On the third floor of the New York Public Library, off of a quiet, marble-tiled hallway, is the Berg Reading Room. Mary Catherine Kinniburgh is one of the literary-manuscript specialists in charge of the cache of artifacts, which includes a Read More …
“Westworld,” for all of its shiny, futuristic technology—its dazzling computer screens, whirring machinery, and clever robots—has been, through its second season, which ended on Sunday night, a show about guns, that simplest and cruellest of human tools. The characters are Read More …
Ordinarily, my garden and I are embarrassing to be around. I can’t keep my hands off it; visitors, work, and children are all mere obstacles on the path of true pleasure. Just run your fingertip over the soft saucer of Read More …
The pianist Vicky Chow says that playing “Sonatra” is a “traumatic physical experience.” Composed by Michael Gordon, in 2004, and released on Cantaloupe Music, in two versions, one in normal tuning and one in unsettling just intonation, “Sonatra” is a Read More …
In May, Josiah Wise, known to most as the singer serpentwithfeet, walked on stage at Arcosanti, an experimental-living compound in the red-rock country just north of Phoenix. He was bare-chested, wearing a beard full of glitter, and carrying a blue Read More …
It was around five in the morning, a few days after Christmas. I was sitting on the nubby couch of a rented Florida vacation home while my children—who had not slept past four-forty-five for days—watched whatever trash was on the Read More …
Children’s movies are made, in part, for grownups—their allegories are meant to pacify both parent and child—but the teen movie, like its audience, is more intemperate. Alternately generous and cruel, it teaches its viewers that life isn’t fair, but that, Read More …
There is a moment at the beginning of “Maineland,” a quiet marvel of a documentary directed by Miao Wang, when a young high-school teacher in Shanghai holds forth on the concept of Chinese happiness. Her students, who have just completed Read More …
The investigative-journalism podcast “In the Dark” would be impressive in any era, but it feels especially welcome in 2018. The show, which is produced by APM Reports, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and hosted by the series’ lead reporter, Madeleine Baran, Read More …
The many disoriented Kanye West fans searching for clarity in his music are unlikely to find answers in “Ye,” the slapdash new album he released at midnight on Friday. West, who has jarred audiences this year with a dizzying torrent Read More …