Category: Architecture

Posted on

Unrequired Reading: May not

Just another honkin’ load of links, courtesy of my Twitter feed at twitter.com/groth18!

RT @kylevanblerk (Kyle VanBlerk): Awesome people hanging out together. Early contender for Tumblr of the day.

* * *

RT @neilhimself (Neil Gaiman): Remembering Douglas Adams in the Guardian. So odd to realise I’m now older than Douglas, who was always older than me.

* * *

RT @mattzollerseitz (Matthew Seitz): The 10 greatest sequels of all time. By MZS.

* * *

RT @magiciansbook (Laura Miller): “An entire train station full of used books”

* * *

RT @witoldr (Witold Rybczynski): The High Line succeeds in New York, but will it work as well elsewhere?

* * *

RT @nerdist (Chris Hardwick): These Sci-Fi Ikea instructions are perhaps the best things ever formed with molecules: (via @CollegeHumor)

* * *

RT @DwightGarner (Dwight Garner): I’m pulling for Clive James, who is fighting leukemia.

* * *

Unfocused #RonRosenbaum column about #BobDylan (but still worth reading)

* * *

Tappan Zee: bridge to the past.

* * *

Will my forever stamps still be good if there’s no USPS?

* * *

A lengthy review of #HaroldBloom’s career, masked as a review of his new book.

* * *

Oy, with the brain-frying books! (Me, I’ll be Kindle-ing P&V’s translation of The Brothers K)

* * *

Apparently, the house DOESN’T always win: #blackjack #theotherdonjohnson

* * *

@hoopspeak demolishing some #NBA myths.

* * *

Shaq is 15 months younger than me, and he’s done. NBA makes you feel old. #nba #geriatrics

* * *

I like to think @DeShawnStevens takes his personal tattoo artist everywhere, not just preseason parties. #gomavs!

* * *

Chester Brown: A praying mantis with testicles. (C’mon world! Let’s make #prayingmantiswithtesticles trend!)

* * *

Lidsville! (On the road, I have to order a med. from @dunkindonuts because the small coffee lid tends to leak. Grr.)

* * *

#MartinAmis vs. the Dead Bores (I thought #LondonFields was fantastic (and gorgeously lyrical in its apocalypticism))

* * *

“But why did you need to build 2 synagogues?” #JewsinAmerica

* * *

I’ve found another #AnotherWoman fan! #openingshots #youmustchangeyourlife #WoodyAllen

* * *

To Hull and Back: #ChristopherHitchens on #PhilipLarkin (with a side-trip to #Orwell)

* * *

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.” #techboom #howl

* * *

“They called it show business, but it’s really showing-off business.” Awesome #BillWithers interview. #lovelyday

* * *

Whatchoo got in that #BAG?

* * *

Sorry, #MichaelJordan, but the stripes are not slimming. They are, however, giving me a headache.

* * *

Bryan Ferry: Style Icon #bryanferry

* * *

My pocket square, my self (with @simondoonan)

* * *

@SeriousEats asks the serious question: In-N-Out vs. Shake Shack vs. Five Guys. #burgervsburger

* * *

Rio Rancho and the Arena to Nowhere (sounds like a bad episode of @parksandrecnbc)

* * *

Neat @LouisCK profile. #seasontwoinjune!

* * *

Imelda Marcos, reincarnated as a man. #thatsalotofshoes

* * *

You can get ugly, but make sure you don’t go full retard: #oscarbait #donthatemebecauseimbeautiful

* * *

Art Books, part I: The Book Surgeon at work

Art Books, part II: @ChipKidd with Superman & Batman.

Art (Garfunkel) Books, part III: All the books I’ve read. #ArtGarfunkel

Art (of) Books(elling): 14 bookstores to see before you die. #Ivebeentofourofthem

* * *

Treasure trove: SF writers on their favorite SF novels/writers

* * *

fun recap of 13 roles by @mradamscott #partydown

* * *

Sexy lady-spies of #Mossad

* * *

Gandalf or Rick Rubin? #okayitsGandalf #thehobbit

* * *

Guess what happens when you buy a piece of crap from H&M? #hm #crapiscrap

* * *

Omar=Achilles? Brandon=Patroclus? Zowie! #TheWire #Iliad

* * *

‘Twas architecture that killed the museum. #AFAM #bronzedKleenexbox

* * *

Good night, sweet Tractor Traylor. #tractortraylor #nba #milwaukeecouldhavehadNowitzki

* * *

Kane at 70: Labyrinth, Heart of Darkness, Everything. #OrsonWelles #CitizenKane

* * *

Taking participatory journalism to its absurd conclusion. #LeeJudge #KCRoyals #beanball

* * *

Nobody likes #Sbarro (especially in NJ)

* * *

Great men’s grooming moments in movies (#SteveCarrell was only the runner-up? Boo…)

* * *

The #DeathStar wasn’t a make-work project? #starwars

* * *

#ChristopherHitchens has outlived #OsamaBinLaden: #thatisall

* * *

#Shelfporn! (we have too many books for any of these configurations, but they remain awesome!)

* * *

I really need to read The Leopard somedamntime, don’t I? #lampedusa (I read the Leopard a few weeks later, and it’s rapidly ascended to the top 5 of my favorite novels.)

* * *

Pinball? Wizard!

* * *

RT @nathanrabin (Nathan Rabin): Deep down I suspect that I’m incredibly lazy and toil ceaselessly so nobody ever finds out. Anyone else feel that way?

Posted on

Unrequired Reading: April Link Showers

Bizarre! I was just settling in to collect my May Twitter-links for a big Unrequired Reading when I discovered that last month’s load o’ links never went live! So here’s all of April’s great stuff! I’ll post May’s tomorrow!

* * *

It’s time for another month’s worth of Twitter links, dear readers! If you want to follow along, I’m at twitter.com/groth18!

First, the retweets:

RT @mookiewilson86 (paul raff): David Koresh had a better homestand than the Mets.

* * *

RT @ESQStyle Esquire Style: And the best-dressed male guest at the #RoyalWedding is… not David Beckham.

* * *

RT @felixsalmon (felix salmon): Wherein Martin Amis blathers on for 4,000 dutiful but unnecessary words about Christopher Hitchens.

* * *

RT @kylevanblerk (Kyle van Blerk): Client request of the year.

* * *

RT @simondoonan (Simon Doonan): Creative factory: Simon Doonan, My Faves!

* * *

RT @GreatDismal (William Gibson): “WE HELPED YOUR GRANDAD GET LAID” #daytonbootsvancouver

* * *

RT @mattzollerseitz (Matthew Zoller Seitz): “‘After Hours’ exists to prove that ‘Taxi Driver’ actually displayed some restraint. @notjustmovies

* * *

RT @JPosnanski (Joe Posnanski): In honor of touching CNN story, I write a little more about Nick Charles and a moment I’ll never forget.

* * *

RT @asymmetricinfo (Megan McArdle): Why Europe won’t develop as an independent military power

* * *

RT @kottke (kottke.org): Hilarious fake TLC promo

* * *

RT @kylevanblerk (Kyle van Blerk): Bored at work. Photoshopping Bieber’s head onto things.

* * *

RT @questlove (?Love of The Roots): Man. Not even “OJ Guilt” is the proper colloquialism for what I feel after eatin Cinnabon.

* * *

And now, the links!

NBA Action: Bet On It! #IhadSpursandMagicinthefinals

* * *

Ah, #vodka, with your “marketing gimmicks that make getting drunk seem like a gateway to fame and fortune”

* * *

The bowling alley of the #Frick: it’s no basement of the Alamo, but still.

* * *

There’s now a computer as dumb as my boss. #thatswhatshesaid

* * *

Joe Queenan goofs on the #gehry glut.

* * *

Is anyone at the #royalwedding sporting a monkey-tail beard?

* * *

Via @khoi, abandoned Yugoslavia monuments of awesomeness.

* * *

Xanadu comes back to life! (Will #MichaelBeck and @olivianj be at the opening?)

* * *

Xanadu: More of disaster than @XanaduMovie? #likedecoratinganuclearreactor #bringbacktheAlexander’smural

* * *

In the movie, I see Billy Bob Thornton as the local, and Pesci as the mobster: #greateststoryever #trustme

* * *

“Tefillin: it’s like Jewish blood pressure.” Go, @MitzvahTank! #areyouJewish?

* * *

Will nobody think of the #pistachios?!

* * *

#AllStarSuperman never should’ve released the sun-eater from captivity:

* * *

The Walk of Shame goes #StreetStyle, via @sartorialist

* * *

So VCs are like the AIDS activists of our time?

* * *

I’m all for taking advantage of gorgeous chicks, but sheesh! #modelscam (via @felixsalmon)

* * *

#HaroldBloom and his “elite Europhile glasses” #agon

* * *

Eat lead! #staedtler and #fabercastell at war

* * *

Every so often, I remind myself why I find contempo literary fiction useless and stultifyingly dull

* * *

Go read this #BenKatchor interview! Nownownow! #CardboardValise (just plow through the “what is comics?” section)

* * *

@felixsalmon delivers a (much appreciated) Jonathan Franzen smackdown

* * *

@witoldr on the secret language of architects.

* * *

This #Houdini article escapes from the need to write in complete sentences. #escapeartistry

* * *

I guess I oughtta get around to reading #GeoffDyer sometime, huh?

* * *

In honor of tonight’s season 2 premiere of #Treme on #HBO, check out this interview with #WendellPierce (#BunkMoreland)

* * *

#ChrisElliott has a DAUGHTER on SNL? #igrowold

* * *

Dali makes aliyah!

* * *

Ron Rosenbaum implores us to visit (Joyce’s) Ithaca (but not much else). (I admit I’ll likely skip #Ulysses)

* * *

I’m awfully happy with my @allenedmonds, I have to say

* * *

I look down on my wife. #shekicksmeintheshins

* * *

#Starbury = Jim Jones?

* * *

Is it good or bad that my TV/movie/prose diet is so similar to that of #StevenSoderbergh? #MillersCrossing!

* * *

25 years ago: Graceland and the Gatwick Baby

* * *

“People who drink coffee are different in many ways from those who don’t drink coffee” #whataboutgin?

* * *

Geoff Dyer on being allergic to David Foster Wallace’s writing (his compare/contrast w/Federer is great)

* * *

“You look into the fiery furnace and see the rich man without any name” #wallstreet

* * *

Neat video of @billy_reid at home.

* * *

@simondoonan on camp: “I am not the brightest Art Nouveau lamp in the room…” #needIsaymore?

* * *

NOLA: The Big Hypothetical

* * *

Fun interview with Glenn O’Brien, onetime Warhol employee and current #StyleGuy for #GQ: #howtobeaman #glennobrien

* * *

Ah, get back to me around yer 20th reunion, ya young bastid.

* * *

Neat take on Android, Google’s business model, and moats.

* * *

Authors and broken promises. #Icantgetstarted

* * *

I would prefer not to poke you. #groupmeh

* * *

Um, the good news is that “cancer” doesn’t exist (the bad news is that it’s more complex than anyone thought) #uhoh

* * *

Would it have more success if it were called a “scrodpiece”? #probablynot

* * *

“It’s still real to me, dammit!” #soareconcussions #andearlydeath #wwe

* * *

When Antonioni met Tarkovsky: #shakeitlikeaPolaroidpicture

* * *

RPG = Rocket-Powered Genius (of design) #rocketpunchgeneration

* * *

@rupaul answers all questions, except, “What’s up with the mustache?” #dragrace

* * *

@david_j_roth speaks truth to pizza (I still don’t understand how @pizzahut stays in business here in NJ.)

* * *

Is there a Damien Hirst level to unlock? #jeffkoonsmustdie

* * *

By @mattnycs: Vote for the man in the small hat: a rabbi runs for office … in Uganda: Parts I and II #really

* * *

Hot chicks with (old) douchebags: #Iblamesociety #Ialsoblamehotchicks

* * *

No Shakespeare in Topeka? #talentnotgenius #billjames

* * *

#Koppenburg: why I don’t bike. #whoneedstheexercise?

* * *

Accidental Mysteries: masked #seenandunseen

* * *

GREAT piece by @comicsreporter on a trip to the #centerforcartoonstudies

* * *

Because, as we know from #chrisrock, books are like Kryptonite to… certain people: #padandquill

* * *

The Perplexitude of Hilfiger

* * *

Proto-Facebook

* * *

Darkness at Noonan: #tomgoestothebar (happy 60th, Tom Noonan!)

* * *

And I close this month’s edition with a non-link:

“I used to believe that worry was a talisman against something bad happening to you.” thx for the wisdom, @ConanOBrien (& @MarcMaron)!

Posted on

Unrequired Reading: The Februariad

Here’s your monthly dose of Unrequired Reading, dear readers who are too lazy or otherwise uninclined to follow my twitter feed at twitter.com/groth18

My dogs would get so confused on these awesome staircases.

* * *

Nothing about how Craigslist enables Arab protestors and revolutionaries to get laid? #noitdoesnt

* * *

Great pix from Sept. shuttle trip in honor of my production manager, who bailed on our current ish to watch the launch.

* * *

Simon Schama on Helen Mirren. Well, not ON Helen Mirren, but you know. #IneverdidseethatMazurskyversionoftheTempest

* * *

Sadly, I’m sure there’s a novel/screenplay about a romance between a mope and a fluffer.

* * *

So it’s better to shoot at civilian protestors with 7.62s, not .50s?

* * *

“Exotic Superfluid Found in Ultra-Dense Stellar Corpse”: the title of the new Orb record? #littlefluffytweets

* * *

Glad to find out street heroin and my G&Ts both have quinine: always important to stave off malaria. #themoreyouknow

* * *

I’d be afraid of the NJ version of this #50moststylishnewyorkers list.

* * *

Gator and the Berra. #NYY #louisianalightning

* * *

Don’t bet against the Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken. #starbucksduanereadeorcupcakes

* * *

Profile of Al Goldstein: the (not-)new pornographer.

* * *

Greatest. Memo. Ever. #weneedtosolvepakistanbeforelunch

* * *

@simondoonan: not exactly a fan of Fashion Week (but hilarious). http://slate.me/gLK6Jz #nyfw

* * *

tl;dr?

* * *

There really should be a Yinka Dare award, too. #nbaantiawards

* * *

Great Michael Caine interview. Get Carter was #badass

* * *

“Alcoholic hospice”? I used to joke about drinking with careerist determination, but wow.

* * *

Ahoy-ahoy! #thatisall

* * *

If only Bill Murray had missed out on The Man Who Knew Too Little, too… http://bit.ly/fCEPi9 #billmurray #castingdirectorofbabel

* * *

To Mr. & Mrs. Ball, a son: Curve. #intheloop #greatestmovieever

* * *

That’s it! No Ferrari for me! #okayidriveasubaru

* * *

KenJen on #Watson: very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman.

* * *

Michael Lewis (satirically) on who’s to blame for the financial crisis: #blamecanada?

* * *

It’d be funnier if the greys just took off like rockets: #judginggreyhounds

* * *

Did NYC consult @dandrezner for the zombie invasion section? #apocalypselaw #escapefromnewyork

* * *

West Egg. 8-Bit. Great Gatsby video game. #gatsbyfornes

* * *

Great piece by Adam Kirsch on literary criticism. Go read it! #notbookreviews

* * *

Sartoria Rossi: or is it Satori Rossi? #beitalian #iwishicoulddressthiswell

* * *

@nealstephenson on the development of the Rocket #ficktnichtmitderRaketemensch! #youdroppedthebombonme

* * *

Valentine’s Day special! Here are the best NYC restaurants in which to stage a breakup! #noromance

* * *

Fun story of SEO abuse on Google. #jcpenney #seohack

* * *

Not on the menu @ Veselka: Ron Rosenbaum on cannibalism in the Ukraine c.1932-3 #noendtoevil #ieatcannibals

* * *

Schizo NYC from @jeremoss: Two-Face, Composite Superman, or Ultra The Multi-Alien? #splitcity #uglierbytheday

* * *

“Yoga in bed” is a euphemism, right? #clydefrazier #whatrhymeswithtantric

* * *

Ouroussoff fluffery on new Gehry bldg. Was this actually written by a computer using random samples of O’s prose?

* * *

Important lesson – never marry a chemist: #whenxiaoyemetthallium

* * *

I’d wear Jesse Eisenberg’s costuming from Social Network before I’d be caught dead in Sorkin’s sack suit #badfashion

* * *

Richie Rich: explosion on the runway. http://bit.ly/gyAz2R #nyfw

* * *

My old man swears he once reached a polar research base with his HAM setup: #wb2zvs

* * *

Not quite as implausible as Jews In Space, but it’s close: Jews In Syria! (neat story, trust me) http://bit.ly/gkOntd

* * *

Neat @nicknotned (Nick Denton) Atlantic Wire interview about his news consumption habits.

* * *

Covering J.G. Ballard #jgballard

* * *

Real question is: Can a novel be “philosophical” without being dreadfully dull? #doubtit

* * *

Metropolitan or Gossip Girl? or … #whitstillman #gossipgirl (I’m a Metropolitan man)

* * *

Queenstown, where I heard the voice of God (also, where I bungee-jumped) http://nyti.ms/dSZiHx

* * *

Greatest. Band name. Ever. #drteethandtheelectricmayhem

* * *

Clive James on roman policier: #okaytheyrecrimenovels

* * *

The honey badger doesn’t give a shit: #randall

Honey badger remains b-a-d-a-s-s (I can’t even survive drinking half a 40 of King Cobra). #honeybadger

Posted on

Unrequired Reading: The Return!

At New Year’s, I decided to call an end to the weekly Unrequired Reading posts, figuring that it was easier for people to just follow my Twitter feed (twitter.com/groth18) and/or Facebook posts. But at that party I attended a few weeks ago, two other old acquaintances told me that they enjoyed this feature and were kinda bummed that I’d decided to stop posting it.

So I’ve decided to compromise: Every month (or thereabouts), I’ll post a mega-Unrequired Reading for those of you too goshdarned lazy to just add me to their Twitter feeds! Enjoy! (yes, I left the hashtags in so you’d have some idea of what the posts are about.)

Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: The Return!”

Posted on

Unrequired Reading: December 31, 2010

Happy New Year’s Eve, dear readers! Welcome to the final installment of Unrequired Reading! That’s right! Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! This feature is O-V-E-R!

For a while now, I felt like I’ve been battling against the tide of instant/mini-blogging by posting a weekly collection of links I enjoyed and wanted to share. The thing is, most of the items I put on Unrequired Reading are recycled from my twitter feed or my facebook page, so it hasn’t made much sense to collect them here, except to allow me to say, “I posted something!”

So, it’s the end of the Unrequired Reading era. I’m planning to use this blog for longer writing, travelogues and the like. If you’re interested in keeping up with those links I posted to Unrequired Reading, then follow my twitter feed: twitter.com/groth18.

Twitter also auto-tweets links to my new blog posts, but adding my RSS feed to your reader will clue you in to any long-form posts I write, as well as my What It Is posts (the necessity of which I’m also reassessing). I really hope to do some longer writing next year, but I make no promises. I’m much more intent on getting a regular podcast series off the ground.

(I know, I know: podcasts are even more passe than short-form link-blogging, but I’ve wanted want to work in that form for a while now, and I think I have a recurring segment that’ll make it something more engaging than The Gil Roth Show.)

If you want to keep up with my pictures, check out my flickr posts here or subscribe via RSS.

In other news, I turn 40 in less than 2 weeks, so if you want to buy me something nice, you can check out my wish list on Amazon.

And now, on with the show! Have a happy new year, dear readers!

Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: December 31, 2010”