Culture

Lyle Ashton Harris’s Scrapbooks of the Self

Lyle Ashton Harris’s Scrapbooks of the Self 1

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The title of Lyle Ashton Harris’s current exhibition at the Queens Museum, “Our First and Last Love,” is an abbreviated version of a fortune-cookie message: our first and last love is . . .…

How the Fridge Changed Flavor

How the Fridge Changed Flavor 10

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story It was the most talked-about meal in the United States. In the weeks leading up to the luncheon, its organizers received so many requests for seats that they switched the venue…

“Flipside” Is a Treasure Trove of Music and Memory

“Flipside” Is a Treasure Trove of Music and Memory 12

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Chris Wilcha’s new documentary, “Flipside,” is easy to summarize, but it defies summary nonetheless, because it advances by a lurching, associative method that leaves fault lines on the surface of its…

What Doge Taught Me About the Internet

What Doge Taught Me About the Internet 22

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In the early twenty-tens, one cottage industry in digital journalism was the unmasking of Internet memes: a journalist would identify the source of a popular image or joke just as one…

The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content

The Delicate Art of Turning Your Parents Into Content 24

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In 1974, Martin Scorsese was a year removed from his breakthrough film—the semi-autobiographical “Mean Streets,” about a young man in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood who is sinking into the quicksand…

Could Elaine May Finally Be Getting Her Due?

Could Elaine May Finally Be Getting Her Due? 28

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Elaine May became famous at twenty-five and rich soon thereafter, but it took her another decade to figure out what to do with her life, by which point she was too…

Jonathan Groff Rolls Merrily Back

Jonathan Groff Rolls Merrily Back 30

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story For more than forty years, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical “Merrily We Roll Along” was a problem in search of a solution. Loosely based on a Kaufman and Hart play…