Author Archives: Felix

The refined WTC site plan

Posted on September 17, 2003 by Felix

It’s been over seven months since Daniel Libeskind was officially chosen as the architect in charge of the World Trade Center site, and a lot of us have been wondering what, if anything, has been going on. Well, today we … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 15 Comments

Lost in Translation

Posted on September 14, 2003 by Felix

Lost in Translation is a film about loneliness, featuring two individuals drawn to each other partly by the pull of genuine attraction but mainly by the push of having no other respite from their loneliness. Sofia Coppola, who wrote and … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 77 Comments

Center aisles

Posted on September 14, 2003 by Felix

Terry Teachout, arts blogger extraordinaire, reported Thursday on Zankel Hall, the new 650-seat auditorium at Carnegie Hall. I would link to its website, but I’m allergic to horrible Flash pages, so I shan’t. I was fascinated to read Teachout’s piece, … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Comments Off

A Brief History of Elizabeth Spiers

Posted on September 11, 2003 by Felix

Before Gawker, before ElizabethSpiers.com, before freelance gigs for everybody from the New York Post to Radar, there was Capital Influx. A blog dating back to when Spiers was still a drone working for a venture capital company, Capital Influx was … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 13 Comments

Depuy Canal House

Posted on September 10, 2003 by Felix

Onwards with the Californification of the Hudson Valley! Last weekend, I visited a small out-of-the-way food fair there, but still the local cheeses were $20 a pound, and you really don’t want to know how much the goat sausages cost. … Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants | 5 Comments

Topic Magazine

Posted on September 8, 2003 by Felix

Magazine subscriptions are to households like cars are to roads: no matter how much space or time is available, they always fill it up and then some. Across the country, New Yorkers pile up reproachfully on bedside tables, Foreign Affairs … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Schiller’s Liquor Bar

Posted on September 4, 2003 by Felix

(Warning: this posting assumes a pretty detailed knowledge of bars and restaurants on New York’s Lower East Side. If you don’t either live here or frequently visit Below 14th, large chunks of it might well make very little sense.) Keith … Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants | 5 Comments

Making money from intellectual property

Posted on September 2, 2003 by Felix

Most journalists are pretty receptive to arguments about the importance of intellectual property: after all, we make a living producing just that. But at the same time, it’s often clear when things go too far. I’ve yet to hear a … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

American Splendor

Posted on September 1, 2003 by Felix

I’m not entirely sure what the "dog days of summer" are, but if they exist, then surely these are they. The papers are already running summer-movie post-mortems, but the big, serious autumn films have yet to be released: in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 2 Comments

Metrosexuality

Posted on August 21, 2003 by Felix

Four years ago, I went to a wonderful wedding on an island in the Thames, between a hot young MBA and a hotter, younger stand up comic turned newspaper columnist. The columnist, protocol be damned, decided she was going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 105 Comments

LMDC in the LES

Posted on August 6, 2003 by Felix

It’s not been an easy week for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The people who brought you one of the biggest public consultation exercises of all time – the one culminating in the decision to award Daniel Libeskind the mandate … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

Crap writing about mainstream movies

Posted on August 1, 2003 by Felix

About ten years ago, a small and fiery magazine was started up in England by Toby Young and Julie Burchill. Called the Modern Review, its slogan was "low culture for highbrows", and it was a real breath of fresh air. … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 2 Comments

Coming to America

Posted on July 31, 2003 by Felix

Back in the olden days, American immigration protocols were little more than a punchline for the bien-pensant: the way that you always had to answer the question about whether you were, or ever had been, a member of the Communist … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off

Dia:Beacon

Posted on July 25, 2003 by Felix

I went up to Dia:Beacon last month, and wrote it up for Loft magazine, available in English at all good Miami newsstands. For those of you without easy access to a Miami newsstand, however, here’s the article: enjoy! Since long … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 4 Comments

Girlie Mags and serious journalism

Posted on July 19, 2003 by Felix

Seth Mnookin had quite a scoop yesterday: it looks like Penthouse is about to go under. Apparently Friday’s paychecks were slashed by 75%, and the parent company’s long-precarious finances have never looked worse. The latest issue of Penthouse could be … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 4 Comments

Pyramid schemes in the Spectator

Posted on July 15, 2003 by Felix

Back from holiday (which is why this is the first blog this month) and catching up on recent blogs, I find the normally well-above-my-head Charles Stewart link to the latest cover article in the Spectator with a single word: "Unbelievable". … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 4 Comments

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle

Posted on June 30, 2003 by Felix

Felix’s First Rule of Movies states that "films are always better on their opening weekend". Well, if that’s true, then maybe there’s a case for adding Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle to the Ten Worst Films of All Time list. Because … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 3 Comments

Liberal journalism and the New York Times

Posted on June 26, 2003 by Felix

On Sunday, the New York Times’s dry-as-dust "Week in Review" section fronted a big article by David Rosenbaum headlined "Bush May Have Exaggerated, but Did He Lie?". The story looked at false statements by George W Bush, such as "my … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 5 Comments

Harry Potter and the cover artists

Posted on June 21, 2003 by Felix

After posting a query on Memefirst this morning about the different editions of the Harry Potter books, I decided to create a little matrix of them all, to see how they compared. Here it is; for the sake of saving … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 118 Comments

The economic policy of John Edwards

Posted on June 20, 2003 by Felix

Eagle-eyed William Saletan, at Slate, posted a very useful heads-up today about a key speech which Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards gave on Tuesday at Georgetown University. Saletan gives the Cliff’s Notes version, full of paradox and "audacity", and says … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

Paying friends

Posted on June 19, 2003 by Felix

Back in my protoblogging days, in March 2000, I posted an item on the old, low-tech felixsalmon.com disagreeing with a certain piece of advice given by Slate’s agony aunt, Dear Prudence. I don’t know what it is about Prudence which … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 5 Comments

Cryptic crosswords

Posted on June 14, 2003 by Felix

Many months ago, my grandmother told me that I should read a short book she’d just finished. We were on the telephone at the time, and it took a while for me to get the title straight: Pretty girl in … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

Simultaneous translation at BAM

Posted on June 10, 2003 by Felix

I live with one of those arty-filmy types, who idolises Ingmar Bergman, and who forced me to get tickets to Ghosts when we were filling out our BAM subscription last year. Ghosts is a relatively minor Ibsen play which has … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 3 Comments

Malevich at the Guggenheim

Posted on June 4, 2003 by Felix

Kasimir Malevich has long been one of my favourite artists, ever since I saw one of his great white-on-white paintings at Annely Juda as a teenager. There’s a handful of paintings which seared themselves into my consciousness the minute I … Continue reading →