The Most Magical Time of the Year

It is the end of the semester and I am grading and reviewing so the blog is going to be on haitus for a little while. But I'll have some good stuff for you when I get back to it!

Buzludzha Monument

"The Buzludzha Monument was constructed in 1981 to commemorate the founding of the Bulgarian Socialist movement nearly a century before, but now stands as a symbol of its failure. "


You all know how much I love decaying monumental soviet architecture. There is something so touchingly innocent and naive about the future it was supposed to have represented.


Via Architizer

A Norwegian Tower Built for Monster-Watching

"...the town municipality conceived of a series of look-outs around the lake that would provide shelter for hikers, birdwatchers, and monster-seekers."


All my yes to this. All of it.


Via Architizer

The Death of Film?

I agree with Scott Tobias' fears about the death of celluloid and attachment to it as a material.

Via The Onion AV Club

Second Paris

Apparently that Tokyo II plan I talked about a while back is not the first plan for a backup emergency city. This one was too fool German Bombers.

I present to you Paris II via Architizer.

Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture

Emily Colucci has some great thoughts on why "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" at the Brooklyn Museum is such an important show. I want to see it even more now.

Via Hyperallergic

Painter's Palettes

This will only be of use to obsessive painters like myself, but here is a fantastic post of great painters responding and listing their color palettes. Now if only I could figure out what was on Morandi's....

Painting: Powers of Observation