Given that Frank Gehry is the most talked about architect in the world, why is it that I can't find any references to his Experience Music Project in the national press? A recent article in the New York Times discusses such glamorous assignments as a school building for Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, and a Ronald McDonald House in Germany, but makes no reference to EMP. An article on Gehry in Slate mentioned it, but that webzine's out of Redmond--they'd have to. Is it a minor building? Is no one promoting it? Is the building an unattractive, blobby misstep of genius, which is what it's looking like right now? I'll wait for the opening to decide, I guess, but the silence around it--everywhere but in the local press--is odd.

* * *

While we're on the subject of architecture, I'll take this opportunity to continue beating my favorite dead horse: idiotic articles about Seattle Library architect Rem Koolhaas in the local press. In the stupidity race, O. Casey Corr wins by a nose for his Seattle Times piece on meeting Koolhaas, where he somehow discusses the Dutch architect by referring to his (Corr's) desire to buy a fashionable pair of shoes. (Look at the piece on the Times' website--it's really that strange.) Then the Seattle Weekly's Eric Scigliano draws a parallel between Koolhaas and Robert Venturi, designer of the frequently bashed Seattle Art Museum. The Vegas-lovin' postmodernist Venturi and the Manhattan-loving Koolhaas couldn't have less in common, when it comes to their actual buildings. One lives to deploy clever references to classical architecture (or in the case of SAM, Egyptian temples), while the other couldn't give a shit about formal trickery, preferring to think about the ways people will pass through and use his spaces. One's a cake decorator, the other's a cook. Oops, I'm getting as loopy as the people I'm criticizing. Let's all take a break, try reading one of Koolhaas' books-- say S, M, L, XL-- and then maybe we'll be able to write about him with half a clue. Deal?

* * *

Last week, all the big non-governmental organizations--PONCHO and Corporate Council for the Arts--gave tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the same overfunded institutions they've been shoveling money into for years. I could've told you whether it was the Opera or the Symphony that got 300k from CCA, but I didn't care enough to keep the press releases around. Basically, it boils down to this: You and anyone you know didn't get a dime, and the Rep will be able to hook up all their onstage sinks with actual working plumbing for another year.

* * *

According to glowing reviews in Time and the Washington Post of the Charles and Ray Eames retrospective at the Library of Congress, the show is touring to New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Seattle, as well as Australia and Japan. If that's so, how come I can't figure out where it will be in Seattle? Maybe I didn't try hard enough, but I figured if I called the Henry and SAM, one of them was bound to have the show scheduled. They don't. Is it showing at the Frye? The Burke? In the bathroom at the Little Theatre? I have to know!

Send gossip and complaints to eric@thestranger.com