Two Bizarre, Touching Documentaries

1. Brother's Keeper (1992)--about the reclusive, aged Ward brothers, who still work the farm where they were born. One dies and another is accused of the murder.

2. Surfwise (2008)--a doctor, out of step with society, creates a utopic family life, traveling and surfing with his wife and nine kids, who don't go to school but follow his strict regimen of fitness (surfing every day), diet, high energy, high creativity, pursuit of "knowledge." But then they grow up.

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Some Great Public Domain Films I Saw Recently

1. Scarlet Street -- Fritz Lang film noir, with Edward G Robinson
2. M -- Fritz Lang, w Peter Lorre
3. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- Frank Capra, w Jimmy Stewart

Air Music Videos

1. People in the City
2. La Femme d'Argent
3. Kelly Watch the Stars

Recent NYT Architecture/Real Estate Items

1. Habitats on a self-described eccentric in Staten Island. Has some nice photos and gives a decent sense of this guy.
2. Jean Nouvel's design for the National Museum of Qatar in Doha (which also has IM Pei's Museum of Islamic Art)
3. Article on NYU's expansion. Land-grabbing somewhat like Columbia. Vague proposal to expand ostensibly in the name of helping NYC and community; vague idea to create some sort of urban studies complex on Governors Island

No Updates Until Late Feb

New NYT Slide Shows Look Great

A Sugar Hill Town House

3 Interesting Things From Fast Company

1. Pic of Carlos Slim's planned Art Museum/ Office in Mexico City. It looks like one of those middle school math projects where you draw a bunch of lines on a grid at slightly different angles to make a curved object.
2. 11 Green Initiatives at Walmart. Interesting how large of an impact they can have by adopting policies. Local produce!?
3. Article on New Songo, the "most ambitious instant city since Brasilia"

Quick Joshua Ferris Interview

(Vanity Fair)

Just finishing his earlier book and looking forward to this one.

2 Short Stories from the New Yorker

1. Joshua Ferris - The Dinner Party
2. TC Boyle - A Death in Kitchawank

Courtroom Drama

1. Primal Fear -- w Richard Gere, set in Chicago. Great Ed Norton performance. Can't believe I hadn't seen this earlier.
2. Reversal of Fortune -- on Alan Dershowitz defending an upper crust guy "Claus von Bulow" (Jeremy Irons) accused of murdering his much wealthier wife. Really great.

2 Dark Films On Netflix Watch Instantly

1. World's Greatest Dad - one of my favorite Robin Williams performances in a while
2. Big Fan - unsettling and really interesting; Patton Oswalt is great

New Adam Haslett Book Union Atlantic Feb 9

I really liked his short story collection from 2002--You Are Not A Stranger Here--and have been waiting for something new since then. Here's an excerpt from his first novel about a rogue banker, synching with the financial crisis:

Union Atlantic

For some more on the short stories, here's an interview in the Atlantic from 2005.