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mixing deskMixing DeskspacerBooksyesfeedbooksBooks1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800721622742009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800721622742009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM633965880072162274false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Reading between the lines.2NA=1154&NC=1215&DI=4098&PS=58541&PI=7315BookReviewfalsefalsespacernotembeddedbooks1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121513055PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:30:55 PM6339648065570733472009121513055PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:30:55 PM6339648065570733472009121513055PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:30:55 PM633964806557073347false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000America's Armageddon RevisitedDavid W. BlightfalseGetting beyond romanticism about the Civil War.noAmerica's Armageddon RevisitedJohn Keegan's The American Civil War: A Military History.noHistorically minded Americans like to think of their Civil War as a very big event but rarely reflect comparatively that the conflict raged throughout the "largest single landmass over which any conqueror had ever attempted to impose his will, larger than Napoleon's Europe, larger almost than Genghis Khan's Eurasia." John Keegan, the foremost military historian of the past half-century, has treated mankind's great folly from a world perspective in such widely read books as A History of Warfare, The First World War, and especially The Face of Battle.  Thus, when such a craftsman offers a one volume narrative account of the American Civil War, we should pay attention.truenotochyperlinkno2009121470527AMMondayDecDecember712/14/2009 12:05:27 PM6339637112700000002009121470527AMMondayDecDecember712/14/2009 12:05:27 PM633963711270000000books1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121420143PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:43 PM6339639610301373522009121420143PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:43 PM6339639610301373522009121420143PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:43 PM633963961030137352false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Booked for the HolidaysSlate picks the best reads of 2009.noBooked for the HolidaysThe best books of 2009.noMichael Agger, senior editorJohn Updike's Endpoint is a final burst of fluency from the New England master. Who else could spin a charming poem out of a trip to Best Buy to buy a new computer? "Brave world! The geeks in matching shirts/ talked gigabytes to girls with blue tattoos." Updike's lyric gift carried him to the end. His words meet death both obliquely and directly. Read this book late in the evening, with a stiff drink by your side. Then marvel at Updike's metaphors, like the one about Payne Stewart's swing: "its aftermath shimmered in the air: dragonfly wings." Or at his cold-palmed observations, as when studying the departure gate for Florida: "Now, agèd, average, dullish, lame, and halt/ we claim our due, our fun doom in the sun." And at his gentle knocks on your soul: "Birthday, death day—what day is not both?"truenotochyperlinkno2009121030809PMThursdayDecDecember1512/10/2009 8:08:09 PM6339605448900000002009121030809PMThursdayDecDecember1512/10/2009 8:08:09 PM633960544890000000books1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121420145PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:45 PM6339639610540743722009121420145PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:45 PM6339639610540743722009121420145PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:45 PM633963961054074372false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Hey, Mr. PostmanMegan MarshallfalseWhy e-mail can never replace the letter.noHey, Mr. PostmanThomas Mallon's Yours Ever.noIt never fails. No matter the place—cocktail party, lecture hall, classroom—whenever someone learns that I spent 20 years researching and writing a biography based on the handwritten letters of three 19th-century sisters, the question is promptly raised. How are biographies of 21st-century subjects going to get written when people today just don't send letters—or, if they do, their letters take the evanescent form of e-mail?truenotochyperlinkno200912770121AMMondayDecDecember712/7/2009 12:01:21 PM633957660810000000200912770121AMMondayDecDecember712/7/2009 12:01:21 PM633957660810000000books1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121420148PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:48 PM6339639610828605462009121420148PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:48 PM6339639610828605462009121420148PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:48 PM633963961082860546false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000How Heroic Was Churchill?Jon MeachamfalsePaul Johnson distills lessons from his life.noHow Heroic Was Churchill?Paul Johnson's Churchill.noIn November 1940, on learning of Franklin Roosevelt's defeat of Wendell Willkie, Winston Churchill composed one of his many flattering and importuning telegrams to the president in Washington. He had, he told FDR, prayed for the president's re-election. "Things are afoot which will be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe," Churchill wrote, "and in expressing the comfort I feel that the people of the United States have once again cast these great burdens upon you, I must avow my sure faith that the lights by which we steer will bring us all safely to anchor." It was a brilliant and lovely note—and Roosevelt never replied, an omission that bothered Churchill for years.truenotochyperlinkno2009112963519AMSundayNovNovember611/29/2009 11:35:19 AM6339507331900000002009112963519AMSundayNovNovember611/29/2009 11:35:19 AM633950733190000000books1/123125/2202562/Books.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM6339639611013929392009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM6339639611013929392009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM633963961101392939false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000The AlienatorEmily Bazelon1/123122/2202502/bazelone.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM6339639611017054432009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM6339639611017054432009121420150PMMondayDecDecember1412/14/2009 7:01:50 PM633963961101705443false2008101711612PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:12 PM6335984617200000002008101711612PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:12 PM633598461720000000falseMaking sense of Justice Scalia's personality—and his theory.noThe AlienatorJoan Biskupic's American Original.noIn Joan Biskupic's new biography of Antonin Scalia, American Original, the justice wears a wreath of superlatives. He is the most quoted member of the Supreme Court and the one scholars write about most. He is the justice who writes the most concurrences—separate opinions that accept the holding of a majority opinion but usually part company with its reasoning. He is also the justice who prompts the most laughter at oral argument, according to two bona fide studies. Court observers pick Scalia as the most talkative. He disagrees with that one. They would probably call him the most argumentative. And he'd disagree with that, too.truenotochyperlinkno20091124100044AMTuesdayNovNovember1011/24/2009 3:00:44 PM63394653644000000020091124100044AMTuesdayNovNovember1011/24/2009 3:00:44 PM633946536440000000200311442656PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:26:56 PM63178158416000000020038690021AMWednesdayAugAugust98/6/2003 1:00:21 PM631957572210000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200181561456PMWednesdayAugAugust188/15/2001 10:14:56 PM631334960960000000spacerMoviesyesfeedmoviesMoviesReviews of the latest films.2NA=1154&NC=1210&DI=4098&PS=58328&PI=7315MovieReviewfalsefalseCulturespacernotembeddedmoviesCat PowerDana Stevens1/123122/2202502/stevensd.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121660518PMWednesdayDecDecember1812/16/2009 11:05:18 PM6339658351899105712009121660518PMWednesdayDecDecember1812/16/2009 11:05:18 PM6339658351899105712009121660519PMWednesdayDecDecember1812/16/2009 11:05:19 PM633965835190066822false2008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM6335984621800000002008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM633598462180000000falseAvatar is the first broadband blockbuster.noCat PowerAvatar is the first broadband blockbuster.noReviewing James Cameron's Avatar (20th Century Fox) seems somehow beside the point. The film's arrival has been heralded for so long, and hyped so furiously, that making evaluative statements about Avatar is sort of like the three wise men reviewing the birth of Jesus: "At last, a baby for the new millennium!" Avatar is a baby both for and of the new millennium. It will change the way blockbuster epics are conceived and made, and the way we think about technologies like 3D and motion capture, and it will likely break box-office records around the world. Of course, this is separate from the question of whether it's a great movie.truenotochyperlinkno2009121655117PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:17 PM6339658267700000002009121655117PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:17 PM633965826770000000moviesThe Princess and the FrogDan KoisfalseA princess movie that ever so gently undermines the whole princess thing.noThe Princess and the FrogThe Princess and the Frog reviewed.no"I was starting to think wishing on stars was just for babies and crazy people!" sighs Lottie, the antiheroine of Disney's new animated feature The Princess and the Frog, a movie that takes a dim view of wishing on stars and hoping your dreams will come true. The Princess and the Frog represents a course-correction for Disney's multibillion-dollar princess franchise: It attempts to celebrate the virtues of hard work and pluck, even if the movie itself can feel at times like a lesson rather than an enchantment.truenotochyperlinkno2009121111603PMFridayDecDecember1312/11/2009 6:16:03 PM6339613416300000002009121111603PMFridayDecDecember1312/11/2009 6:16:03 PM633961341630000000moviesIn Rugby We TrustDana Stevens1/123122/2202502/stevensd.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121655133PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:33 PM6339658269351667892009121655133PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:33 PM6339658269351667892009121655133PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:33 PM633965826935166789false2008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM6335984621800000002008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM633598462180000000falseClint Eastwood's Invictus could have used a few less scrums.noIn Rugby We TrustClint Eastwood's Invictus reviewed.noIf Invictus (Warner Bros.), Clint Eastwood's inspirational sports biopic about the victory of the South African rugby team during Nelson Mandela's first year in office, had been made by any other director, it would be regarded as a tedious, unfocused, underplotted movie with a single strong selling point: The casting of Morgan Freeman as Mandela. Not the performance, the casting. No one else alive is as well suited to play the great South African leader. Freeman uncannily resembles Mandela, he imitates his accent convincingly, he radiates a benevolent aura of righteousness—but when does Morgan Freeman not radiate a benevolent aura of righteousness? What ought to have been the role of Freeman's career is instead less of an acting challenge than Driving Miss Daisy. Freeman-as-Mandela is an actor all dressed up with no place to go—at least, nowhere we didn't already know he was headed.truenotochyperlinkno20091211113130AMFridayDecDecember1112/11/2009 4:31:30 PM63396127890000000020091211113232AMFridayDecDecember1112/11/2009 4:32:32 PM633961279520000000moviesHere Come the Cats With Human BoobsJosh Levin1/123122/2202502/levinj.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121655142PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:42 PM6339658270284486362009121655142PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:42 PM6339658270284486362009121655142PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:42 PM633965827028448636false2008101711643PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:43 PM6335984620300000002008101711643PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:43 PM633598462030000000falseIs Avatar destined to flop?noHere Come the Cats With Human BoobsIs Avatar destined to flop?noAfter years of hype, loads of trailers and TV spots, and an unprecedented pre-release teaser screening in more than 100 theaters, James Cameron's Avatar opens next Friday with a single question hanging in the air: What in the hell is going on with the blue cat people? At the blog Overthinking It, the poster "fenzel" speaks for much of the Comic-Con crowd in arguing that "Avatar is going to suck" because "[c]ats with human boobs suck." Drew Magary of Deadspin opines that the blue-aliens-riding-dragons flick could be the longest, biggest flop ever. And after attending an "Avatar Day" preview, Slate's Daniel Engber wrote that while the "3-D effects do look pretty darn good," the film's CGI scenes bear an unfortunate and uncanny resemblance to the Jar Jar Binks-era Star Wars movies.truenotochyperlinkno2009121064603PMThursdayDecDecember1812/10/2009 11:46:03 PM6339606756300000002009121064603PMThursdayDecDecember1812/10/2009 11:46:03 PM633960675630000000moviesThe Lovely BonesDana Stevens1/123122/2202502/stevensd.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121655125PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:25 PM6339658268519543752009121655125PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:25 PM6339658268519543752009121655125PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:25 PM633965826851954375false2008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM6335984621800000002008101711658PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:58 PM633598462180000000falsePeter Jackson's attempt to show us heaven.noThe Lovely BonesThe Lovely Bones reviewed.noThere's something noble about filmmakers who are willing to use the medium to represent states of being outside of normal earthbound experience. These could be dreams, drug trips, unconscious states, or, for especially brave directors, the experience of death and the afterlife. Most of the time, the experiment doesn't work. Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, in which Hugh Jackman travels to the edge of the universe in a floating bubble in order to keep his beloved Rachel Weisz from ever dying, was a failure, but a grand one. And it's worth enduring a lot of lame shaky-camera drug-trip sequences when you come across the rare example that works, like Mia Farrow's all-too-real rape nightmare in Rosemary's Baby.truenotochyperlinkno20091210101140AMThursdayDecDecember1012/10/2009 3:11:40 PM63396036700000000020091210101140AMThursdayDecDecember1012/10/2009 3:11:40 PM633960367000000000200311442703PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:03 PM631781584230000000200311442703PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:03 PM631781584230000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM6313904368300000002001102983750AMMondayOctOctober810/29/2001 12:37:50 PM631399414700000000spacerTelevisionyesfeedtelevisionTelevisionWhat you're watching.2NA=1154&NC=1212&DI=4098&PS=58338&PI=7315tvreviewfalsefalsespacernotembeddedtelevisionGoing Down in FlamesTroy Patterson1/123122/2202502/pattersont.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672002PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:02 AM6339658800217599932009121672002PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:02 AM6339658800217599932009121672002PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:02 AM633965880021759993false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseI attempt to cookalong with Gordon Ramsay.noGoing Down in FlamesI attempt to cookalong with Gordon Ramsay.noAlways an innovator, the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay last night expanded his repertoire of emotional abuse beyond raving filthily at the incompetents of Kitchen Nightmares and the ambitious masochists of Hell's Kitchen. The fresh harassment arrived under the title Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live (Fox). Here, the host, reprising a stunt he has pulled several times in the United Kingdom, encouraged viewers to slap together a particular meal in real time, their eyes ticking between the oil splattering on the stovetop and the spittle spraying on the TV screen. "Gordon proves that everyone across the nation can prepare and enjoy a three-course home-made meal," reads a line of promotional copy for the original. Of course, no one will ever be able to prove that everyone across the nation can prepare Pop-Tarts, and the group at our table decided it would take a special breed of degenerate to unreservedly enjoy eating anything after enduring Ramsay's agitating performance. Noting that Cookalong's recipes were designed to feed four, we had invited another couple over to guinea-pig out. "I found the whole thing pretty stressful," said the husband. "And you weren't even doing anything," said his wife.truenotochyperlinkno2009121625801PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:58:01 PM6339657228100000002009121625801PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:58:01 PM633965722810000000televisionO Christmas Legs, O Christmas LegsTroy Patterson1/123122/2202502/pattersont.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121631603PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:03 PM6339657336355071752009121631603PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:03 PM6339657336355071752009121631603PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:03 PM633965733635507175false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseWhy I love the Rockette holiday show.noO Christmas Legs, O Christmas LegsWhy I love the Rockette holiday show.noAfter a successful national tour in 2008, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is again scooting across North America this holiday season. Having deep faith in the Rockettes, I believe that whichever 36 troupers stride your way in Dallas or Seattle will give you their merry all, their smiles as white as searchlights and as generous as Santa himself. But having just seen the show in its native habitat, I have a new appreciation for both Radio City Music Hall and for city life itself. Presenting great abundance (without gross excess) and rigorous order (without oppressive rigidity), the Rockettes are a vision of urban utopia. The composer Richard Wagner famously went on about the gesamtkunstwerk—the complete work of art drawing on all media. Any reasonable philosophy of aesthetics must acknowledge the Christmas Spectacular as a project worthy of that name. Would you laugh me out of the room for suggesting that the show might indeed be the pop apotheosis of Wagner's great gesundheit? Must I lay out the specifics of the whole elating show? There is one fat man in a red suit. There are 12 scenes of holiday joy, many featuring supporting players, so that you get a gracious Nativity, a sick-making 3-D ride on Santa's sleigh, and a Nutcracker condensed into the gentlest medley—no three-headed rat kings need apply. The fat man is aware of his status as a camp figure. When he says, "What would Christmas be without a little holiday ham?" a rim shot issues from the orchestra pit. One scene, "Here Comes Santa Claus," is a computer-assisted demonstration of the Santa's omnipresence: The dancing Santas seem to recede to infinity—a perfection of the Busby Berkeley-style psychedelia which, like the earliest Christmas Spectaculars, got its screwy energy from the tumult of the 1930s.There are three dozen distinguished alumnae of Ms. So-and-So's School of Jazz, Tap, and Ballet—women of sound morals and fine wiggles, wholesome but hardly naive. The Rockette is a Manhattanite ideal of the girl next door, and she is very versatile, equally comfortable hoofing to a gospel-rich "Joy to the World" or a "12 Days of Christmas" that shifts from funk-u-up Prince synthesizers to rock-me-Amadeus harpsichords. Yes, they cancan. The Rockette kick line redefines what the best seat in the house is: You want to be far away enough almost to take the whole file in, close enough that registering its endpoints taxes your peripheral vision, and you want to be dead center for the sake of symmetry. The delightful dancers and delighted orchestra belt out season's greetings as if the Art Deco proscenium arch were a megaphone. A few of the supporting players are dressed in the sparkling duds of angelic ushers, and they help the fun float into the grand lobby. The lobby is so plush and deluxe that it's mind-altering in own right; also, I believe you can buy beer and Irish coffee and a "frozen Rockettini" in a collectible cup as early as the 11 a.m. show. This festive atmosphere leaks into the street and extends to the Deco heaven of Rockefeller Center, which continues the dream of the proscenium. Standing down the block, waiting for the next show, a slightly prissy out-of-town tourist will observe to a friend that this is "not the friendliest city." To which a third party says, "Screw you." There's one moment in the show where the Rockettes appears as tourists themselves, wheeling around on a double-decker bus in white hats and iridescent coats, their costume jewelry glinting like flashbulbs. And there's another—in a film supplying a short history of the dance troupe—that cuts between shots of feet pounding the Depression-era pavement and dancing before the black-and-white footlights. Part of the charm of the Rockettes is to make all the city but a stage.truenotochyperlinkno2009121183428PMFridayDecDecember2012/12/2009 1:34:28 AM6339616046800000002009121183428PMFridayDecDecember2012/12/2009 1:34:28 AM633961604680000000televisionDouchebags Gone WildTroy Patterson1/123122/2202502/pattersont.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM6339657337201893892009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM6339657337201893892009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM633965733720189389false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseMTV's Jersey Shore.noDouchebags Gone WildDouchebags gone wild.noThe New York Times sauced up page A1 of its Nov. 14 edition with "More Than Ever, You Can Say That Word on Television," an article greeted with such widespread ridicule as to achieve instant notoriety. "On many nights this fall," it began, "it has been possible [to] hear a character call someone else a 'douche,' " and it then discussed, in all seriousness, the surging popularity of that insult on broadcast TV. The all-seeing trade magazine Variety, the deft media critic David Letterman, the prolific doucheographers of Gawker—these and others chortled at the story and with good reason. Yet one truth has gone unstated: Supply meets demand. The term douche—or douchebag, if you prefer—is necessary to describe an ever-increasing number of persons appearing on network television and even more so on cable, where a majority of reality shows reward douchebaggy deeds. The hair gel on primped douchebag heads greases the wheels of the machine. To illustrate, I turn, not for the first time, to MTV.truenotochyperlinkno200912953124PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/9/2009 10:31:24 PM633959766840000000200912953124PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/9/2009 10:31:24 PM633959766840000000televisionGlenn Beck's Soft and Fuzzy SweaterTroy Patterson1/123122/2202502/pattersont.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121631602PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:02 PM6339657336254485912009121631602PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:02 PM6339657336254485912009121631602PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:02 PM633965733625448591false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseThe pundit has a trifling and dishonest Christmas show.noGlenn Beck's Soft and Fuzzy SweaterGlenn Beck's Christmas show.noBeyond his profuse talents as a hard-right media star—as a master of the paranoid style, a fear-mongering clown, a skilled entertainer basing his act on a deliberate misunderstanding of Enlightenment thought—Glenn Beck has a soft side. This time last year, he published The Christmas Sweater, a best-selling "novel" relaying a spiritual parable, and he further developed the book into a one-man stage show. Notwithstanding his strident denouncements of global warming as a hoax, Beck recycles assiduously, and last night he was at an arts center at New York University presenting The Christmas Sweater: A Return to Redemption.truenotochyperlinkno200912453933PMFridayDecDecember1712/4/2009 10:39:33 PM633955451730000000200912453933PMFridayDecDecember1712/4/2009 10:39:33 PM633955451730000000televisionGo Watch AliceTroy Patterson1/123122/2202502/pattersont.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM6339657337234707022009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM6339657337234707022009121631612PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/16/2009 8:16:12 PM633965733723470702false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseLewis Carroll's classic gets remixed and re-engineered in a new miniseries.noGo Watch AliceAlice reviewed.no(Notice: In July, the Sci Fi Channel rebranded itself as Syfy. This writer joins the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in boycotting this unsupportable offense against orthography.)truenotochyperlinkno200912383733PMThursdayDecDecember2012/4/2009 1:37:33 AM633954694530000000200912383733PMThursdayDecDecember2012/4/2009 1:37:33 AM633954694530000000200311442705PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:05 PM631781584250000000200311442705PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:05 PM631781584250000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200181561532PMWednesdayAugAugust188/15/2001 10:15:32 PM631334961320000000spacerArchitectureyesfeedarchitectureArchitectureWhat we build.2NA=1154&NC=1217&DI=4098&PS=62617&PI=7315archfalsefalsespacernotembeddedarchitectureDo You See a Pattern?Witold RybczynskifalseAn architectural theorist who has inspired smart-growth advocates, counterculture DIY-ers, and computer programmers.noDo You See a Pattern?The enduring influence of architect Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language.noLast month, the architect and author Christopher Alexander received the Vincent Scully Prize, given annually by the National Building Museum "to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship or criticism in architecture, historic preservation and urban design." For the last 45 years, Alexander has been a controversial figure on the architectural scene, both revered and reviled; yet in an period burdened by flocks of architectural theorists, I would guess that he is one of very few whose work will endure.truenotochyperlinkno200912271551AMWednesdayDecDecember712/2/2009 12:15:51 PM633953349510000000200912271551AMWednesdayDecDecember712/2/2009 12:15:51 PM633953349510000000architectureHe Broke the MoldWitold RybczynskifalseYou don't see great public sculptors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens anymore.noHe Broke the MoldAugustus Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest public sculptor.nospacer205180Click here to read a slide-show essay about sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.falsefalse1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpg205180http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000spaceryeshyperlinkAugustus Saint-Gaudens9407351/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/slideshow_header_Interim.gif94054http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510238908false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM6339285114800000001/123125/122986/2111960/2116067/2116783/2116938/SlideshowFooter.gif94024http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510395162200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510395162200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510395162false200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000FFFFFF000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe Augustus Saint-Gaudens show at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City is modest in scale, and a good way to enlarge the experience is to walk down Fifth Avenue to Grand Army Plaza and the Sherman Monument. The stirring figures atop a handsome granite pedestal designed by architect Charles Follen McKim are one of Saint-Gaudens' great works. The mounted Civil War general is depicted bareheaded with the wind lifting his cloak, preceded by the goddess Victory holding the palm branch of peace. Saint-Gaudens, notoriously slow, had taken 18 sittings to make a bust of Sherman; the model for Victory was Hettie Anderson, a popular African-American model. He sculpted Victory unclothed, then spent two weeks arranging her drapery. The monument is a reminder of how different Saint-Gaudens was from contemporary artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Richard Serra, and Jeff Koons, who make public sculptures but whose art is essentially private in nature. The Saint, as he was sometimes called, was an artist who derived his inspiration from the subjects of his public commissions.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/1_Sherman_Monument.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/1_Sherman_Monument.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510551416200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510551416200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510551416false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Sherman Monument in Grand Army Plaza, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1892-1903. Photograph by Jim Henderson. This image is in the public domain.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000 spaceryeshyperlinkSaint-Gaudens was born in Dublin in 1848 to a French father and an Irish mother. The family immigrated to America when he was an infant and settled in New York City. At 13, he was apprenticed as a cameo cutter. Cameos are tiny images—often portraits—cut into shell or stone, and after six years, he developed an extraordinary skill in shallow-relief carving. He studied art in Paris and Rome, developed a love of the Italian Renaissance, and later divided his time among New York, Paris, and a rural retreat in Cornish, N.H. His friend Kenyon Cox painted him in 1887 in his 36th Street studio, intently modeling a bas-relief portrait of the painter William Merritt Chase. The portrait was to be a birthday present from Saint-Gaudens, who had a wide circle of friends, including many architects: H.H. Richardson, Daniel Burnham, Stanford White, and his partner McKim. These friendships, which were the source of commissions and regular collaborations, represent a creative camaraderie among artists and architects that is rare today.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/2_Cox_Portrait.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/2_Cox_Portrait.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510551416200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510707670200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510707670false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Kenyon Cox, 1887. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of friends of the artist, through August F. Jaccaci.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkSaint-Gaudens, a master of alto- and bas-relief, made portraits of his friends—John Singer Sargent, Francis D. Millet, art critic Mariana Van Rensselaer—as well of the rich and famous: Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Robert Louis Stevenson. Many of these reliefs have an endearing, sketchy quality. This large (about 4-by-5-foot) plaque depicting Mortimer and Frieda Schiff was a gift to their father, a New York banker, from a British friend. Unlike paintings or photographs, bas-reliefs appear three-dimensional yet are often less than an inch deep, an illusion that gives them a sort of magical authority. Note how the rounded toe of Mortimer's right foot protrudes over the frame, as if he were about to step out. The sculptor did many clay studies of the children, finally adding his own Scottish deerhound, Dunrobin, to complete the composition. The original plaque is bronze; Schiff had this marble copy made and gave it to the Metropolitan Museum.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/3_Schiff_Children.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/3_Schiff_Children.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510707670200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510707670200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510707670false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000The Children of Jacob H. Schiff, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1884-85. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Jacob H. Schiff.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkSaint Gaudens sculpted several cemetery memorials. In 1886, he was approached by the eminent historian Henry Adams with a seemingly impossible commission: a grave monument for his wife, Marian, who had taken her own life the year before. At Adams' suggestion, Saint-Gaudens studied Buddhist monuments as well as Michelangelo's sibyls in the Sistine Chapel and produced this haunting work. The bronze figure is in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Cemetery; the setting was designed by Stanford White.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/4_Adams_Memorial.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/4_Adams_Memorial.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510863924200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510863924200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732510863924false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1891. This image is licensed under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe figure of Victory in the Sherman Monument is a version of the idealized classical female that appears in many Saint-Gaudens works: a pair of caryatids supporting a massive mantel in a fireplace that he designed for the entrance hall of Cornelius Vanderbilt's house (now displayed in the Met) and several tombs and cemetery monuments. Here she takes the form of an angel, wearing a flowing chiton and a garland on her head, and holding a tablet. Amor Caritas (Love Charity) was not a commissioned work, although 40-inch-high bronze reductions enjoyed considerable commercial success, and the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris purchased a full-size casting—a rare honor for an American artist.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/5_Amor_Caritas.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/5_Amor_Caritas.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511020178200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511020178200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511020178false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Amor Caritas, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1880-98. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkPerhaps Saint-Gaudens most popular work is the figure of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. Saint-Gaudens made it to serve as a finial for the top of the tower of Madison Square Garden, recently designed by his close friend Stanford White. The racy idea of placing a nude on top of a 32-story tower (the second tallest structure in the city) probably came from White, a noted womanizer. It must have appealed to Saint-Gaudens, too, for he charged only for his expenses and based the statue on Davida Clark, his model and mistress. Saint-Gaudens and White deemed the first 18-foot riveted-copper figure too large and replaced it with a 13-foot version (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art). The small bronze casting shown here is one of several that Saint-Gaudens made later for sale to collectors.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/6_Diana.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/6_Diana.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511020178200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511176432200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511176432false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Diana, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1892-93. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkSaint-Gaudens first public monument was the Farragut Memorial in Madison Square Park in New York City. It is an extraordinary combination of tradition and innovation. The bronze figure is placed on a granite (originally bluestone) exedra, or bench. Farragut is in naval uniform, holding field glasses, and posed as if on the deck of a ship; the skirt of his coat blown back by a breeze. The allegorical figures on the pedestal, representing Courage and Loyalty, crouch among stylized waves; dolphins, another marine motif, form the ends of the bench. An inscription, in Saint-Gaudens' characteristic Roman-style lettering, celebrates the admiral's accomplishments. What is remarkable about the monument is its small size and great compression, a lesson for today's sprawling memorials, which seem intent on educating the visitor, often at great length. Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, who designed the base, tell a story, too, but it is more like a haiku.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/7_Farragut_Sculpture.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/7_Farragut_Sculpture.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511176432200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511176432200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511176432false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Farragut Memorial in Madison Square Park, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1881. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe memorial to Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the volunteer soldiers of the African-American 54th Massachusetts Regiment stands at the edge of Boston Common. The marching soldiers (16 are visible), preceded by a drummer boy, are rendered in high relief and form a background to the freestanding equestrian portrait of Shaw. The setting, designed by McKim, contains lines from a poem by James Russell Lowell. As he did so often, Saint-Gaudens wove together intense realism with spiritual allegory, the latter in the form of a floating female figure holding laurel leaves, symbolizing glory, and poppies, symbolizing death—half the regiment as well as Gould died in a fateful attack on Fort Wagner in Charleston, S.C.* This is generally considered Saint-Gaudens' great achievement, and it represents a pinnacle of modern American public sculpture, rarely—if ever—surpassed.*Correction, Nov. 5, 2009: Due to a copy-editing error, this slide originally referenced "Charleston, N.C.," instead of Charleston, S.C.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/8_Shaw_Memorial.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/8_Shaw_Memorial.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511332686200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511332686200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511332686false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1897. This image is in the public domain.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spaceryeshyperlinkIn 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, dissatisfied with the coins being issued by the U.S. Mint, prevailed on an ailing Saint-Gaudens (he had cancer and would die two years later, only 59), to design 1-cent, $10, and $20 coins. The 1-cent was never minted, but the $20 gold piece—a double eagle—is widely considered the most beautiful American coin ever made. (It circulated until 1933, when the United States went off the gold standard.)* The obverse shows a dynamic Liberty (Hettie Anderson, again) holding a torch and palm leaf, the sun rays behind her symbolizing enlightenment. The reverse shows a soaring bald eagle with similar rays. Unlike the U.S. Mint today, which has issued such uninspired coins as the distinctly pedestrian state quarters—they appear to have been designed by committees—Saint-Gaudens understood that a coin could be a miniature sculpture. A work of public art in your pocket.*Correction, Nov. 6, 2009: This slide originally stated that the $20 gold piece was struck but never circulated. In fact, it circulated until 1933.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/9_Eagle_Coin.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2234378/2234379/9_Eagle_Coin.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511488940200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511488940200912255411PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:11 PM633953732511488940false200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000200911311908PMTuesdayNovNovember1311/3/2009 6:19:08 PM633928511480000000Double Eagle coin, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1933. This image is in the public domain.200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000Click here to read a slide-show essay about sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.truenotochyperlinkno200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000architectureCareful With That MatisseWitold RybczynskifalseThe Barnes Collection is moving. Does its new Philadelphia home measure up?noCareful With That MatisseThe Barnes Collection is moving. Does its new Philadelphia home measure up?noWere Albert C. Barnes alive, the plan to move his art collection from its home in suburban Merion, Pa., to downtown Philadelphia would have made him erupt in one of his famous rages. The argument that an urban location would enable more people to see his paintings would have cut no ice with him, since he considered his foundation not a public museum but a private teaching academy. To add insult to injury, the new site is within spitting distance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with which Barnes feuded mightily, and often nastily, all his life.truenotochyperlinkno2009101470416AMWednesdayOctOctober710/14/2009 11:04:16 AM6339110065600000002009101470416AMWednesdayOctOctober710/14/2009 11:04:16 AM633911006560000000architectureToo Much of a Good ThingWitold RybczynskifalseFrank Gehry isn't going to design Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development, and that's OK.noToo Much of a Good ThingWhy it's a good thing Frank Gehry isn't going to design Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development.noEarlier this summer, Bruce Ratner, the developer of the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, N.Y., announced that he was letting go his architect, Frank Gehry. The main reason, according to the New York Times, was that in the new shrinking economy, Gehry's work was simply too expensive. It's a shame that Gehry will not be designing a new Brooklyn home for the Nets, for it would have been instructive to see an imaginative architect tackle the thorny problem of a basketball arena. Arenas, unlike baseball stadiums, are basically big boxes, and they have a track record of being ham-fistedly designed. Wachovia Center, where the Philadelphia 76ers play, for example, is a block-sized collection of contemporary architectural clichés, combined without any logic or wit. Its only saving grace is that it is not in an urban neighborhood but surrounded by parking lots—a suburban setting for a suburban design.truenotochyperlinkno200992393352AMWednesdaySepSeptember99/23/2009 1:33:52 PM633892952320000000200992393352AMWednesdaySepSeptember99/23/2009 1:33:52 PM633892952320000000architectureForest Hills GardensWitold RybczynskifalseA walkable, transit-oriented, architecturally rich planned community, built 100 years ago.noForest Hills GardensForest Hills Gardens: A walkable, transit-oriented, architecturally rich planned community, built 100 years ago.nospacer205180Click here to read a slide-show essay on Forest Hills Gardens.falsefalse1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpg205180http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000spaceryeshyperlinkForest Hills Gardens9407351/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/slideshow_header_Interim.gif94054http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483688173false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000001/123125/122986/2111960/2116067/2116783/2116938/SlideshowFooter.gif94024http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483844425200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483844425200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732483844425false200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000FFFFFF000000spaceryeshyperlinkDespite the medieval, Germanic appearance of the buildings, this town square isn't in Bavaria—it's in New York City. Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, N.Y., was begun in 1909, a project of the Russell Sage Foundation, which had been founded by the widow of a successful Wall Street financier. The planned community of 142 acres, which introduced the British Garden City movement to the United States, was intended to demonstrate the latest ideas in town planning, housing, open space, and building construction. It's pretty obvious that in the intervening years, Levittown, N.Y.—not Forest Hills—became the prototype for American planned communities. But in an age of diminishing resources and an interest in walkable neighborhoods, it is worth revisiting Forest Hills. One of the strengths of the Garden City movement was that it dealt with town planning in a comprehensive way, and this 100-year-old piece of New York City remains a model for how the attractions of town and suburbs can be combined.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/1_Square.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/1_Square.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484000677200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484000677200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484000677false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe town square faces a station on the Long Island Railroad, which connects Forest Hills to Manhattan, 20 minutes away—an early example of transit-oriented development. The buildings on the square have stores and restaurants at street level and apartments above, just the sort of mixed-use that many developers are promoting today. The tallest building, nine stories, originally housed the Forest Hills Inn, since converted into condominiums. Apartment buildings line the streets immediately behind the square (right), creating a more urban density in this part of the community. As you walk away from Station Square, the scale of the buildings becomes smaller, there are more trees, and the surroundings are greener and more parklike.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/2_Apartment_Tower.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/2_Apartment_Tower.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484156929200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484156929200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484156929false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkWalkability, which is the goal of most town planners today, requires smaller lots and more compact houses in order to keep distances short. In the housing terrace at right, 17-foot-wide town homes use land efficiently, but even detached house lots at Forest Hills can be as small as 2,800 square feet (compared with a typical suburban lot size today of 20,000 square feet). Forest Hills has a variety of single-family houses: attached, semidetached, and freestanding. The aim of having many housing types was partly to give more choices to buyers and partly to create the kind of visual variety found in old towns. This is very different from the sort of homogeneity that characterizes most modern suburbs. Notice also the generous planting strip next to the sidewalk, which gives the street trees plenty of room.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/3_Houses.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/3_Houses.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484781937200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484781937200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484781937false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph from The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. Photograph by Jonathan Wallen © 2009 Jonathan Wallen.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe planner of Forest Hills was Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870-1957), son of the famous landscape architect. Olmsted was in his 40s, highly experienced, and he produced one of the great garden suburb plans of this period—or of any period. He showed how, in a relatively small area, it was possible to combine a variety of housing: apartment buildings, housing groups, and individual houses surrounded by gardens. The plan is not a simple grid—the streets curve—but neither is it the mindless "spaghetti" of so many modern suburbs. There is a clear hierarchy of larger avenues (called greenways), streets, and narrow internal streets that resemble back lanes. There is also a variety of open spaces: a town square, a village green, small parks, and this landscaped circle at the heart of a quiet cluster of houses (right).spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/4_Sidewalk.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/4_Sidewalk.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkOne housing group, intended for lower-income buyers, consists of attached houses only 13 feet wide. (The end houses, with octagonal bays, are wider.) The houses are constructed entirely of precast hollow-concrete slabs and panels. A single house consisted of 140 panels and could be assembled in nine days. The successful use of prefabricated concrete in housing at such an early date (1913) was decades ahead of what anyone else was doing in the United States or Europe. The lively exterior doesn't look cheap or mass-produced, despite the limitation of the standardized panels, which are given an attractive rough pebble finish. Equally impressive is the fact that this experiment has survived more than 90 years and is in excellent shape. This probably has something to do with the rather conservative design, which sticks to the tried-and-true: pitched roofs, protective overhangs, dormers, and traditional windows. And these little (1,960-square-foot) three-bedroom prefabs have more than held their value; one of these houses is currently on the market for $929,000.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/5_Prefab.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/5_Prefab.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732484938189false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe architect of the prefabricated houses, Station Square, and of many of the buildings at Forest Hills was Grosvenor Atterbury (1869-1956), the subject of a recent monograph. Atterbury is not well-known, but he deserves to be. He belonged to an in-between generation of architects, younger than turn-of-the-century giants like Charles McKim and Daniel Burnham and older than the first Modernists, such as Eliel Saarinen and George Howe. Atterbury worked in a variety of architectural styles—and for a variety of clients. At the same time as he was designing his ingenious precast concrete system for low-cost housing, he was building a group of cow barns in Newport, R.I. (right), to house the prize Guernsey herd of Arthur Curtiss James, one of the richest men in the country. So, a society architect or a revolutionary? Perhaps both.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/6_James.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/6_James.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485094441200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485094441200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485094441false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph from The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. Photograph by Jonathan Wallen © 2009 Jonathan Wallen.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkOne of Atterbury's first projects in concrete was a summer colony of 10 cottages, built in 1897 for sugar magnate Henry Osborne Havemeyer, at Bayberry Point on the south shore of Long Island. The houses were built out of cast-in-place concrete, but what is even more striking is that they have flat roofs and starkly unadorned surfaces, giving them the appearance of the Modernist villas that architects such as Viennese firebrand Adolf Loos ("ornament is a crime") would build some years later. Did Grosvenor Atterbury invent the International Style? Not exactly. The Bayberry Point houses, which were advertised as "creations of the fancy," were intended to recall the Moorish architecture of North Africa, which Atterbury and his collaborator, Louis Comfort Tiffany, had both recently visited. Still, it is a curious fact that these two American eclectics arrived at bare concrete construction a decade before the European avant-garde.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/7_Havemeyer_House.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/7_Havemeyer_House.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph from The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkThere is nothing bare about Forest Hills—quite the opposite. The picturesque architecture of medieval towns was greatly admired by garden city architects, and Atterbury gave the buildings around Station Square a medieval air, using precast concrete to suggest half-timbering. Decorative fretwork and patterned brick complete the effect. One is tempted to see this as an early example of architectural theming, except that it is done with such conviction and inventiveness that it is more like a performance than a simulation.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/8_Close_Up.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/8_Close_Up.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485250693false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000spaceryeshyperlinkWhat makes Forest Hills different from—and much better than—most modern suburbs is not just the density, walkability, and architectural variety. It is also the attention to detail, whether in Olmsted's planting strips or Atterbury's distinctive street lamps. The designers understood that one of the great challenges of building a planned community from scratch is creating an instant sense of belonging. They achieved this by harmoniously integrating planning, landscaping, and architecture. That may be Forest Hills' most important lesson: Community building is an art. Not a pictorial art, but an experiential one, appreciated when you walk through the dark arcades of Station Square, beside the shaded town green (where a person sat in a deck chair the day I was there) and along the looping curve of Olmsted's greenway. This is not merely planning or building; it is place-making.spacer600450nono1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/9_Street_Lamp.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2079215/2208527/2225740/2225749/9_Street_Lamp.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485406945200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485406945200912255408PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/2/2009 10:54:08 PM633953732485406945false2009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM6338671298400000002009824121624PMMondayAugAugust128/24/2009 4:16:24 PM633867129840000000Photograph by Witold Rybczynski.200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000Click here to read a slide-show essay on Forest Hills Gardens.truenotochyperlinkno200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200982670430AMWednesdayAugAugust78/26/2009 11:04:30 AM633868670700000000200322523252PMTuesdayFebFebruary142/25/2003 7:32:52 PM631817803720000000200322523252PMTuesdayFebFebruary142/25/2003 7:32:52 PM631817803720000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue200322511607PMTuesdayFebFebruary132/25/2003 6:16:07 PM631817757670000000200322511607PMTuesdayFebFebruary132/25/2003 6:16:07 PM631817757670000000spacerArtyesfeedartArt1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800730997862009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800730997862009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM633965880073099786false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000The big picture.2NA=1154&NC=1217&DI=4098&PS=58538&PI=7315Artfalsefalsespacernotembeddedart1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643604PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:04 PM6339657816436103732009121643604PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:04 PM6339657816436103732009121643604PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:04 PM633965781643610373false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000The Contact Sheet Comes Out of the ClosetSarah BoxerfalseThe photographer's secret rough draft is now on museum walls.noThe Contact Sheet Comes Out of the ClosetNostalgia for the contact sheet.noI miss contact sheets. I miss those grids of small photos that show you exactly what's on a roll of developed film. I miss them so much that now, when I take digital pictures, I don't delete any: I download everything from my camera to my computer to get lots of thumbnail-size images—some blurry, some not; some memorable, some not; some in series, some not. There they are, rows upon rows on my screen. A virtual contact sheet. And yet nothing like a contact sheet.truenotochyperlinkno20091125124850PMWednesdayNovNovember1211/25/2009 5:48:50 PM63394750130000000020091125125354PMWednesdayNovNovember1211/25/2009 5:53:54 PM633947504340000000art1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815929516942009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815929516942009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781592951694false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Hello, DalíBen DavisfalseThe surreal, high-concept showmanship of Urs Fischer.noHello, DalíThe surreal, high-concept showmanship of Urs Fischer.nospacer205180Click here to read a slide-show essay about the Urs Fischer show at the New Museum.falsefalse1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpg205180http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815934204502009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815934204502009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781593420450false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000spaceryeshyperlinkUrs Fischer's Anti-Art Fun House9407351/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/slideshow_header_Interim.gif94054http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815935767022009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815935767022009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781593576702false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000001/123125/122986/2111960/2116067/2116783/2116938/SlideshowFooter.gif94024http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815935767022009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815935767022009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781593576702false200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000FFFFFF000000spaceryeshyperlinkAt least one crowd-pleaser awaits visitors to Urs Fischer's just-opened show at the New Museum in New York. Called Service à la française, it consists of a collection of large mirrored boxes packed into the institution's warehouselike second-floor galleries. Each box is printed with images depicting various sides of a seemingly random object blown up to jumbo size so that you can inspect it in hyper-real detail: a green Top Shop shoe, a lavishly frosted pink cupcake, a vacantly waving Tweety Bird, a towering toy version of the Empire State Building. The landscape of boxes is supposed to remind you of walking among the skyscrapers of New York, though something about the whole thing—I think it's all the mirrors—also evokes a department store. (The artist calls it an "encyclopedia of banalities.")Service à la française is viscerally appealing and intellectually suggestive, accessible and provocative at once, which just about sums up what Urs Fischer does when he does it well. Not every artwork in his New Museum show has quite the same sizzle, but the show is also more than the sum of its parts. It stands as evidence of the kind of eclectic, high-concept showmanship that Fischer has perfected, the style that has made him an emblematic art-world figure of the last few years.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/1.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/1.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815937329542009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815937329542009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781593732954false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, Service à la française, 2009. Silkscreen on mirrored chrome steel, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York; Sadie Coles HQ, London; and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland. Installation view: "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty." Photograph by Benoit Pailley.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000 spaceryeshyperlinkBy most accounts, Fischer's approach to art-making is both calculated and semi-improvisational, equal parts Swiss rigor (he was born in Switzerland) and New York rowdiness (his studio is in Red Hook). A certain amount of unevenness is a natural consequence. The present show's curator, the talented and normally indefatigable Massimiliano Gioni, recently told The New Yorker's Calvin Tomkins that he had "thought a couple of times of killing" Fischer during the installation process. But Fischer's mercurial character is integral to his aesthetic. This is a guy who first stepped into the spotlight in the late '90s with sculptures that incorporated various food items: for example, a wall built atop a foundation of decaying fruit or a cabin assembled out of loaves of bread, designed to be slowly eaten away by birds living inside. Clearly, Fischer appreciates a certain preprogrammed potential for chaos.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/2.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/2.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815938892062009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815938892062009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781593889206false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, Bread House, 2005, bread, wood, screws, expanding foam, light, 17.5 x 15.5 x 14-15 feet. Image courtesy the artist and Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkLike a lot of recent art, Urs Fischer's oeuvre picks up various "anti-art" ideas—art strategies incorporating ugliness, vulgarity, randomness, instability, or immateriality, all of which not so long ago implied some critical, even political, stance in their assaults on traditional taste. But he gives these ideas a fun-house twist. Fischer's diverse projects bubble over with half-submerged references to other artists or styles. Are the painted mirrors of Service à la française a hat tip to the brainy mirror paintings of the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto? Probably. But Fischer's references are not particularly reverent. He uses past art the same way he has used food: not as a firm foundation but as raw material that disintegrates in the process of being incorporated into his scattershot constructions. In addition to his food sculptures, Fischer has also made his name by cutting holes in things. For a recent gallery show, he commanded that the interior of Gavin Brown's space in New York be completely excavated so that all there was to see was a gaping pit of dirt. This intervention riffed on older gestures by artists like Gordon Matta-Clark and Daniel Buren, who sliced and diced institutional spaces, claiming that they were making viewers aware of their underlying structures. In Fischer's hands, however, this idea seemed more a deliberate piece of theater than a consciousness-raising exercise. Spectacular but stripped-down, cynical but in-your-face—it felt almost punk-rock.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/3.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/3.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815940454582009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815940454582009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594045458false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, you, 2007, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image courtesy artist/Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkAt the New Museum, a particularly odd spectacle inhabits the third floor, probably the most lavish work in the new show. Except for a few spare sculptures, the galleries appear empty—until you realize that the room itself is the work. Fischer has papered over the walls with exact, to-scale photographic images of their own pristine surfaces, rendered a slightly different color, an atmospheric purple. He also dictated that the ceiling be lowered by 2 feet and that fake beams and new lights be installed. The gallery feels mostly the same. But the environment has been turned almost imperceptibly into a near copy of itself.Like his big dig at Gavin Brown, this type of thing calls to mind the art of "institutional critique," high-minded gestures that tried to throw into question the experience of being in a museum, often implicitly attacking the art world's underlying culture of money and power. Tellingly, however, the response to Fischer's new installation is less thoughtful contemplation of such matters and more "My God—how much did it cost?" The answer is "a lot," though the New Museum isn't saying exactly how much. spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/4.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/4.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815940454582009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815940454582009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594045458false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Installation view of third floor of "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty" at the New Museum, New York.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkA series of large aluminum sculptures command the final floor of the New Museum show: formidable, formless blobs that loom over you. These are lovably weird-looking and perfect examples of Fischer's romance with the irregular and the unexpected. Each is a greatly blown-up version of a small piece of modeling clay; its seemingly haphazard protuberances were determined by the way the substance squished through Fischer's fingers. The enlarged whorls of Fischer's fingerprints are in evidence on the towering hunks, giving you a sense of their original scale.Spinning art from randomness is, of course, an old avant-garde pastime, from the Dada sculpture of Jean Arp to the Zen compositions of John Cage. True to form, however, Fischer adopts this device while deliberately thumbing his nose at the ideals that gave it an aura of meaning—for instance, the old notion that the use of chance in art was a way to get around the limitations of rational, conscious thought. Having his random blobs monumentalized (manufactured in China, no less!) emphasizes that the whole thing is a calculated game. The works get their zip from the difference between the low-key, intimate manipulation of the original clay and the superexpensive, sophisticated process required to take these shapes and get them to their final form.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/5.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/5.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815942017102009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815942017102009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594201710false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Installation view of "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty" (left to right: Ix, David, the Proprietor, 4:15 p.m. & 4:15 p.m., Marguerite de Ponty, Miss Satin, Zizi). Courtesy the artist; Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland; and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photograph by Benoit Pailley.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkOf all the Ghosts of Art History Past, though, Surrealism haunts Fischer's work the most—particularly Surrealism of the madcap Salvador Dalí variety. Sprinkled throughout the galleries of the New Museum are a few smaller sculptures illustrating the affinity: a life-size purple replica of a piano and bench as well as a pink lamppost and a pair of toothpaste-colored crutches. Each of these seems to be wilting beneath some invisible heat, evoking Dalí's swooning clocks. Similarly, a sculpture that incorporates a skeleton, posed so that it appears to be clamoring up onto a stack of cardboard boxes, echoes the morbid, fragmentary landscapes of Dalí's paintings.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/6.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/6.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815943579622009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815943579622009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594357962false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, Violent Cappuccino, 2007. Cast aluminum, lacquer, motor oil, glue, and dust, 79.75 x 51.125 x 28.75 inches (203 x 130 x 73 cm). Private collection; courtesy Giraud Pissarro Segalot, New York. Installation view: "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty." Photograph by Benoit Pailley.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkCupadre, which consists of a croissant dangling from a fishing wire with a butterfly tacked to it, might evoke Dalí's famous assemblage grafting a lobster to a telephone. It has the same kind of lurking, though indeterminate, sexual suggestion. It certainly has the same borderline silliness. Dalí is a fitting role model for Fischer: He was the Surrealist who turned the movement's high-flown rhetoric about exploring the unconscious into a kind of carnival aesthetic, becoming something of a cartoon of himself by the end of his life. Dalí's weirdness was unashamedly commercial, hyperactive, and populist. The title of Fischer's New Museum show, incidentally, is "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty," an obscure nod to a pseudonym that French experimental poet Stéphane Mallarmé used when writing for a fashion magazine. The title, in effect, stands for exactly the fusion of difficult avant-garde nihilism with hammy, high-impact spectacle that Fischer goes in for. (Asked by The New Yorker whether he actually read Mallarmé, the artist said "no.")spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/7.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/7.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815945142142009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815945142142009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594514214false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, Cupadre, 2009. Fishing line, croissant, and butterfly, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York; Sadie Coles HQ, London; and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland. Installation view: "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty." Photograph by Benoit Pailley.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkIn the exhibition catalog, Massimiliano Gioni's interview with the artist is notable in that it shows the two men disagreeing over the fundamental meaning of the work. Gioni asks whether the artist picked the cultural flotsam printed on the mirrors in Service à la française because "they question assumptions of taste"—a bit of critical boilerplate. "No," Fischer replies. "I just like them. I think they look good." A little later, Gioni asks him whether his often fragmentary works aren't a "polemic against a certain polished look that has been so fashionable lately." Fischer calmly points out that the mirrored boxes are "about as polished as things get." (Indeed, at the press preview, a frequently heard comment was what great objects to sell they would be, which, to be fair, says as much about the art press as it does about Fischer.) The catalog's cover image is a self-portrait, picturing the tattooed artist peacefully asleep, a small dog trapped in his burly arm. The dog's eyes, collaged in, are human, supposedly Fischer's own. It's a great image and, as Gioni pointed out to me, something of a joke on the heroic portrait of an artist. Notably, it depicts Fischer literally unconscious, a rejoinder, perhaps, to those who try to read heady "critical" ideas into his works—though the detail of the eyes symbolizes that Fischer is very much conscious in the scene and self-conscious about what he is doing in general. His guilelessness is as much of an affectation as anything else.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/8.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/8.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815945142142009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815945142142009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594514214false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, self portrait, The Heart of the Ocean, May Yohe & Putnam Strong, Zero Year Curse, Tavernier Blue, Hope Diamond, 2006, from a suite of three framed prints.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spaceryeshyperlinkIf you want a metaphor for the basic position of Urs Fischer's art in the world, look no further than Noisette. A small, golf-ball-size hole has been poked in the wall on the third floor, the room with the wallpaper and the fake ceiling. Pass nearby, and a robotic tongue thrusts out, wags lewdly, then darts back in. It's a PG-13 attraction for a contemporary-art Disneyland, high-concept entertainment spun from low-brow mockery of viewers who might well be looking for something—anything—that seems like a recognizable work of art. That probably about sums things up. You have to appreciate the pretensions of contemporary art to really get Urs Fischer. But if you're not willing to laugh at those pretensions, you're not going to get him, either.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/9.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2235777/2235782/9.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815946704662009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM6339657815946704662009121643559PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:35:59 PM633965781594670466false2009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM6339413503500000002009111895715AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:57:15 PM633941350350000000Urs Fischer, Noisette, 2009. Mixed mediums, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich, Switzerland; Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York; and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Installation view: "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty." Photograph by Benoit Pailley.20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000Click here to read a slide-show essay about the Urs Fischer show at the New Museum.truenotochyperlinkno20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000art1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817233779842009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817233779842009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781723377984false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Watteau the WandererChristopher BenfeyfalseWhat accounts for his enduring, elusive appeal?noWatteau the WandererWatteau at the Met.nospacer205180Click here to read a slide-show essay about Jean-Antoine Watteau.falsefalse1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpg205180http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817236904902009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817236904902009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781723690490false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000spaceryeshyperlinkWatteau9407351/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/slideshow_header_Interim.gif94054http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817238467432009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817238467432009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781723846743false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM6338982936200000001/123125/122986/2111960/2116067/2116783/2116938/SlideshowFooter.gif94024http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817240029962009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817240029962009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724002996false200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000200541844310PMMondayAprApril164/18/2005 8:43:10 PM632494393900000000FFFFFF000000spaceryeshyperlinkThose who love the delectable 18th-century French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau (initial "V" and rhymes with gâteau) love him ardently. When a Watteau picture turned up in an English country house last year after going missing for 200 years, it sold at Christie's for $24.4 million (the highest auction price ever for a French old master) to a still-unidentified enthusiast. Jed Perl, longtime art critic for the New Republic, recently published a beguiling love letter to his favorite painter titled Antoine's Alphabet. Philippe de Montebello, who ran the Metropolitan for three decades before retiring in 2008, had two favorite paintings in the museum: a tiny Duccio acquired under his regime and this Watteau portrait of wistful guitar player, dressed as the lovelorn theatrical character Mezzetin, hopelessly serenading a woman of stone. Watteau is widely regarded as perhaps the most important European artist of the early 18th century, but the mood of festive frivolity in much of his work makes it hard for some people to rank him with Goya, say, or Chardin. An intimate exhibition at the Metropolitan, including the recently discovered painting, seeks to illuminate one aspect of Watteau's work by zeroing in on his intense engagement with the fantasy world of music and theater. It also offers an occasion to speculate about the complex sources of Watteau's enduring, if still elusive, appeal.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/1_Mezzetin.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/1_Mezzetin.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817240029962009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817240029962009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724002996false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Mezzetin, by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718-20. Oil on canvas. © 1934 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Munsey Fund, New York.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000 spaceryeshyperlinkOne source of Watteau's magic is surely the sheer energy and accuracy of his eye. A self-taught and highly idiosyncratic artist, Watteau was one of the greatest of all French draftsmen, easily on a par with Ingres or Degas. Consider, for example, this deft preparatory drawing for de Montebello's beloved Mezzetin, with sketched-in beret and black stubble. The neck muscles are tensed in expectation, as though they're connected to the man's upturned eyes. Watteau carried around with him a book of such drawings with forms and gestures that he freely incorporated into his paintings. He also had a trunk of flamboyant costumes in which he clothed his friends and models—his own private drama for visual improvisation. Friends spoke of Watteau's "spirit of instability"—he was always on the move—but he found a sense of home in the fleeting world of the popular theater, a world in which, as Baudelaire wrote admiringly of Watteau, characters "flutter like moths as they go up in flame." In the pictures that resulted, he captured both a sense of alienation, mirroring his own uprooted background, and of momentary asylum, premonitions of our own unsettled world.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/2_Head_Of_Man.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/2_Head_Of_Man.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817241592492009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817241592492009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724159249false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Head of a Man, by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718-20. Red and black chalk on buff antique laid paper. © 1937 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, New York.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkAs the son of a roofer from the Flemish frontier town of Valenciennes, which had changed nationality in the recent wars between France and Spain, Watteau arrived in Paris around 1702, determined to win the patronage of the court of Louis XIV. He moved in bohemian circles, borrowing a bed from friends, never marrying, and settling nowhere. He made a splash in official society with his dazzling if still puzzling painting Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera in 1717. Critics still debate whether the "pilgrims" to the mythical island of Venus are embarking in eager anticipation or leaving disappointed. A work on the same theme from 10 years earlier has a kindred uncertainty. A couple of Cupids hovering in the sky urge the beautiful people to board the curtained Love Boat on the left. Why do they hesitate on the shore? Like many of Watteau's paintings, this one borrowed theme and mood from the French theater during the waning years of the Sun King's reign, when the Parisian theaters were shut down by a suddenly pious old monarch and troupes of wandering players flourished at informal seasonal fairs on the outskirts of the city. It was these improvised and promiscuous affairs that Watteau, himself a wanderer, seems to have frequented.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/3_Island_Of_Cythera.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/3_Island_Of_Cythera.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817243155022009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817243155022009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724315502false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000The Island of Cythera (L'Isle de Cythère), by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1709-10. Oil on canvas. Courtesy the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkStock characters from the Italian commedia dell'arte mingled on the rural stage with French characters like Pierrot. These were mainly servant figures, forerunners of Figaro, who helped young lovers elude their killjoy parents. But Watteau took these familiar properties—"the ribboned stick, the bellowing breeches," in Wallace Stevens' words—in a deeply personal direction. Pierrot in his baggy white peasant's suit captures our attention as he does that of the two seated women, one of whom lifts a black mask toward him. With his back turned to us, he seems hesitant and aloof, a figure of profound alienation—Hart Crane in a poem refers to Pierrot's "exile guise." It's easy to feel that this Pierrot is a stand-in for Watteau. His guitar sports red ribbons but remains on his back unplayed, contributing to the silence of the scene, with two patches of cobalt-blue sky opening like spooky windows in the forested glade. There is a mood of trauma that pervades Watteau's comedians, who seem to be seeking shelter from some unnamed storm. spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/4_The_Foursome.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/4_The_Foursome.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817244717552009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817244717552009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724471755false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000The Foursome (La Partie quarrée), by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1714. Oil on canvas. © 1977 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum Purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkEven Watteau's most frolicsome paintings retain this hint of menace. It's there in The Surprise, the fittingly named picture that mysteriously turned up in an English country house after vanishing in the mayhem of the French Revolution. It's an oddly off-kilter composition. The guitarist, wearing Mezzetin's familiar pink and white stripes, tunes his guitar; a couple is executing a dance step or swooning in erotic embrace; and a worried spaniel is barking his concern. Katharine Baetjer, the Met curator who mounted the exhibition in conjunction with the art historian Georgia Cowart, writes that the male lover employs "force rather than gentility" and notes that "his kiss is not returned."spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/5_La_Surprise.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/5_La_Surprise.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817246280082009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817246280082009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724628008false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000The Surprise (La Surprise), by Jean-Antoine Watteau. Oil on wood. Private collection, courtesy Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkThe guitar appears in so many of Watteau's paintings as traveling companion to the lovelorn that it almost seems like a separate character. This exquisite guitar, made by a German luthier in Rome at a time when the guitar was becoming popular in French music by composers like Lully, is remarkable for its mother-of-pearl inlay, along with its exotic ebony, ivory, and bone. In his paintings, Watteau brought out the seemingly human attributes of musical instruments, such as the mustachioed bridge of this guitar—another indication of the intimacy of actor and personified instrument. The checkerboard pattern along the sides recalls Harlequin, the cunning male servant of the French stage.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/6_Guitar.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/6_Guitar.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817247842612009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817247842612009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724784261false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Guitar, by Giacomo (Jacob) Ertel. Spruce, ebony, ivory, bone, fruitwood, mother-of-pearl. © 1984, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, purchase of the Rogers Fund, Mrs. Peter Nicholas, the University of Chicago Club of New York, Mrs. Henry J. Heinz II and Lowell S. Smith and Sally Sanford Gifts, the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, by exchange, and funds from various donors.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkWatteau was attentive to how his musicians, often portrayed as isolated and aloof, played their instruments. Nothing gets more attention in his Mezzetin painting than the precise position of the guitarist's prehensile fingers as he lovingly presses the strings between the frets. They are every bit as expressive as the musician's features; Perl compares the fingernails to punctuation marks, "sharp and acute." And when Watteau hastily sketches a standing flutist he gets the posture exactly right. There's room on the sheet for two women's faces, divided by the diagonal line of the flute. Rendered in red and black with highlights in white chalk, they suggest, like many of Watteau's characters, the remote and doll-like figures of 18th-century European porcelain.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/7_Flutist_Two_Women.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/7_Flutist_Two_Women.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817249405142009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817249405142009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724940514false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Studies of a Flutist and Two Women, Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1717. Red, black, and white chalks on buff laid paper. © 1955, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkLater artists took what they wanted from Watteau, often missing the delicate balance of frivolity and unease. His influence was decisive on such later Rococo painters as Boucher and Fragonard, with their feathery brushstrokes and pastoral seductions. But the Met exhibition takes us in a more surprising direction, showing how something of Watteau's darkly theatrical wit survived in the best work of the new medium of porcelain. In this tour de force by Meissen master Johann Joachim Kaendler, one of the most distinctive and influential sculptors of the era, the well-known mezzo Faustina Bordoni sings to the accompaniment of a fox. So detailed is the music that we can read the notes and the lyrics, which refer to "seduction, dignity, and revenge." But what's with the fox, whose paws don't quite reach the pedals? Well, Faustina was having a love affair with a certain Herr Fuchs ("fox"). She was dancing, you might say, to his tune. Watteau would have loved the innocent-looking fox, who has some of the mysteriously blank yet seen-it-all expression of Pierrot.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/8_Faustina_Bordoni_Fox.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/8_Faustina_Bordoni_Fox.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817249405142009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817249405142009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781724940514false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Faustina Bordoni and Fox, by Johann Joachim Kaendler, 1744. Hard-paste porcelain. © 1964, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Irwin Untermyer.2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000spaceryeshyperlinkBut all this levity, alas, was too late for Watteau. In 1719, he made a shadowy trip to England, and among those who purchased paintings from him was a distinguished doctor who presumably treated him for the tuberculosis that would kill him. It turned out that he was right that the premonitions that haunt his art—of disillusion, exile, isolation, and death—would catch up with him sooner than he would have liked. He died in midsummer in 1721 at the age of 36. His entire astonishing, enigmatic, and restless working career had lasted barely a decade.spacer600450nono1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/9_Mezzetin_Again.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123118/2209169/2229695/2229696/9_Mezzetin_Again.jpg600450http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817250967672009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM6339657817250967672009121643612PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:12 PM633965781725096767false200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000200992915602PMTuesdaySepSeptember139/29/2009 5:56:02 PM633898293620000000Mezzetin, by Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1718-20. Oil on canvas. © 1934 the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Munsey Fund, New York. 2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000Click here to read a slide-show essay about Jean-Antoine Watteau.truenotochyperlinkno2009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM6338990210600000002009930100826AMWednesdaySepSeptember109/30/2009 2:08:26 PM633899021060000000art1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM6339657832259946312009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM6339657832259946312009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM633965783225994631false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim MuseumFred Kaplan1/123122/2202502/kaplanf.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM6339657832264633932009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM6339657832264633932009121643842PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:38:42 PM633965783226463393false2008101711636PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:36 PM6335984619600000002008101711636PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:36 PM633598461960000000falseFifty years after its opening, has the art finally caught up with the architecture?noFrank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim MuseumFrank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum.noClick here for a slide show about the art and architecture of New York's Guggenheim Museum.truenotochyperlinkno200981272035AMWednesdayAugAugust78/12/2009 11:20:35 AM633856584350000000200981272035AMWednesdayAugAugust78/12/2009 11:20:35 AM633856584350000000art1/123125/2202562/art.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121643608PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:08 PM6339657816873728642009121643608PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:08 PM6339657816873728642009121643608PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:36:08 PM633965781687372864false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000Ready, Aim—Dream!Sarah BoxerfalseHas photography blinded us to the reality of the American West?noReady, Aim—Dream!The American West in photographs at MoMA.noClick here to read a slide-show essay on photography and the American West..truenotochyperlinkno20095670146AMWednesdayMayMay75/6/2009 11:01:46 AM6337719010600000002009731115335AMFridayJulJuly117/31/2009 3:53:35 PM633846380150000000200311442654PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:26:54 PM631781584140000000200311442654PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:26:54 PM631781584140000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM6313904368300000002001102365433AMTuesdayOctOctober610/23/2001 10:54:33 AM631394168730000000spacerMusic Boxyesfeedmusic boxMusic BoxPop, jazz, and classical.2121132777NA=1154&NC=1211&DI=4098&PS=58329&PI=7315musicboxfalsefalsespacernotembeddedmusic boxThe Best Jazz Albums of 2009Fred Kaplan1/123122/2202502/kaplanf.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121641254PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:12:54 PM6339657677401038952009121641254PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:12:54 PM6339657677401038952009121641254PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:12:54 PM633965767740103895false2008101711636PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:36 PM6335984619600000002008101711636PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:36 PM633598461960000000falseIt's tough to top Ella Fitzgerald. Plus: A bonus list—the best albums of the decade.noThe Best Jazz Albums of 2009Ella Fitzgerald, Keith Jarrett, and the best jazz albums of 2009. Plus: The best jazz albums of the decade.notruenotochyperlinkno2009121514025PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:40:25 PM6339648122500000002009121514025PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:40:25 PM633964812250000000music boxVanishing ActJody Rosen1/123122/2202502/rosenj.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121520725PMTuesdayDecDecember1412/15/2009 7:07:25 PM6339648284518657652009121520725PMTuesdayDecDecember1412/15/2009 7:07:25 PM6339648284518657652009121520725PMTuesdayDecDecember1412/15/2009 7:07:25 PM633964828451865765false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseIn search of Eva Tanguay, the first rock star.noVanishing ActIn search of Eva Tanguay, the first rock star.noClick here to view a slide show about Eva Tanguay.truenotochyperlinkno200912170431AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:04:31 PM633952478710000000200912170431AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:04:31 PM633952478710000000music boxNature's RejectsJan SwaffordfalseThe music of the castrati.noNature's RejectsThe music of the castrati.noIt's not the pyrotechnic pieces that are the most difficult, Cecilia Bartoli says. "The beautiful sad arias are the hardest to sing, because I am moved almost to tears. I know they were singing those arias out of their own sorrow." Bartoli is talking about her new recording, Sacrificium, which concerns the most exquisitely unsettling episode in the history of music: the castrati and the music written for them.truenotochyperlinkno200911912841PMMondayNovNovember1311/9/2009 6:28:41 PM633933701210000000200911912841PMMondayNovNovember1311/9/2009 6:28:41 PM633933701210000000music boxIs It OK To Like Chris Brown's New Single?Jonah WeinerfalseWhat to do when a bad person makes a good song.noIs It OK To Like Chris Brown's New Single?Is it OK to like Chris Brown's new single featuring Lil Wayne?noIf your stomach turns a little at the thought of ever hearing Chris Brown's voice again—or, for that matter, his name—get ready for one nauseous winter. The R&B singer, who pleaded guilty in June to beating his ex-girlfriend Rihanna during a February argument, is set to release his third album, Graffiti, in December. Last month, the lead single, "I Can Transform Ya," hit radio, and the follow-up, "Crawl," came out last week. There's something audacious about Brown's return, and not just because it took a scant three months for him to slide back into album-promo mode after entering his guilty plea. Brown has been exposed in the Rihanna saga, after all, as more than an abusive boyfriend. Promising affection and pleasure in his music but brutish and violent in real life, his love oil turned out to be snake oil: An R&B loverman best known for a domestic-violence conviction is an insupportable contradiction.truenotochyperlinkno20091029104759AMThursdayOctOctober1010/29/2009 2:47:59 PM63392410079000000020091029104759AMThursdayOctOctober1010/29/2009 2:47:59 PM633924100790000000music boxCreed Is GoodJonah WeinerfalseScott Stapp's nu-grunge foursome was seriously underrated.noCreed Is GoodCreed is totally underrated.noIn 1997, an unknown Florida hard-rock group called Creed spent $6,000 to make its debut album, My Own Prison. Talk about a good investment: An independent label, Wind-Up, signed the group, got Sony to provide distribution, and Creed became, for four years or so, one of America's hugest bands. Its 1999 single, "Higher," topped the modern-rock chart for 17 straight weeks. "With Arms Wide Open," released the following year, reached the top of the pop charts, and won the Grammy for best rock song. Between 1997 and 2002, the band grossed more than $70 million touring. To date, it has sold 26 million records in the United States.truenotochyperlinkno2009102193024AMWednesdayOctOctober910/21/2009 1:30:24 PM6339171422400000002009102193024AMWednesdayOctOctober910/21/2009 1:30:24 PM633917142240000000200311445905PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:59:05 PM631781603450000000200311445905PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:59:05 PM631781603450000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20026615916PMThursdayJunJune136/6/2002 5:59:16 PM63158968756000000020026615916PMThursdayJunJune136/6/2002 5:59:16 PM631589687560000000spacerDVD Extrasyesfeeddvd extrasDVD ExtrasDeleted scenes, commentary, and more.2NA=1154&NC=1210&DI=4098&PS=58314&PI=7315dvdfalsefalsespacernotembeddeddvd extrasTrojan HorseNathan Heller1/123122/2202502/hellern.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121611655PMWednesdayDecDecember1312/16/2009 6:16:55 PM6339656621528731932009121611655PMWednesdayDecDecember1312/16/2009 6:16:55 PM6339656621528731932009121611655PMWednesdayDecDecember1312/16/2009 6:16:55 PM633965662152873193false2008101711629PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:29 PM6335984618900000002008101711629PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:29 PM633598461890000000falsePrime time's first countercultural hero was a palomino named Mr. Ed.noTrojan HorseIs Mister Ed still funny? Of course.noSince humankind first donned stirrups, this planet has been home to two groups of people: those who love horses and those who find the creatures, with their shaggy bangs and Richard Branson teeth, a little weird. Mister Ed, which premiered in 1961 and ran for five years, was born in equal measure of both tastes. For horse lovers, it was an anthropomorphic Liebestraum, a vision of the world in which hoofed beasts were not just lithe and gorgeous but possessed of an uncommon, prime-time-eligible wit. (Ed, the talking palomino, got his own billing in the credits and most of the show's best lines.) For the ambivalent, there was the added comedy of seeing a gawky animal enjoy the sacraments of postwar culture. Ed submits to psychoanalysis, goes to costume pageants, orders shoes over the phone. The joke is not just that he acts human; it's the implication that the better part of early-'60s home life could be managed, quite adeptly, by a horse with a vocabulary.truenotochyperlinkno2009121695619AMWednesdayDecDecember912/16/2009 2:56:19 PM6339655417900000002009121695619AMWednesdayDecDecember912/16/2009 2:56:19 PM633965541790000000dvd extrasBadfellasJonah WeinerfalseHow Gomorrah tore up the mob-movie rulebook.noBadfellasGomorrah, the brutal Italian gangster film that tore up the mob-movie rulebook.noWhen the mob boss Paul Vario died of lung failure at age 73 in 1988, the New York Times obituary allowed for some ambiguity when it came to what, exactly, the 6-foot-tall, 250-pound Brooklynite had done for a living. If you took Vario's word for it, he was a florist. If you went by the accounts of law-enforcement agents and the author Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote about Vario in Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, Vario's CV included loan sharking, bookmaking, hijacking, rape, burglary, and racketeering. He died while serving a 10-year sentence for extorting money from airfreight companies at John F. Kennedy Airport.truenotochyperlinkno2009121093610AMThursdayDecDecember912/10/2009 2:36:10 PM6339603457000000002009121093610AMThursdayDecDecember912/10/2009 2:36:10 PM633960345700000000dvd extrasThe Easy Rider Road TripThe Easy Rider Road TripRetracing the path of the iconic movie on its 40th anniversary.Keith Phipps0The end of the road.Day 6 I begin the day by flying from Albuquerque, N.M., to New Orleans. It's cheating, but only a little. Warned not to film in Texas because the state had no patience for long hair, Easy Rider skipped the state, so I do, too. Renting a car at the airport, I head directly to Morganza, La., a rural community up the road from Baton Rouge where Hanson, Wyatt, and Billy try, and fail, to enjoy a meal. "You name it, I'll throw rocks at it," one local tells the town sheriff as they enter the diner. The teenage girls dining there have a different reaction. Visibly attracted to the men, they follow them outside and coo over their bikes. Easy Rider used locals as the diner patrons and Fonda recalls giving the men a single line of motivation: "We've just raped a 13-year-old white girl outside of town."nonotruenonotochyperlinkno2009111665754AMMondayNovNovember611/16/2009 11:57:54 AM6339395147400000002009112071142AMFridayNovNovember711/20/2009 12:11:42 PM633942979020000000dvd extrasThe Easy Rider Road MapAn interactive guide.noThe Easy Rider Road MapThe Easy Rider Road Map: An interactive guide to the movie's journey.notruenotochyperlinkno2009111674146AMMondayNovNovember711/16/2009 12:41:46 PM6339395410600000002009111674146AMMondayNovNovember711/16/2009 12:41:46 PM633939541060000000dvd extrasThe Cineaste of CoolNathaniel RichfalseHow Jim Jarmusch's hipness distracts from his greatness.noThe Cineaste of CoolStranger Than Paradise on DVD.noFor better or worse, Jim Jarmusch has developed a reputation as the cineaste of cool. He has only himself to blame. For one, he has a rare genius for the suave posture and the shockingly odd image. Think of Johnny Depp in a checkered suit and black bowler, limping through a birch forest in the surrealist Western Dead Man (1995), or the two Japanese tourists in Mystery Train (1989), ecstatic with passion for Elvis Presley, sitting on the floor of their Memphis, Tenn., hotel room with lipstick-smeared faces. He also frequently casts musicians as his actors (John Lurie, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, and Jack and Meg White, among others), and his soundtracks, featuring Charlie Parker, Elvis, and Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatke, help give his films their distinctive mood—the cinematic equivalent of a world-weary shrug. Most responsible of all for this reputation, however, is his trademark dialogue, with its reliance on antiquated slang, digressive riffs, and bathetic one-liners.truenotochyperlinkno2007109125651PMTuesdayOctOctober1210/9/2007 4:56:51 PM6332753141100000002009111171132AMWednesdayNovNovember711/11/2009 12:11:32 PM633935202920000000200311445906PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:59:06 PM631781603460000000200311445906PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:59:06 PM631781603460000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue2002711100230AMThursdayJulJuly107/11/2002 2:02:30 PM6316197855000000002006223111932AMThursdayFebFebruary112/23/2006 4:19:32 PM632762903720000000spacerCultureboxyesfeedcultureboxCultureboxArts, entertainment, and more.2NA=1154&NC=1208&DI=4098&PS=58310&PI=7315cultureboxfalsefalsespacernotembeddedcultureboxShirt-Buttoning Styles of the Weird and "Special"June Thomas1/123122/123123/2055730/2056485/thomas_june.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912424942PMFridayDecDecember1412/4/2009 7:49:42 PM633955349829827712200912424942PMFridayDecDecember1412/4/2009 7:49:42 PM633955349829827712200912424942PMFridayDecDecember1412/4/2009 7:49:42 PM633955349829827712false2009120105322AMTuesdayJanJanuary101/20/2009 3:53:22 PM6336804560200000002009120105322AMTuesdayJanJanuary101/20/2009 3:53:22 PM633680456020000000falseWhy Forrest Gump, Adrian Monk, and Steve Urkel button the top button.noShirt-Buttoning Styles of the Weird and "Special"How buttoned-up shirts are costuming shorthand for "special."noWhile out on an errand not long ago, a woman stopped me at a crosswalk and asked what day it was. An odd question, but even odder was the way she asked: She crouched slightly as she spoke, even though we were the same height, and her words came out slow and overpronounced, as though she were taking a sobriety test. I answered—I'm a helpful sort—and turned away. But before I could leave, she reached out and said, "Good job!" in a peculiar sing-song voice. She seemed perfectly normal, well-dressed and with a male companion in tow. It suddenly struck me that she thought I was developmentally disabled. But why? When I got home, I stared at the mirror for a bit and found my answer: It was that interval between seasons when it's breezy but still too warm for a coat, so I'd donned a cardigan and buttoned my shirt all the way to the top. This was unwise. A fully buttoned shirt is the universal costume symbol for special.truenotochyperlinkno200912345612PMThursdayDecDecember1612/3/2009 9:56:12 PM633954561720000000200912345612PMThursdayDecDecember1612/3/2009 9:56:12 PM633954561720000000cultureboxYou Really Should Be Watching Parks and RecreationJonah WeinerfalseHow the NBC sitcom found its voice. Plus: its mustachioed secret weapon.noYou Really Should Be Watching Parks and RecreationYou really should be watching NBC's Parks and Recreation.noOver the past month or so, TV writers have been working to hip America to an apparently little-known fact: NBC's Thursday-night sitcom lineup does not, as one may have thought, kick off at 9 p.m. ET with The Office only to end an hour later with 30 Rock's closing credits. Several critics have encouraged us to check in at 8 p.m., when the daffy new Community airs, followed by Parks and Recreation, currently in its second season after debuting last spring as a six-episode, midseason replacement. The ghosts of Rachel Green and Cosmo Kramer have been drafted to the cause: "NBC's Thursday comedy block," the Los Angeles Times declared, "has matured into a lineup almost as formidable as that of its 1990s heyday."truenotochyperlinkno200912293343AMWednesdayDecDecember912/2/2009 2:33:43 PM633953432230000000200912293343AMWednesdayDecDecember912/2/2009 2:33:43 PM633953432230000000cultureboxStrange MapsFrank JacobsfalseCalifornia as an island, utopia in the shape of a skull, and other cartographic curiosities.noStrange MapsCalifornia as an island, utopia in the shape of a skull, and other strange maps.nospacer205180Strange Maps. Click here to launch slide show.falsefalse1/123125/123050/2208438/2235913/2236255/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/123050/2208438/2235913/2236255/SlideShowLaunchModule.jpg205180http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912414027PMFridayDecDecember1312/4/2009 6:40:27 PM633955308275269282200912414027PMFridayDecDecember1312/4/2009 6:40:27 PM633955308275269282200912414027PMFridayDecDecember1312/4/2009 6:40:27 PM633955308275269282false2009112521828PMWednesdayNovNovember1411/25/2009 7:18:28 PM6339475550800000002009112521828PMWednesdayNovNovember1411/25/2009 7:18:28 PM633947555080000000Click here to read a slide-show essay on strange maps.truenotochyperlinkno2009113070837AMMondayNovNovember711/30/2009 12:08:37 PM6339516171700000002009113070837AMMondayNovNovember711/30/2009 12:08:37 PM633951617170000000cultureboxFamily ManJamin Brophy-WarrenfalseMeet the producer behind Jon and Kate, Table for 12, and 18 Kids and Counting.noFamily ManBill Hayes, the producer behind Jon and Kate, Table for 12, and 18 Kids and Counting.noIn the summer of 2005, television producer Bill Hayes was sitting at his desk in Carrboro, N.C., when his partner and production manager Deanie Wilcher told him about a potential lead. Hayes and his company, Figure 8 Films, had been looking for large families to serve as documentary subjects, and the family Wilcher had found fit the bill: twin daughters and a set of sextuplets. Hayes picked up the phone and called the young Pennsylvania couple, who were excited about television and liked the idea of creating a visual memento for their eight children.truenotochyperlinkno2009112773930AMFridayNovNovember711/27/2009 12:39:30 PM6339490437000000002009112773930AMFridayNovNovember711/27/2009 12:39:30 PM633949043700000000cultureboxOutfoxedJames ParkerfalseHow Roald Dahl's stories for children eclipsed his fiction for adults.noOutfoxedWould Roald Dahl have liked Wes Anderson's adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox?no"I could feel him smiling," said Felicity Dahl, widow of the great Roald, of her experience of viewing Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. "I was thinking, he'd love this." Well, she would know, I suppose. But what am I to do then with my conviction that her late husband would have loathed this? That Wes Anderson, with his glockenspiels and drolleries and minutely faceted interiors, has travestied the raucous spirit of Dahl? And that the ideal Fantastic Mr. Fox movie would be a work of slapdash animation, soundtrack by Mötorhead, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait? I'll just have to sit on it, I suppose.truenotochyperlinkno20091124111727AMTuesdayNovNovember1111/24/2009 4:17:27 PM63394658247000000020091124111727AMTuesdayNovNovember1111/24/2009 4:17:27 PM633946582470000000200311442836PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:28:36 PM631781585160000000200311442836PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:28:36 PM631781585160000000falsetruefalsefalsefalsetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200933064927AMMondayMarMarch63/30/2009 10:49:27 AM633739925670000000spacerHighbrow, Theyesnonefeedthe highbrowHighbrow, TheExamining culture and the arts.2NA=1154&NC=1223&DI=4098&PS=84498&PI=7315highbrowfalsefalsespacernotembeddedthe highbrowThe Man Who Made OzMeghan O'Rourke1/123122/2202502/orourkem.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200992245519PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:19 PM633892353195521970200992245519PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:19 PM633892353195678221200992245519PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:19 PM633892353195678221false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseL. Frank Baum and the first American fairy tale.noThe Man Who Made OzDissecting the real Wizard of Oz.noIn 1900, a 44-year-old L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and became the father of the American fairy tale. The book was a commercial and critical success. The story of the orphaned Dorothy Gale, whisked by a tornado away from gray, impoverished Kansas to the magical land of Oz, captured the hearts of children and adults who had lived through an economic crisis but saw all around them the thrum of invention and change. As a young country abuzz with "progress," the United States needed a different kind of fairy tale. A truly American myth could not merely invoke Celtic wraiths or Bavarian dark forest goblins. It would have to include the drive to innovate that launched the Gilded Age and made America the archetypal modern industrial nation during the very decades when Baum's imagination was formed.truenotochyperlinkno200992172109AMMondaySepSeptember79/21/2009 11:21:09 AM633891144690000000200992172109AMMondaySepSeptember79/21/2009 11:21:09 AM633891144690000000the highbrowCrazy in LoveMeghan O'Rourke1/123122/2202502/orourkem.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse20091214105738AMMondayDecDecember1012/14/2009 3:57:38 PM63396385058879816920091214105738AMMondayDecDecember1012/14/2009 3:57:38 PM63396385058879816920091214105738AMMondayDecDecember1012/14/2009 3:57:38 PM633963850588798169false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseA new book makes the case for passionate obsession.noCrazy in LoveCristina Nehring's A Vindication of Love. noAfter the free-love ardor of the 1960s sexual revolution cooled down, a brave new vision of marriage emerged from its ashes. This has come to be known as "companionate marriage." In such a partnership, spouses have a mutual interest in career and home, and share in raising children. They talk over dinner, take turns doing dishes, fret together over the children's schooling, and arrange the occasional date night. To many Americans, the Obamas' recent studiously scheduled outing together would represent the apogee of a successful equitable marriage. To Cristina Nehring, author of the ambitious polemic A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century, one suspects, it would represent all that is wrong with marriage today.truenotochyperlinkno2009619114455AMFridayJunJune116/19/2009 3:44:55 PM6338100869500000002009619114455AMFridayJunJune116/19/2009 3:44:55 PM633810086950000000the highbrowThe Outsider ArtistMeghan O'Rourke1/123122/2202502/orourkem.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200992245525PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:25 PM633892353257440908200992245525PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:25 PM633892353257440908200992245525PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:25 PM633892353257440908false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseAssessing Kay Ryan, our new poet laureate.noThe Outsider ArtistAssessing the new poet laureate.noKay Ryan, who has just been named America's new poet laureate, is a miniaturist. She favors compression the way Walt Whitman favored expansion. Like oysters, she has said, her poems take shape around "an aggravation." They are also small (most are only about 20 lines long), rich, and dense. A single one might not always make a meal, but a well-selected plate will satiate most readers.truenotochyperlinkno2008729122655PMTuesdayJulJuly127/29/2008 4:26:55 PM6335293121500000002008729122655PMTuesdayJulJuly127/29/2008 4:26:55 PM633529312150000000the highbrow100 CandlesMeghan O'Rourke1/123122/2202502/orourkem.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200992245526PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:26 PM633892353268705813200992245526PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:26 PM633892353268705813200992245526PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:26 PM633892353268705813false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseAnne of Green Gables grows old and gets her due.no100 CandlesAnne of Green Gables at 100.noOne hundred years ago, L.M. Montgomery did for women's imaginative lives what Susan B. Anthony did for women's political lives by publishing Anne of Green Gables, the story of an outspoken red-haired orphan growing up on Canada's Prince Edward Island. The book immediately broke through commercially and artistically, selling some 19,000 copies in five months, leading even the cranky dean of American letters, Mark Twain, to pronounce Anne "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice." Today, Anne of Green Gables and its seven sequels are the basis for a small industry. More than 50 million editions of the first volume are in print around the world. The books have spun off movies, musicals, miniseries, and an assortment of bric-a-brac, from tea sets to light switches. But perhaps the greatest tribute to Anne's enduring vitality is the decision by the solemn eminences who edit the Modern Library to issue and heavily promote a centennial edition of the first volume in the series. Tolstoy and Anna Karenina, meet L.M. Montgomery and Anne Shirley.truenotochyperlinkno20087832728PMTuesdayJulJuly157/8/2008 7:27:28 PM63351127648000000020087832728PMTuesdayJulJuly157/8/2008 7:27:28 PM633511276480000000the highbrow'Tweenyboppers at WorkMeghan O'Rourke1/123122/2202502/orourkem.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200992245517PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:17 PM633892353177282093200992245517PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:17 PM633892353177282093200992245517PMTuesdaySepSeptember169/22/2009 8:55:17 PM633892353177282093false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseThe Miley Cyrus controversy.no'Tweenyboppers at WorkThe Miley Cyrus controversy.noCall me insensitive, but I didn't think that the supposedly "racy" photo of 'tween star Miley Cyrus holding a bedsheet around her bare torso was as outré as all the fuss made it out to be. Sure, Cyrus' hair is tousled in a sexual way, and she is, technically, topless. But from a less alarmist perspective, the photograph is—as Annie Leibovitz described it—highly classical. It focuses on the contrast between Cyrus' alabaster skin and dark hair, and it captures, in her vulnerable yet adult gaze, the strangeness of the transitional period known as adolescence. To be 15 is to be no longer a child, even if you are not yet an adult.truenotochyperlinkno20085545012PMMondayMayMay165/5/2008 8:50:12 PM63345603012000000020085854643PMThursdayMayMay175/8/2008 9:46:43 PM633458656030000000200412831008PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/8/2004 8:10:08 PM632381154080000000200412831008PMWednesdayDecDecember1512/8/2004 8:10:08 PM632381154080000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue200412823538PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/8/2004 7:35:38 PM632381133380000000200412823538PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/8/2004 7:35:38 PM632381133380000000spacerSpectator, Theyesfeedthe spectatorSpectator, TheScrutinizing culture.22161049spectatorfalsefalsespacernullthe spectatorThe Dangerous Mysteries of ConsciousnessRon Rosenbaum1/123122/2202502/rosenbaumr.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200912440730PMFridayDecDecember1612/4/2009 9:07:30 PM633955396504031745200912440730PMFridayDecDecember1612/4/2009 9:07:30 PM633955396504031745200912440730PMFridayDecDecember1612/4/2009 9:07:30 PM633955396504031745false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseWe still need answers.noThe Dangerous Mysteries of ConsciousnessThe unsolved mysteries of consciousness.noThere's a certain kind of mystery—unsolved and probably insoluble—that has a seductive attraction for me. I think the insolubility is the attraction. Historical and literary mysteries: What was the origin of Hitler's hatred? Did Shakespeare revise Hamlet? And I'm particularly troubled by metaphysical mysteries, the essential but oh-so-slippery mysteries of existence. Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the origin and nature of consciousness? What distinguishes living from nonliving being?truenotochyperlinkno2009113061013PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:10:13 PM6339520141300000002009113061013PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:10:13 PM633952014130000000the spectatorThe Evil of BanalityRon Rosenbaum1/123122/2202502/rosenbaumr.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009113061122PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:22 PM6339520148273626372009113061122PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:22 PM6339520148273626372009113061122PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:22 PM633952014827362637false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseTroubling new revelations about Arendt and Heidegger.noThe Evil of BanalityTroubling new revelations about Arendt and Heidegger.noWill we ever be able to think of Hannah Arendt in the same way again? Two new and damning critiques, one of Arendt and one of her longtime Nazi-sycophant lover, the philosopher Martin Heidegger, were published within 10 days of each other last month. The pieces cast further doubt on the overinflated, underexamined reputations of both figures and shed new light on their intellectually toxic relationship.truenotochyperlinkno20091030123755PMFridayOctOctober1210/30/2009 4:37:55 PM63392503075000000020091030123755PMFridayOctOctober1210/30/2009 4:37:55 PM633925030750000000the spectatorWorst Framing Device EverRon Rosenbaum1/123122/2202502/rosenbaumr.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009113061125PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:25 PM6339520148545386912009113061125PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:25 PM6339520148545386912009113061125PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:25 PM633952014854538691false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseHow the misbegotten phrase public option has undermined health care reform.noWorst Framing Device EverHow the phrase public option undermined health care reform.noIn the history of political euphemisms, has there ever been a more empty, vacuous, mystifying, or counterproductive phrase than public option? It's the bastard child of inbred wonk culture and fashionable "framing" theory. The product of people who talk mainly to one another (the wonks) and the people who invent ways for the wonks to talk down to other people (the framers).truenotochyperlinkno2009101315850PMTuesdayOctOctober1310/13/2009 5:58:50 PM6339103913000000002009101315850PMTuesdayOctOctober1310/13/2009 5:58:50 PM633910391300000000the spectatorThe Nabokov CodeRon Rosenbaum1/123122/2202502/rosenbaumr.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM6339520147823617732009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM6339520147823617732009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM633952014782361773false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseA first encounter with Laura, his last, unfinished work.noThe Nabokov CodeA sneak peek at Nabokov's Original of Laura.noIt shouldn't be surprising that the forthcoming (Nov. 17) release of the long-locked-away Holy Grail of higher lit, Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished draft of The Original of Laura, is attended with an air of the clandestine.truenotochyperlinkno2009924105726AMThursdaySepSeptember109/24/2009 2:57:26 PM6338938664600000002009924105726AMThursdaySepSeptember109/24/2009 2:57:26 PM633893866460000000the spectatorWho Are You Calling Genius?Ron Rosenbaum1/123122/2202502/rosenbaumr.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM6339520147812942772009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM6339520147812942772009113061118PMMondayNovNovember1811/30/2009 11:11:18 PM633952014781294277false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000falseIt's time to retire the term.noWho Are You Calling Genius?How we use and abuse the word genius.noI've been thinking about the question of genius lately. I received an invite to an early screening of Richard Linklater's new film, Me and Orson Welles, which is in one sense a meditation on genius. It re-creates a turning point in Welles' rise to genius-dom: his triumphant struggle to put his sensationally received Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar—done in modern dress, as if set in Mussolini's Rome—on Broadway in 1937.truenotochyperlinkno20099931758PMWednesdaySepSeptember159/9/2009 7:17:58 PM63388106278000000020099931758PMWednesdaySepSeptember159/9/2009 7:17:58 PM633881062780000000200735103859AMMondayMarMarch103/5/2007 3:38:59 PM633086879390000000200735103859AMMondayMarMarch103/5/2007 3:38:59 PM633086879390000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20073610429PMTuesdayMarMarch133/6/2007 6:04:29 PM63308783069000000020073610429PMTuesdayMarMarch133/6/2007 6:04:29 PM633087830690000000spacerPoemsyesfeedpoemPoemsA weekly poem, read by the author.2NA=1154&NC=1217&DI=4098&PS=58332&PI=7315PoemfalsefalseCulturespacernotembeddedpoem"Morphine"Mira RosenthalfalseA weekly poem, read by the author.no"Morphine""Morphine"noClick the arrow on the audio player to hear Mira Rosenthal read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes..truenotochyperlinkno2009121572703AMTuesdayDecDecember712/15/2009 12:27:03 PM6339645882300000002009121572821AMTuesdayDecDecember712/15/2009 12:28:21 PM633964589010000000poemThe Slate Poetry PodcastYour favorite poets read their work to you.noThe Slate Poetry PodcastSlate's weekly Poetry Podcast.noNow you can listen to Slate poetry wherever you go. Below, browse Slate's weekly lineup of new and renewed work by leading poets, selected by Robert Pinsky and read to you by the author. Or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast feed on iTunes and carry the poems with you..truenotochyperlinkno200991565443AMTuesdaySepSeptember69/15/2009 10:54:43 AM6338859448300000002009121572703AMTuesdayDecDecember712/15/2009 12:27:03 PM633964588230000000poem"Dead Mother"Henri ColefalseA weekly poem, read by the author.no"Dead Mother""Dead Mother"noClick the arrow on the audio player to hear Henri Cole read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes..truenotochyperlinkno200912865613AMTuesdayDecDecember612/8/2009 11:56:13 AM633958521730000000200912865843AMTuesdayDecDecember612/8/2009 11:58:43 AM633958523230000000poemAlways With the Complaining!Robert PinskyfalseMeet Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick, poetry's most artful kvetches.noAlways With the Complaining!Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, and the art of kvetching in a poem.noThe Yiddish verb for complaining, kvetch—literally to squeeze or to crush—has an onomatopoetic quality to my ear. All of those consonant sounds, squashed into a single syllable, surrounding the explosive grunt of the short E sound, to me, like the prolonged insistence of a grievance. And who has not occasionally been a kvetch, the noun—a relentless complainer?truenotochyperlinkno200912170052AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:00:52 PM633952476520000000200912170148AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:01:48 PM633952477080000000poem"Funeral"Rosanna WarrenfalseA weekly poem, read by the author.no"Funeral""Funeral"noClick the arrow on the audio player to hear Rosanna Warren read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes..truenotochyperlinkno2009112465252AMTuesdayNovNovember611/24/2009 11:52:52 AM6339464237200000002009112465344AMTuesdayNovNovember611/24/2009 11:53:44 AM633946424240000000200311442707PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:07 PM631781584270000000200311442707PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:27:07 PM631781584270000000truetruetruetruetruetruetrue20011018111443PMThursdayOctOctober2310/19/2001 3:14:43 AM631390436830000000200710272203AMTuesdayOctOctober710/2/2007 11:22:03 AM633269065230000000ArtsmoviesAvatar is the first broadband blockbuster.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlinkno2009121655117PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:17 PM6339658267700000002009121655117PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:17 PM633965826770000000spacerthe music clubLet's talk more about sex—and country music.Let's talk more about sex—and country music.Jody Rosen, Jonah Weiner, and Carl Wilsontrue2238863nofalsemenuhyperlink200912781932PMMondayDecDecember2012/8/2009 1:19:32 AM6339581397200000002009121643454PMWednesdayDecDecember1612/16/2009 9:34:54 PM633965780940000000spacertelevisionI attempt to cookalong with Gordon Ramsay.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121625801PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:58:01 PM6339657228100000002009121625801PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:58:01 PM633965722810000000spacerinterrogationJacob Weisberg talks to Werner Herzog about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and My Son,My Son, What Have Ye Done.Jacob Weisbergnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121623740PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:37:40 PM6339657106000000002009121623740PMWednesdayDecDecember1412/16/2009 7:37:40 PM633965710600000000spacerdvd extrasIs Mister Ed still funny? Of course.Nathan Hellernotruenomenuhyperlink2009121695619AMWednesdayDecDecember912/16/2009 2:56:19 PM6339655417900000002009121695619AMWednesdayDecDecember912/16/2009 2:56:19 PM633965541790000000spacermusic boxElla Fitzgerald, Keith Jarrett, and the best jazz albums of 2009. Plus: The best jazz albums of the decade.Fred Kaplannotruenomenuhyperlink2009121514025PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:40:25 PM6339648122500000002009121514025PMTuesdayDecDecember1312/15/2009 6:40:25 PM633964812250000000spacerpoem"Morphine"Mira Rosenthalnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121572703AMTuesdayDecDecember712/15/2009 12:27:03 PM6339645882300000002009121572821AMTuesdayDecDecember712/15/2009 12:28:21 PM633964589010000000spacerbooksJohn Keegan's The American Civil War: A Military History.David W. Blightnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121470527AMMondayDecDecember712/14/2009 12:05:27 PM6339637112700000002009121470527AMMondayDecDecember712/14/2009 12:05:27 PM633963711270000000spacertelevisionWhy I love the Rockette holiday show.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121183428PMFridayDecDecember2012/12/2009 1:34:28 AM6339616046800000002009121183428PMFridayDecDecember2012/12/2009 1:34:28 AM633961604680000000spacermoviesThe Princess and the Frog reviewed.Dan Koisnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121111603PMFridayDecDecember1312/11/2009 6:16:03 PM6339613416300000002009121111603PMFridayDecDecember1312/11/2009 6:16:03 PM633961341630000000spacermoviesClint Eastwood's Invictus reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink20091211113130AMFridayDecDecember1112/11/2009 4:31:30 PM63396127890000000020091211113232AMFridayDecDecember1112/11/2009 4:32:32 PM633961279520000000spacermoviesIs Avatar destined to flop?Josh Levinnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121064603PMThursdayDecDecember1812/10/2009 11:46:03 PM6339606756300000002009121064603PMThursdayDecDecember1812/10/2009 11:46:03 PM633960675630000000spacerbooksThe best books of 2009.notruenomenuhyperlink2009121030809PMThursdayDecDecember1512/10/2009 8:08:09 PM6339605448900000002009121030809PMThursdayDecDecember1512/10/2009 8:08:09 PM633960544890000000spacermoviesThe Lovely Bones reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink20091210101140AMThursdayDecDecember1012/10/2009 3:11:40 PM63396036700000000020091210101140AMThursdayDecDecember1012/10/2009 3:11:40 PM633960367000000000spacerdvd extrasGomorrah, the brutal Italian gangster film that tore up the mob-movie rulebook.Jonah Weinernotruenomenuhyperlink2009121093610AMThursdayDecDecember912/10/2009 2:36:10 PM6339603457000000002009121093610AMThursdayDecDecember912/10/2009 2:36:10 PM633960345700000000spacertelevisionDouchebags gone wild.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink200912953124PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/9/2009 10:31:24 PM633959766840000000200912953124PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/9/2009 10:31:24 PM633959766840000000spacerpoem"Dead Mother"Henri Colenotruenomenuhyperlink200912865613AMTuesdayDecDecember612/8/2009 11:56:13 AM633958521730000000200912865843AMTuesdayDecDecember612/8/2009 11:58:43 AM633958523230000000spacerbooksThomas Mallon's Yours Ever.Megan Marshallnotruenomenuhyperlink200912770121AMMondayDecDecember712/7/2009 12:01:21 PM633957660810000000200912770121AMMondayDecDecember712/7/2009 12:01:21 PM633957660810000000spacertelevisionGlenn Beck's Christmas show.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink200912453933PMFridayDecDecember1712/4/2009 10:39:33 PM633955451730000000200912453933PMFridayDecDecember1712/4/2009 10:39:33 PM633955451730000000spacermoviesNatalie Portman ruins Brothers.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink200912443112PMFridayDecDecember1612/4/2009 9:31:12 PM633955410720000000200912443112PMFridayDecDecember1612/4/2009 9:31:12 PM633955410720000000spacermoviesUp In the Air reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink200912390240PMThursdayDecDecember2112/4/2009 2:02:40 AM633954709600000000200912390240PMThursdayDecDecember2112/4/2009 2:02:40 AM633954709600000000spacertelevisionAlice reviewed.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink200912383733PMThursdayDecDecember2012/4/2009 1:37:33 AM633954694530000000200912383733PMThursdayDecDecember2012/4/2009 1:37:33 AM633954694530000000spacercultureboxHow did a buttoned-up shirt become costuming shorthand for "special."June Thomasnotruenomenuhyperlink200912345612PMThursdayDecDecember1612/3/2009 9:56:12 PM633954561720000000200912345612PMThursdayDecDecember1612/3/2009 9:56:12 PM633954561720000000spacergalleryA photo essay about the most complicated, disturbing, and lively intersection in New York City.Camilo Jose Vergaranofalsenomenuhyperlink2009123100250AMThursdayDecDecember1012/3/2009 3:02:50 PM6339543137000000002009123100250AMThursdayDecDecember1012/3/2009 3:02:50 PM633954313700000000spacerslate fareBooks, music, and movies Slate writers recommend.notruenomenuhyperlink200963033303PMTuesdayJunJune156/30/2009 7:33:03 PM6338197278300000002009122113853AMWednesdayDecDecember1112/2/2009 4:38:53 PM633953507330000000spacerculture gabfestSlate's Culture Gabfest on the White House gatecrashers, the worst decade ever, and Eva Tanguay, the first rock star.Stephen Metcalf, Troy Patterson, Jody Rosen, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turnernotruefalsefalsemenuhyperlink2009122113216AMWednesdayDecDecember1112/2/2009 4:32:16 PM63395350336000000020091216122836PMWednesdayDecDecember1212/16/2009 5:28:36 PM633965633160000000spacercultureboxYou really should be watching NBC's Parks and Recreation.Jonah Weinernotruenomenuhyperlink200912293343AMWednesdayDecDecember912/2/2009 2:33:43 PM633953432230000000200912293343AMWednesdayDecDecember912/2/2009 2:33:43 PM633953432230000000spacerarchitectureThe enduring influence of architect Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language.Witold Rybczynskinotruenomenuhyperlink200912271551AMWednesdayDecDecember712/2/2009 12:15:51 PM633953349510000000200912271551AMWednesdayDecDecember712/2/2009 12:15:51 PM633953349510000000spacera fine whineDon't give DVD box sets as gifts.Grady Hendrixnotruenomenuhyperlink2009121121500PMTuesdayDecDecember1212/1/2009 5:15:00 PM6339526650000000002009121121500PMTuesdayDecDecember1212/1/2009 5:15:00 PM633952665000000000spacermusic boxIn search of Eva Tanguay, the first rock star.Jody Rosennotruefalsefalsemenuhyperlink200912170431AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:04:31 PM633952478710000000200912170431AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:04:31 PM633952478710000000spacerpoemBen Jonson, Robert Herrick, and the art of kvetching in a poem.Robert Pinskynotruenomenuhyperlink200912170052AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:00:52 PM633952476520000000200912170148AMTuesdayDecDecember712/1/2009 12:01:48 PM633952477080000000spacercultureboxCalifornia as an island, utopia in the shape of a skull, and other strange maps.Frank Jacobsnotruenomenuhyperlink2009113070837AMMondayNovNovember711/30/2009 12:08:37 PM6339516171700000002009113070837AMMondayNovNovember711/30/2009 12:08:37 PM633951617170000000spacerbooksPaul Johnson's Churchill.Jon Meachamnotruenomenuhyperlink2009112963519AMSundayNovNovember611/29/2009 11:35:19 AM6339507331900000002009112963519AMSundayNovNovember611/29/2009 11:35:19 AM633950733190000000spacercultureboxBill Hayes, the producer behind Jon and Kate, Table for 12, and 18 Kids and Counting.Jamin Brophy-Warrennotruenomenuhyperlink2009112773930AMFridayNovNovember711/27/2009 12:39:30 PM6339490437000000002009112773930AMFridayNovNovember711/27/2009 12:39:30 PM633949043700000000spacertelevisionIs The City destroying America?Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009112525304PMWednesdayNovNovember1411/25/2009 7:53:04 PM6339475758400000002009112525304PMWednesdayNovNovember1411/25/2009 7:53:04 PM633947575840000000spacerartNostalgia for the contact sheet.Sarah Boxernotruenomenuhyperlink20091125124850PMWednesdayNovNovember1211/25/2009 5:48:50 PM63394750130000000020091125125354PMWednesdayNovNovember1211/25/2009 5:53:54 PM633947504340000000spacermoviesThe Road reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink20091125101225AMWednesdayNovNovember1011/25/2009 3:12:25 PM63394740745000000020091125101225AMWednesdayNovNovember1011/25/2009 3:12:25 PM633947407450000000spacercultureboxWould Roald Dahl have liked Wes Anderson's adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox?James Parkernotruenomenuhyperlink20091124111727AMTuesdayNovNovember1111/24/2009 4:17:27 PM63394658247000000020091124111727AMTuesdayNovNovember1111/24/2009 4:17:27 PM633946582470000000spacerbooksJoan Biskupic's American Original.Emily Bazelonnotruenomenuhyperlink20091124100044AMTuesdayNovNovember1011/24/2009 3:00:44 PM63394653644000000020091124100044AMTuesdayNovNovember1011/24/2009 3:00:44 PM633946536440000000spacerpoem"Funeral"Rosanna Warrennotruenomenuhyperlink2009112465252AMTuesdayNovNovember611/24/2009 11:52:52 AM6339464237200000002009112465344AMTuesdayNovNovember611/24/2009 11:53:44 AM633946424240000000spacerbooksGail Collins's When Everything Changed.Katha Pollittnotruenomenuhyperlink2009112370325AMMondayNovNovember711/23/2009 12:03:25 PM6339455660500000002009112370325AMMondayNovNovember711/23/2009 12:03:25 PM633945566050000000spacertelevisionHow to score chicks on the Disney Channel.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009112053851PMFridayNovNovember1711/20/2009 10:38:51 PM6339433553100000002009112053851PMFridayNovNovember1711/20/2009 10:38:51 PM633943355310000000spacermoviesBad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleansreviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink2009112034711PMFridayNovNovember1511/20/2009 8:47:11 PM6339432883100000002009112034711PMFridayNovNovember1511/20/2009 8:47:11 PM633943288310000000spacermoviesThe Blind Side reviewed.Josh Levinnotruenomenuhyperlink20091120112524AMFridayNovNovember1111/20/2009 4:25:24 PM63394313124000000020091120112524AMFridayNovNovember1111/20/2009 4:25:24 PM633943131240000000spacerdvd extrasRetracing the path of the iconic movie on its 40th anniversary.Retracing the path of the iconic movie on its 40th anniversary.Keith Phippstrue0nonomenuhyperlink2009111665754AMMondayNovNovember611/16/2009 11:57:54 AM6339395147400000002009112071142AMFridayNovNovember711/20/2009 12:11:42 PM633942979020000000spacermoviesThe Twilight Saga: New Moon reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111963219PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:32:19 PM6339425233900000002009111963219PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:32:19 PM633942523390000000spacerrecycledWhy vampire movies always break all the vampire rules.Christopher Beamnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111960501PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:05:01 PM6339425070100000002009111960501PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:05:01 PM633942507010000000spacerrecycledWhen have we not been in the midst of a vampire craze?Christopher Beamnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111960440PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:04:40 PM6339425068000000002009111960440PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:04:40 PM633942506800000000spacerrecycledVampires suck. Grady Hendrixnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111960239PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:02:39 PM6339425055900000002009111960239PMThursdayNovNovember1811/19/2009 11:02:39 PM633942505590000000spacercultureboxDo books really need Hollywood-style trailers?Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111863039PMWednesdayNovNovember1811/18/2009 11:30:39 PM6339416583900000002009111863039PMWednesdayNovNovember1811/18/2009 11:30:39 PM633941658390000000spacerartThe surreal, high-concept showmanship of Urs Fischer.Ben Davisnotruenomenuhyperlink20091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM63394140445000000020091118112725AMWednesdayNovNovember1111/18/2009 4:27:25 PM633941404450000000spacerfamilyThe best preschool programming on TV is Nick Jr.'s Yo Gabba Gabba!Bret Asburynotruenomenuhyperlink2009111893129AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:31:29 PM6339413348900000002009111893129AMWednesdayNovNovember911/18/2009 2:31:29 PM633941334890000000spacerpoem"Consciousness"Ellen Wehlenotruenomenuhyperlink2009111770618AMTuesdayNovNovember711/17/2009 12:06:18 PM6339403837800000002009111770716AMTuesdayNovNovember711/17/2009 12:07:16 PM633940384360000000spacerthe audio book clubMeghan O'Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Katie Roiphe discussRaymond Carver's "A Small Good Thing" and "The Bath."Meghan O'Rourkenotruenomenuhyperlink2009111695111AMMondayNovNovember911/16/2009 2:51:11 PM6339396187100000002009111695111AMMondayNovNovember911/16/2009 2:51:11 PM633939618710000000spacerbooksPhilip Roth's The Humbling. Judith Shulevitznotruenomenuhyperlink20091115111816PMSundayNovNovember2311/16/2009 4:18:16 AM6339392389600000002009111665419AMMondayNovNovember611/16/2009 11:54:19 AM633939512590000000spacermoviesRoland Emmerich's 2012.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111342704PMFridayNovNovember1611/13/2009 9:27:04 PM6339372642400000002009111342704PMFridayNovNovember1611/13/2009 9:27:04 PM633937264240000000spacermoviesFantastic Mr. Fox reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111290625PMThursdayNovNovember2111/13/2009 2:06:25 AM6339365678500000002009111290625PMThursdayNovNovember2111/13/2009 2:06:25 AM633936567850000000spacertelevisionThe many charms of Glee.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111175021PMWednesdayNovNovember1911/12/2009 12:50:21 AM6339356582100000002009111175021PMWednesdayNovNovember1911/12/2009 12:50:21 AM633935658210000000spacertv clubMad Men: The TV Club has been sold to McCann-Erickson.Mad Men: The TV Club has been sold to McCann-Erikson.Patrick Radden Keefe, John Swansburg, and Julia Turner true0nofalsemenuhyperlink200981352719PMThursdayAugAugust178/13/2009 9:27:19 PM63385781239000000020091111105552AMWednesdayNovNovember1011/11/2009 3:55:52 PM633935337520000000spacerdvd extrasHow John Cassavetes' Shadows changed American movies forever.Elbert Venturanotruenomenuhyperlink2009111171132AMWednesdayNovNovember711/11/2009 12:11:32 PM6339352029200000002009111171132AMWednesdayNovNovember711/11/2009 12:11:32 PM633935202920000000spacerbooksNabokov's The Original of Laura (Dying Is Fun).Aleksandar Hemonnotruenomenuhyperlink2009111070614AMTuesdayNovNovember711/10/2009 12:06:14 PM6339343357400000002009111070614AMTuesdayNovNovember711/10/2009 12:06:14 PM633934335740000000spacerpoem"Daily Threads"Wyn Coopernotruenomenuhyperlink2009111070417AMTuesdayNovNovember711/10/2009 12:04:17 PM6339343345700000002009111070417AMTuesdayNovNovember711/10/2009 12:04:17 PM633934334570000000spacermusic boxThe music of the castrati.Jan Swaffordnotruenomenuhyperlink200911912841PMMondayNovNovember1311/9/2009 6:28:41 PM633933701210000000200911912841PMMondayNovNovember1311/9/2009 6:28:41 PM633933701210000000spacerbooksTwo books about the revolutions of 1989.Anne Applebaumnotruenomenuhyperlink200911884609PMSundayNovNovember2011/9/2009 1:46:09 AM633933099690000000200911965745AMMondayNovNovember611/9/2009 11:57:45 AM633933466650000000spacertv clubMad Men: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.Mad Men: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.Patrick Radden Keefe, John Swansburg, and Julia Turnertrue2234998nofalsemenuhyperlink200981352719PMThursdayAugAugust178/13/2009 9:27:19 PM63385781239000000020091111105552AMWednesdayNovNovember1011/11/2009 3:55:52 PM633935337520000000spacermoviesA Christmas Carol reviewed.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink200911635624PMFridayNovNovember1511/6/2009 8:56:24 PM633931197840000000200911635624PMFridayNovNovember1511/6/2009 8:56:24 PM633931197840000000spacertelevisionA journey through the Travel Channel.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink200911610306PMFridayNovNovember1311/6/2009 6:03:06 PM633931093860000000200911610306PMFridayNovNovember1311/6/2009 6:03:06 PM633931093860000000spacerthe book clubOn Denialism and the role of science in America.On Denialism and the role of science in America.Chris Mooney and Michael Specter true2234855nofalsemenuhyperlink2009115121440PMThursdayNovNovember1211/5/2009 5:14:40 PM633930200800000000200911665454PMFridayNovNovember1811/6/2009 11:54:54 PM633931304940000000spacermoviesRichard Kelly tries to direct a mainstream movie in The Box.John Swansburgnotruenomenuhyperlink2009116104915AMFridayNovNovember1011/6/2009 3:49:15 PM6339310135500000002009116104915AMFridayNovNovember1011/6/2009 3:49:15 PM633931013550000000spacermoviesSorry, I didn't like Precious.Dana Stevensnotruenomenuhyperlink200911574246PMThursdayNovNovember1911/6/2009 12:42:46 AM633930469660000000200911574246PMThursdayNovNovember1911/6/2009 12:42:46 AM633930469660000000spacerarchitectureAugustus Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest public sculptor.Witold Rybczynskinotruenomenuhyperlink200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000200911470416AMWednesdayNovNovember711/4/2009 12:04:16 PM633929150560000000spacertelevisionThe new V reviewed.Troy Pattersonnotruenomenuhyperlink200911322922PMTuesdayNovNovember1411/3/2009 7:29:22 PM633928553620000000200911323051PMTuesdayNovNovember1411/3/2009 7:30:51 PM633928554510000000spacerpoemDoes casual talk have a place in poetry?Robert Pinskynotruefalsefalsemenuhyperlink200911393348AMTuesdayNovNovember911/3/2009 2:33:48 PM633928376280000000200911393348AMTuesdayNovNovember911/3/2009 2:33:48 PM633928376280000000spacer30830nono72/070212_Video_NewsLitFlyout.gifhttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage72/070212_Video_NewsLitFlyout.gif3083011http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800751310622009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800751310622009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM633965880075131062P false2007214105020AMWednesdayFebFebruary102/14/2007 3:50:20 PM6330704702000000002007214105020AMWednesdayFebFebruary102/14/2007 3:50:20 PM633070470200000000ALfalsefalse20054732236PMThursdayAprApril154/7/2005 7:22:36 PM6324848415600000002009121655128PMWednesdayDecDecember1712/16/2009 10:51:28 PM633965826880000000Songs you've got to hear.2NA=1154&NC=1211&DI=4098&PS=68100&PI=7315MixingDeskfalsefalsespacernotembeddedmixing deskRascal FlattsJody RosenThe kings of Midwestern prom rock.noRascal FlattsThe kings of Midwestern prom rock.notruenotochyperlinkno20094121357PMWednesdayAprApril144/1/2009 6:13:57 PM63374192037000000020094121357PMWednesdayAprApril144/1/2009 6:13:57 PM633741920370000000mixing deskPrince's New AlbumJody RosenA new protégé and a lot of love for Salma Hayek.noPrince's New AlbumPrince's new album reviewed.noAttention, Target shoppers. The new release by Prince, a three-CD package titled Lotusflow3r, is now on sale exclusively at the discount retailer for just $11.98. It's a bargain, especially when you consider the alternative: Those wishing to download the records—Lotusflow3r and MPLSound, a pair of Prince solo discs, and Elixer, the debut by Prince's new protégé Bria Valente—can do so at lotusflow3r.com for the not-so-low price of $77.truenotochyperlinkno200933174718AMTuesdayMarMarch73/31/2009 11:47:18 AM633740824380000000200933174718AMTuesdayMarMarch73/31/2009 11:47:18 AM633740824380000000mixing deskJody RosenWho's winning, who's losing, and why.Media criticism.A wartime lexicon.Military analysis.The law, lawyers, and the court.Oral argument from the court.Opinions about events beyond our borders.Gossip, speculation, and scuttlebutt about politics.Notes from the political sidelines.The thinking behind the news.Songs you've got to hear.nonotruenotochyperlinkno200771941226PMThursdayJulJuly167/19/2007 8:12:26 PM633204583460000000200771941226PMThursdayJulJuly167/19/2007 8:12:26 PM633204583460000000mixing deskGeezers Need ExcitementJody RosenOld-people cover bands, hip-hop rock stars, Manu Chao, and Miranda Lambert.noGeezers Need ExcitementOld-people choirs.noYoung at Heart Choir, "Fix You"The Zimmers, "My Generation"Last year, the Young @ Heart Chorus out of Northampton, Mass., stirred a minor Internet sensation when a performance video was posted to YouTube. Young @ Heart's members are all senior citizens, ages 71 to 93, and their repertoire consists entirely of rock-era songs. The YouTube hit was a version of Coldplay's "Fix You"—the group has sung everything from "You Can't Always Get What You Want" to "Hey Ya." It sounds like a gimmick, and a cheap one at that, but the "Fix You" clip was extraordinary, not least because of the grave, graceful lead vocal performance by chorus member Fred Knittle, who has a heart condition and sang with a breathing tube attached to his nose. Adding to the poignancy was the fact that the song was originally a duet with another Young @ Heart member, Bob Salvini, who died shortly before the performance. But Knittle and company completely transcended kitsch, as well as the insipidities of Chris Martin's lyric. Young @ Heart's "Fix You" is touching and dignified. Most importantly, it's a fine piece of music.truenotochyperlinkno20076740431PMThursdayJunJune166/7/2007 8:04:31 PM63316829071000000020076740431PMThursdayJunJune166/7/2007 8:04:31 PM633168290710000000mixing deskjTunesPaul CollinsThe insanely great songs Apple won't let you hear.nojTunesThe insanely great songs Apple won't let you hear.no"Killer Tune" is just that: It sounds like the Killers, and it is killer. It's one of the most popular iTunes downloads for the band Straightener—but you haven't heard it.truenotochyperlinkno2007123124850PMTuesdayJanJanuary121/23/2007 5:48:50 PM6330515333000000002007123124850PMTuesdayJanJanuary121/23/2007 5:48:50 PM633051533300000000200310753453AMTuesdayOctOctober510/7/2003 9:34:53 AM632011016930000000200310753453AMTuesdayOctOctober510/7/2003 9:34:53 AM632011016930000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue200391914214PMFridaySepSeptember139/19/2003 5:42:14 PM631995757340000000200391914214PMFridaySepSeptember139/19/2003 5:42:14 PM631995757340000000By spacerJody RosenyeshyperlinkspacerJody RosenyeshyperlinkJodyRosen1/123122/2202502/rosenj.gif4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800762248262009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800762248262009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM633965880076224826false2008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM6335984621100000002008101711651PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:16:51 PM633598462110000000false13Jody Rosen is Slate's music critic. He can be reached at slatemusic@gmail.com. USA200471522935PMThursdayJulJuly147/15/2004 6:29:35 PM632254985750000000200471522935PMThursdayJulJuly147/15/2004 6:29:35 PM63225498575000000011Mixing Desk2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800760685742004915121327PMWednesdaySepSeptember129/15/2004 4:13:27 PM6323084720700000002004915121327PMWednesdaySepSeptember129/15/2004 4:13:27 PM632308472070000000spacer155200Kelly Clarkson. Click image to expand.Kelly Clarkson falsefalse1/123125/2088658/2156550/2170732/070719_MD_clarksonTN.jpghttp://img.slate.com/mediayesStandardImage1/123125/2088658/2156550/2170732/070719_MD_clarksonTN.jpg155200http://img.slate.com/mediafalse2009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800762248262009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM6339658800762248262009121672007PMWednesdayDecDecember1912/17/2009 12:20:07 AM633965880076224826false200771923047PMThursdayJulJuly147/19/2007 6:30:47 PM633204522470000000200771923047PMThursdayJulJuly147/19/2007 6:30:47 PM633204522470000000Photograph of Kelly Clarkson by Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.10000false23101falsefalsefalse1falsefalsefalsefalsefalsefalse357200771941226PMThursdayJulJuly167/19/2007 8:12:26 PM633204583460000000200771941226PMThursdayJulJuly167/19/2007 8:12:26 PM633204583460000000