face time

Illus: ~CrapsY

The site removed "Random Play" and "Whatever I Can Get" from the options of what members were "Looking For"—to be replaced by "Networking."

Charles Petersen, In the World of Facebook, in the 25 Feb 2010 issue of the New York Review of Books, speaking on the evolution of the social networking site Facebook.

Petersen's piece is interesting for its exploration of class (with a shout out to Danah Boyd's seminal piece), exclusivity, and the social network as an architectural space.

toward an understanding

Despite Le Corbusier's interest in theory, his discourses were anything but cerebral abstractions, and conveyed a vigorous physicality thanks to the method through which he illustrated his thoughts. His visual aids were low-tech yet high-impact.

On the wall behind him, the architect would unroll and pin up a swath of yellow tracing paper as wide as a movie screen. While he spoke, he used varicolored chalks or crayons and sketched a profusion of pictograms, scrawled a welter of catchphrases, and ended up with a dense calligraphic mural like a Cy Twombly drawing avant la lettre.

Many such Corbusier lecture backdrops survive, intact or in tatters, thanks to souvenir hunters who swooped in and claimed them the second he exited the stage.

From Maman's Boy by Martin Filler in the 30 April issue of the New York Review of Books.



NYC - MOMA - Le Corbusier's Urban Planning for Algiers
Originally uploaded by wallyg

faved

faved
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction.

Blurb by Senator Barack Obama on the back jacket of the recently reissued The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr as cited in the New York Review of Books.

Obama's blurb is unremarkable: It colors carefully within the lines with a moral prescription that the writer is advocating for us, that he wants us to believe he adheres to himself. "One of my favorites" gushes like a schoolgirl claiming a BFF (or more accurately, a BPhF) and doesn't go anywhere interesting or insightful from there. It doesn't say anything about Niebuhr that we all haven't already agreed Niebuhr is all about.

Obama's blurb is all about Obama.

"Look at me: I read Niebuhr. You should too."

That, of course, is why I'm posting it. Because I'm still in the honeymoon stage; still picking out things that I love about my dreamy new boyfriend. I love discovering that my president reads Niebuhr. (*You* love Niebuhr? *I* love Niebuhr!!!)

And speaking of Niebuhr (because I read Niebuhr: do you read Niebuhr? Did you know *Barack Obama* reads Niebuhr? OMG BFF!): Speaking of Faith ran a great panel on Niebuhr not too long ago »

Posting by cameraphone enroute to Austin.

land of lincoln

Lest we forget, he came to Washington from Illinois. Even though we think of him as the American Jesus, he had a little Mayor Daley in him too.

Sarah Vowell writing about, er, Abraham Lincoln and his Gettysburgh Address in The Partly Cloudy Patriot.

I picked up Vowell's book hard on the heels of reading Garry Wills' Two Speeches on Race in the 1 May 2008 issue of the New York Review of Books, in which Wills favorably compares Obama's speech on race and Lincoln's 1860 Cooper Union speech in which Lincoln addressed his association with John Brown and commented on the Dred Scott Decision. Says Wills:

What is of lasting interest is their similar strategy for meeting the charge of extremism.

Both argued against the politics of fear. Neither denied the darker aspects of our history, yet they held out hope for what Lincoln called here the better 'lights of current experience' -- what he would later call the 'better angels of our nature.'

Each looked for larger patterns under the surface bitternesses of their day. Each forged a moral position that rose above the occasions for their speaking.

Apologies for the lack of linkage & the funky formatting -- queuing this up en route to Vegas. Will update soon.

Update: Linked.

I cannot be distant

I cannot be distant
since everything has come alarmingly closer—
the curls, the infectious chuckles,
the drawl like poured-out honey,
the privilege of sharing her astute delight,
the benign devastations of her wit.


A fragment from Derek Wolcott's statement read in honor of Elizabeth Hardwick at her memorial service in New York on 16 December. It appeared in 17 January issue of the New York Review of Books and is so full of love it's startling and a tender treat to read »