May 3, 2018

“I’m going to build five properties, so it’s my first community, I’m getting into development…It’s just the next frontier for me, to develop... So I’m going to be one of the biggest real-estate developers of all time..."

"... what Howard Hughes was to aircrafts and what Henry Ford was to cars. Just the relationships I have with architects, my understanding of space and sacred proportions, just this new vibe, this new energy…We gonna develop cities.”

Said Kanye West, quoted in "Is Kanye West Trying to Build His Own Rajneeshpuram?/The musician/entrepreneur recently divulged that he’s purchased a 300-acre plot of land to build a new community. And he’s apparently been planning it for years" (Daily Beast).

As for "what Henry Ford was to cars," somebody tell Kanye about Fordlândia.

As for Rajneeshpuram, that's a current topic of conversation among people watching the Netflix series "Wild Wild Country." Here's "9 Rajneeshpuram Residents on What Wild Wild Country Got Wrong":
Wild Wild Country... tells the story of Rajneeshpuram — a utopian commune established in rural Oregon in the early 1980s, by the the followers of Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (later called Osho). The riveting series charts the escalating criminal activity that took place on the ranch, led by Bhagwan’s ruthless personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela, who adopts ever more extreme methods (poison, arson, and more) to oppose the forces — like the U.S. government — that she sees threatening their group.
It seems mean to put that template on Kanye's real estate project, but it's be-mean-to-Kanye time in some quarters.

32 comments:

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...it's be-mean-to-Kanye time in some quarters.

Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful

Now I Know! said...

He is a jackass who supports a jackass president.

That is the “roll” he currently wants to play to keep himself in the headlines.

Henry said...

300 acres is half a square mile. You want some acreage, buy a ranch in Texas, and add 3 zeros.

rhhardin said...

Kayne is a black popular with blacks and praising acting white. What else he's up to isn't really that interesting.

Earnest Prole said...

For those who recently boarded the Kanye Train: he's certifiably nuts.

madAsHell said...

Real estate ain't hip-hop. It's not taking their baby-sitting money, and teaching misogyny.

buwaya said...

The trouble, dear Know, is that everyone seems a jackass, especially those most concerned about everyone being a jackass.

Your systems have all been turned upside down, and whats under them is being noticed. Decades of lies are being discovered. It embarasses many to think they were so respectful for so many years towards such absurd persons and institutions.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Someone should mention the Spruce Goose as well.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...

"So I’m going to be one of the biggest real-estate developers of all time.... what Howard Hughes was to aircrafts and what Henry Ford was to cars."

Sounds reasonable; just don't be like what Bill Gates was to "softwares".

Jerry Goedken said...

Wild, Wild, Country is one of the most intriguing and discomforting documentaries I’ve seen. I believe it could be a required course on ethics, morality, citizenship, law, religion, cults and culture at a college level. At the base level there was this seemingly blind cult subjugation to the purity and light of the leader. At the top level was pure evil and greed; it was masked as providing saving lost souls while subverting democracy. Their use the legal and voting system was unethical, they took over a town. Then they were going to take over a county by busing in thousands of homeless and signing them up to vote. And poisonings, and fire bombing, attempted assassination, it just goes on and on. If you didn’t know it was real, you would have to believe it was fiction, that’s how unbelievable it was.
I believe it is a must see.

Caldwell P. Titcomb IV said...

This seems like a good place to mention a self-contradicting hysterical fake news headline from the UK:
Cloning horror: Human clone fears as Euro scientists CREATE LIFE from ‘nothing’

It turns out that "nothing" = mouse stem cells.

"IT' ALIVE!" -- Dr. Frankenstein

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"It turns out that "nothing" = mouse stem cells."

Yeah. Let me know when they come up with a talking 2 X 4 or can actually draw blood from a rock.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...

Whoever brings up Rajneeshpuram when dealing with Kanye's new utopia is... in a mental prison. Not only believes that history repeats, but probably cheers for it in private... at least in this case.

Like Mr. Adams said, we're going to see things that we thought were not possible.

Do I think Kanye can build a community that doesn't suck? A half-hour ago, I might have said, "Impossible." I watched that video about the "golden age," and I am of an open mind.

He calls it the "golden age," I call it the "I'll be damned!" era.

Jupiter said...

Blogger Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
"Someone should mention the Spruce Goose as well."

If the war in the Pacific had gone according to plan, he might have sold a lot of those things. They were designed for long-distance cargo transport over water, and Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, would have needed a Hell of a lot of cargo. Like a lot of people, Hughes failed to foresee the atomic bomb.

Drago said...

NIK: "He is a jackass who supports a jackass president."

That sounds like a fantastic campaign theme for 2018.

Here's the phone number for the DNC: (202) 863-8000

Actually, I'm sure LLR Chuck has that number programmed into his phone.

FullMoon said...

Plenty of men have built small cities, or large neighborhoods.. In Sf Bay area, Oddstad, Doelger Eichler to name a few.

BTW. Oddstad building homes in the sixties in hills of Pacifica on west coast, workers bringing home fossilized seashells.

West can do it also. Put a lot of people to work.

John Henry said...

Speaking of Ford, yes, Fordlandia was a failure. So were some of the other things he tried, like the Peace Ship to try to end WWI.

But at least he tried. Far too many people see an idea and think it is too hard, too farfetched or whatever. Ford grabbed it and tried. He mostly succeeded but he had occasional failures. He even failed twice at starting a car company, finally succeeding with the Ford Motor Company of today.

In the meantime, he developed the Toyota Production System, lean manufacturing, emphasis on quality (drive out variation), fanaticism about recycling, fanaticism about eliminating all waste and other practices which which all successful manufacturers use today. Or at least pay lip service to. We in manufacturing and we as customers of manufacturers owe Henry Ford a debt that will never be fully repaid.

In his main vision he was extremely successful:

"I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one--and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."

Any entrepreneur who has not failed at least once and often many times is not really an entrepreneur. Kanye may fail with his development vision.

But at least he tried. How many people cannot say that?

John Henry

Ignorance is Bliss said...

From the linked article:

According to Rhymefest... it would be an ultra-VIP community where futurist thinkers could work together on improving the world.

..."How can you defeat police brutality, racism, black-on-black or white-on-white crime, if all of the greatest minds are living everywhere but around each other?” explained Rhymefest.

An ultra-VIP community to solve all the problems of the poor. Yeah, Rhymefest is progressivism in a nutshell.

John Henry said...

Blogger Ignorance is Bliss said...

Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful

Black people too. See Rep Waters.

See also that other rapper, supposedly a friend, (former, I guess) who was sending Crips over to "fuck him up".

it used to be whites who criticized blacks for being "uppity" now it's other blacks.

If a black gang kills Kanye over this, would it constitute a "lynching"? Or is lynching something only white people can do to blacks?

John Henry

John Henry said...

Blogger FullMoon said...

Plenty of men have built small cities, or large neighborhoods.. In Sf Bay area, Oddstad, Doelger Eichler to name a few.

Reston VA is a good example. Columbia MD. Palmas Del Mar Puerto Rico

It is actually a fairly common thing.

John Henry

John Henry said...

Blogger Jupiter said...

Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, would have needed a Hell of a lot of cargo. Like a lot of people, Hughes failed to foresee the atomic bomb.

Just finished Tuchman's bio of Stilwell and China in WWII excellent book. In May 1945 official estimates were that the war with Japan was going to continue for 18 months and planning was made on that basis. Plans were for invasion of Japan with an estimated 500,000 to 1mm US casualties and perhaps 10-15 times that in Japanese casualties. We are still issuing Purple Heart medals that were bought in 1944.

Thank God for the atomic bomb. As William Manchester said.

John Henry

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Any entrepreneur who has not failed at least once and often many times is not really an entrepreneur. Kanye may fail with his development vision.

But at least he tried. How many people cannot say that?


I saw Stan Lee at a comic convention a two or three years ago. You hear he's doing poorly now, but he was very energetic (if a bit deaf) then. After his talk he took questions (repeated to him loudly by Roy Thomas) and was asked if there was anything he regretted not doing in his life. His answer was 'No'. I got to try everything I wanted to try. It didn't all work out, but I tried it.

What a great thing to realize looking back at your life, and how few of us can say it!

Drago said...

John Henry: "If a black gang kills Kanye over this, would it constitute a "lynching"?"

Yes, democrats returning to form in a big way.

Rocketeer said...

As for "what Henry Ford was to cars," somebody tell Kanye about Fordlândia.

Non sequitor. Fordlândia has nothing to with "what Henry Ford was to cars."

FullMoon said...

Henry Ford was a genuine Revolutionary. Unlike some posers, am I right?

rehajm said...

You can build five properties but you need to build four houses before you can build a hotel. Also, the closer you build to Free Parking the higher your ROI. (It's a traffic thing...)

Darkisland said...

Full moon

Ford, for what he did for manufacturing and quality assurance is my hero.

His 1923 bio and the thinking behind the design and manufacturing of the model T is the best book ever written on manufacturing. Almost 100 years old and ad current as Christmas.

The Toyoda Textile Company built a car company from that book.

And the book was out of print from 1930 to 2007

That, and the fact that we had to learn ford's ideas all over again from the Japanese is shameful.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Fair warning, do not get me started on Henry Ford!

John Henry

William said...

I don't think anyone should invest too much hope in Kanye as a seer and prophet who will lead his people to the sunny, upland meadows. On the other hand, I don't think he's any crazier now than when he felt compelled to speak truth to Taylor Swift's power......Has anyone here ever listened to his music? It's supposed to be pretty good, but it will take more than a few nice words about Trump from Kanye to make me a rap fan. I think he's Dixie Chicked himself. He's lost an appreciable part of his fan base without any counterbalancing increase.

Nancy Reyes said...

When I read that quote, I thought "Levittown", the communities built by Mr Levitt for the up and coming middle classes, where the houses were affordable and the communities pleasant. (My cousin, a blue collar worker, lived there).

AllenS said...

Kanye will be seen as a seer and prophet if he is able to get a sizable portion of blacks to quit voting for Democrats.

mikee said...

As a small time home builder myself, I say, Good on you, Kanye!
Improving your community by housing people is one great way to live.