Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 7 Jan 2022It’s a good dome, simple as that.
SOURCES & Further Reading: The Great Courses lectures: “The Most Celebrated Edifice – The Pantheon” from Understanding Greek and Roman Technology by Stephen Ressler, and “Roman Art and Architecture” from The Roman Empire: From Augustus to The Fall of Rome by Gregory Aldrete. “The Pantheon” by Chris Legare via ATouchOfRome https://www.atouchofrome.com/the_pant…. Additionally, I have a university degree in Classical Studies.
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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January 8, 2022
Antique Antics: The Pantheon
December 28, 2021
“After the Second World War, the architecture-industrial complex … began a massive rebuilding of major cities”
In The Critic, Nikos A. Salingaros decries “architectural urbanicide”:
Biological life transforms energy from the sun into complexes of organic materials that either metabolize while remaining relatively fixed, or move about and eat each other. Human energy creates the analogous case of artifacts and buildings, which give us a healing effect akin to the feedback experienced from our interaction with biological organisms. This positive emotion corresponds to the mechanism of “biophilia”.
Women grow and nurture the human baby. They are predisposed to appreciate the created life form through an intense bond of love through beauty. Most people — though not all, a notable exception being the architect Le Corbusier — love babies and have a built-in reflex of smiling at the sight of one, even if it’s not their own. Beauty is inseparable from creation and life.
Established architecture in our times, and for a century before now, has been an almost exclusively male domain, dominated by sheer power. The profession has aligned itself with ideology and extractive money interests. A design movement that ignores living structure took dominance after World War II. It thrives through global consumption. Mathematical analysis can measure very precise living qualities embedded in design and materials, such as fractal scaling, multiple nested symmetries, color harmonization, organized details, vertical axis, etc. Recent experimental tools of eye-tracking and artificial intelligence using Visual Attention Software determine which designs attract the eye unconsciously, and which remain uninteresting to our sophisticated brain evolved for survival.
[…]
After the Second World War, the architecture-industrial complex of building and real estate industries began a massive rebuilding of major cities. This freed up real estate for new construction, an activity that enriched a certain section of society. Working with politicians at all levels, architectural review boards did not value traditional buildings, nor those in any of several new but non-modernist form languages. Any qualms about the irreversible destruction of the life of cities were offset by the media convincing the population that this was an inexorable and much desired move towards progress. Anybody opposing this program of architectural substitution — replacing living by dead structure — was labeled an obscurantist reactionary. The promised utopia seduced academia to join this campaign. People failed to realize that an ideology ostensibly linked to Marxist beliefs was driven by ruthless industry manipulation.
Nevertheless, architects don’t tear down buildings: it is real estate speculators who do. Those corporate entities are amoral, willing to do anything for profit. It’s not their responsibility to save valuable older buildings; that task falls upon society, which has failed miserably in this duty. The various mechanisms that are supposed to protect a perfectly sound and health-inducing building become a cruel joke when such a building is demolished. A decision is taken outside the light of public scrutiny, while implementing the strategy of the fait accompli — after the bulldozers and wreckers, it’s too late to do anything.
The story of the systematic destruction of the UK’s architectural heritage is long and ugly. To mention just one example, the corrupt Newcastle City Council Member Thomas Daniel Smith managed to erase large swaths of central city districts and replace them with cheaply-built glass-and-steel monstrosities before he was jailed in 1974. Smith worked closely with dishonest — and extremely successful — architect John Poulson, who was also jailed in 1974. He appealed directly to democratic and liberal sentiments to further his ambitions, and the political class at the time fell for his manipulations. This sordid story repeats, with only minor variations, except that the other urbanicides were never prosecuted.
December 21, 2021
“Modernizing” Notre-Dame
The restoration plans for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris included some wild and whacky ideas for the exterior. Fortunately, the citizens of Paris persuaded the authorities to restore the outside of the building to as close as possible to the beautiful original. The fate of the interior — including the undamaged portions — is not yet settled:
All great art was contemporary once, but it would be a mistake to conclude from this that therefore some contemporary art must be great. The fact is that there are fallow periods in the history of art — the Golden Age of Dutch painting evaporated with astonishing swiftness — and we are going through just such a fallow period now.
Hence the idea that the refurbishment of the interior of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after its terrible fire two and a half years ago should include contemporary art is, to say the least, contestable. It is difficult to think of ancient churches in which art of the last century has been a great adornment, and in general it is a relief to find that, when present, such art is not actually a terrible blot or assault on the interior of the church.
In fact, the plan to modernize the interior of Notre-Dame applies to that part of it that was undamaged by fire, so that the plan appears to be the seizing of a longed-for opportunity rather than a desire to restore the church to its former glory.
Given the state of French taste in such matters, at least among those with the power to decide anything, one trembles for the future of the church. All contemporary French public buildings are monstrosities, from the Opéra Bastille and the Ministry of Finance in Paris to the Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes. The more that is spent on them, they worse they get. They almost always desecrate their surroundings, as if their architects wanted to take their revenge on previous ages, as mediocrity revenges itself on genius.
Some of the plans that emerged for restoring the roof of Notre-Dame after the fire would have defied belief were it not that we are now so inured to architectural madness that such folly was more to be expected than it was surprising. The proposed plans included everything from a swimming pool to a greenhouse, probably with the intention for growing cannabis.
The public outcry was sufficient that the government decided that the roof should be restored as near as possible to its former state, thwarting those who said that every age should leave its mark on great monuments.
But the idea that every age should bring something of its own to the great monuments of the past is not French alone: the Soviets, for example, thought the same way about the Kremlin in Moscow, and built the Palace of Congresses, a standard monstrosity completely out of keeping with the rest of the buildings that composed it, in its very heart. How could the Soviets have claimed superiority to the pre-revolutionary regime, they thought, if they added nothing distinctly their own to the Kremlin?
Update: At First Things, Samuel Gregg is also viewing the prospect with some (justified) alarm:
Apart from the post-Vatican II liturgy wars, few topics are more likely to set off fierce disputes within Catholic dioceses than architecture — or, more precisely, proposals for renovating church structures and interiors.
One doesn’t have to be an enthusiast of Counter-Reformation baroque to recognize that, from the late 1950s onward, a contemporary stripping of the altars was carried out in many Western countries in the name of renewal. In The Spirit of the Liturgy, Joseph Ratzinger called it a “new iconoclasm” that “eliminated a lot of kitsch and unworthy art, but ultimately … left behind a void.” For decades, it seems, beauty was out, and a mixture of infantilism and neo-Stalinist brutalism was in.
[…]
Some of these tensions burst into public view recently, when plans for reconstructing the interior of Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral were leaked to the British press. The proposed redesign includes a “discovery trail” that will take visitors through fourteen themed chapels, each with a text projected upon the wall and a contemporary work of art, to “create a fecund dialogue between contemporary creation and the church” — whatever that means. The plan also proposes shunting aside many classical sculptures and most of the confessionals, using sound-and-light shows to create “emotional spaces” and explain basic Christian teachings in multiple languages, installing luminous “mobile benches” (which can be moved aside to make more room for tourists after Mass), and adding a stained-glass window and chapel wall overlain by a contemporary abstract painting of clouds.
The proposed changes were submitted to France’s Commission nationale du patrimoine et de l’architecture last week, as per an agreement between the archdiocese of Paris and the French government about who gets to decide what about the cathedral restoration. The commission approved the redesign with two exceptions: The statues must not be removed from the redesigned chapels, and the plan for mobile benches must be reviewed. The commission also offered verbal assurance that no object or painting that was inside Notre-Dame before the fire will be removed from the cathedral.
Catholic and non-Catholic designers and art critics alike have expressed dismay at the plans, denouncing them as, among other things, the equivalent of a “politically correct Disneyland” and a “woke theme park”. The man behind the plans, Fr. Gilles Drouin, has defended the redesign by arguing that we can’t assume the 12 million tourists who will wander through the cathedral each year will know much about Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular. The new interior, he asserts, will make Christian teaching more accessible to contemporary visitors.
Fr. Drouin is right that profound religious ignorance is the rule rather than the exception for contemporary Western Europeans. Furthermore, Catholic churches are not supposed to be forever frozen circa 1756. Every generation of Catholics can contribute to the ways that their churches give glory to God. But church architects and liturgists must realize that no matter how hard they try, they’ll never be able to “out-contemporary” their secular peers in attempts to make the faith speak to the so-called moment. And anyone seriously interested in evangelization through church design should consider that using electronic sound and light shows to disrupt the current architectural harmony of Notre-Dame, which has inspired both Mass-goers and visitors for centuries, is likely not the best way to communicate the transcendent beauty of the faith to tourists.
December 4, 2021
QotD: Still making dystopia
It is now three years since James Stevens Curl’s Making Dystopia was first published. Professor Curl’s book revised the history of architecture in the 20th century, exposing the standard curriculum taught to students as a poorly-conceived fabrication. The truth, backed by the mountains of evidence he cited, was frightening.
Curl’s critique of the theory and practice of modernism demolished the economical-ethical-political arguments put forward for decades that justified forcing people to live in inhuman environments. It was all a power-play, to drive humane architecture and its practitioners into the ground so that a new group of not very competent architects and academics could take over.
Alas, after three years, the situation is much the same as it was before 2018. Whoever practised humane architecture continues to do so today. Practitioners who have always applied Curl’s philosophy include Classical and Traditional architects, and followers of Christopher Alexander (who do not necessarily use a Classical style, but reject the modernist design straightjacket so as to create a more living structure). Those who produced image-based inhumane architecture have not changed tack or been influenced in any perceivable way.
Curl’s book covers human-scale developments that were allowed at the margins of the profession during several decades, as long as they didn’t threaten the core where the spotlight shines. Practitioners the world over, most often working in isolation, produce excellent and humane buildings. That work is hardly ever seen in the media, certainly never in the architecture journals. I’m sure that those architects now feel vindicated. It is possible that Curl’s book provides a rallying point for those who desire a new, humane architecture.
Nikos A. Salingaros, “Still making dystopia”, The Critic, 2021-08-30.
December 2, 2021
TIKAL – greatest city of the Maya
Lindybeige
Published 1 Dec 2021Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: http://ow.ly/TzQv30rNQ5z
Here I take you with me on my first day at Tikal, in the jungles of Guatemala. Archaeology, wildlife, strange sounds, and a sunset. The overgrown remains of a stone-age civilisation.
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November 29, 2021
A Historical Tour of Hagia Sophia
toldinstone
Published 28 Nov 2020You’ve heard about Hagia Sophia‘s famous dome. But what about the miraculous column, the Viking graffiti, and the portrait of Byzantium’s worst emperor?
For more on Roman art and architecture, check out my book Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
https://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statues-…
If you’re so inclined, you can follow me elsewhere on the web:
https://www.patreon.com/toldinstone
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorian…
https://www.instagram.com/toldinstone/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show…Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:49 Justinian and his church
2:55 Construction of Hagia Sophia
4:11 Exterior
4:49 Exonarthex
5:14 Narthex
5:51 Vestibule of the Warriors
6:36 Imperial Gate
7:53 The Nave and Dome
10:37 Omphalos
11:12 Apse Mosaics
12:00 Column capitals
12:25 Weeping Column
13:07 Galleries
13:42 Gates of Heaven and Hell
14:01 Deësis mosaic
14:29 Tomb of Dandolo
15:14 Imperial mosaics of the South Gallery
17:28 Nordic runes
17:50 Alexander mosaic
18:26 ConclusionThanks for watching!
October 19, 2021
Places – Lost in Time: The Crystal Palace
Ruairidh MacVeigh
Published 1 Jun 2020This is a reupload of my original Crystal Palace video, which I had to take down and do some amendments to in order to fix some technical issues.
Hello! 😀
Not to change the format so early in it’s conception, but here I present an idea I’ve had for several years now, but am proud to finally bring to fruition.
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by places that have either been abandoned or destroyed, not so much out of interest for how they were lost, but more the microcosm of society that revolved around them — how people interacted with them and made them more human. Specifically, places which existed in living memory or photographic record are the ones that have captured my imagination the most, as you can see how people did interact with these wondrous locations and almost put yourself in their shoes.
Therefore, without further ado, I present Episode 1 of Places — Lost in Time, with my first feature being the lavish and opulent Crystal Palace in London. This video follows the history of the two structures to share this iconic name, and how both were created through Victorian engineering feats, how they became icons of British culture, and how they eventually met their end.
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated YouTubers. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of “Unknown”, and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
If you enjoyed this video, why not leave a like, and consider subscribing for more great content coming soon.
Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! 😀
References:
– British Library (and their respective references)
– Victoria and Albert Museum (and their respective references)
– Wikipedia (and its respective references)Music – YouTube Audio Library
October 18, 2021
“If Extinction Rebellion had brains, they’d be blockading building sites rather than airports”
In The Critic, Andrew Hunt runs through the invisible environmental costs of the building industry and points out that despite the eye-opening amount of carbon emissions, the buildings we’re putting up everywhere are just not built to stand the test of time:
In the run up to COP26, you can be sure we won’t be spared the preaching about windmills, electric cars and heat pumps, along with pious admonishments against any form of human pleasure, from taking holidays to eating a steak. As always, those in charge will ignore the elephant in the room. The world’s biggest polluter by far is the construction industry. According to the UN, it produces 38 per cent of global emissions. By comparison, airlines produce just 2 per cent. If Extinction Rebellion had brains, they’d be blockading building sites rather than airports.
Politicians seem equally blind. They fetishise house-building, but fail to notice that building even a two-bed house creates 80 tonnes of carbon and uses 150 tonnes of materials – the same amount of landfill as an average household creates over 300 years! By comparison, powering your house produces about 2 tonnes of CO2 per year. Even if you could build a truly net zero home tomorrow (which you can’t), it would take forty years to break even.
A big part of the problem is modern construction materials. Producing concrete (180kg of CO2/tonne) and steel (1.85 tonnes of CO2/tonne!) are two of the most ubiquitous and environmentally destructive industries on the planet. By contrast, sandstone has a carbon footprint of just 77kg/tonne, and wood can be CO2 negative as it locks in carbon. Those old materials last longer as well. There are stone buildings that have been knocking around for more than a millennium — Rome’s Pantheon is 1900 years old. If treated properly, wooden buildings can last almost as long. The world’s oldest inhabited house in the Faroe Islands is 900 years old and built from wood. China’s ornately carved Nanchang Temple has been welcoming Buddhists since the 8th century.
Pre-stressed concrete meanwhile has a lifespan of 50-100 years, meaning many of the first concrete structures have already crumbled into carcinogenic dust.
It’s not just the materials. For buildings to last, we must love them enough to preserve them.
In a little-known study, “Sustainable Build Heritage“, a group of Danish academics looked at why some buildings stand for centuries while others are demolished in as little as a generation. Their conclusion was that buildings that last are made of good materials, are functional and, above all, are beautiful. They acknowledged the timelessness of traditional notions of beauty: how some buildings give us the same gut reactions as they did our ancestors. Copenhagen is of course full of examples — not least her colourful townhouses that have been standing for over two centuries. They have had to be adapted, but they have always been popular places to live.
Closer to home, badly built eyesores are being torn down barely a generation after their construction: tower blocks from the 60s, council offices from the 70s and shopping centres from the 90s. That’s billions of tonnes of fossil fuels and mining degradation ending up as landfill.
Has anything been learnt? The Prime minister’s “Build Back Better” plan is in no way green. Construction can never be green. Is it possible to conceive of a crueller thing to do to future generations than a debt-fuelled frenzy of brutalist carbuncles that will be theirs to demolish? When Greta Thunberg described Build Back Better as “blah-blah-blah”, she was being generous. It’s an environmental catastrophe.
October 16, 2021
City Minutes: Indigenous America
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 15 Oct 2021As we look at four pre-Columbian American cities, I don’t know whether to be more impressed with the the architecture or the landscaping. Probably both.
More Indigenous Myths & History:
The Five Suns (https://youtu.be/dfupAlon_8k)
Quetzalcoatl (https://youtu.be/451jzIesWoU)
Huitzilopotchli (https://youtu.be/Zj-jDOjBets)
El-Dorado (https://youtu.be/UHzkGueRz3g)
Pele (https://youtu.be/q1z19p48lZU)
Hawaii (https://youtu.be/xYouQESFE2A)Teotihuacan shirt: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/903…
Timestamps:
0:00 – 1:03 — Teotihuacan
1:03 – 2:04 — Tikal
2:04 – 3:00 — Tenochtitlan
3:00 – 4:08 — Cusco
4:08 – 5:20 — ConclusionSOURCES & Further Reading: The Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich, The Great Courses lectures “The Great City of Teotihuacan” and “Tikal – Aspiring Capital of the Maya World” and “The Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan” from lecture series Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed by Edwin Barnhart, and “Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley” and “The Inca – From Raiders to Empire” from lecture series The Lost Worlds of South America by Edwin Barnhart.
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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October 6, 2021
Let’s Visit Finland (1935) – Helsinki Liinakhamari Lapland Arctic Ocean Highway
PeriscopeFilm
Published 2 Aug 2020Love our channel? Help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
This travelogue film shows Finland in the 1930’s. It was presented by Joseph Harris and Martin Ross. Finland is in northern Europe bordering Sweden, Norway and Russia. The capital city of Helsinki as well as the Arctic Ocean Highway running to the port of Liinakhamari which once touched the Arctic Ocean will be shown. It refers to Helsinki as Helsingfors which is the former Swedish name of the capital. The Arctic Ocean Highway was rerouted after WW2. Finland had long been a battleground due to the imperial ambitions and growing pains of Sweden and Russia. Finland was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1807 (:32). A 1917 revolution overthrew the Czarist regime (:38). Due to wars and fires, few remnants existed of historical value in Helsinki (:47). Some of the old wooden houses have managed to remain (:53). Granite columns and entryways of the city point to early architects’ desire to use the country’s reserve of granite (1:14). Russian influence is exemplified in a Russian style church (1:35) and the cathedral of St. Nicholas (1:38). Architects sought to stray from the influences of foreign domination (1:45). The red granite railway station in the Market Square (1:59), the parliament building (2:05) and white factory buildings show no allegiance to former occupiers (2:08). A newly erected suburb consisting of flats constructed with reinforced steel (2:26) lay encircled by forests and lakes. Roads are lined with trees and intermittent flower beds (2:49). Helsinki harbor follows (2:59). Town parks and gardens were erected with artistic sculptures throughout showing Finland’s growing appreciation for the arts (3:22). The capital is also the terminus of the road leading northward for over a thousand miles to the port of Liinakhamari (3:34). A map is provided which still has USSR on it as this was before the fall of Soviet Russia (3:35). The port of Liinakhamari lay about 300 miles beyond the polar circle (3:43). The film follows this road which remains concrete for 20 miles after leaving the capitol (3:58). Land alongside had been cleared for agriculture (4:06). A farmer reaps hay with a scythe as modern farm machinery had not yet reached the area (4:34). A striking feature of the Finnish countryside are the impaled corn husks on wooden poles for drying (5:03). A double arched bridge of granite follows crossing one of the waterways along the route (5:09). A close up shot of the farm houses show they are crudely erected structures reminiscent of the middle ages (5:28). Corn fields dissipate and the countryside becomes hilly and wooded (6:03). Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, though it should be known as the land of 60,000 lakes (6:11). The route continues on for 300 miles until hitting another agricultural district (6:44) sprinkled with one-story windmills. It continues around the Gulf of Bothnia (6:54). The only important town along the way is Oluu where the Oulujoki River cuts the city into three (7:28). Uneven cobblestone roads (7:38) and wooden buildings with elaborate ornate facades. Rivers float timber out from the forests (8:18). Finland’s timber industry racks in 80 million pounds annually (8:28). The timber is sent to sawmills along the coast (9:35). Stacks along the road await trucks (9:40). A car heads to be taken across a river by ferry as bridges become less frequent (10:27). The pulley system is operated by the ferryman, his young daughter and by the passengers (10:45). The government auctioned the ferries to those who would operate them at the lowest cost (11:02). Further on, another farm area appears with small white wooden churches (11:33). Most of the water for homes are sourced by well (11:49). The road then re-enters the wilderness (12:03). A sign with “Arctic Circle” in four different languages (12:05) follows as the road crosses the imaginary line marking the Arctic circle. Cattle are wandering through the road (12:31), hay farms (13:08), and stacks of wood to heat the homes in the winter (13:24). A housewife washes her clothes using water from a brook (13:32). The road hits Lapland (13:54) and turns into a dirt road (14:01). Reindeer feed on the lichen in winter (15:05). A log hut has reindeer antlers placed on top (15:22). Laplanders with their colorful handcrafted headdresses and pointed toe tall boots (15:43). Vegetation becomes stunted while approaching the northern coastline (16:29). The film wraps up as the road reaches the deep-water port of Liinakhamari (16:40).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
October 4, 2021
History Summarized: Sicily
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 1 Oct 2021The plot twist of Medieval Italian History is that the main event was happening in the South — In the centuries before the Renaissance, Sicily and southern Italy were sporting one of the most spectacular cultures in the world, combining the greatest hits of Mediterranean history in one place. It’s way cool, you guys.
SOURCES & Further Reading: Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History by John Julius Norwich, The Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich, Great Courses Lectures “Muslims in the Court Of Roger II – 1130” from Turning Points in Middle Eastern History by Eamonn Gerron and “Renaissance Italy’s Princes and Rivals” from Renaissance: The Transformation of the West by Jennifer McNabb
This video’s topic was requested by our patron Salvatore Corasaniti. Thank you for supporting our channel!
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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From the comments:
Overly Sarcastic Productions
2 days ago
I can’t even begin to describe how much Ancient Sicily Content™ I had to cut for time.
Fear not, Magna Graecia will get the spotlight it deserves in another video.
-B
August 31, 2021
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Genius of the Industrial Revolution
Biographics
Published 23 Mar 2020Check out Brilliant: https://brilliant.org/biographics
Check out Business Blaze: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYY5…
This video is #sponsored by Brilliant.
TopTenz Properties
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Source/Further reading:
Oxford National Dictionary of Biography: https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.109…
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Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/…
History Today: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/…
The Thames Tunnel: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor…
The atmospheric railway: https://www.theguardian.com/science/t…
SS Great Britain accident: https://www.ssgreatbritain.org/about-…
August 10, 2021
Art Deco in the 1920s
The1920sChannel
Published 1 Nov 2019The aesthetic of the 1920s was certainly unique and instantly recognizable. For those of us (me included) who don’t know much about art, it’s difficult to pinpoint the characteristics. The most important art movement of the ’20 was Art Deco. So here’s a closer, though unprofessional, look at 1920s aesthetic.
July 1, 2021
QotD: Life at “Flyover State” in the 1990s
Something felt off when I arrived at Flyover State to take up my first teaching gig. It took me a while, but I finally figured it out: Everything, everywhere, was just ugly.
“Blandly utilitarian” was about the best that one could say about the least offensive campus architecture; “brutalist monstrosities” was closer to the truth for most of it. And as with the campus, so with the town — the off-campus housing was beautiful old Victorian houses ripped up and made into “efficiency” apartments, crammed cheek by jowl with poured-concrete boxes that looked like barracks for low-ranking Party members in the Pyongyang suburbs. The public parks were nicely landscaped, but each featured some publicly-subsidized “art” that made you want to gouge your eyeballs out. Every single space had wheelchair ramps, and was festooned with enough signs to give M. Night Shyamalan wood. It was hideous.
As with the built environment, so with human behavior. Everyone on the faculty looked like a refugee from 1968, but instead of toking righteous bud, they’d been taking sriracha enemas. The shopkeepers who catered to them were seemingly locked in a contest to out-obnoxious each other over their leftwing politics, and as for the few tradesmen who provided vital services, they had the warm and welcoming vibe of a DMV supervisor. Not that I blame them for this — I ended up hanging out with a lot of those guys at a townie bar, and trust me, being called out to work at a professor’s home is exactly the kind of experience you think it is. Hurry up and fix the leaky pipe, bigot, while I lecture you about your privilege … then try to stiff you on the bill. (Same thing in reverse for the students). So they came off like cops, assuming that everyone they met was a dyed-in-the-wool asshole until proven otherwise.
Life in a college town, then, is soulless, instrumentalist, transactionalist — everything’s for sale, but everything had best be spelled out, in writing, in triplicate. Nobody’s from there, nobody stays there, so everything is always on the arm. No one and nothing is ever on the level; everyone is always looking to chisel everyone else. And, ironically, the longer someone stays there, the more likely xzhey are to push this attitude to near-platonic perfection — eggheads all believe, with all their hearts and souls, that they deserve to be at Harvard, so when Harvard doesn’t come calling, the days and months and years become an intolerable insult. How dare they expect me to live like this, in a place designed to cater to my every whim, making only 100 large per year! It’s an outrage!!
Looking back on it, I see now why I hated the 1990s so much. Eggheads are incredibly conservative about everything but their politics, but in this one case, they really were as “progressive” as they fancy themselves. Before just about anyone else, they embraced the globohomo ethos of rootless piracy. Then as now, they all claimed to hate “sportsball” (if you’ll forgive an anachronism for clarity’s sake) with the heat of a thousand suns, but they could’ve given LeBron James lessons on how to be a backstabbing, glory-hogging, money-chasing, utterly mercenary douchebag. As early as the late 1980s, they found the idea of remaining loyally in one institution, building it up as a service to the community, as laughable as modern sportsballers find sticking in one city in order to be a role model. Fuck that, give me mine!!!
Severian, “Everything Is Ugly New”, Rotten Chestnuts, 2021-02-15.
June 22, 2021
History Summarized: The Athenian Temple at Sounio
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 29 Sep 2017On my summer vacation, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Cape Sounio, at the southern tip of Attica at sunset, and I have to say it was one of the most historically exciting moments of my life. For all I myself have said about the Athenian empire, seeing the view from this temple made everything click into place and feel tangibly real for the first time ever (even my 10+ trips to the Parthenon over the course of my childhood didn’t do that). So uh … here’s 7 minutes of me gushing about it under the thin guise of persuasive historical argumentation.
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