British Broadcasting Corporation

In New York, the way we live now, to relinquish or be denied one’s boldface identity, whether  read more »

Did you realize that, according to the BBC, CSI: Miami—the one starring David Caruso—is  read more »

• So much for the good old days in Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan and his brother have bought a Scottish mansion [above] in the Cairngorms National Park. If they had decided to rent, the place would have cost 3,000 Pounds (roughly $5,900) a night. [BBC News, via Luxist]
• The AIA Honor Awards have been announced, and four prizes have been handed out to local beauties: Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, the Modern, Bloomberg's HQ, and the New York Stock Exchange and Financial District's Streetscapes + Security. [Architectural Record News]
• Clinton Hill's decrepit Broken Angel has gotten a lot of attention (it even has its own Wikipedia page). And now that it's being renovated into condos, there'll even be a "reno blog." [Brownstoner]
• "Prime real estate and the city's seedy underbelly" go together like a horse and carriage, especially when "shady" landlords and prostitutes in patent leather are involved. [The Real Deal, via Gawker]
- Max Abelson
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At 3 p.m. on Dec.  read more »

“I’m breaking down in all kinds of stress-related illnesses,” confessed Greg Danie  read more »

Bloomberg and Klein Keep Pushing Ahead    read more »

Bloomberg and Klein Keep Pushing Ahead  read more »

Bloomberg and Klein Keep Pushing Ahead    read more »

Bloomberg and Klein Keep Pushing Ahead    read more »

Bad news is good news for journalists, and a Middle East in flames has launched a network star: Richard Engel of NBC. Never one to pontificate or editorialize, the Arabic speaker and BBC veteran lets human beings tell the story for him. Last night he did it again. Sorting thru rubble in Tyre, he found the pictures of a little girl, and went from one frightened local to another on the crazy notion that finding out who she was was more important than hearing how they are trying to save their skins. His search led him at last to the girl's father, who told him calmly that a warhead had killed his wife and two daughters, and he did not understand why...

I once asked the late, esteemed voice teacher Beverley Johnson what distinguished a truly great sing  read more »

Fifteen years and six studio albums into their professional career, the five members of Radiohead fi  read more »

Papers around the world are covering Day 2 of the Materazzi insult. The Times includes the leading favorite, promoted by Zidane's brother, that Materazzi called Zidane, who is Algerian by descent, "the son of Harkis"—a slur, referring to Algerians who fought on the French side in the war of independence. But Gazzetta in Italy undermines this claim. Quoted in the IHT, the paper reports that Materazzi called his insult an "insult of the kind you will hear dozens of times and that just slips out on the ground."

"I certainly didn't call him a terrorist," he added. "I am ignorant. I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is; my only terrorist is her," he said, pointing to his 10-month-old daughter, who was sleeping next to him on the plane that took the Italian team back to Italy.

The best story is from the Guardian, which does not hold back on its language in reporting:

Materazzi has not elaborated on what he did say, but one report suggested he responded [to Zidan'es challenge to take his shirt later] with: "I'd rather take the shirt off your wife." He has, however, denied that he insulted Zidane's mother or called the son of Algerian immigrants a terrorist. A lip reader employed by the BBC claimed Materazzi said: "I wish an ugly death to you and all your family," and then told Zidane to "go fuck yourself". Paris-based anti-racism group, SOS-Racism, had earlier said that "several very well informed sources" suggested Zidane was called a "dirty terrorist". "I did not call him a terrorist," responded the Italian World Cup winner. "I am not a cultured person and I don't even know what an Islamist terrorist is. For me the mother is sacred, you know that."

Journalists should take a cue from the Guardian and not censor themselves. The story deserves linguistic candor. (C.f., Earl Butz, Agriculture Secretary under Nixon, who lost his job for a racist joke that none of the MSM would repeat in full...)

• Strike averted! The doormen's union was appeased with an 8.5 percent salary increase over four years Thankfully, Rupert will not have to open his own door at 834 Fifth.. (The New York Times)
• The flaneur is not respected in North America. There isn't even an equivalent in English. But the photobloggers--the wandering, curious breed--has brought the flaneur's art to America. (Maisonneuve via Polis)
• Horace Havemeyer III, founder and publisher of Metropolis magazine, reflects on a quarter-century in print. (Metropolis)
• The West Village will soon undulate with glass. Residents aren't happy. They saw enough undulating when Sex and the City was filming. (NY 1)
• Barry Diller's IAC building is still under construction, but here's a peek. (Test of Will)
• Steve Cuozzo does math. "The existing sidewalk cafes boast a mind-boggling 20,931 seats citywide, of which 17,240 are in Manhattan. (The numbers don't include gardens or patios.)" Then, he chokes on car exhaust. (New York Post)
• Another restaurant closes on Orchard Street, vegetarian newbie Heirloom. (Eater)
• Crowds cannot be held back from their sandwiches and croissants in Clinton Hill. Brownstoner fans review.
• The first town to be auctioned off on eBay back in 2002 returns to the market and Web site bidders, just like those vintage boots you never actually wore. (BBC)
• Firehouses turn residential, and condos become amateur playhouses. (New York Post)

- Riva Froymovich

• Hey, all you stiletto-trotting, 300-pound drag queens! The New York Times cares.
• Now that the East Village has gone all luxe, where are the jam-band hipsters to go? India, of course. (The New York Times)
• The artistic purging of New York killed the works of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and Alois Fabry Jr. And Brooklyn's borough historian doesn't even know about it. (The New York Times)
• 998 Fifth Avenue overlooks the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is on the market for $17.7 million, and is a hell of a party space. (New York)
• Miami is overpacked with condos. (New York)
• Why can't Bloomberg be like the Mayor of San Francisco? He dates Hollywood stars and let same-sex couples take over the courthouse. Even Giuliani was having an affair... (The New York Times)
• How architecture is influenced by science, rather than art, and how architecture might affect the sciences. (Seed)
• Abtract art was seen as a white art, and so the abstractions of black artists were rarely viewed. Now, Studio Museum in Harlem is taking the racial politics out of the presentation. Or are they putting them on display? (The New York Times)
• Toronto, once called "New York run by the Swiss," has an architectural renaissance. (Toronto Star)
• The globalized world needs a canal that can fit all its commerce. What shape will the new Panama Canal take on? (BBC)
• The destination is the hotel, a la John Portman and Ian Schrager. (The Observer)
• Bitfall is a computer monitor composed of water that projects images from the Web. (BLDGBLOG)
• After the Yankees, now it's the Mets' turn. (Newsday)
• Homesteaders evicted by fire. (The Villager)
• The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York closing or merging 31 parishes and 14 schools. (The Villager)
• Once Beatnik home, now Madison Avenue of Downtown, all thanks to Sex and the City. (The Villager)
• A collaboration of community groups and students is looking for nominations in the co-naming of Allen St. as Avenue of the Immigrants. (The Villager)
• Tropolism goes to 7 World Trade Center.

- Riva Froymovich

• The BBC has gone mad scientist. They're "hoping to harness the power of thousands of PCs around the world"--including yours--to predict the climate. (BBC)
• The best Jamaican goat roti in town. (The New York Times)
• Now that housing prices in Manhattan are unaffordable, let's build a hotel in Tribeca to bring in more rich people. (New York Post)
• Fed chairman Bernanke thinks that mortgage rates will stay low enough to keep the housing market stable, according to Jonathan Miller. (Matrix)
• Fed chairman Bernanke says that more rate increases are ahead, which will mean higher mortgage rates, according to Jonathan Miller. (Matrix)
• The Morgans Hotel Group, founded by Ian Schrager, had its IPO this week. Although he sold most of the company last decade, Schrager left the week $9 million richer and with a $46 million stake in Morgans. (Curbed)
• If graffiti artists use LED lights instead of spray paint, will their work still need to be "cleaned up" per the city's new law? (Gothamist)
• The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced the participating designers and firms in their "National Design Triennial: Design Life Now." (CHNDM)
• The director of the Design Museum, Alice Rawsthorn, "abruptly resigned" because of tensions over her taste for "decorative tendency" versus utility. The fight isn't over. (Telegraph)
• An interactive structure in the Netherlands changes color based on the feelings of people who vote online or through questionaire for "happy," "hate," or "love." What color would the tower be in New York? (arcspace)
• The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Center for Communities by Design has selected eight communities to receive technical assistance under the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) program in 2006, including Syracuse, N.Y. (AIA)
• Royal Philips Electronics has built a full-scale city environment so that designers, architects and city officials can see how different light can improve the quality of urban life. (Gizmag)
• Courtney Love of Hole has finally found a buyer for her Crosby Street apartment. (Page Six)

- Riva Froymovich

Now that cutting little slits in one’s arm is the preferred form of self-mutilation, eating di  read more »

Now that cutting little slits in one’s arm is the preferred form of self-mutilation, eating disord  read more »

The BBC apparently enjoyed yesterday's Times story on Miller's cabaret talents enough to pick it up, with just a little lost in translation: "'He's a different type of candidate, a different type of election official,' Mr Miller's publicist Reggie Johnson told the BBC News website."  read more »

The signs are there.  read more »

Girls!  read more »

If you haven't been following former Clinton advisor Dick Morris's career with the same interest we have, you've missed his acquiring some interesting new friends. Aside from his main gig reading Hillary's demonic mind for the New York Post, he turned up last fall in Ukraine beside the opposition leader, Viktor Yuschenko. And now he's suddenly become a bit of a star in the British press for his association with the U.K. Independence Party, or Ukip.

The BBC recently ran an entertaining, skeptical interview with Morris, who finds himself a key player in the movement to lead Britain out of the European Union.

"I think the greatest threat to democracy in the world is not terrorism but bureaucratism," he said, justifying his zeal for a party whose other goals include "zero net immigration" to the U.K.

His new associates are rather strange bedfellows for an old acolyte of the Third Way, and an odd match for a veteran of a Ukrainian revolution aimed squarely at joining the E.U. Until recently, Ukip was a fringe assortment of eccentrics and occasional extremists regarded by Labour and the Tories as the better-educated auxiliary of the far-right British National Party. It rose to prominence when Robert Kilroy-Silk, a kind of Oxbridge Geraldo, became its star. But Kilroy-Silk fell out with the old guard, and recently denounced his old compatriots.  read more »

His departure left a weakened party and left Morris, in Kilroy-Silk's words, in the company of "bloody Right-wing fascist nutters."

Al wants his VTV.As former Vice President Al Gore edges toward mini-media-moguldom, press sources qu  read more »

In sandals and open shirts, with earrings, poor posture, black jeans and mumbling plummy accents, a  read more »

Thursday, Sept.  read more »

The obituaries for John B.  read more »

Michael Jackson-the 44-year-old British TV programmer imported by Barry Diller to run Vivendi Univer  read more »

It's such a pleasure for me to return for a moment from writing columns about the endless tragedy of  read more »

I was traveling in Spain,on a trip to study Goya, when the terrorists struck New  read more »

The other day, I had a call from Londonthat set me to brooding again about the fate of our art museu  read more »

"Get down on your knees and wash my feet with your hair toshow me just how grateful you are!" This m  read more »

This June, fulfilling a lifelong dream, I went to London to watch the Wimbledon tennis championships  read more »

Obviously, we're going to be dealing with guns and violence this week.  read more »

Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week by Peter Bogdanovich Last week, writing about Jean Renoir (189  read more »