New Yorker magazine alert thread

and an international subscription problem (us$112/yr for the print edition)

runaways piece is just arresting; making me look around more openly and less jaded at kids i see on the street

On the plus side, this week's issue has a fantastic piece about a guy who tested chemical weapons on military personnel. Pretty nuts.

On the minus side, it has one of the worst Shouts & Murmurs in recent history, and it's four times longer than normal too.

Why do you torture yourself by reading S&M?

I only actually read a tiny bit of it but the shtick was so dreadful that I had to mention it.

I have laughed at Shouts and Murmurs at least one time

I'm such a glutton for punishment that I always read the S&M in the hopes that, oh yeah, THIS week will be the funny one.

http://i50.tinypic.com/5z4ftj.jpg

needs the statue of liberty weeping

it doesn't matter who holds the football - woody allen, jack handey, steve martin, david sedaris, bob odenkirk - they all fuck you in the end

wait does that mean Lucy was into pegging

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Peppermint_Patty.jpg

I don't read the New Yorker so idk but can anyone tell me anything about Margaret Talbot?

Haven't read shouts and murmurs this week, but too bad for Simon rich, a previous ILX favorite.

chemical warfare guy article is super-disturbing so far

but also haha:

He was known for his affectations, including a pink convertible—which he drove with the top down, rain or shine—and a silver-tipped swagger stick made of a human fibula. A master parachutist, he sometimes jumped out a second-floor window after lunch.

The most interesting man in the world.

yes that quote jumped out at me too. it's a disturbing article but full of weird characters too.

https://subscribe.newyorker.com/subscribe/newyorker/76255?source=NYR_global_rightRail_A
just re: all the subscription talk, i'd bite

The pretty run of the mill Trent Reznor profile was like listening to someone trying to awkwardly teach a new language to millions of people who already speak it.

"And instead of guitars, he used synthesizers and other electronic instruments, which when pressed produced all manner of sound. Sometimes, Reznor invoked a technique known to fans of industrial music as 'potty mouth.' Oh, you guys already know that? Hrm. Well, he was also in Nine Inch Nails, a popular rock and roll act. Oh, you knew that, too? Blast. Did you know he is full of rage? You did? Hrm. Did I mention the synthesizers?"

hey did you guys read that new Kent Razorblade profile in the new yorker? apparently he's using the internet to distribute music

Air Conditioning Scion Invents 'Musical' Computer

I love his work on the popular electronic divertissement "Quaken"

chemical warfare piece is freaking me the fuck out

Nussbaum strikes again: her piece ostensibly on "The Hour" mentions no less than 22 other TV shows, many unrelated. Has she ever written an essay that is not a glorified list?

i like nussbaum

her name means 'nut tree' doesn't it?

I'd have no problem with her if nearly every (every?) one of her pieces was not just a litany of shows jumbled together into a loose thesis.

btw, new yorker style guide question: in the chemical warfare article, at times the guy is referred to as "Van Sim" but at other times it's just "Sim"

what's up?

batuman alert klaxon

haha thenewyorker.com is a pretty good website

so the fiction this week... uncanny

i enjoy nussbaum's zings

i love that constructed language article. something about the idea of "the #2 terrorist in ukraine" showing up at that conference totally cracks me up for some reason

zadie smith on joni mitchell was like something purpose-built to give ILM fits.

Skipped it. Seems like a double - triple? - whammy of not interested.

That chem weapons epic, on the other hand - wow.

i love that constructed language article. something about the idea of "the #2 terrorist in ukraine" showing up at that conference totally cracks me up for some reason

― scream blahula scream (govern yourself accordingly), Monday, December 17, 2012 10:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this one was great. also enjoyed the article about the huge ship loaded with iron ore traveling across the arctic circle

i generally like zadie smith's novels (haven't read her new one yet) but that article was a mess

ugh yeah

kinda funny that of the 3 overlong rambly pieces about musicians this year my least favorite was zadie smith on joni mitchell and my favorite was the one about the dead

Dead one was really good. Struck a nice balance between taking its subject seriously without taking it too seriously.

i couldn't get through the ZS piece despite the fact that she is a fellow ZS and that i'm currently going through my own "i've never liked joni mitchell but i'm starting to 'get' her" phase

I listened to 'blue' earlier this month when I was feeling 'blue' and I totally got it, after years of not getting it

maybe you just had be feeling 'blue' to feel 'blue' I dunno

can anybody tell me where the buffet line is?

I saw an album called "More Songs About Buildings and Food." You already know who made that album. I did not. However the New Yorker thinks people will be interested in my long humble brag about how my expertise at novel reading has left me deficient in other areas.

Yeah, I often like ZS, but that article, ugh.

The profile of Laurie Simmons was pretty boring, but I feel like that's because the subject is boring. I mean even the subject's art is boring, and even the subject of the subject's art is boring.

no, that's not fair, her art isn't really boring, some of it is striking. I just think the way she talks about it is boring.

Yeah, that was a boring piece. I skimmed looking for a hook, but nope.

the insertion of really literal quotes made it pretty hard going, i think. like it'd describe some period of her work, & then end on a line in which she said that it was a good time or a hard time. it felt so straightforward. i don't think it was bad or anything though.

I also get bored when Lena Dunham talks. I think it's partly just that her career is so short and she talks like she's such an accomplished artist with such a long history -- which, tbf, fits her schtick of her career being about itself from day 1.