Amid the squalid store-fronts of Thomas St, the smart facade of Mannings bakery shines forth like a beacon, a welcoming refuge from the hatchet-faced hawkers outside LeCool Dublin's review of Mannings on Thomas Street, D8, telling it how it is. http://dublin.lecool.com/dublin/en/41462

The Ministry of Festivals instructs towns to hold as many random events possible

Festivalisation (or Festivalization US spelling): the propogation of events of tenuous and vague social and communitarian meaning, in the interest of meaningless continuous amusement of adults.

There must be a Ministry (it sounds much more Orwellian than Department) at the heart of government, and there must have been an instruction (lets say Order #28X for a bit of drama)made about 3 years ago. How else can it be explained that local authorities (in Ireland anyway) have taken on the role of organising events to keep the populus amused. The only jobs being advertised on e-tenders these days are for events animators (apparently it has nothing to do with cartoons). So.. one day they're getting the Guards (Irish police) to batter anybody who wanted to sit down on the street for an old protest or slow down traffic, and next thing they're the biggest, funnest, sociable thing in town. But festivals are good right? They bring people into the town, they promote place and build community spirit. Who could not be for festivals? Why do local authorities now see themselves as festival promoters, and are allowed to spend significant public funds on events? Is the proportion of festivals we have to endure proportional to rises in unemployment and poverty? If and event is hosted in a public park area, it is the council who gets the rent, and the retailer who suffers from loss of business, because all their customers are in the fancy farmers market. So its a win-win for the Council: they get the PR and the money. So am I the most miserable person on the planet, that can't even like a festival? Well possibly, but the Ukulele Hooley in the People's Park was the last straw for me. I'm a greater admirer of people like David Engwicht... https://www.creative-communities.com, and Fred Kent at Project for Public Spaces www.pps.org. I'm fortunate enough to have heard both speak. Its also a different animal from "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good" (U.S. Pavilion at this years 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale see urb.ie) to me these focus on the capacity and resiliance of communities, and the capacity to capture talent through projects and interventions in public space. This does involve partnership with Local Authorities. However, the whole point is that people working in partnership from the bottom-up can challenge establishments like roads departments about how we use our towns. And will also challenge how we live in our towns. If a festival becomes a symbol of corporate power or branding, who benefits? When Dublin City Centre was handed over to racing cars this year for a day, nobody could move around, and nobody did any business. By all means lets have events in urban areas, but lets let community groups and business associations have access to, or compete for the same funds local authorities get to do things their own way.

Projects without architects steal the show

You might partly describe the “Common Ground” title as a bid to imply some curatorial shift from architecture’s makers to users, but in the event that shift often becomes just another excuse for the usual hagiography

A pretty savage review of the architecture Venice biennale’s http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/arts/design/13th-venice-architecture-biennale-the-usual-hagiography.html?ref=arts

20 Things you can do on the High Street without shoppping

I really like this simple little presentation by Julian Dobson at Urban Pollinators (www.urbanpollinators.co.uk).

20 things you can do on the high street without shopping from Julian Dobson