if New York can die so can London

[luka]

you reckoned kabul was quite lively

 

[shakahislop]

i mean if it was, that is comprehensively dead now

 

[shakahislop]

it was the heart of a scene and the heart of the action. not for the creative forms and art that we're talking about in nyc and london. but it was a magnet for weirdos and extreme characters, it was the centre of the action for a few different industries, and there was a lot of money around. the filter for who would show up was strong.

 

[shakahislop]

no artists though. well, a few writers and filmmakers, but all non-fiction. why make shit up when the reality is so striking.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Luka's travel criticism is brilliant, he should have a TV show, like a more sophisticated Karl Pilkington.

 

[shakahislop]

i'm not saying that things aren't worse than they used to be, but there is obviously something frustrating about the idea that all of the cool shit and cool places to live etc etc stopped happening before i was born. ok nyc in the 70s and 80s was something special. that's cool. it's still class now and there's a load of stuff going on.

 

[luka]

yeah but anything looks good if you grew up in a tory village in oxfordshire

 

[shakahislop]

yeah but anything looks good if you grew up in a tory village in oxfordshire

it's one of the many advantages of being in the oxfordshire culture mafia alongside the obvious genetic ones

 

[luka]

This is annoying bullshit and you should regret posting it

the type of tourists that arrived at your idyllic californian beach town were probably quite a lot different to corpsey and his 25 closest mates arriving en masse and drinking tequila till 3am, pissing in the childrens sandpits and wearing traffic cones on their heads

 

[luka]

tourists in london dont bother me, in fact they pay my rent but i do find tourists objectionable when im being a tourist. i want to see authentic locals working at the regional handicrafts not americans in backwards baseball caps

 

[luka]

i want to be the only tourist there not feel like im on the meat train with all the other animals.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Looks like Amsterdam's had enough now and are finally taking steps to crack down on all the drugs and sex tourism.

 

[luka]

theyre always saying that though been hearing that for decades

 

[Benny Bunter]

True, we'll have to see what happens, but it looks like new laws are coming in now

Downside is they'll simply shift all the prostitutes out of the red light district to out of town warehouse-sized mega brothels, really grim.

 

[Benny Bunter]

They made a pact with the devil at some point, probably no way of getting out of it now.

 

[luka]

yyaldrins article was actually quite good. i know gus didnt read it he just got defensive cos he thought america was under attack. but the internet has changed how we travel in quite interesting ways and that is what the essay is about.

 

[luka]

it covers some of the same ground as our air b&b thread.

 

[shakahislop]

new people have been bred. the internet and all that has been around for long enough now. people who interact with foreign places in a new different way

 

[shakahislop]

the zero-budget couchsurfer traveller seems to be less of a thing now. but then in general the hippy thing that survived well into the 00s feels like its finally done and dusted. what i started to see a lot more in hostels by like 2015 were east asians with nice clothes.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Yyaldrins article? Where is it?

I hate air bnb too, starting to seep into my barrio over last few years, I've seen strange families coming into our building during the holiday period,makes me uneasy.