#the oval

Scandal had like... less than 600 fics and for a show that ran for 7 seasons I'm? Surprised?

just build it luxury to begin with. i'm so tired of this conversation. we look at fictional housing, like deus ex's detroit, and everyone focuses on the dystopia. but i was playing and i noticed something else. the streets are wide. there's a basketball court. you can walk into buildings and they're just... buildings. apartments. nothing special. nothing wrong. seurat's place is a regular apartment. standard ceilings. standard rooms. a bedroom. a main room. a hallway. a guy runs a gun shop out of his living room because the space works. it doesn't fight him. i felt comfortable there. cheered up, even. the lighting was bad, but i didn't care. because the bones were good. the space had an absence of hostility. meanwhile, in the real world, i stayed at an airbnb in san francisco. nice on the outside. garden. courtyard. fine facility. but inside, there was one normal living room. one normal bedroom upstairs. and then two rooms that looked like a video game glitch. the ceilings were too low. the walls were too close. the room could fit a crib and boxes. that's it. "for the kids," they said. i talked to some residents. they knew they would never be able to move. this was it. single parent household. mom had the nice bedroom. the big living room with her computer and her tv. her space. where could the kids be? nowhere. the architecture made them act differently, too. someone wanted their quarter back from someone else. glared across the nice courtyard. stingy. guarded. small. that's not personality. that's design. the banality of evil, stamped into drywall. the detroit apartment didn't do that. because it had standard space. nothing special. just... enough. enough that a gun runner could be generous. enough that no one had to fight over quarters. just build it luxury to begin with. not gold faucets. not concierge. luxury as in: space. light. quiet. places to gather. windows that open to sky, not a wall. ceilings high enough to breathe. a room where a teenager can stand up. a place for the kids that isn't a doll house. it costs barely more upfront. what's expensive is rebuilding it later when you realize you made a mistake. and if you're worried about different land, different safety needs? fine. architects exist. let them adapt the feeling, not shrink the dignity. same architectural generosity. same spatial respect. faithfully adapted. never watered down. give the exact same building to everyone. not a budget version. not "inspired by." the same. you won't get complaints that way. it is beautiful. it is universal. detroit (in a video game) built better housing than san francisco (in real life). not luxury. not utopia. just... nothing wrong. that's the indictment. build them right the first time. build for the child who will be tall. build for the teenager who needs a desk. build for the family that can't move.

People can shit on Tyler Perry all they want to but he has some of the best shows on BET/BET+