The Longreads Blog

Top 10 Longreads for Art, Design, Film & Music

Top 10 Longreads for Art, Design, Film & Music

gq:

“I wouldn’t call it conversation,” Gelb said. “It’s this sort of breathless monologue that you can only engage by interrupting. Dick is an advocate. He almost always has a case to make.” Holbrooke’s forcefulness is tempered by an endearing vulnerability—the nakedness of his ambitions and pleasures and insecurities. He takes pains arranging the seating chart for official dinners. Between government jobs, he worked as an investment banker, and, according to USA Today, he’s worth at least seventeen million dollars, but he still looks as if he’d dressed in a hurry. He reads voraciously, writes quickly and well, and consumes large quantities of schlock entertainment. (Holbrooke is especially fond of “There’s Something About Mary.”) His great advantage over most colleagues and opponents is his analytic and synthetic prowess, which allows him, for example, to break down the reasons for the Taliban’s successful propaganda campaign in the tribal areas while connecting it to imperial British history in the region. As for his flaws, he seems remarkably unaware of them. Holbrooke cannot be kidded about the trait for which he’s best known: his ego.


—from
“The Last Mission,” George Packer’s Sept 2009 New Yorker profile of Richard Holbrooke. Photograph by Brigitte Lacombe.

Ellen Ripley Saved My Life

Ellen Ripley Saved My Life

From Kid Celebrity to Consummate Con Artist

From Kid Celebrity to Consummate Con Artist

Anthony De Rosa: Five Longreads from 2010

soupsoup:

With a bit more time on my hands commuting a few stops on the subway, I need some reading material to Instapaper to my iPad. Longreads has been invaluable in providing me with a great selection of really interesting articles. Along the way, there were five particular stories this year that really caught my attention. Without further ado, here are my five favorite longreads of 2010:

1) Is James Franco For Real by Sam Anderson – New York Mag

I’m generally uninterested in celebrity culture but this was a really fun, creative article that is a sort of modern day “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold.” The author has some interactions with Franco but for the most part Sam Anderson creates a mythology around the actor and his career schizophrenia. 

2) The Wrong Man by David Freed – The Atlantic

Amongst all the anti-terror hysteria of 2010 was this story of Dr. Steven Hatfill who was wrongfully accused of being responsible for a series of anthrax attacks in 2001. David Freed recounts in a breezy but detailed story of the entire ordeal.

3) Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup by Richard Morgan – The Awl

Richard Morgan bears his soul about his struggle to make a living as a freelance writer. 

4) The New Gawker Media by Felix Salmon – Reuters

There have been so many articles written about Gawker and so few tell us anything we haven’t already read before. Felix puts together perhaps the most comprehensive piece on where Gawker’s been and where it appears to be headed, revealing some odd financial handling using offshore accounts. 

5) Probably going to piss off a lot of white people with this one by Matt Langer – Matt Langer’s Tumblr

Tumblr may be better known as a micro-blogging platform but there’s plenty of longform content being produced and Matt Langer provides some of the best. In this piece Langer discusses race, the Shirley Sherrod affair, Andrew Breitbart, and how we are still very far from living in a post-racial America.

Master of Play: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's Man Behind Mario

Master of Play: Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s Man Behind Mario

Can CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV?

Can CollegeHumor’s Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV?

Let Us Pay: On the Future of the Newspaper Industry

Let Us Pay: On the Future of the Newspaper Industry

If It's Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban: Tourism in Afghanistan

If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be the Taliban: Tourism in Afghanistan

The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague

The Desperate Battle Against Killer Bat Plague