Michael Kors love of theater is a close second to his love of fashion.

He has been to hundreds, probably thousands, of live performances over the past 50-plus years, starting at age five, and has been deeply concerned about the shutdown of Broadway, which he calls the beating heart of New York, and how it has impacted some 87,000 jobs.

Our office is close to the Theater District so we feel part of the community, said Kors, who dedicated his 40th anniversary runway show to Broadway, including making a donation to nonprofit The Actors Fund. When people hear The Actors Fund they think actors, and its for them but also to support the entire army of talent behind the scenes that brings a show to light.We dont want this pool of talent to disappear.

While Kors has been trying to get his fix by streaming theater during quarantine, its not the same, he said. Recently, as New Yorks COVID-19 restrictions have eased, he was able to see Rufus Wainwright perform live as part of an audience of 40. I felt like someone had reconnected a body part that was missing, he said of the thrill, which he is sharing with viewers of his 40th collection film Tuesday, featuring Wainwright and appearances by a cavalcade of Broadway legends, including Chita Rivera and Billy Porter.

As a curtain raiser, WWD dished with the designer about his favorite opening nights, diva crushes, the show hed like to revive and design costumes for.

WWD: What was your first Broadway show?

Michael Kors: Ethel Merman in Annie Get Your Gun. Of course, I was five, so I had no way to know this was not the norm. My mom never took me to see the clunkers. To see Hair, she had to lie to my father and tell him we were going shopping. He thought it was not a good show for an 11-year-old.

WWD: Mine was Annie, and one of my classmates was an orphan, so we were all so jealous.

M.K.: Thats big.

WWD: Who are the divas youll always love? Besides Bette, because thats a given.

M.K.: When I was working at Lothars the hottest ticket was seeing Patti LuPone doing Evita, and you literally felt like you were blown out of your seat backward. Bernadette Peters Sunday in the Park With George, when the first act was finished, I had tears rolling down my face. Anyone who is in the creative world, that show knocks you out. And her voice broke my heart. Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd. How did Stephen Sondheim even conceptualize we were going to sit through a show about a mass murderer and find it entertaining? Watching Audra McDonald do Billie Holiday on the stage by herself in Lady Day at Emersons Bar & Grill, you are so riveted. Anything Goes is one of my favorites. When Sutton Foster finished the big tap number, and the audience is feeding off the energy on stage and each other, you cant recapture that on Zoom, streaming or film.

WWD:Did you see Starlight Express with the roller skaters? I loved that.

M.K.: [My husband] Lances first show was Starlight Express, it was Audra McDonalds first show, and Jane Krakowski was in Starlight Express. We were all at a dinner and they looked at me and said, You didnt go see it? I said No, roller skating was not meant to happen on Broadway.

WWD: What about Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard? That was a moment.

M.K.: We saw it with Glenn, with Betty Buckley, then we saw it in London with Rita Moreno, and Rita let me go onto the stage and got them to press the hydraulic lift, so I got to experience walking down the staircase when it was moving.

Actress Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard in New York, 2017.Greg Allen/Invision/AP

WWD: Thats big. Craziest experience in the seats?

M.K.: Opening night of revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, we sat down and the person in front of us was dressed all in white with an enormous picture hat on. Even though she was very fabulous from behind and I loved what she was wearing, I kept thinking she was going to ruin the show for me, so I leaned over to say something and realized it was Yoko Ono.

WWD: When I went to see Slave Play, they held the show 25 minutes because Rihanna was late.

M.K.: Did she get a standing ovation?

WWD: Oh no.

M.K.: At Lincoln Center for a celebration for Sondheims 80th birthday, we got there just as the lights were going down, and realized Sondheim was sitting directly across from us. I was knocked out being that close to him as he was experiencing all his work.

WWD: Soundtrack you listen to on repeat?

M.K.: A Chorus Line. I know every word, and I use some of the lyrics in life. All of them are taken from the recordings of the dancers, so they are often the perfect comeback or thought.

Lena Hall and Neil Patrick Harris on opening Night of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 2014.McMullan/Sipa USA

WWD: Best song in A Chorus Line?

M.K.: I love the song, I Can Do That. In life, even if you think you cant, you figure it out. If you said to me, after 40 years what have you learned, its this: Know that things change thats the point and you have to say, I can do that. When I told them I didnt want to do Project Runway, then they said you are a critic at Parsons, you work with students at FIT, I said, I can do that.

WWD: And you did. Worst Broadway behavior youve witnessed? I remember seeing M Butterfly, and at the pivotal moment right before the characters identity is revealed, someone in front of me blurted it out.

M.K.: Thats terrible. We were in the theater the night Patti LuPone stopped the show because someone was using their cell phone. Watching her admonish that man was something. The night we saw Bruce Springsteen on Broadway, his fans were so rabid and started screaming Bruce, Bruce, Bruce and he very gentlemanly said, There will be a moment for that later. And later he let everyone take out their phones, cheer and take photos. The audience is not used to unplugging. Its the same with fashion shows, which people are now often watching through their phones. Backstage in the 80s, I didnt even have a monitor, I had a peep hole.

WWD: Do you remember the before times when you couldnt bring drinks and snacks to your theater seats? Are you team seat snacks or no?

M.K.: Never, ever. Intermission only. Give me a vodka on the rocks at the bar at Sardis during intermission and I run back in time for the second act.

WWD: Last show you saw before the COVID-19 shutdown?

M.K.: David Byrnes American Utopia. If it had to be my last memory, it was a spectacular one. And I dont want to sound like a shallow fashion person but that show was so chic. Chic! Chic! Chic! Everything about it.

David Byrne on opening night of American Utopia in New York, 2020.Greg Allen/Invision/AP

WWD: Fashion-wise, any other shows that have echoed with you?

M.K.: I remember seeing Lauren Bacall in Applause when I was young. It was so big city glamorous. Sign me up for black sequins for days.

WWD:Have you done costumes for Broadway?

M.K.: Not Broadway, but when I was designing Celine in Paris, I got a call from costume designer Arianne Phillips, she was working on the play Up for Grabs in London. She said, well, Madonna is starring, she plays a very powerful art dealer, and I thought the clothes you showed for Celine would be perfect for her character, who is very successful but not the nicest person the world. So she wore a lot of Celine.

WWD: You should do a Broadway show.

M.K.: Id love to redo A Chorus Line.

WWD:What are you excited to see after Broadway reopens? Ahem, Game of Thrones?

M.K.: To be honest with you, we will be so excited well go to things we dont even care about. I will go to a musical version of Designing Women.

WWD: Thats a great idea, you should produce that.

A Chorus Line, 1987.AP Photo

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Broadway Baby: Michael Kors on 50 Years of Opening Nights, Diva Crushes and a Dream Revival - WWD

These are good times for the Offspring -- even if the California punk group's new album is called "Let the Bad Times Roll."

It's actually been nine years since the quartet's last studio album, albeit with an EP and some singles in between. "Bad Times," due out Friday, April 16, was recorded over the course of that interim with producer Bob Rock, and was previewed during 2015 with the single "Coming For You."

In addition to the album, the Offspring has launched a new video series, "How To: With the Offspring," which will share "a vast amount of useful knowledge -- starting with an episode in which frontman Bryan "Dexter" Holland and guitarist Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman teach viewers how to surf...

Despite the long gap between albums Noodles says the Offspring was never concerned about getting "Let the Bad Times Roll" finished and out. "We always knew we were gonna get to it eventually. It might seem like a saga from an outsider's standpoint, but it's really just something we've been working on when we're not touring, or when one of us (Holland) isn't working on his Ph. D. There's a lot of reasons why it took this long to get it done, but honestly the majority of this record, and I think some of the better parts of this record, came together in the last couple years. We just had a real creative time, and things started clicking."

The official music video for The Offsprings Let The Bad Times Roll.

Get the new song and pre-save the upcoming album LET THE BAD TIMES ROLL now at https://found.ee/OffspringBadTimesRoll

While "Bad Times" is not a concept record, Noodles says the title and title track, as well as songs such as "This is Not Utopia," were inspired by recent and current events. "It's kind of look at where we find ourselves in the world right now. Our country just went through four crazy years, politically and societally, and it's not over. We're still going through it. Then throw a pandemic on top of that. Things haven't changed that much in nice years since (the Offspring's last album). There's still plenty of (bad stuff) going on in the world that makes people go, 'Omigod!'"

"Bad Times" includes a stripped-down, acoustic version of the Offspring's 1997 single "Gone Away," an arrangement that's been part of the band's live set in recent years. "It really works live. We thought, 'Let's strip it down a little bit. Let's purify it, keep it to its simplest emotions.' It's really a dramatic moment in the show, and our fans really took to it. They've been asking, 'When can we get a studio version?' and eventually we thought, 'OK, we should try it. It's a great idea. Let's dee if we can pull it off,' and this is the result."

Noodles says the "How To" video series is "something that's just fun for us to do when we can't go out and play shows. We don't take it that seriously; It's like, 'Yeah, I know a little something about this...' Some of them are going to be more serious than others, but we want it short, sweet and easily digestible, but also something we know the fans are gonna dig."

With plans to tour the U.K. during November pending, the Offspring is using videos and interviews to promote "Bad Times'" release. Meanwhile the band is continuing to work on material with hopes that it won't take as long to release its next album. "There are some songs that we were working on that we can't put all the pieces together yet. You don't just trash 'em. We probably have four or five songs I want to say are done or close to done for the next record. Right now we're just focusing on getting this record out and touring some, but the next record is also in the back of our heads. We're definitely thinking about that."

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Offspring's first new album in nine years, 5 Things to Know - The Oakland Press

Camilla Borggaard, Head of Communications of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group writes:

BIG Bjarke Ingels Groups design for the new OPPO R&D Headquarters will exemplify the OPPO design philosophy of pursuing the perfect balance between refined aesthetics and innovative technology, in a building that will be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable a responsible citizen and iconic gateway to Hangzhous Future Sci-Tech City.

Founded in 2004, OPPO has grown over a short period of time to become Chinas largest smartphone company. The setting of OPPOs new R&D Headquarters in Hangzhous Future Sci-Tech City represents a commitment to the brands spirit of endless innovation in the pursuit of perfection. Hangzhou, colloquially know as Heaven on Earth, is not just a hub for innovation, but is also home to Chinas most popular natural attractions including three of the worlds 57 UNESCO Heritage sites. The city has been shaped by a rich cultural history of technology, information exchange and trade for over 5,000 years as one of the origin sites of the Silk Road and Grand Canal.

BIG began working with the leading global smart device brand at the beginning of 2019 to create an R&D Headquarters and Masterplan. The design expresses OPPOs mission of the elevation of life through technological artistry, with an overarching vision of being a sustainable company that contributes to a better world.

Technology at its best should be a seamless extension of life. The new OPPO R&D Headquarters embodies this notion, sitting with ease in the scenic wetlands of Hangzhou, while negotiating between the dense urban fabric on one side and the natural landscape on the other. It will be an architectural manifestation of an OPPO product: effortlessly elegant, while elevating the quality of human life in the city, said Brian Yang, Partner, BIG Bjarke Ingels Group

Image by IMIGO and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Prominently located in the heart of Yuhang District, Hangzhou, OPPO R&D Headquarters rests between a natural lake, an urban center, and a 10,000 square-meter park. As an anchor point along a major access road stretching east to west from Hangzhou, the OPPO R&D Headquarters Tower will be an iconic landmark and gateway to the Future Sci-Tech City and Hangzhou itself.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Through this project, Hangzhou will become one of the most important centers of research and development for OPPO in China. The iconic expression of the landmark O-Tower designed by BIG is perfectly complemented and enhanced by Yuhangs beautiful and pleasant natural waterbody and wetland landscape. Looking forward into the future, we believe through our collaboration, OPPOs Global Mobile Terminal R&D Headquarters will not only be a perfect representation of OPPOs brand identity and culture, but will also become the most iconic landmark in Yuhang, Hangzhou. This will precisely represent the keystone in OPPOs hundred-year-plan, said Jin Le Qin SVP of OPPO

The needs of contemporary tech companies frequently put them in a position to choose between ideal deep and flexible floor plates to support creative and dynamic workspaces, and shallow floor plates that provide optimal work environments including access to daylight and views that benefit employee well-being and productivity.

The new OPPO R&D Headquarters, or O-Tower, resolves these competing requirements by translating a traditional office slab with the perfect depth for access to daylight into a cylindrical courtyard building that is compact yet also providing large, contiguous floor area. Pushing down the southern edge of the building to the ground minimizes the external surface area of the more solar exposed faade while maximizing views out from the inward faade, which is in turn self-shaded from solar gain by the geometry of the tower. The massing is a manifestation of a building form optimized to reduce energy use and maximize access to natural light.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

A series of triple-height void spaces and interconnected terraces under the sloping O roof surface will provide visual and physical connectivity between floors, and the opportunity to introduce biophilic social spaces and shortcuts for all OPPO staff. These spaces will bring human interaction out to the facades, where staff can enjoy views out while populating and activating the skyline of the city.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Wrapped with adaptive faade louvers that are oriented according to sun angles and building geometry to minimize solar gain, the faade will become a fingerprint for the building, with a specific imprint that exists only for the O-Tower, and only in Hangzhou. The fingerprint faade will reduce solar gain by up to 52%, providing significant savings for cooling loads and better thermal comfort for OPPO staff, while at the same time reducing glare, reflectivity and light pollution.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

At the heart of the O-Tower, a publicly accessible courtyard will become an urban living room for the city. The mineral hardscape at its center transforms into a green and lush landscape at the periphery as it extends out to the waterfront. This urban oasis provides fresh air, retains water, and supports a biodiverse public realm connected to the daily life of the city.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

We have attempted to imagine the future work environment of OPPO to be sustainable on a triple bottom line: economically, ecologically and socially. The compact form folding in on itself provides large flexible floorplates with the daylight access and fresh air of a slender tower. The adaptive louvered faade omits incoming solar glare and thermal heat gain, enhancing the passive performance of the building. The tilted loop of the warped roof creates a social shortcut for the OPPO employees and their collaborators connecting the ground to the summit. And the central oasis and the surrounding wetland park expands the public realm into the heart of the complex. Each element is intrinsically intertwined forming the melted loop that is perceivable at all scales from the urban landmark to the human experiencebecoming a manifestation of the design simplicity that is an intrinsic part of OPPOs brand, said Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG Bjarke Ingels Group

The ground floor of the O-Tower will be open with an interconnected public space that seamlessly leads visitors and staff through lobbies, exhibition spaces, or out to the park. The first three floors will be reserved for public programming including exhibition space, conference centers, a canteen, and an incubator for external workshops.

Within the R&D Headquarters will be a variety of flexible floor plates from spacious and large floors suitable for R&D departments and special projects, to smaller more traditional floors for administrative and executive functions. On the upper floors, a dedicated OPPO canteen as well as executive and VIP lounges will overlook Hangzhous wetlands alongside the triple-height interconnected atria under the O-ring facade that will provide similar views for all OPPO staff. All floors of the building integrate workspaces with biophilia and social spaces.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

The new OPPO R&D Headquarters will not only bring OPPO employees to an innovation zone for global technology entrepreneurship, but will create a sustainable and vibrant community that will become an iconic destination on the Hangzhou waterfront.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

BIG first started working in China in 2010 with the Danish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, followed by the Shenzhen Energy HQ completed in 2017, Terminus AI City in Chongqing announced in 2020, and now the OPPO R&D HQ in Hangzhou.The design for the O-Tower has been developed by BIG in collaboration with ZIAD (Local Design Institute), Co-Create Golden Technique Project Management (Client Project Managers), RBS (Structural Engineers), RFR (Faade Consultants), WSP (Traffic, MEP, VT Consultant), BPI (Lighting designer), Savills (Programming consultant), TFP (Foodservice planner), and UAD (Traffic evaluation agency).

OPPO R&D HQ FACTSName: OPPO Global Mobile Terminal R&D HeadquartersType: Office, Retail and MasterplanSize: Office 161,330m2, Retail 68,000 m2, Site area: 48,900 m2Location: Hangzhou, CNCollaborators: ZIAD (LDI), WSP (Traffic, MEP, VT Consultant), RBS (Structure Consultant), RFR (Faade Consultant) CCGT (Client project manager), BPI (Lighting designer), Savills (Programming consultant), TFP (Foodservice planner), UAD (Traffic evaluation agency)

BIG BJARKE INGELS GROUPBIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is a Copenhagen, New York, London, Shenzhen, and Barcelona based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. The office is currently involved in projects throughout Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East. BIGs architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. By hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, we architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life forms. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat, http://www.big.dk

Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Brian YangProject Leader: Hung Kai LiaoProject Architect: Kekoa CharlotDesign Lead: Ewa BryzekFacades Lead: Aimee Louise DesertTeam: Adam Busko, Agnieszka Magdalena Trzciska, Alessandro Zanini, Alda Sol Hauksdttir, Andra Beler, Buster Christensen, Cristina Gimnez, Seongil Choo, Camille Breuil, Carlos Ramos Tendrio, Cris Liu, Daniel Ferrara Bilesky, Eddie Can, Eric Li, Filip Fot, Geetika Bhutani, Gl Ertekin, Jens Majdal Kaarsholm, Julia Gotovski, Karim Muallem, Liang Zhang, Laura Kovacevic, Malka Logo, Maria Capuozzo, Martyna Sylwia Kramarz, Mats Kolmas, Max Alexander Bonecker, Mengyuan Li, Mads Primdahl Rokkjr, Naphit Puangchan , Ombretta Colangelo, Rasam Aminzadeh, Roberto Fabbri, Stefan Plugaru, Steen Kortbk Svendsen, Su Myat Nge Nge, Shuting Zhang, Weronika Siwak, Xiaochang Qiu, Xavier Thanki, Yusheng Huang, Zhonghan Huang

For further information, please contact:Camilla Borggaard, Head of Communications, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, +45 4018 1912, [emailprotected]

Read more: INFINITY LOOP ON THE HANGZHOU HORIZON

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OPPO's O-Tower Connects Ground to Sky in a Continuous Loop of Collaboration - Greenroofs.com

MAPLETON, N.D. and SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --HORSCH and Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today a collaboration focused on developing solutions that enable autonomy in agriculture with the goal of building a future for autonomous machines and workflows in the industry.

The collaboration extends beyond autonomously controlling machines, such as the self-propelled crop protection sprayers, to full workflow automation from the office to the field. This relationship integrates Trimble's established autonomy expertise in guidance systems, path planning and in-field processautomation with HORSCH's fleet of machines.

The first phase will bring automation to the complex planning, machine control and logistical challenges faced by sprayer operators to improve machine performance and reduce operating errors. This functionality can significantly reduce the driver's workload, while still allowing them to intervene at any time. In the long term, this technology establishes a basis for operating fully autonomous machines.

HORSCH and Trimble have successfully collaborated on implementing control technologies and are extending this to include full machine control solutions. The companies are currently implementing a high level of automation and driver support with steering systems. With this increase in automation, a driver can perform additional in-cab tasks during active field work, such as the required documentation, planning and coordination of work processes.

"Combining the forward-thinking nature of HORSCH with Trimble's cutting-edge autonomous technology creates an opportunity for the companies to develop innovative applications for the OEM and Trimble's agriculture network," said Finlay Wood, business area director for Trimble Autonomous Solutions. "We are building new customer-focused solutions as part of our existing connected farm ecosystem to deliver a unique and compelling solution for our customerssimplifying the complex, logistical and operational challenges of modern agriculture."

"The unique opportunity with this collaboration is not that we are presenting a future utopia but that we are moving step-by-step towards autonomy in a pragmatic, consistent manner," said Theo Leeb, managing director for HORSCH. "We consider automation in agriculture to be one of our next key technologies, and our goal is to ultimately deliver a platform of various applications to help farmers meet the challenges of the future."

About HORSCH

The family-owned company HORSCH is one of the world's leading manufacturers of modern and innovative agricultural technology. The focus is on the development of products for soil cultivation, sowing, crop protection and hybrid farming to improve sustainability. Around 1,800 employees worldwide stand for "farming with passion" from production to management. Contact and exchange with customers worldwide has always been a top priority at HORSCH. Due to this high level of customer contact, HORSCH is a thought leader within the agriculture industry, focusing on the issues facing farmers and anticipating the needs for their future. In order to continue to meet these future demands on agriculture, HORSCH is constantly working on new developments, which are also in use on its own farms with several thousand hectares of arable land. For more information, visit: http://www.horsch.com.

About Trimble Agriculture

Trimble's Agriculture Division provides solutions that solve complex technology challenges across the entire agricultural landscape. The solutions enable farmers and advisors to allocate scarce resources to produce a safe, reliable food supply in a profitable and environmentally sustainable manner. Covering all seasons, crops, terrains and farm sizes, Trimble solutions can be used on most equipment on the farm, regardless of manufacturer and production year.To enable better decision making, Trimble offers technology integration that allows farmers to collect, share, and manage information across their farms, while providing improved operating efficiencies in the agricultural value chain. Trimble solutions include guidance and steering; grade control, water management; flow and application control; harvest solutions; desktop and cloud-based data management; and correction services. For more information on Trimble Agriculture, visit:agriculture.trimble.com.

Trimble in Autonomy

For more than 20 years, Trimble has been connecting the physical and digital worlds in agriculture, construction, and mining with its automation technologies. These scalable solutions and services enable the next generation of autonomous functionality to improve productivity and safety. Trimble has been at the forefront of positioning innovation for over 35 years, providing autonomous solutions for off-road machines such as tractors and haulers. Positioning is the foundation for helping transform how the world leverages autonomy through a robust suite of solutions, which include GPS/GNSS, truthing, inertial, dead-reckoning, machine control, sensor fusion and more. For more, visit: https://positioningservices.trimble.com/industries/automotive.

About Trimble

Trimble is transforming the way the world works by delivering products and services that connect the physical and digital worlds. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity and data analytics enable customers to improve productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. From purpose-built products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble software, hardware and services are transforming industries such as agriculture, automotive, construction, geospatial and transportation. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB), visit: http://www.trimble.com.

GTRMB

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Trimble and HORSCH Partner to Deliver Autonomy Solutions to the Agriculture Market - Lenoir News-Topic

Fear the Walking Dead

Fear the Walking Dead is wasting no time making major moves to cut down the size of its cast now that it has returned to finish up the season after pandemic delays.

Spoilers follow.

Last week brought the surprise death of John Dorie, played by Garrett Dillahunt, killed by Ginnys sister Dakota once he figured out she was the culprit in a murder he was previously trying to solve.

This week, Morgan refused to execute Ginny for her many crimes, but that was not the plan for June, who shot a chained-up Ginny with Johns gun before donning his hat and leaving Morgans would-be utopia. It was no less than she deserved.

The Fear cast has gotten pretty expansive at this point where Im not surprised to see them cutting it down. But its also not clear whether these deaths are by actor request, or written into the series on purpose, as the show has done both before. Madison Clark was killed as actress Kim Dickens didnt seem to be on board with that plan. But actor Frank Dillane wanted to leave the series, which is why Nick Clark was killed.

I would not be shocked if Garret Dillahunt wanted to move on to new projects, though weve heard nothing to confirm that. As for Ginny, Colby Minifie, her star has been rising with roles both here and in The Boys, but I mean, most Walking Dead villains not named Negan usually meet their end at some point, so who knows.

Fear the Walking Dead

Most fans are curious what the plan for Fear the Walking Dead is from here, the only currently airing Walking Dead series that does not have a planned series finale ahead. The Walking Dead will end after a massively expanded season 11, while The Walking Dead: World Beyond, was always only ever meant to run 20 episodes. Fear is now is season 6 and has gone through a pretty astonishing amount of ups and downs at this point. Currently Id put its quality somewhere in the middle of its good and bad past seasons, though its still doing things I dont love, like totally sidelining Alicia, who should have been leading this show for years, in favor of Morgan.

Who is next on the chopping block? I have my guesses as to who might want to depart. I do have to wonder if Alycia Debnam-Carey is tired of not leading the series after six years now, and might want to move on. I also have my eye on Coleman Domingo, another season 1 original who has been really blowing up in his non-Fear-related projects, with parts in Euphoria, If Beale Street Could Talk, Ma Raineys Black Bottom and more. Hes secured an overall deal with AMC, but I wonder if that necessarily extends to him continuing to play Victor indefinitely.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 03: Actor Colman Domingo discusses season 5 of "Fear The Walking Dead" ... [+] with the Build Series at Build Studio on June 03, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

Right now, theres a larger war brewing against some unknown force that has to do with what appears to be a nuclear armed submarine, something we havent seen for a while, and it seems like it will be explored in a digital series to come, in addition to whatever happens on Fear.

I do not know what the endgame of Fear is, but no Walking Dead crossovers appear to be happening any time soon, and possibly will not happen given that TWD is about to end for good, and turn into a Carol and Daryl spin-off. The timelines are out of whack with Fear still years behind TWD proper, though its admittedly getting a bit hard to keep track.

Ill keep watching Fear, Ive made it this far. I think its lost some good cast members, but were also pretty far from a steep quality drought of a few seasons ago. Well see how it goes.

Follow meon Twitter,YouTube,FacebookandInstagram.

Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter,God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels theHerokiller series, andThe Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

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Fear The Walking Dead Is Killing Off Its Cast At A Rapid Clip - Forbes

Abby Innes writes that while UK governments have refrained from intervening in the private sector, they enable ever greater business access to public authority and revenue. She argues that successive policies have led to corporate state capture.

British Ministers and MPs operate with uniquely close ties to business. These ties are an essential feature of the neoliberal transformation of the state. Their vulnerability to conflicts of interest and corruption are a feature, not a bug. Under the New Public Management agenda of the last forty years, agenda-setting and policy design have increasingly been outsourced to professional consultancies, third-sector agencies, law and accountancy firms and corporate sponsored think tanks. The administrative, policymaking and agenda-revising throughputs of the state have seen greater business involvement via senior civil service recruitment and special advisors. Departmental non-executive directors have significant powers but are routinely recruited through an opaque process from businesses with a direct interest in the terrain under a departments control. Finally, the states core outputs in terms of welfare and regulation have been ever more outsourced to the private sector. The machinery of state is now porous to private business interests to a degree that is exceptional among the established democracies. A third of todays central government spending goes on outsourcing.

Britains neoliberal state has become a semi-permeable membrane in which governments refrain from intervening in the private sector but enable ever greater business access to public authority and revenue. Corporate state capture refers to the high point of corruption whereby private interests subvert legitimate channels of political influence and shape the rules of the legislative and institutional game through private payments to public officials. In Britain that influence has largely been gifted as a matter of public policy.

Britains corporate state capture by design has happened because neoliberalism is a materialist utopia. It is, in fact, the exact counterpart to its Soviet communist opponent albeit even less tethered to social reality in its theoretical foundations. Where Leninism was based on a deterministic reading of Marxs analysis of capitalist change, British neoliberal policy has been rooted in the most market-fundamentalist wing of neoclassical economics that depends on deductive-theoretic mathematical reasoning and tends to disregard market failures. The result is an agenda of beguiling simplicity. In this scheme, it is axiomatic that when you remove state intervention you improve competitiveness and allow the economy to move closer towards a general equilibrium in which demand and supply are matched with a perfect, frictionless efficiency. This is the mirror of the Soviet belief in perfectly efficient central planning.

For Britains neoliberal governments, it has followed as a matter of logic that the more the state can be got out of the way or made more business-like where it remains, the better. As a society we have moved from ethical debates about the effective government of people in a complex and uncertain world to an era in which parties have competed over the management of a pseudo-science about the allocation of things in a closed-system world of apparently little meaningful complexity at all. The seeds of state capture are sown in materialist utopias because as an article of faith they privilege the interests of one social group as the virtuous, transformative vanguard that will lead us to the Promised Land of seamless allocative efficiency. In neoliberalism it is business rather than the industrial proletariat taken to exemplify the idealised rational economic agent and business is duly endowed with the leading role in society.

In Britain, this idealisation has led successive governments to a deep lack of curiosity about the diversity and complexity of actual businesses. It has also created a profound political complacency about what drives innovation and improves productivity. The history of economic development, as distinct from the neoclassical thought experiment, tells us it is not just competition. Despite the fact that the investment culture of Britains traded companies has been hollowed out by norms of short term profit-maximisation, governments have proved resiliently indifferent to the pathologies of corporate financialisation: the extraction of profit even unto the cannibalisation of the firm itself. John McDonnell ended this complacency in Labour, but it persists across the aisle. In the meantime, Britains public sector industry firms are among the most financialised of all. Carillion and Interserve went bust because of it. Serco and the rest continue to leverage their accounts, minimise their investment and training and to sweat their public contracts and employment conditions to maximise profits. The result is a new systemic risk in which the states structural dependency upon these archetypes of rent-seeking makes them too big to fail.

The neoliberal argument for state failure that helped bring it to power in the late 1970s was built on an argument by theoretical analogy: that the state is a monopoly firm and hence the presumptively rational economic actors who run it will tend to exploit their position until the state expands into a totalitarian, socialist Leviathan. There is no concept of public service here. The neoliberal solution proceeds to build in corporate state capture via an analytical ratchet effect in which even chronic failures of neoliberal policy are assumed a priori to be the fault of public servants and their lingering attachments to the privileges of monopoly. It follows as a matter of logic that the answer is to bring in further corporate expertise to bear.

In the meantime, privileged corporate access skews ministerial interactions with other interest groups and unbalances the playing field between them. The extension of public services markets to encompass as many state functions as possible encourages escalating corporate donations to parties in search of favouritism within that dynamic. Contrary to the neoliberal and indeed Leninist fantasy in which the state will wither away to its nightwatchman minimum, the centralising neoliberal state has become a giant of procurement. Government departments are tied into a complex web of relationships with large enterprises scarcely less than in Soviet central planning, only now in super-fragmented form. Those relationships shift whole bodies of public spending from statutory to contract law and under the cloak of commercial confidentiality.

The combination of state failures and corporate state capture is tailor made to undermine public trust because it breaks the democratic fiscal contract in which tax is paid on a fair basis and revenues never confiscated. This corporate penetration of the state has occurred even as the dogmatic principle of self-regulation has been applied by politicians and there remains a near total lack of legal regulation around some of the most serious risks.

Regulatory drift occurs when formal rules are deliberately held constant in the face of major shifts in context, so that outcomes change. The UKs cross-party Committee on Standards in Public Life, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Public Accounts Select Committee have repeatedly called on governments to tighten the rules around conflicts of interest, second jobs, party finance, consultancy, lobbying and revolving doors. All of them have been rebuffed. To regulate political-corporate ties would have violated many of the core assumptions of the neoliberal project: that business actors are only ever honourable wealth-builders, that self-regulation is always superior to state action, that rational self-interest confers no unacceptable social losses.

The public reaction has been one of rising public distrust in political elites, the oxygen in which populism thrives. The most recent (2013) Transparency International Global Government Barometer showed the following attitudes for the UK:

These numbers might seem conspiratorial but what other terms should we use? We might have called it idealistic zeal in the early years of Thatcherite enterprise and New Labour modernisation, the utopianism of the project notwithstanding. At what point does it stop being good faith, however, when governments persist in the marketization of the state even in the face of systemic failures of neoliberal policy, strategy, and increasing costs? How high has the capacity for governmental self-delusion become when corporate actors are parachuted into the senior civil service and allowed to direct hard-earned public monies into even the most dubious of private hands? What else is it but corruption in its classic form when as consultants or on retirement ministers and even prime ministers charge rates of remuneration beyond the wildest dreams of the average voter in return for their knowledge and influence, from the very businesses they were supposed to govern in the public interest? Since even small side-payments are toxic to public trust, the current dispensation is surely mortal. Already by 2015 there were some 4,000 people working professionally in the UKs 2 billion lobbying industry, which made it the third largest lobby in the world. Everything, including the climate transition, is at stake unless we reverse the dynamics at hand before they reach their full, kleptocratic, Trumpian potential.

The political culture of public service inherited from the post-war era has been weakening with each new intake of Conservative MPs, though many persist with it against the odds. However, a fifth of the Conservatives 2019 new MPs had a background in lobbying or public relations. By 2020, the economic values of the partys MPs were far to the right of even their own councillors and party members, let alone the wider electorate. Johnsons second Cabinet is comprised of the parliamentary partys most committed economic libertarians and since coming to power they have sought to shatter this culture from the top. The Prime Minister himself has shown an overt nihilism around standards in public life, as indicated by the resignation of his Advisor on those standards and the failure to replace him. Even as tens of thousands of people died needlessly of Covid-19 because of late intervention, a VIP lane for procurement was organised so that suppliers with government contacts were ten times more likely to be awarded a procurement contract than those who applied to the Department of Health and Social Care.

What comparative history teaches us is that once the dynamics of corporate state capture take hold the risk is that political parties themselves become targets for those who choose politics for primarily private gain. If they rise to the top, the risk is that elections cease to be about representation and become the point of market entry and exit. Political parties become corporate brokers who oversee the continuous distribution of public revenue and rents into private hands. A populist, authoritarian politics becomes the effective way to corner this market.

Even in the context of a public health crisis, the Johnson Government exhibited an ideological allergy to engaging with public sector expertise and capacity until absolutely forced to by events. For economic libertarians, it is really not clear that there is any intrinsic moral injunction against their own private enterprise en route. Just as Leninism and Stalinism had stripped out the radical democratic republicanism of Karl Marx, so too neoliberalism in its purest form picks liberalism clean of its nineteenth and early-twentieth century ethical debates about the nature of republican virtues.

For economic libertarians, in principle the marketplace is designated as the sphere of true freedom: the only republic. The history of late stage materialist utopias in practice, however, is that in the absence of a viable social contract, the nexus between the governing regime and its society becomes that of a protection racket. Insofar as Rishi Sunak has proved keen on public spending, it is directed far more obviously at political self-perpetuation than the public interest: in the new 1billion Towns Fund justified as a way to level up deprived communities, 40 of the 45 chosen areas had a Conservative MP. An additional 4.6 billion fund was likewise found to include wealthy Conservative constituencies, even as some of the poorest cities in the country, such as Salford, which voted Labour, were relegated to a lower funding tier. As the sociologist Ken Jowitt concluded of the USSR: Brezhnevs novelty seems to have been to take the Partys organizational corruption and elevate it to the status of an organizational principle. The serious question for Conservative backbench MPs is whether, on reflection, they are willing to participate in their partys final ruin as a democratic entity, and to see the concepts of liberty and love of country deployed as their alibi.

______________________

About the Author

Abby Innes is an Assistant Professor at the European Institute of the LSE. She has written extensively on the political economy of corruption in Central Europe and is part of a UN/NYU transnational working group on corporate state capture. She is completing a manuscript on the systematic affinities between Neoliberal and Soviet economics. Its working title isLate Soviet Britain: The Political Economy of State Failure in Materialist Utopias.

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

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Absolutely frivolous, thats how the Supreme Court termed Waseem Rizvispetitionto remove26versesoftheQuran. While dismissing the petition,the Court also imposed a fineof Rs50,000 on the petitioner.Rizvi had alleged that these verses promoted enmity and violence against non-Muslims.

Waseem Rizvi should have taken his case to where it belonged the Islamic scholars, both traditional and modern,not the Supreme Court of India for a reinterpretation, not deletion of the verses.A review of Islamic theology and shaping of a new mode of religious thinking is long overdue among Muslims.

TheQuranneeds a new meaning, and a new interpretive classicism, to carry forward the achievements of modernity and enlightenment, not a rehashing of antiquated commentaries.

But Waseem Rizvi has been a man in such hurry for political celebrity as not to pauseanddraft a legally sustainable and intellectually tenable case. So riddled has been his petition with such elementary mistakes as quoting chapters and versesthatdont even exist in theQuran, and building a case on the basis of pedestrian canards, sectarian stereotypes and motivated gossips that it had been really liberal of the Supreme Court to admit it.

That such a petition could be admitted has been a cause of consternation since the Supreme Court adjudicates matters pertaining to the Constitution, not scriptures. If one were to draw on Stephan Jay Goulds schema of science and religion asNon-OverlappingMagisteria, the Constitution and theQuran one being a rational human document and another a result of mystical inspiration exist in their separate domains without impinging on the other.

Also read: Waseem Rizvi: Meet the most anti-Muslim Muslim man in India

Scriptures dont change. Their readers do. With changing times and values, new insights are brought into the reading of scriptures, and ever new meanings are discovered in them. Islams doctor maximus,Ibn al-Arabi(d. 1240), insisted that every time a Muslim recited a verse from theQuran, it should mean something different tothem.

Scriptural interpretation doesnt seek to revive a mythical utopia.It reinventsthe scripture to make it speak to our contemporary predicaments.

All religious scriptureshave mattersthatdont accord with modern sensibilities. Violence, misogyny and xenophobia are rife in them, yet they are considered sources of numinous elevation and consolation.

Most religious scriptures have once been a source of law. But their communities no longer regard them as such. Scriptures bring them intimations of the transcendent, not the legislation for the contemporary society.

Readers of other religions have stopped deriving law from scripturesand given it an interpretationthataccordswith contemporary sensibilities by reading down the offensive parts. Similarly,Muslims can read modern values into Islam too.

Muslims, however, continue to regard theQuranas the supreme source of law.So,a conflict is created between the laws of the secularState and the idealised Shariah, which gets accentuated on issuessuchas the treatment of minorities, gender justice and the commitment to democracy and secularism.

Insofar as other communities dont derive laws from their respective scriptures, dont claim to be inspired by them in their worldly affairs, and dont try to restore their utopian past, the anachronistic verses of their religious books are not dug out to make a case against them.

TheQuranuses many self-descriptors for itself such as the Recitation, the Book, the Reminder, the Warner, and the Bearer of Glad Tidings, but nowhere does it use an epithetthatcould remotely be considered an equivalent of law.

TheQuran, in its own words, is free from discrepancies (4:82, 39:23). But the reductionism involved in extracting laws for everyday life was bound to throw up myriad contradictions given the multitudinous diversity of human affairs.

Also read: Islams crisis doesnt need Reformation. It calls for relocation

The Fuqaha (Islamic jurists) were not equal to the spiritual and mystical dimensions of theQuran. Instead of reconciling these contradictions in the spirit of Coincidentia Oppositorum(the unity of opposites),they took an easy recourse to voiding those versesthatdidnt fit in their juristic model. This methodology is known asNaskh(Abrogation), wherein one verse overrides another, effectively rendering it juristically and normatively redundant without actually expunging it.

Asunnat, anhadees, or theijma(consensus of Islamic jurists) is also employed forreading downversesthatdont cohere with their jurisprudence. The famous jurist and exegete, Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201), named no less than 247 abrogated verses. On the lower side of the scale, Shah Waliullah of Delhi (d. 1762) kept the number to a meagre five.Naskhis the domain of Islamic theologians and jurists. The court of law of a secularState such as the Supreme Court of India is not the right forum for it.

Another hermeneutic and methodological tool of Islamic jurisprudence, theology and Quranic commentary is the concept ofSabab Nazul the occasion or the context of the revelation of a particular verse. Besides shedding light on the historicity of a verse, it also weighs the rationale for its trans-contextual extrapolation. Thus, if a particular verse,such as theSword Verse (9:5),could be understood only in its immediate context of revelation, its relevance would be purely historical and academic, not prescriptive and emulative.

Also read: Indian madrasas are thought-influencers. Their funding, modernisation should be priority

TheQuranis a book of some bulk consisting of as many as 6,236 verses. A few of them are taken out of their historical and textual context in isolation from the preceding and succeeding verses to impute malice to it. The blame for this disingenuous method, however, has to be placed on the shoulders of the conventional interpretive stylethathas been thriving on random quotation of a verse, or a part of it, to clinch an argument. Such has been the validity of this tradition that the ideological superstructure of the political Islam has been built without this methodology being brought into question with no more than 10-15 verses culled arbitrarily from here and there. So much so that the phrase,aqeem us-salat, whose standard translation is, be constant in prayers,was interpreted to mean a mandate for the establishment ofanIslamic state. Such instrumental use of theQuranmakes it vulnerable to a similar misuse by its detractors.

Till the time violence and obscurantism keep deriving legitimacy from theQuranand its classical interpretations, Islam will remain exposed to calumny.Mainstreaming a modern mode of Islamic thinking, an advance over the modern principles of liberty and justice, is an ineluctable exigency.

Najmul Hoda is an IPS officer. Views are personal.

(Edited by Neera Majumdar)

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This month were celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Book Reviews podcast, the first podcast at The Times and still going strong. Pamela Paul, the shows host and the editor of the Book Review, recently wrote about 15 of her favorite episodes from the eight years she has been at the helm. I thought I would expand the scope to the entire archive Sam Tanenhaus, Pauls predecessor, hosted for seven years and share 10 more memorable conversations. (As an editor at The Times, Ive had a hand in the podcast since 2011.) Below youll hear Toni Morrison discuss her vision for her novel A Mercy; Andre Agassi, Christopher Hitchens and Jeanette Winterson talk about their memoirs; Andrew Solomon on the profound lessons of death and dying; and more.

Nov. 30, 2008

This was a different era of the podcast, when each episode aired on the radio and had to fit a 15-minute template. So this extended conversation with Toni Morrison is, alas, only about seven minutes long. But given that its Morrison, theyre a full seven minutes. (Her segment starts about five minutes into the episode, after an update on the publishing industry.) Morrison spoke about why she set A Mercy when she did, beginning in the 1680s, because it was a time before there was even an idea of America, just the name of a continent, when the separation of whites, Black people and Native Americans wasnt as strictly codified as it would become. Dividing the world up ethnically or racially was a deliberate and sustained event that grew, she said. But before that, I just wanted to suggest what it could have been like. Before the narrative that we have now about the beginnings of this country.

Nov. 22, 2009

With all due respect to all of our guests over the years, some episodes, more than others, have no clear lead guest but multiple headliners, and this is one of those cases. Agassi was on the show to discuss his highly acclaimed autobiography, Open. He talked about the dislike of tennis that he felt through much of his youth and storied career, and about the process of finding and working with his co-writer, J.R. Moehringer. Stephen King was on this episode to talk not about his own work, but that of the great short story writer Raymond Carver. The occasion was twofold: a new biography of Carver, by Carol Sklenicka, and a collection of Carvers stories published by the Library of America.

June 20, 2010

Hitchens appeared on the podcast several times, but never more revealingly than in this episode to discuss his memoir Hitch-22. But in addition to getting personal about his father, his friendship with Martin Amis, his first experiences after moving to the United States he also makes time to discuss politics, including his impression of then President Barack Obama. I think that his humor and intelligence and niceness and open-mindedness may be in some ways a disadvantage to him, Hitchens said. Quite a lot of the major problems of our time do not, in fact, arise out of misunderstandings, as he sometimes gives the impression of thinking, or hoping, that they do.

March 25, 2012

If youre in a bad mood, I challenge you to listen to this interview with Jeanette Winterson and remain that way. Even though Winterson was appearing to talk about her troubled childhood and the portrayal of it in her unbeatably titled memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? her conversation is energetic and hyper-articulate, as if shes writing one of her books while she talks. She begins this segment talking about her adoptive mother: I call her a monster, but I say she was my monster. She was the big-screen character in the small screen of our lives. She had operatic dimensions.

In 2016, Andrew Solomon wrote about five books that concerned the subjects of death and dying. As he described them in his review: one by a historian; two by hospice workers; one by a widow; one by a man who is dying himself. Solomons visit to the podcast to discuss his piece and those books resulted in one of the more emotional and profound episodes in the shows history. Part of whats compelling about these books is that the enormous beauty thats in them constitutes a form of hope, Solomon said. So on the one hand, that people die, and on the other hand, that people live so richly in that instant before they die. And when you read these books, not only do you have to reconcile yourself to your own mortality, you also think, Maybe I can do that as beautifully as they did, and if I can, maybe it wont be so bad for me, for the people I leave behind; maybe the death of someone else wont be so bad for me. Theres a strange comfort thats buried in these books.

April 26, 2019

The historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. had two new books out when he sat down for this episode books covering similar ground but intended for different audiences. Stony the Road is about the backlash to Reconstruction and the establishment of Jim Crow. Dark Sky Rising is a work of nonfiction for young adults about the same era, which he co-wrote with Tonya Bolden. Wallace-Wells was on the show to discuss The Uninhabitable Earth, his terrifying book about our future in the face of climate change. Both guests proved that a depressing subject can sometimes be the best foundation for engaging conversation.

Dec. 13, 2019

Reginald Dwayne Betts came on the podcast to talk about his third collection of poems, Felon, and about his remarkable personal story: After spending more than eight years in prison for a carjacking he committed at 16, Betts earned a graduate degree in writing, then a doctorate in jurisprudence from Yale Law School, and has become an acclaimed memoirist and poet. Betts said that Felon was his attempt to write directly about the challenges, stigma and vulnerabilities that come with life after incarceration. I wanted to think about the ways in which its just this whole landscape of harm that exists that we dont address, he says. Its me trying to explore the complicated ways in which we figure out how to be human once we come home.

July 10, 2020

Regularly featuring critics as well as authors on the podcast is one of the things that we believe sets the show apart. When Daniel Mendelsohn reviewed David Mitchells novel Utopia Avenue on the cover of the Book Review, he used it as an occasion to also consider Mitchells varied and estimable career as a whole. This wide-ranging conversation on the podcast, about not just Mitchells work but about the general art of reading any author over the course of a long career, is a particular favorite from the critic category.

Continue reading here:

10 Memorable Conversations From 15 Years of the Book Reviews Podcast - The New York Times

Liz Henry knew she was moving her family of four into a very small space in 2013. The blue cottage between two larger houses stands out on the block, due to its lack of size.

But it wasnt until after the lease was signed that she discovered 48 Cortland Ave. in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco was the Shelby Mustang or Stradivarius of tiny houses: one of dozens of surviving 1906 earthquake shacks that are still scattered around the city. Some are lived in by people who dont realize their celebrity status.

It was very exciting, Henry says. I got into reading the history of how they were built. I remember going to look at the property records online and just seeing the official record listed as refugee shack.

There were once 5,610 refugee shacks in 11 San Francisco parks, assembled with lightning speed in the months after the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. Today, there are fewer than 50 identified in the city. But those that remain are a symbol of civic vision, built in a bureaucracy-free utopia that included a partnership among city officials, labor unions and the U.S. Army. Theyre also a symbol of post-crisis rebirth, designed to house the displaced workers who built back San Francisco better than ever.

And today, 115 years after the disaster, theyre the most visible reminder of the citys most defining event preserved by a shifting collection of regular citizens and nonprofit history organizations, advocates so dedicated to the shacks that they feel like a religious order.

14 Elsie Street, a surviving 1906 earthquake refugee cottage, is seen in San Francisco, California Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (Stephen Lam / The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Shack historian John Blackburn with the Bernal History Project volunteer research group sent The Chronicle a file that includes data sets, images and a 426-slide PowerPoint presentation. Asked what inspires him to spend so much time cataloging the small homes, when hes never lived in one, the retired private investigator answers, Everything.

They were simple, elegant, functional and timely, says Blackburn, a longtime Bernal resident. They served a need, and they are still serving a need all these years later. They are in essence the beginning of the tiny house movement, which today is all the rage.

The house builders werent being trendy when they started mass-producing shacks months after the earthquake and fire. Half of San Francisco had burned to the ground, and refugees moved to tent cities in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and other green spots. But the shelters were a ticking clock. Relief leaders feared they would become waterlogged and disease-ridden when heavy rains arrived later in 1906.

A tent camp in Golden Gate Park, April 1906, after the Earthquake and fire. (Chronicle Archive 1906 | San Francisco Chronicle)

Using redwood and fir lumber sent from Washington state and Oregon, the cottages were built in tight clusters in the parks with cooperation among the San Francisco Parks Commission, headed by John McLaren, the San Francisco Relief Corporation and the Army. Tenants paid $2 monthly rent on cottages valued at $50, with the option to own. And in 1907, many shack owners hauled their new property using literal horse power, becoming starter homes in empty lots across San Francisco and beyond.

They served the purpose while the city rebuilt, Blackburn says. They housed the working San Franciscans who helped put this city back on track after the 1906 earthquake. And then they were scattered about. Daly City, Manteca and all the places they went to. Even Santa Cruz has one.

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

Photo: Chronicle Archives

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

OurSF: 1906 Earthquake photo from the San Francisco Chronicle archive. Photographer unknown. Woman in front of her A-frame shack in a refugee camp

San Franciscans still live in 1906 earthquake shacks. Heres why they matter more than ever

Thats where the utopian vision ends and San Francisco NIMBYism begins. As early as 1907, newspapers report Glen Park residents fighting earthquake shack families from moving in because their property was being injured.

But the homes and their working class residents were welcome in Bernal Heights, where a large camp of cottages existed in Precita Park, and the great majority of the surviving San Francisco shacks stand today.

(Blackburn and the Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit that recently saved $180,000 worth of Cliff House artifacts at auction, list more than 40 shacks in various databases. A couple dozen are deemed certified, and many are hidden from the public eye. Blackburn believes more are yet to be discovered.)

One of four restored earthquake refugee shacks from Kirkham Avenue in San Francisco is moved for display on Market Street in 2006.

LisaRuth Elliott, a community historian and textile artist who has worked in international disaster recovery, says living in the earthquake shack she occupied until recently near Powhattan Avenue in San Francisco was a wonderful adventure.

It was very much like living on a boat, Id say. Very small, she says. We have a fascination in our culture of living in tiny houses. I really got a sense of what it meant to be in an efficient space.

The great majority of earthquake shacks were 10 by 14 feet, or 14 by 18 feet, with a stove but no kitchen or plumbing. Most were altered to add a bathroom and expand the living space often by linking multiple shacks together like houses in the board game Monopoly. (They were even painted the same color park-bench green.) Elliott thought her space was two shacks, only to discover her bedroom was a converted chicken coop built some time in the first half of the 20th century.

Liz Henrys family relaxes inside the Cortland Avenue home in Bernal Heights where she used to live. The structure was a modified 1906 earthquake shack.

Henry says her familys main living area at 48 Cortland Ave. was almost comically small; even with two bedrooms added on, the house is just 600 square feet. From the outside, the Cortland house resembles the one from the movie Up, in a valley between two much larger structures. But, Henry says, her now-grown children appreciate their memories of the space, which was like living in a log cabin.

It meant we all had to know how to get along, she says, and how to respect each others privacy and boundaries.

Elliott says she lived with space challenges, including food storage in a mini-fridge meant for a hotel room. The original shacks had pegs on the wall to hang clothes, and some of the survivors dont have much more. But all the shack-dwellers salute the sturdiness of the structures, betting that the redwood frames and simple peaked roofs could last a couple more centuries.

And of course, when you live in an earthquake shack in San Francisco, you also feel like youre already sort of one step ahead of the game if theres a bigger earthquake, Elliott says.

LisaRuth Elliott takes a photo inside the Bernal Heights home where she used to live, which was a modified 1906 earthquake shack. (Courtesy LisaRuth Elliott | San Francisco Chronicle)

Ultimately, rising property values, not the elements or natural disasters, have been the biggest threat to the shacks survival. As values climbed across the city, shacks were frequently razed and replaced by structures with 10 or 20 times the square footage. In the 1980s, a race began to save as many as possible from being demolished and replaced.

Jane F. Cryan is the godmother of shack-tivism. She moved into a cottage at 1227 24th Ave. in the Sunset District in 1982 and began collecting data on shacks, lobbying for preservation and eventually getting her rental home registered as City Landmark #171. Blackburn and San Francisco History Association member Vicky Walker (who once lived in the 48 Cortland Ave. shack) have shepherded this history into the present.

Cryan moved out more than a decade ago, priced out of San Francisco and now living in Wisconsin. But in an email interview, her memories of first setting eyes on the shack still read like poetry.

I knew instantly it was a monument to my dreams, a replica of the little houses surrounded by white picket fences I had treasured in childhood magazines and books, Cryan says.

Landmark no. 171 is actually an assemblage of four shacks. Cryan says golden light filtered through the 26 windows in the front and 16 windows in the rear shack. A recent inhabitant started an Instagram account about living in the landmark at 1227 24th Ave.

The Western Neighborhoods Project got its start in 2002 saving four earthquake shacks on Kirkham Avenue in the Sunset one of which found a home at the San Francisco Zoos Conservation Corner. Another pair, the so-called Goldie Shacks, were rescued with help from Cryan and can be publicly viewed behind the Old Post Hospital in the Presidio.

But many shacks have met other fates. Blackburn talks in more somber tones about 281 Nevada St. in San Francisco, a home that once had an entire earthquake shack within it, like a Russian nesting doll of real estate.

It was in the dining room, Blackburn says. The guy who used to own the house just didnt want to tear the shack down.

Sold in 2015, the property was recently demolished to build a new home.

(There are reportedly five shacks in the backyard of one Pacific Heights residence, although Blackburn says the owners prefer to stay out of the public eye.)

Perhaps more than the physical spaces, preservationists love the shacks for their design perfection and what they symbolize. Theyre living reminders of San Francisco at its very best, a community setting aside obstacles to build many small things, for the greater good of the entire city.

San Francisco natives Marsha and Bryan Britt stand on the sidewalk as they visit 1227 24th Avenue, a San Francisco City Landmark and a home made up of three Type A and one Type B 1906 earthquake refugee cottages after reading about its existence in San Francisco, California Wednesday, April 14, 2021. (Stephen Lam / The Chronicle | San Francisco Chronicle)

Blackburns giddy passion about earthquake shacks goes to a darker place when he thinks about the pandemic, and the struggle to house people whose lives are at stake. The cottages, he says, are a reminder of the challenges that our modern society is too fractured, too stubborn or too unambitious to conquer.

It is phenomenal what human beings can do when they have the will to do it in the midst of a crisis, Blackburn says. People do not learn from the past. They have allowed themselves to be bullied into submission.

Elliott says that living in a piece of surviving history makes her think about the kind of world shed like to live in.

Maybe (the modern version of the shack) is not a structure. Maybe its a system, she says.

Elliott has seen ambitious earthquake shack-style thinking during the 2020-21 pandemic, but at the neighborhood level by organizations such as the Mission Food Hub food bank and the Free Farm Stand.

Elliott and Henry both moved out of their earthquake shacks within the past year. Elliott needed a bigger space for her art, and Henry moved to a new home in Bernal just a few blocks away.

Blackburn, who winters in Tucson, Ariz., and admits hes behind in his cataloging, says he hopes interest in the shacks outlives him, just as it has for previous generations. The lessons of the shacks, he says, are timeless.

They banged these things out in a day. And people ended up having great lives in them and raising their kids and the city became whole, Blackburn says. It could happen again.

Peter Hartlaub is the San Francisco Chronicle culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

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San Franciscans still live in 1906 earthquake shacks. Here's why they matter more than ever - San Francisco Chronicle