Comments on: A Switch in Time

By: France’s Rogue Restorationists «

France’s Rogue Restorationists « — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:14:41 +0000

[...] Beyond the Pantheon operation, which only became public knowledge because the French government sued the restoration team, Les UX is known to have established an underground cinema (which seems, literally, to be built in abandoned tunnels beneath Paris) and completed rogue renovations of a 19th-century government bunker and a 12th-century crypt. (via) [...]

By: Could They Break Into My Place? « Petunias

Could They Break Into My Place? « Petunias — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:16:39 +0000

[...] They Break Into My Place? Via Kieran at Crooked Timber, this is very interesting: Four members of an underground “cultural guerrilla” [...]

By: wood turtle

wood turtle — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:33:12 +0000

That is a good story.

By: The Invisible Library » Blog Archive » Outlaw Clockmaker’s Restore Cultural Heritage In Secret

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:57:10 +0000

[...] the 18th-century monument in a plot worthy of Dan Brown or Umberto Eco. [Though, as pointed out in the comments at CT, it’s more in the vein of a Pynchon [...]

By: thompsaj

thompsaj — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:09:09 +0000

sorry, link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Freeway#Citizen_involvement

By: thompsaj

thompsaj — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:08:40 +0000

an artist did a similar thing (similar as a “guerilla public service”) in LA a few years ago, but, of course, that involved altering freeway signs to make them more useful.

By: Populuxe

Populuxe — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:23:11 +0000

sounds more like something out of Thomas Pynchon

Better yet, it sounds like The so-called utopia of the Centre Beaubourg: An interpretation.

By: Bruce Baugh

Bruce Baugh — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:44:49 +0000

This makes me thoroughly happy.

By: novakant

novakant — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:32:38 +0000

Many of them were students in the Latin Quarter in the 80s and 90s, when it was popular to have secret parties in Paris’s network of tunnels.

I’ve been to a party like that in the early 90s, cannot remember at all how I ended up (or rather down) there, but it was very atmospheric and friendly. Paris is full of little charming secrets like that.

By: Repairing the clock at the center of the world « Entertaining Research

Repairing the clock at the center of the world « Entertaining Research — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:48:48 +0000

[...] Hat tip: Kieran healy at Crooked Timber [...]

By: faff

faff — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:09:39 +0000

This is the kind of monkey-wrenching that we need more of!

By: c.l. ball

c.l. ball — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:51:10 +0000

My memory of the Pantheon is a bit hazy. Where exactly is the clock if you are looking from the outside?

When I’m in that area of Paris I usually get consumed by the Musée de l’Institut du Monde Arabe or Musée national du Moyen Âge, and end up just skirting by the Sorbonne. (Since I don’t read French, all the bookstores by the Sorbonne make me feel like a cad.)

By: rm

rm — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:43:38 +0000

Cian, the article didn’t say what gender the lawyers or the nurses were; they might all be male, or all female, for all you can tell. I took those titles to be metonyms for the professional middle-class.

And yes, wonderful news.

In the U.S., would they be prosecuted as terrorists? I think so—messing with a potential target, after all.

By: Dan Drezner

Dan Drezner — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:40:27 +0000

I’m with Jack Fear—my thoughts immediately ran to Robert DeNiro in Brazil.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:07:25 +0000

Wow, I completely agree: this story makes me giddy. It’s like sprinkling magic dust on reality.