New Yorker magazine alert thread

Ikea article is pretty interesting

http://i.imgur.com/DDXkv.jpg

most of the IKEA article was good but the fretting about "our generation's furniture is so disposable, our parents' generation's furniture was solid and long-lasting, what does this say about us?" was, not really dumb i guess, but pretty inessential in contrast with nazi connections and corporate brainwashing

is ikea furniture really not long-lasting? igi if you have to move it, but some of the ikea stuff in our house has lasted for a decade at least

it's probably more the fact that it wasn't hewn from a trunk of solid oak by a bronzed carpenter using a lathe brought over from england by his forefather on the mayflower

did anyone read the piece on taylor swift? worth getting the magazine just for that?

i read it. i don't really know much or care much about her, the whole point of it was basically "she's nice."

lol ok thanking u

i read it today. i learned that her superfans are called "swfties" & she likes stamps & writes a lot of thank you notes, like to tech & radio guys, even. but it was cute idk. lizzie widdicombe isnt much of a journalist

A friend of mine told me this story about about how she was stopped -- almost vaguely accosted -- by a french guy on a subway, while she was reading the New Yorker, and he said something to the effect of -- "This magazine, do you feel that it stands for anything? I have read it and I do not think so."

When articles like that are printed I feel like he's right.

http://www.media-freaks.com/work/leilei/pepelepew/pepelepew-02.jpg

"This magazine, do you feel that it stands for anything? I have read it and I do not think so."

pretty sure that was just someone doing an impression of a french guy

lolll

Do we just expect excellence from Atul Gawande and that's why no one has linked to his newest one (on how doctors and other professions can benefit from coaches) yet? He totally shows how you're supposed to challenge conventional wisdom.

that 1 was alright, kind of a boring issue imo. at least in terms of my tastes in topics. the fiction was hilarious tho

yeah btw i almost always skip the fiction & would appreciate fiction alerts itt too

otm ^^, same
i kinda liked the guy's story about tracking down his iphone? like the writing was obv p cloying but it, & its wau-@-technology 70 yr old vantage point, was quite endearing i thought.

the patti smith was very true tales of american life/npr

Anyone read James Wood's masterly review of Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child? He's one of the few critics who can explain how good prose works. In addition, it's one of the most judicious mixed reviews I've read in months.

Ppl on this thread will be pleased by the news that Emily Nussbaum replaces Nancy Franklin as the TV critic.

too bad wood's prose never reaches such heights

i might read that since i won't read the novel & so have no fear of spoilers, etc.

am still working through whichever week's issue it was that had the big NC/pope thing. couldn't believe some of the examples of attack ads - the guy who they drew a sombrero on & wrote 'mucho taxo adios senor' next to.

nussbaum is a much better choice than franklin but cmon yall i wouldve KILLED IT

u can't write about downton abbey every week max

Wood's way of pinpointing good sentences and bad ones, and explaining how they work, is sublime.

Loved the Andrew Stanton profile - much more revealing than Anthony Lane's Pixar piece.

nussbaum is a much better choice than franklin but cmon yall i wouldve KILLED IT

― max, Friday, October 14, 2011 10:52 AM (1 hour ago)

can you please start sending them stuff on spec every week?

haha my mom is always like 'you're a good writer! why don't you submit something to the new yorker?'

i don't think it works that way mom . . . unless you're david brooks i guess

<3 parents

"you always fix our computer! why don't you become a computer scientist?"

Jeff Foxworthy did the same routine, but when I was doing public announcements for the portrait studios inside a Coon Rapids Wal-Mart, my mother suggested that maybe some hotshot radio executive would hear me over the speakers and hire me away on the spot.

Couple not so current ones:
Susan Orlean on Jean-Paul Gaultier (accompanying chat is pretty cute too)
Dyson Vacuums (paywall; 2011/09/20)

whoa this article on bitcoin is pretty fascinating, much of this had managed to pass under my radar

otm!!

Its funny how that came out, I was enthralled by it, and bitcoin immediately lost 90% of its value

link?

The <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_davis";>bitcoin NYer article</a> is behind paywall for the Oct 10 issue, the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/bitcoin-implodes-down-more-than-90-percent-from-june-peak.ars";>drop in value</a> is all over the place <a href="http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=bitcoin+implodes";>on the internet</a>

I'm hoping the new Stuxnet variant is some super villain trying to corner the remaining bitcoins

guuuuh

The bitcoin NYer article is behind paywall for the Oct 10 issue, the drop in value is all over the place on the internet

aw darn kinda sad to hear that. otoh the whole thing kind of sets off a lot of libertarian alarms in my head but still

otoh the whole thing kind of sets off a lot of libertarian alarms in my head but still

Yeah, in the article, the people who are ideologically all over it are the ones who are against fiat money, but, like, from my layperson's understanding, bitcoin doesn't have a fixed value/isn't backed by Ron Paul bucks??

bitcoins are like, if money was backed by gold but we could magically conjure up a pound of gold every few days or so

Enjoyed thing about Lexicon, the naming agency, although a lot of the 'insights' seemed kind of obvious and intuitive.

some1 transcribe the whole article itt

which one, bitcoin?

ya

bitcoin dot pdf

o wow

It took me a good two or three weeks to notice that my subscription had run out. Tsk on you, New Yorker, for being off your game!

not new yorker but for fans of the grann article about the guy who was executed for arson in texas

http://discovermagazine.com/2011/nov/12-spark-truth-science-bring-justice-arson-trials

there was an amazing frontline or some pbs show ep years ago abt arson investigation, i wont say more for fear of spoiling it but its truly amazing

not the recent one abt the guy