Tag Archives: architecture

American Orthodox

Posted on September 30, 2025 by smellincoffee

A few months back, I happened to hear one of my favorite Orthodox pieces of music, the Paschal Troparion, put to the tune of an Appalachian folk melody. As it happens, I adore folk music: I spend time actively memorizing … Continue reading →

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Selma: An Architectural Field Guide

Posted on April 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

Note: Yes, this has nothing to do with Read of England, but the author sent me a copy for review on publication. Additionally, I assisted in some of the background research and fact-checking in the book’s final stages. My hometown … Continue reading →

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Images of America: Fenway Park

Posted on March 25, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’ve read three previous entries in the Images of America cities, but this is the first that takes me out of state, deep into the heart of Yankeedom: Boston’s own Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. Fenway is the … Continue reading →

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Ballpark

Posted on March 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

Regardless of one’s personal beliefs about the origins of baseball, there’s no getting around the fact that the game as we know it is a product of the cities, particularly New York: the cities were where the people were, and … Continue reading →

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Short rounds: The Office, sword-making, and love in the time of yellow fever

Posted on December 19, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Office BFFs, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.   Foes on the show, but IRL best friends Jenna and Angela here deliver a very personal memoir of not just the show, but of their friendship over the years – forged … Continue reading →

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The 99% Invisible City

Posted on June 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Ordinary Design© 2020 Roman Mars400 pages I’ve spent many hours in two of my city’s oldest buildings — one a church, the other a mixed-use Italianate beauty turned … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Log Cabin Pioneers

Posted on May 18, 2023 by smellincoffee

Log Cabin Pioneers: Stories, Songs, and Sayings© 2001 Wayne Erbson184 pages Few things are more evocative of the American frontier than a log cabin. This isn’t a new thing, either: log cabins entered American iconography as early as the 1840s, … Continue reading →

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9/11/2001

Posted on September 11, 2021 by smellincoffee

It’s the twentieth anniversary of an attack upon the United States, the details and legacy you’re already familiar with. If you weren’t, I’m sure there’s no shortage of offerings today. Rather than dwell on the mistakes of the past, I’d … Continue reading →

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The Architecture of Happiness

Posted on August 5, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Architecture of Happiness © 2006 Alain de Botton 280 pages I never thought much about the meaning of architecture until attending a lecture by James Howard Kunstler, given at my university in autumn 2008, entitled “Peak Oil and the … Continue reading →

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Mirrors of the Unseen

Posted on May 16, 2018 by smellincoffee

Mirrors of the Unseen:  Journeys in Iran © 2006 Jason Elliot 432 pages Readers uninterested in the origins and history of Islamic art, metaphysics, or pigeons, should skip to the next chapter, here. In the late nineties, before Afghanistan was … Continue reading →

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