December 2010
38 posts
“As the economic crisis deepens and spreads, Europe may be able, by turning in on itself, to postpone its struggle to preserve the culture of the ‘bourgeois’ in Flaubert’s sense of the word, but that will not solve the problem. When I look at Istanbul, which becomes a little more complex and cosmopolitan with every passing year and now attracts immigrants from all over Asia...
“It’s a measure of how rapidly our economic order has shifted that nearly a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people in America on this year’s Forbes list make their fortunes from financial services, more than three times as many as in the first Forbes 400 in 1982. Many of America’s best young minds now invent derivatives, not Disneylands, because that’s where the action...
“From the War Christmases to the Peace Christmases, from the People’s Christmas of the Nazis (complete with swastika-shaped tree-lights and chocolate SS men) to the Red Christmas of the GDR (where the Red Star rose on Christmas Eve accompanied by Erich Weinert’s agitprop poems), from the ability to acquire as symbol of post-war reconstruction in the West to uncontrolled consumerism…....
"This is a good day."
President Obama.
Amsterdam, 1940, in stereo color. →
2010 x covers →
The first of two roundups from Jeremy Leslie at magCulture.com.
Jerry Saltz has a modest proposal, outlined in an open letter to the Republicans of the 111th Congress.
"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan."
Richard Holbrooke’s last words.
Our lefter-than-thou comrades who gave us George W Bush in 2000, many of whom I respect and read, are setting the table for caribou stew.
London is burning. 39 photos at the Big Picture.
“Clash of Personalities,” Phil Nugent.
“He was good at anthems.”
Yoko Ono.
“Is there anyone else who could inspire devoted plaudits from Rufus Wainwright, Outkast, Rolf Harris, Tricky, Charlotte Church and John Lydon?… She is an unashamed European romantic who emerged at a time when the romantic ‘project’ was being declared dead everywhere, from the pop charts to academia to Parliament.”
Wayne Kasper on Kate Bush — and Wuthering Heights and...
“It is not just that he is a bit more confident and articulate, though he is both; what is striking is that for the first time in my two years of interviewing him, Zuckerberg seems at ease. ‘The fear is behind him,’ said a friend of Zuckerberg’s. ‘Until a year ago, he thought this might be the next Google, but he wasn’t sure. Now he’s sure. The fear is...
“Traditionally a log-shaped dessert made from chocolate-frosted Génoise cake filled with chocolate buttercream, the modern bûche now encompasses everything from expensive designer offerings with rich mousse fillings and coated in a luxurious ganache, to ice-cream cake variations, or elegant, single-serving mini-bûches. Paris patisseries compete annually to feature the most fashionable,...
Euro crisis primer.
It’s Synthpunk Day at DC’s.
