Category Archives: Culture

WTC worries

I’ve long been a cheerleader for the WTC redevelopment. Even when others started griping, I was still optimistic about the prospects for the site and the likelihood that it could become a vibrant and world-beating neighborhood. In recent days, however, … Continue reading

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The WTC panel

I wasn’t the only person to get up early in order to go to a "professional forum" at the Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village on the subject of the World Trade Center site. The auditorium was packed, mostly with … Continue reading

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Luxury buildings

I’ve long had an interest in what was going on at 90-96 Clinton Street, between Rivington and Delancey. For a long time it was one of the neighbourhood’s better 99-cent stores, before a long demolition job started which carefully left … Continue reading

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Libeskind and the Freedom Tower

We can officially assume now, I think, that Daniel Libeskind and the Freedom Tower are barely connected any more, let alone in any kind of one-designed-the-other relationship. My guess is that when all is said and done, the name and … Continue reading

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Timeless art

Is there such a thing as timeless beauty? I’m a fan of built-in obsolescence in art, but at the same time many great artistic creations can and have retained all their power and beauty for centuries. Look at Piero della … Continue reading

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Conductors under attack

First Simon Rattle, and now James Levine: it’s been a bad week for hugely-admired conductors being sniped at in the press, all the more so for me personally, since these are both at the very top of my list of … Continue reading

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Japan

After spending two and a half weeks wandering around Japan, I am, naturally, an acknowledged expert on all things Japanese. Not. All the same, working the "fresh pair of eyes" principle to its bones, I’ve decided to list here some … Continue reading

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Irwin at the Guggenheim

It’s Art Week in New York – a bit like Fashion Week, only bitchier. The Whitney Biennial‘s just opened, the Armory Show is upon us, and -scope is setting up shop on 9th Avenue. The upshot is that there’s more … Continue reading

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Really Silly Syndicators

Those of us who subscribe to the brand-new Slate RSS feed got an update this evening: a new story had been added to the website. Now Slate doesn’t actually put the content of its stories into its RSS feed, but … Continue reading

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Art and technology

Arts bloggers love to get all techno-utopian about the way in which advances in technology, especially the internet, are wonderful for the arts. I’m far from convinced: I think technology can cut both ways. Take recorded music, for example. The … Continue reading

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WTC update

It’s been two months since David Childs unveiled the Freedom Tower in a blaze of publicity. Since then, of course, most of the WTC attention has been focussed on the memorial, with a little left over for Santiago Calatrava’s magnificent … Continue reading

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Monet in Vegas

Tyler Green is, I daresay, the best art blogger in the world. But today he harshes, quite unjustifiably, I think, on Malcom Rogers, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Rogers’ crime, in Green’s eyes, is to … Continue reading

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Urban retail

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog writing about a big new Manhattan development. It features a landmark office building designed by David Childs, and is meant to be one of the most important new shopping and dining … Continue reading

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Who designed the WTC memorial?

One of the more intelligent comments about the World Trade Center memorial competition – I can’t seem to find who said it, right now – was that with some 5,200 entrants, the winning design would not be one individual’s uncompromising … Continue reading

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Victims’ families

Wednesday’s Guardian led, reasonably enough, with the suicide of Harold Shipman. The headline, though, splashed across the front page, was peculiar: "The final betrayal". Here’s how the story started: Just after 6am yesterday, Harold Shipman, described as a man addicted … Continue reading

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Hey! It’s a brand-new Dey!

The New York Post has a great scoop today about the new Santiago Calatrava PATH station at Ground Zero. Unfortunately, the Post spins the story as being about Libeskind’s Wedge of Light: the headline is "PATH Plan May Dim Libeskind’s … Continue reading

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Selling Apples

There’s a lot of garbage written about Apple, but the cover story of the latest issue of Fast Company seems pretty fair, if unoriginal. (Innovation on its own doesn’t make money: who’d’a thunk?) The bit which piqued my interest was … Continue reading

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The Freedom Tower

The design for the Freedom Tower – the big signature building which is to rise at the northwest corner of the World Trade Center site – was unveiled with great pomp today. Grand speeches were given by George Pataki, Michael … Continue reading

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Opera on the radio

Anthony Tommasini is on holiday; in his place yesterday (the "critic’s notebook" feature on the front page of the New York Times arts section), the Metropolitan Opera ran a 2,000-word fundraising drive under his byline. Or maybe he wrote it … Continue reading

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Uninspiring shortlists

What do you do when you’re presented with a short-list of eight or nine candidates and none of them is particularly appealing? That seems to be the case, now, with both the World Trade Center memorial and the Democratic presidential … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Politics | 5 Comments

New York Stories

Firstly, many apologies for not updating this blog in a little while. I would use the excuse that I was in Uruguay for most of the time, but that would be disingenuous, since I had (a) laptop; (b) internet connection … Continue reading

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Windowless buildings

When I posted an entry on 2 Columbus Circle last month, I said that "The lack of windows gives it the feel of a prison: you imagine yourself stuck inside, unable to look out. It is an exercise in claustrophobia, … Continue reading

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Misinterpreting Greg

It’s the battle of the ArtsJournal bloggers! Taking a perfectly good Boston Globe editorial as their jumping-off point, Terry Teachout and Greg Sandow came to different conclusions about what National Public Radio (NPR) can and should do with its $200 … Continue reading

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Chagall at SFMOMA

If you’ve picked up a reasonably highbrow magazine recently, chances are that you’ve seen a feature on Diane Arbus. She’s all over the news because a major retrospective, Diane Arbus Revelations, opened at SFMOMA on October 25. It would be … Continue reading

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Applause between movements

Terry Teachout chimed in yesterday on one of those low-level debates which never seems to get resolved one way or the other: whether it’s a good or a bad thing to applaud an orchestra between the movements of a concerto … Continue reading

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