“An English teacher sacked after publishing a racy novel about her pupils online defended the book today, saying it was written to encourage a group of teenage boys to read. … The novel contained pupils’ real names and included references to under-age drinking, truancy and drugs, and scenes of a sexual nature, as well as likening students to ‘gorgeous Mr Gay UK finalists’.”
Tag: 07.07.09
Gardner Museum Razes Carriage House Amid Controversy
“A building with an intimate connection to one of Boston’s most celebrated figures, Isabella Stewart Gardner, was smashed to the ground yesterday at the back of the museum that bears her name. The so-called carriage house was razed to make way for new museum buildings designed by the architect Renzo Piano.”
Cupid Misfires: Borders’ Dating Service For Bibliophiles
“On the face of it, if you’re a singleton given to lonely walks on blasted heaths with a copy of a suitably impressive paperback poking eye-catchingly out of your jacket pocket, this might sound like just what you need. But to be honest, you’d be better off hanging out in the Sainsbury’s vegetable aisle than on a dating website aimed at book-lovers: a shared appreciation of baby sweetcorn is a far more solid foundation for lasting love than a shared appreciation of Nabokov.”
London’s June Auctions Nosedived 70 Percent
“The total volume of sales at London’s June auctions of Impressionist and contemporary works declined 70 percent on last year as auction houses cut jobs and guarantees to sellers to adjust to the financial slump. Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Phillips de Pury made 165.9 million pounds ($269.4 million) at the summer sales, down from a record 558.8 million pounds in 2008, according to calculations made by Bloomberg News based on auction house results.”
Criticism Isn’t About Protecting The Consumer
“The fact is that, whether or not we like it, critics are not, in fact, consumer advocates. … And in fact, such advocacy has never been the role of great critics. Virgil Thomson, Pauline Kael, Andrew Porter: they’re still read, and still valuable, because they were writing about a lot more than whether or not their readers should bother to buy tickets.”
On Destroying A (Decrepit) Gem Of Japanese Metabolism
Kisho Kurokawa’s 1972 Nakagin Capsule Tower, in Tokyo, is likely to be demolished, undervalued like so much postwar architecture. “[F]or many of us who believe that the way we treat our cultural patrimony is a fair measure of how enlightened we are as a society, the building’s demolition would be a bitter loss. The Capsule Tower is not only gorgeous architecture; like all great buildings, it is the crystallization of a far-reaching cultural ideal.”
Through Science, Building Glass Castles In The Air
“Engineers, architects and fabricators, aided by materials scientists and software designers, are building soaring facades, arching canopies and delicate cubes, footbridges and staircases, almost entirely of glass. They’re laminating glass with polymers to make beams and other components stronger and safer…. And they are experimenting with new materials and methods that could someday lead to glass structures that are unmarked by metal or other materials.”
How Arts Education Has Improved In Wales
“The popularisation of modern art in Britain over the past 10 years has never seemed so real as it does here, in a small Welsh town with a school that teaches pupils about Chuck Close and Jasper Johns. Is this, as some might say, indicative of the tyranny of conceptualism? Shouldn’t kids be learning proper drawing? But I’ve seen them do plenty of proper drawing. The way art is taught here seems liberating and inspiring.”