New Yorker magazine alert thread

ruth franklin's article on h.g. adler is really good (01/31/11 issue)

Working my way through the Guillermo del Toro, and actually my biggest gripe is how the reporter renders del Toro's speech into stilted sound bites, when I remember him speaking a lot more expansively and dynamically.

the funniest thing about that profile was the paragraph he devotes to giving clueless new yoker readers a little background on who this h.p. lovecraft fellow is

I seem to recall Oliver Sacks' last two articles being pretty great, and I'm surprised they hadn't been mentioned yet (since he was mentioned in the NPR or Radiolab thread). Anyway, they're both behind the pay wall. :(

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_sacks (2010/08/30)
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/28/100628fa_fact_sacks (2010/06/28)

i was like ok i dont have much 2 do this morning, ill print out this paul haggis/scientology article....it's 49 pages!

And it's a tease of a forthcoming book, no?

The best bits of the Haggis piece come at the end, btw, with the revelation of some brazen church-contradicting forgeries. Not that you should skip to the end of anything.

The biggest (so to speak) revelation of the del Toro piece is how ... hefty the guy is. 300 pounds! But dude is clearly smart and knows his nerd stuff.

man do i hate paul haggis

oh i read the whole thing. but yeah, that stuff abt hubbards war records was prob the most damning

the whole thing was just like parenthetical denials of every claim idk scientologys tenets seem like ideas a bratty little kid would come up with - ie. it's sacrilidge & damaging to us for non members to read our scriptures, etc

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/02/07/110207ta_talk_paumgarten

Enjoyed this quick profile of The Man Who Plays The Most Interesting Man In The World

also liking Gopnik's roundup of all manner of writings on how the internet is making our life better or worse

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_fey

The writing is pretty terrible, but: Ball of Fingers.

dressed like i am here to repair your aquarium

the article about near-earth-objects/NEOs in this week's is good; i'm only half way through. affectionate portraits of ex-austronaut guys, ex-astronaut probably being the best ex-thing you can be. hearing about them all sat around a conference table at a best western makes me want to watch mission to mars (should i watch mission to mars y/n)

there are some sciency types on ilx so this primer for dilettantes about a relatively underrepresented issue might be too basic if you're really into NEOs and stuff

that is either the 2nd or 3rd said sayrafiezadeh story ive liked quite a bit, has anyone read his memoir?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/02/07/110207ta_talk_paumgarten

Enjoyed this quick profile of The Man Who Plays The Most Interesting Man In The World

nick paumgarten is one of my favorite staff writers...he had that narrative of the days surrounding the collapse of the economy a while back that was amazing/made me want to kill myself

YES that was crazy

i had a quick google around and couldn't work out which one that was - any clues?

i think it was this one - http://www.scribd.com/doc/15483403/Nick-Paumgarten-Annals-of-Finance-The-Death-of-Kings-The-New-Yorker-May-18-2009-p-40

hey thank you. made me want to kill myself should not be such a ringing endorsement but i've loved some other stuff that's ticked the same boxes

Jeffrey Goldberg piece about Haaretz and the Israeli left is amazing. Not done with it yet -- it be long.

David Remnick

Tho I'd be really curious to read a similar article by Goldberg

ha, whoops

That actually makes sense -- I tend to like Remnick's writing a lot and Goldberg's less.

Goldberg did that one about the white guy who poached African poachers, right?

paumgarten wrote the elevator article, that was dope

^^^loved the elevator article! But it totally messed with me when years later I was stuck on an elevator after hours at my office.

what happened??

Only in there for about half an hour (I think--didn't have watch, phone, or reading material, so it felt like a long time!), but the elevator emergency phone guy did have to call my husband and explain that I'd be home later than planned. I had plenty of time to contemplate tht fact that being stuck for the weekend (like that guy in the NYer article) was entirely possible.

Evidently The New Yorker screwed up John Lurie. You should check out Lurie’s comments about the article and stalker situation. so sad…:
http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/02/01/john-lurie-sustains/

do we have a general rolling thread for long-form articles/journalism worth reading or am I misremembering

its in 77

(what's the procedure for getting on 77? sounds like a good thread.)

can't find it :/

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=78720

: ) thanks

toby you could try asking mods I think 77 requests are being handled on a case by case basis

Man, as always seems to happen with the New Yorker, I have no idea how I missed that elevator piece - sometimes I'm convinced the letters page is a pomo joke referencing articles that don't exist, from fabricated readers - but I just read it and it was awesome!

the article about near-earth-objects/NEOs in this week's is good; i'm only half way through. affectionate portraits of ex-austronaut guys, ex-astronaut probably being the best ex-thing you can be. hearing about them all sat around a conference table at a best western makes me want to watch mission to mars (should i watch mission to mars y/n)

Yeah, this was pretty fun, especially as I just finished reading Packing for Mars which was knee-deep in lolz. However, it includes this quotation from an idiot Congressman:

the stampede of people trying to get the public to move on global warming versus the tiny number on an issue that really could destroy us -- it gives me a further understanding of mankind.

ha, yeah, i think it took a sec for me to try to square 'NEO enthusiast' with 'republican congressman' and everything else that platform must entail

Man, as always seems to happen with the New Yorker, I have no idea how I missed that elevator piece - sometimes I'm convinced the letters page is a pomo joke referencing articles that don't exist, from fabricated readers - but I just read it and it was awesome!

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, February 27, 2011 6:20 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

This American Life did a story on this too, right? Google is failing me.

read that huge thing on Paul Haggis and Scientology yesterday; i think my favorite part was the one little paragraph of Josh Brolin's A+ trolling:

One of those actors, Josh Brolin, told me that, in a “moment of real desperation,” he visited the Celebrity Centre and received “auditing”—spiritual counselling. He quickly decided that Scientology wasn’t for him. But he still wonders what the religion does for celebrities like Cruise and Travolta: “Each has a good head on his shoulders, they make great business decisions, they seem to have wonderful families. Is that because they were helped by Scientology?” This is the question that makes celebrities so crucial to the religion. And, clearly, there must be something rewarding if such notable people lend their names to a belief system that is widely scorned.

Brolin says that he once witnessed John Travolta practicing Scientology. Brolin was at a dinner party in Los Angeles with Travolta and Marlon Brando. Brando arrived with a cut on his leg, and explained that he had injured himself while helping a stranded motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway. He was in pain. Travolta offered to help, saying that he had just reached a new level in Scientology. Travolta touched Brando’s leg and Brando closed his eyes. “I watched this process going on—it was very physical,” Brolin recalls. “I was thinking, This is really fucking bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, ‘That really helped. I actually feel different!’ ” (Travolta, through a lawyer, called this account “pure fabrication.”)

if Josh Brolin is making all that up he is my favorite Hollywood actor of all time

loved loved loved the haaretz article. i always enjoy the english language edition, any ilx israelis (ilxraelis?) who can vouch for the quality of the hebrew language haaretz?

was gonna go with a "fuck the haaretz" one liner but perhaps too much

i get it, it's an anagram (almost)!

Turkish soccer fanatics (2011/3/7):
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/07/110307fa_fact_batuman

yeah that one is terrific.

loved loved loved the haaretz article. i always enjoy the english language edition, any ilx israelis (ilxraelis?) who can vouch for the quality of the hebrew language haaretz?

― symsymsym, Tuesday, March 1, 2011 7:22 PM Bookmark

Wife remembers it being good but doesn't read much Israeli news anymore -- sort of finds it too painful I guess.

liked the ben marcus story this wk

Link?