January 2007 Archives
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Listening
Gallic Gutter Punks
I had always thought punk rock was mainly a British phenomenon, if for no other reason than its ruling party was composed of people who looked as if they might...
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Gallery
Surreal Eden
Margaret Hooks tells the story of Edward James: wealthy British surrealist-art benefactor turned rural Mexican architect, demi-god and dreamer.
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Reading
Book Digest: January 29, 2007
Who doesn’t want to be an observer? Who wouldn’t like to notice something others overlook? For a few days I’ve been trying to come up with a...
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Watching
Video Digest: January 26, 2007
I love that there was a moment in time when we all watched The Golden Girls. Four single senior citizens, living and loving in Miami: I’m in! Obviously one...
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The Non-Expert
Lawyering
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we address a question thousands of young men and women grapple with each year: To law school or not to law school?
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Listening
The One Song That Defines Life, for a Week
Masters of the musical universe who put songs in singers’ mouths, I am just sick about this track—thank you for this artist, this song! My window is open and...
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New York, New York
Canine to Five
Every dog has its day, but as the first to join New York’s elite National Arts Club, Tillie the artistic Jack Russell terrier seems to be having quite a few.
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Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1978
Year-end album lists shouldn’t happen only once a year. Inaugurating a new series, Andrew Womack raids his music collection to rank his favorite albums from every year, year after year, starting with as far back as he can recollect.
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Reading
Book Digest: January 22, 2007
This past holiday I bought my son—whose favorite song is Warren Zevon’s “Gorilla, You’re a Desperado”—a 1GB iPod Shuffle. Its approximately 240 songs should be sufficient for...
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Gallery
Neighbors
Ever wondered what the neighbors are doing over there? From 2007, inspired by curiosity and meticulous scale models, Amy Bennett’s paintings imagine what’s happening on the other side of the fence.
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Watching
Video Digest: January 19, 2007
If you just don’t get Napolean Dynamite, there’s nothing much for you to see in “Peluca,” the eight-minute short that inspired the movie. It has the same oddball...
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The Non-Expert
Red, White, and You
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we come up with a handy guide—tips, lists, and charts—to choosing wines and playing the connoisseur.
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Spoofs & Satire
Barack to the Drawing Board
With Barack Obama’s presidential campaign underway, his advisors are working overtime to make sure their man appeals to the American public, and the first challenge is the name.
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Listening
Terrified of New Music
Right now there are a number of upcoming albums that have the mp3 bloggers blogging up their lunches in excitement. And anticipation-wise, I’m no exception; however, ever since the...
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Gallery
Love Hotels
Unlike the dank motels where Americans allegedly seek anonymous sex, Japan’s love hotels are playful and unapologetically sexual. Photographer Misty Keasler shows the humor, desire, and even the loneliness of these empty rooms.
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Watching
Video Digest: January 12, 2007
In the summer of 1979, my older brother and I, along with my three cousins, decided to remake Star Wars on our family’s Super 8. Actually, they decided and I tagged...
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Celebrity Magazine
The Day After the Morning After
Our story thus far: editor Drew Barrymore, who has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with reporter Vince Vaughn, is friends with copy editor Keira Knightley (who is smitten with sportswriter Matthew McConaughey)—that is, until a night of tequila shots.
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Listening
Music Inspires Memories
Four short memories of youth inspired by music randomly selected from the Hype Machine’s most popular tracks, January 10, 2007: “Black Wave, Bad Vibrations,” the Arcade Fire I left for college...
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Birnbaum v.
Heidi Julavits
Our man from the north country toasts the new year by conversing with the novelist and editor about her thoughts on the state of therapy, storytelling, and the novel.
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Personal Essays
High-Fives So Hard They Hurt
January in Minnesota can be harsh, though rarely more than in 1999, when a Vikings playoff victory slipped away. From his vantage point next to a stack of commemorative newspapers, one man almost saw what could have been.
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Reading
Book Digest: January 8, 2007
One consequence of living in a largely book-demarcated reality is a useful disregard for conventions such as the reflexive (and may I suggest lemming-like) homage paid to the calendar year....
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Gallery
Pathology of Glamour
In an art world filled with bright lights that quickly fade, Marilyn Minter’s work, although jaw-droppingly sensational, radiates endurance, rendering our flaws fashionable and making glamour dirty.
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Watching
Video Digest: January 5, 2007
Like many people with a soft spot for NPR, I learned about The Beaver Trilogy through a 2002 piece on This American Life, in an episode called “Reruns.” Produced by Starlee...
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Spoofs & Satire
Soulmakers: The Story of Holland / Dozier / Amin
Through all the highs, lows, and violent overthrows, Motown was always about the music. Excerpts from a forthcoming book on the label’s heady days, when a certain Ugandan was tearing through the ranks.
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Op-Ed
Spinning From the Grave
Ever since Gerald Ford’s death last week, politicians and pundits have rewritten much of his life into a series of victories. Now that he’s in the ground, it’s safe to finish the job.
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Listening
Hard-Workin’ Music From Musicologists
OK, forget all of these new bands with their false haircuts and arbitrary affectations. There’s a reason people are nostalgic for the music of a bygone day and age...
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Spoofs & Satire
Being Christopher Hitchens
Living as a once-Trotskyist megaforce, now war-toting superstar can take its toll. Particularly when your personality subdivides into pro wrestlers.
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Reader Letters
More on the Prison on the Park
A friend of mine just sent me the article you published about the history of the Lincoln Correctional Facility on 110th Street and Central Park West. I was so thrilled...
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Gallery
Above Paris
Here we see the polygonal French capital, between 1950 and 1972, as preserved from a single-engine army plane. Its pilot, Roger Henrard, was a businessman and an artist, and his bird’s-eye pictures of Paris, a city that can seem heavily barricaded and crammed together from the sidewalk, reveal the air pockets in its planning.
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Spoofs & Satire
What’s Your Resolution?
The confetti’s been tossed, the funny hats are crumpled in the corner, and at least three of us had a little too much champagne.