i dont think they have a second art critic. not in the back of the book.
and yea i like schjeldahl too. dont always agree with him but hes a great writer.
― max, Thursday, 3 February 2011 03:06 (thirteen years ago) link
I can see that Gopnik is incredibly intelligent and a deft, original prose writer but something about him aggravates the hell out of me. It's self-conscious "fine writing" of the kind that James Wood is always slamming in fiction.
I saw that Ben McGrath was 34 and that he'd first contributed in 2002. I don't know how anyone gets to be a New Yorker contributor but certainly not a 25/26-year-old. Do you just get the call one day? Do you hang around the office until they get tired of telling you no? Do you have to make your bones, mob-style?
― I've been dancing since 9 and I'm tired and hungry (Dorianlynskey), Thursday, 3 February 2011 12:52 (thirteen years ago) link
WS James Surowiecki any day of the week.
No really, he's hot.
― quincie, Thursday, 3 February 2011 15:29 (thirteen years ago) link
he used to live on my block
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 February 2011 15:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Where does he live now, I will run to him
― quincie, Thursday, 3 February 2011 15:32 (thirteen years ago) link
he and his poetess wife moved elsewhere, sorry
john seabrook on crowds/stampedes is v. interesting
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 February 2011 15:49 (thirteen years ago) link
ben mcgraths dad used to be the magazines fiction editor
― max, Thursday, 3 February 2011 16:01 (thirteen years ago) link
had never heard of that hillsborough soccer disaster, that photo is srsly something -
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01380/HillsboroughDisast_1380793c.jpg
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 3 February 2011 20:25 (thirteen years ago) link
Mystery solved. Not to say he's not a good writer.
― I've been dancing since 9 and I'm tired and hungry (Dorianlynskey), Thursday, 3 February 2011 20:50 (thirteen years ago) link
hey someone just posted this to facebook
ahem cobble hill was NOT rough when you moved there in 2002 . . honky please . . i know its the new yorker but still
whats it abt, seems like a good topic to discuss here
― ice cr?m, Friday, 4 February 2011 00:56 (thirteen years ago) link
true, but the dude wrote that in a piece about his wife dying, so maybe it should slide
― mookieproof, Friday, 4 February 2011 01:26 (thirteen years ago) link
What article is that? I don't remember and I have opinions, as somebody who lived in Cobble Hill in 2002.
― dan selzer, Friday, 4 February 2011 02:18 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, jesus, it's like the saddest story ever.
it's the personal history one from this weeks issue. xp
― Moreno, Friday, 4 February 2011 02:20 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_goldman
― mookieproof, Friday, 4 February 2011 02:21 (thirteen years ago) link
my cousin lived in cobble hill in 2002, someone got murdered in the house next to hers
― max, Friday, 4 February 2011 03:55 (thirteen years ago) link
There really isn't many parts of any big city, especially one that's this diverse, that isn't a stone's throw from some less safe neighborhood. Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens are some of the most desirable streets in Brooklyn and are filled with wealthy, wealthy people, living 1 block from a relatively bad housing project. I haven't read the story yet, but while I'd certainly say that by 2002 most of Cobble Hill was gentrified, doesn't mean you wouldn't find yourself in a rough area if you walk 1 block in the wrong direction. And it's still that way.
― dan selzer, Friday, 4 February 2011 04:31 (thirteen years ago) link
lots of mafiabros iirc
― max, Friday, 4 February 2011 04:41 (thirteen years ago) link
True, but they never mugged my friend who lived a block away!
John Lurie discussing his questionable New Yorker profile:
http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/02/01/john-lurie-sustains/
― dan selzer, Friday, 4 February 2011 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
ruth franklin's article on h.g. adler is really good (01/31/11 issue)
― cowboys_defeats_magic_earth2.jpg (Lamp), Sunday, 6 February 2011 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Working my way through the Guillermo del Toro, and actually my biggest gripe is how the reporter renders del Toro's speech into stilted sound bites, when I remember him speaking a lot more expansively and dynamically.
― Cobra Laser-Face (Leee), Sunday, 6 February 2011 20:57 (thirteen years ago) link
the funniest thing about that profile was the paragraph he devotes to giving clueless new yoker readers a little background on who this h.p. lovecraft fellow is
― cowboys_defeats_magic_earth2.jpg (Lamp), Sunday, 6 February 2011 21:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I seem to recall Oliver Sacks' last two articles being pretty great, and I'm surprised they hadn't been mentioned yet (since he was mentioned in the NPR or Radiolab thread). Anyway, they're both behind the pay wall. :(
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_sacks (2010/08/30)http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/28/100628fa_fact_sacks (2010/06/28)
― Cobra Laser-Face (Leee), Monday, 7 February 2011 04:56 (thirteen years ago) link
i was like ok i dont have much 2 do this morning, ill print out this paul haggis/scientology article....it's 49 pages!
― johnny crunch, Monday, 7 February 2011 12:41 (thirteen years ago) link
And it's a tease of a forthcoming book, no?
The best bits of the Haggis piece come at the end, btw, with the revelation of some brazen church-contradicting forgeries. Not that you should skip to the end of anything.
The biggest (so to speak) revelation of the del Toro piece is how ... hefty the guy is. 300 pounds! But dude is clearly smart and knows his nerd stuff.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 7 February 2011 17:21 (thirteen years ago) link
man do i hate paul haggis
― الله basedأكبر (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 February 2011 17:24 (thirteen years ago) link
oh i read the whole thing. but yeah, that stuff abt hubbards war records was prob the most damning
― johnny crunch, Monday, 7 February 2011 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
the whole thing was just like parenthetical denials of every claim idk scientologys tenets seem like ideas a bratty little kid would come up with - ie. it's sacrilidge & damaging to us for non members to read our scriptures, etc
― johnny crunch, Monday, 7 February 2011 17:37 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/02/07/110207ta_talk_paumgarten
Enjoyed this quick profile of The Man Who Plays The Most Interesting Man In The World
also liking Gopnik's roundup of all manner of writings on how the internet is making our life better or worse
― hey boys, suppers on me, our video just went bacterial (Hurting 2), Thursday, 10 February 2011 03:05 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_fey
The writing is pretty terrible, but: Ball of Fingers.
― Asparagus Peee (Leee), Saturday, 19 February 2011 20:55 (thirteen years ago) link
dressed like i am here to repair your aquarium
― your LiveJournal experience (schlump), Saturday, 19 February 2011 23:50 (thirteen years ago) link
the article about near-earth-objects/NEOs in this week's is good; i'm only half way through. affectionate portraits of ex-austronaut guys, ex-astronaut probably being the best ex-thing you can be. hearing about them all sat around a conference table at a best western makes me want to watch mission to mars (should i watch mission to mars y/n)
there are some sciency types on ilx so this primer for dilettantes about a relatively underrepresented issue might be too basic if you're really into NEOs and stuff
― your LiveJournal experience (schlump), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 12:53 (thirteen years ago) link
that is either the 2nd or 3rd said sayrafiezadeh story ive liked quite a bit, has anyone read his memoir?
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
nick paumgarten is one of my favorite staff writers...he had that narrative of the days surrounding the collapse of the economy a while back that was amazing/made me want to kill myself
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 19:19 (thirteen years ago) link
YES that was crazy
― just sayin, Tuesday, 22 February 2011 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link
i had a quick google around and couldn't work out which one that was - any clues?
― your LiveJournal experience (schlump), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link
i think it was this one - http://www.scribd.com/doc/15483403/Nick-Paumgarten-Annals-of-Finance-The-Death-of-Kings-The-New-Yorker-May-18-2009-p-40
― just sayin, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 16:41 (thirteen years ago) link
hey thank you. made me want to kill myself should not be such a ringing endorsement but i've loved some other stuff that's ticked the same boxes
― your LiveJournal experience (schlump), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 16:46 (thirteen years ago) link
Jeffrey Goldberg piece about Haaretz and the Israeli left is amazing. Not done with it yet -- it be long.
― The Corner Stander, The Suggest Ban Hammer (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 February 2011 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link
David Remnick
― Mordy, Thursday, 24 February 2011 20:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Tho I'd be really curious to read a similar article by Goldberg
― Mordy, Thursday, 24 February 2011 20:24 (thirteen years ago) link
ha, whoops
― The Corner Stander, The Suggest Ban Hammer (Hurting 2), Thursday, 24 February 2011 20:25 (thirteen years ago) link
That actually makes sense -- I tend to like Remnick's writing a lot and Goldberg's less.
Goldberg did that one about the white guy who poached African poachers, right?
― My Urine No Longer Smells Like Asparagus (Leee), Friday, 25 February 2011 00:06 (thirteen years ago) link
paumgarten wrote the elevator article, that was dope
― johnny crunch, Friday, 25 February 2011 00:42 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^loved the elevator article! But it totally messed with me when years later I was stuck on an elevator after hours at my office.
― quincie, Friday, 25 February 2011 01:07 (thirteen years ago) link
what happened??
― Neu! romancer (dayo), Friday, 25 February 2011 01:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Only in there for about half an hour (I think--didn't have watch, phone, or reading material, so it felt like a long time!), but the elevator emergency phone guy did have to call my husband and explain that I'd be home later than planned. I had plenty of time to contemplate tht fact that being stuck for the weekend (like that guy in the NYer article) was entirely possible.
― quincie, Friday, 25 February 2011 18:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Evidently The New Yorker screwed up John Lurie. You should check out Lurie’s comments about the article and stalker situation. so sad…:http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/02/01/john-lurie-sustains/
― karen65, Friday, 25 February 2011 20:41 (thirteen years ago) link
do we have a general rolling thread for long-form articles/journalism worth reading or am I misremembering
― in odd we trust (cozen), Sunday, 27 February 2011 13:32 (thirteen years ago) link
its in 77
― Neu! romancer (dayo), Sunday, 27 February 2011 13:34 (thirteen years ago) link