In 1961, Piero Manzoni created his most famous art work—ninety small, sealed tins, titled “Artist’s Shit.” Its creation was said to be prompted by Manzoni’s father, who owned a canning factory, telling his son, “Your work is shit.” Manzoni intended Read More …
To mark this month’s fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles’ ninth album, “The Beatles”—universally known as the White Album—several new expanded and enhanced editions are being released this week. These new versions were created under the supervision of Giles Martin, the Read More …
“Yesterday was Halloween. Tomorrow’s the New York City Marathon.” That’s how the “Saturday Night Live” host Chris Rock, clad in black, framed the week’s concerns, as he paced the stage of Studio 8H around midnight on November 1, 2014, before Read More …
Looming like a rock formation in “High Flying Bird,” the actor Bill Duke plays a South Bronx youth-basketball coach named Spence, whose imposing form and glower give physical shape to his moral eminence. Spence’s code of conduct indicates him as Read More …
Recent news that life insurers are now subject to a mild setback in the process for determining premiums might have been cheering if it didn’t come with a revelation that the actuaries of the world might be studying your Instagram Read More …
At some point during my childhood, I decided that few things were funnier than the sight of an obvious stunt dummy being put through some kind of unspeakable physical horror in a piece of filmed entertainment. The idea most likely Read More …
I switched on “Lodge 49,” on AMC, unmindful of the reference in its title, unaware that the creator of the series, Jim Gavin, claims Thomas Pynchon as an inspiration. But the novelist’s inebriating view of California as a territory of Read More …
Six minutes into Skye Fitzgerald’s half-hour documentary “Lifeboat,” Jon Castle, the soft-spoken captain of a boat that rescues North African migrants attempting to make it across the Mediterranean, leans over a nautical map. He has glasses, a white-blond beard, and Read More …
“This moment is real,” Sandra Oh informed the audience, at the top of the seventy-sixth annual Golden Globe Awards. Judging from the smatterings of laughter, it sounded like the audience wasn’t sure whether to believe her. But she was, in Read More …
I got a queasy feeling watching the opening sequence of the new season of “American Vandal,” and not only because it showed a lunchroom full of teen-agers soiling themselves. The scene is certainly disgusting: in an event known afterward as Read More …