Category Culture

“Nothing to See” by Haruki Aoki

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Animals that display human traits often become the subject of fables that are meant to convey moral lessons. But in this work by Japanese-American poet and illustrator Haruki Aoki, the cat…

Taylor Swift’s Master Plan

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In 2014, Taylor Swift released an album called 1989, which became a symbol of her transition from country to pop. She appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where the host reads some…

What Autopens Can’t Do

John Hancock took up the pen, and presidents should do the same. Credit: Triff/Shutterstock Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative player… Like windmills, energy-saving light bulbs, and McDonald’s ice cream machines, the “auto-opener” has quickly gained popularity and become…

The Quiet Life of Phil Robertson

The patriarch of the Duck dynasty was an American explorer of faith and family values, and the winding path one sometimes must take to achieve them. Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative player… A dozen…

How Wes Anderson Finally Lost Me

The American director’s film “The Phoenician Plan” turned out to be a failure. Loading Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player… At the large Regal theater near Richmond, Virginia, there were fewer than ten people in attendance for the premiere of…

Perverted ways of seeing the “point of view”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story You open your favorite online short video platform and see: A woman dances in pointe shoes in front of Tower Bridge in London, with superimposed text: “Point of View: Dance is…

Why do doctors write?

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The first patient I ever wrote about wasn’t really my patient; as a first-year medical student, “my patient” hadn’t yet entered my vocabulary. In any case, he was long gone by…

Iranian Daughters of the Sea

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Hengam Island is a tropical island off the coast of Iran, in the southern Persian Gulf. It is only fourteen square miles in area and contains three villages with several hundred…

The Sixties Come Back to Life in ‘Everything Is Now’

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Film critic and cultural historian J. Hoberman’s new book, Everything Now: The New York Avant-Garde of the 1960s—Primal Events, Underground Cinema, Radical Pop, is as joyful as its subtitle. It’s a…