A Treat

For those of you not familiar with homestarrunner.com, here is a sampling of what to expect: Strong Bad's e-mail: Children's Book.

Danger: Gaining knowledge of the existence of this site exposes you to the risk of losing innumerable hours of productivity. Hmmmm....then again, go ahead!

Mystified

I saw Clint Eastwood's new film, Mystic River, with D.C. last week. I have not had the chance to chat with him about his views on the film, but I have to admit I am a bit mystified about the critical reception it has been receiving.

I admired Eastwood's command of a particular genre: the thriller/mystery elements of a police procedural. However, his combination of this with a study of the sub-culture affected by the crime did not seem authentic. In fact, there seems to be a certain layer of condescension throughout the film. The portrayal of the rough-and-tumble, working-class Irish community that is connected to some type of organized crime background included these elements:

1. A "naturalist" presentation of damaged, not too bright individuals struggling to respond to a tragedy.
2. A "classic" presentation of a Tragedy where the protagonist unwittingly ends up damning himself.

However, these get sullied by:

3. A misogynist and woefully underdeveloped approach to the women in the film.
4. A tone that shifts from an observational portrayal of damaged characters to a romanticized attitude about the toils of the urban, Irish working class.

I did not think it was a good movie and I definitely have no clue what David Denby of The New Yorker was smoking when he called it "a masterpiece."

Though I tend to dislike Armond White's tone and about 90% of his judgments, I think he has come closest to expressing my view on the film:

"Mystic River’s sentimentality gets most deplorable when it becomes grandiose about the working- and criminal class. 'That’s what I’ve done. I can’t undo it,' Jimmy intones after he whacks an innocent man. And his wife Annabeth (Laura Linney) also gets a crazy speech, 'Everyone is weak, everyone but us. We could rule this town... Nothing you do can ever be wrong.' But this female fealty is wrong. She’s Lady Macbeth with no consequence. Eastwood and Helgeland’s suggestion that this is low-life truth dangerously imputes nobility to unhealthy machismo—another middle-class myth about the lower classes."

In Boston

I'm in Boston attending the User Interface 8 conference in Cambridge, next to MIT. I've had the good fortune to bump into two small gems:

"To Be and To Have" is an unassuming and disarming documentary about a teacher and his young students in a small schoolhouse in the French countryside (Auvergne) during, I believe, a one year period. It earns our emotional connection without any traditional dramatic manipulations and it avoids the trap of relying on precocious children to spark our amazement. It was one of the few unabashed and pure emotional experiences I've had with a film.


Have not read "The Art of Taking a Walk" yet, but I bumped into it while exploring the MIT Coop's class textbook area -- I believe it was part of a film studies course. In the preface, the author promises, among other things, to discuss the cinematic nature of being a flaneur on the city streets and to discuss what she considers to be a phenomenon that is rarely discussed: female flaneurs and the particular ways the cityscape is read/interpreted by them. Add to this a discussion of Weimar Germany and....well.

Perhaps, if you are oh-so-lucky, I'll write more about the book once I read it.

Supply and Demand

I guess I'm a bit confused about how developers in the process of building new residential and office towers in Center City Philadelphia made the ultimate decision to go ahead and build.

It's a well-known fact that Philadelphia is suffering from a population drain -- most of that drainage going to the immediate suburbs. In addition, demand for office space is shrinking and companies with existing leases in Center City want to shrink their existing office spaces.

So, population drain + low demand for commercial space + existing companies shrinking their office space = less aggressive construction and development initiatives....right?

No. As you can see by paging through the blog, major construction initiatives are popping up all over the Center City cityscape. I understand that unlike the rest of the city, Center City itself is actually experiencing residential population growth, but signs are clear that there is little demand for commercial space that would justify the current construction and development projects.

What gives? Someone explain this to me? Is it part of that maverick, risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit that infects the land?

| Center City Data: Neighborhood-by-Neighborhood (PDF) |

More Entries about Buildings and Food

Well, not really - no food here. It is about another new building in the works in Philadelphia -- this time in my neighborhood. You can take a gander at Old City 108.

This is a residential tower in, arguably, one of the most historic areas in the USA. Many developers are securing and trying to sell property before the Old City area in Philadelphia receives historic designation which would make development in the area even more difficult.

Oh, just in case you were wondering: More Songs About Buildings and Food -- good stuff.

Skyscraper Database

I wanted to find out the details about a new skyscraper that looks to be nearing completion at 8th and Walnut. So I did a little creative Googling and found a great resource for architecture-related research: Skyscrapers.com.

For those of you interested in the new skyscraper on 8th and Walnut, it seems that it will be named The St. James and will contain 307 residential apartments with restaurants and retail at the ground level. Given that there is an interesting stretch of restaurants, shops and theaters in the immediate vicinity, let's hope that these new additions will blend in well with the neighborhood.

Official Rendering | Current State

longpauses.com

One of these days, I'll spend enough time to produce something as nice as longpauses.com. Until then, you folks will have to deal with this, somewhat skeletal, template-reliant interface.

It's a good place -- especially the "films" area.