B East Issues

Posts Tagged ‘iceland’

Volcano proves why east sides are cool

As Europe sits paralyzed by the Icelandic volcanic explosion, we’ll take this pause to reflect on how it confirms our theory about why the east sides of cities are cool.
In our ‘East Sides’ edition, B EAST editor Joel Alas explained that patterns of urban development in European cities have largely been shaped by the dominant eastward direction of winds across the continent.
It was first demonstrated by the Chernobyl disaster, which mostly affected the areas to the east of the meltdown.
Now, as newspapers print reams of infographics explaining the eastward drift of volcanic ash clouds, we can clearly observe in play the forces that shaped the urban geography of cities.
If you want a full explanation of how the winds made East Berlin, East London, East Prague and east sides everywhere more creatively vibrant than their western counterparts, you’ll have to track down a physical copy of the edition. Or wait a few weeks, until our whole archive is available online through our new website.

Up close with Riga’s Blonde Parade

May 31, 2009

We’ve been all over Riga’s full-on blonde parade because it’s just so beasty, hilarious and politically incorrect. Just as Latvia is reeling from its worst economic crisis since independence from the Soviet Union, hundreds of blondes decided to march through downtown in skimpy clothes to cheer up the populace. Well, why not? Perhaps Riga will inspire a string of blond parades across recession-hit Europe. Listen up, Iceland!

Our intrepid B.East photographer, Karen Oganyan was at the march today and captured the zaniness of the event for us. Check out his photos below and his mini-dispatch from the front lines.

hundreds of blonds age 13 – 50 walked through riga’s old town on a gorgeous warm and sunny sunday.
perhaps in hugh hefner’s wildest dreams he couldn’t anticipate so many attractive and sexy girls altogether.
being a part of it was a lot of fun.