Author: DJB

Live Blogging Game 1 of the NLDS (#3)

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I’m live blogging game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and (Claire’s) Los Angeles Dodgers. My God…are we really going to have to look at Donald Trump ads throughout this series?  Yes, Hillary is coming after your guns!  Spare me. Bottom of the 3rd. 6:38 p.m. – BRYCE!  Double!  Good start for Harper. 6:42 p.m. – Werth grinds out a walk.  Kershaw over 50 pitches with one out in the 3rd.  If you can’t beat him, wear him out.  Nice double steal.  Gets two R.I.S.P. 6:49 p.m. – ANTHONY!  N-A-T-S, Nats, Nats, Nats, Woo! X2.  That man can hit.  4-2 Dodgers and Kershaw is up to 60 pitches in the 3rd.  Get in that bullpen. 6:51 p.m. – Zimmerman is 2-2!  Keep the line moving. 6:55 p.m. – And I have the same question I had at 6:14 p.m…why is Espinosa still playing?  The guy is the ultimate rally killer.  Seldom makes contact.  Jeez. 7:00 p.m. – I want to say that I’ve always loved Dusty.  No matter what happens …

Live Blogging Game 1 of the NLDS (#2)

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I’m live blogging game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and (Claire’s) Los Angeles Dodgers. Top of the second… 5:59 p.m. – Max is stalking! 6:03 p.m. – 10 pitches…that’s the way to bounce back, Max! 6:06 p.m. – These announcers on FOX never shut up.  Leave a little “space” in the conversation, guys. 6:07 p.m. – And I’ll say it for F.P. “There goes the no hitter.”  What’s a little 3-week layoff.  Nothing for Murphy! 6:09 p.m. – Less than 10 minutes after talking about what a key Harper is for the Nationals, Harold Reynolds says Rendon and Zimmerman are the keys tonight.  How many keys can one game have? 6:12 p.m. – Okay…let’s wear out Kershaw and get him to throw a lot of pitches.  We’re going to be over 30 by the end of the second…assuming it takes Danny at least three to strike out.  Prove me wrong, K-Street. 6:14 p.m. – But he doesn’t.  Why, oh why, is Espinosa still playing? 6:15 p.m. – The Dodgers …

Live Blogging Game 1 of the NLDS (#1)

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Okay.  I’ve been much too serious in recent posts here on More to Come…  So, to remedy that problem, let’s live blog Game 1 of the National League Division Series between our Washington Nationals and (Claire’s) Los Angeles Dodgers! Go Nats! I’ll be at tomorrow’s game in person, so it seemed appropriate to carry on a running conversation with readers online, just as if I were at the ballpark. I’ll post several times during the game. Thank God I missed 99% of FOX Sports 1 pre-game.  The basket of deplorables on that show (Pete Rose! A-Rod!) is just too much to bear.  But so FOX. 5:39 p.m. – First pitch strike from Max!  And we quickly have a strikeout! 5:41 p.m. – Well giving up that home run to Corey Seager didn’t take long.  (Only player who can give Trea Turner a run for his money on the “looks like he is 12 years old” scale.) Maybe Max got it out of his system early.  The gopher ball has been his problem all year long.  …

Conservation as a Creative Act

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A 2011 terrorist bombing in the national government quarter of Oslo damaged two central modernist buildings and set the Norwegian government on a path of demolition and replacement that raised questions of national remembrance, security, preservation, and democratic consensus. That incident provides the context for a new and expansive work about preservation, urbanism, and architecture edited by architectural designer and scholar Bryony Roberts, the 2016 Rome Prize winner in Historic Preservation. Tabula Plena: Forms of Urban Preservation takes its title from a contrast to the familiar architectural and planning term, tabula rasa, the clean slate—a site that is cleared and thus provides the freedom for design without constraints. Preservationists in the United States know this situation all too well, from the urban renewal battles of the 1950s and 60s to today’s call for clearing urban blocks to allow new high-rise buildings that will provide more “density” in our rapidly growing cities. Roberts and students from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), working in collaboration with a team of students from the Columbia University …

Listening

Listening is an act of love

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I’m not always a good listener.  But I know how important it is to listen.  So I felt a little better about my shortcomings when I heard David Isay, the founder of StoryCorps and the person who has said that “listening is an act of love,” confess that other than when interviewing people, he can be a really terrible listener.  He’s impatient. (I can relate).  Listening takes a lot of focus and energy, and all of us have our moments.  In the interview, it was noted that listening is not something that we do all the time. It’s work. It’s a commitment. But we want to make room for listening. And as David Isay said, “It’s something you never regret.” He also told a story that I want to pass along, in honor of Mother Theresa, who was recently named a saint by Pope Francis.  Isay said, “I don’t know if this is an apocryphal story or not, but there’s a story about Dan Rather interviewing Mother Theresa. And he asked her what she said …

Preservation with an International Focus

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I have returned to Italy for the second time this year for a short meeting of the executive committee of the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO).  Our host for this year’s meeting is Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) or the Italian National Trust, a remarkable INTO member which has saved 54 properties and protected 6 million square meters of historic landscape in Italy since 1975.  Over the past two days we have been meeting with the FAI staff at their headquarters in Milan and have toured three wonderful – and unique – FAI properties.  Along the way the 15 members of the INTO executive committee have learned more about the Italian model of preservation while we share our own experiences and shape strategy for the group for the year ahead. FAI’s headquarters in Milan is in a historic equestrian exercise rink that has been marvelously repurposed for 21st century office use.  The space, desks, and equipment are all modern and set up for strong collaboration, yet the entire new three-floor interior addition could be removed without …

We Learn to Walk by Falling Down

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I heard the line “We learn to walk by falling down” recently and was reminded that we can’t do anything unless we’re willing to fail.  In our work, in our lives, in our relationships with others, in everything we do we have to be willing to try, fall down, get back up, learn, and try again. All of us want our work and lives to make a difference.  Being willing to fall down and get up again is part and parcel of making a difference, and I believe that supporting others on this journey as we all “learn to walk” is at the heart of what we’re called to do. Let’s look for ways to learn together. More to come… DJB

Hope is grounded in memory

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Last Saturday marked my 20th anniversary at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about hope in the context of life’s milestones.  Not a greeting card kind of hope or optimism, but “hope that’s kind of gritty…the kind,” as described by songwriter and author Carrie Newcomer, “that gets up every morning and chooses to try to make the world just a little kinder (or better) in your own way.” The thought that “hope is grounded in memory” has influenced the work of  another writer I admire, Rebecca Solnit. In a recent interview, she notes that “We think of hope as looking forward, but…(if) you study history deeply, you realize that, to quote Patti Smith, ‘people have the power’….(P)eople have often taken on things that seemed hopeless — freeing the slaves, getting women the vote — and achieved those things.”  Knowing history gives me hope. To be fair, hope is hard.  Cynicism – where I have gone on occasion – is easy. But in thinking about 20 years of …