There have been a lot of "in the news/from the headlines" kind of pieces where I feel I already get the gist and don't need to get more details, however well presented. Also, their profiles have been kind of hit or miss, and they're usually pretty good.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 31 January 2013 14:32 (eleven years ago) link
yeah the profiles have been super dull
― zero dark (s1ocki), Thursday, 31 January 2013 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
Can (superrich person) change the way we think about (something)?
― President Keyes, Thursday, 31 January 2013 15:52 (eleven years ago) link
can trent reznor make music with COMPUTERS!!?!?
― zero dark (s1ocki), Thursday, 31 January 2013 16:01 (eleven years ago) link
Yes he can! He can make a computer sound like a cello crossed with a guitar! He can makes sounds ... THAT DON'T EXIST!
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 31 January 2013 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
Times Square thing was interesting. There's an 8 foot variation in level!
― hibernaculum (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 31 January 2013 16:20 (eleven years ago) link
Entertaining Thomas Mallon (author of a decent novel published last year on Nixon) article on the Checkers speech.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 31 January 2013 22:23 (eleven years ago) link
agree that the nyorker has been suckin
― flopson, Thursday, 31 January 2013 23:12 (eleven years ago) link
I can't find where it is upthread, but someone talked about rejecting their $90 renewal deal and somehow getting the lower-priced deal to continue. How was this done? Simple insistence on the phone or some technicality? I'm really bad at negotiating with companies to extend deals.
― ljubljana, Saturday, 2 February 2013 15:35 (eleven years ago) link
I've found that when faced with cancellation vs. compromise, they almost always choose compromise, so just insist on the old rate over the phone.
One time I renewed, then saw a subscription a little later for a lower rate. I called up the NYorker and asked them to give me the lower rate. When they said they couldn't do it, I told them I was just going to cancel, then, ask for a full refund, and then sign up at the lower advertised rate, and what was the point of that? She happily gave me the lower rate after all.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 2 February 2013 15:47 (eleven years ago) link
did you leave a positive yelp review though?
― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Saturday, 2 February 2013 19:34 (eleven years ago) link
i cancelled the renewal over the phone and then they sent me a renewal notice for much less
― it was very clear that it's a sarcastic song (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 2 February 2013 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
I'm only a couple sections into Jill Lepore's thing on military spending, but omg so much good: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2013/01/28/130128crat_atlarge_lepore
― SOPA Middleton (Leee), Saturday, 2 February 2013 20:24 (eleven years ago) link
I'm such a phone wimp, but I'll try forks' method!
― ljubljana, Saturday, 2 February 2013 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
fantastic article this week about amy bishop, the professor who shot 6 of her colleagues
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 4 February 2013 19:57 (eleven years ago) link
I thought the Dr. Oz profile was fascinating. Here's a guy who is respected by his peers as the top of one field (heart surgery), rejected as the top of another (TV show host/entertainer), and outright ridiculed for dabbling in all sorts of sub-medical bullshit, which the magazine not so subtly hangs on the shoulders of his wife. The best part is when Oz gives some excuse for bringing on hacks and charlatans, and the writer flat out calls him out on it by saying "I have no idea what you're talking about" or something. Also, gotta hurt when a previous mentor praises you, and then immediately says he would not recommend you for heart surgery.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 February 2013 13:36 (eleven years ago) link
BATUMAN SIGNAL:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/02/meteor-in-the-russian-sky.html
― Margaret Vegemite Sanger (Leee), Saturday, 16 February 2013 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
The dug-up Joseph Mitchell piece <3 <3 <3
― zero dark (s1ocki), Monday, 18 February 2013 07:52 (eleven years ago) link
child pornography piece was difficult to read for about a dozen different reasons. civil commitment is pretty wrong though imo
― k3vin k., Thursday, 28 February 2013 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
man I let the nyer have push privileges so they could tell me when there's a new issue now theyre all hey why dont you spend some time reading this fn article this weekend, what're u doin dudes
― lag∞n, Friday, 1 March 2013 18:35 (eleven years ago) link
Louis Menand's New Deal book review had several good recommendations.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 1 March 2013 19:03 (eleven years ago) link
xp gotta b stingy w/ ur push privs
rachel aviv newtown article is p good
― johnny crunch, Friday, 1 March 2013 20:00 (eleven years ago) link
one day I granted push to some stuff just to see
― lag∞n, Friday, 1 March 2013 20:06 (eleven years ago) link
fuck push, i'll get to your app when i'm ready
― book itchy (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 1 March 2013 22:23 (eleven years ago) link
what's that? there's a new issue? on a monday? you don't say
― book itchy (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 1 March 2013 22:24 (eleven years ago) link
i'll get to your new issue when i open the app, which is the way i would always have got to your new issue
you dick bags
― book itchy (Autumn Almanac), Friday, 1 March 2013 22:25 (eleven years ago) link
Art for the Depardieu piece is not, eh, flattering.
http://www.newyorker.com/images/2013/02/25/p233/130225_r23191_p233.jpg
― Liz Phair Dinkum (Leee), Saturday, 2 March 2013 01:47 (eleven years ago) link
tbh i have not seen a flattering image of depardieu in decades
― ≪江南Style≫ (Autumn Almanac), Saturday, 2 March 2013 02:15 (eleven years ago) link
some real anne ramsey shit there
― balls, Saturday, 2 March 2013 03:08 (eleven years ago) link
That tank top is definitely more of a Depardon't
― Deverly (Bangelo), Saturday, 2 March 2013 03:18 (eleven years ago) link
lol, he looks like a grandma
― the 'dirty sprite' is implied (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 2 March 2013 04:44 (eleven years ago) link
Just switched over to digital subscription since I'm vagabonding for 6-12 months. Going to take some getting used to after reading the print edition for, like, forever.
― quincie, Saturday, 2 March 2013 14:07 (eleven years ago) link
I just can't get over that Depardieu photo!!!
― multi instru mentat list (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 2 March 2013 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/1/4/1357312724592/Gerard-Depardieu-009.jpg
― scott seward, Saturday, 2 March 2013 16:33 (eleven years ago) link
real lols.
― Liz Phair Dinkum (Leee), Saturday, 2 March 2013 18:52 (eleven years ago) link
Depardon't should enter the pop culture pun vernacular.
Purell piece was a long time coming, but I wanted more!
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 2 March 2013 21:42 (eleven years ago) link
Catching up on a bunch of issues, I thought Rachel Aviv's Netherland, about homeless LGBT teens, was extraordinary.
Nussbaum's consistently good. She's a real fan, whereas many highbrow critics operate on the basis that TV is generally beneath them except the occasional quality documentary. She's making SFJ look even drier. His Atoms for Peace review was like a scientist's description of something on a microscope slide.
― Deafening silence (DL), Sunday, 3 March 2013 10:00 (eleven years ago) link
It's totally a matter of style, but I generally don't like Nussbaum, at least not in the mag. I've liked some of her blog posts, where the style works for her, but her essays have rarely offered me much in the way of insight. Like I've posted above, they're often just long lists of other shows she likes or liked, though she has shown glimmers of potential. (I should say I don't really like SFJ's writing in the mag that much, either; he is pretty dry but similarly unilluminating.) I've always been a fan of Lane (am I in the minority here?) because he's witty and funny yet informed and sometimes perceptive. I wish they had a TV person like that.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 March 2013 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
Love the Lane, hate the Denby.
― quincie, Sunday, 3 March 2013 14:40 (eleven years ago) link
maybe a more interesting question than why does nussbaum suck is
― lag∞n, Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:13 (eleven years ago) link
why does tv criticism suck, its all onion av club level shit abt like show runners and callbacks and character arcs and other meager depressing ways of being
― lag∞n, Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:15 (eleven years ago) link
why does film crit suck? why does music crit suck? does art crit suck? why does crit suck? everyone hates the denby. its what brings us together as a people. i like the lane okay. you take what you can get.
― scott seward, Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:23 (eleven years ago) link
clone the menand. that's what i say. have the clones write the whole mag.
― scott seward, Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
otm
― k3vin k., Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:28 (eleven years ago) link
if someone paid me a good salary to write about t.v. for a living i would close my record store tomorrow and devote my life to it and be the greatest television critic in history. but it ain't gonna happen, so i'll just keep cleaning the mold off of dan fogelberg records.
― scott seward, Sunday, 3 March 2013 15:29 (eleven years ago) link
scott! tv crit is worse than the other crits
― lag∞n, Sunday, 3 March 2013 17:04 (eleven years ago) link
i liked that t.v. guide critic when i was a kid. i can still see his hirshfeld drawing in my head. he had to be kinda nice though.
― scott seward, Sunday, 3 March 2013 18:22 (eleven years ago) link
lane is not even good, but better than denby, maybe.
― just sayin, Sunday, 3 March 2013 18:45 (eleven years ago) link
love lane, such a good writer
― lag∞n, Sunday, 3 March 2013 18:46 (eleven years ago) link
that piece on the hipster chef has sooooooooooooo many choice lines. don't even know where to begin:
a tender piece of lamb half-buried under snippets of cat grass, periwinkle-blue borage blossoms, yellow-foot mushrooms, and “cocoa soil.” One side of the plate was devoted to a splat of beet-rhubarb verjus, darkly clotting. He called it Spring Slaughter.
― scott seward, Sunday, 3 March 2013 19:07 (eleven years ago) link