Yearly Archives: 2021
Sally Rooney’s Return To Writing
Rooney found immense success with her first two books - so much success that it became a challenge to writing. How did she get...
A Novelist, Keeping Grief Real At 91
Hilma Wolitzer - yes, the mother of Meg - has been publishing books for nearly 50 years. After losing her husband to COVID, she...
The Finnish Artist Inspired By Winter, Single Motherhood, And Fleabag
Anna Härmälä: "I knew I needed to tell a story about this, but also I needed to survive. So the story has been bubbling...
What Comedian Memoirs Reveal About Race
It's like a mini-sociology course, reading comedian memoirs. Take Tina Fey's Bossypants (which "has a truly jaw-dropping number of racist jokes") or books by...
Movie Theatres Are Hoping, One Might Say Desperate, For A Fall Movie Comeback
And they don't want day and date releases, either. When movies get released on streaming, the speed of piracy is, well, it's immediate. If...
Working Hard On The Brink Of Stardom
What's it like to hover in the consciousness of a nation? Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on the joys and the costs: "I’ve been learning...
Stephen B. Oates, Historian, Biographer, And Ken Burns Consultant, 85
Oates wrote highly praised biographies, especially one of Abraham Lincoln, before other scholars accused him of plagiarism, and the American Historical Association conducted a...
Broadway Wants Locals Back
But will they come in the midst of a Delta surge? - The New York Times
The Comics Industry Seems To Be Diversifying
Graphic novels by Black, Indigenous and other people of color in the 2020s are moving beyond realistic stories and memoir to fantasy and tales...
The Postal Museum Reopens Without A Quote From A Former VP, A Big Proponent...
John C. Calhoun's words about the Postal Service are, after complaints about the former VP's odious beliefs and a museum redesign, gone from the...
The Funny Thing Is
Asian American stand-ups fight back against violence and bigotry with ... comedy? - Los Angeles Times
How Safe Are Music Concerts?
Ask Sweden. But also, ask Delta. And keep up the safe behavior: "From an infection prevention standpoint, it is still the safest to gather...
Who In Their Right Minds Would Pay 8 British Pounds To Climb A Cruddy...
The Westminster City Council believes people will. Architect critic Rowan Moore begs to differ. - The Guardian (UK)
Spike Lee Revises September 11 Documentary After Fierce Blowback
The final episode of the documentary series on HBO gave airtime and credence to a widely discredited conspiracy theory group. Instead of simply removing...
Time’s Up President Resigns After Cuomo Information Leaks
Tina Tchen, the president and CEO of the organization, which was founded to support safety and equality for everyone in the workplace, stepped down...
The Forgotten History Of The World’s First Restaurant
It opened in 1765 in, of course, France, with a Latin phrase inscribed on the front that translates as, "Come to me, those whose...
Westerns Have Nearly Unbounded Literary Potential
The history of the genre is problematic at best. "Any writer writing a Western—even a literary Western—knows that they stand on the threshold of...
A Philanthropist Who Cares A Lot About The Arts
MacKenzie Scott's billions of Amazon dollars worth of donations came at a seriously good time. Why is her focus a surprise? Because "museums, musicals...
Making The Move From TikTok To TV
Is it possible? Is there even a difference between the two now? - The New York Times
Famed Music School Falls Silent As Taliban Take Afghanistan
"The students are very fearful about their future - not just of their education and their programme, but also about their life. They...
America’s Founding Colonial Stories Are Nice Fairy Tales. The Reality Was Less Flattering
The political leaders and famous personages that tower over our imaginations are condensed to life-size. They make grubby, horrid choices; they bumble, fumble, and...
The Quiet Value Behind The Enduring Success Of “Antiques Roadshow”
In a show whose segments are punctuated by dollar amounts, there’s actually a quiet, persistent suggestion to direct our aspirations somewhere else: history, family,...
Our Misperceptions Of How The Brain Works
“Scientists have searched fruitlessly for brain boundaries between thinking, feeling, deciding, remembering, moving and other everyday experiences." But these "are poor guides for understanding...
How The Counterculture Became The Main Culture
It’s a truism that high culture, as it used to be known, has been steadily losing its authority since the rise of mass culture...
Eventually, One Gets Old Enough To Really Appreciate Proust
"Like Marcel, we've spent decades building our models of the world, and like him we're starting to see them for the gimcrack that they...
