No sooner did the sun go down on Friday, the last official day of my vacation work stoppage, than I saw that my bold labor action had its intended effect, as the producers and writers agreed to resume contract negotiations a week from today. Because let’s face it. People can go a few months without new episodes of The Office. But take …
Can Coin Collectors Make Change?
Three organizations that represent coin collectors and dealers have joined to sue the U.S. State Department in federal court in Washington. Collectors were very put out this summer when State approved a request by Cyprus to ban the import of ancient coins from that island. Italy has made a similar request. Now the collectors want to …
The Morning After: John from Cincinnati Milwaukee
Hello! Good to be back! Thanks for not trashing the place while I was gone. And I hope Robo-James didn’t launch into any binary solos or attempt to exterminate you while I was away.
I’ve been surprised how little I’ve been bothered by the Tyra/Landry/murder plot fallout in the last few episodes of Friday Night Lights. As jarring a …
More on Maier: Ship Being Held in Port
The fight over whether Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia should be allowed to sell four paintings from its Maier Museum — a bad idea — has started to seem like one of those silent movie cliff hangers. Today’s episode ends with a victory for opponents of the sale.
First …
More Talk: With John Richardson
Let’s finish that conversation with Picasso biographer John Richardson.
LACAYO: You make it plain in your book that you don’t agree with people who believe that Picasso had an affair with the wealthy American expatriate Sara Murphy. But for several years Picasso was infatuated in some way with Murphy and her husband Gerald, who were at …
Vacation Robo-Post: They Make Lists, So We Don't Have To
The always-brilliant PopMatters has come up with an exhaustive, eye-opening and nimbly argued list of the best TV shows on DVD. The list went up in October, but that’s the beauty of DVD: there’s no such thing as coming to it too late!
Having done a gigundous TV list of my own recently, I have no energy or inclination to debate theirs in …
The Morning After: Robo-Version, 11.16.07
This is Robo-James. In the absence of my inferior carbon-based colleague, this automatically generated post exists to provide humans a space in which to discuss programming transmitted the previous evening on your video-display device.
Flesh-James will return on Monday. If I were sufficiently flawed to experience irrational emotion, I …
Big MoMA
Earlier this year, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which just underwent a big expansion three years ago, sold a parcel of property adjacent to the museum to the global real estate development company Hines. The idea was that whatever Hines built there would also include …
Vacation Robo-Post: It's One of the Top 10 Most Wonderful Times of the Year…
It will not surprise you that I am starting to work on a top 10 TV list for 2007. The top 10 reasons that it will not surprise you…
1. I work for a magazine.
2. That’s what magazines do.
3. And even though you may hate to admit it.
4. Magazines know you.
5. They realize that it is almost impossible to stop reading information.
6. When …
The Morning After: Robo-Version, 11.15.07
This is Robo-James. In the absence of my inferior carbon-based colleague, this automatically generated post exists to provide humans a space in which to discuss programming transmitted the previous evening on your video-display device.
Vacation Robo-Post: Who's Tuned In's Person of the Year?
Let’s get this out of the way up front. No, I do not know who the TIME Person of the Year is. If I did know, I would not tell you anyway, it’s true. But not only do I doubt the decision has been made yet, most years I don’t know the choice until the day the magazine comes out–sometimes even when I’ve written articles for the POY issue. …
The Morning After: Robo-Version, 11.14.07
This is Robo-James. In the absence of my inferior carbon-based colleague, this automatically generated post exists to provide humans a space in which to discuss programming transmitted the previous evening on your video-display device.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Just two weeks ago Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, was telling me that Egypt’s loan request to his museum for the Rosetta Stone, which it wants temporarily for the opening of Cairo’s Grand Museum in 2012, was made in precisely the right way. (This in …