Lynn Becker
@cmgiulini.bsky.social
drifter/writer on architecture, culture and Chicago, photographer specializing in out-of-focus images. there will be posts on opera, apologies in advance.
It's all a grift, and it's all in the family. If your name's Trump, Kushner or Witkoff, you make out like bandits - no, correction, AS bandits. If you don't have that magic provenance, the sucker at the table is probably you.
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
One Generation Runs the Country. The Next Cashed In on Crypto.
Sons of top Trump administration officials made billions for their families, but their investors didn’t always fare so well.
www.wsj.com
February 8, 2026 at 10:31 PM
It's all a grift, and it's all in the family. If your name's Trump, Kushner or Witkoff, you make out like bandits - no, correction, AS bandits. If you don't have that magic provenance, the sucker at the table is probably you.
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
www.wsj.com/finance/curr...
Paddock must have some good assets to strip if Alden is so hot on acquiring it.
February 8, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Paddock must have some good assets to strip if Alden is so hot on acquiring it.
A recent op-ed from Jim Nowlan is another Rahm love-fest from still another Republican - why don't they just nominate him themselves? But I have to admit his bio citation as "senior aide to three unindicted Illinois governors" got a laugh out of me.
February 8, 2026 at 7:40 PM
A recent op-ed from Jim Nowlan is another Rahm love-fest from still another Republican - why don't they just nominate him themselves? But I have to admit his bio citation as "senior aide to three unindicted Illinois governors" got a laugh out of me.
The people you turn to when you forget where you put the elevators.
February 8, 2026 at 7:05 PM
The people you turn to when you forget where you put the elevators.
Insurance magnate Patrick Ryan, of $862 million Ryan Field fame, gave $30 million to Republicans in 2024, and in November gave $750k to Florida politicians to pass a law allowing him to sell risky policies that would have "no regulatory oversight whatsoever."
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
RNC chairman pushes change to Florida insurance law backed by GOP megadonor
Florida’s insurance commissioner has expressed deep concerns with the legislation.
www.miamiherald.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Insurance magnate Patrick Ryan, of $862 million Ryan Field fame, gave $30 million to Republicans in 2024, and in November gave $750k to Florida politicians to pass a law allowing him to sell risky policies that would have "no regulatory oversight whatsoever."
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...
Spending on the AI bubble is not only eclipsing such prior national investments as the railroads and interstate highway system, it's creating shortages for basic parts for things like smartphones and the availability of electricians. . (WSJ chart)
wapo.st/4qqatnA
wapo.st/4qqatnA
February 7, 2026 at 11:52 PM
Spending on the AI bubble is not only eclipsing such prior national investments as the railroads and interstate highway system, it's creating shortages for basic parts for things like smartphones and the availability of electricians. . (WSJ chart)
wapo.st/4qqatnA
wapo.st/4qqatnA
Saturday snap quiz: Concourse D, or grilled chicken plate with kale and staples?
February 7, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Saturday snap quiz: Concourse D, or grilled chicken plate with kale and staples?
... and my other primary alias: Warren Chiapparelli...
February 7, 2026 at 8:12 PM
... and my other primary alias: Warren Chiapparelli...
Oh, great, now I'm apparently Sigurd. And I drive.
February 7, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Oh, great, now I'm apparently Sigurd. And I drive.
Portrait of American manufacturing - done right.
Corning "outsources almost nothing...it reassigns engineers rather than laying them off, so they accumulate expertise over decades."
www.wsj.com/tech/corning...
Corning "outsources almost nothing...it reassigns engineers rather than laying them off, so they accumulate expertise over decades."
www.wsj.com/tech/corning...
Why a 175-Year-Old Glassmaker Is Suddenly an AI Superstar
Everyone told the company to sell its unprofitable fiber-optic business. Now that division is powering its stock to all-time highs.
www.wsj.com
February 7, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Portrait of American manufacturing - done right.
Corning "outsources almost nothing...it reassigns engineers rather than laying them off, so they accumulate expertise over decades."
www.wsj.com/tech/corning...
Corning "outsources almost nothing...it reassigns engineers rather than laying them off, so they accumulate expertise over decades."
www.wsj.com/tech/corning...
For New City, Alison Buddy offers up a deep dive on the Art Institute's must-see retrospective, Bruce Goff: Material Worlds.
design.newcity.com/2026/02/06/t...
design.newcity.com/2026/02/06/t...
The World According to Goff: Exploring the Everyday Obsessions of History's Most Fantastical and Far-Out Architect
Bruce Alonzo Goff is one of the great architects of the twentieth century. And yet. Goff still is not as well-known as he should be, is not immediately recognized outside of architectural or design ci...
design.newcity.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:55 PM
For New City, Alison Buddy offers up a deep dive on the Art Institute's must-see retrospective, Bruce Goff: Material Worlds.
design.newcity.com/2026/02/06/t...
design.newcity.com/2026/02/06/t...
Where malice meets incompetence Trump's Gestapo Surveillance State at work: The software ICE is using to photograph citizens and gloat they've been "added to the database" doesn't work in the way they're using it, all required privacy protections disabled by a Project 2025 guy.
bit.ly/4qk88dG
bit.ly/4qk88dG
ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are
ICE has used Mobile Fortify to identify immigrants and citizens alike over 100,000 times, by one estimate. It wasn't built to work like that—and only got approved after DHS abandoned its own privacy r...
bit.ly
February 6, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Where malice meets incompetence Trump's Gestapo Surveillance State at work: The software ICE is using to photograph citizens and gloat they've been "added to the database" doesn't work in the way they're using it, all required privacy protections disabled by a Project 2025 guy.
bit.ly/4qk88dG
bit.ly/4qk88dG
Never saw this before. Frank Morgan, in character, narrating a trailer for Shop Around the Corner, with real find of Ernst Lubitsch doing a cameo at the end
youtu.be/xr3nsHRKZJA
youtu.be/xr3nsHRKZJA
The Shop Around the Corner Official Trailer #1 - James Stewart Movie (1940) HD
YouTube video by Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers
youtu.be
February 6, 2026 at 12:59 AM
Never saw this before. Frank Morgan, in character, narrating a trailer for Shop Around the Corner, with real find of Ernst Lubitsch doing a cameo at the end
youtu.be/xr3nsHRKZJA
youtu.be/xr3nsHRKZJA
A Russian firm is working on using electrodes to control the brains of pigeons and turn them into living drones. One comment: "they must be planning a coo."
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...
Drone-pigeons, Putin’s daughter and a plan to control minds
A Kremlin-backed technology company with close links to the president’s daughter claims to have implanted chips in birds to turn them into living drones
www.thetimes.com
February 5, 2026 at 8:16 PM
A Russian firm is working on using electrodes to control the brains of pigeons and turn them into living drones. One comment: "they must be planning a coo."
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...
www.thetimes.com/world/europe...
Reposted by Lynn Becker
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
February 5, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey reports the Landmarks Commission is considering a designation for DePauls 1930 Cortelyou Commons. The boilerplate is to protect the exterior, but key interiors here also require protection.
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...
February 5, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey reports the Landmarks Commission is considering a designation for DePauls 1930 Cortelyou Commons. The boilerplate is to protect the exterior, but key interiors here also require protection.
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...
Bezos Foster Kane: “You’re right, I lost $75 million last year. I lost $100 million this year. I expect to lose $125 million NEXT year. At that rate, I’ll have to close this place…in 1,200 years. SO, I’d rather gut the paper and spend $75 million on a Melania documentary"
youtu.be/tzhb3U2cONs?...
youtu.be/tzhb3U2cONs?...
Citizen Kane - How to Run a Newspaper
YouTube video by William Canfield
youtu.be
February 4, 2026 at 11:24 PM
Bezos Foster Kane: “You’re right, I lost $75 million last year. I lost $100 million this year. I expect to lose $125 million NEXT year. At that rate, I’ll have to close this place…in 1,200 years. SO, I’d rather gut the paper and spend $75 million on a Melania documentary"
youtu.be/tzhb3U2cONs?...
youtu.be/tzhb3U2cONs?...
If you doubt the crucial importance of the Washington Post, just read the gleeful MAGA bot comments, all the way up to Trump’s Jabba the Hut ghostwriter Stephen Cheung, celebrating the death of “fake news”; i.e., anything not fawning Fox News-level propaganda...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The Murder of The Washington Post
Today’s layoffs are the latest attempt to kill what makes the paper special.
www.theatlantic.com
February 4, 2026 at 11:12 PM
If you doubt the crucial importance of the Washington Post, just read the gleeful MAGA bot comments, all the way up to Trump’s Jabba the Hut ghostwriter Stephen Cheung, celebrating the death of “fake news”; i.e., anything not fawning Fox News-level propaganda...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
"It’s funny to think about apocalyptic views when we, as architects, have to think about how we are going to live. How are we going to survive?"
Nile Greenberg interviews Jeanne Gang, complete with weird portrait, for The Brooklyn Rail.
brooklynrail.org/2026/02/arch...
Nile Greenberg interviews Jeanne Gang, complete with weird portrait, for The Brooklyn Rail.
brooklynrail.org/2026/02/arch...
JEANNE GANG with Nile Greenberg | The Brooklyn Rail
Jeanne Gang is state-of-the-art. The work of her office Studio Gang is embedded in the contemporary world of building. One unexpected realization of this interview is the dominance of architecture mod...
brooklynrail.org
February 4, 2026 at 5:23 PM
"It’s funny to think about apocalyptic views when we, as architects, have to think about how we are going to live. How are we going to survive?"
Nile Greenberg interviews Jeanne Gang, complete with weird portrait, for The Brooklyn Rail.
brooklynrail.org/2026/02/arch...
Nile Greenberg interviews Jeanne Gang, complete with weird portrait, for The Brooklyn Rail.
brooklynrail.org/2026/02/arch...
Crypto bros cast their 15-foot-tall Golden Calf for the worship of the God who makes all their swindling dreams come true (as long as he gets his cut.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/t...
‘Don Colossus,’ a Golden Statue of President Trump, Waits for Its Home
www.nytimes.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Crypto bros cast their 15-foot-tall Golden Calf for the worship of the God who makes all their swindling dreams come true (as long as he gets his cut.)
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/t...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/t...
Newberry Library receives $4 million Mellon Foundation grant to "expand access to its renowned Indigenous Studies collections and strengthen collaboration with tribal nations."
www.newberry.org/news/newberr...
www.newberry.org/news/newberr...
Newberry Library Receives $4 Million Grant
Funding will expand access to Indigenous collections, enable community-led research, and strengthen tribal partnerships.
www.newberry.org
February 3, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Newberry Library receives $4 million Mellon Foundation grant to "expand access to its renowned Indigenous Studies collections and strengthen collaboration with tribal nations."
www.newberry.org/news/newberr...
www.newberry.org/news/newberr...
Say goodbye to the loft at 1415 North Dayton, originally announced for a rehab now judged "too challenging." The first rendering of its 28-story bKl-designed replacement, of the base, looked promising, but the full-height reveal is just another anonymous tower
www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-r...
www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-r...
Plan for 28-story apartment tower adds to growing number of high-rises in Lincoln Park
Developers Honore Properties and Peerless Development are seeking city approval for a 28-story, 340-unit tower at 1415 N. Dayton in Lincoln Park.
www.chicagobusiness.com
February 3, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Say goodbye to the loft at 1415 North Dayton, originally announced for a rehab now judged "too challenging." The first rendering of its 28-story bKl-designed replacement, of the base, looked promising, but the full-height reveal is just another anonymous tower
www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-r...
www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-r...
February has only just begun, but I'm already cabin-fever impatient to get back to this.
February 3, 2026 at 8:35 PM
February has only just begun, but I'm already cabin-fever impatient to get back to this.