George Will called it “dishonorable.” Peggy Noonan decried it as a “waste.” Nonetheless, Edmund Morris’ Reagan bio has hit the Best-seller charts (and it’s No.1 inside the Beltway) – Philadelphia Inquirer
Blog
SUSHI IN NEBRASKA
Americans have bought the idea of the world-wide economy, their tastes becoming more international, except -publishers say – when it comes to fiction. – Christian Science Monitor
JIG-SAW GIOTTO
The earthquake in Assisi shattered Giotto and Cimabue frescoes. Computer programmers wrote a program that scans all the fragments and matches the hundreds of thousands of pieces to reassemble them. Wired
BECAUSE REMBRANDT WENT BANKRUPT in 1656 –
– his apartment in Amsterdam has now been faithfully recreated down to some interesting details. London Times
THE QUIET COLLECTOR
Washington’s Hirschhorn Museum turns 25. This excellent profile reveals how museum director Jim Demetrion has deftly steered his museum of contemporary art through the politics of Washington and the art world. Washington Post
GET ON A PLANE
IF you care about architecture at all, then book your flight to Turin today says a London Telegraph critic. Only three weeks left before what is perhaps the “most staggering architectural exhibition ever mounted” closes, on November 7. PS: a stripped down version travels to Montreal and Washington DC (but it won’t be the same). London Telegraph
BOOTH HOUSE (AS IN JOHN WILKES…)
– faces the wrecking ball. Preservationists are trying to save the thespian family’s decaying Tudor mansion in Baltimore suburbs from being torn down. Chicago Tribune
NO ROOM AT THE INN
Even after spending $1 billion on new arts facilities in the past decade, Seattle still has a theater housing crisis. Theaters are clamoring for performing space. Seattle Times
SMALLER GRAND
Italy’s small opera houses put more opera in grand opera, and it’s a revealing experience. – The New York Times
REINVENTING GREATNESS
It’s been a decade since Herbert von Karajan died. On the verge of trading his successor (Claudio Abbado) for Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic takes a tour of European capitals. – Financial Times