{"id":5082,"date":"2010-03-12T06:24:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T11:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=5082"},"modified":"2010-03-12T06:26:39","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T11:26:39","slug":"unrequired-reading-march-12-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-march-12-2010","title":{"rendered":"Unrequired Reading: March 12, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Unrequired Reading time! You know you wanna check out this week’s load o’ links!<\/p>\n

London: the past ain’t what it used to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

The hidden thread of Martin Scorsese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’ve written before about how NYTimes<\/em> architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff sucks. Here’s a designer’s (and architecture critic’s) perspective on why he sucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Boom! goes the dynamite<\/span> liquid oxygen cylinder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And a donut with no hole is a danish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Israel: so hardcore that it’s supermarkets parody Mossad hit-squads for commercials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

There are airports you’d prefer to be on the no-fly list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I probably would’ve liked Reality Hunger<\/a>\"\" back when I was in college. That is not praise for it. Neither is Sam Anderson’s review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

And now, your moment of zen ironing:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Unrequired Reading time! You know you wanna check out this week’s load o’ links!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,4,19],"tags":[982,708,287,981],"class_list":["post-5082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-literature","category-urban-issues","tag-david-shields","tag-derek-lowe","tag-nicolai-ouroussoff","tag-sam-anderson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1jY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2578,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-3-2008","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 3, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"October 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you ready for some linkage? I put in some hefty ones, to make up for last week's hiatus (woop-woop-woop!). Also, because my brain was going to shut off if I listened to any more of the VP debate. Just click more! Make your blog more like The Wire! (Seriously,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4050,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/city-of-glass-shards","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":1},"title":"City of Glass Shards","author":"Gil","date":"June 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In our last Unrequired Reading, I noted that Frank \"curved metal surfaces\" Gehry had been bounced as the architect of the Atlantic Yards (AY) arena project for the Nets, in favor of a design that will shave $150-$200 million from construction costs. At the time, I laughed over the depiction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2337,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-29-2008","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 29, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"August 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Long weekend, dear American readers! Better fill it up with lots of oddball links! Just click more! How do you really feel, about Jay Mariotti's departure, Mr. Ebert? * * * Rupert Murdoch cares not for your silly books! (seriously, book publishing is such a minuscule contributor to News Corp.'s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"J.M.W. Turner\"","block_context":{"text":"J.M.W. Turner","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/jmw-turner"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/writing-on-buildings","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":3},"title":"Writing on Buildings","author":"Gil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just because the NYTimes' architecture critic lives on another planet (lemme tell you, Nicolai: the problem with starchitecture is not that it failed to focus on public housing), that doesn't mean there isn't good writing about architecture in other newspapers. Dwell's blog offers up a bunch of them!","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3773,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/building-perspective","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":4},"title":"Building Perspective","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Nicolai Ouroussoff seems to be celebrating restraint in his review of the Standard, a new hotel on 13th St. in NYC: These are simple but powerful moves. And they are a reminder that enveloping a structure in a flamboyant wrapper is not always the most effective way to create lasting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2455,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/new-orleans-beijing-same-difference","url_meta":{"origin":5082,"position":5},"title":"New Orleans, Beijing: Same Difference","author":"Gil","date":"September 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Nicolai Ouroussoff: still here, still batshit-crazy. He asks why, if China could make a major architectural statement out of Beijing, the U.S. won't do the same in . . . New Orleans. No, really. Somehow, he misses the points that Beijing is the capital of a burgeoning world power, while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5087,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5082\/revisions\/5087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}