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8 p.m.: Friday Night Lights (The Knights of Prosperity–new time slot, at 8:30–probably goes into TiVo reserve.)
9 p.m.: Probably American Idol. No, I’m better than that! I’ll read an improving book! I’ll watch The Supreme Court on PBS! (Actually, I already did. Good overview, lots of talking heads, less interesting the closer the …
My last post asked why more museums don’t attempt the occasional illuminating mix of periods and media from their own collections. In no time my blogosphere colleague Tyler Green came up with a quick example of a museum that’s been doing that, the De Young in San Francisco. (You need to look into the first item on his list of Five …
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Have I mentioned that I already have the new Lost? Why, yes. Yes, I have. But it bears repeating. I already have the new Lost. Ha ha, etc.
Have I mentioned that I have already watched the new Lost? Why, no. No, I haven’t. And I won’t spoil anything for you now–unless you beg, beg like a trained puppy–but suffice it to say: certain …
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My nightly TV menu apparently struck a chord with House fans. Quoth Conan Doyle, “What’s up with the No House? Best show on TV.” I wouldn’t go that far, but I like the show a lot. Always have. But I find I like it in exactly the same way every time I watch, so I don’t feel compelled to tune in more than every couple months.
That Hugh …
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Top Design, debuting tonight on Bravo, is the latest in a series of reality shows that are both good TV and brilliant demographic marketing. The makers of the addictive, high-middlebrow Project Runway have spun off their formula first to Top Chef and now to this interior-designer competition. What better way to get the upscale audience …
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8 p.m.: American Idol. Because I believe it’s required by federal law.
9-9:30 p.m.: Player To Be Named Later. Possibly Knitty Gritty (DIY)–a new TiVo fixation of Mrs. Tuned In, in which a chipper, boho Mme. Lafarge makes whipping up woolen socks come off as a surprisingly hipsterish pastime.
9:30 p.m.: The Knights of Prosperity (ABC). A …
Tell me again why most museums are so afraid to mix work from different styles and periods in their galleries? It’s not that I can’t appreciate the value of the standard chronological force march through art history, but I’m always struck by how rarely museums are willing to depart from that model, to put aside a gallery from time to …
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The Super Bowl is to the the media-fragmentation era what the remaining polar ice is to the global-warming era: the last holdout against seemingly unstoppable climatic change. Though the big game still draws the biggest TV audience–and the biggest advertising payouts–of the year, glacial-sized chunks of it are falling into the sea. …
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Excellent column by David Carr in today’s New York Times on the Maria Bartiromo / Citigroup brouhaha, a subject that, I’ll admit, I’ve had a hard time mustering indignation over. (Short version: the CNBC anchor, a.k.a., “The Money Honey,” was found to have accepted numerous speaking and travel requests from companies she covers, …
In 1953 Robert Rauschenberg erased a drawing that Willem DeKooning had given him. Then he called the new work Erased DeKooning Drawing. Now I discover that graffiti artists in Brazil and the U.K. have found some new ways to erase their way into art history. Meanwhile they’ve been creating some pretty funny headaches for city officials …
I just caught up with What Remains, a documentary about the photographer Sally Mann that’s been playing around the festival circuit and will cablecast on Cinemax this Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 pm. Full disclosure, Cinemax is part of HBO, which is a subsidiary of Time Warner, which also owns Time and so on. (Look closely at your own …
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[Yes, I wrote that headline in the hope that 18-year-old guys would think a lagniappe was a dirty body part and click on it. I’m not a proud man.]
In this week’s print TIME, I have a big old feature on pottymouthed cherub Sarah Silverman. Her new sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program, debuting on Comedy Central Thursday, will divide …
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 …
