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The Same Things Happen: On Repetition On RepetitiOn Repetitionrepetition

By On 2 February, 2012 · In Architecture &, Comedy &, Pop culture &, Theory

[still from Groundhog Day, dir. Harold Ramis (1993)]

The same things happen. The spray-painted tag was written on a crumbling wall in New Orleans and it immediately struck a dissonant chord in me. I kept walking, staring down at the fractured sidewalk pavement. I kept walking and when I looked up, [...]

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New York by Gehry

New York by Gehry: A Review In Which Your Architecture Critic’s Personal Issues May Be Interfering With His Job

By On 28 September, 2011 · In Architecture &, Comedy &, Criticism &, Fiction &

The following post was originally written as an entry to McSweeney’s 2011 Column Contest. It didn’t win. But I had a lot of fun writing it so I thought I’d post it here. As proposed, it was an architectural criticism column written from the perspective of a somewhat emotionally dysfunctional [...]

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Over-caffeinated, Under-employed, and Bored to Death

By On 17 March, 2010 · In Architecture &, Comedy &, Crime &, Pop culture &, Theory

It all seems so simple in retrospect. I wanted a cup of coffee, I got a cup of coffee. But obtaining this particular cup would’ve been much more difficult five years ago – and nearly impossible ten years back. This wasn’t just any coffee (and cucumber sandwich [1]), this was a very specific coffee. [...]

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Subverting the Spectacle of Modern Times: Charlie Chaplin and the Situationists

By On 20 September, 2009 · In Architecture &, Comedy &, Theory

[Still from Modern Times]

“The construction of situations begins beyond the ruins of the modern spectacle. It is easy to see how much the very principle of the spectacle – nonintervention – is linked to the alienation of the old world. Conversely, the most pertinent revolutionary experiments in culture have sought [...]

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Mediocrity Rules! The Simpsons Takes on The Fountainhead

By On 11 May, 2009 · In Architecture &, Comedy &, Pop culture &

Last night, The Simpsons finally got around to sending up The Fountainhead. Yes, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead: the superficially architectural Objectivist manifesto so often given to incoming architecture students everywhere by their well-meaning relatives. The book that can have the unfortunate side-effect of brainwashing said first year architecture students. [...]

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