Culture

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyYou’re reading the Food Scene newsletter, Helen Rosner’s guide to what, where, and how to eat. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. After a sweltering summer dominated by, thank goodness,…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In recent years, popular movies have staked their claims to attention mainly with fantasy and spectacle. As a result, Hollywood has been neglecting one of its most important classic genres: romantic…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In the first episode of the third season of “Industry,” which premières this weekend on Max, a new character is introduced to the show’s ensemble. “Industry” focusses on the British office…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Are you weird? According to Democrats—who have made “weird” a new term of art for Republicans—you’re weird if you get overexercised about the genitalia of Olympic athletes, think childless people shouldn’t…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The art of storytelling is the art of simplification—of giving smooth contours and sharp points to messily loose-ended incidents. That’s why, when artists tell their life stories, the plethora of factual…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The other week, I updated the operating system on my Mac laptop after putting the task off for many months. (One intractable flaw of technological devices: they never actually update overnight…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Watch “Hills and Mountains.” Salar Pashtoonyar’s documentary short begins by discussing how the Soviet invasion of 1979 fundamentally altered life in Afghanistan. Over footage of people going about their day in…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story My son, who is at pains to tell you that he is not five but five and three-quarters, is obsessed with the future. He draws pictures of crystalline cityscapes crisscrossed by…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Summer is often a special, slower time—a respite from the frenetic activity of the rest of the year—that allows for spending more time with loved ones. For the cover of the…

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Katy Perry’s breakout moment, in the late two-thousands, had a type of frivolity and irreverence that feels difficult to summon now. Her début single, “I Kissed a Girl,” from 2008, is…