Category Archives: Books and Culture

Pandion as African Queen

Posted on July 12, 2015 by David Brussat

There were rocks in the channel now, with the white water boiling around them, and Rose saw them coming up towards her with terrifying rapidity. There was need for instant decision in picking the right course, and yet Rose could … Continue reading →

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Lists and lists of restaurants

Posted on July 11, 2015 by David Brussat

Providence has a reputation for fine dining and restaurants that grow old and increasingly beloved. Le tout foodie Prov is mourning the announced closure, on Aug. 9, of the Rue de L’Espoir. But as GoLocalProv.com’s story “Restaurants That Are Sadly … Continue reading →

Posted in Art and design, Blast from past, Books and Culture, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

A high-rise schimflexicon

Posted on July 6, 2015 by David Brussat

H.L. Mencken assembled and published Menckeniana: A Schimflexicon, in which he collected all the abuse of his writing that he could find, mostly from newspaper reviews of his books. I have set myself a much easier but less amusing task … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The independence of music

Posted on July 5, 2015 by David Brussat

Not long ago, a few soft bars into Ravel’s Bolero, conductor Larry Rachleff of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, presiding at Veterans Memorial Auditorium – in the shadow of the Rhode Island State House designed by Charles Follen McKim – stopped … Continue reading →

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Cellini: Pearls before duchess

Posted on June 30, 2015 by David Brussat

In the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1572) he discusses fighting and money a lot. Designing the settings for jewelry – his craft as a goldsmith and sometime sculptor – is the topic to which, after fighting and money, he has … Continue reading →

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Shots of China, Bhutan

Posted on June 24, 2015 by David Brussat

Monday I was invited for a sail out of the Bristol Yacht Club with Michael Gerhardt, recently the temporary director of the Providence Athenaeum, and his friend Ken Gaus. The day was lovely and the wind was low – at … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Photography, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“No tears for tankies”

Posted on June 22, 2015 by David Brussat

Here, from way out in total left field, is something completely off the radar of this blog. Yet I found it so perversely fascinating that I had to post. Last time I posted on a subject from the Charnel-House blog, … Continue reading →

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Modernist GMO architecture

Posted on June 21, 2015 by David Brussat

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of appearing on WPRO’s Coalition Radio with Pat Ford and David Fisher (6 p.m. Saturdays, 630 AM and 99.5 FM). I was preceded on the air by Elizabeth Guardia of Right to Know RI, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Rhode Island | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

News flash! Moi on WPRO!

Posted on June 17, 2015 by David Brussat

Get me rewrite! I will be a guest on WPRO’s “The Coalition: Radio for Independent Minds” this Saturday at 6. I will be discussing … well, let’s hear it straight from the horse’s mouth: “In our second segment,” reports the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture, Development, Providence, Rhode Island, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Cellini’s stab at Turk daggers

Posted on June 14, 2015 by David Brussat

I recently began to read the famous autobiography of the goldsmith Cellini (1500-1571), which he wrote from age 58 but concluded about a dozen years before his death. From the pages of the rambunctious Florentine artist we get perhaps the … Continue reading →

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