Suppose it were Friday clxx: Or Kashmir

Now and again, at various hours 

of a day, it can be entirely pos-

sible for an active mind to won-

der what it's doing in Virginia.

We remark on this as lightly as

we can, who hold any equity in

our residence, but you can read

it, where our trousers wrinkle

and in the occasional irregular

nail. Friday focuses the matter.

The problem of Pakistan-envy, a

not unprevalent risk of Fridays,

is every bit as delicate to dis-

cuss. Merely to envision a soci-

ety where sectarian prejudices

are not only indulged, but pos-

itively fellated, and ethnic di-

versity the very stuff of target

practice by every practicable

means, is to restore the innoc-

uous traditionalist in Everyman

to the full, upright position.

What could be more natural, to

propose, in exchange for one

nicely armed afternoon in Kash-

mir, the transfer of one black-

face Governor and incorrigibly

belligerent Lt Governor, inde-

finitely? We could even sweet-

en the deal with our HQ offices

of the NRA, intractable heroic

statuary, and Falwellian "uni-

versity," without overpaying.

But then the spell is broken,

and the Virginian realizes he

has nothing to be anxious for,

no basis for Pakistan envy, af-

ter all. There are some 1,200

Methodist Churches in Virginia.

Charlie Heaton

West of Sunset

The capacity of a photograph to stir

instant recognition of time and place

isn't specific to photography and, to

hear many tell it, isn't even worthy.

Possibly the photograph allows time

and place to escape into permission

elsewhere to be valued. This lenity

is also not specific to photography.

So, it's the low coastal range in a

classic melting haze, the ample ten-

nis whites, and the molded chair by

Charles Eames that lift the seal of

memory for refreshment to be taken.

                  All it lacked, really, were the

                  reminding bells from countless

                  steeples at dawn and at sunset,

                  and at moments throughout the 

                  day. On the other hand, at the

                  age which he had managed to reach

                  in comparative comfort, he was

                  perfectly happy not to be remind-

                  ed, that time, his time, was pass-

                  ing. Uncomfortably quickly.

                   

Criterion has refurbished Visconti's

film of Death in Venice, in time for

permissions to extend to its escape.

Charles Eames

Chair in bent wood

Los Angeles, ca 1950

Dirk Bogarde

West of Sunset

Penguin Books, 1984©

Sunday nibbled sleeve v: Machine for living?

     

I probably would have answered,
language, if Le Corbusier hadn't
claimed that title for architec-
ture - possibly even more narrow-
ly, for residence. Frank Gehry's
going to be 90 this week, and it
feels as if music is exerting a
claim upon that linkage between
mechanism and being, if only be-
cause of his identification with
buildings of concert performance. 

A remarkable collaboration between
musicians and linguists, perform-
ers and builders, Berlin's Boulez
Saal is Gehry's most dynamically
adaptable concert hall, and here
is where the celebration will be.
One does like to think it could
be anywhere, but architecture is
the machine for being in place.
American schoolboys will recall
the duality celebrated in Henry
Adams at Chartres, of the Virgin
and the Dynamo. This is building.
The subject will still be music.

Daniel Barenboim
  & Martha Argerich
Boulezsaal, Berlin

St Paul's School library
Druries House links

Cameron Dallas
  x Fabien Kruszelnicki