New York Underground
National Geographic has a great section on what is below the New York City streets, complete with some really cool graphics.
« September 2005 | | November 2005 »
October 31, 2005
October 29, 2005
Playing The Building
David Byrne has a sound installation currently in Stockholm, Sweden, called "Playing The Building." An organ console is attached to the various structural and other elements of the interior of a building which are used to make the sound.
October 28, 2005
Scary Mask
The Sierra Club has a truly scary mask for you to wear this Halloween - the California Congressman Richard Pombo mask. Among other fun things, he recently drafted a bill in which he proposed selling 15 national parks to generate revenue. Eeek.
October 27, 2005
21 London Record Shops
If you happen to be going to London, Time Out London did a list recently of twenty record shops. (PDF) I would add one more shop to that list:
bmsoho (formerly Black Market Record)
25 D'Arblay Street, London
W1F 8EJ, UK
+44 (0)207 437 0478
October 20, 2005
Ask Apostolos
My sister sent me this interesting article on the man behind Ask Jeeves and the world of search engine algorithms.
October 18, 2005
Changes
Some changes around here:
- switched to a new host (much better features, cheaper, and the owner of my old hosting company was somewhat of a crackpot)
- upgraded to the latest version of movabletype
- new layout (mainly because of the upgrade)
- Implemented tagbacks in addition to trackbacks. At some point in the future I might get rid of trackbacks.
October 14, 2005
Exurbia, does it cost too much?
BusinessWeek has a good article about the exurbs and their future in the face of high gasoline and energy prices.
October 13, 2005
Slavery in New York
I went to the New York Historical Society today to see their new grand exhibit - Slavery in New York. I enjoyed it, very informative, well laid out. My favorite parts were the four maps detailing New York City and the lives of its black inhabitants from the mid-1600s to the early 1800s (of course, I am a planner) and the modern television financial network like screen that displayed slave trade information as if it were stock and bond information ticking by. The latter was interesting for its mix of shameful historical data (the prices of human beings) with a modern presentation format - were its creators attempting to question modern capitalism or were they trying to place old data in a format to which new eyes have become accustomed? Possibly, or probably both?
One reason I went to day is that they have and original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation written in pencil by Abraham Lincoln on display for only a week and a half or so. The final copy of this speech was destroyed in a fire in Chicago, so I guess this is the only (or one of the very few) original versions of it. It is interesting to think what one might learn by looking at a piece of paper with writing on it, but I guess but everyone was standing in line for was a chance to somehow connect with its author, Abraham Lincoln. By peering at his relatively legible script, could I get a feeling for the real person behind all the adulation? Would that looking at the original give me more of a feeling of the text and the man who wrote that than just reading the words in a book?
October 12, 2005
The Citywide Coalition for Traffic Relief
Four good groups getting together to try and promote some good ideas through their charter.
October 11, 2005
Crumbling Infrastructure
This is not exactly new news, which is why I guess it is in the Arts & Leisure section, but Nicolai Ouroussoff has written a great article on the pumps that were supposed to keep the water out of New Orleans and the general deterioration of urban infrastructure in this country over the past several decades.
October 06, 2005
His Noodly Appendage
Creationism? Intelligent design? Evolution? There is only one supreme being, and it is the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Bob Mould Band
I went to see the Bob Mould Band last night at Irving Plaza, and it was one of the best shows I have seen in years. Bob has a new album out that is a return to the driving rock of his Sugar years, and the four piece band burned through an hour and and half of music - one-third from the new album, one-third from Sugar and his solo albums, and one-third from Hüsker Dü. They made me a very happy man by playing "I Apologize" and "Celebrated Summer" from New Day Rising, my favorite Hüsker Dü album. Bob looks much happier then he ever did - I saw him once before on a solo tour in the early 90s - and he and the band had great energy that they put into every song. The packed house loved it also, screaming at them back for two encores, with the calls for more only cut off by the house lights.
There are many bands who would love to be as heavy as Bob and his band were last night. Watching and listening to him as a Rock'n'Roll veteran at 44 years old - the pain and emotion in his songs is expressed with even greater depth than it was before. The band's version of "Too Far Down" hit me just as hard last night and as it did the first time I heard it eighteen years ago. Beyond loving pretty much all of his music (although I have not heard his recent electronic forays), I have always respected Bob for being able to create such a large amount of beautiful music that expresses so much, well, negative emotion. Life is not always happy, but to play so much of it, and play it well for so long without losing it or killing himself or giving up - I think that says something about him and something about music itself.
(The Houston Chronicle has a good article about Bob and his recent activities)
October 02, 2005
Non-Freedom Center?
Should the Freedom Center building that they are planning for Ground Zero now be called the non-Freedom Center? The International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center are both gone from the building because they apparently are not "patriotic enough for some political officials or some of the ridiculously shrill 9/11 families. So now we have a great Norwegian architecture firm designing a building that will be filled with some bland Disney-like patriotic display? Even more shopping? How about more life-affirming empty space?
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that Islamic terrorists dislike us in part because of the freedoms that our society allows, these freedoms - one of the most important being the ability to speak ones mind about politics and criticize the government - are what make us the great country we are. It is sad to see the heavy censorship of the proposed cultural programming at Ground Zero. One would like to think that this country honors itself through great free thinking art and architecture - not through propaganda like one sees in communist and fascist countries.
Update: this article from The Guardian newspaper in London gives a great view on the purpose and usefulness of art in trying times:
Three points. One, why caution? Why not brave iconoclasm? In the wake of 7/7, London does not need art to tiptoe around the imagined sensibilities of those possibly affronted by [the art]. We need to swagger, not crawl. Otherwise art becomes decadently decorative, the 21st-century equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.