I love New York, but New York is truly disgusting, and a lot of it is unbelievably ugly. The infrastructure is crumbling (dear god, the subways), and what little public beauty that isn’t as dilapidated as a Dickensian wedding dress is relegated to the neighborhoods of the rich and powerful. Even Central Park is largely maintained by private donations—it’s their back yard, they just let us visit. Most of the time I can ignore this. I fell in love with New York through movies like The Warriors, so I expect a certain post-apocalyptic aesthetic. But when I see something like photographer S. Morita’s collection of Japanese manhole covers—there are nearly 6,000 on the Flickr, I get a little emotional.

Nearly every industrialized city in the world lives atop a sewage system—a literal, man-made river system of shit and filth. The Japanese have managed to make the access-point to their shit-rivers really pretty! (So has Milan, by the way. My admiration for this kind of attention to detail and investment in (functional!) public art is certainly tinged with jealousy. Okay, maybe “not tinged.” Maybe more like “infected.” I am riddled with jealousy. We have an absurdly wealthy nation! We have creative people! We should have nice things too!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Via Flavorwire