Andy and his high school girlfriend Holly, now a lesbian mom named Jamey, at Borderlands Bookstore
Andy and Jamey with her wife Carol on Balmy Alley
In this week’s New Yorker
January 22, 2012Another stellar batch of cartoons!
Along with fine reporting by Ariel Levy on Callista Gingrich, Steve Coll on “Looking for Mullah Omar,” and William Finnegan, who traveled to Madagascar with club and restaurant superstar Eric Goode to observe his passion for saving rare breeds of tortoise. The latter piece is a real vocabulary expander; I picked up “chelonian,” “gular scute,” and “opuntia cactus.” Lots of astonishing tortoise lore: “Chelonians actually predate many dinosaurs. They have been lumbering around for more than two hundred million years, and have changed very little in all that time. Nobody knows how long individual plowshares live. Captain James Cook took away a radiated tortoise, the plowshare’s closest relative, and gave it to the King of Tonga, in 1777. It died in 1966.” And the next time there’s a lull in conversation over dinner, try telling your guests “Endoscopic turtle sexing will not become common practice in Madagascar any time soon.”
Poet Donald Hall contributes a poignant Personal History essay on aging, “Out the Window,” and Anthony Lane applies his characteristically droll erudition to reviewing Ralph Fiennes’ film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: “The movie unfolds in a modern setting, and in modern dress. This will obviously be disappointing to any Gerard Butler fans who hoped to see their man reprise his majestic outfit from 300, which consisted of helmet, cloak, and pull-up Spartan diaper.” And whichever poetry editor has been slipping lyrics by pop songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon into the magazine has now added to the list Leonard Cohen. As usual, the lyric doesn’t fly so well on the page, but on the website you can scroll down and hear the track “Going Home” from Cohen’s forthcoming album, Old Ideas, hotly anticipated by me.
Playlist: Eclectica by Erika 1-9-12
January 22, 2012“The Time (Dirty Bit),” Black Eyed Peas
“Common People,” William Shatner
“Little Lion Man,” Mumford & Sons
“Locked Up,” Ingrid Michaelson
“Gold Guns Girls,” Metric
“Animal,” Neon Trees
“Mr. Raven,” MC Lars
“Fett’s Vette,” MC Chris
“Low,” Flo Rida
“Imma Be,” Black Eyed Peas
“Everybody Ona Move,” Michael Franti & Spearhead
“Hello Bonjour,” Michael Franti & Spearhead
“Dust Bowl Children,” Alison Kraus
“Can’t Let Go,” Red Molly
“Will You Remember Me?,” The Pine Box Boys
“The Chain,” Ingrid Michaelson
“Born This Way/Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now/Firework,” The Chipmunks and the Chipettes
“Whole Foods Parking Lot,” DJ Dave
Quote of the day: OLD
January 22, 2012OLD
However alert we are, however much we think we know what will happen, antiquity remains an unknown, unanticipated galaxy. It is alien, and old people are a separate form of life. They have green skin, with two heads that sprout antennae. They can be pleasant, they can be annoying – in the supermarket, these old ladies won’t get out of my way – but most important they are permanently other. When we turn eighty, we understand that we are extra-terrestrial. If we forget for a moment that we are old, we are reminded when we try to stand up, or when we encounter someone young, who appears to observe green skin, extra heads, and protuberances.
– Donald Hall
Theater review: UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW
January 22, 2012My review of Young Jean Lee‘s Untitled Feminist Show at the Baryshnikov Arts Center has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. Check it out here and let me know what you think.
Hilary Clark, Regina Rocke, and Katy Pyle (photo by Julieta Cervantes)
