of 50 units in the 19th-century building known as the Upper Pontalba. It's steps away from the Mississippi River and, along with St. Louis Cathedral, is among five historic structures bordering the green space known as Jackson Square.

Previous mayors have said they had used the apartment for meetings, special events or to house visiting dignitaries. Cantrell came under criticism for her personal use of the unit after a series of reports by WVUE-TV that used public surveillance video to document her long hours there, including time with her police bodyguard and an overnight stay with guests during the summer Essence Festival.

Her use of the apartment and her billing the city for first-class airfare on official trips abroad — both defended as proper by Cantrell — were among complaints by backers of an unsuccessful 2022 recall effort against the mayor, who was reelected in November 2021 and cannot seek a third consecutive term.

Last August, the council overrode Cantrell's veto of a measure putting the apartment back into commerce with other Pontalba units that are available for rent. That followed a March 2023 finding from the city’s inspector general, who said in a letter to the mayor that her use of the apartment may violate the state constitution’s restrictions on the donation of public property and city code language governing her salary.

Council President J.P. Morrell said in a Feb. 28 letter to the mayor that “furniture and other personal effects” remained in the unit. “It is also my understanding that you and members of your executive protection detail possess the only keys to the unit,” Morrell wrote.

In a statement issued early Wednesday, Cantrell's office said the French Market Corporation, the nonprofit in charge of the building, had keys to enter the unit. It didn't say whether the mayor had given up her keys. The statement said Cantrell is not using the unit and that there have been no impediments to the corporation's access to the unit since last year's ordinance was passed.

“We hope that any reasonable person would recognize that initiating an eviction process is unreasonable when there is no tenant to evict,” the statement said.

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment following Thursday's 5-2 council vote. In addition to calling for the French Market Corporation to change the locks, the measure calls for any personal items to be removed by March 21.

“To date,” Morrell told the council Thursday, “whether by inactivity or willfulness, the mayor has refused to comply with the law.”

[gallery874]

Creating a Haven for Wellness: The Rise of Massage Therapist Spaces for Rent in St. Louis

In the heart of St. Louis, a new trend is emerging in the world of wellness and self-care: massage therapist spaces for rent. This concept is revolutionizing the way massage therapists operate, providing them with unique opportunities to grow their practices in a supportive and flexible environment.

Gone are the days when massage therapists were bound to either working in a spa or setting up their own costly practice. St. Louis's rental spaces cater specifically to massage therapists, offering them fully-equipped rooms on a rental basis. This approach not only reduces the financial strain of owning a full-scale facility but also allows therapists to focus solely on their clients' needs.

These spaces often come with essential amenities such as massage tables, relaxing music systems, and serene decor, creating an ideal environment for therapy. Moreover, they offer flexibility in terms of hours and days, enabling therapists to work according to their schedules and client demands. This is particularly beneficial for independent practitioners looking to build a client base without the overhead of traditional office spaces.

St. Louis, known for its vibrant community and emphasis on health and wellness, is an ideal location for this burgeoning business model. The city's diverse population provides a steady stream of clients, from professionals seeking stress relief to athletes in need of muscle recovery.

Moreover, these rental spaces foster a community of like-minded professionals. Therapists can network, share knowledge, and refer clients within this community, enhancing their professional growth. This collaborative environment contributes to a higher standard of care and service for clients.

In conclusion, Massage Therapist Space for Rent St Louis are not just a trend but a significant shift in the wellness industry. They offer a unique blend of flexibility, affordability, and community, making them an attractive option for therapists and a boon for clients seeking quality care. As this model continues to grow, it paves the way for a more accessible and diverse wellness landscape in St. Louis and beyond.

[helmetagenda87-blog]

Wood China and taiwan Cabinet With Glass Doors

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[collapsedsquid]

Paradigm was the brainchild of James Park, a son-in-law of the billionaire Sun Myung Moon, who claimed to be the messiah and founded the Unification movement, a religious group often accused of being a cult and whose members are known as Moonies. Started by Park in 1989, Paradigm was an early entrant in the hedge fund industry and among the first funds of funds — that is, a hedge fund that invested in other hedge funds.

The Biden involvement began in January 2006. James Biden called Anthony Lotito, a New York financial adviser, and said his older brother, Joe, wanted his son Hunter to find a job outside of lobbying to avoid damaging his planned campaign for the presidency, according to a complaint Lotito later filed in a New York court, after his relationship with James and Hunter soured.

In a court filing of their own, James and Hunter denied that such a call took place as described, but it is undisputed that Lotito, James and Hunter were soon exploring a purchase of Paradigm together.

According to court filings, James Biden and Lotito had been introduced years earlier by Tom Scotto, a former president of New York’s Detectives' Endowment Association, a union, around 2002. A year before, Scotto had been named an unindicted co-conspirator by federal prosecutors in an organized crime scheme — described at the time as the largest securities fraud bust in U.S. history — to bribe union leaders in order to access union pension funds. Scotto, who denied wrongdoing at the time, declined to comment on his relationship with James Biden and Lotito.

After their introduction, a firm owned by Lotito, Globex Financial Advisors, began doing business with one owned by James, Lion Hall Group. Lotito and Biden later co-founded a company called Americore International Security, a private security firm, according to court filings. Not much is known about Americore, though James Biden said in court filings that the business was not successful.

Lotito did not respond to requests for comment.

By 2006, Lotito, James and Hunter were eyeing a purchase of Paradigm.

James and Hunter brought in Larry Rasky, a lobbyist and longtime Biden adviser, who at one point, according to court records, was going to provide $1 million in financing. Rasky did not respond to a request for comment. They also obtained $1 million in financing from SimmonsCooper, a St. Louis-area law firm with a thriving practice representing asbestos victims. Partners in the firm had befriended the Biden sons, steering business to Beau’s Delaware law firm and donations to Biden’s campaign coffers. SimmonsCooper’s interests aligned with Joe Biden’s views. He was a prominent opponent of the creation of an asbestos trust fund, a measure that would have curtailed lawsuits related to the cancer-causing fibers.

Things quickly got messy. The prospective purchasers discovered that because of an accounting trick, the fund had only a fraction of the $1.5 billion in assets under management that it claimed, according to court filings.

[...]

As Election Day neared, the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there was a run on money market accounts, the Fed bailed out AIG, and some of the country’s largest financial institutions teetered on the brink of collapse. On September 29, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 777 points, then the largest single-day drop in history.

Dennis Tang, now an undergraduate instructor at Columbia University, was interning at Paradigm that summer. He described a business that was oddly quiet, saying its offices were a “ghost town” that summer, including on the September day Lehman Brothers collapsed. “It was just empty desks and empty Bloomberg terminals," Tang said.

Paradigm was still running and would soon attract attention for its associations with several criminal frauds.

In September 2008, with the financial system melting, an executive at Paradigm registered “Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund” with the SEC. The fund of hedge funds represented a partnership with the firm run by Allen Stanford.

In February 2009, less than a month after Joe Biden was sworn in as vice president and Hunter served as honorary co-chairman of the inaugural committee, Stanford was charged with a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, one of the largest in U.S. history. Paradigm was not accused of participating in the scheme. At the time, a spokesman for Paradigm told The Wall Street Journal that it had terminated its relationship with Stanford and offered to turn over the money it received from him to a court-appointed receiver.

Paradigm had also rented space to Francesco Rusciano, whose Ponta Negra fund shared both an office and a phone number with Paradigm. In April 2009, the SEC accused Rusciano of a multimillion-dollar fraud. He got a year in prison. There is no evidence Paradigm participated in the scheme.

[...]

There were also allegations that James and Hunter’s proximity to political power allowed them to mistreat business partners.

In his suit against Hunter and James, Lotito alleged they invoked their political connections in their dispute with Fasciana, the lawyer who was later jailed. “The Bidens refused to pay the bill, repeatedly citing their political connections and family status as a basis for disclaiming the obligation,” Lotito claimed in his complaint. “The Bidens threatened to use their alleged connections with a former United States Senator to retaliate against counsel for insisting that his bill be paid, claiming that the former senator was prepared to use his influence with a federal judge to disadvantage counsel in a proceeding then pending before that court.” James and Hunter denied those allegations.

A month after Joe Biden was elected vice president, the Justice Department seized the building that housed Paradigm’s offices, 650 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y., alleging that it was secretly owned by the same Iranian bank that was financing the nation’s nuclear program. In 2017, the U.S. won a case that granted it the power to sell the building and use the proceeds to benefit terrorism victims.

According to one of the former Paradigm executives, many of the fund’s staffers were members of the Unification Church who received roughly 30 percent of prevailing market salaries because they considered working for Park, with his proximity to the late Rev. Moon, to be compensation in itself.

This is from a piece that was published August 2 of this year.

[customtruckbuilders2-blog]

food truck manufacturing

Inside our busy lives most of us don't obtain the time and energy to cook at home. Picking right up meals on the way to office or on the way back home is an easy way out. However, takeaways at big restaurants pinch the pocket and roadside junk food requires a toll on one's health.

Food trucks certainly are a great solution for anyone who don't understand how to cook, who hate cooking, and those people who have no time for it!

Basically, these food truck manufacturers in los angeles are mobile kitchens. While a few of these have arrangements for cooking, others may sell pre-packaged food or frozen items, such as ice creams. Those with in-built kitchens, cook from scratch, which includes chopping, preparing, cooking, and serving. Junk food trucks selling burgers, sandwiches, French fries, and other things are hot-favourites. However, owners of these mobile restaurants are tinkering with other cuisines too.

This concept is popular in parts of the world. People now pre-book these vehicles to cater to various events, such as, carnivals, parties, sporting events, and more. They are common in offices and college campuses too.

Starting a Food Truck Business:

It could sound easy to create this business, but, like every other venture, it takes planning, as well as special skills.

First, a licence from the concerned department must be procured. Different cities have different regulations. One would require certificates from the department, a permit from the trade authorities to get this done business, consent to operate a vehicle the commercial truck, and check the parking restrictions. The second step is to determine what one wishes to sell and wouldn't it require cooking onboard. The purchase of the vehicle would depend on this. Many leading automobile manufacturers are producing these trucks. The entrepreneur needs to help make the choice based on his requirement and budget.

Financial institutions will give loans with this venture. People who wish to apply for a loan may develop a financing plan.

The next step would be to buy food truck manufacturing, accept rent an exclusive parking space, get attached to suppliers, and find a consumer database. Marketing is an important aspect of this business. There will be many takers with this concept; one just must reach out to the goal audience.

There is a range of big names in this industry. The notable ones include Chef Jeremiah in Miami, Florida, Big Gay Ice Cream Truck in New York City, Devilicious Food Truck in San Diego, California, Chi'Lantro BBQ in Texas, Sarah's Cake Stop in St. Louis, Missouri, and Clover Food Lab in Boston, Massachusetts.

[alicescripts]

Part 3, Chapter 7: “Speakers”

Keisha: In St Louis, across the street from a lunar-themed hotel with a rotating artificial moon on its roof, there is the remains of a fast food drive-through. I dunno how long it’s abandoned, but long enough that someone – the owner or the city or some street artist or who knows – covered all the windows in a stained glass patterned wrap. So you have this little church of an old fast food joint. It’s beautiful and odd. Alice and I happened by it, and for fun we hopped the fence an walked the drive-through.

Alice: The whole system is still there, though it’s missing a menu and a lot of its parts. The speaker still stands crooked, leaning into where cars full of the hungry and stoned once passed.

We stand there a moment and I dare to kiss her, and she dares to let me. It’s been better between us. We went through the drama of defeat and now we have the drive of a mission, and both have started to patch over the wounds of our past.

And just as we kiss, the speaker of this long dead drive-through crackles to life and we hear muffled voices and joyful laughter through layers and layers of static. It sounds like a message from the dead or from another world.

“This place is empty, right?” I say as the speaker burbles away at us. “I’m starting to think nowhere is actually empty,” she says.

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink. Performed by Jasika Nicole and Erica Livingston. Produced by Disparition. Part 3, Chapter 7: “Speakers”.

Keisha: We had decided to organize. It is an overwhelming goal to organize a country, but it starts with the people around you. And so we reached out where we could. To the network of safe houses and anarchist groups that Sylvia had connected us to, if we needed to reach out to her.

We let it be known that if anyone had experiences which left them with the feeling there was something seriously wrong with this place, had encountered monsters or strange phenomena on the highways or on the quiet streets of their towns. They were to meet us. We set a date, a month from then, in a park in upstate New York. Near where I had last seen Sylvia.

Maybe I hoped it would make it more likely than Sylvia would join. But I didn’t let myself consciously think that. Instead, we tried to show up with no expectations at all. Just whatever came of it was what we had to work with, and we would start there.

There were bout 30 people. Most were fairly local, but some had driven across the country to be there. Among the crowd, I noticed the woman from the front desk of the Duchess County sheriff’s office in Poughkeepsie, the one who had slipped Sylvia and I a tape showing what really happened the night Sylvia’s mother had died. I smiled at her and she smiled too and then looked away.

There was a general sense that we were all embarrassed to be there. That nothing we were doing here could lead to any higher process. This wasn’t an army gathering, but children dressing in their parents’ clothes.

The last person to arrive was a short man in a baseball cap with a confident walk. He gave us both firm handshakes. “Hi, I’m Tanya,” he said. “We spoke once. I passed on a message from Sylvia. I have to tell you, it’s about fucking time someone did this. I’m real excited. I am real excited.” And for the first time, I allowed myself to be excited too.

Sylvia never showed.

Alice: At a fried fish place near Baton Rouge, we get to talking to a table of folks. Dyed hair, weird clothes, they stood out as much on the road as we did. It was a touring theater group. They told us that they liked to tour to the south, because in the little towns, the people that need their performances really need them. They told us that it’s good, as an artist, to be useful to people in some practical concrete way. Otherwise, what’s the point of art?

Keisha: We told them about the drive-through in StLouis and they got real quiet. “So you came across one of the speakers.” The person who spoke was tall, had said their name was (Lian) and then hadn’t said much else. “The speakers?” I said. “Some of those old fast food drive-throughs that have been out of business for a while,” said another one. “If they leave the speaker system there,” said (Lian), “the word is that it sometimes connects with other worlds.” “Aliens,” said Alice, with a degree of skepticism that frankly, I didn’t think our personal experience over the last few years gave us license to hold. “No, not that kind of other word,” said (Lian), “more like Stephen King. You know, The Dark Tower? There are other worlds than these. Those speakers transmit from other versions of our world.” “Or that’s what they say,” said one of the others, trying to laugh through the long hair over her face, but not making it convincing. “We heard it once,” said “(Lian). “We were parked by an abandoned Burger King eating some sandwiches and the speakers switched on. I got close, I listened.” “What did you hear?” I said. (Lian) bit their lip, shook their head. Soon after, the group politely said goodbye. “Well,” said Alice. “Man, this isn’t even close to the weirdest thing,” I said back.

Alice: As Keisha drove, I asked her a question that maybe had been living in both of our heads during this time. Were the Oracles even really on our side? What were their intentions? And if they were helping us, why? Keisha gave the only answer she could, which was that she didn’t know. We couldn’t know. We could only believe. And belief is an uncomfortable function, no matter how natural it may be to the human mind.

And yet I do. I believe in the Oracles. I believe that they are good. I could always be wrong.

Keisha: We were west to Lubbock when I saw the Taco Bell with the missing letters from its sign. Clearly not having served as an actual purveyor of food for quite some time. I glanced over at Alice and she nodded, and I was already turning toward the exist.

We pulled into the lot. There were no fences, just a sign in the vacant windows letting us know we could rent 1,500 square feet of restaurant space, and to call a number that had been completely scribbled over with sharpie. We walked over to the drive-through system and sat on the curb. I don’t know what we were waiting for exactly, but we waited.

Alice: And a few minutes later, we heard the soft purr of static, a signal springing to life. As one, we rose and leaned into the old mesh of the speaker, set into its little kiosk under a 90’s era bell design. For a moment, there was a scramble of voices amid the static. And then, as we moved closer, it seemed to react to our bodies and became sharper, until I heard a definable voice and I threw my hands to my mouth. Because it was my own voice.

“You wanna do pizza night tonight?” I asked from the speaker. “Sure, let’s make a shopping list.” Now it was Keisha’s voice. We met eyes, didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

Keisha: It was a conversation. A domestic conversation, like we had had so many times. But there were certain references. Mentions of what was happening on the news, it was all more or less what was currently happening right then.

And I realized, we were hearing an us in which Alice never left. In which I never had go to looking for her, in which Thistle never entered our lives.

We were hearing an us that had never gone through any of what we had gone through, and we could listen in, from this grass-studded curb off a North Texas highway.

Alice: On our third meeting, the crowd had more than doubled. We had never advertised openly past our first meeting, instead asking people to reach out to people they knew. In this way, we had grown quickly. This meeting was in the parking lot of a mostly out of business mall in the upper Midwest. Straggles tricked in over the course of an hour and we let them. Because people were mostly coming in from long distances now.

Keisha: Still no Sylvia, but occasionally I would recognize a face. One really had me wondering for a while until I put my finger on it. The cashier at the Easy Stop in Swansea, South Carolina, when Sylvia and I had come through looking for the police officer who said he would help her.

The cashier had clearly seen some aspect of Thistle, and it had affected him deeply. I greeted him and he murmured: “You asked me if I wanted to live in a world where what I saw was possible, and I thought a long time about that. And I don’t. I don’t.” He nodded, more amen than agreement, and faded back into the crowd.

Another face I knew: Laurel, a coast guard officer from the mouth of the Columbia River. A woman whose brother and nephew had both disappeared onto a black barge that swallowed the people who had gone investigating it. Laurel drew me into a hug as soon as she saw me. “I’m really glad you came,” I said. She glanced over at Alice. “Oh well,” Laurel said. “Maybe in a different life. Maybe in a kinder world.” She squeezed my arm. “I’m so glad you’re doing this.”

Alice: OK, who was that?

Keisha: Any time on our journeys that we saw an empty fast food place, which was fairly often in an economy still staggering under what was done to it ten years ago. We would stop and we would listen.

It was us. It was Alice and I, to use Laurel’s phrase, in a kinder world. A world where none of this had happened.

It would make me cry every time. Alice would just go quiet. In rain and in dry hot air, and during the day and at night, we got sucked into listening. The work we were doing, the organizing of this group, it felt less and less real to me. This was real. Our voices floating barely above the texture of the static, echoing out from speakers plugged into nothing, under menus with prices years out of date.

Alice: It scared me. It felt like a ghost story, but we – the us on the road - were the ghosts. And then there was this other us in the speakers. Those two in there were the ones who had lived. And we hadn’t somehow.

We had left our lives behind and now we haunted ourselves. We sat under a speakers in southern Utah, in a town that was hardly a town anymore, and I looked up at the full moon and heard us discuss who had lost in a TV cooking competition that night and I thought, none of this is real.

And I meant us. I meant us sitting there.

Keisha: Alice driving now, and I asked her another one of the central questions of our new lives. “What even are the Oracles? Where did they come from?” Time traveling beings with no faces, who turned strange the mundane roadside stops they lurk at. Who did they serve? Alice laughs and gives me the only answer any of us have. “How the fuck would I know?”

Alice: Finally we stopped moving around the country. Other than where we needed to go to the meetings we had set up. We would find a drive-through and then we would stay there. Because what else could we be doing but to listen to this? We ate and we slept and we listened. We hardly talked. Those other versions of ourselves talked for us.

Keisha: But then, one night. Alice had nodded off and I was still up listening to us walking back to our car after a date. Tired, easy flirtation with no stakes to it. The kind that happens after years together, where the tension can be switched on and off in any given moment.

Then I heard us get in the car and I heard the car leave. But the signal did not follow. I continued to hear the parking lot. People coming and going. Most sounded drunk. It was evening, I would guess. The signal had never left us before. It had always focused in on us. But I kept listening with a pit in my stomach, because I felt that I was being shown something, and it wasn’t something that I wanted to be shown.

I shook Alice awake.

Alice: I didn’t know what I was hearing. Keisha filled me in. it sounded like nothing, like everyday life, but we sat in dead silence, listening. And then we heard a man screaming. We heard him pleading. “Look at all those people in there,” a different voice cut through the static, as though the owner of the voice was standing next to us, and we jumped. Because it was the voice of the Thistle Man, the first that Keisha had met. “I want you to look at them in there, right through those windows in that lit building, and not one of them knows that you’re about to die.” A whimper. “No one’s going to help you,” he said. And he was right. We listened to him being right for several horrible minutes, and then the signal cut out with a squeal.

Keisha: I hadn’t thought about it, or if I did I assumed the world we were hearing was a world without troubles. That we had been able to float carefree through our lives because it was a better place. But in that moment, I knew. The world we were listening to had the same Thistle, the same monstrous problem at the heart of it. The actual difference was that in that other world, the two of us weren’t doing anything about it. We were letting it happen, so that we could live our quiet lives. In that world, we too were part of the monster.

We never listened to the abandoned drive-throughs again. This is the world we live in, so this is the world we’ll change.

Alice: Now in our tenth meeting, the size of the crowd was getting a little out of hand. People were hungry for it. they wanted someone to tell them they weren’t alone in what they had seen, and they wanted some way forward on what to do about it. We didn’t know if we had that exactly, but we thought that if we worked together, we could find it. We needed to rent sound systems to hold the meetings. The energy was amazing.

Keisha: As always, we started by calling on the crowd to share stories or what they had seen. Of strange men with sagging faces. Of powerful beings disguised as humans wearing hoodies. A thing seen on the roads that didn’t fit into the narrative this country had made for itself. There is a power in telling your own stories. The ones we knew were true, the ones we hadn’t realized anyone else would believe.

I didn’t know what we had here, not yet. But I knew it was real. I felt the crackle of it. I thought it could be what took is through to the end, whatever that end may be.

Today’s quote: “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no specifically so troublesome as self.” From Middlemarch by George Eliot. Thanks for listening.

[mcmansionhell]

Looking Around: Horizontal Space

If there is one truth about the second half of the 20th Century it is that, by all accounts, we started moving out rather than up; horizontal rather than vertical. Not only through the process of suburbanization, the building of massive highways, and the rapid capital flight from cities, but also in how we designed everything from our homes to our workplaces. 

It could be said that, since the development of major highways, America has flattened -- much in the same way that the invention of both the elevator and air conditioning brought skyscrapers to every major city in the first half of the 20th century. 

I-55 Under Construction, 1972. Public Domain. 

In his 1984 book Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, John Brinckerhoff Jackson observes this transition: 

“Who has not noticed...that in almost every American town the upper stories of the buildings flanking Main Street are being deserted?...Despite all the activity on the street floor, the second and third and fourth floors of the older brick buildings are no longer in demand. Not many years ago, they accomodated the offices of lawyers and dentists and doctors; dance studios and certified public accountants. Now the gold lettering has vanished from the windows, and even the street door leading to the stairs is blocked. Sooner or later, the buildings themselves will be torn down, to be replaced by one-story buildings or parking lots.” (68)

Jackson attributes this decline in vertical spaces to technological changes. Sprawling manufacturing plants with mile long assembly lines make more sense logistically than having workflow between stories. “An efficiently planned office,” he notes “is now seen as a system of information flow, most flexible, most effective when horizontal.” Even new skyscrapers are less like the ones from the recent past, described as “... a stack of large, uninterrupted horizontal spaces: vastly improved construction methods have made this spaciousness possible.” (69)

The technology of the car has created for us a new way of perceiving the environment around us. Jackson cites “increased mobility, and even more, an experience of uninterrupted speed...bring with them a sharpened awareness of horizontal space.” (70) Vertical space can’t be seen as easily from the car, the de facto way of getting around in America. 

Residential Horizontalization

This transformation began with the Federal Housing Act of 1934, which established the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA originally provided home loans to qualifying (read: white) families during the Great Depression, as part of the New Deal, in an attempt to stabilize the mortgage market. 

The FHA came to the forefront after WWII, when the Housing Act of 1949 began to systematically dismantle cities while simultaneously setting the guidelines of suburban sprawl. The Housing Act of 1949 worked in three parts: 

1.) Federal financing for slum clearance (often coupled with highway building) 2.) Promised 800,000 units of public housing (the act actually destroyed more units of housing than it built) 3.) Increased financing for rural home loans and gave the FHA more authority to issue mortgages. 

Poster from the 1940s.

This act had a devastating effect on cities. Not only did slum clearance destroy entire neighborhoods (often drawn along racial lines) and frequently replace them with highways (out to the suburbs!!), the process of Redlining (outlining areas deemed “high risk” and not worth issuing mortgages in, often in the inner city, almost always racially based) and the high preference for FHA-planned suburban communities over urban areas all but guaranteed a fully subsidized white flight from the cities. 

What little public housing was built quickly fell into decline, as maintenance costs were tied to tenant rents - this, coupled with resistance to forced integration after Brown v Board of Education (1954) from whites led to their rapid depopulation of public housing. As a result, the remaining tenants could not offset the costs of empty units. This, coupled with a high youth density (unsupervised youths were often the cause of many maintenance problems - even benign ones, like breaking the elevators playing games of ‘elevator tag’), meant that existing public housing was quickly deteriorating. It was this combination of socioeconomic circumstances that led to the decline, and ultimately, the failure of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri. 

[For those of you who are interested in the policies and history of public housing, I recommend the books Public Housing Myths, and In Defense of Housing.]

The FHA and Suburb Planning

The FHA’s guidelines for issuing mortgages after the 1949 Housing Act centered around wide lots with driveways on streets organized to deter traffic, which had become a huge problem now that everyone had a car. 

These wandering neighborhoods were often attached to arterial roads, but built with few entrances to these busy thoroughfares. Zoning was a huge part of why the curvilinear streets and island-like neighborhoods developed: the FHA was more likely to sponsor home loans to those looking to purchase a home in single-family residential zoned areas as part of its goal to protect lots from “adjacent non-conforming uses.”

However, it wasn’t always this way. In the earlier post-war suburbs, the FHA suggested subdivisions that were close to school, churches, the occasional commercial unit, and parks. What changed this was the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, better known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, which subsidized the construction of over a million miles of local and interstate highways. After these roads expanded exponentially, planning for less traffic meant sprawling deep into the countryside and the beginning of entirely new horizontal landscapes. 

Garlinghouse Home Catalog insert from c. 1950

These policies imitated themselves in the architecture of common houses. The little post-war (white) working and middle-class Minimal Traditional house extended itself into the Ranch and Split-Level forms as lots grew larger and neighborhoods less dense. It was at this point that attached garages became ubiquitous, as car use had become increasingly necessary, cushioned by the increased lot size of the late 50s and beyond. 

Catalog from 1958. Via Archive.org 

Northern Homes Catalog, c. Mid 60s. Public Domain. 

For those who are curious, the origin of the McMansion lies in the Styled Ranches first popular in the 1930s in Hollywood and in more wealthier areas in the 1950s-1970s - these houses began the process of taking a basic built form (a Ranch) and applying various cladding materials and stylistic details to make it seem more elegant. For one-story McMansions, these houses are their predecessors. 

Styled Ranch (note the pitch of the roof) from the 1970s

The Split-Level ensured that two-story homes became hot commodities amongst middle class homeowners. By the early 1980s, (after the end of the Energy Crisis) homeowners rejected the low ceiling height of the ranches and split-levels, and, coupled with less expensive building materials and riskier mortgages, the McMansion had arrived. Their massiveness of scale was, perhaps, the only verticalization that occurred during this time.

Commercial Horizontalization

The depletion of urban density was not just a matter of people moving to little boxes on winding streets. Business moved as well. Factories, once located in dense urban settings, moved to the suburbs, where massive horizontal plants were created to streamline the work process. After all, the assembly line works horizontally. 

If you’ve ever traveled outside of Chicago, you pass through the exurb of Naperville. While also being a verifiable McMansion Hell (perhaps no group of people own more McMansions than the managerial class), the I-88 corridor from Naperville to Aurora offers one of the most spectacular arrays of office parks in existence. Uncommonly more than five floors and rarely more than ten, these monoliths languidly straddle the flat prairie landscape, neatly bundled up by ribbons of highway. 

Helmut Jahn’s interesting “N” Building off of I-88, Naperville, Illinois. 

After WWII, corporations began a new way of organizing their businesses in order to adapt to new means of national and later international expansion. The new system was called “managerial capitalism” described by Louise A. Mozingo as “a transparent, rationalized administrative hierarchy... Rather than conferring positions based on ownership or nepotism, corporations awarded management authority to a meritocracy of salaried, professional managers.” (3)

The bosses and managers needed a new space along the same highway as the new factory (perhaps deliberately away from the workers themselves) and more amenable to expansion and technological development. It was for them that the modern office park was born. 

It wasn’t just the office park - the highway also brought upon the world one of the most ubiquitous forms of building: the strip mall. 

But how did this sudden transformation come about? In her book about corporate campuses, Pastoral Capitalism, Mozingo details exactly how the entire commercial world was scattered across the formal countryside:

“At the city’s edge, an effective alliance of well-financed real estate investors, large property owners, local governments, federal loan guarantors, and utopian planners opened property for speedy development. Building along federal- and state-funded road systems that brought these large tracts of land into the economy of metropolitan regions, this alliance conceived of low-density, auto-accessed landscapes of highly specified uses with plenty of parking, and wrote these forms into stringent zoning and building regulations.” (8)

The car-oriented technocracy of mid-century urban planning, emerging global capitalism, and government policies, completely terraformed the American landscape and made it, well, a landscape - horizontal in shape and in scope.  Perhaps the most ironic aspect of these new developments is the appropriation of what they replaced. The banal, pastoral names of greenfield housing developments, malls, and strip malls, is but a memory of the eradicated landscape: Rolling Acres, Greenmeadow Heights, Slate Hills at Elysian Farms.

Photo by Sara Goth (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Re-Verticalization

In the cities, one by one, the lights of the old upper stories began to flicker out, entire avenues permanently for lease. The popularity of so-called “ruin porn” attests to the kind of nostalgic longing these old spaces engender in people young and old. 

But curiously enough, the edge is becoming the center once more. Old derelict factories become spacious lofts, skyscrapers repopulate, uses become mixed, the lights begin again to flicker in the upper stories. For those with the financial mobility, the city is becoming vertical once more. As for the rest of us?

There is an ongoing and heady discussion about the repopulation of the cities. This essay is not the place for this discussion. As the infrastructure of the suburbs begins to wither and fray; as the malls close and the For Lease signs begin to shift from the city block to the office park, it is an interesting time to witness the shift of the American landscape back into some semblance of verticality.

The 20th Century saw the simultaneous birth of skyscrapers in the first half, and the mass flattening of the landscape in the second half. This massive transformation occurred at such a blistering pace, it became the new normal within twenty years, the flattening process seen only in hindsight. We’re running out of folks who remember the world before the hegemony of the car. 

Abandoned Packard Auto Plant in Detroit. Photo by John Duce (CC BY-SA 3.0)

A few years ago, I woke up one day and read that the malls were dying. This news was shocking to me, despite the fact that I hadn’t been to a mall myself in years. Their sudden appearance and proliferation in the late 50s must have been seen as an equally surprising shock.

The purpose of Looking Around is to encourage people to take a critical look at the world they live in -- to appreciate its nuances, and take note of its changes. For those of us who pass by life at 45-80 miles per hour (often not by choice but rather necessity), it’s easy for these changes to blur into the fabric of endlessly horizontal scenery. For those of us in the cities, the news of the vacating office park surprises us, because we tend to believe that the edges - the burbs - are forever. Without taking a second to notice the day-to-day changes, one day we’ll wake up, flip on the news, and the whole world will suddenly be vertical again. 

If you like this post, and want to see more like it, consider supporting me on Patreon! Also JUST A HEADS UP - I’ve started posting a GOOD HOUSE built since 1980 from the area where I picked this week’s McMansion as bonus content on Patreon!

Not into small donations and sick bonus content? Check out the McMansion Hell Store ! 100% of the proceeds from the McMansion Hell store will go to help victims of Hurricanes Harvey & Irma

Copyright Disclaimer: All photographs are used in this post under fair use for the purposes of education, satire, and parody, consistent with 17 USC §107. Manipulated photos are considered derivative work and are Copyright © 2017 McMansion Hell. Please email kate@mcmansionhell.com before using these images on another site. (am v chill about this)

[thebrewstorian]

Brewery production in Oregon before 1914.

I've put the top resources I've used to find this data at the bottom of this post, but Historic Oregon Newspapers belongs up here at the top!

Breweries of all sizes made a wide range of styles, though most advertised selling traditional German-style lager or steam beer, which uses a lager yeast but is fermented at ale temperatures to compensate for the lack of refrigeration. Brewers also sold variations of the two styles, there were advertisements for both Splendid and Bohemian lager, as well as “Extra Fine Steam Beer” produced locally, “steam beer shipped from San Francisco,” and a special “High Life” steam beer. Customers could also find Philadelphia XXX Ale, XX Cream, XXX Ale, Flat, and Porter. For those looking for a non-alcoholic drink in the 1850s, Dr. Brown, M.D. sold Sarsaparilla Beer for medicinal purposes.

Some breweries had low production and were only in business a few years, like Anton Ahrens’ brewery in St. Paul, which produced 40 barrels in its first year (1875) and 83 in its last (1879). Most breweries were not large facilities: Charles Kiefer’s brewery in Albany and A.J. Stevenson’s brewery in Heppner both produced 500 barrels in 1885, a common maximum production per year for most small to medium breweries. There were other breweries with a higher production: Louis Feurer’s Gambrinus Brewing Company (1875-1940) in Portland made 8,000 in 1889 and then 14,000 in 1915; John Kopp’s North Pacific Brewery (1884-1915) in Astoria made 8,000 in 1902; Henry Rust’s Pacific Brewery (1874-1916) in Baker City made 12,000 in 1903; and the Columbia Brewery opened by Henry Ludwig and expanded by August Buschler (1859-1915) in The Dalles made 4,000 in 1905.

Coos Bay’s Eagle Brewing is an example of how large facilities required trained staff for operation, but how staff skill allowed for flexibility in products. The original Marshfield (now Coos Bay) brewery was established in 1868 by George Stauf and William Reichert; after a series of business transfers, that original brewery facility was sold in 1907 to Eagle Brewing and expanded to be a large plant. Joseph Hauser, a graduate of Siebel’s Brewing Academy, was hired as the “superintendent” of the brewing operations. Hauser was not the owner but did have a level of responsibility and authority as a brewer. He traveled to Portland in 1909 to purchase new machinery that would allow him to make lager beer as well as steam beer. Articles from this time note that he planned to put in a bottling department, and later establish a pop and soda water branch of the brewery. A 1909 ad for “‘High Life’ steam beer” offers insight into style and price for beer: it was sold for 60¢/12 pints, $1.20/5-gallon keg, $2.20/10-gallon keg. In 1911, Hop Gold Beer, a “new brew for Christmas cheer” was advertised. The brewery closed in 1912.

Michael Myers made history by opening the Astoria Brewery, the city’s first brewhouse, but the largest was John Kopp’s North Pacific Brewery, which made both lager and steam beer. In 1884, Kopp moved from Seattle, where he had started the Bayview Brewery, and established the North Pacific Brewery.

 The insurance agent listed the capacity on a Sanborn map as “100 barrels each brew,” and at its peak, the facility produced 15,000 barrels per year, manufactured 90 tons of ice each month, and employed 10-15 people. The brewery burned in 1889 and was rebuilt with a malt room, fermenting room, brew house, cooling room, storage room, and two cellars. Kopp rebuilt and expanded to a second, larger facility in 1896; it took over an entire wharf for production and was a massive facility, with an ice maker, freezing tank, and boilers. Legend has it that the mortar in the new building was mixed with beer, not water. In 1905, a branch of the North Pacific Brewery opened in Portland at 18th and Upshur, as did a downtown Portland sales and distribution office. Kopp made “Extra Fine Bohemian Lager Beer,” XX Porter, and his Extra Fine Steam Beer was “as good a steam beer as is made on the Pacific Coast.” For the 1903 Astoria Regatta, the North Pacific Brewery made a special "Regatta Beer" and in 1908, the brewery marketed an early version of “near beer,” a non-alcoholic beer called “Maltona.” Prohibition closed brewery operations in 1915.

Though saloons featured prominently in Prohibition and Temperance propaganda, it was wasn’t a given that 19th century breweries had their saloon, and most main streets in towns had plenty of saloons run by others. Early Oregon breweries sold beer in barrels, rather than bottles, either directly from the brewery, at local saloons, or by advertising other businesses in town where people could leave their orders. Depending on their size, breweries had brewing equipment (e.g. kettle, heating furnace, mash tun), grain storage, a malt kiln, ice house, and beer cellar or other storage space. If early brewers did bottle their beer, most either did so off-site or added a bottling works after years of operation as part of an expansion. This was the case for the LaGrande City Brewery, which operated from 1885 to 1916. The facility was relatively simple and small in 1888, with a saloon, malt kiln, kettle, and ice house; but by 1910, the brewery was renamed the LaGrande Brewery and Ice Facility, and took up nearly the whole block with storage malt bins, malt and barley separating and cleaning facility, stack house, ice production and storage, and large bottling works. For off-site bottling plants, those were given different names or were actually different companies. This was the case in Marshfield in 1907, where the Coos Bay Ice and Cold Storage Company has an ice machine as well as facilities for beer bottling, hide salting, and storage coolers for cream and butter. The ad below is from 1909 -- Ferndale is on the Columbia River in Umatilla County. 

Before and during Prohibition, many breweries also supplemented their income by selling ice. In 1899, Max Weiss opened the Roseburg Brewing and Ice Company. The Roseburg Plaindealer, reported in 1902 that “[i]t is needless to say that Max Weiss is producing a beverage which is second to none on the Pacific Coast.” In 1905, Rast sold to the business to a group of investors for $50,000, and in 1908 they stopped brewing beer under the local option law; instead, they concentrated on making and selling ice and the plant was the icing station for Southern Pacific Railroad. Here’s a nice, colorful picture of a 1910 Sanborn map for the City Brewery in Pendleton. 

In some cases, brewery owners had other businesses that were not directly linked to alcohol. For example, Theresa O'Brien co-owned the Pacific Brewing Company (1883), renamed St. Louis Brewery (1888), which was located in the back of her hotel; in addition to being a hotelier and brewery owner, she owned land throughout the downtown area. Her estate records show that she collected rent from both the Weinhard estate and the North Pacific Brewing Company after her death in 1902. Others were involved in selling equipment or supplies. For example, Frederica Wetterer bought brewery supplies from Henry Weinhard's City Brewery.

Bull, Donald, Manfred Friedrich, and Robert Gottschalk. American Breweries. Trumbull, Conn: Bullworks, 1984.

Friedrich, Manfred, and Donald Bull. The Register of United States Breweries, 1876-1976. Trumbull, Conn: Bull, 1976.

Meier, Gloria and Gary. Brewed in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle: Ford Press, 1991.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

[secretradiobrooklyn]

That Gingerbread Feeling | 12.19 & 12.25.20

Secret Radio | 12.19 & 12.25.20 | Hear it here.

That Gingerbread Feeling edition

1. Irving Berlin - “Snow” 

I really enjoy picturing Rosemary Clooney beelining for a snowbank with a bottle of shampoo in one hand, blissfully mashing clumps of snow into her hair.

2. Christie Laume - “La musique et la danse”

The payoff holler in this song is like hearing an unknown animal call from the palm trees over there. 

3. Gedou - live 1975

This is a straight-up holdover from the last broadcast. We were delighted to discover Gedou’s Japanese glam rock glory — especially in the context of the videos, where you can see how extremely unlike their world they are. In this one, a crowd of excited teens watches and claps along, and you can tell that they’re the rockers of their peers — they all sport variations on early rock pompadours. Gedou, however, has blown right past that style and is going full-orchid Spiders from Mars. They appear to be loving the shit out of every second onstage, and it’s completely infectious. This take also has a killer lead-in to a great live “Scent,” the song of theirs we played last week. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdAP9ud-uEQ

4. Mannequin Men - “Private School”

I would like to shout out the rich music life of Chicago’s rock world, specifically from 2002-2008 but extending in both directions on the calendar. I feel truly fortunate to have been in Bound Stems, on Flameshovel Records, for most of those years. James and Jesse worked from an office above the Empty Bottle, sharing the space with a young Riot Act Media, and that label was the center of so much great music. Paige and I both especially loved Mannequin Men’s “Fresh Rot” album — I always think of me and Paige in the Stems band van on Milwaukee Ave, headed gradually northwest toward Midwest Buy and Sell aka the best amp shop in Chicago, with “Private School” cranked, watching the train pass the other way, feeling like the city went on forever.

5. Ed Blaszczyk, Rock Band Himself - “Hully Gully Neurasthenique” from “The Quirky Lost Tapes 1993-1995”

Born Bad Records is the hottest of spots. I don’t know anything about this guy but I am under his control.

- Five minutes of a pink oyster mushroom playing modular synthesizer

A sincere thank you to Kevin Vlack for introducing us to the mesmerizing thoughtwaves of a pink oyster mushroom, as expressed by a wickedly set-up synth. By any objective measure it sounds random and unmusical, but my subjective experience is that it is incredibly smooth and welcoming to hear. It feels almost like an aural massage or something. I feel an autonomic response to it. In any case, we both immediately listened to it a bunch, and it only gets more appealing. 

6. William Onyeabor - “Hypertension”

We still haven’t seen “Who Is William Onyeabor?,” so all I know about him is that his rhythmic approach is always totally absorbing. The cascading phrase that happens throughout the song feels like water being poured out of a jug. I especially dig how they split the vocalist between “hyper” and “tension,” kind of not unlike The Fall. 

7. Renato Carosone - “Tu Vuó Fa’ l’Americano”

You want to be American — in Italian. Fun is being poked. It gets so surprisingly intense in the instrumental middle passage!

“Whiskey soda rock & roll”

8. Star Feminine Band - “Rew Be Me”

Another return performance from last week! Star Feminine Band’s new album is so freakin awesome. “Rew Be Me”’s rhythms are so fascinating on every instrument. Also, they’re made by girls between ages 11 and 17. This song is so many songs in one!

9. Ros Serey Sothea - “Kom Kung Twer Evey (Don’t Be Mad)” - “Cambodian Rocks”

More jaw-dropping ’60s Cambodian rock full of epic melodies and major-league parts from every member of the band — above all Ros Sereysothea, who was pronounced the “Queen with the Golden Voice” by the King of Cambodia. 

Like every musician of her generation in her country, she was killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide. 

10. Lohento Eskill et T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - “Mireille”

11. Mohamed Mazouni - “Ecoutes moi camarade” 

A scenario that we’re just starting to consider is Algiers, which was a French territory in North Africa with as many Europeans as Africans. Before and after the revolution in 1962, Algerians are expanding the definition of French citizenship. An intoxicating version of the two cultures having equal input on the song’s palette and reference points. 

- The pink oyster mushroom 

12. The Fall - “Free Range”

This 7” came from a visit to a record shop in London that had an entire wall of Fall albums and singles and I just goggled at it. Kind of picked this one at random and it hits just so hard. For some reason this song sometimes reminds me of Self-Help Seminar, good friends from Seattle who we played with from early on. Harvey Danger did a version of their song “Heroine with an E.” 

13. Les Poppys - “Non non rien n’a changé”

A pretty large chorus of garçons just kind of beautifully swarming around, I don’t really know where to put this song in my head. I love the “Hey Joe” style bassline in the finale passage so much!

14. Mahmood - “Soldi”

This is driving around Cambridgeshire to London, again and again, listening to this music and shouting “Fregherai!” This trip’s soundtrack was exclusively the 2019 candidates for Eurovision’s top prize. This was Italy’s contender. It was considered controversial, I was told, because they’re drawing on a musician who is speaking in Italian and describing the world from a minority’s experience in Italy. That’s pretty bold to use as your country’s champion — I thought that was pretty cool.

15. John Williams - “Home Alone Main Title”

Merry Christmas! We time-traveled in this moment up to and through Christmas. It was a quietly wonderful Christmas, I must say, and included viewing “Home Alone” for the first time in decades. “Feeling that gingerbread feeling” indeed. We’re thankful for so much this year even in the middle of all this giant mess.

16. The Fall - “Jingle Bell Rock”

My preferred Santa voice.

17. Lithics - “Hands”

Sure do like this band more than ever. “Tower of Age” has been nothing but awesome so far. 

18. Samba Negra - “Long Life Africa” - “La Locura de Machuca”

Happy holidays to Ryan, who just got this album! Analog Africa is one of the flat-out most amazing record labels on Earth, and they put out this album this year. The cover art is insane, and the music is — also insane. This is the setup: “One night in 1975, a successful tax lawyer named Rafael Machuca had his mind blown in Barranquilla’s ‘Plaza de los Musicos’. Overnight he went from a high-ranking position in the Columbian revenue authority to visionary production guru of the newly formed record label that bore his name, Discos Machuca, and for the next six years he devoted his life to releasing some of the strangest, most experimental Afro Psychedelia Cumbia and Champeta ever produced.”

I mean, right?!

19. Meridian Brothers - “Salsa Caliente: Versión Aumentada”

This came to us via Francis Bebey, in the big ol’ stream. I definitely see the relationship. That’s what I’ve been really appreciating recently, how musicians from all over the globe seemed to be in musical communication with each other in the ’70s. There was such a wild explosion of music happening worldwide, influencing each other in a way that must have been at least partially psychic.

20. The Little Rabbits - “Yeah”

I got this CD in an armful of albums from Harvey Danger’s French distributor. I put this one on and was just… it was fascinating. This song is a definite high point, but the whole album is a complete jam. It’s clear to me (though I’ve never done a lick of study on this) that the Little Rabbits worked with Beck on “Odelay,” because you can hear whole passages of music that you associate with Beck songs stitched inside this album. I always want to know more about what happened there and I never 

21. Orlando Julius & the Afro Sounders - “Alo Mi Alo (Parts 1 & 2)”

Another example of that international ’70s kismet! This horn passage reminds us strongly of Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” written in faux-English for a French audience in 1972. This song was written somewhere between 1969-72, in Nigeria! 

I also love how the song has this sort of geologic dynamic going, where instead of bouncing between parts, it changes flavor gradually over the course of many minutes, until it ends far from where it began — not unlike a film.

- Bug Chaser - “Christmas Van”

We miss Bug Chaser, St. Louis lords and legends. We played some magic shows on the City Museum rooftop with them, and danced our faces off at their shows all over town. If you lived in St. Louis in the last ten years, I hope you went to Bug Chaser shows, because they were the realest of deals.

22. Half Japanese - “Swept Away”

I hadn’t revisited Half Japanese in a long time, for no good reason at all. It’s part of what I have loved about Yo La Tengo and Daniel Johnston and Jonathan Richman and what I love about Jad Fair, so giant and so sincere all at once. 

23. Thomas Roebers & Floris Leeuwenberg - excerpt, “FOLI (There is no movement without rhythm)”

Speaking of sincerity, this is an excerpt from a 10-minute movie called “FOLI.” I don’t know how it came to be made, but this section in the middle immediately grabbed me and feels super African and somehow refracted through a Western lens as well

24. Ayalew Mesfin - “Zebeder (Mesmerizing)”

The thing about Mesfin is that his band seems to set up the song in a Western tempo and pattern, and then Mesfin lays an Ethiopian melodic count across the top of the phrases they play, creating a third pattern from the intertwining. It creates a sense of the exotic and the familiar at the same time, which sparks into a dreamlike feeling, where you remember something you know you never experienced. I feel like that opens up some capacity to appreciate his melody’s deeply human quality. 

- “Tuneup #1” from “Rent” / Glenn Miller - “Moonlight Serenade” 

25. Ella Fitzgerald - “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

Consider this an invitation! Send us a message however we normally talk and we’ll send a link. Or not! In any case: here’s to making it through 2020 (chin chin), and here’s to a productive, restorative 2021 (chin chin)

[covid19updater]

COVID19 Updates: 11/26/2020

World:  The AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Data Isn't Up to Snuff LINK

Colorado:  Hours after asking residents to stay home, Denver mayor flies out of state for Thanksgiving holiday LINK

World:  A Randomized Trial of Convalescent Plasma in Covid-19 Severe Pneumonia LINK

World:  ASTRAZENECA CEO SORIOT: ASTRAZENECA LIKELY TO RUN A NEW GLOBAL COVID VACCINE TRIAL.

New York:  Cuomo Says "Keeping The Schools Open" Is Central To His Winter Pandemic Plan LINK

World:  Georgia (Country) introduces new restrictions for two months to curb COVID-19 LINK

Utah:  An intubated Covid-19 patient played the violin in the ICU to thank health care workers LINK

Alabama:  5000 Alabama students haven’t shown up for any sort of class LINK

World:  As COVID-19 Vaccine Nears, Employers Consider Making It Mandatory LINK (That would be an enormous overreach)

California:  Over 5K New Coronavirus Cases Reported In LA County On Thanksgiving LINK

Utah:  Update: Utah: The state rented a mobile refrigerated morgue in case the medical examiner’s officer runs out of space to house bodies.

Illinois:  Over 12,000 new coronavirus cases reported in Illinois on Thanksgiving; 131 deaths included

Brazil: reports 37,614 new coronavirus cases, 691 deaths

South Korea: New virus cases over 500 for 2nd day as pandemic deepens on cluster infections LINK

Missouri:  'We are capacity now': Task force says St. Louis hospitals will start sending patients to out-of-area facilities LINK

India:  Fire erupts at COVID hospital's intensive care unit in western India, killing 6 patients - ABP

North Korea: official executed for failing to comply with COVID-19 prevention measures, South Korea's spy agency says - News 1

[svninfinity]

SVN Infinity is a fully-integrated commercial real estate firm in St. Louis that creatively responds to a client’s real estate needs. We offer a complete range of commercial brokerage, investment property management, receivership services for all property types, giving our clients the competitive edge they need.

Click here to know about Commercial sale leaseback investment property.

[xeford2020]

“Wherever There’s Business There’s Burroughs”

Throughout its history, the Burroughs Corporation adhered to the founding principles of William S. Burroughs – to respond to the human problems of the times with relevant technologies. As part of the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship, we had the opportunity to delve into the Burroughs Corporation Collection, which consists of machinery, photographs, publications, and marketing materials for the business equipment that Burroughs manufactured.

Patent Drawing Image for Burroughs’ Calculating Machine, awarded August 21, 1888. THF299109 William Seward Burroughs – grandfather to the Beat Generation author sharing the same name – was a banker from Auburn, New York. He was also an inventor with an aptitude for mechanical design. Burroughs suffered from tuberculosis and moved his family to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1882 on the suggestion of his doctor, who thought the warmer climate would be better for his health. While there, Burroughs rented bench space from a local machine-shop owner, Joseph Boyer, and began designs on a machine that could ease the work of figuring and re-figuring mathematical calculation by hand – work that proved tedious for bankers and shopkeepers alike. In 1886, with a working machine complete, Burroughs formed the American Arithmometer Company with co-founders Thomas Metcalfe, RM Scruggs, and William R. Pye, to produce and market his machine.

American Arithmometer Company in St. Louis, MO, circa 1904 THF299012 The company’s first device was a simple addition and subtraction machine. Unfortunately, the machines didn’t work as well as planned. It was quickly discovered that accurate calculations required a specific amount of pressure to be applied to the handle. This was an unforeseen mechanical flaw that produced inaccurate calculations and caused bankers to lose faith in the machine, nearly causing the fledgling company’s failure. Burroughs was incredibly disappointed. In fact, he was in the process of quite literally throwing the machines out the window of his second-story workroom when he had the idea to use a dash-pot. A dash-pot is a mechanical device which resists motion – for instance, preventing heavy doors from slamming. This provided a uniform motion for the handle regardless of the force exerted upon it, regulating the mechanism.

American Arithmometer Company “Bankers and Merchants Registering Accountant,” Adding Machine, circa 1890 THF172030

Advertisement for the Burroughs Registering Accountant, 1901 THF299361 With the handle problem solved, bankers renewed their trust in the machines and bought them with enthusiasm. In the first decade, the company grew in staff and sales, increasing their product line to four models by 1898. Unfortunately, William S. Burroughs died the same year, but his company was left in good hands. Under President Joseph Boyer, the company experienced significant growth. By 1904, the company had outgrown its St. Louis facility, moving operations to Detroit, Michigan, where a 70,000-square foot factory was built. In 1905, the company was renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company as a tribute to its late founder.

Burroughs Adding Machine Advertisement from 1915 THF299107

In the 1920s, the company continued to expand its operations, establishing worldwide sales in 60 countries and production in South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. In the mid-1930s, recognizing the potential for additional advanced equipment, the company’s product line diversified to include over 450 models of manual and electric calculation devices, bookkeeping machines, and typewriters. 

Page from Burroughs Annual Report Showing Burroughs’ United States and Foreign Plants in 1950 THF289007

Burroughs Corporation Plant in Plymouth, Michigan, 1950-1965. The building was designed by Albert Kahn in 1938 THF288406

During World War II, Burroughs’ production was halted as the company collaborated with the National Defense Program to enter into military and war contracts. Its most influential contribution to the war effort was the development of the Norden bombsight in 1942. According to the Burroughs’ “History” booklet, this apparatus made “accurate, high-altitude bombing possible, and was considered by some military authorities as the single most significant device in shortening the war.” This same bombsight was used on the Enola Gay to accurately drop the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

Burroughs’ work throughout the war launched the company onto a different trajectory once military production was no longer required. Wartime needs had accelerated computer and electronics research, becoming a significant part of the company’s focus in the 1950s, along with defense, space research, banking, and business technology. In 1952, Burroughs built the core memory system for the ENIAC – the world’s first electronic general-purpose computer.

The 1950s were a time for diversification for Burroughs as the company acquired many other entities in order to expand its product capabilities. In 1953, to reflect its increasingly diverse product and service offerings, the company was renamed the Burroughs Corporation, and was recognized as a single outlet for a variety of business management products. One of the most significant acquisitions came in 1956, when Burroughs acquired ElectroData Corporation of Pasadena, California. This allowed Burroughs to further expand into the electronic computing market and led to the development of the B5000 series in 1961, which was celebrated as a groundbreaking scientific and business computer.

Advertisement for the ElectroData E101 Machine, Part of the ElectroData Division of Burroughs Corporation THF299362

dvertisement, “Breakthroughput,” for the Burroughs B5500 Information Processing System, 1964 THF299360 Successful collaboration during wartime prompted Burroughs Corporation to be awarded additional government and defense contracts throughout the 1960s. The company provided electronic computing solutions in the Navy’s POLARIS program, the Air Force’s SAGE, ALRI, ATLAS, and BUIC air defense networks, and the NORAD combat computing and data display system. According to the Burroughs’ “History” booklet, during the Cold War Burroughs computers were being “used to make split-second evaluations of threats to the North American continent using input from satellites and radar throughout the world.”

Burroughs “AN/FST-2 Identification Friend or Foe/Selective Identification Feature (IFF/SIF),” for the SAGE Air Defense Radar System, 1960    THF170242

Burroughs also produced a transistorized guidance computer in 1957, which was used in the launch of Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) – this same system was deployed in the 1960s to launch Mercury and Gemini space flights.

Project Mercury Guidance Computer, 1959-1963. Project Mercury was the first space program dedicated to achieving human spaceflight. THF299110 By the 1970s, Burroughs had emerged as a major player in the computer industry, but was still in the shadow of powerhouses like IBM. To further its influence and market potential, the company began thinking about office automation and information management in a holistic way, providing all scales of computers from mini- and micro-computers to networks and large modular systems – along with the software and peripherals (printers, communications systems, displays, and keyboards) to complement them.

Pages from the booklet, “Burroughs E8000,” circa 1965. The Burroughs E8000 management system provided a versatile accounting system for electronic data processing. THF298298

Throughout the early 1980s, additional acquisitions were achieved in order to fill technology voids and strengthen areas targeted for future growth. The company also developed joint ventures to strengthen business relationships. Despite this growth, IBM continued to dominate the market as the unrivaled leader of the computer industry. Hoping to challenge IBM, Burroughs embarked on a substantial entrepreneurial undertaking with Sperry Corporation in 1986. Combining the market positions, talent, and resources of both corporations, the merger was meant to signal a new era of competition. What resulted was one of the largest mergers ever to occur in the computer industry, and the creation of the new entity in information technology, Unisys.

Unisys Equipment, 1986-1996  THF298315 From the adding machine to office equipment to computers that helped to send people into space, the Burroughs Corporation was steadfast in its pursuit of the latest research and in its development of cutting-edge technology. To view additional items we’ve already digitized from our Burroughs Corporation Collection, check out our Digital Collections page!   Samantha Johnson is Project Curator for the William Davidson Foundation Initiative for Entrepreneurship at The Henry Ford. Special thanks to Kristen Gallerneaux, Curator of Communications & Information Technology, for sharing her knowledge and resources to assist in the writing of this post.

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