Scatter links: A beer with Henry James, a bail-in for Detroit, why NOT sell off some art?
Cool things to read in other places:
– Laura Grimes, charter member of Friends of Art Scatter, has a delightful piece in the Sunday Oregonian’s books pages about reading Henry James’s The Ambassadors (or trying to read it) on the bus, and whether James was quite the sort of fellow you could sit down and have a beer with. Read it here.
– Also in The Oregonian, on Monday’s op-ed page, is a bell-ringer by Tim Smith on how to “bail in” the reeling auto industry instead of bailing it out. Smith, a principal at SERA Architects in Portland and a Detroit native, suggests: “(L)et’s reorganize GM to replace it. Why not fund a conversion of General Motors from a purveyor of private transportation hardware to a planner, fabricator and supplier of a renewed, nationwide public transportation system?” An elegant, provacative piece, with some historical sting. Read it here.
– And, in case you missed it in the New York Times the day before Christmas, this intriguing piece via Art Journal about the brouhaha over deaccessioning art at museums to raise bucks, a move that’s recently put New York’s cash-strapped National Academy Museum in hot-to-boiling water. Is it an idea whose time has come? Maybe so, maybe no. Author Jori Finkel talks with, among others, former Portland Art Museum director Dan Monroe, now at the Peabody Essex Museum in Masachusetts. Read it here.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Loved the Henry James piece! And thank Laura for sending me to your blog — glad I found it.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
It’s not mine. I’m just married to it. Artscatter fans should check out rosecityreader.blogspot.com sometime.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Yes, I understand — I wanted Bob to pass on my thanks to Laura for directing me to Art Scatter. But thanks for the plug!
And Bob — great comment about The Centaur on my review page. Thank you. You got me thinking about Updike. Maybe 2009 will be the year I finish reading his novels. Villages didn’t really hit my buttons, so I thought I was off Updike. But then I remembered a funny passage in Villages about the difference between yuppies (he didn’t use that term, but I can’t recall what term he did use) and regular people is that they can wear dress shoes without socks and eat molten-hot hors d’oeuvres without spitting them out. And I figure that every book I can read that includes at least one passage like that to tickle my fancy means one more book between me and The Portrait of a Lady. I welcome any delay before tackling more Henry James.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
What? Rose City Reader doesn’t want to read a two and a half page long paragraph about Isabel Archer picking up a cup of tea, in Portrait of a Lady? Astonishing! Laura is going to have to finish reading The Ambassadors one of these years–I gave her my late husband’s illustrated copy, because God knows I’m not going to read it.
January 1st, 2009 at 4:39 am
[...] Smith, a principal at SERA Architects in Portland and a Detroit native, suggests: “(L)et’s reorganize GM to replace it. Why not fund a conversion of General Motors from a purveyor of private transportation hardware to a planner, …[Continue Reading] [...]
January 1st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
I read Tim Smith’s article on the same day I finally watched the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” — not a great work of cinema, but still an interesting indictment of the auto industry, its allergy to innovation and its culpability in killing mass transit. The next day, I learned that my brother-in-law was abruptly laid off from his position as a Parts Department manager for an auto dealer whose operation relied on GMAC financing. As the recession starts to hit closer to home, I’m all for trying something new.
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:55 am
Architecture Blogs…
[...] Cool things to read in other places: Laura Grimes, charter member of Friends of Art Scatter, has a delightful piece in the Sunday Oregonians books pages about reading Henry Jamess The Ambassadors (or trying to read it) on the bus, … [...]…