Count my blessings
Books and ArtsMeeting the inimitable Basie
Culture
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
We need black conservatism
We are living through an update of radical chic. Elite white liberals are apologizing for and even applauding the worst riots in a generation, if not two. They are now joined by people who used to pretend at least that they were Republicans — former President George W. Bush and former nominee Mitt Romney have … Read more
June 7, 2020
Christo’s art of self-promotion
The late artist and his wife spent years assiduously burnishing his image
June 1, 2020
The shape of things
Books and ArtsOn shape-note singing and my friend Stephen
May 26, 2020
The Real White House Housewives
A first look at The Right View, the Trump campaign’s new talk show
What makes Joe Rogan so successful?
No single factor explains it
May 21, 2020
The Clarence Thomas documentary is a must-see
If you are already an admirer of Justice Thomas, you are going to enjoy spending time with him
May 15, 2020
The similarity between Charles Dickens and Armando Iannucci
Books and ArtsThe director’s new work, The Personal History of David Copperfield, is certainly brave
May 13, 2020
Salvant grace
Books and ArtsCécile McLorin Salvant’s shock of the new
April 29, 2020
What can we learn about coronavirus from classic cinema?
Books and ArtsMy Sam Peckinpah lockdown bender
April 16, 2020
Joe Exotic is an ordinary American
Books and ArtsHe is perhaps a little too fond of drugs and weaponry, but he has also overcome great personal misfortune
April 12, 2020
The bloody decade: think America’s divided now? Try the 1970s
Books and ArtsIn 1974 alone, there were 2,044 bombings in America, with 24 people killed
April 11, 2020
Joe Exotic might be the best gay role model I’ve seen on television
His existence throws a wrench in the narrative that the other America is a hateful land where Christians hunt homos for sport
April 6, 2020
Why we love to hate celebrities
‘One World: Together at Home’ is a weirdly complacent name
April 1, 2020
Meghan Markle’s white privilege
Elephant demands that we pity the weakness of the most powerful
March 27, 2020
How to write the Great Coronavirus Screenplay
‘JESSICA is sitting on her Peloton bike. It’s April 2020. Rain slides down the windowpane. She hasn’t left her apartment — not even to go to Whole Foods — for almost a month’
The casual gamer’s guide to surviving quarantine
Time to dust off the ol’ controller
March 22, 2020
Conscious coupling
Books and ArtsSex therapy with Anna Karenina
Tenor badness
Books and ArtsBenny Golson, last legend of bebop
March 21, 2020
Finger pickin’ good
Books and ArtsBanjo virtuoso Béla Fleck has reinvented his instrument and retraced its roots
March 20, 2020
Please, please let COVID-19 kill the culture wars
Is it so much to ask?
March 18, 2020
Netflix sued for defamation over Central Park Five miniseries
Did the filmmakers’ hunger for retribution outweigh their commitment to tell the truth?
March 17, 2020
The refreshing darkness of Netflix’s Locke & Key
Books and ArtsThe world before woke
March 13, 2020
The human clay
Books and ArtsAs he collects more than three decades of thinking and writing about sculpture into a new book, Eric Gibson introduces a few of his favorite things
March 11, 2020
I hope Artie Lange is OK
In appreciation of the legendary comedian
Mass appeal: Stanford in Stamford
Books and ArtsAn American debut, only a century late
March 9, 2020
The real McCoy
In memory of McCoy Tyner
March 3, 2020
‘All rock ’n’ roll starts and ends with Lou Reed’
Books and ArtsOur rock critic has made an album with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck. Here he explains how…
Uniform beats
Books and ArtsKraftwerk: Future Music from Germany by Uwe Schütte reviewed