Category Archives: Books and Culture

Van Gogh, boring fr. within

Posted on May 24, 2022 by David Brussat

This past weekend we took in the Van Gogh exhibit, called “Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” that has taken the country by storm these last few months. Van Gogh isn’t quite my cup of tea, but I was prepared … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Fictional Oxford pool room

Posted on February 22, 2022 by David Brussat

I once lived for 11 years, 1999-2010, in a downtown Providence billiard room. It was a loft on the fifth floor of the Smith Building (built in 1912) on Eddy Street, renovated in 1999 with views looking to the south … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Antwerp’s Centraal Station

Posted on February 15, 2022 by David Brussat

A friend sent an email literally begging me to read the novel Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald, of whom I’d never heard, and it came in the mail just in the nick of time, preventing me from writing about the Super … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Wharton’s “House of Mirth”

Posted on December 2, 2021 by David Brussat

Being about two-thirds through Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel, I am still not quite sure I’ve actually encountered the “house of mirth” she gives as its title. What follows is a passage in which a secondary character, Van Alstyne, in Wharton’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

“Dystopia” three years on

Posted on November 21, 2021 by David Brussat

Three years have passed since British architectural historian James Stevens Curl’s masterful Making Dystopia was published by Oxford University Press. Subtitled “The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism,” the book can only have been about modern architecture, perhaps the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

William Blackstone’s statue

Posted on November 9, 2021 by David Brussat

William Blackstone, or Blaxton (1595-1675), has long struck me as the mildest of colonists, perhaps not even a colonist strictly speaking. He was a recluse, and when other colonists showed up, he exited stage left. An ordained priest of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

See how form follows fiasco

Posted on September 21, 2021 by David Brussat

I’ve just started rereading the late Peter Blake’s slender 1960 hagiography of French architect Le Corbusier, born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret in Switzerland. A far better book on Corbu, as he is known by his many deluded admirers, is Le Corbusier: The … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

O’Brian’s game of composers

Posted on January 18, 2021 by David Brussat

Having just had a capital meal of lasagna to celebrate a removal of sutures from the gap left by an extracted tooth, I am reminded of a passage I marked years ago in Patrick O’Brian’s The Nutmeg of Consolation, 1991, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Capt. Aubrey’s dad’s house

Posted on December 4, 2020 by David Brussat

Here is a May 2016 post, quoting from the late Patrick O’Brian’s The Surgeon’s Mate, written in 1979. His novels are – and I truly hate to say this, as it verges on sacrilege – as good as those of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Classical Alex Trebek, R.I.P.

Posted on November 11, 2020 by David Brussat

Alex Trebek died the other day. I heard the news in the half-time report of a televised pro football game. Jeopardy! and I had drifted apart of late, but I and my wife, Victoria, watched the show with some fervor … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments