Pictures from an Institution

Maybe it’s time to retire the idea of “outsider art”. That’s the catch all term for work produced by self-taught artists who may also be hermits, mental patients, religious obsessives and so on. As much as anything it’s been a marketing device, a word that hints of rebellion and feverish disorder. Artists are supposed to have that mad …

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Tuned Up!; Also, We Are Now Taking Your Calls

Regular Tuned In readers–humor me–will notice some changes today. I’ve been exported over to the Moveable Type publishing platform, which means, among other things, a larger author photo and the schmancy banner picture above, which, I can assure you from the lack of mayonnaise smears and “GO TO ATM” Post-Its on the clean woodgrain, is …

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Journeys with Jesus

There is such a thing as a documentary becoming too timely. When Alexandra Pelosi (Journeys with George) set out to make a movie about the culture of evangelical Christianity for HBO, she found a Virgil to guide her through the–well, it’s a loaded analogy, but you get the point. Ted Haggard, one of the highest-profile evangelical

What’s Not to Not Like?

Like a lot of people I was badly disappointed by David Childs’ misbegotten design for the Freedom Tower, the battle clad banality that will stand where the World Trade Center used to be. And the massive flank of accompanying towers by major names — Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki — is not much better. Whatever their …

Break Out the Cell Phones

A few days ago I posted an item about a sign in the new Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle that forbid visitors from taking pictures of one of the pieces there. Along the way I informed the world that photos were also banned in the New York City subway. Wrong!

In 2004, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the system, made a …

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24's Atomic Ping-Pong

The first two things to note about last night’s episode of 24: (1) It’s good to know that you can drive fast and unimpeded in L.A. half an hour after a nuclear bomb goes off; (2) Even I was surprised how quickly and easily Jack decided to tie up and torture his own brother for information on his dad, who may be linked to the bombing

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Justice Is Served—Or Is It?

My experience of jury duty went like this. I sat in a big room for a long time. I sat in a smaller room for a short time. Somewhere in another room, somebody accused of something copped a plea. And they sent me home. So I cannot report to you as to whether the experience of a trial in Brooklyn criminal court matches what you see on TV. I

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Justice Is Served—Or Is It?

My experience of jury duty went like this. I sat in a big room for a long time. I sat in a smaller room for a short time. Somewhere in another room, somebody accused of something copped a plea. And they sent me home. So I cannot report to you as to whether the experience of a trial in Brooklyn criminal court matches what you see on TV. I

Verboten! Verboten! Pics Nicht! Pics Nicht!

As a college student in the early ’70s I made a visit to East Berlin, where I got an interesting lesson in how far a paranoid regime would go to control the circulation of images. It was forbidden to take pictures of all kinds of things there, including taxi cabs, supposedly because they could be used as military vehicles in the event …

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No, YOU'RE Out of Order!

I’m going to turn things over for a brief guest post by my current e-mail autoreply. Take it away, Auto!

I will be on jury duty beginning January 22 and, unless the Brooklyn Supreme Court has decided to splurge on free wi-fi, will be unable to retrieve e-mail during the day.

In other words, expect posting–much less my blessed …

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