Archive: November 2006

• Music / Sad anniverary for the quiet Beatle in music · Nov 29, 22:47

  Today is the fifth anniversary of George Harrison’s death, as I found out when NPR ran a sweet tribute to him this evening. Back when such things mattered, George was my favorite Beatle. Why do such things not matter anymore? I mean, really, is there any question that is more revealing than “Who is your [...]

• Art / Robert Irwin, BS, and the importance of questions in architecture, inside art, visual · Nov 29, 21:59

  My nomination for All-Time Best Moment In An Art Documentary has to be the “Bullshit!” scene in Concert Of Wills: Making The Getty Center. Abstract-artist-turned-landscape-designer Robert Irwin literally calls bullshit on architect Richard Meier during an important Getty Center planning session. [The object of their disagreement is Irwin's garden design, pictured at right. [...]

• Kansas basketball / Jitters, a jinx, and a stinging loss in kansas basketball · Nov 17, 19:11

  Question: What happens when a young college basketball team without a proven low-post presence somehow manages to secure a high national ranking then faces a really hungry, experienced team? The Hawks found out two nights ago, getting their rear-ends tanned by an unheralded and obviously hungry Oral Roberts team.
  Where does this rank among the hardest-to-swallow [...]

• Art / Olafur Eliasson in the New Yorker in inside art, reviews, visual · Nov 14, 22:20

  Two winters ago, I traveled to London for work. It was cold as hell, as a witch’s tit, as the blood that runs in Dwyane Wade’s veins during the fourth quarter. The sky was deep gray, hard, heavy and forbidding, and it felt as if it wasn’t more than 10 or 12 feet above [...]

• Architecture / Front porches, refuge and prospect in architecture · Nov 11, 20:10

  Last summer, NPR did a series on one of my favorite architectural elements — the front porch. An installment from late July covered the use of the porch in contemporary home-building, specifically in New Urbanist (wikipedia entry) developments, such as Seaside, Florida and other pseudo-quaint “towns”. (More on my problems with New Urbanism another [...]