No Labor Day

The Stone Breakers, Gustave Courbet, 1849-50 (destroyed 1945)/FORMERLY DRESDEN STATE ART COLLECTIONS At least no labor for me — I’m taking today off. Courbet’s tireless (and, alas, lost) pair will labor in my place. Back Tuesday.

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Vacation Robo-Post: In Summ(er)ation

The best of summer TV 2008. The worst of summer TV 2008. Go. Sorry so short. You try writing 20 robo-posts in a row sometime. See you after Labor Day.

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The Morning After: Robo-Version, 08.29.08

While Flesh-James is on vacation, Robo-James has generated this free-for-all thread to discuss anything that’s caught your eye in the worlds of TV, media, or other matters Tuned Inland-y. Think of it as do-it-yourself guest blogging.

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From Midfield, Obama Throws Long

In a way, the big challenge in Denver tonight was not Barack Obama’s but Invesco Field’s. For days, we’ve heard reports of hand-wringing among Democrats and pundits over Obama’s decision to hold the speech in a stadium. What if it made him seem too presumptuous? What if it looked too showboaty? As opposed to what—a [...]

Instant Houses

Burst*oo8, Douglas Gauthier & Jeremy Edminston /LACAYO I’ve checked in a few times this summer with “Home Delivery”, the Museum of Modern Art show about prefabricated housing, an idea whose time is always coming but never quite comes. This is what I had to say about it recently in Time.

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Vacation Robo-Post: Favorite Simpsons Quotes

The title explains itself. I have long believed that there is a Simpsons quote appropriate to pretty much every situation in life, and life has yet to prove me wrong. Who among us, in times of trouble, has not called on the help of Jeebus? So what’s your favorite? I think it’s hard to improve [...]

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The Morning After: Robo-Version, 08.28.08

While Flesh-James is on vacation, Robo-James has generated this free-for-all thread to discuss anything that’s caught your eye in the worlds of TV, media, or other matters Tuned Inland-y. Think of it as do-it-yourself guest blogging.

How to Fake A Vermeer

Christ at Emmaus, Han Van Meegeren, 1937/MUSEUM BOYMANS Did the world need two new accounts of the Han Van Meegeren story? He was the 20th century Dutch forger who turned out a succession of phony Vermeers that for a time were widely accepted. Hard to say, but this summer the world got two of them [...]

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Vacation Robo-Post: Reruns

TV critics have a big blind spot. We’re constantly focusing on the new stuff. That means, for starters, that people like me write a lot about shows when they premiere, then let them go as they stay on the air. But it also means that we ignore something that it a huge part of ordinary [...]

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The Morning After: Robo-Version, 08.27.08

While Flesh-James is on vacation, Robo-James has generated this free-for-all thread to discuss anything that’s caught your eye in the worlds of TV, media, or other matters Tuned Inland-y. Think of it as do-it-yourself guest blogging.

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The Hillary Speech

A couple quick from-vacation thoughts to kick off discussion: I have no idea whether Hillary Clinton’s endorsement speech helps Barack Obama politically or not. But simply from a standpoint of televisual interest, it’s funny that people have talked about this speech as a dread moment of great risk for Obama. Why? Modern conventions are the [...]

Monster Movie

Myra, Marcus Harvey, 1995/WIKIPEDIA COMMONS The U.K. is in a bit of an uproar over art this week. To encourage tourism to London for the next Olympics, in 2012, the Brits produced a video that was screened recently in Beijing. In a montage of images of London’s cultural scene, someone decided to include a brief [...]

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Vacation Robo-Post: Drinking in Moderation

Unless Robo-James and his comrades have overthrown the humans, the Democratic National Convention has begun by now, with the Republicans up next week. That means the general election, and next month brings the first Presidential debate. If the primary debates are any guide, we can make a good guess as to the content of the [...]

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The Morning After: Robo-Version, 08.26.08

While Flesh-James is on vacation, Robo-James has generated this free-for-all thread to discuss anything that’s caught your eye in the worlds of TV, media, or other matters Tuned Inland-y. Think of it as do-it-yourself guest blogging.

John Russell: 1919-2008

Well, there’s a good long life. Russell came to the New York Times as a critic in 1974, not long after I had started reading everything I could find about art. I was very soon aware of two things about him. One, he rarely had anything negative to say. The pejorative was a mood that [...]

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Vacation Robo-Post: Mad Men Watch

All right, Not-TV Week’s over; back to the important stuff. Episode five of this season of Mad Men is the first one I didn’t get a screener of in advance, so I’ll have to catch up on it after vacation. But don’t let that stop you. Five installments in, how do you think this season [...]

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The Morning After: Robo-Version, 08.25.08

While Flesh-James is on vacation, Robo-James has generated this free-for-all thread to discuss anything that’s caught your eye in the worlds of TV, media, or other matters Tuned Inland-y. Think of it as do-it-yourself guest blogging. (I don’t know if I’ll be able to post anything on the Olympic closing ceremonies, so feel free to [...]

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Not-TV Week: VP Text and Context

Greetings from lovely Michigan! I’ve only been able to check in briefly, as my Internet connection at my Mom’s house relies on piggybacking off a neighbor’s very weak wireless signal, and I haven’t yet found a coat hanger to fashion into a wireless booster antenna for my laptop. I signed up for the text message [...]

And Still More on the Iowa Pollock

I thought I had had my last say on the (ever dwindling) possibility that the University of Iowa might sell its famous Pollock to raise money to recover from flood damage, but a couple of thoughtful responses to my post from yesterday deserve a reply. That post was a response to a blog post by [...]

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Robo-Post: Not-TV Week—Games People Play

I don’t play a lot of videogames anymore, not because I don’t like them, but because I do. I know myself well enough to know that I get addicted. The last time I played regularly was in the ’90s, post-college and pre-kids. Now, between writing, TV screening and, you know, being a person, I don’t [...]