One of the problems with parasitically placing bathrooms and required fire exits in a building adjacent to Cornell’s Milstein Hall, so that your open studio spaces are not compromised by such mundane building requirements, is that those bathrooms and exits become unavailable for at least two years when the adjacent building is renovated. Cornell did what it always does in such situations; instead of fixing the problem, it applied for a New York State code variance, which was granted. In response, I wrote a parody article based on Guy Horton’s Metropolis paean to Rem Koolhaas and his Venice Biennale theme of Fundamentals.
Painted footprints (see “virgin legend“) have been physically marked on Cornell’s Arts Quad since 1936, renewed annually by the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, and tacitly supported by the Cornell administration. Masquerading as a harmless “prank” and “tradition,” this practice in fact suggests that on Cornell’s campus, men have the right to define the proper sexual function for women.
The lastest episode in my “Adventures in Building Bad” short-form video series is about bathrooms and urinals in Milstein Hall, the OMA-designed architecture building at Cornell. Plus a short digression (very short; the entire video is only 90 seconds) about the Marcel Duchamp readymade and some similarly beautiful urinals in Cornell’s Barton Hall.
FInd links to all the other videos in this series here.
Here’s my latest 90-second video, part of the “Adventures in Building Bad” series which drops each Wednesday at 11 am ET on Instagram and YouTube. This one looks at a recent change in the building code that makes it harder to have inadequate guardrails on occupied roofs. Even so, there are relatively new guardrails on the occupied roofs of two libraries at Cornell which would not be compliant under the new code.
You can find links to all the videos in this series here
A recent article in the New York Times reminded me of an issue that emerged when a new Fine Arts Library opened at Cornell University using open metal grating as floors for the stacks — the issue of upskirting. In this video, I show how denials by the architect and Cornell administrators are contradicted by the obvious reality: yes, you can look up through these gratings.
Although I wrote about this issue in this blog in 2020, I recently created a short 90-second video on the same subject for my “Adventures in Building Bad” series.
The complete list of “Adventures” videos can be found here.
Both the ADA and the IBC stipulate that circulation paths must be accessible to people with various disabilities, but illegal protruding objects are still common. In this 90-second video, I look at a few examples in Ithaca, NY, specifically, problems with vertical clearance that often—but not always—result from sloping elements that protrude into the circulation path.
I wrote a new song called “Small Wonder” for the Community Arts Challenge, an annual exhibit sponsored by Cortland Arts Connect (formally the Cultural Council of Cortland County) and The Center for the Arts of Homer. This year’s theme was “wonder.”
To find wonder in a world marked by war, poverty, and the existential threat of global warming is, I suppose, possible. But my lyric takes the opposite approach, directly confronting the sense of angst pervading a world wracked by crisis. “Small wonder,” I write, “it’s taking a toll.”
1. Small wonder that you can see
The state of the world is upsetting
Will we end up regretting
Or merely forgetting the things that might have been done differently
2. Small wonder that you can hear
The sound of people complaining
While so little time is remaining
Yet nothing’s constraining the same things from happening year after year
Chorus:
We’ve all seen this movie before — small wonder it’s frightening
We’ve heard that this storm threatens more than just thunder and lightning
And we think we know what’s waiting in store: but
the window we’re under is tightening and out of control
Small wonder it’s taking a toll
3. Small wonder that you can see
The risks we’re facing are clearer
They seem to be getting much nearer
Maybe they’re already here and we’re closing our eyes to that reality [Chorus]
4. Small wonder that you might think
They’re offering us a rebranding
When these times are demanding
Something radically new as we find ourselves standing right at the brink [Chorus]
I recorded the song using Logic Pro and edited my iPhone video using Final Cut Pro. I played all instruments live using my MIDI keyboard and Logic’s software instruments (piano, trumpet, drums, bass) and sang all vocals and background vocals. No AI was used.
I performed two sets, one on guitar and one on keyboards, at the Coffeehouse Plus in the basement of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cortland, NY, on August 22, 2026. Here’s an iPhone recording of the first song, “Between the Lines.”
Find the “studio” version of this song, and all my other original music and covers, here!
