The first new roof I ever worked on in America was a two-piece Spanish clay tile affair. It was steep: a 12/12 pitch, which is a perfect 45 degree angle, and three tall stories off the ground. The young (but extremely wealthy) customer and his architect wanted the roof to look ‘stressed’, i.e. weathered and old, like it had been repaired a lot, to lend an antique, lived-in flavor and replicate the appearance of a lavish but ancient Mediterranean villa. Continue reading…

I’m always a little nonplussed by technophobes. There seems to be a surprising number of people who proudly dismiss current mobile technology, as if everything we’ve developed in the last twenty years is a passing fad, like bell bottoms or hula hoops. (I’m particularly enjoying the Justin Bieber hairstyles, by the way. Take photos of your kids now, folks. They’ll be golden extortion currency in ten years.) Continue reading…

Unless you’ve being living under a sizeable boulder, you’ll have seen Game of Thrones, the HBO dramatization of the first book of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy magnum opus, A Song of Ice and Fire.

Yeah, it’s good. It’s the best thing on TV, I reckon, by far. I’ve studied more than my fair share of medieval history, and I nod at every nuance he introduces with his narrative. I’ve read the books too, because books are always better if one’s imagination is worth a damn. Continue reading…

Something I’ve suspected for quite a long time is apparently true: America is full of dumb people.

The research that spawned this article provides tangible evidence to back my notion of a country full of drooling simpletons.

We’re not all lackwits, don’t get me wrong, and this bulge in the bell curve is not unique to our fair shores, it’s just we have the biggest one. Continue reading…

Hollywood: is it a parasite that feasts on the marrow of redundant social mores? Or a conscientious agent of truth subverting staid cultural conventions and pervasive political deception?

Obviously it meanders somewhere between these two diametric goalposts, agonizingly attempting to balance relevancy with turnover. Continue reading…