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in The New Yorker
by
Dana Goodyear, 19 May 2008
Goodyear writes a colorful snapshot of Largo, a Los Angeles music-and-comedy club that's an entertainment hodgepodge run by owner Mark Flanagan. Flanagan, a native of Belfast, immigrated to LA via Boston and went from running a bar to booking entertainment acts. Largo's culture of hosting comedy acts and music acts has brought together the likes of Jack Black and Kyle Gass' Tenacious D (which was born within its walls) and it was among the initial American venues for New Zealand's comedic duo, Flight of the Conchords. Largo goes against Hollywood grain and refrains from exclusive treatment; flashing a business card is only a ticket out.
Posted 9:36, 14 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Aniq Rahman
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Hendrik Hertzberg, 19 May 2008
Hertzberg muses about Hillary Clinton's long, strange journey from seemingly inevitable victory to imminent defeat. She could have locked up the nomination easily had she opposed the Iraq War in 2003, Hertzberg says, or if she had run for the Senate from Illinois instead of New York. Instead, she was forced to fight on the defensive, resorting to negative campaigning and transparent political ploys like the gas tax holiday. Now, her only choice is in how she exits the race. Unfortunately, the article mirrors the election itself: engaging at the start, but ultimately unfocused and a little dispiriting.
Posted 4:50, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Jack Mellyn
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Adam Gopnik, 19 May 2008
French playwright Yasmina Reza was allowed to follow Nicolas Sarkozy in his campaign for the French presidency and published her account of the man in the recently translated book titled Dawn Dusk or Night. Her portrait is one of stasis and "mostly mindless, or, anyway, undirected, energy," such as the future president asking for candy, then struggling to open the plastic wrapping. Reza reveals that she was initially interested in a quite different politician, but Sarkozy intrigued her as the "absolute political animal." With a short review of Reza's book and a smirking profile of Sarkozy, Gopnik succeeds in both entertaining and informing his readers.
Posted 2:32, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Francis Merlie
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Bee Wilson, 19 May 2008
The global food market, which has supported a worldwide population boom largely by virtue of innovative chemistry, seems to have reached its limits. While chickens are brought to slaughter a mere 40 days after hatching, and pools of animal feces create dead zones in nearby rivers, Wilson delivers a sobering look at an industry that might not be able to maintain itself, let alone the populace with a bottomless appetite for cheap food. Advocating a sustainable, more traditional model of agriculture, Wilson, in an allegory to Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, manages to be both insightful and darkly humorous.
Posted 1:55, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Jonathan Gallaway
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Sasha Frere-Jones, 19 May 2008
American Idol gives the public a chance to vote on and discuss a wide range of pop music in a way no other platform can, all while making massive profits for its creators and (mostly) mid-level stars for the music industry. Frere-Jones goes on to list and detail traits of a show that has not changed appreciably since 2001, as if it were not all already common knowledge to even the most sporadic viewer. The article comes together as a nice crib sheet for someone who hasn't watched TV in ten years, but leaves the thesis -- that Idol's extreme autonomy is unique to popular culture -- barely developed.
Posted 1:14, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Libby Clarke
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
David Remnick, 19 May 2008
Columbia University radio DJ Phil Schaap is a walking encyclopedia of all things jazz -- from the dates of important (and even unimportant) concerts to the details of obscure jazz mysteries -- who occasionally surprises musicians with his detailed knowledge of their biographies. Remnick's profile lets Schaap's passion for jazz shine through, including his eccentricities -- he describes how Schaap dedicated a significant chunk of time on his daily radio program analyzing Charlie Parker's use of the word "okiedoke." Some readers may shy away from a 7,700 word profile of a jazz historian, but they'll miss a fine portrait of a man dedicated to preserving a slice of America's musical heritage.
Posted 1:00, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Chris Lugardo
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Sue Halpern, 19 May 2008
Soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following service in Iraq are being treated with video games. Psychiatrists use the games as a kind of exposure therapy to re-immerse the soldiers in their traumatic experiences, hopefully allowing the memories to remain without their devastating associations. Although the treatment is still in its infancy, it seems to have great potential, as soldiers are much more willing to participate in a virtual reality program than in "therapy," which shows weakness in a masculine culture. The piece is well-written and interesting throughout, though at times it moves slowly, bogged down by anecdotes.
Posted 9:46, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Michael Kaminsky
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Jack Handey, 19 May 2008
Handey lists the symbols that would be on his flag if he had his own country, or some other designation of physical space that requires a flag. Considering how funny he usually is, this article is fairly bland, with half-satires like "The angel holding the sword represents how guns are nice but swords are more of a 'heavenly' thing," or "The five rays coming out of the sun symbolize the five times that I have had sex." The final line might be a poignant dig at the United States losing its way, but Handey gets few laughs on his way there.
Posted 9:44, 13 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Andy Jones
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Larry Doyle, 12 May 2008
Spoofing the scandals over woe-laden memoirs that turned out to be less than honest, Doyle writes as if he were a dog owner vilified by his pet's autobiography. He's even gone to the trouble of setting up a spoof website supposedly advertising a book telling his side of the story. What little humor lies in this one-note gag is stretched past the point of tedium; this is one column idea that should have been put down.
Posted 4:22, 6 May 2008
This abstract was written by
John Lister
and edited by Brijit.
in The New Yorker
by
Malcolm Gladwell, 12 May 2008
Nathan Myhrvold, formerly of Microsoft, started Intellectual Ventures, an innovative think tank gathering prominent scientists from various fields for brainstorming sessions. Myhrvold hoped for a handful of important inventions, but IV surpassed expectations, filing 500 patents annually. Using IV as an example, Gladwell offers the intriguing thesis that scientific breakthroughs result from the synergy created by many researchers' ideas, noting instances in which two individuals independently arrived at the same groundbreaking discovery (Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray concurrently invented the telephone). He convincingly argues that inventions arise from the intellectual climate of the time, not the mind of the stereotypical solitary scientific genius.
Posted 4:21, 6 May 2008
This abstract was written by
Bonnie Walker
and edited by Brijit.