World

The Art Dealer Who Wanted to Be Art
If you remember anything about this painting, may it be that the dog’s name is Noble. The black poodle in the bottom left greets us as a silhouette with...
Can Shostakovich Ever Escape Stalin’s Shadow?
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, one of the mainstays of the twentieth-century orchestral repertory, ends with an unapologetic display of musical bombast. The coda consists of thirty-five triple-forte bars in...
“Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Offer Nostalgic, Half-Satisfying Showdowns
With a musical return to Oz and a bloody epic of ancient Rome, Hollywood studios double down on blockbuster spectacle. Source link
The Fantasy of Cozy Tech
At a wide desk in a bedroom somewhere sits a figure, her back facing the camera, supported by an ergonomic white office chair. Her head is bracketed by puffy,...
The Complex Politics of Tribal Enrollment
Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz, a former Obama Administration official, was six years old when she became, as she puts it, “a card-carrying Indian”—an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of...
El Museo del Barrio Offers a Timely Triennial of Latino Art
The second triennial survey at El Museo del Barrio, “Flow States,” is loosely organized around the concept of diasporas and the movements of people across nations, geographies, and cultures....
A Visit to Planet Koren
A new exhibition celebrates the work of the late cartoonist Edward Koren. Source link
Why Do We Talk This Way?
Just before the election, I went to see a play. It was staged for a small group, was about ninety minutes long, and was followed by a Q. &...
The Frenemies Who Fought to Bring Birth Control to the U.S.
Judging by how commonly birth control is practiced in the United States, it ought to rank among the least controversial of subjects. In surveys, ninety-nine per cent of women...
Javier Mariscal’s “Desk with a View”
Most New Yorkers don’t spend their lives on the waterfront (except, of course, a lucky few), but we are frequently reminded that the city is surrounded by water when...
What’s the Difference Between a Rampaging Mob and a Righteous Protest?
In the beginning was the mob, and the mob was bad. In Gibbon’s 1776 “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” the Roman mob makes regular appearances, usually at...