February 12, 2023: Emma Nelson, Lynne O’Donnell and Dipo Faloyin on the weekend’s biggest talking points. We also get the latest from our editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, in Bangkok and speak to Guy De Launey, Monocle’s man in the Balkans.
As the death toll in Turkey and Syria passed 28,000, Ankara was coming under growing criticism for its slow response and tolerance of shoddy construction.
The Times identified nearly 200 buildings, many of them eight or more stories tall, in central Kahramanmaras that were damaged or destroyed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he and President Biden had ordered the object violating Canadian airspace to be taken down, a day after another object was shot out of the sky near Alaska.
Sayfullo Saipov was convicted of fatally mowing down eight people in a 2017 bike-path rampage in New York. Will 12 jurors vote to execute him?
Georgina Godwin and guests set the tone for the weekend. Simon Brooke reviews the day’s newspapers and Andrew Mueller recaps what we learned this week.
Barron’s Magazine – February 13, 2023 issue:
Artificial intelligence has sparked new competition in internet search—for the first time in decades. Here’s how to build an AI portfolio.
More people are living longer and healthier. Here’s how to make sure your retirement savings lasts, while still living life to the fullest.
A new book digs into the communication giant’s troubled history as investors await a turnaround under CEO Robert Bakish and nonexecutive Chair Shari Redstone.
Even if you’re fit, healthcare is a massive—and growing—expense that increases the longer you live. Here are ways to stretch your spending power.
The first major aerial bombardment in weeks targeted cities across Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky returned home from a trip across Europe to press for more arms.
The incident comes less than a week after a U.S. fighter jet brought down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic during a diplomatic crisis.
In places like West Virginia, money from three major laws passed by Congress is pouring into the alternative energy industry and other projects. “I think it’s a renaissance for the labor movement,” said one union official.
The first-term Democrat, who was released Friday after two days in the hospital, is coping with the lasting effects of a near-fatal stroke last year, and Congress is adapting to accommodate him.
 Illustration by Ben Giles |
The New York Times Book Review – February 12, 2023:
“Unscripted,” an account by the Times journalists James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams of the media titan Sumner Redstone’s final years, is a chronicle of corporate greed, manipulation, misogyny and sexual impropriety on a spectacular scale.
Laurie Winer’s new book, “Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical,” takes the measure of Sondheim’s mentor and spiritual godfather.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Iconic Monolithic Home 00:39 – The Inner-City Location 01:00 – Designing with Entertaining in Mind 01:35 – A Long Term Plan 01:52 – The Key to Planning 02:27 – A Walkthrough of the Home 02:53 – The Double Height Volume 04:00 – Spatial Contrast and Emotive Responses 04:44 – Blurring the Lines of Inside and Outside 05:32 – Materials for the Long Term 05:51 – Swaying from the City’s Nostalgia 06:08 – Building for a Hot Climate 06:33 – A Contrast to the Concrete 06:49 – The Project’s Biggest Success
Considering the life of the home and how it may look in 50 to 100 years, the architects have imagined a ruin-like appearance finished with raw materials and green life that blur the lines between liveable spaces. Designed as both a sanctuary for its owners and a place to entertain, the home’s layout unfolds from the ground up like a living work of art. Starting the home tour from the garage and lower ground, guests enter into a moody portico that offers privacy to the other levels upon arrival.
Moving on to the lower ground bedroom, the unique design showcases the owners’ desire to create an iconic residence that takes advantage of the homes location on the side of a hill. In the main bedroom, the architects employ reeded glass at the bottom of the double-height windows to add a playful reflection of light that turns the modern bedroom into a living work of art. Up on the middle floor, a guest bedroom and bathroom have been installed along with a spare bathroom for parties. However, in addition to the rooms, the middle level also holds a unique hallway with low height ceilings that terminates in a dark timber enclosure, suggesting a cave-like experience.
Lit only by a window that looks down into the lower bedroom, the enclosed hallway focuses upon spatial variety and the sequence of contrast throughout the home’s architecture. Comparing high and low, light and dark, rough and smooth, the architects have introduced materials and design choices that evoke an emotive response. Past the middle floor, the large room that holds the entertaining spaces, as well as the central courtyard, is filled with natural light and introduces plant life into the home, turning it into a living work of art. Filled with lush greenery, the middle courtyard is designed to let the plants grow without constraint. Ivy grows inside and out and blurs the lines between spaces, while the Zoysia grass has been chosen for its self-undulation.
With large single pours of concrete, the home appears as a living work of art that has been carved out of a single piece of material. Contrasting against the concrete and stone is brass and timber, which help to heighten the experience within and turns the masterpiece home into a living work of art. Holding and manipulating light, La Scala offers different experiences throughout the day, while the shared spaces bring a new level of social living for its owners and their guests.
The New York Times Magazine – February 12, 2023:
The U.S. prosecuted Brian Lemley for threats, not violence. Is that what it takes to fight extremism?
“There are people who don’t know how to spell, they don’t know how to think,” says the bestselling novelist.
A poem that shakes us awake, enacting and preserving the fugitive possibilities of “healing from the law.”
February 10, 2023: In this special episode, we are in Amsterdam for one of the shows of the year: Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum.
As an unprecedented 28 of the 37 surviving Vermeer paintings are gathered in the Dutch capital, Ben Luke talks to several people involved in the project: Gregor Weber, one of the exhibition’s curators, tells us about his new biography that reveals the depth of influence of the Jesuits and Catholicism on the artist.
In the exhibition itself, we talk to Pieter Roelofs, Weber’s co-curator; Ige Verslype, a conservator who led an extensive research project on Vermeer paintings in the Rijksmuseum, Mauritshuis and Frick collections; and Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum’s director. Plus, we bump into the artist Alvaro Barrington in the exhibition and he tells us what he makes of Vermeer as an artist working today.
In this episode’s Work of the Week, we explore a debate around the attribution of a painting: Betsy Wieseman, Curator and Head of the Department of Northern European Paintings at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington DC, discusses Girl with a Flute (around 1669-75). Wieseman and her NGA colleagues now regard the painting as a work by Vermeer’s studio, even though it appears in the Rijksmuseum show as an authentic work by the master.Vermeer, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, until 4 June. Gregor Weber, Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light, Reflection, Rijksmuseum, €25 (pb)
February 10, 2023: After the quakes: what is the role of mayors in times of disaster? Plus: a look ahead to the forthcoming Nigerian election, the latest fashion news and Andrew’s Mueller’s What We Learned.
Boomers Daily 