The Magazine
May 13, 2024
Goings On
Goings On
Hilton Als on the Sui-Generis Films of Charles Atlas
Also: “Uncle Vanya” and “Staff Meal” reviewed, superstar pianists at Carnegie Hall, and more.
Annals of Gastronomy
Are We Living Through a Bagel Renaissance?
A new wave of shops has made its mark across the country—and shaken New York’s bagel scene out of complacency.
The Talk of the Town
Dhruv Khullar on bird flu and pandemic fatigue; Maurizio Cattelan strikes gold; the slime craze; welcome to the Sapphire Lounge; Trump’s dreams.
Comment
Should We Be Worried About Bird Flu?
According to the C.D.C., the risk to public health remains low. But the country’s initial approach has had an unsettling resonance with the first months of COVID.
The Art World
Maurizio Cattelan’s Armed Art Helpers
To create the gold-plated steel panels now on sale at the Gagosian gallery, the Italian artist hired licensed shooters to riddle them with bullets, in front of spectators like Jeff Koons.
Master Class
The Grand Master of Slime
The twenty-year-old Chase Kellebrew is the presiding genius at SoHo’s Sloomoo Institute, which calls itself “a multi-sensory slime experience.” His latest triumph? A slime Seder plate.
Upgrade Dept.
In the Shabby-Chic Trenches of the Airport-Lounge Wars
A Chase executive peruses thirty-three-thousand-dollar couches and wingback chairs to help the Sapphire Lounge take on American Express’s Centurion clubs.
Sketchpad
What Sleepy Trump Dreams About At Trial
Mashed-potato nightmares! Kafka in the Oval Office! And other things going through the mind of the nap-happy ex-president in court.
Reporting & Essays
Onward and Upward with the Arts
An A-List Animal Trainer Prepares a Great Dane for His Film Début
Bill Berloni has worked with pigs, geese, and butterflies. He recently prepared Bing for his starring role in the adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s “The Friend.”
Annals of Inquiry
Why We’re Turning Psychiatric Labels Into Identities
So you’re on the spectrum, or you’ve got borderline personality disorder, or you’re a sociopath: once you’re sure that’s who you are, you’ve got a personal stake in a very creaky diagnostic system.
Portfolio
Columbia’s Campus in Crisis
Scenes of dissent and defiance at Columbia University, where scores of students have been arrested for participating in pro-Palestine protests.
Letter from the U.K.
The British Museum’s Blockbuster Scandals
While facing renewed accusations of cultural theft, the institution announced that it had been the victim of actual theft—from someone on the inside.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
My Life as an Arrow Retriever
Arrow retrieving is a young man’s game. First your back and elbows go, from the constant tugging. Then you get tinnitus, from the loud screaming.
Fiction
Fiction
“We’re Not So Different, You and I”
“We are both strangers to this world,” Death Skull intoned. “Maligned, misunderstood. We make our own paths, live by our own rules.”
The Critics
The Art World
The Dead Rise at the Venice Biennale
Stifled by a weird and desperate present, the show finds some life in the treasures of the past.
Books
What the Origins of Humanity Can and Can’t Tell Us
There’s still much to be learned about our prehistory. But we can’t help using it to explain the societies we have or to justify the ones we want.
Books
Claire Messud’s New Novel Maps the Search for a Home That Never Was
“This Strange Eventful History” traces three generations of an itinerant French family with roots in colonial Algeria.
Pop Music
Dua Lipa Devotes Herself to Pleasure with “Radical Optimism”
In an era of postmodern, self-referential music, there’s something refreshing about the artist’s new album—short songs, big hooks, and a celebration of delight.
The Theatre
Three Broadway Shows Put Motherhood in the Spotlight
Paula Vogel’s “Mother Play,” Shaina Taub’s “Suffs,” and Amy Herzog’s “Mary Jane” strike back at the mother-as-monster dramatic trope.
The Current Cinema
“The Fall Guy” Is Gravity-Defying Fun, in Every Sense
Starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, this action-comedy about a stuntman, by the stuntman turned director David Leitch, sticks its landings, but don’t expect characterization.
Poems
Cartoons
1/6
“Now that you are older, I want you to have this to-do list that was given to me by my mom, which she got from her mom, still full of little tasks we all need you to do.”
Cartoon by Sarah Kempa
Cartoon Caption Contest
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.