VAT and Listed buildings

The recent budget is proposing to remove the zero rating of VAT on alterations to listed buildings, this is going to cost some churches a lot of money, Wakefield cathedral is having to stump up another £200000 before their current work can proceed - enter the youtube above and Pamela Greener, the wife of the dean with a song - I posted this on facebook but if you don't know me there - here it is! For UK voters, there's a petition on the govenment website!
I kept expecting a hard-hatted chorus to enter from behind the singer....

My Architect

I was meaning to mention our visit to the silk screen (our local cinema club) to see My Architect, two weeks ago now. I wasn't over keen on going to see it, no doubt therapeutic for the son, but an evening watching a film about an architect I hadn't heard of?? I found myself gradually drawn into the story of Louis Kahn with his unconventional living arrangments (multiple households), the son telling the story was the child of one of his colleagues - he seemed to treat the female ones as a bit of a harem and the film told of the son's visits to the father's buildings and of his meetings with his half sisters.
For me it started to take life when there was an interview with a Philadelphia ex-councillor who explained why Kahn didn't get a job - and wonderfully betrayed himself in the process! Kahn eventually died at a railway station near bankrupt but the son's last visit to Bangla Desh and the Capitol meaning where a local explained, in tears, how much Kahn's commitment meant to them was for me the moment that made the evening out worthwhile. Well worth seeing.
This blog has this quote

In one of the interview[s] about Louis Kahn, an Architect said, In Jewish Mysticism: God can only be known through His Works. ... thus the work of any Jewish Artists can be considered as the work of God. When you see Louis enjoying his silence with his finger on his lips looking at the light, you know as if he was connecting with something. You can not be impatient.

Musings from a New York architect are here

OTT Churches

Not sure how I got here but I was musing on churches that strike one as being different - sticking in the memory, I hope this isn't a call to ignore the diocesan architect! Ones that occur to me are:

• Middleham Church, with the Richard III connections and the stained glass of the strangulation of St Akelda, can't find a link...
  
• S.Maria della Vittoria Rome - principally for the Bernini!
  
• Santa Maria della Spina Pisa - ornate outside - have never seen the inside
  
• Birtles Church Macclesfield - somewhat closer to home - tiny place with lots of wooden carvings inside - can't find a web picture. I believe the carvings were brought back from Holland