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The New Yorker is the best magazine in the world

post #1 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:38am
Thread Starter 
This week's issue I have read about how Wal-Mart has been hiring lefties to help mitigate some complaints against them, a funny and fascinating look at Jamestown and whether or not John Smith was full of shit, a great profile of the English chef Gordon Ramsay and now am up to the piece about the Pope and Islam and how his past as a theologian affects the way he views other religions. And I haven't even gotten to the new short story by Danny Boyle or the always great book reviews. I did read all the cartoons, though.
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post #2 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:40am
Agreed. I like Harper's as well. While it usually takes me an entire week to find the time to read an issue (less time than it takes me to read Harper's or The Nation, more time than it takes me to read New York or Vanity Fair), the profiles are my favorite part of the magazine -- I even bought the collection that came out a few years back. There's one in the book about Ricky Jay that is fucking amazing.
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post #3 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:41am
Thread Starter 
Harper's is good, but it's a little overwhelming and their features are more hit and miss to me. I read every article in every issue of New Yorker, even shit like the one about origami.
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post #4 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:46am
I enjoy Popular Mechanics. Is that so wrong?
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post #5 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:50am
Yeah, Harper's articles take longer to read and understand, but I've enjoyed a lot of the stuff they've done in the year since I started reading it. They also had a great piece on Wal Mart; that's what made me think of it. Also a lengthy piece on Barack Obama's "courting" of various donators.

I subscribe, though, so I get my issue on Friday. I have to admit, I dig the nonfiction more than I do the fiction, though, and the review section is usually top-notch, with the television, theatre, and film reviews being the best. Last week's issue had a review of "Talk Radio" that talked about Liev Schreiber and his career in ways I hadn't considered.
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post #6 of 53
3/28/07 at 12:56am
The Walrus.
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post #7 of 53
3/28/07 at 1:04am
I myself enjoy the finer pleasures of a nice EGM.
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post #8 of 53
3/28/07 at 1:35am
I like the New Yorker, not least of which because Malcolm Gladwell is my favorite columnist. After reading Blink and The Tipping Point, I read through his entire New Yorker archive at http://gladwell.com.

It took me a while to read them all, but it was time well spent.
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post #9 of 53
3/28/07 at 3:21am
Seymour Hersh, Seymour Hersh!!!
WOOT, WOOT!!!
I love the man.
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post #10 of 53
3/28/07 at 4:59am
It's funny... I usually end up reading about 70% of each New Yorker that comes... yet I seem to amass primarily unread monthly mags...

Nonstop quality... as soon as you give an article 'a chance...' you're almost always gonna' have to finish it. And I'm Canadian... I can't imagine how appealing it is to a New Yorker.
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post #11 of 53
3/28/07 at 5:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gio Angles
I like the New Yorker, not least of which because Malcolm Gladwell is my favorite columnist. After reading Blink and The Tipping Point, I read through his entire New Yorker archive at http://gladwell.com.

It took me a while to read them all, but it was time well spent.
Convince me to read Blink. I've been told time and time again to pick it up but it doesn't sound too interesting to me. Am I wrong?
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post #12 of 53
3/29/07 at 5:35am
Wow... David Denby's take on 300 this week is priceless...
Quote:
...a muscle-magazine fantasy crossed with a video game and an Army recruiting film...

Made in a time of frustration, when Americans are fighting a war that they can neither win nor abandon, "300" and "Shooter" feel like the products of a culture slowly and painfully going mad.
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post #13 of 53
3/29/07 at 5:49pm
The New Yorker's nonfiction is fantastic, can't say I ever get into their short stories, however, which makes me feel rather stupid since I could be missing out on today's J.D. Salinger. Otherwise my biggest complaint is Anthony Lane who doesn't appear to have any interest in movies whatsoever.

By the way, does anyone here participate in the weekly cartoon caption contest? I brainstorm captions for most issues, but only occasionally submit them, and I've certainly never been a finalist.
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post #14 of 53
3/29/07 at 5:54pm
Anthony Lane's review of "The Prince of Egypt" in his collection Nobody's Perfect is classic. I definitely reccomend checking that book out.
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post #15 of 53
3/29/07 at 11:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dranbon
Convince me to read Blink. I've been told time and time again to pick it up but it doesn't sound too interesting to me. Am I wrong?
Yes.

Aside from what's written on the book jacket, I enjoyed the hell out of it because its a book about how the brain works, and the process of thinking. Gladwell does a great job of synthesizing countless medical, sociological, and psychological experiments with a dash of history and business into an engaging narrative.

Also, it's a relatively quick read, and at least a few of the aforementioned experiments will surprise the hell out of you.
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post #16 of 53
3/30/07 at 6:02am
Is Blink the book about how the impressions made in the first 10 seconds of meeting a person are almost always correct? A guy I used to work with recommended it to me, but I don't tend toward book length non-fiction. [edit] Amazon says yes. I may have to pick it up sometime.[/edit]

OT: Some of my earliest memories of reading were of the cartoons in the issues of the New Yorker kept stacked in my grandparents bathroom (for reading). I was between 6 and 10 at the time, so I didn't really get most of them.
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post #17 of 53
3/31/07 at 11:48am
Yes, but its not just about impressions on a person (it could be about anything), and it's much quicker than 10 seconds.
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post #18 of 53
4/4/07 at 2:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gio Angles
Yes.

Aside from what's written on the book jacket, I enjoyed the hell out of it because its a book about how the brain works, and the process of thinking. Gladwell does a great job of synthesizing countless medical, sociological, and psychological experiments with a dash of history and business into an engaging narrative.

Also, it's a relatively quick read, and at least a few of the aforementioned experiments will surprise the hell out of you.
Not to derail the thread, but since Blink was mentioned...

Be careful. This is not a piece of scientific literature. It is mostly a collection of anecdotes that Gladwell often misinterprets. Either that, or he ignores more plausible explanations and experiments that would prove his views wrong.

If you read it, enjoy the fun anecdotes and the interesting experiments, but don't blindly believe his reasoning and conclusions.
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post #19 of 53
4/5/07 at 3:45am
Wow... this week's New Yorker is great, or appealing to me at least... I've read 3/4 of it and it just came this morning, definatley rare...
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post #20 of 53
5/10/07 at 9:22am
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/...shouts_frazier

This is one classically funny piece of writing, if only for its' abundance of truth.
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post #21 of 53
5/10/07 at 3:37pm
Once again full of good stuff this week... highlights for me is a great article on the artist Bansky... nailing a lot of the problems I had with him as an artist/activist... and an incredibly interesting article about the 'Antikythera Mechanism,' a highly complex ancient Greek analog-computer... intense and something I knew nothing about...

cool...
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post #22 of 53
7/11/07 at 12:35am
I've been picking this up the last few weeks. Last week Jack Handey had an amazing piece about his potential animal documentary.
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post #23 of 53
8/23/08 at 6:24pm
The article by John Adams, the composer of "Nixon in China" and "Doctor Atomic", about his experiences in the avant-garde classical scene in the 70s and how he eventually found his own voice as an artist, from this week's issue, was pretty amazing. Definitely relevant to any would-be writer/composer/filmmaker/whatever.

There's also a long piece about Burma which is incredibly depressing but fascinating, especially about how the American embassy's library in Burma became a place for people to meet and gather when the gov't forbid more than 5 people from meeting together. It's also about the sustaining and inspiring power of words.

Finally, the piece from a few weeks back by the doctor who wrote "Complications" and "Better", Atul Gawande, is worth tracking down. It's about itching, and there's a really great/gross story about a woman who scratched through her skull. Through her skull.
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post #24 of 53
8/23/08 at 6:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
The article by John Adams, the composer of "Nixon in China" and "Doctor Atomic", about his experiences in the avant-garde classical scene in the 70s and how he eventually found his own voice as an artist, from this week's issue, was pretty amazing. Definitely relevant to any would-be writer/composer/filmmaker/whatever.
Thanks for mentioning this. I kind of got into Adams when I was reading The Rest is Noise earlier this year. "Kind of" because I like the idea of his music and even initially loved the sound of The Death of Klinghoffer (his opera about the Achille Lauro hijacking), but found it incredibly difficult to listen to all the way through. But I'll have to check out this piece.
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post #25 of 53
8/24/08 at 2:06am
It's really good. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it.

And you may have mentioned this elsewhere, I don't know, but what did you think about The Rest is Noise? I'm interested in reading that, but I feel like it would make me feel dumb and without context.
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post #26 of 53
9/3/08 at 1:49am
Newest issue has a good profile on Alec Baldwin.
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post #27 of 53
9/4/08 at 9:02pm
That Baldwin profile was surprisingly relateable. Also good in this issue: The brief piece about Palin's comments on Obama, which were surprisingly in the pro-column, a lengthy article about how Obama and McCain are courting the Catholic vote and how Reagan era Catholics may be moving back towards the Democratic party, and the long piece about General Petraeus that I found fair and insightful. (The article contains one of the General's favorite disses: "You can write that off under education." I found that funnier than I should have.)
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post #28 of 53
9/19/08 at 9:47am
Some great stuff this week: A profile of Spike Lee, which reveals relatively little new information if you've read more than a couple things about the director, but puts to rest that Lee has "mellowed" since hitting 50, a piece about how Alaska's "subsidied susistinence" theory of government affected Sarah Palin's political career in the state -- and what the state thinks of its future, and a "letter from Moscow" about the role of radio broadcasters in Putin's Russia.

One other thing I love about the New Yorker: The covers. The one last week was gorgeous.
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post #29 of 53
9/19/08 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
One other thing I love about the New Yorker: The covers. The one last week was gorgeous.
I got my dad the book of covers a few years ago for his birthday as a coffee table book. Here in Central Florida they hardly sell the magazine anywhere, and if I'm desperate I need a subscription. Instead I just wait until I visit my parents and take a stack home with me.
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post #30 of 53
9/19/08 at 12:45pm
Also in this issue for all you Wall-E fans: An article about the debate over the Babar books and how they can be read as a positive allegory for French colonialism.
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post #31 of 53
9/19/08 at 12:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
It's really good. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on it.
Totally spaced on this. I should be able to track it down some way or another.

Quote:
And you may have mentioned this elsewhere, I don't know, but what did you think about The Rest is Noise? I'm interested in reading that, but I feel like it would make me feel dumb and without context.
It depends on how far you want to take it. It can definitely be read just for its exploration of how politics and culture affected the composers and vice versa, but you'll probably find yourself wanting to listen to the stuff as you go, which is what ultimately made me take forever reading it. I kept checking CDs out from the library so I'd have at least one point of reference for most of the significant composers he mentions (and there are a ton).

It became apparent after a while that I just wasn't going to be able so squeeze what was becoming a self-taught 20th century music appreciation class into the time it took to read a single (though incredibly informative) book. But I do know a lot more about Strauss, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich; still can't really tell Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern apart from each other, but can tell them apart from other composers; and got very interested in Adams, Reich, Messiaen, and others.
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post #32 of 53
9/19/08 at 12:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveB View Post
Totally spaced on this. I should be able to track it down some way or another.
The article's no longer linked on the website, but I did learn that it's an excerpt from Adams' memoir "Hallelujah Junction," set to be released in October.

And the Met is doing what I think is the NY premiere of "Doctor Atomic," Adams' opera about Oppenheimer, this season. I have never gone to an opera in my life, but I am probably going to go to that.
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post #33 of 53
9/19/08 at 1:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Also in this issue for all you Wall-E fans: An article about the debate over the Babar books and how they can be read as a positive allegory for French colonialism.
Thanks for the heads up. This type of thing is my blog's raison d'être.

One of my most favorite articles from my blog is another New Yorker piece about The Cat in the Hat. (here)
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post #34 of 53
9/19/08 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
The article's no longer linked on the website, but I did learn that it's an excerpt from Adams' memoir "Hallelujah Junction," set to be released in October.

And the Met is doing what I think is the NY premiere of "Doctor Atomic," Adams' opera about Oppenheimer, this season. I have never gone to an opera in my life, but I am probably going to go to that.
Have you listened to any Adams yet? From the little I've heard (mostly just Death of Klinghoffer), it's very different than what most would expect from an opera.
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post #35 of 53
10/10/08 at 5:26pm
Really liked the article about Obama and rural white males from two weeks ago and the profile of Ariana Huffington in this week's issue.
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post #36 of 53
10/27/08 at 4:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Nunziata View Post
I enjoy Popular Mechanics. Is that so wrong?
My favorite mag is Scientific America. Although New Scientist is not to bad either. so I am in the same boat
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post #37 of 53
4/24/09 at 11:32am
There's an article in the magazine this week that's amazing. It's on the increased use of neuro-enhancers like Adderall, and it basically tells you how and where to get them if you read the article closely enough*, while laying out a pretty good case for their use. It's not just limited to college kids and has interviews with folks from a number of fields who use the things.

And there's an article on Poe, but I haven't read that yet.

*Just like all the coverage of the Wolverine leak!
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post #38 of 53
4/24/09 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post


And there's an article on Poe, but I haven't read that yet.
I did.
Spoiler- He was drunk and broke.
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post #39 of 53
4/24/09 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I did.
Spoiler- He was drunk and broke.
Fuckin bastard. Ya just had to ruin it for me.
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post #40 of 53
5/17/09 at 6:14pm
I LOVE this magazine, but I really wish that they would change their approach to how they write about film, if only for the summer movie season. This past week's review of Star Trek is a good example of why they need to avoid commenting on this kind of thing, partly because you already know what they are going to, and that it's going to be pretty boring. There are exceptions, of course, like the 300/Shooter comment pointed out earlier in this thread.

Still, why not have more essays on film more akin to their essays on literature when there's not much to say about what's out?
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post #41 of 53
5/17/09 at 7:10pm
Anthony Lane was the king of this. You could give him any generic movie and he could be dismissive and hilarious, and find new ways of doing so. There's an article where he read the top ten books of 1945, ridiculing them extensively, and I remember loving that.

Terence Rafferty's (and maybe Lane's, too) reaction to the first two Tarantino movies I always thought was particularly shortsighted. I found the summary of his review of Reservoir Dogs on their site, and he had this to say: "The dramatic possibilities of infantile bullies goading each other to violence are sadly limited."
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post #42 of 53
5/17/09 at 11:50pm
Anthony Lane's review of "The Prince of Egypt" is a must read for anyone who enjoys witty film criticism.
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post #43 of 53
8/11/09 at 9:27pm
Malcolm Gladwell has a great article about Atticus Finch and southern liberalism in the 30s in this week's issue. I found it to be pretty eye-opening, especially in that there's a whole school of thought criticizing Finch as an attorney and as narrow-minded in some ways as everyone else at the time. Excellent stuff.
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post #44 of 53
10/8/09 at 2:42pm
Great profile of Nikki Finke in this week's issue.
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post #45 of 53
10/8/09 at 2:48pm
And a three-cover comic jam!
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post #46 of 53
10/12/09 at 6:17pm
Gladwell has a great piece on football injuries and dog-fighting this week.
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post #47 of 53
3/22/10 at 11:09pm
Last week's issue was a great one. Fantastic profile of John Paul Stevens and an excellent piece about Oscar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater (which the article called "America's national theater). This one has new Joyce Carol Oates fiction. Yay!
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post #48 of 53
4/6/10 at 10:40am
Great issue this week: an EPIC global diamond heist story that's just begging to be made into a movie.
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post #49 of 53
4/13/10 at 7:14pm
Anybody else buy the DVD-ROM archive box set? 80 years in .pdf form. I guess not many people did because it's on clearance now, for freaking $17.95.
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post #50 of 53
4/13/10 at 7:38pm
I need to pick that up. I got the complete cartoons for about seven bucks after Christmas.
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