A few weeks ago I posted about the threat of demolition faced by a Paul Rudolph office building in Boston that was in the way of a planned new tower and plaza by the architect Renzo Piano. Now it turns out that Piano has quit the project. He had been hinting earlier in the press that he had disagreements with the developer, Steve …
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Couric and Edwards: The Griller Gets Grilled
God help me, I actually find myself defending Katie Couric for the second time in a week. Couric’s 60 Minutes interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards (see it here, read the transcript here) has been criticized–at Swampland, among other places–as an insensitive hit job.
Watching the entire interview (rather than the excerpts that …
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BSGwatch: The Road to the Final Five
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched Battlestar Galactica yet, stop. I will not talk falsely now; the hour is getting late.
SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal
So that was kind of a big one, yes? The makers of BSG had promised that the end of this season would be shocking and would entirely change the direction of the show, which on …
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Like Some New Romantic Looking for the TV Sound
The vampire squid compels you with his hypnotic eye to watch Planet Earth. Discovery/Stephen Downer
Is it worth spending $1000 or more to watch a single TV series? I’m generally as tightfisted as the next TV watcher, but if I hadn’t already loosened my deathgrip on my purse strings to buy an HDTV, Discovery’s Planet Earth might just …
Gee, That was Fast
Just yesterday, after having spent days reading about the travails of the free spending Smithsonian Secretary, Lawrence J. Small, and then about the somewhat helter skelter collection and exhibition policies at the Smithsonian American Art Museums, I posted this fleeting thought:
“What’s up with me? I just can’t seem to get into
…
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Dead Tree Alert: Charles in Charge
In my TIME column this week: Charles Gibson is ascending, Katie Couric is floundering–and with her may be going the last ambitions that network TV news can ever draw in new, non-aged viewers again. Here’s a taste:
Gibson’s success has been seen as a vindication of old-fashioned gravitas over flash. Which is fair enough; Gibson is a
…
Alert the Media! Critic Says: “I’m Not Sure”
Let’s see, lots of museum news this week. Bad day for the Smithsonian, check. The Albright-Knox counting the new millions from its de-accessioning binge, check. But what’s up with me? I just can’t seem to get into spanking big institutions today. Am I just counting on Charles Grassley — ranking Republican on the Senate Finance …
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Calvert DeForest Laughs Last
Calvert DeForest, best known as the diminutive, maniacally laughing Larry “Bud” Melman from David Letterman’s talk shows, has died at age 85. There’s probably no figure who captures the brilliant absurdity of Letterman, especially his early years, than DeForest, who appeared for years as Dave’s regular figure of bizarre, sprite-ish …
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Lostwatch: The Wishing Chair
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched last night’s Lost yet, go to that magic box in your living room, the box that will make anything you want appear, if you only think of it…
ABC/MARIO PEREZ
Well! I wonder how they’re going to get out of this one. I don’t mean Kate, Locke and Sayid. (Although I do hope we’re not in for another long …
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JPTV Jr.: Your Backyard Friends
Nick Jr.
As a parent, you have the shows that your kids watch that you love, the ones you tolerate and the ones you dread. (Unless you have banned TV from your house and engage your kids only in wholesome, improving pursuits. In which case, isn’t there a taffy-pulling blog you should be reading?) The Backyardigans originally fell into …
The Best Show I’ve Seen in New York
Van Gogh and Expressionism at the Neue Gallerie. Ok, not the best show I’ve ever seen in N.Y., but certainly the best for a while, enlightening, well focused and full of powerful canvases. And not just by Van Gogh, but by the German and Austrian artists the Neue was established to elevate, like Schiele, Klimt, Kirchner, Emil Nolde and …
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Idolwatch: Where Is the Yo?
My weekly American Idol performance review has been bumped up from the blog to its own page at time.com, where it’s getting the big, flashy, multimedia treatment. (Well, there are words and pictures. That’s two media, right?) Check it out, then come back here and tell me why I’m an idiot. Consider yourself the fourth judge.
But enough …
My Dinner with Olafur
Met last night for drinks and a bite to eat with Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-born artist of Icelandic descent who now lives in Berlin, and who became suddenly famous three years ago for “The Weather Event”, his immensely popular installation in the Great Turbine Hall of Tate Modern in London. I described it in TIME a while back this …