Inga Saffron writes that the World Trade Center memorial is a major misstep. “Launched a bare two years after terrorists pulverized the twin towers – which were themselves a compendium of dehumanizing architectural features – the competition demanded that architects distill meaning from that historic event while the rest of us are still reeling. The result is a design so generic and so sanitized that it drains the site of its sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Blog
Neil Simon Sets The Stage
“Despite Neil Simon’s stellar reputation as one of America’s funniest writers, he’s never won an Oscar and hasn’t had a bona fide big-screen hit since 1988’s ‘Biloxi Blues. ‘What they want today are action-oriented and futuristic stories. I write about families and relationships.’ There was a time when that was good enough.”
Seoul Philharmonic Fires Conductor For Attendance
“When the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra decided to fire its head conductor last month, it resorted to the strict letter of the law. The grounds for dismissal was his attendance record, which showed that Kwak Sung, music advisor and conductor, spent only 60 days out of the 180 required days a year at the Sejong Center of the Performing Arts, the orchestra’s administrative home.”
Spalding Gray Missing
Monologist Spalding Gray has been reported missing since Saturday by his wife. “Gray had a history of depression and tried to commit suicide in 2002, The New York Times reported. Gray discusses his neuroses in his monologues and has said his mother committed suicide at the age of 52.”
Saving Spiral Jetty
The Dia Foundation is discussing whether to restore Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The work is Smithson’s masterpiece, but as the lake has receded, it has exposed the earthwork to environmental damage. “To ensure that “Spiral Jetty” is accessible to future generations, Dia, which exhibits and preserves art made since the 1960’s, has discussed raising it by adding more rocks. Dia is also studying whether nature will restore the contrast the “Jetty” originally had with its surroundings by dissolving some of the salt crystals when the lake’s waters rise, or whether the foundation needs to do something more.”
DiCamillo Wins Newberry
“Author Kate DiCamillo has received this year’s Newbery Medal for best writing in children’s literature, for “The Tale of Despereaux,” the story of a small mouse in love with a princess.”
Breaking Up While Breakdancing
Stephen Moss tries breakdancing, and discovers it’s not for amateurs. “Jerome said my breakdancing debut was “cool”, which I suspected had some derogatory street connotation. He and D.bo then showed me how it was really done – two breakdancers taking each other on in a contest that is part dance, part boxing match, but with no deliberate contact allowed. It is fast, furious and highly ritualised – every movement has some meaning, usually insulting to your rival (grabbing hold of your crotch features at regular intervals). It is also beautiful in its fluidity. Bboys claim breakdancing is an art form – as legitimate as any other dance form, with its own narrative – and you see their point.”
Videocassette Rentals Down 30 Percent In 2003
“VHS rentals plunged by 29.8 per cent last year, according to Oregon-based Rentrak, but nearly making up for the drop were rentals of DVDs, which were up by 52.1 per cent.”
Why Humanities-Speak Is So Incomprehensible
A computer engineer goes to a humanities conferene to give a presentation and comes away baffled by the other speeches. “I think it’s human nature for members of any group to use the ideas they have in common as metaphors for everything else in life, so I’m willing to forgive him. The really telling factor that neither side of the debate seems to cotton to, however, is this: technical people like me work in a commercial environment. Every day I have to explain what I do to people who are different from me – marketing people, technical writers, my boss, my investors, my customers – none of whom belong to my profession or share my technical background or knowledge. As a consequence, I’m constantly forced to describe what I know in terms that other people can at least begin to understand. Contrast this situation with that of academia…”
O’Brien Show Freezes Out National Post
The Conan O’Brien show is going to Toronto for a week. The city lured the late night talk show north in an attempt to promote the city after the SARS scare last summer killed the tourist industry. The government is giving the O’Brien show $1 million for coming, and some Canadian critics are unhappy that public money is being used to subsidize the show. And – after printing stories critical of the deal, the National Post was told by O’Brien producers they would be frozen out of interviews or access while the show was in town.