December 2011
15 posts
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Brooke Gladstone Remembers Hitch →
Brief, but very good. From the post:
He offered a blueprint (beyond our ability to follow) of how to live fully, playfully, indulgently, fearlessly, as if death were always around the corner. Crushing Bill Clinton, pulverizing Mother Theresa, celebrating war, shredding religion, even when he was inconsistent, illogical or mendacious, his audacity was awe-inspiring.
Damn, Hitchens was fun.
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Christopher Hitchens: 1949-2011
William Grimes pens the New York Times’ obituary — ”Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit” — for Hitch, a writer of sharp teeth and Herculean productivity. (The Atlantic reports that it was a stop-the-presses addition to today’s paper.)
Vanity Fair’s editor, Graydon Carter, offers this “In Memoriam,” which details the legendary, unapologetic...
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When Remnick Met Putin →
From a terrific “Ask the Author” session with New Yorker editor David Remnick, who’s got a piece on Putin and Russia in the current issue:
QUESTION FROM MITCH DANEEL: Have you ever met Putin or Medvedev? If so, what were they like?
DAVID REMNICK: I was at a small dinner and sat next to Putin. One word: forbidding. Another: steely. I think it is fair to say he is the least...
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Aleksandar Hemon: "Mapping Home" →
The Bosnian-American writer’s latest New Yorker essay, about Sarajevo and Chicago, is terrific. (Subscription required, and worth it.) After Hemon’s brave, probing, and unforgettably sad family essay this June (“The Aquarium”), I’m beginning to think he’s one of the sharpest essayists we’ve got here in the States. And his fiction stands on its own as...
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“Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct,...”
– Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking in Geneva, as quoted in “U.S. Backs Gay Rights Abroad, Obama and Clinton Say.” One immediate result was a standing ovation. Let’s hope there are many long-term results to come.
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"The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011" →
A remarkable collection at Buzzfeed.
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Tyler Green on the Walker's New Site →
From his post, “Why the Walker’s new website is a big deal”:
Traditionally, art museum websites have been where you go to get information about the museum: its collection, its exhibitions, its public programs and so on — and that’s it. Art museum websites typically pretend that the museum is an island unto itself. Sometimes parts of museum websites have gone beyond their...
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"Taking Pictures of Taking Pictures" →
An interesting Pitchfork piece by Mark Richardson, exploring Tumblr, music, and the (pre-David Karp) tradition of stating (atop a borrowed core), “This is who I am.” (via The Verge)
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When Larry David Met Richard Yates →
At The Awl, Evan Hughes describes the real evening that inspired the famous “Jacket” episode on “Seinfeld.”
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