Velcro City Tourist Board

Tag: climate change

  • (failed) states of exception

    I’ve been an admirer of Christopher Brown’s fiction ever since I bought a two-handed piece for Futurismic that he wrote with Chairman Bruce (“Windsor Executive Solutions”, which is still up and available to read, amazingly enough). I finally got my hands on one of his recent novels back in the spring, and found myself thinking…

  • collecting for the collective

    Got yer weak signals right here, guv: Called B-Wa(h)renhaus (an untranslatable pun meaning both department store and “conserving house”), the store covers over 7,000 square feet and sells used and upcycled clothing, furniture, phones and other electronics. In an attempt to reach beyond the usual people who already patronize secondhand shops, the store’s location is also significant: It’s…

  • defeat the dread

    Good chewy long-read from Cennydd Bowles, starting with a look at the ongoing situation (and a zinger of an opening line), and building out to a measured and respectful but nonetheless pointed dig at the futures industry: For too long we’ve been serving the wrong goals: helping large multinationals and tech giants accrue more power…

  • necessary but not sufficient; on hope and optimism in solarpunk and cyberpunk

    Start with a disclaimer: I do not identify as a solarpunk. However, I do know some folk who do—most notably m’good buddy Jay Springett, who is one of that scene’s ideologues-in-chief, in as much as it has such things. I also know some folk who study solarpunk from the perspective of the environmental humanities (EH),…

  • the new normal is that there is no normal

    15th January 2020, Sheffield; the Beeb (and all other sources I’ve checked) suggesting a peak temperature of 12 or 13°C* this evening. I think I can recall a single night over the last two or three months during which there was a mild frost. Are you worried yet? Because you fucking well should be. […