The WIP #33: Riga
The Week in Photos (10-16 August 2024)
It’s always sad when a friend leaves to make a new life elsewhere. But, on the plus side, it’s nice to visit them and see what that place is like. Eugene left Glasgow a few months ago and is currently in his home town of Riga, which I was curious to visit.
Apart from knowing that Latvia was part of both the Hanseatic League and the Soviet Union I had no expectations.
It is a beautiful city: clean, peaceful, ornate. There was a rage for Art Nouveau which produced some incredibly excessive buildings.
The Old Town felt more like a Nordic country than Eastern Europe. Indeed, I learned that it was part of the Swedish empire for a few hundred years.
Despite all the beauty, I wonder if it might not be a little bit boring. Where is the vitality? Is it enough just to be enjoy life without chaos? Maybe.
For exhilaration, we took an e-scooter to a park to see some “ethnic pop” played in front of a homogeneous crowd.
On Monday, I watched
’s generative documentary Eno. Each version is apparently different, but ours included a bit about Scenius. This is the idea that creative genius comes from the interconnections that happen in a place. In his model, provincial places lack something.
If you could live anywhere, where would you live?
Hmmm.