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.
Tag: 07.18.10
Jeff Gammon, 70, Ubiquitous Character Actor
A multiple award-winner for stage acting and directing, he was a co-founder of L.A.’s MET Theatre and a familiar screen figure who played key roles in myriad films (from Urban Cowboy and The Milagro Beanfield War to Major League and Cold Mountain) and television series (from Gunsmoke and The Waltons to Nash Bridges and Grey’s Anatomy).
Singapore Arrests Author Of Book On City-State’s Death Penalty
Alan Shadrake, a 75-year-old British journalist, was on the island to promote his latest book, Once A Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice In The Dock, when he was arrested Sunday on charges of criminal defamation.
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.”
Combat Art: The US Marine Corps Puts Battle On Canvas
Says Sgt. Kristopher J. Battles, the program’s full-time staffer, “We’re not here to do poster art or recruiting posters. What we are sent to do is to go to the experience, see what is really there and document it – as artists.”
A Dead Art: Sculpture Meets Taxidermy In Polly Morgan’s Studio
“She has made robins draped across prayer books under tiny chandeliers, lovebirds gazing at their reflections in miniature mirrors above tiny splayed-out mouse rugs, as well as wilting pheasant chicks suspended from resin-coated balloons.”
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.”