Monthly Archives: November 2009
The American Saturnalia
The first shopping day of the Christmas season is upon us, with the usual crowds, the frantic sales and the inevitable parking nightmare. Even the name—Black Friday—suggests that Americans are deeply ambivalent about this strange shopping holiday. But is it, … Continue reading
Filed under Culture, Feuilleton
Thanks
In late November, the shade grows quickly over the landscape in the hills behind Albuquerque. From about 3 p.m. on, the shadows surge longer and longer, and if you’re hiking on the backside of the Sandia Mountains, it’s a … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Bush Builds a Library
Designs for the new George W. Bush library and presidential conference center were unveiled last month. The architect is the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, Robert A.M. Stern. Of Stern’s proposed design, I write: Is it a … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture, Museums
Newspapers and Museums: The Same Dilemma
I’m personally allergic to historical reenactments and most forms of interactive history telling. I think all too many museums and historical sites grasp at straws, technically and aesthetically, when they try to recreate the way history is told. But … Continue reading
Filed under Culture, Museums, Preservation
Create Christmas Memories, Now!
I dropped into a place called National Harbor this afternoon. It is a large convention center, entertainment and hotel district created ex nihilo just a few years ago on the banks of the Potomac River south of Washington, DC. They … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture, Feuilleton
Cultural Rewind
The Post gave me a little bit of cyber real estate today, an online discussion group called Cultural Rewind. I pose a question, readers take up the thread. It’s a mix of popular culture and some of the esoterica I cover as … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Afro-Mexican History
I have a special fondness for the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, a small outpost of the big brand located a short drive from where I live. The museum used to have a running loop of Martin Luther King’s “I Have … Continue reading
Filed under Culture, Feuilleton, Museums
New Deal for Artists
I missed the opening of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “1934: A New Deal for Artists,” which displays art made with the first tranche of money directed at artists under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s short-lived Public Works of Art … Continue reading
Visual Acoustics
The title, which I don’t much like, strikes me as one of those clever mixing of ideas and media that doesn’t yield anything meaningful. But the film Visual Acoustics is great fun for people who love architecture, especially those who … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture, Documentary, film
Richard Moe retires
Richard Moe, for 17 years the head of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced his plans for retirement today. He’s had some stunning victories since he came to the Trust in 1992-93, including a famous battle against the Walt … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Culture, Preservation, Uncategorized
