Things have been quiet in this space for the past few weeks. What can I say? Everything slows down in the summer. The dog days are here, but autumn will be here before you know it.
Very sad news for the Chicago architecture community: Doug Garofalo passed away on July 31, one day before his 53rd birthday, after a long illness. He taught at the architecture school at the University of Illinois at Chicago and he was principal at Garofalo Architects. Iker Gil spoke with Garofalo about Chicago’s ill-fated bid for the 2016 Olympics and the state of the Chicago architecture community in MAS Context.
A.O. Scott reconsiders Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). He discounts the tradition interpretations of the film as an allegory of anti-Communist paranoia or despair over Eisenhower-era conformity. Scott reads the film as an allegory of sexual desire between the two main characters, Dr. Miles Bennell and Becky Driscoll. Scott also slips in a political interpretation of the end of the film, which was changed from director Don Siegel’s original plan.
Chicago jazz musician Ken Vandermark recently completed the soundtrack for the upcoming film Parallax Sounds, a documentary about the post-rock scene in 1990’s Chicago. Last winter I spoke with Kênya Zanatta, the assistant director and co-scriptwriter for the film. Here’s an except from the film.
Finally, I want to mention a couple of books I read last week with on vacation on Oak Island, North Carolina.
- Arthur Phillips, The Tragedy of Arthur
. Based loosely on a real-life incident of Shakespeare forgery in 1794, as well as the career of a novelist named Arthur Phillips, the novel is a mock introduction to a “lost” Shakespeare play. The novel’s action resolves rather hurriedly before switching to the full text of The Tragedy of Arthur, an impressive attempt at imitating the most inimitable of writers.
- P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves
. The Jeeves stories are set in New York City, to which Bertie Wooster has been exiled by his fearsome Aunt Agatha. In each story he is visited by a British expatriot who carries his foibles like a passport. This edition also includes stories narrated by Reggie Pepper, a blander but more effectual character than Bertie. The Pepper stories are set in England, where Wodehouse’s powers of observation are keener.
sc_project=1425922;
sc_invisible=1;
sc_partition=12;
sc_security=”9e14ed91″;
One-Way Street 