The Steeple Times

Tag: Berlin

  • Modern Day Foxes and Hedgehogs

    Modern Day Foxes and Hedgehogs

    The Steeple Times examines Archilochus’ concept of ‘foxes’ and ‘hedgehogs and applies such to modern day personalities

     

    According to the Greek poet Archilochus: “The fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing.” Isaiah Berlin explored this premise in greater detail in his 1953 essay The Hedgehog and the Fox and identified ‘hedgehogs’ as those that “view the world through the lens of a single defining idea” and ‘foxes’ as those that “draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea.”

     

    Berlin’s examples of ‘hedgehogs’ numbered Friedrich Nietzsche, Henrik Ibsen and Marcel Proust whilst for ‘foxes’ he chose such individuals as James Joyce, Aleksandr Pushkin and William Shakespeare.

     

    Here, below, we apply the same analysis and chose fifteen modern day figures that are representative of each characteristic and curiously reveal a ‘third way’ that for once isn’t connected to Tony Blair: ‘The Neither Nors’ that sadly dominate our society.

     

    Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.

     

     Modern Day Foxes and Hedgehogs – Archilochus and Isaiah Berlin – The Steeple Times examines Archilochus’ concept of ‘foxes’ and ‘hedgehogs and applies such to modern day personalities – Michael Bloomberg, Madonna, Martin Sorrell, Justin Timberlake, Rupert Murdoch, Taylor Swift, Stephen Fry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates, Vladimir Putin, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, HM The Queen, Victoria Beckham, JK Rowling, Jeremy Corbyn, Bono, Richard Branson, George Clooney, Bernie Ecclestone, Theresa May, Jeremy Clarkson, Vince Cable, Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Cameron, Alexa Chung, Barrack Obama, Prince Charles, Duchess of York, Anthea Turner, Donald Trump, David Blaine, Charles Saatchi, Mark Zuckerberg, Robert Mugabe, Russell Brand, Piers Morgan, Paul Dacre, Warren Buffett, Boris Johnson, Katie Hopkins, Hillary Clinton, Nigel Farage, David Beckham, Katie Price

  • Expensive Shit

    Expensive Shit

    ‘SHIT’ to be sold at Christie’s in South Kensington; it comes at quite a price

     

    A painting which simply depicts the word ‘SHIT’ is to be sold at Christie’s in South Kensington, London this month.

     

    Offered with an estimate of £2,000 to £4,000 ($2,590 to $5,180, €2,260 to €4,520 or درهم9,470 to درهم18,940) in spite of having been painted with household gloss, the work by Kent born, New York based artist and filmmaker Sarah Morris (born 1967) is 153 centimetres by 244 centimetres and simply reads: ‘SHIT’ in capital letters.

     

    Other works by Morris are displayed at Gloucester Road tube station, the V&A and the Tate Modern in London, the Hamburger Bahnholf in Berlin, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

     

    Christie’s will auction the work, which is dated 1996 on the reverse, on 19th July. It was acquired by the current owner from Jay Jopling in London.

     

    Expensive Shit – Painting by Sarah Morris to be auctioned – ‘SHIT’ to be sold at Christie’s in South Kensington, London on 19th July 2017; it comes at quite a price and is by artist Sarah Morris. Estimate of £2,000 to £4,000 ($2,590 to $5,180, €2,260 to €4,520 or درهم9,470 to درهم18,940)
    Sarah Morris with another of her works; she is described as having a style that uses bright color fields and graphic line work, often referencing elements of architecture and taking titles from bureaucratic institutions.
  • Lawrence Van Hagen

    Lawrence Van Hagen

    Art curator Lawrence Van HagenBig haired art curator and international jetsetter Lawrence Van Hagen is based in London and Paris. (more…)

  • Bonded to a Rolls

    Bonded to a Rolls

    1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I drophead coupé owned by Bond set designer Sir Ken Adam to be auctioned at RM Sotheby’s Battersea sale tonight (more…)

  • Milo Yiannopoulos (Μίλων Γιαννόπουλος, formerly Milo Wagner)

    Milo Yiannopoulos (Μίλων Γιαννόπουλος, formerly Milo Wagner)

    Milo YiannopoulosOnce described as a “cynical, ignorant f**ker” by Stephen Fry, Milo Yiannopoulos is a gay, Roman Catholic, Greek writer (more…)

  • Joanne Coburn (AKA “Jo” Coburn)

    Joanne Coburn (AKA “Jo” Coburn)

    Jo CoburnThe BBC’s Jo Coburn is one of the presenters of the Daily Politics. This experienced London based political sage has some 7,000 followers on Twitter and was educated at the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford. She began her career in community radio and hopes to end it as “a foreign correspondent either in Jerusalem or Berlin”.

     

  • Churchill’s ride

    Churchill’s ride

    Daimler used by Churchill to star at RM Auctions Battersea sale

     

    Between 1940 and 1950, the Daimler Motor Company loaned a 1939 Daimler DB18 drophead coupé bodied by the Carlton Carriage Company for special occasions. Its most notable loan was to Winston Churchill in 1944 and 1949 and it heads to auction on Monday 8th September at the RM Auctions Battersea sale. (more…)

  • Overheard: 29th July

    Overheard: 29th July

    Classic clangers from the last week

    (more…)

  • Braun’s bunkum

    Braun’s bunkum

    A door from a cabinet in Eva Braun’s room in Hitler’s Berlin bunker surfaces on ebay

     

    Nazi memorabilia can command high prices amongst the strange sorts who still idolise Hitler and his lot, but even by these standards the £50,950 set for a door from a cabinet owned by Eva Braun seems quite ridiculous. (more…)

  • Arfi Lamba: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Arfi Lamba: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks actor and producer Arfi Lamba: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    I listen to my gut.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “This too shall pass”.

      (more…)