Speaking of brutalism... when the concrete falls off and crashes onto the walkway, you do not want to be there.

I'm reading "Concrete slab falls from third-floor patio of Van Hise Hall on UW-Madison campus" (Wisconsin State Journal).

I've always hated this ugly and very prominent building on campus, and now the ugly thing is expressing hate back at us.

Wikipedia says it's the second tallest building in Madison, the tallest being the state Capitol, but because it's on a hill, it's the highest building in the city. I see it's "slated to be demolished in 2025." Maybe take it down as soon as possible. It's trying to kill us.

When I think of a hateful building trying to kill us, I think of "Life and Times of Thomas House," by Mark Beyer (click image for much better clarity):



"Arrgh I'm so frustrated. Expressing hostility toward humans isn't going to help my situation," says Thomas, and we can only hope that Van Hise Hall has that level of insight.

***

There is no comments section anymore, but you can email me here. Unless you say otherwise, I will presume you'd enjoy an update to this post with a quote from your email.

"The Madison Reunion will be a nostalgic homecoming for lefty activists who called Madison home in the 1960s. But it won’t be the only game in town."

Isthmus reports.

“We heard about the Madison Reunion being organized from people telling us, ‘I don’t see anything I’m interested in here, this isn’t the radical Madison I know.’ It’s organized as an academic conference,” says Sarah White, a member of the local Gray Panthers and an organizer of the Radical Perspectives teach-in....

[There will be] a dozen workshops planned for Saturday, June 16, ranging from “Women Unmasking Power & Building Movements” to “The New Left’s Radical Legacy For Today.” There’s also a kickoff event the night before, including Max Elbaum reading from his book Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che.

“I’d say there’s a Marxist throughline to what we’re doing that you haven’t heard in a few decades,” White says....

The approach at the teach-in will be hands-on, with an emphasis on connecting older radicals with young people who are active today. “It’s about passing the torch,” White says. “We’re old, we can’t march in the streets anymore, we have to pass the torch to other people. People are really eager to engage in dialogue with young activists.”

That’s why there are several panels on high school activism....

IN THE COMMENTS: Referring to the topic — from an earlier post — of ambiguous headlines ("crash blossoms"), rehajm writes:

Women Unmasking Power & Building Movements

There’s your crash blossom.

And I said:

Good observation.

And now I'm picturing a building that shits.

And I realize that I can picture a building that shits, because I've seen a lot of great anthropomorphized buildings drawn by one of my favorite artists Mark Beyer. Example:



From "Life and Times of Thomas House," by Mark Beyer.

The Amsterdam Notebooks—Page 21.

It's Day 21 of this 35 day project. (The set thus far.) This page, perhaps my favorite in the whole set, is strongly influenced by Mark Beyer's thoroughly brilliant comic "Amy & Jordan," which I'd just read.



(Enlarge.)