Category Culture

The Raw Concrete of America

Brady Corbet’s Brutalist threatens to crush its audience. Credit: Andriy Baidak/Shutterstock The architectural term “Brutalism” is often subject to a false etymology. Most people think it refers to the force exerted by some of the more muscular Brutalist buildings, but…

The Human Hollywood

The LA fires bring to mind the less rarefied side of the stars. (By Maks Ershov/Shutterstock) I have never set foot in California, but as I watched the awful, authentically apocalyptic images this week of Los Angeles overtaken by fire…

The Liberated Life of Colman Domingo

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The last time I talked to Colman Domingo, in 2021, his life was completely different. At fifty-one, he was a successful character actor, the kind whose face you might recognize from…

America’s Soccer Star Lifts Italian Cup

Pennsylvania’s Christian Pulisic has led AC Milan to glory. AC Milan was dead in the water. Down 2-0 in the second half to rivals Inter Milan, AC, which had entered the day as big underdogs to win the Italian Supercoppa,…

A City on Fire Can’t Be Photographed

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The glow in the photos coming out of Los Angeles is otherworldly, though that is precisely the wrong term. Cinematic? That isn’t quite right, either: too painfully apt for Tinseltown, but…

Britain’s Badger Wars

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story A hundred years after the opening of St. Pancras station, now the flashy London home of the Eurostar, a narrow strip of land opposite the train tracks near Regent’s Canal had…

The Outsized Influence of De La Soul

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Sheldon PearcePearce has written about music for Goings On since 2020. You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up…

Barry Blitt’s “Two’s a Crowd”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In cartoonist Barry Blitt’s portrayal of the upcoming Inauguration Day, the new President is sidelined into a dash of yellow hair and a sliver of red tie. “On January 20, 2025,…

The Era of Richard Foreman

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story With the death of the director Richard Foreman, at eighty-seven, on January 4th, an era came to an end. You might define that era as a time of American aesthetic swagger,…

Who and What Should Be Nominated for the 2025 Oscars

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday that, because of the devastating wildfires raging in and around Los Angeles, the Oscar-voting deadline would be extended by two…