BlackLivesMatter – Downtown Luxury Slum

Fun Fluff

Fun fluff two days early. Aren’t you lucky!

Hello!

It’s a special week because you get Fun Fluff on a Wednesday! Solely because I wasn’t in the mood to write a real blog post / I did a really bad job at taking progress pictures this week. So maybe you’ll get a real post on Friday.

I love these episodes of design trends by the decade (1900s – 1940s and 1950s – present) that the Your Home Story podcast did.

And also! IKEA catalogs from the 1950s until now.

I simply adore this little pink bathroom.

Hahahaha

I don’t know if this is a good solution, but I appreciate that the Raleigh Police Department trying to do more than just remove confederate statues, change names of buildings named after racists, and stop using phrases (master bedroom, blacklist, master list, etc.). I think those things are important and long overdue, but also just feel very superficial.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Diana

Fun Fluff 21

Basic thoughts on the state of downtown Raleigh, moving to Belize, feeling safe at home, paper animal lanterns, cooling magic, a documentary and some podcast recommendations.

Hello!

In the last issue of Fun Fluff, I shared some pictures of downtown, all boarded up. At that point, some people had started to turn the plywood into canvases for art but now downtown is so colourful with all the temporary murals. Even though most places are still boarded up and we’re still in the midst of a pandemic, downtown actually feels kinda full of life. Like there was even a busker out the other day. I’m hoping some of the art and colour gets to stay. Black Lives Matter marches continued through last weekend but seem to have tapered off this week, presumably due to the rain. That said, I expect there to be more this weekend, especially with Donald Trump promoting the importance of Juneteenth.

I’m tired of having a leaky roof but don’t want to pay to replace it because what a boring way to spend way too much money. Also, my phone fell out of my pocket and into loose insulation fluff when I was in the attic the other day. Finding it was a fun adventure.

I’m trying to convince Andrew we should move to Belize. Not a 2 million dollar island, but a modest oceanfront condo. Is that asking too much?

To be fair, feeling safe at home (except for the two days the riots were happening here) is probably something I should be a little more thankful for.

Sorry, more happy things!

I want to try making these sometime soon. I think they will come in handy.

If you’ve got some time to kill, this is a documentary about Shaw University, the HBCU that is right beside the Downtown Luxury Slum. I found it pretty interesting but that’s partly because it’s my neighbourhood.

Anyway, here are some more recent pictures of downtown Raleigh.

Stay safe and sane,

Wait! I also wanted to recommend a podcast because when I was listening to the most recent episode, one of the hosts mentioned that they were currently on the top of the charts and it made her feel like the gym in January, but for racism. And that made me lol. So listen to Code Switch and also Colour Code (the Canadian equivalent that is no longer in production but the old episodes still apply, sadly). Both should be available wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you don’t listen to podcasts, I recommend trying with the Pocket Casts app.

K bye,

Diana

Fun Fluff 20

The world has turned upside down. Or at least it’s trying to and probably needs to.

Hello!

What a surreal week! I really don’t have much more to add as far as thoughts about the images I posted on Monday. If I’m being honest, most of my way of coping with everything is to ignore it and not think about it as much as I can. Either that or using inappropriate humor. Maybe that’s not helpful, but it’s what I’m capable of right now.

I will say I’m extremely impressed by our downtown Raleigh business owners. There are a few a-holes, but I’ve personally spoken to a few, I’ve seen several interviewed during or immediately after their businesses were destroyed, and I’ve read social media posts by a number of them. These business owners have almost always started by talking about supporting the cause and only then, almost as an afterthought, they say that it sucks that their businesses had to get destroyed.

Raleigh had an 8pm city wide curfew for a couple days which seems to have done a great job keeping the protests peaceful. I’m very hopeful that something comes of all of this but I don’t have a clue where to set my expectations.

Without inside info from your future self though, it can be hard to accurately set expectations.

Here are some more recent pictures of downtown. It could be a fun game to guess what business is in some of these buildings.