Diatribe #1

Grrrrrr. Even the thought of the Micheal Lee-Chin Crystal by Daniel Libeskind at the ROM makes me mad. Not that I have a problem with the architecture itself, but I really feel that plopping the Crystal on top of one of the city's most beautiful buildings is akin to sticking a leopard skin thong on the David; some things are just not right. Furthermore, the interior of the space is open for public preview until June 11th--if you pay for it. That's right, the touted free preview was only 18 hours long. If you want to see it empty before it is closed again to fill it with incongruent artifacts (or rather, the space is incongruent with them, but we all know this), you have to pay admission, which has increased to $20 for adults! So, you basically have to fund this monstrosity just for the right to critique it. {Heads up: you can go to the ROM on Fridays for $5 from 4:30 to 9:30pm} Getting access to the preview is a bit convoluted, so please visit http://www.rom.on.ca/crystal/preview.php to figure it out. I found conflicting info about this on other sites, so I would recommend calling to confirm what you believe is correct. I plan to go so that I can substantiate my rants about the melded architecture. While there, you might want to take in the exhibit of the Black Star Sapphire of Queensland, one of the largest in the world, included in your architorture* admission. I'm not including a photo on the principle that it would satisfy the Crystal's supporters; kind of like if you ignore people with those booming disco cars, you aren't giving them the attention they want.
*unfortunately, I cannot claim authorship of this term.