I never knew how to pronounce acai before I read the piece, and tbh I kept forgetting how to pronounce it every paragraph or so and went back to the beginning for reference. And now I have no idea.
ha, i thought i had this nailed & then half way through the guy's like, we even have people saying ah-sigh-ee!, it's crazy
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Sunday, 5 June 2011 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
ah-SAH-ee i believe
ah-sah-EE. (There's an accent on the "i.")
― jaymc, Sunday, 5 June 2011 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
The June 6 issue is fantastic -- the best this year. Highlights:
- Ariel Levy's batshit article on Silvio Berlesconi's pornocracy as well as a larger rumination on the culture of Italian machismo.
- Sy Hersh's latest article on Iran
- The history of Romneycare and the former governor's (and Bush administration's) enthusiasm for it in 2005 and 2006
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 4, 2011 3:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
the article on contractors in iraq is really good & depressing too
― ☂ (max), Monday, 6 June 2011 01:21 (twelve years ago) link
I started reading the Romneycare one but couldn't finish it. It seems like a thousand articles have already been written about Romneycare and how Romney has to run against his own policy bc of how toxic Obamacare is in the Republican party, etc, etc and I couldn't figure out anything the NYer could add to it that would make it interesting. Does it get better?
― Mordy, Monday, 6 June 2011 01:23 (twelve years ago) link
i didnt read it, i dont like politics anymore, it makes me sad
― ☂ (max), Monday, 6 June 2011 01:24 (twelve years ago) link
the berlusconi article is a+++++++++++++++ though, skip to that one
yeah, i read that one. hilarious + insane.
― Mordy, Monday, 6 June 2011 01:24 (twelve years ago) link
xpost this was probably just new to me because i didn't follow the original passing of the MA legislation at all, but for me it added a bunch of useful details about how the bill was passed with a bunch of help from the bush administration, and how it was seen as a big republican victory.
― Z S, Monday, 6 June 2011 01:26 (twelve years ago) link
there's a trend in the article on foreign contractors, in last week's issue, of some chance of modest advancement or progress being introduced mid-paragraph, before the next paragraph begins with Yet or But or However. pretty crushing.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Thursday, 9 June 2011 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I was pretty depressed after reading that article.
― the fey bloggers are onto the zagat tweets (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 9 June 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
surowiecki this week: "the banks thought they were taking advantage of uninformed consumers, but they ended up playing themselves."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8e76XpXD1o
― mookieproof, Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:20 (twelve years ago) link
as one might expect, the george saunders & jeff eugenidess stories in the summer fiction issue are really good
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
The Berlusconi one is Best of 2011 quality – such good reporting and insight.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:46 (twelve years ago) link
I know an article is good when I end up getting stoned like a week later and summarizing it to someone half passed out
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:53 (twelve years ago) link
the whole situation is really as excruciating as it sounds but it keeps happening
the first half of the levy article is so full of just ... ammunition that it's almost like flipping through one of those bush-isms books. but then there's the second half, w/the vox pops with italians & silvio's cronies, pinching her cheek, etc. i'm not sure if it's because i was reading it in chunks, and had broken the momentum, but reading the last section, about the Ruby case (in which it'll be hard to prove something happened between two people who insist it didn't), i kinda almost felt sorry for Berlusconi, & could imagine his whole approach to paying crazy sums of money to young girls.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:56 (twelve years ago) link
Has Saunders been putting out much stories recently? I could do with a new collection. Could do with a new Eugendides book for that matter
― Number None, Thursday, 9 June 2011 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
eugenides novel is coming in october
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Thursday, 9 June 2011 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
hadnt known that, good news
― johnny crunch, Thursday, 9 June 2011 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah just checked there. Sounds intrsting.
― Number None, Thursday, 9 June 2011 19:11 (twelve years ago) link
alec baldwin article makes me...kinda like him? sorta sad that one of the best comic actors of our age doesn't really like comedy.
― iatee, Thursday, 9 June 2011 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
aleksander hemons article in the summer fiction issue was devastating
― ☂ (max), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
i was all but bawling in union square when i finished it
― ☂ (max), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:41 (twelve years ago) link
what's it about?
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
i have the summer fiction issue waiting @ home for me but am considering saving it for my vacation next month
― ideas are death (Lamp), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
his infant daughter getting sick with really rare cancer
― ☂ (max), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
i know what it sounds like! but
oh jeez
― just sayin, Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:44 (twelve years ago) link
― ideas are death (Lamp), Thursday, June 9, 2011 4:43 PM (49 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
tbh there are only three stories in it, and i didnt like the last one i dont think, maybe i need to read it again, and the saunders and eugenides are good but not amazing. dont expect to be squirreling away a treat, is all.
― ☂ (max), Thursday, 9 June 2011 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
even one really good story would be exceed my expectations! i just dont have much to read atm
― ideas are death (Lamp), Thursday, 9 June 2011 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
the little one-page starting out pieces are all really nice; one'll make me dig out the last fiction thing, which had salvatore scibona's story in, which i don't think i read on account of the shitty & i guess toxic joshua ferris piece in the same issue (SS also did this what i'm reading thing on the blog that i found somehow v endearing). there's also a kind of eloquent, cathartic, gentle fuck-you piece by tea obrecht. i think maybe i just like oral histories more than i do fiction, now. the pieces also have panels of some of the only clear white space i've ever seen in the magazine.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Friday, 10 June 2011 14:54 (twelve years ago) link
the scibona was my fave, definitely
― ☂ (max), Friday, 10 June 2011 15:02 (twelve years ago) link
i don't think i am going to struggle through something set in the '50s right now, but if my affection & admiration translated into perseverence w/reading i would pick up his book right away. apparently it is p good.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Friday, 10 June 2011 16:11 (twelve years ago) link
scibona saying "I didn't know what I was doing or what I believed in, except the United States of America and the Cleveland Browns."
made me think of brownie and ilnfl <3
― johnny crunch, Monday, 13 June 2011 20:35 (twelve years ago) link
O_O
― brownie, Monday, 13 June 2011 21:16 (twelve years ago) link
otm
― horseshoe, Monday, 13 June 2011 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
finished Devil and Sherlock Holmes, then tore through Lost City of Z. up next:http://i.imgur.com/SFp5O.jpg
anything else on the NYer book club list?
― gr8080, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 08:38 (twelve years ago) link
I've been meaning to read The Devil and Sherlock Holmes for some time, thanks for the reminder. Interesting to see that three of the stories from that have been optioned for films. Honest question, how does that work for these kind of investigative reports? Does Grann get a decent payday from the studios? Or does it generally funnel back to the subjects?
― the fey bloggers are onto the zagat tweets (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 14 June 2011 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
Here's an article that goes into ithttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3065/is_n14_v25/ai_18729174/
― Number None, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 13:33 (twelve years ago) link
Awesome, thanks!
― the fey bloggers are onto the zagat tweets (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 14 June 2011 13:34 (twelve years ago) link
reminds me -- do we have an active ILX new books you are reading thread?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011?
― caek, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i know that one. i meant more "NEW" (to the world, not u) books you're reading. like the What Albums Are Worth Listening To So Far in 2011 thread but for books
― Mordy, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 14:50 (twelve years ago) link
There's this
Rolling Contemporary Literary Fiction
― Number None, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
i keep reading interviews with george saunders and meaning to read him, so pleased by how articulate & effusive he seems, and i pretty much started doing so with the story in the fiction issue; i only read a couple of pages and just can not bring myself to finish it. does it transcend its clunky quirks? i know g.s. & i have a future but i do not think this is it.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Friday, 17 June 2011 15:17 (twelve years ago) link
there are bigger fans of GS on this board than me, though i like him a lot, but if you dont like that story im not sure youd like any saunders. that kind of... naturalistic dialogue and narration is his thing
― ☂ (max), Friday, 17 June 2011 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i thought that one was actually a little understated for him
― mookieproof, Friday, 17 June 2011 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
i am leaving in a sec so this maybe isn't the best time to launch into a big thing but, i think i have problems with some things like that, like the dfw story that i forget the name of that's written in a v sorta reduced idiolect of this gruff laconic guy. like i love the old man and the sea & all but there's this danger of being too aware of the writer, and it getting anthropological, sometimes, i think -- or maybe there isn't, but i give up before it earns its keep. probably if you're okay with accepting the conceit of fiction you should be okay with a guy putting on a voice, but it rubbed against me the wrong way somehow. that i also am impatient with classics & stuff written in just anything that isn't a modern dialect ... maybe it is me.
with the saunders i think it seemed kinda hokey to me, the bleeping and all, the narrator himself fluttering about btw registers on top of it all. but then maybe my damning criticism of the story based on p1 & 2 is a little sharp.
he wrote that palin piece a while ago, the embrace of her dialect in which was its triumph, so i amn't giving up yet.
& max that hamon piece slays, yes.
― stately, plump bunk moreland (schlump), Friday, 17 June 2011 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
george saunders hasn't been very good for the last couple years i'm sorry to say but his first two collections are all-time
― it seems i am the larry (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Friday, 17 June 2011 15:47 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, I liked Saunders first two books, but that recent story didn't do a lot for me. Maybe it reminded me a little too much of that great story about the male stripper with the zombie mom.
― President Keyes, Friday, 17 June 2011 16:52 (twelve years ago) link