Tawuran Blog

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Top 10 American Cities with Most Attractive People

01. Charleston

This South Carolina city bumped off perennial winner Miami this year; have the good-looking people really migrated north? Charlestonians also score high for friendliness, rank second for their classic sense of style, and even make the top 10 for intelligence. To see if it’s all true, just stroll the streets of this quaint city, which also ranks No. 1 for its noteworthy neighborhoods.

What makes the people of one city so good-looking and the folks elsewhere…well, not so much? Do some cities become magnets for the Greek god and goddess types, or does the mere act of living in a certain area actually have a transformative effect? Whatever the reasons, in this year’s America’s Favorite Cities survey, voters told us that good weather and great shopping go hand-in-hand with attractiveness. San Diego and Miami, for example, did well in all three categories, ending up among the top five cities to find America’s most attractive people. 09 More after the break...

02. San Diego

Maybe it’s all those sunny blondes in this SoCal city, or just the fact that everyone looks good when the forecast is perfect (its weather ranks No. 1), but San Diego maintains its No. 2 ranking in this category from last year. Certainly the locals take good care of themselves, jogging along the beaches: the city also ranks No. 2 for its athletic citizens.

03. Savannah

This newcomer to the America’s Favorite Cities survey makes a bold entrance into this category. The Georgia city also racks up a huge number of No. 2 berths in the survey, thanks in large part to its ever-so-appealing denizens.

04. Miami

Who cares if these Floridians don’t come off as brainy or even terribly nice? AFC readers ranked them near the bottom for both friendliness and smarts. But though they’ve lost their grip on the No. 1 ranking in this category, Miamians are still top-five material. Perhaps that’s because they seem to be out at the gym (No. 10 for athletic) or just out shopping. Miami ranks No. 9 for luxury boutiques and No. 3 for style.

05. Salt Lake City

Salt Lake is a survey newbie, but that didn’t stop it from cracking the upper echelon of this list. And the Utah natives rank about the same as an overall package: they’re top 10 for being physically active, friendly, and intelligent. They’re a pretty trustworthy bunch too—the city ranks No. 1 for safety.

06. Honolulu

Those island breezes toss the hair in a nice way—and no doubt all that hula dancing nicely tones the abs. The locals in the Hawaiian capital rank sixth for staying fit. And if you want to seize the moment, Honolulu is also the No. 1 city for romance.

07. San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan is one of three newcomers to the survey that cracked the top 10 in this popular category. The locals here certainly know how to charm visitors in many ways: they also made it into the top 10 for friendliness and for dressing to the nines (No. 6 for style).

08. Austin

People in the Texas capital are smart (No. 5) and amiable (No. 8 for friendliness), and they stay in shape too (No. 4 for being active). Luckily, it’s fun finding them, too: Austin ranks No. 2 for both its live music and bar scene.

09. Denver

Even though the Mile High City ranks second for its microbrews, there’s no need to pack your beer goggles when coming for a visit. (The city did slip three spots from last year in this category, however.) Denver also ranks No. 2 for its parks and outdoor spaces, and the fit locals make the most of it, ranking No. 1 for being athletic.

10. Nashville

Something about those cowboy hats must flatter the face—and being able to sing doesn’t hurt either. Music City types don’t go for rhinestones as much as they used to, which maybe helped them land at No. 10 for style. But folks are still plenty country: they rank No. 10 for farmers’ markets and No. 3 for a howdy-there friendliness.

Via— Link

Rock garden in Chandigarh

The Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a 40-acre park full of plazas, waterfalls and thousands of unique creatures made from recycled materials. It’s a truly impressive sight, but even more so is the story of how Nek Chand spent four decades creating it and how he kept it a secret, for years. More images after the break...

In 1958, Nek Chand was a road inspector for the Public Works Department, and was making rafts and boats to be sail upon the recently created Sukhna Lake, but peddle boats were soon made available for rent by authorities, and his craft was banned. This allowed Nek to devote more time to his passion for rocks and stones, and he began gathering them from the nearby Shivalik Hills, and the Sukhna Cho, Patiala Rao and Ghaggar rivers. It was around this time that the Swiss architect Le Corbusier was asked to design the city of Chandigarh, the first planned city of India, and the small villages around the area were demolished. This provided Nek Chand with plenty of material for his increasing collection of rocks.

In 1965, after putting together an impressive collection of waste from the destroyed villages, Nek Chand began dreaming of a fairytale kingdom of his own. After all, he was working on creating the utopian city of Chandigarh, so he wondered if he couldn’t create a world of his own, out of the rabble he spent so much time gathering. He found a secluded gorge, in the forest on the outskirts of the city, and decided that’s where he was going to build his magical kingdom. At the end of each work day, he would disappear into the forest and tend to his vision, at the light of burning tires. Nek was afraid this dream of his would cost him his job, since it was very much an illegal project, but this didn’t stop him from expanding the Rock Garden with each passing day. Shards of broken pots and bottles, brick fragments and natural stones, these were the main ingredients used to create a unique world, inhabited by marvelous creatures.

Eventually, he built up the courage to see M.N. Sharma, Chandigarh’s chief architect about his marvelous project. Reluctant to accompany Nek Chand into the forest, this disciple of Le Corbusier eventually agreed. Although he should have had it demolished, Sharma later said the admiration for Nek Chand’s amazing Rock Garden and its creative potential was much stronger than his duty as chief architect, so he advised Nek to continue his work in secret, until he could convince the world that, though illegal and unauthorized, the Rock Garden is a masterpiece that should be preserved.

It took a year for M.N. Sharma to convince Indian authorities, but his efforts paid off, and Rock Garden finally got the recognition it deserved. Nek Chand received authorization to expand his project on another 25 acres, and the Rock Garden was open to the public, in 1976. Its creator worked under threat of imprisonment and the demolition of the project, for 18 years, but it all paid off, in the end. Ever since he first started working on it, recycling was a very important part, but after it was finally authorized, it became even more so. Nek set up waste collection centers across Chandigarh, at hospitals, hotels, restaurants and other big waste suppliers. He kept working on it, until just a few years ago.

Today, an estimated 5,000 people from all around India and abroad come to see Nek Chand’s Rock Garden, every day. It practically went from being a secret, unauthorized fantasy, to India’s second most popular tourist attraction, after the Taj Mahal. How is that for an incredible turn of events?

Photo Link

Rock garden in Chandigarh

Photo Link

Rilke On the Flesh

It's February 1, which means we are only two months away from the start of a new edition of The Tattooed Poets Project, and I have begun assembling the first posts for this annual extravaganza.

What better way to acknowledge this looming event, but to post a poetic tattoo?

The following piece is one that I spotted at the end of last summer on Penn Plaza. Belonging to a young lady named Rosa, it has been one of my few remaining 2010 leftovers:

What I noticed first was not that this was a line of verse, but that it was placed on the body in an unusual way. Most lines of poetry, when manifested on flesh, are on the arms and wrist, or the lower legs and occasionally a back. This tattoo runs from the front of to her back, vertically climbing and descending from her shoulder.

The line is in German, and represents a piece from Rainier Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies.

Ein jeder Engel ist schrecklich

Or, in context:

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’
Hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me
suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed
in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains
to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.

Those are the opening lines of the first elegy, translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Rosa didn't give me much insight as to why she had the line tattooed, but it is quite a powerful statement.

When I asked her who the artists was, she replied only that it was someone in Brooklyn that went under the name "The Milk Maid". This sounded familiar at the time, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Of course, I came to be reminded that The Milk Maid is the moniker of Joy Rumore, at Twelve 28 Tattoo, quite a wonderful artist, whose work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Rosa for sharing this lovely line of verse with us here on Tattoosday!