New Yorker magazine alert thread

I unno, I didn't mind the family history tbh! Anyway it kind of pays off quickly in that it explains the initial eureka moment, and maybe how they were able to get their startup off the ground (still reading it atm).

i stopped reading that a page or so in because i was like i'm not even sold on this being a thing yet, do i really need to know all about these guys' extended family history, but should i go back?

― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Saturday, May 18, 2013 4:34 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very frequently feel this way about new yorker articles

yeah they could def stand to leave out the background info from time to time

u mad that's what i read nyer for

its sometimes illuminating but sometime not and like im just sayin feel free to switch up the format occasionally

a nyer story: zoom in, zoom out, childhood, factoids, factoids, think abt it

ya that was def something that i really loved about it when i first got into the mag, all the character profiles & the way they'd humanize the most obscure or even evil ppl... but sometimes i find it tiresome, idk like it's stretching out to cover up for less thorough reporting, describing in minute detail what the person was wearing to cover up for the short & shallow interview they're using

I wish I were a humanities grad student and could make a thesis out of analyzing all NYer writing, ever, and determine what percentage of pieces had a physical description of someone and/or his/her attire as the second sentence.

they don't print many photos; physical discriptions are important

they famously didn't print any photos until somewhat recently. for some reason 'no photos' was a point of pride for a certain class of publication - nyer, new republic, wall st journal.

the whole thing of setting up a story and then about 1/5 of the way in going "klaus dingeldore was born in a placid rhineland village in 1972. his father was a monkey keeper" is 100% just part of the structure of its profile pieces but i didnt really think the mushroom thing was going to be a profile piece but more of a science/product thing i guess. i guess i was less interested in hearing about the family history of a 28-year-old cool dude who has an exciting new form of styrofoam.

well to be a little reductive it's supposed to be literary journalism, these aren't blog posts

If y'all want to have some fun, dig up some ancient issues of the magazine, when every story was 30 pages too long and the mag from page to page looked like a cut-n-paste zine-quality design mess.

I recall the multi-issue stories from my childhood, when mom and dad would argue over who did or did not throw out/lose/otherwise displace an issue before the other could read Part 1.

thank u 4 new dn slocks

there's more science in the article but it's a bit basic and ted-talky. best part is the lady in the excerpt leeeeee quoted and the angry man who teaches you how to invent stuff

i recommend the article about the crazy manhattan apartment sublet scam this week

i realized i basically subscribe to the new yorker for the true crime stories

vanity fair has really good true crime abt rich people

the koch bros/PBS thing was depressing, i saw that film (can't remember if i saw it in PBS or netflix) and it was decent muckraking but not very well executed.

Vanity Fair/Esquire/GQ/Wired/New Yorker/New York are all good for blue collar crime writing

do you mean white collar?

yeah, duh. i have no collar.

who will report on barechested crime

i like tshirt crimes

sweater crime

Backgammon article is pretty entertaining.

who will report on barechested crime

"COPS," usually.

this in the styrofoam mushroom article freaked me the fuk out

A student from Kuwait suggested a public-area surveillance device that would detect people with incapacitating depression; then professionals could intervene and stop suicides.

was wondering why these weren't showing up in my mailbox for the last few weeks but then I got a notice that my subscription has ended. My dad was paying for it so I guess I'll hassle him about it.

the brief Kim Gordon profile was okay.

Her dog's name is Syd Barrett!

so now it's established both kim gordon & lorrie moore are riggins fans

It quotes an ilxor!

George Packer on tech and politics is pretty awesome, which has a followup blog post. Does he always insert editorial asides into his political pieces/is he the only NYer contributor who does that, or does he save that treatment for libertarians?

lemme guess, the bike in cleveland that yelled 'go back to art school, you faggots!' ?

**biker

hey they have updated the digital/archive edition, sorta. higher res. still jpgs.

Ripley piece is good

George Packer on tech and politics is pretty awesome, which has a followup blog post. Does he always insert editorial asides into his political pieces/is he the only NYer contributor who does that, or does he save that treatment for libertarians?

― Ou sont les Sonneywolferines d'antan? (Leee), Saturday, June 1, 2013 11:38 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this was pretty crucial reading.

ooh if it's a sequel of sorts to his libertarian billionaire one i'm looking forward to it

http://observer.com/2013/05/things-fall-apart-in-the-unwinding-george-packer-aims-for-dos-passos-comes-up-sub-gladwell

biggest o_O of the gordon profile was that not only can j mascis afford to live in sonic youth's neighborhood, he was there first (and drives a lexus suv?!)

George Packer on tech and politics is pretty awesome,

hoping his new book is this sharp

biggest o_O of the gordon profile was that not only can j mascis afford to live in sonic youth's neighborhood, he was there first (and drives a lexus suv?!)

― discreet, Sunday, June 2, 2013 2:40 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

j mascis is from western mass iirc

Mascis doesn't live in the same neighborhood...he lives across the river in Amherst, where he grew up.

we need an indie star map

https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=Ay5GWBeob_WIPLDYoIWcfVXxvZu9XwJ55OX7Ag,16m7TKfyB_Wvm1YzMjgkb-eeGG_Pnwg6iuOisHZUfKtUshvnUcpkf5VaG3CKgO1kAFQzYO6LW-JU3Q_ra6chuCgmExB5WCyhOcm3laykqnErJQ8Hq7j5BDc5FWpSMIS4D4rqulJ5YWZBr0D5lkoDDH_GzQ5De0_R7gmi2ogjFjXZHfqivz6A5DBNwx8

I don't think it's an exclusive neighborhood. It's a bunch of college towns in the sticks. Wayne and Kate of Magic Hour/Twisted Village lived around there too. And Byron Coley.

man that Ripley review brought back memories. Anyone else a fan of the Jack Palance-hosted eighties show?