Category Lifestyle

“The Contestant” Is More Than a Cautionary Tale

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Tomoaki Hamatsu became one of the world’s first reality-TV stars when, as an aspiring comedian in his early twenties, he spent fifteen months naked and alone, surviving on sheer luck. The…

“Challengers” Is Essentially a Well-Shot Commercial

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story “I don’t watch tennis matches,” Luca Guadagnino, the director of “Challengers,” a movie about tennis players, recently said in an interview with Little White Lies, a film magazine. “It’s quite boring…

The Revenge of the Home Page

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Nilay Patel, the editor-in-chief of the digital technology publication The Verge, has lately taken to describing theverge.com as “the last Web site on earth.” It’s kind of a joke—there are, of…

Helen Vendler’s Generous Mind

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Luck and art are clearest in retrospect. I arrived at Harvard as most eighteen-year-olds arrive at Harvard: with a grandiose sense of endeavor and a below-average understanding of the way that…

An Acclaimed D.J. Who Is Ready to Sing Again

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story It was eleven o’clock, and Meadow Street, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was just starting to wake up for the night when a Welsh woman named Emma Kirby approached some bouncers who…

Faith Ringgold’s “Sonny’s Bridge, 1986”

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Faith Ringgold, an artist known for her narrative quilts, died on April 13th, at her home in Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of ninety-three. Her work came to be lauded…

“Civil War” Is a Tale of Bad News

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story The subject of “Civil War” is so clickbaity that it’s easy to forget that it’s a movie, with the form and the aesthetics of a movie, rather than a think piece…

Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story In art history, the odalisque is a female figure in repose, her body splayed out for the viewer’s eye to devour. Ingres’s “Grande Odalisque,” from 1814, bestows her with an anatomically…

The Most Treasured Jar in My Pantry

Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Of all the ingredients in my pantry, my jar of vanilla is my most treasured. It’s not the ordinary kind of vanilla that you can find at any grocery store; I’m…