New Yorker magazine alert thread

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?

Thought Tina Fey on comedy writing was very funny.

it's subscription only i think xp

Thought Tina Fey on comedy writing was very funny.

Yeah, loads better than her first one.

this is great:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_paumgarten

Yes it is. Paumgarten's brilliant.

it made me nostalgic for my youth in a small new england town where i evenly devided my free time between exploring forests and playing nintendo

that bioessay is one of the best pieces on video games i've ever read

Magnus Carlsen, chess prodigy (sub required): http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/21/110321fa_fact_max

just finished that article on the train ride home from work. Great.

has anyone read that super loooooooong oil spill article?

^^^Finished it yesterday. I was definitely waiting for a piece like this to appear, and was definitely surprised by the general takeaway that shit wasn't that bad and ppl were being way too alarmist.

But then, I basically couldn't follow the story back when it was unfolding that closely because it started giving me a nervous breakdown.

Would love to hear some other perspectives on the article.

what issue was it in

mar 14
and yeah im half way through it + am like jon, dont know enough abt the situation to judge it, it is really interesting that the general gist of the article is that ppl were freaking out a lil too much

i mean, ppl were right to freak out, but also, everyone involved was doing a really really good job working on it (including bp)

I read this article as a bizarro companion to the Haggis/Scientology piece.

read that Haaretz piece- loved it.

everyone should read this rodrigo rosenberg article

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all