We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

This iconic Fabian Todorovic cartoon is still one of the best I’ve seen at illustrating the remarkable amount of space we surrender to cars, leaving little space left for everyone and everything else. The text added later makes the bonus point that many drivers still manage to complain about it.

I made a reel with @unsprawling.bsky.social about salty liquorice and the personal finance benefits of living in a walkable neighbourhood.

Fascism's a fever you break with shit like what happened in New York last night. Create more excuses to feel things like that together.

Ok I made the word up: Wohnungsheuchelei (housing hypocrisy)

The solutions are well understood and obvious, they're just not politically attractive. Drivers can't bear to be delayed or have their primacy diminished even a little. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

It’s “disheartening,” Schwieterman said, that society “seem[s] to accept bicycle deaths as an unavoidable part of life.” Heartbreaking.

I was interviewed for this article. I hate to be a Negative Nelly, but there is nothing good coming out of this council on the housing file. There is no plan, it seems to have fallen off the radar completely.

Are any of them Honda N-VANs? If not, what are even doing here?

Impromptu summertime hamburger night with some of our favourite neighbours. We may need a bigger garage…

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.

Jen Gerson: "The UCP has become a party of snivelling, weak little thieves who operate by night."

In this time when there's so much to be upset about, nothing gives me more hope than graduating classes loudly booing technocrats talking about AI at commencement speeches.

Come hear not one but two brand new trumpet concertos with Kensington Sinfonia! New works by Chris Sies and Evan Ware @warevolf.bsky.social are both amazing, and couldn't be more contrasting. I am so, so excited for this!

I really wish people aspiring to write understood what a competitive advantage being able to write without AI will be in the coming years.

A great reminder in our world of echo chambers.

Important to take a second to ask yourself if you're being a prick.

Drivers are not ok. abc7chicago.com/post/woman-a...

I was at the Celebration of the Arts hosted by Mayor Jeromy Farkas at Werklund Centre, in the Jack Singer Concert Hall. I was standing in line to get a drink & there was Cllr André Chabot standing to my right (there isn’t much to the left of me). What follows is my version of our conversation. 1/

Bring back the ancient knowledge

when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters

I'll take a short break from being mad about housing politics to note that in another life I was a music student at the University of Alberta, and I also spent many years trying to learn to play the pipe organ. The organ in Con Hall is a magnificent instrument and this is a travesty.

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.

How men feared women! she thought, walking among the late-flowering roses. Not as individuals, but women when they talked together, worked together, spoke up for one another - then men saw plots, cabals, constraints, traps being laid.

The Batte Man doth knowe the trouthe

UCP = Cheat to Win

I will always find it confusing that some people think a person riding a $2000 bike to commute is a privileged elitist but the guy in the $80k truck that costs $150 to fill is the working class average joe.

Is Angine de Poitrine mirror universe Khruangbin?

With so much to be angry about in the world right now, act locally and write to your councillor!

Who is watching Calgary city council right now? I had made peace with the rezoning repeal, but I did not expect things to go so far off track with the amendments. Council is gutting every path to build housing that it can. This is a total dereliction of its duty, and Calgarians should be furious.

Just putting this here for handy reference

Trans rights are human rights. This isn't complicated.

6. We should ALL expect that our leaders, who are supposed to learn much more about the need/context for change than most of us will know, will be responsible enough to make the right decisions even when unpopular. And NOT do the opposite, which is rage-farm populist lies about change to get votes.

Midsize SUVs are standard US car bloat. They eat public space, wear down infrastructure, and add danger. ​Compare that to the Urban Arrow, the SUV of the bike world. It has a minimal footprint, is fully urban capable, and keeps streets safe. ​Yet only one is called "big".

Or--this is going to sound crazy--you could read the cases you cite.

I once truly believed in my heart that if I offered my children a low-pressure variety of delicious whole foods they one day would eat them

Happy ides of March

Watch this awful video and remember it every time you choose to get behind the wheel. I wish there really was a war on cars.

Thoughts while practicing: this weekend I heard a great concert of sackbut music from early 17th century Italy, which is around the place and time when Allesandro Manzoni's great novel 'The Betrothed' is set. I'm also preparing for Verdi's Requiem, which was composed in memory of Manzoni. Cool.

If the strike that killed all those schoolchildren in Iran was on an AI-chosen target, would that make you personally reconsider your AI use?

Hard to get new Sprawl members nowadays! So busy w/ stories that I don't have time to make proper appeals. Also I feel like I've said the same thing 1000x and am sick of hearing myself say it. Even so—if you value independent journalism, pls support our work! sprawlcalgary.fundjournalism.org/donate/

Hard to believe that anyone is questioning the relevance of opera in this modern age given that an opera about Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs has been written within the last decade @juddgreenstein.bsky.social mosesjacobsopera.com

“Travelling five times a year, maxing out her TFSA, building an emergency fund, and having the freedom to see her friends when and how she wants: Those are just a few ways Deeksha Singh [of Calgary] said she can use the estimated $14,000 a year she saves by not owning a car.”

“Repeal and replace” was a campaign commitment. Making housing more affordable was the goal. It’s time for Mayor Farkas to stand by that commitment, or admit it was never the plan at all.

Canadians and more so Albertan’s have been sold the biggest lie on low taxes and frankly it’s getting tired and boring. It’s time to have a real grown up conversation about what kind of community we want to live in and how much tax that could or should cost.

NOBODY BIKES IN THE WINTER

Hey wouldn't it be neat if we treated every person like they were a whole human being with dignity and stuff? No?