~ our time these days has been duopolized by the marquis project at sisyphean and by postbaroque. not to say that there is a staggering production of work in these other arenas, for most of that time has been invested in the part of the process known as ‘staring vacantly at the wall’ or ‘weeping quietly over drafting board’ or ‘seeking clarity in escape’. no one gives a shit about postbaroque, but one can read more about the marquis project at toastmaster’s grounds [w] and see the project proper at sisyphean [w].

~ for filler, we have stolen from sisyphean the end-of-the-month ritual of posting the search terms that lead newcomers to the angry red planet. whereas queries on perry kulper’s architecture and the crowmaker are of interest to the work.group fans, the visitors here seem to have more prurient and/or angry thoughts:

angry red planet : 7.3 %
the angry red planet : 4.2 %
men porno : 3.6 %
nude muslim : 3.6 %
coy howard : 1.5 %
muslim nude : 1.5 %
comic book reader .cbr .cbz : 1.2 %
fahrenheit 911 bittorrent : 1.2 %
fuck condoleeza : 1.2 %
nude muslims : 0.9 %

(more…)

~ rest in peace, philip johnson! you were a rich nazi hack who forced hideous skylines upon us, but at least you hooked up the guys who are responsible for the nearly modern world in which billions of us live.

~ we now sink to writing more bullshit about new york; today we read that eric owen moss has been kicked off the queens museum project:

There will be no competition for Mr. Moss’s successor; an architect will be chosen by the museum and the city from a preapproved list of eight architects compiled by the Department of Design and Construction for projects of $5 million or more. They are Fox & Fowle Architects, a finalist the first time; Mr. Viñoly; Polshek Partnership Architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Arquitectonica; 1100 Architects; the team of Ammann & Whitney and Grimshaw Architects; and Gluckman Mayner Architects. -nytimes

we admit that, except for the kodak building and maybe that stealth thing, moss’s work is foolish, but if the fucking “Department of Design and Construction” is going to pick between SOM and fox & fowle, why not just throw a dart at a catalog titled ‘substandard, pedestrian fare’. if you are so insistent upon keeping your city four decades behind the pacific rim you fucking fossils.

~ we don’t like to write about new york city, as plenty of myopic sycophants already have covered that task, but we can’t miss an opportunity to scoff when it is down. ‘only in new york’, is a tired lie, that nonetheless actually and unbelievably passes the lips of people standing in its streets, but let’s hope they appreciate the social and physical framework they have built and named a city where one homeless person trying to stay warm can cripple a transportation system for over 500,000 people for the next five years. well done, friend; we’d like to buy you some absolute bagels.

~ most readers have probably missed most news unrelated to movies ecstatically click on the links to find out which award nominations are garnered by another film with leonardo and that woman from ‘pearl harbor’, but someone at yahoo had the wit to post the following headlines in succession; a known fact is that no one would read the articles, yet the incongruous nature of the moves of bush’s government is revealed in two simple phrases. in a way, it makes sense when compared to the responses of “remember 911!” to the bbc photos of bloody kids who have just been orphaned by american soldiers:

• Bush Wants $80B More for Iraq, Afghan Wars (AP)
• 2,000 new border agents aren’t part of budget, Ridge says (USATODAY.com)

the ‘b’ is for ‘billion’.

~ new jersey transit quote:

“i don’t want to be close to strangers.”

(…on the new jersey transit!)

terra cimmeria: did you hear about that prince dressing up as a nazi?
xx xxxxxxxx: yes
xx xxxxxxxx: pretty cool
xx xxxxxxxx: i thought he was a smart guy?
xx xxxxxxxx: that he was a role model with a good head on his shoulders?
terra cimmeria: the only thing dumber than that, is having a fucking royal family to begin with!
xx xxxxxxxx: i am very disappointed in him
terra cimmeria: “our prince has embarrassed us”
terra cimmeria: you pricks should be embarrassed…for having a fucking prince!
terra cimmeria: i don’t think nazis had short sleeves
terra cimmeria: or untucked shirts

~ if you have recently received from the united states postal service a box containing several books of checks, the power switch to a compaq desktop, a dvd of ‘un flic’, and an assortment of framed photos (paris, selma, los angeles, a red tabby), please send them to us in a well-wrapped, tripled-hulled crate, and we will deliver to you your 12 boxes and cups of various ‘nutrisystem’ meals.

~ there ain’t too much grand about leaving behind the quiet of georgia for the wilds of philadelphia, but at least it seems that our fellow pennsylvanians are trying to make us feel at home by demonstrating that they are no less ignorant than our cousins in cobb county:

“A Pennsylvania school district on Wednesday rejected charges that plans to include references to an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution in high school biology classes would be illegal.

The Dover Area School District near Harrisburg is the first in the United States to introduce “Intelligent Design,” a theory that the natural world is so complex it must have been made by an intelligent being, rather than occurring by chance, as held by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution…-reuters

readers should note the framing technique of referring to plain creationism as ‘intelligent design’ – a rebranding of old school religion with a nomenclature that hopes to make it seem more credible by sounding vaguely scientific; the truth is the name hides just as much bullshit as orwellian named ‘defense of marriage act’ or ‘blue skies initiative’.

~ to whom was it that we were ranting that digital cameras should operate on the same level as cellphones or wireless laptops – you take a picture and it is saved to your desktop across town or across the country, instead of on a tiny flash or smart media card? billy in nyc or beth in wdc? regardless, one of you must have sold the idea, because slashdot [w] is now reporting its fruition without me.