“Over the last 10 years or so, amid rising controversy, the BBC has spent £1.04bn refurbishing and extending its ocean-liner-like HQ in central London. With its vast pillars, spiralling staircases, and towering lift shafts painted red and orange, this cavernous, boldly modern space seems more like a submarine dock, the sort of place you might expect a James Bond shoot-out to take place, rather than somewhere for Huw Edwards to calmly read the news.”
Tag: 01.23.11
Rem Koolhaas Talks About The Massive West Kowloon Cultural Project
A successful project could provide a blueprint for other rapidly developing Asian cities where urban planning is sometimes “brutal,” he says. Projecting forward 10 years or so after the West Kowloon project, Mr. Koolhaas says he hopes “Hong Kong has a cultural machine that both directs the local situation and the Asian resurgence, and is also a useful entity for South Korea, the Philippines, for China, Singapore.”
Has Human Athletic Performance Peaked?
“In the sports that best measure athleticism — track and field, mostly — athletic performance has peaked. The studies show the steady progress of athletic achievement through the first half of the 20th century, and into the latter half, and always the world-record times fall. Then, suddenly, achievement flatlines.”
How Language Works (Rhetorically Speaking
“To those of us who haven’t studied rhetoric — that is, pretty much all of us — its workings are largely invisible. In the same way the same scene in a movie can seem either innocuous or sinister depending how it’s presented (search for “recut trailer” on YouTube if you don’t believe me), different figures of speech can color statements in subtle ways.”
What It Takes To Direct A Movie
“Up to the week before we shoot, the whole thing can collapse and there’s no protection. You have to make this imaginative commitment to the idea that your film is going to happen, when there are a myriad of possibilities that it’s gonna fall apart. So you have to take this leap of faith. It’s only the act of starting that will make it real.”
A Gala Celebrating The Arts (With The Arts On The Side)
“When your audience includes 300 mayors (in town for the U.S. Conference of Mayors) and 90-some members of the Kennedy family; when your emcees include Terrence McNally, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols; and when your performers include Yo-Yo Ma, Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon, the actual art tends to get pushed aside, served up in snippets the size of variety-show acts.”
Surprise – A Remarkable New Generation Of Library Buildings In DC
“That contrast – the powerful sense that something new has arrived – is one of the best things to happen to the District, architecturally, in decades.”
Remembering Theatre Pioneer Ellen Stewart
“Half a century and more than 3,000 productions later, she leaves behind a legacy that includes pioneering the Off Off Broadway movement, importing international theater work before it was popular, and providing a home in the East Village for experimentation. While an era has ended, her theater and its vast population of artists and admirers carry on.”
Of Physicality And Danger – The Audiences Love It
“As the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” has proved with its well-chronicled series of injuries, artists attempting to defy gravity face a panoply of potential hazards. Genuine physical jeopardy is intrinsic to aerial performance in theater, in circus, in dance, and even on pop-music tours — and that only makes it more appealing to audiences.”
Turning Point In Detroit Symphony Strike?
“The proposal may represent a turning point in negotiations. Talks between management and musicians appeared to be in jeopardy Saturday morning, when management broke a mutually agreed-upon news blackout to claim that the players had yet to provide a true three-year, $36-million proposal, which they had previously endorsed.”