No, no: we're not half as idle as our most loyal fans would have it. Not by half; while it may have appeared to many that we invented a new holiday (or two) for ourselves in order to squander July, then decamped to points sandy for much of August—only to return in September and fizzle out upon re-entry—the truth is that we've been traveling. With all the rest of the sad, sad, fallen world of starchitecture. Oh, but how that guilt already mounts; we must make a confesstion. It was not us, "per se", but one of ours—a colleague, an ally, a co-worker (in the bland parlance of our day). Squirreling away our dimes and ha'pence, we sent this brave soul into the belly of the beast—as some few wise among you may have cottoned—if by beast we mean the opening festivities of the...wait for it...10th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale!

Venice Biennale begins for some, ends for others The prosecco bottles are lying forlorn and empty in the undergrowth of the Giardini in Venice, the palazzi are voided of black-clad architects in difficult spectacles. The Venice Biennale preview is over is and it’s now open to the public, meaning that it’s as good as over. Your correspondent arrived in La Serenissima on Friday in a state of moist anticipation. Will Farshid Moussavi be sporting headgear to rival her Dark-Helmet-out-of Spaceballs effort from last year? Will Ricardo and Liz talk to anyone? Will it be any good now that the director has decided cities are more important than buildings? How will the Peggy Guggenheim bouncers deal with being bum-rushed by the desperate, non-guest-list hordes? None of the answers to these questions are revealed below….

Reports and pix continue, after the jump, in the order they were received from the field and piled up in our inbox. Because, fine: We were out of town too, just plain rocking bells, and we're not gonna interrupt that for some damn blog.

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Not to harp on Frank, or, as we like to think of him here, Our Frank, but we heard—again, again—that there is a place in Spain (or is it Basquachusetts?) where he not-so-recently built a museum and changed reality. That building, all shiny and particular, has apparently had an influence on other cities' plans to lure money and tourists—an effect, if you will—and that phenomenon has once-again been celebrated in print. About which we would care little (and you less), but for the timely, tangential, yet tasty remarks therein from UK design maven John Thackara:

So here we are, perched on Pierre Paulin chairs at cunningly made tables that can be raised to dining height for meals and lowered to cocktail height for happy hour, complaining that design has become too damned popular. Everything, we gripe, is now so tasteful that there's hardly any point to having taste. "It's the Ian Schrager invention of young people in black suits, and large amounts of well-detailed space, and immaculate people sort of hanging around not doing very much," Thackara grumbles. "And you think, I don't want to be in these places anymore."

Which reminds us: Ian Schrager is scheduled to entertain the press this afternoon as part of the roll-out for his glassy Herzog & de Meuron-designed condorama, 40 Bond, which will no doubt give rise to the term "NoHo Effect." We hear Jacques himself will attend. Reports most welcome.

· The Next Design City: Bilbao Effect [Travel + Leisure, via ANN]

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Say you're a Turkish horde occupying Athens. Where you gonna store your gun powder? In the Parthenon, natch. And of course it exploded—back in the day, preservation freaks! back in the day!!—or else we wouldn't waste your time with a mention. Blame Venice. The 'Non, as you all know, being educated sots, got the shit kicked out of it; paint flew, empowering generations of modernists to believe the ancients favored their palette, and the metopes got blown all the way to the British Museum. But there it stood, hale and firm, until...it rained? Something to give thanks for: the "Greeks" say the old girl's not gonna Malibu right off the Acropolis. Next up...can it survive Bernard?

· Officials Say Parthenon Safe [Happy News]

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Zaha Hadid's graphic gaffe is threatening to tear the war-riven island of Cyprus in two. More in two than it already is. Seems she pasted the wrong flag into the background of a rendering of her natty natatorium for the London 2012 Olympics. A flag that only the Turkish oppressors recognize. Greek Cypriots are pissed. Like for real. Good thing they've just given her a job. So, yeah, international relations. And stuff. It's a clusterfuck.

· London Olympics in Hot Water After Flying Wrong Flag [Gulf Daily News]

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Apropos of nothing—we love it when papers drop that whole "news" pretense—this South African voice of authority is revisiting Shigeru Ban's year-old project for a satellite Pompidou Center in Metz. And we're right there with them! You will recall, children, that there was a time not so terribly long ago when there was no Gutter—a dark era, surely, but we must not be in denial about this. It's true. We did not exist. We were unborn. For us, there was no time, only infinite space ringing with a mournful B-flat. Fifty-seven octaves below middle-C. That's deep. So when the opportunity presents itself, as it does now, we like to reflect on those things that transpired...before. And while the South African retread artists are hung up on Ban's hat hang up—constructing, as a result, the very best headline ever (pun! pun!)—we, now that we're sentient, are more concerned about another aspect of the design, Ban's painful heart-cry in the wilderness: I am a Jew.

· New Pompidou Center Designed to Look Like a Hat [M&G]
· Metz Centre Pompidou [Designboom]

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When Duravit, manufacturer of "living bathrooms" (eeesh), asked Philippe Starck (eeesh!!!) to design its new HQ in Hornberg, Germany (we do not make this stuff up), he responded as any Frenchman proud of his architectural patrimony would. Vive l'architecture parlante! Notes the flackage: "It doesn’t flush, but the rim serves as a viewing platform from which to enjoy a breath-taking panoramic view of the famed Black Forest."

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