Martin Schneider writes:
It was a curious scene Monday night at 92Y. Steve Martin and Deborah Solomon, who is responsible for the “Questions For” feature in The New York Times Magazine, were slated to entertain a mostly filled Kaufmann Concert Hall (and, via simulcast, many other viewers at synagogues around the country) with an hour or so of lively chat.
It took only a few minutes for Solomon to alienate the audience thoroughly.
Solomon’s strategy was to treat the event like a book report, covering, almost chapter by chapter, Martin’s new novel about the art world, An Object of Beauty. As Martin pointed out, it was wise to assume that the percentage of spectators who had read the book, published only a few days earlier, was “zero,” making in-depth discussion of the characters’ foibles something less than the optimal plan. That did not stop Solomon.
92Y’s status as a specifically Jewish center of culture is usually best left unmentioned during events (it is a thoroughly ecumenical center), so it seemed a breach of decorum to praise Martin for making positive characters of the Nathansons, a Jewish art-dealer couple in the book, while reserving his satirical barbs for a gentile couple named Boggs. Later, Solomon wanted to relate a complicated sequence late in the book in which a character dons Joseph Beuys’s “Felt Suit.”
It was about at this point that 92Y, to its credit, attempted to steer the discourse to more fruitful terrain. A young lady strode onstage and handed Solomon a card: “Ask him about his career.” Cue thunderous applause.
For his part, Martin, always the consummately professional entertainer, understood immediately that Solomon had lost the audience, and poked fun at her (apparently they are friendly offstage). When, a bit later, the same young lady handed Solomon the audience Q&A cards, Martin deadpanned, “Go back to the book.”
To be honest, I’m not the biggest Steve Martin fan. There’s little doubt that he’s ridiculously talented, works hard, has a keen intelligence, and has succeeded in a variety of fields in addition to comedic acting, including fiction and banjo music. Credit to him for all that. Generally, however, his comedy seems somewhat overrehearsed and “cold” to me, and cast of mind in other arenas strike me as a bit whitebread.
Still, the man is good, as evidenced, for instance, by his “leaked”/hilarious tour rider, which he released over the summer. It’s a testament to his skills that even I, a skeptic, found myself emailing that link to my friends—it was that brilliantly executed.
So, long story short, the event was a bit of a dud, but that shouldn’t reflect poorly on Steve Martin or 92Y.
Update: 92Y has offered to refund ticketholders. Classy move.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Happy Birthday, TPM!
Martin Schneider writes:
In October, the political blogosphere celebrated the 10th anniversary of Andrew Sullivan’s “Daily Dish” blog. I did not contribute any testimonials, not because I don’t find Andrew Sullivan an interesting and stimulating blogger but because I don’t feel any particular kinship with him. Sullivan’s very good, but he’s not “my guy.” (This is a phrase my dad always used, usually about musicians, but not about Sullivan. Sullivan’s was my mom’s “guy.”)
Little did I realize that Josh Marshall would be celebrating his 10th anniversary as a blogger just a few weeks later. (The actual date is tomorrow, November 13.) This time, my affinity runs much deeper.
It’s always necessary to say that one was there “at the beginning,” whether it’s an unknown band that later becomes much bigger or a project like Talking Points Memo. And to the same extent, it’s always impossible to really be there at the beginning, as a fan, there’s always some larval era one missed, an era others had glimpsed. I can say that I’ve been reading TPM since about 2001, I’m fairly certain before 9/11, and well before the Trent Lott ouster that got Marshall so much notoriety.
A few short comments about TPM. Marshall’s known for bringing a certain kind of principled muckraking to the Internet, but for my money he’s the wittiest political blogger out there. He’s perfected the use of the amusing headline to serve as the acerbic comment on the (often very brief) post contents. During the first few years, there were more of Marshall’s longer, discursive commentaries. I can remember writing Marshall at one point when the telegram-length posts seemed to be taking over the site altogether. I told him that the posts I really liked were the three- to four-graf jobs where he supplied a little overview. He wrote back to say that he agreed, and that he would be doing more of those. (That did happen.)
From 2002 to 2009 I would frequently write Marshall arguing some specific point that I thought he might excerpt. I wanted so badly to be a mysterious Reader MS whose email he had decided to quote. I don’t think it ever happened until earlier this year, when David Kurtz dedicated a post to a very brief wisecrack of mine. (I don’t remember offhand what it was, but it was a proud day around here. I’ll try to find it.)*
With Obama in office and the ACA law passed, I’ve found that I don’t write in as much anymore, and the unread posts in my Google Reader pile up, a first for me. With Obama heading into a tough campaign in 2012, maybe I’ll find my inner political junkie again.
Suffice it to say, Marshall is a little bit more partisan than I am—a very little bit more—but overall his politics and my politics track very closely. Kevin Drum is the only other blogger about whom I can say that, but Marshall was there first (at least on my radar), and when I think about how politics on the web should be conducted, it’ll always be Marshall I think of first.
Josh Green of The Atlantic Monthly contributes a nice piece about the early days of TPM.
* Update: I found the post in which they quoted an email of mine.
Stream Jonathan Franzen and Lorrie Moore at 92Y This Monday
Martin Schneider writes:
On Monday, November 15, one of the season’s most anticipated literary events will take place at 92nd Street Y. Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and Freedom, and Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and several other widely adored novels and story collections, appear together for a reading of their most recent works.
The event is at 8pm. Not surprisingly, spacious Kaufmann Concert Hall is already sold out. However, fans of Franzen and Moore can watch the proceedings live on the Internet by clicking on the above link.
I am fortunate to have a ticket—expect a report from me after the event.
Calvin Trillin and Adam Gopnik at 92Y
Martin Schneider writes:
I’m back in New York after a few months in Cleveland, Ohio (which I vastly enjoyed); one of the consolations of my return to the East Coast is the ability to visit New York’s indomitable cultural center, 92nd Street Y.
On Sunday, November 7, I went to see Calvin Trillin and Adam Gopnik discuss “The Writing Life” in Buttenwieser Hall on the second floor. The two writers, both closely associated with The New Yorker, opted (for the most part) to jettison the given theme and trade anecdotes about Manhattan and their shared Jewish heritage, which was fine by me.
Though they were billed as equals, Gopnik subtly played moderator to Trillin’s guest, giving Trillin a chance to spin some entertaining yarns—and intermittently to return the favor. As Trillin is something of a national treasure, this seemed only sensible. The session resists chronological narration but did yield a good many gems.
Trillin was wearing a handsome blue tie with red buffalo (pl.) on it, which he described as his “tribute to Carl Paladino.”
Apparently both men trace their ancestry to Ukraine. Gopnik’s forebears went to Canada via Ellis Island, whereas Trillin’s grandfather entered elsewhere: “We wouldn’t have anything to do with Ellis Island, so we went to Galveston.” Trillin spoke of the Galveston Movement, a pre-WWI project designed to bring Russian Jews to the American heartland. With a proviso: the newly arrived Jews were barred from staying in Galveston itself: “My family did not come here on a wave of acclamation.” So they moved to Missouri: St. Joseph and later Kansas City.
Trillin cited an article—was it in a MoMA publication?—that purported to establish that all those stories you hear about people’s names being changed by helpful and ignorant Ellis Island staff are false! I’d love to read more about this—if anyone knows of the article, please post a comment.
Trillin described his own childhood as “Leave It to Beaver as played by a troupe that had just completed a run of Fiddler on the Roof.”
Both Trillin and Gopnik grew up rooting for baseball teams that no longer exist: the Kansas City Blues and the Montreal Expos, respectively. Most of our audience, including myself, will presumably have a better command of the details of the latter organization.
During the QA section, an audience member asked the two writers to name a favorite piece they had written. Trillin named “Remembrance of Moderates Past” (3/21/77 issue), written on the occasion of the Carter administration’s arrival in Washington, D.C. (Gopnik’s favorite Trillin piece, by the way, is “Buying and Selling Along Route 1,” from the 11/15/69 issue.) Gopnik’s favorite piece of his own is “Angels Dining at the Ritz,” one of the late chapters in Paris to the Moon, but I haven’t established if or when that appeared in The New Yorker.
There was much more in the way of witty repartee, but my energies flag. Watch this space for more on 92Y events past and future.