The New York Times has always struggled with youth culture, stumbling upon trends full half-decades after they emerge and then over-analyzing them to the point of unintentional self-parody. But lately, they’ve really topped themselves, in pieces like this recent blog post informing us that the word “hipster” is inextricably linked to the word “Brooklyn” and vowing to find fresh, new alternatives. (We can’t wait to see what they come up with…)
Today, they dropped a major bomb, publishing their Sunday magazine article — that is actually titled “What Is It About 20-Somethings”! — online a full four days ahead of its street date, in an obvious attempt to give ample time for the story to cause a bloggy furor. And you know what? It worked. As 20-somethings who pay our own bills, this lengthy exploration of “emerging adulthood” and whether many of us are too undercooked to survive in the adult world, really did piss us off, largely because we found its portrait of post-college types lazing around their parents’ houses, willfully eschewing responsibilities both unfamiliar and offensive. It is, in fact, about as insightful as you might expect an article pegged to the $#*! My Dad Says TV show to be. Since your friends will probably be discussing it for days and we don’t think you’ll learn much from reading the entire thing, we’ve excerpted the article’s 10 most infuriating quotes.
Sewn News is a project by San Franciso-based artist Lauren DiCioccio that involves sewing fabric and thread atop issues of the New York Times. “I select a photograph from the paper; usually a strong image suggestive of power, leadership or communication; and embroider the image onto the fabric, applying colors in a painterly way and layering line and thread,” she explains. “The tedious handiwork and obsessive care I employ to create my work aims to remind the viewer of these simple but intimate pieces of everyday life and to provoke a pang of nostalgia for the familiar physicality of these objects.”
Whew. It’s Monday afternoon and we’ve finally finished the exhaustive (yet exhilarating!) 4,500+ word profile on Brooklyn-by-way-of-Ohio band The National in The New York Times Magazine. The Ditmas Park resident troubadours — whom we last encountered during a secret show at local venue The Bell House — have been live streaming their new album High Violetvia the Times website before the official release on May 11. Writer Nicholas Dawidoff palled around with the five band members in January as they put the final touches on the album, fiddling with one track called “Lemonworld” and poking fun at lead singer Matt Berninger. A National primer, after the jump.
It was once said that New York media was run by gays, Jews, and drunks. But if the recent output of memoirs by New York Times food section writers is any indication, though the cabal is definitely gay, it’s also Italian and, thankfully, on the shaky road to recovery. Nevertheless, the two books in question — Frank Bruni’s 2009 memoir Born Round and Kim Severson’s new memoir Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life — are about as different as two memoirs about gay Italian-American former addict New York Times dining section writers can be.
We know The New York Times as “all the news that’s fit to print.” But not only does the Times offer you a greater understanding of global news, national politics, and business; it also has incredible arts and culture coverage at both the international and local level (a quick shout-out to Flavorpill favorites David Carr, Roberta Smith, and Manohla Dargis!). From Thursday’s Styles section to Friday’s Weekend Arts and the Sunday magazine, if you consider yourself someone who’s in the know; it jump starts the cultural conversation.
As a reminder that we do live in the best city on the planet — and that the Times has got it covered — we’re giving 20 new subscribers free tickets to the New Museum. Hop on the arts and culture bandwagon, and you can also save 50% on home delivery.
This past week, a 1950s video of Vladimir Nabokov sipping tea, discussing Lolita with Lionel Trilling, and just generally being his charmingly elitist self made the rounds. It reminded us that author videos don’t have to resemble the BookTV cliche of someone just droning on and on. It also got us thinking: What else is out there today? After the jump, we collect our five favorite sites for author videos.
Remember that new M.I.A track we told you about the other day? Well it turns out that it’s a protest song entitled “Space Odyssey” that M.I.A. and producer Rusko recorded after the New York Times ran a travel article that touted Sri Lanka as the best place to vacation in 2010 just two days after posting an article about brutal war crimes that may have been committed in the country.
We’re assuming that this lede is what set her off:
“For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and a separatist Tamil group. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India’s coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.”
What do Sherlock Holmes, Gaga, Jay-Z, and the New York Times have in common? If the past few weeks are any indication, it’s a vested interest in occultish secret societies: the Masonic order and Illuminati, to be exact. Hold up: what’s an Illuminati? Adam Weishaupt founded the secretive group of “free thinkers,” an offshoot of the Enlightenment movement, in Bavaria in 1776. Because of its cloak-and-dagger pretense, the sect has since gained a much more sinister reputation in the canon of pop culture. Is the group of “ruling elite” a New World Order conspiracy? Probably not. But it sure is fun to speculate.
— are about as different as two memoirs about gay Italian-American former addict New York Times dining section writers can be.
