another eye opens

Three fine long stories:

* the great art writer Calvin Tomkins’ profile of Laurie Simmons, not skirting her complicated relationship with her now-famous daughter, Lena Dunham (of Girls fame);

* Rachel Aviv’s fascinating and extremely informative article on gay teens in New York City, “Netherland,” mostly following a young lesbian from central Florida named Samantha; and

* “The Heiress,” Ken Auletta’s in-depth report on Elizabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert, who is married to someone from another famous family (Matthew Freud, great-grandson of you-know-who). A passage I liked “Rupert Murdoch, who is eighty-one, abhors the gossip about his successor. Like Charles de Gaulle, he cannot imagine death knocking on his door. He maintains a careful diet, works out with a trainer, and reminds people that his mother, Dame Elisabeth, is a hundred and three years old. ‘When the Queen Mum died, at one hundred and one,’ Roger Ailes recalls, ‘I said to Rupert, “She had a good run.”‘ Murdoch replied, ‘I’d call it an early death.’ ”

Plus some amazing images in the arts listings and an extra-good cartoon:

illo of experimental pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow by Daniel Krall

                                    Samuel Fosso’s photo “Le Chef Qui A Vendu l’Afrique aux Colons”