November 27, 2009

"Don't look too closely... or you'll see the swastikas...."

Reading this comment from Scott (in the previous post)...
I haven't been through Albany in years. But I do recall that the NY State Education Building is this gigantic federalist pound cake of a building that takes up the entire block and comes right up to the sidewalks. The scale is just so wrong. It's a frightening building....
... made me want to post the little video I took while walking by that building yesterday. The post title is part of the video dialogue:

17 comments:

Fred4Pres said...

Fascist Teachers! Hah!

Fred4Pres said...

Why not hop over to Vermont and say hi to Howard Dean.

MPH said...

I'm not sure I've seen an uglier American city than Albany (shockingly ugly). So many of the buildings scream with contempt for those who must look upon them.

Bissage said...

The fascism is pretty bad but what’s worse is the way they take up all the best parking spaces.

Anonymous said...

Pretty bad for an education building.

How ironic that the 1960s "people power" politicos took control of these fascist buildings twice, the second time as authorized occupants.

G Joubert said...

I'm not sure I've seen an uglier American city than Albany

I dunno about Albany per se (I've only been there once), but as a life-long left coaster who has visited numerous times lemmee offer this probably trite observation about New York. There are two very different New Yorks, the city and the rest of it. And the rest of it is every bit as impressive in its own way as is the city. I'd go so far as to say that much of New York state (upstate) reminds me of a western state, in it's rugged beauty and in its culture. As for Albany, it surely suffers from being the center and foci of all things governmental in the state.

Elliott A said...

The teachers' only shame should be how easily they are herded by their unions. While not all teachers fit the mold, the typical teacher graduated in the bottom 1/4 of their class in a pedestrian college or university. This is why their "leaders" can speak for them with so little dissent from the rank and file. Curious how little attention is paid to education reform now that the dems are in charge and the teachers unions can purchase the criminal status quo with their votes and money.

T.K. Tortch said...

Here are some other awful swastika-ed Americans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_Swastika_in_the_early_20th_century#As_a_Native_American_symbol

Scott said...

Wikipedia has an entry for the New York State Department of Education building. I called it Federalist, but Wikipedia says it was designed in the Beaux Arts style and is Neoclassical, which is apparently the same, only different.

Whatever. I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.

blake said...

Yeah, there's a park around here with Native American swastikas of a bygone era. One hopes.

Scott said...

There is, in fact, a town called Swastika, NY.

Here are the directions on how to get there from Albany. It's up by Plattsburgh.

Scott said...

@blake: Where is "here," white man?

Scott said...

Thought Crime Patrol: The US Postal Service Zip Code Search site says that the zip for Swastika, NY is 12985. But they also warn us: "SWASTIKA, NY IS NOT ACCEPTABLE - USE SCHUYLER FALLS".

Perhaps they don't want the American Nazi Party to rent a post office box there.

("The Swastika Zip Code" sounds like the name of a Robert Ludlum novel.)

blake said...

Los Angeles.

And who you callin' "white man", white man?

Kevin Walsh said...

There's swastikas all over NYC, nd some hammers and sickles too.

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SIGNS/hammer%26sickle/ideology.html

Scott said...

@blake

I am the very model of a fiber packin' vegetable.

Scott said...

@Kevin Walsh: Cool site!