Arts and Exhibitions

[pugetopolis]

Nine Views of River Phoenix
for Gus Van Sant

[madupont]

http://www.leuven.com/kunst/dansconcept/index.html

[pugetopolis]

Four Views of Bukowski

[pugetopolis]

Belltown's Mosler Lofts

On Architecture

Last month, an out-of-town jury spent a whirlwind weekend reviewing new Seattle buildings for the local American Institute of Architects' annual honor awards. They delivered some sobering judgments:

For a city with such strengths -- education, culture, natural environment, wealth -- the jury hoped to see more evidence of leadership and risk, and less comfort with an already well-digested regional design language. Great architecture occurs when a great designer creates new opportunity

Well, first, consider the source: one of the three jurors was Joshua Prince-Ramus, who in concert with Rem Koolhaas co-designed our dysfunctional Central Library.

Mosler Lofts, the newest of the Belltown condo crop, points in a more engaging direction. In fact, it's the most interesting and provocative residential high-rise to appear in Seattle since World War II.

The architecture firm Mithun appears to have taken the feel of the original urban loft idea -- the gritty old warehouse transformed into high-end living quarters -- and applied it to a new building with the advantage of big windows, which are structurally impossible in most renovations. Its mood, as seen from the street, is dark, tough and industrial. But on the north side, it meets Clay Street with a three-story brick facade that could almost be a cluster of family-friendly row houses.

Urban life is all about ambiguity and complexity, and this building reflects it better than any of the slicker, more overtly luxurious towers around it.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/344489_arch25.html?source=mypi

[pugetopolis]

The Heathman Hotel

Haute-Bourgeois Retrotecture?

The Heathman Hotel, which just opened in downtown Kirkland, is the year's silliest example of haute-bourgeois retrotecture.

The justification for this vaguely Italianate Victorian villa, executed by Jensen/Fey Architecture & Planning of Redmond, was to be "consistent with the city's elegant and historic buildings." But Kirkland's scattered Victoriana isn't nearly as compelling a context as its stock of late 20th-century architecture downtown and along the lakefront. That would have been worthwhile to build on.

Architectural nostalgia is essentially a developer-driven marketing ploy...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/344489_arch25.html?source=mypi

[madupont]

Harrie,

At some point in the last month, you mentioned the Westport  law-on-the-books about outdoor Christmas decorations and public property(and the little man who sits with the creche so that it remains traditional). I have no idea where the bunch of us were posting,I've looked in the usual places so that I could bring this latest opportunist crock to your attention.

              Turn off the Christmas Lights? 

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?news=people&issueID=445&itemID=8572

[pugetopolis]

Brad Renfro
(1982-2008)

[madupont]

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=13109


The Best in Illustration

[pugetopolis]

Zembla Palace of Literature Fine Arts
http://tinyurl.com/yq6zyv

Zembla Palace of Literature & Fine Arts
The Ministry of Memory
Baron Harfar Shalksbore Boulevard
Onhava, Zembla

Dear Pugetopolis,

Thank you for your author’s query concerning
Charles II, Charles Xavier Vseslav, last King of
Zembla, surnamed The Beloved, born 1915,
who reigned 1936-1958.

We have in the Zembla Archives one surviving
photo of King Charles addressing the masses
on the death of his dearly beloved mother,
Queen Blenda, on May Day 1936.

We’re sending you a copy of this rare color
photo in the hope that it will help with your
Zembla research into Zembla poetry.

We’re also sending you a copy of a poem
written and dedicated to his close friend
and companion, Oleg, Duke of Rahl (1916-
1931) who tragically died in a toboggan
accident—along with a photo of Oleg’s
condo on Thurgus the Turgid Boulevard
here in our beloved capitol of Onhava,
Zembla.

Sincerely yours,
Herr Doktor Professor Gordon Krummholz
Zembla Department of Chess and Poetry


Deco Salute
Waxwing Palace
http://tinyurl.com/2e4n8w


Oleg, Duke of Rahl Condos
Thurgus the Turgid Boulevard
Onhava, Zembla
http://tinyurl.com/224w74


Zembla University
Onhava, Zembla
http://tinyurl.com/2hrtau

[Beppo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tRL7O6mbrk

[madupont]

Actor and comedian Barrie Humphries, who has painted seriously since his teens, is launching an online exhibition that pits his art against that of his alter-ego Dame Edna Everage. Humphries describes Dame Edna's 'self-portrait' as "very flattering", saying she thinks of herself as a "female Rolf Harris". (Observer)

[madupont]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/27/news.art?gusrc=rss&feed=media

More about above post. Confused?  Just a bit....

[madupont]

Dzimas,
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/3664

This is really my favourite  kind, I used to admire it as a kid and want to live in the local examples of this style when i grew up and an apartment became available.  I was surprised to find that there are some in existence in Montreal; sometimes turned into hotels, and then I immediately notify my French friends who like to travel there for vacation occasionally, when ever I have found a new "find". 

The smaller scale versions, however, are of such 'age' that they have their interiors remodeled for guests as sparsely as possible; they are without the luxuries that we become used to in the US with franchise groups investing in updating facilities for travelers.

What do you know of the doyenne of the Bronfman family's projects in architecture. Of course, she may have passed away by now.

[madupont]

Around Town at...
Museum of the City of New York 
 
Tuesday, February 5 at 6:30 pm
Drawing Art and Politics

Spend an evening with New York’s renowned graphic artists Jules Feiffer, David Levine, Stan Mack, and Edward Sorel, as they examine the ways in which complex social and political issues are depicted by artists in today’s media. Jules Feiffer will moderate a discussion that explores the roots of political art and social realism. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition John Sloan’s New York.

Only $5 when you mention “The Jewish Museum”
Reservations required, please call 212.534.1672, ext. 3395
For more information visit: www.mcny.org/public_programs/all/780

[madupont]

http://www.gerlovin.com/index.htm

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/?storyID=15049 Cyrillic Symbolism