The ‘Electric Razor,’ London’s Latest Landmark Skyscraper

Well, how many of us really remember that “the Gherkin” is properly called the Swiss Re Tower? The new Strata tower, a £113.5m residential building intended to help redevelop a rundown central London district, gets its nickname from the vertical black and silver lines on its outer curtain wall and the three large wind turbines incorporated into the building’s top.

Paul Taylor Can Peg You By The Way You Walk

In fact, walking is the first thing he watches dancers do at auditions: “I can eliminate half of them by how they walk. They’re either too self-assured or not assured enough, or they’re just weird. You can tell an awful lot. … It was George Bush’s walk that gave him away. It was a pseudo-militaristic thing that he had no experience with. A total phony.”

How Gary Shteyngart Feels About Dystopia

“‘Dystopia’ is my middle name. I was born in the Soviet Union, and then we moved to Reagan’s America. … Silence has been destroyed, but also the idea that it’s important to learn how another person thinks, to enter the mind of another person. … We are now part of this giant machine where every second we have to take out a device and contribute our thoughts and opinions. … When civilization takes a nose dive, how can you look away? You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to be at the bottom of the swimming pool taking notes.”

Why There Could Be No Greta Garbo Today

Ben Brantley: “The Swedish-born actress … became an international star as an enigmatic love goddess in silent movies, and she carried with her ever after an awareness that saying nothing is what becomes a legend most. … Today’s democracy of technology would, of course, conspire to put a fast and brutal end to the tantalizing demi-invisibility that Garbo sustained so well. Everyone who possesses a cellphone now is a potential member of the paparazzi.”

‘Moral Agent’ Vs. ‘Moral Patient’ (Or Why I’d Rather Hurt Mother Teresa Than You)

“Though we’re accustomed to classifying people as good or evil, … [more fundamentally,] we categorize the entities we encounter as either ‘moral agents’ – those who act, who are deserving of praise or blame – or ‘moral patients’ – those who are on the receiving end of good or bad deeds.” And we tend to assume that moral agents are “relatively impervious. It’s hard to picture Gandhi whimpering over a bruised knee.”

The NY Phil Paid Lorin Maazel An Awful Lot Of Money

“Lorin Maazel earned $3.3 million in his final season as music director of the New York Philharmonic, a figure representing a $500,000 increase over the previous season, according to the orchestra’s newly filed tax return.” That same fiscal year, “the orchestra had a record deficit of $4.6 million. It is projecting a similar shortfall for this past season.”