Monthly Archives: August 2006

Dan Baum on WNYC

Talking about New Orleans and the many continuing scandals of government, real estate, the military, etc., that we all know about in a general way if we don’t live in a hurricane-torn place, but Baum’s (and, I assume, Margaret L. Knox’s) recent story brings it as close as you might be able to stand. The photographs in the piece, printed almost to a full spread, are especially shocking despite their similarity to other photos and other scenes. In one, a ruined bed sits in a ruined room, and something about the carving of the bedposts suggests clenched, frantic fists, barely hanging on as the storm takes over. Until I visit the city again there’s part of me that still resists believing it, but I have to.

Thanks to Jon for the tip.

Later: Here’s the magazine’s complete Katrina coverage.

The Perfume Critic, The Map Thief, and the ‘Publy Party

The magnificently named Chandler Burr has just been appointed the Times’ first perfume critic, which will make lots of entertaining work for the fine-nosed folks at Now Smell This, et al. (Perfume Critic promises an interview with him in the near future.) You’ll remember Burr as the author of the Hermes scent creation story in The New Yorker last year.

Meanwhile, remember the crazy map dealer who was stealing pages from books in the Beinecke Library and wherever else he could get away with it? There’s even more to the story, which William Finnegan first covered in the magazine last October 17. From the August 4 edition of American Libraries Online:

Massachusetts map dealer E. Forbes Smiley III, who admitted in June to stealing more than 100 antique maps from six major libraries in the United States and England, is suspected in additional map thefts from the same libraries.

Officials at Harvard University’s Houghton Library have released a list of five maps they think Smiley took, beyond the eight he has confessed to stealing, and the British Library suspects Smiley of three additional thefts, the Associated Press reported July 30. “I think all of the affected institutions believe he took other maps,” Boston Public Library President Bernard Margolis said in the August 1 Boston Globe.

The recovery is complicated by the fact that some of the missing maps are copies of ones that Smiley has admitted stealing. Map specialists from the affected libraries plan to meet August 7 to determine exactly which maps have been recovered and which are still missing.

Tom Carson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, told reporters the office has no reason to believe that Smiley hid any thefts, although he noted that “If [the libraries] are uncovering more information, we’ll be more than happy to take a look.” Smiley’s lawyer, Richard Reeve, said his client had provided complete information to the FBI. “Either the maps have legs themselves or there are other people taking maps,” he said.

Finally, here’s an op-ed from the Houston Chronicle on that ridiculous habit Republicans have picked up of calling the Democratic Party the Democrat Party, which Hendrik Hertzberg wrote a Talk about earlier this month. As the editorial says, “The practice isn’t due to ignorance or indifference to correct usage. It’s simply bad manners.” It doesn’t even scan. No wonder their speeches are so wooden.

You’re Always a Planet to Me, Pluto

You know, just because Pluto’s been kicked off the planet map doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be giving it just as much attention as we ever did. We can’t all reach our potential. If you’re feeling sad today, sing some space songs, including this one (to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching Two By Two”): “Jupiter, Saturn are next in line. Hurrah! Hurrah! Jupiter, Saturn are next in line. Hurrah! Hurrah! Jupiter, Saturn are next in line. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto make nine. And they all go spinning, around and around they go.”

Image: University of Amsterdam

Original image credit: “Another great thing that came out of the middle school. Which, at first glance to their website, might not exist. That is indeed a little Pluto that was in the back stairwell of the building. You really had to be there to understand the pure beauty and joy this little styrofoam planet could bring.”

Related: Paul Rudnick, “Intelligent Design”

Interview With a Legend


Amy Winn, reporter, friend, and gifted lindy hopper, had the good fortune to interview Frankie Manning (above in the ’30s), who’d make a terrific New Yorker Profile. If you don’t already know who he is, read the piece, then go out and dance, damnit! If you’re already a fan, or are interested in jazz, dance, or American history, read Amy’s full transcript. Actually, Frankie says it better:

This is an article for the daily newspaper, not just for dancers. What can I tell non-dancers to make them want to come hear you speak?

This is an American art form and if they want to learn anything about it, come to class. If you want to learn about an American art form that started in the 20s and you want to know some history of dance, and history of some things that happened. If you want to hear about legendary figures like, Ellington, Basie, people like that, then that’s what my lecture will be about — my involvement with those people.
…
Do you watch “So You Think You Can Dance,” and “Dancing with the Stars”? What do you think of them, and specifically, what do you think of the swing dancing?

I saw “Dancing with the Stars,” the one with Ryan and Jenny. I got a tape of it. I thought that was great…who better, right?

I think it’s good for everyone, because it actually features dancing and I think people need to get out and dance more and get acquainted with more people, and that’s the way to do it — with partner dancing.

Do you see anything in pop culture today that seems analogous to what lindy hop, jazz, and Harlem meant back in the day? Does you see any major differences or similarities between the today and back then? Do you follow hip-hop?

I don’t really follow it [hip-hop] but I have seen a lot of it and I know some of the fellows and girls from the hip-hop movement. Some things I see, I like, some things that we do, they like. It’s a change of dances, that’s all. I see a lot of what they are doing were things that were done in my day and even before my time, just done to different types of music, so it’s done differently. But I look at very, very old films, from the 1900s, and I say that’s what they are doing nowadays!

Related:
Article, “Frankie Manning: The Ambassador of Lindy Hop” [SavoyStyle]
Frankie dancing in vintage clips from Hellzapoppin (dance starts at 2:42, and you’ve never seen anything like it; Frankie’s in overalls), in The Spirit Moves, and with Willa Mae Ricker [YouTube]
Ryan Francois and Jenny Thomas and their snappy Charleston routine [YouTube]

New Yorker Staffers, Masters of Rawlings


Not only did the dellingerous New Yorker team trounce Self yesterday afternoon (apparently the Selves put up a pretty good fight, though), it wasn’t the only game won this week by our fearless leaders. (I’m excluding Giuliani from that phrase.) The Post has the tale:

THE scribes put a smackdown on the artistic types in the 58th Annual Artists & Writers Softball Game in East Hampton last weekend. New Yorker editor David Remnick, media writer Ken Auletta and 1010 WINS reporter Juliet Papa were on the team that vanquished a squad anchored by Alec Baldwin and game MVP Roy Scheider by a score of 18-9. Umpire Rudy Giuliani led the crowd of 2,000 at Herrick Park in a raucous rendition of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame.” The contest raised more than $45,000 for East End Hospice, East End Day Care and Phoenix House.

Incidentally, this is the 800th published post on Emdashes. (I say published post because I must have 100 drafts I’ve temporarily abandoned, and have a mind to spring them all on you simultaneously in a busy week. Some are pretty fun, actually.) Let’s have a party at 1,000! Actually, the party will very likely be sooner than that. Stay tuned.

News of the Week in Passing

The first thing I turned to when I got the new New Yorker this week was the back page, and as Blog About Town and co. have declared, Harry Effron (Radosh Anti-Caption Man of the Hour) has won the actual caption contest! Harry, please consider this an interview invitation. It’s time to reinstate the caption-contest interviews, this very week.

There’s a nice extended profile of 90-year-old Algonquin bartender Hoy Wong in the London Independent. A tidbit: ” ‘It’s rare in your life when you meet some[one] who really is the real deal, like him,’ says the hotel’s general manager, Bill Liles. ‘He is by far our most dependable employee, always a smile on his face. And he has quite a female following, quite a sex symbol in New York. He is an icon, really.’ “

Speaking of sexy icons who know how to pour a drink, if you were unlucky enough to miss Carolita Johnson at the Rejection Show last night, here are the drawings from her comic-tragic presentation “Ape-Face and Me,” the story of an “ugly” (ha) model.

Finally, I’ve neglected to mention my favorite Talk last week, which was the debut piece by Goings on About Town scribe Michael Schulman. It’s called “The Cooper’s Tale,” and it’s about a cooper (as you know, “a maker of wooden buckets, tubs, butter churns, and, above all, barrels”) from—or at least of—Colonial Williamsburg. Happening on the cooper near his South Street Seaport home, Schulman persuaded him to take a trip to Williamsburg, as in Brooklyn. The result is a pip and a joy to read, and I was pleased to tell Schulman so in person. He mused, “I thought he’d be amazed by how hip and expensive everything was, but all he saw was barrels!” Well done, and looking forward to more of his writing in the magazine.

Related: a video for sale, “The Cooper’s Craft: The Art of Colonial Barrel Making.”

Festival Program Announced!

Not that festival—the schedule doesn’t go public till the 28th. No, I mean the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival in November, which will be like a mini-New Yorker Festival after the fact, in that a staffer will be one of the headliners. Perfect for relieving your withdrawal symptoms after the October excitement! Read on (from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch):

I AM DENNY CRANE: William Shatner, whose latest incarnation as a pop culture hero is just as surprising as how funny he is on “Boston Legal,” will headline the 28th annual Jewish Book Festival on Nov. 5. He will be jetting into St. Louis to speak at 5:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center on Millstone Campus Drive. After his appearance, Shatner will autograph copies of his latest book and then head to the festival’s patron dinner at the Sheraton in West Port. Shatner’s career has spanned more than 50 years. He played Capt. Kirk in “Star Trek.” Tickets for the Shatner presentation are $35. The festival will run for 11 days and will feature 33 authors, including such notables as our town’s Danny Meyer and New Yorker magazine’s Mideast Bureau Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Related:
This Just In [Goldberg appointed bureau chief]
Oh, Say, Can You See, This Week’s TOC? [Goldberg on Steve Rosen]

Math Is Hard

More on Grigory Perelman’s refusal of the Fields Medal, as reported in this week’s piece by David Gruber in TNY. From the magazine’s press release, since the piece isn’t online (actually, it is; now linked):

Also this week: In an exclusive interview, Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber report on reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman, who many believe has solved the Poincaré conjecture, “a century-old conundrum about the characteristics of three-dimensional spheres” that has come to be “regarded by mathematicians as a holy grail” (“Manifold Destiny,” p. 44). After Perelman posted a proof on the Internet—an unconventional way of publishing mathematical work of such significance—a race began to determine if he had actually proved the conjecture. Nasar and Gruber write, “A consensus was emerging in the math community: Perelman had solved the Poincaré. Even so, the proof’s complexity—and Perelman’s use of shorthand in making some of his most important claims—made it vulnerable to challenge.” Nasar and Gruber write that the prospect of being awarded a Fields Medal, math’s most prestigious prize, matters little to Perelman, who says that he plans to refuse the award. “It was completely irrelevant for me,” he tells the writers. “Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed.” Perelman declares that he has retired from the mathematics community and no longer considers himself a professional mathematician: “As long as I was not conspicuous, I had a choice. Either to make some ugly thing”—a fuss about the math community’s lack of integrity—“or, if I didn’t do this kind of thing, to be treated as a pet. Now, when I become a very conspicuous person, I cannot stay a pet and say nothing. That is why I had to quit.”

Shows Not to Miss: Tonight and Saturday

1. The Rejection Show‘s special “Chicks and Giggles” edition, featuring New Yorker cartoonist and Friend o’ Emdashes Carolita Johnson, a.k.a. Newyorkette. Carolita will be debuting a riveting and hilariously groan-worthy story in words and pictures that I’m certain is headed for a thrilling future. 7:30 p.m., $8 at Mo Pitkin’s; hurry before it sells out! Here’s my report from a previous Rejection Show that featured cartoonists Matt Diffee, Eric Lewis, Drew Dernavich, and other funny guys.


2. A Fringe Festival play starring my delightfully talented pal Dave Greenfield, The Delicate Business of Boy and Miss Girl, written by Carly Mensch and directed by Marina McClure. Here’s what it’s about: “An absurd fable is corrupted by a venture capitalist masquerading as a children’s party entertainer. Join adventurers Boy and Miss Girl for a weird and occasionally lethal tale of growing up and selling out.” How can you lose? Playing at the Center for Architecture, and tonight it’s at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at 6:30 is your last chance to catch it before it runs away, so rush!

Some Pig! Radiant Justin Davidson

Justin, my former Newsday colleague and a Pulitzer genius sort of person, has really outdone himself with this week’s story (not online, but this accompanying video is) on the art and science and dance of classical music conducting. As I read it I was suddenly itching to listen to some Mahler, and then realized what I wanted really badly was to conduct some Mahler.

One of my sundry uncredited blurbs on the backs of paperbacks goes (this is for Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven, which I reviewed for Salon), “[Smiley] makes us care about horses the way E.B. White made us care about pigs in Charlotte’s Web, and makes us understand them the way Walter Tevis made us understand chess in The Queen’s Gambit.” I feel the same way about this piece: Justin is going to make thousands of people who hardly ever listen to classical music suddenly dream about batons and the waiting faces, poised bows, and expectant embouchures of orchestras, like that great scene in The Phantom Tollbooth where Milo gets to conduct the sunset. Incidentally, I think this one story may contain more juicily expressive adjectives than even the most ardent of New Yorker issues in their entirety. The editing is also palpably excellent (I felt the same way about the Sarah Silverman Profile I was just rereading). Well done!

Related:
Some Newsday stories by Justin Davidson
Justin as guest writer on Alex Ross’s blog