Friday, January 31, 2003


Free Reads -- The Economist on Classical Music
Friedrich -- An unnamed writer in The Economist delivers a helpful review of Julian Johnson's new book, "Who Needs Classical... posted by Michael at January 31, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

These Kids These Days, chapter whatever
Friedrich -- I spent more art-going time than usual this past week out on the further edges -- oddball gallery... posted by Michael at January 31, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Blogads Redux
Michael: I’m shocked at you, even discussing the topic of blogads! As if I would ever subject the readers of... posted by Friedrich at January 31, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Reads -- Bob Rowthorn on Immigration
Friedrich -- It seems to me that one of the biggest victories of the thought police has been to place... posted by Michael at January 31, 2003 | perma-link | (19) comments

Artist Quote of the Day
Michael: I thought you'd appreciate this from Daisy von Sherler Mayer, the director of "The Guru": I like things that... posted by Friedrich at January 31, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Thursday, January 30, 2003


Art Survival Tips
Friedrich -- I notice that as the years have gone by I've developed a certain number of art-going tricks. One... posted by Michael at January 30, 2003 | perma-link | (8) comments

Free Reads -- Blogads?
Friedrich -- Is blogging ready for primetime? There are some dynamic, enterprising types who think so. Get ready for "blogads"... posted by Michael at January 30, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Pic of the Day
Michael: For my pic of the day, I’m returning to Wayne Thiebaud. W. Thiebaud, Flatland River, 1997 In my posting... posted by Friedrich at January 30, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Cell Phone-less
Friedrich -- At dinner the other evening (a mini-bloggers' bash at an East Village nouvelle-Asian place, with the Wife, Felix... posted by Michael at January 30, 2003 | perma-link | (18) comments

Morning Detritus
Friedrich -- I suspect I'll never be a PPP (primarily political person). For better or worse, I seem more prone... posted by Michael at January 30, 2003 | perma-link | (9) comments

Wednesday, January 29, 2003


Free Reads -- Philip Murphy on Herbert Muschamp
Friedrich -- On his blog The Invisible Hand, Philip Murphy has posted a blistering attack on the latest ravings of... posted by Michael at January 29, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Guest Posting -- Andre Hattingh
Friedrich -- Some comments came in from Andre Hattingh, whose email address indicates that he's in Africa. Imagine, 2blowhards is... posted by Michael at January 29, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Exclusive -- Salingaros and Hanson
Friedrich -- I'm pleased -- thrilled, really -- to present a 2Blowhards exclusive. We've been given an advance glimpse of... posted by Michael at January 29, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Tuesday, January 28, 2003


The Unbearable Lightness of Stucco
Michael: As you know, I live in Southern California. What you may not know is this is the world capital... posted by Friedrich at January 28, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Monday, January 27, 2003


Food As Art; Art As Food
Michael— I just spent a pleasant, if somewhat hungry, hour in the company of Wayne Thiebaud at an exhibit of... posted by Friedrich at January 27, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Saturday, January 25, 2003


Free Reads -- Reality TV
Friedrich -- A fascinating piece by Bill Carter in the New York Times today about how the success of reality... posted by Michael at January 25, 2003 | perma-link | (8) comments

Friday, January 24, 2003


Aesthetic Impacts of Population Dynamics
Michael According to the Wall Street Journal of January 24, falling birth rates around the world may lead to the... posted by Friedrich at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (11) comments

Terminology Alert
Friedrich -- I love following developments in movie technology. Everything's at such an in-between state these days: half-film, half-digital, and... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Blog Surfing
Friedrich -- * The scarily-smart Aaron Haspel (here) and the equally-scarily-smart Jim Ryan (here) are having an enlightening exchange about... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Ghost Pen
Friedrich -- Another impossible-to-describe Web-art doohickey. It's a pen. It kinda floats. You control it with your mouse. You can... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Too Pooped to Pop?
Friedrich -- The 1950s ... [March of Time music here] ... Era of repression ... Shiny surfaces concealing massive frustration... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Thunder Road
Friedrich -- Have you caught any movies lately? The other day, I watched Thunder Road, the Robert Mitchum moonshine-running movie,... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Free Views -- Stop-Action Webographs
Friedrich -- Is it a new art form? An online show of Parisian-street photography by David Crawford -- only they... posted by Michael at January 24, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Thursday, January 23, 2003


Tacit Knowledge -- Lit vs. Genre fiction
Friedrich -- As you know, I enjoy collecting bits of tacit knowledge -- those things people know, but that they... posted by Michael at January 23, 2003 | perma-link | (5) comments

I Am a Bad Film Buff
Friedrich -- I just got back home from a screening of a new Korean picture, a bland pictorial semi-epic biopic... posted by Michael at January 23, 2003 | perma-link | (9) comments

Interview with Teacher X, Part II
Michael-- I'm glad you liked the first half of the interview with Teacher X, a former corporate executive who has... posted by Friedrich at January 23, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

More Author Interviews
Friedrich -- Another good web resource for fans of long interviews with authors: January magazine's archive, here. Good stuff! Plus,... posted by Michael at January 23, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

WTC -- Gaudi's Entry
Friedrich -- A design by Antonio Gaudi has been resurrected by a Boston architect who wants to place it in... posted by Michael at January 23, 2003 | perma-link | (5) comments

Wednesday, January 22, 2003


Interview with Teacher X, Part I
Michael— Knowing your interest in education, I forced a friend of mine—a man who spent decades in the corporate world... posted by Friedrich at January 22, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Tuesday, January 21, 2003


Artchat Survival Tips -- "Greatness"
Friedrich -- It’s been years since I’ve enjoyed some of the typical old arguments about art. It’s been years since... posted by Michael at January 21, 2003 | perma-link | (12) comments

Appropriation Takes It Up a Notch
Michael— I was quite intrigued to read Jennifer Ordonez’ story in the Wall Street Journal of January 21 about a... posted by Friedrich at January 21, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments

More Mizners
Michael-- I have a question regarding your posting on the architecture of Addison Mizner. Is he any relation to Wilson... posted by Friedrich at January 21, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments

Monday, January 20, 2003


Tacit Knowledge -- Noise, age, fiction, pop
Friedrich -- As you know, I like folk wisdom, professional knowledge, rules of thumb -- the things people know but... posted by Michael at January 20, 2003 | perma-link | (19) comments

TV Alert
Friedrich -- A small pile of goodies from the giant information-and-entertainment cornucopia that is this week’s cable-TV schedule. (All times... posted by Michael at January 20, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Artfight Update
Friedrich -- I notice that the entertaining fisticuffs that broke out in the comments section a few postings down ("Guest... posted by Michael at January 20, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Saturday, January 18, 2003


The Other Modern Architecture -- Addison Mizner
Friedrich -- I see I've been sneaking in references to what I think of as "the other modern architecture" in... posted by Michael at January 18, 2003 | perma-link | (6) comments

Earthquakes and Traditional Building Styles
Friedrich -- I've been happily following discussion of your review of the Moneo-designed new L.A. Cathedral, and was struck by... posted by Michael at January 18, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Free Reads -- Therapy for Immigrants
Friedrich -- A thought-provoking piece by Sarah Kershaw in the NYTimes about how immigrants bring (and act out) their own... posted by Michael at January 18, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Friday, January 17, 2003


Guest Posting -- Michael L. on the Mystique of the Artist
Friedrich -- It's always fun to try to puzzle out what the figure of "the artist" means to people, and... posted by Michael at January 17, 2003 | perma-link | (26) comments

Free Reads -- Apple on Maybeck
Friedrich -- The Times' R.W. Apple writes a good introduction to the work of the great, playful, mystical and zany... posted by Michael at January 17, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Views -- Virginia Valdes
Friedrich -- Another gifted video artist has put some of her work on the web -- Virginia Valdes, whose short... posted by Michael at January 17, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Reads -- Felix on Film
Friedrich -- Felix Salmon gets off some good ones at the expense of the Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze movie "Adaptation," and... posted by Michael at January 17, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Reads -- David Thomson
Friedrich -- Robert Birnbaum's site Identity Theory is one of the best Web resources I know of for q&a's with... posted by Michael at January 17, 2003 | perma-link | (17) comments

Thursday, January 16, 2003


Tacit Knowledge -- Authors and money
Friedrich -- A woman I was lunching with who works at a large literary agency told me an amazing fact.... posted by Michael at January 16, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Reads -- Kathleen Parker
Friedrich -- Two teenagers are screwing. They're doing the coitus thing. Penetration has occurred. The end zone's in sight. And... posted by Michael at January 16, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

L. A. Cathedral
Michael— At long, long last I have made a pilgrimage to the new Los Angeles Cathedral (formally, the Cathedral of... posted by Friedrich at January 16, 2003 | perma-link | (10) comments

Art as Economic Inefficiency?
Friedrich -- I'm going to indulge myself with a musing or two. Half-baked though I'm sure they'll be, I have... posted by Michael at January 16, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments

Wednesday, January 15, 2003


Philip K. Dick and Sci Fi Gnosis
Michael— As you may remember at our Lousy Ivy University, when I should have been writing term papers or thinking... posted by Friedrich at January 15, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Free Reads -- Murphy on Muschamp
Friedrich -- Philip Murphy at his blog The Invisible Hand (dedicated to "Vital Information About Islamofascism, Euro-snobbery and Lousy Modern... posted by Michael at January 15, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Energy Efficient Mysteries
Michael— As part of our continuing coverage of architectural issues, I want to ask why one design element of any... posted by Friedrich at January 15, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Views -- Apartment House Wresting
Friedrich -- "WARNING - This site contains images of women in bikinis, underwear, or semi-nude and engaged in boxing, wrestling,... posted by Michael at January 15, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Tuesday, January 14, 2003


Femme (Lit) Erotica
Friedrich -- As you know, in the last twenty or thirty years a lot of women artists and writers have... posted by Michael at January 14, 2003 | perma-link | (7) comments

Monday, January 13, 2003


TV Alert
Friedrich -- The bad news is that it’s a slow week on TV. The good news is that the women’s... posted by Michael at January 13, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Pic of the Day--Ambiguities of Reproduction
Michael— I’ve always enjoyed the paintings of Edward Hopper, both of the “direct (or apparently direct) from nature” and the... posted by Friedrich at January 13, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

About Schmidt
Friedrich -- Until this evening, I hadn't been to a theater to see a movie in about two months, probably... posted by Michael at January 13, 2003 | perma-link | (10) comments

Friday, January 10, 2003


Free Views -- Jim Strickland
Friedrich -- Lordy, I did that long posting about modernist architecture without providing a single image of the kind of... posted by Michael at January 10, 2003 | perma-link | (19) comments

Free Reads -- Jerry Saltz
Friedrich -- The Village Voice's Jerry Saltz takes a look back over his years as an art critic (here), and... posted by Michael at January 10, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Pics of the Day: Contempo Realism
Friedrich -- Some email has come in from readers curious about contemporary art, and who wonder: What's become of skill... posted by Michael at January 10, 2003 | perma-link | (5) comments

Thursday, January 9, 2003


Free Reads -- Philosoblog
Friedrich -- Jim Ryan at Philosoblog (here) has put up a posting that's a real one-of-a-kind beauty entitled "Why Did... posted by Michael at January 9, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Mies Redux
Friedrich -- Felix Salmon, our very own gadfly, left a typically provocative comment on a posting of mine about Mies... posted by Michael at January 9, 2003 | perma-link | (7) comments

Policy Break--The Basics redux
Michael-- Someone, Robert Heinlein I think, once remarked that any system of government could “work,” as long as under it... posted by Friedrich at January 9, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Pic of the Day
Michael— Today’s pic of the day is from Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), who is generally treated in histories of art as... posted by Friedrich at January 9, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Wednesday, January 8, 2003


500 and Counting...
FRIEDRICH: Mein Gott, Michael, are we making any progress here? MICHAEL: Shut up, you pathetic Prussian, and keep blowing!... posted by Friedrich at January 8, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Free Reads -- Worsley on Mies
Friedrich -- Giles Worsley in the Telegraph (here) has a good review of the Mies van der Rohe show that... posted by Michael at January 8, 2003 | perma-link | (5) comments

Free Reads -- Tunes and the brain
Friedrich -- Researchers at Dartmouth using MRI studies have begun mapping out which parts of the brain are involved in... posted by Michael at January 8, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Free Reads -- Chess and intelligence
Friedrich -- Well, gee, if I have a brain cell or two, then I ought to be able to play... posted by Michael at January 8, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Tuesday, January 7, 2003


Pic of the Day
Michael-- I don't know if anyone else has inserted the following image into an art context, but if not then,... posted by Friedrich at January 7, 2003 | perma-link | (1) comments

Policy Break--The Basics
Michael-- In the Wall Street Journal of 1/7/03, James Q. Wilson quotes William Galston, a former Clinton Administration official, on... posted by Friedrich at January 7, 2003 | perma-link | (10) comments

Monday, January 6, 2003


Idolatry
Michael— At various times in my postings for this 'blog, I’ve emphasized the importance of religion for art. In a... posted by Friedrich at January 6, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Sunday, January 5, 2003


TV Alert
Friedrich -- Question for the day: In this era of widely-available video parlors and pay TV, who watches movies broadcast... posted by Michael at January 5, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments

What I did on my Winter Vacation
Michael, dude-- So there I was, out in the middle of the desert near Palm Springs, taking this picture for... posted by Friedrich at January 5, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Saturday, January 4, 2003


Pic of the Day
Michael— As I wander about the Internet, I keep coming across JPEGs that just knock me out. Naturally, I want... posted by Friedrich at January 4, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Free Reads Benjamin Campaine on media concentration
Friedrich -- Benjamin Compaine in Foreign Policy (here) bursts a lot of PC bubbles about the supposed evils of what's... posted by Michael at January 4, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments

Friday, January 3, 2003


Guest posting -- Michael Serafin
Friedrich -- As you know, I've spent some time on this blog wondering out loud about the ways and mores... posted by Michael at January 3, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Free Reads -- Timewaster
Friedrich -- Over at the Velvet Crypt, Polly Frost has put up a hilarious piece about her obsession with computer... posted by Michael at January 3, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Piero's Reputation
Friedrich -- Are you a big fan of Piero della Francesca's paintings? I always have been, if in a fairly... posted by Michael at January 3, 2003 | perma-link | (3) comments

Quote for the day
Friedrich -- There's a CIA bureau chief in David Ignatius' quite decent espionage novel "Agents of Innocence" who I picture... posted by Michael at January 3, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

Armchair Critic
The Armchair Michael— I don’t know if you’ve caught many movies lately, but if you haven’t seen “Catch Me... posted by Friedrich at January 3, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Thursday, January 2, 2003


Free Reads -- Cluttered Desks
Friedrich -- Remember all the talk about the coming "paperless office" some years back? And you know those guilty feelings... posted by Michael at January 2, 2003 | perma-link | (2) comments

Art Imponderables
Friedrich -- Why is it that the ugliest building on campus is so often the architecture building? Why is it... posted by Michael at January 2, 2003 | perma-link | (13) comments

Free Reads -- Roger Scruton
Friedrich -- One of my many rants-in-waiting is how eager I am to see more people get over their fear... posted by Michael at January 2, 2003 | perma-link | (0) comments

More on Digital Movies
Friedrich -- The two magazines published for cinematographers are doing a good job of keeping track of things as movies... posted by Michael at January 2, 2003 | perma-link | (12) comments

Moran, Turner and "Influence"
Michael— Does it ever strike you that the topic of artistic influence seems to be a touchy one in today’s... posted by Friedrich at January 2, 2003 | perma-link | (4) comments