Consider this your reading list for the next few weeks.
Peter Rubin
Is There Such a Thing as Black Thought?
“Tariq Trotter isa 50-year-old artist in a genre where youth is an asset and middle-aged rappers are rare. His voice is gravelly, though wildly flexible when rhyming. He is noticed in every room he walks into. A brother who pays attention to the way the fedora on his head cuts against his face and has […]
Ben Stiller Sees the World Differently Now
“It was a pretty amazing run. And there was a clarity to it all. He worked hard, pursued satisfying projects, and repeated the things that worked. He made Ben Stiller movies. He was always ascending. Then, starting with the cancer, he got the crap pounded out of him for a few years. His career, his […]
The Art of Passing
“When their heads are right, the best passers are the good-vibes guys of the league. Joy curators. Misters Congeniality. They make you happy. They let you touch the ball. They trust you. They think you’re good enough. They think you can help. Some combination of stunt-person, illusionist, actor, detective, and circus performer. They raise the […]
How ‘Sex and the City’ Sent Me Down a Fake Baseball Rabbit Hole
“The iconic show’s reboot, and 25th anniversary, gave me the perfect mystery to solve during the MLB lockout. Here’s what I found.”
Hate Speech on the Bitterroot
“For reasons I still don’t understand, I told almost no one about the incident at Poker Joe. After all, why taint the hundreds of memories I have of that treasured place with one disgraceful episode? The river there is handsome in all seasons. Our family has picnicked there, swum there, skipped stones, drunk wine. It’s […]
Less Family, More Meal
“It’s a meal that is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of job title; when coworkers can break the proverbial (or sometimes actual) bread; when cooks can break free from the constraints of making menu dishes and throw together something of their choosing. A cook at a high-end Italian restaurant might be moved to […]
Francis Ford Coppola’s $100 Million Bet
“Coppola still has fascinating things to say about the movie and will do so in the course of our conversations. But what he’s really interested in talking about is something else. Something new. It is a film called Megalopolis, and Coppola has been trying to make it, intermittently, for more than 40 years. If I […]
Driving While Baked? Inside the High-Tech Quest to Find Out
“There is no scientific way to tell if you’re stoned behind the wheel. That’s a problem for police—and you. One company is aiming to fix that.”
What Was the TED Talk?
“I recently watched some of the talks from this conference on my laptop. They hit like parodies of a bygone era, so ridiculous that it made me almost nostalgic for a time when TED talks captivated me. Back then, around a decade ago, I watched those articulate, audacious, composed people talk about how they were […]
