Beautiful scenery inspires affectionate behavior. Really? Does it? Do we have a sudden urge to squeeze our lover when we look out on a sunset, an awe-inspiring vista or a dreamy landscape? Is there a connection between scenery and personal affection?
Paul Wolfowitz, the lying warmongering spit-haircomber has been appointed by Bush as head of the World Bank. I guess the "world" part of the name World Bank is actually sort of facetious, eh? Kind of like the use of the word "world" in World Series. Europe is justifiably alarmed that this neo con lying dog now has even more power, the U.S. public and media are blissfully unaware that anything untoward is going on… or they report in the "unbiased" fashion the media has adopted in recent years.
The architect Renzo Piano was angry and stumped when the NY landmark commission refused to let him tear down 2 historic townhouses in his planned Whitney Museum expansion. He says the extra space is integral to his design — they say that may be, but it's not integral to a museum expansion.
The Whitney may be a historical landmark itself at this point, but that doesn't make it a beautiful building. It's a brutal arrogant slab, with a Bauhaus pedigree, more or less out of place in its neighborhood. Why it needs to expand is beyond me. But let that issue be. We're used to it now. That doesn't mean we need to agree to sacrifice another chunk of the neighborhood.
Piano is also designing expansions for the LA County Museum, the Gardener Museum in Boston, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Pierpont Morgan Library in NY, the Art Institute of Chicago and the new NT Times headquarters. Think he's spreading himself a little thin? Think all these places really need to expand?
The LA County Museum for years has been short of funds, they cut back on shows and on staff, closing many galleries on certain days of the week (you'd plan a day there only to find that half the place was closed — no money for staff, they claim). But they have 130m to expand. Hmmm. Someone's doing well off of all these museum expansions, and it’s not the public.
