The New Yorker

The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/rss/feeds/everything.xml Stay up to date on everything happening in The New Yorker and on newyorker.com.<img src="http://feeds.newyorker.com/rss_views/everything.gif"> en-us Copyright 2006 CondeNet Inc. All rights reserved. Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT everything newyorker.com everything 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z en-us Copyright 2006 CondeNet Inc. All rights reserved. Sasha Frere-Jones: Political beats. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_frerejones After Barack Obama conceded defeat at the New Hampshire primary last January, the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am selected quotes from his concession speech and set them to music--sort of. The video for Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” features a clutch of celebrities singing (or speaking), over Obama and a few . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_frerejones Sasha Frere-Jones 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Sasha Frere-Jones: Pink's progress. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/11/24/081124crmu_music_frerejones Funhouse,” the new album by Alecia Moore, who calls herself Pink, has already spawned an enormous hit--her first solo No. 1 in the U.S.--called “So What,” an explosion of brattiness and rock-star entitlement that is both maddening and hard to shake. There are cracks in “Funhouse,” though . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/11/24/081124crmu_music_frerejones Sasha Frere-Jones 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Rita Dove: "The Bridgetower" http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/11/24/081124po_poem_dove per il Mulatto Brischdauer gran pazzo e compositore mulattico --Ludwig van Beethoven, 1803. If was at the Beginning. If he had been older, if he hadn’t been dark, brown eyes ablaze in that remarkable face; if he had not been so gifted, so young a genius with no time to . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/11/24/081124po_poem_dove Rita Dove 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Peter Schjeldahl: The New Orleans Biennial beckons. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2008/11/24/081124craw_artworld_schjeldahl New Orleans is smaller and poorer than it used to be, as I have confirmed on my first visit there since the floods attendant on Hurricane Katrina obliterated a large part of the city and left much of the rest a mud-gray mess, traces of which aren’t hard to . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2008/11/24/081124craw_artworld_schjeldahl Peter Schjeldahl 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Peter J. Boyer: The day they came for Addie Polk's house. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_boyer In the early afternoon on October 1st, Donald Fatheree, a sheriff’s deputy in Akron, Ohio, drove his black-and-gold cruiser into one of Akron’s dying neighborhoods and came to a stop in front of a small white wood-frame house, with a neatly trimmed lawn and a beige Chevrolet . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_boyer Peter J. Boyer 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Nick Paumgarten: Convivio http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/tables/2008/11/24/081124gota_GOAT_tables_paumgarten Tudor City is an odd part of town, a puzzle of dead ends. Convivio, at the heart of it, replicates its screwy feng shui. If you walk in and feel confused--by the cramped, half-hidden bar, by the fact that it’s no longer L’Impero, by the narrow path to . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/tables/2008/11/24/081124gota_GOAT_tables_paumgarten Nick Paumgarten 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Lauren Collins: Bringing the family to the White House. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_collins After months of open-air rallies and stadium speeches, America’s political families turned last week to domestic scenery: Sarah Palin in her Wasilla kitchen, mixing baby formula; Michelle Obama discussing with Laura Bush which bedrooms at the White House would be good for Malia and Sasha. The Obamas announced that . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_collins Lauren Collins 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Kelefa Sanneh: "Fringe" and "The Mentalist." http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2008/11/24/081124crte_television_sanneh During the last episode of the first season of “Lost,” after the castaways had endured yet another near-death experience on their not quite deserted island, the loopy old survivalist known as Locke turned to the valiant doctor, Jack, and delivered his verdict. “You’re a man of science,” he said . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2008/11/24/081124crte_television_sanneh Kelefa Sanneh 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z John Lahr: David Rabe's America. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/11/24/081124crbo_books_lahr On the wall of David Rabe’s television room, at his home in Connecticut, is a photograph of him as a football player at Loras Academy, the Catholic high school in Dubuque, Iowa, where he was a hard-driving running back and linebacker; in the image, he is being tackled, pushed . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/11/24/081124crbo_books_lahr John Lahr 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z James Surowiecki: On how we created the food crisis. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_surowiecki This spring, disaster loomed in the global food market. Precipitous increases in the prices of staples like rice (up more than a hundred and fifty per cent in a few months) and maize provoked food riots, toppled governments, and threatened the lives of tens of millions. But the bursting of . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_surowiecki James Surowiecki 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Jack Handey: The Plan http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/11/24/081124sh_shouts_handey The plan isn’t foolproof. For it to work, certain things must happen: --The door to the vault must have accidentally been left open by the cleaning woman. --The guard must bend over to tie his shoes and somehow he gets all the shoelaces tied together. He can’t get them apart . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/11/24/081124sh_shouts_handey Jack Handey 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Hilton Als: On With the Show http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_als The late filmmaker John Cassavetes directed his wife and muse, the lovely actress Gena Rowlands, in seven films, in his famously intimate, improvisatory way. In their early movies--particularly the raw and underrated “A Child Is Waiting”(1963)--Cassavetes established the theme he would pursue throughout his career: the seemingly . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_als Hilton Als 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: The Theatre http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/theatre/2008/11/24/081124goth_GOAT_theatre OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information. THE BLACK MONK Kevin Newbury directs a chamber musical by Wendy Kesselman, based on the Chekhov story about an artist from a small village who must negotiate the challenges of his rising success . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/theatre/2008/11/24/081124goth_GOAT_theatre 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Readings and Talks http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/readings/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above1 MCNALLY JACKSON BOOKS The sixties vets Ed McClanhan, the author of the newly published autobiographical short-story collection “O the Clear Moment,” and the novelist Robert Stone take a look back at the consequential decade. (52 Prince St. No tickets necessary. Nov. 19 at 7.) CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/readings/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above1 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Papabubble http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/2008/11/24/081124goav_GOAT_avenue_marx Remember those pallid sourballs petrifying in the dish on your grandmother’s coffee table? They are still there, even if your grandmother isn’t. The sweets at Papabubble, on the other hand, may well have been confected today--you can witness a batch of hard candy being made every couple of hours . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/2008/11/24/081124goav_GOAT_avenue_marx Patricia Marx 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: On the Horizon http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/horizon/2008/11/24/081124gohz_GOAT_horizon MOVIES COLD TURKEY Nov. 28-30 As a welcome corrective to Thanksgiving-weekend sentimentality, Walter Reade presents three days of rain on your parade, with the series “Problem Child: A Cinematic Display of Bad Behavior.” The program includes such bilious classics as “The Exorcist,” “The Fury,” “Mommie Dearest,” and the rare . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/horizon/2008/11/24/081124gohz_GOAT_horizon 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Night Life http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/nightlife/2008/11/24/081124goni_GOAT_nightlife ROCK AND POP Musicians and night-club proprietors live complicated lives; it’s advisable to call ahead to confirm engagements. B. B. KING BLUES CLUB & GRILL 237 W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144)--Nov. 20: The ska-punk of Southern California’s Aquabats. Nov. 23: L.A.’s early-eighties roots-rock pioneers the Blasters . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/nightlife/2008/11/24/081124goni_GOAT_nightlife 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Movies http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/revivals/2008/11/24/081124gomo_GOAT_movies OPENING THE BETRAYAL A documentary, directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath, about a family’s journey from Laos to New York. In English and Lao. Opening Nov. 21. (IFC Center.) BOLT An animated comedy about a dog who believes he’s a superhero. With the voice of John Travolta. Directed by . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/revivals/2008/11/24/081124gomo_GOAT_movies 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Holiday Events http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above_holiday RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR” Nothing says pizzazz like this populist crowd-pleaser, featuring the leggy Rockettes showing off their lithe physiques and precisely choreographed high kicks, an army of dancing Santas, and the multimedia extravaganza of “New York at Christmas.” As it has since its very first year, back in . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above_holiday 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Dance http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/dance/2008/11/24/081124goda_GOAT_dance an experiment set to sounds and words emitted by the dancers themselves, and forays into the music of Stockhausen and the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, intelligently interpreted by Magloire’s capable dancers and topnotch instrumentalists. (City Center Studio 4, at 130 W. 56th St. 212-868-4444. Nov. 22-23 at 8.) SAEKO ICHINOHE . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/dance/2008/11/24/081124goda_GOAT_dance 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Classical Music http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/2008/11/24/081124gocl_GOAT_classical OPERA METROPOLITAN OPERA Anthony Minghella’s production of “Madama Butterfly,” now in its third season at the Met, remains the signature project of Peter Gelb’s revitalizing tenure at the company. Carolyn Choa, wife of the late director, stages the revival faithfully; the puppeteers of Blind Summit Theatre contribute their special wizardry . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/2008/11/24/081124gocl_GOAT_classical 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: CD Boxed Sets http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/recordings/2008/11/24/081124gore_GOAT_recordings Atlantic Vocal Groups 1951-1963” (Atlantic)--American popular music in the fifties was a stew of jazz, jump blues, and close-harmony groups; by the middle of the decade, rock and roll had taken hold. This four-disk set lovingly illustrates the transition through the era’s vocal groups--the Clovers, the . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/recordings/2008/11/24/081124gore_GOAT_recordings 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Boxed-Set Roundup http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/revivals/2008/11/24/081124gomo_GOAT_movies_dvd The Films of Budd Boetticher” (Sony)--The Westerns that Boetticher--a hard-nosed man raised on horseback--made for Columbia starring Randolph Scott in the late nineteen-fifties are a stark corrective to triumphalist romanticism. The gaunt, blank-faced Scott takes care of business in the face of constant cruelty . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/revivals/2008/11/24/081124gomo_GOAT_movies_dvd 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Art http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/2008/11/24/081124goar_GOAT_art MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES METROPOLITAN MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-535-7710)--“Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.” Through March 15. ♦ “The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions.” The museum’s soon-to-be-former director retires in the glow of an . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/2008/11/24/081124goar_GOAT_art 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Above and Beyond http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above ON THIN ICE The American Museum of Natural History is opening a skating rink outside its doors on Nov. 22. The rink, which is a hundred and fifty feet by eighty feet, can accommodate up to two hundred people; at its center is a seventeen-foot-tall polar bear made . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/24/081124goab_GOAT_above 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Fuchsia Dunlop: In a toxic era, a Hangzhou restaurant pursues purity. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_dunlop One day in September, I joined the Chinese restaurateur Dai Jianjun for a foraging expedition on a remote mountainside in Zhejiang Province. Ahead of us, our guide, Bao Laichun, cleared a path, hacking at branches with a bamboo-handled machete. The hawthorn trees around us were heavy with fruit, and . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_dunlop Fuchsia Dunlop 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Elizabeth Kolbert: Bush rewrites the rules. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/11/24/081124taco_talk_kolbert When President Jimmy Carter lost his bid for reëlection, in November, 1980, he had lots of unfinished business that he did not intend to leave that way. Carter’s Administration spent the next several weeks generating regulations at an unprecedented rate, until, in its last month in office, it published more . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/11/24/081124taco_talk_kolbert Elizabeth Kolbert 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Edwidge Danticat: "Ghosts" http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/11/24/081124fi_fiction_danticat Pascal Dorien was living in Bel Air--the Baghdad of Haiti, some people called it, but that would be Cité Pendue, an even more destitute and brutal neighborhood, where hundreds of middle-school children entering a national art contest drew M-16s and beheaded corpses, and wrote such things as . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/11/24/081124fi_fiction_danticat Edwidge Danticat 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Claire Hoffman: At home with the Artist. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_hoffman The thirty-thousand-square-foot Italianate villa, built this century by Vanna White’s ex-husband, looks like many of the other houses in Beverly Park, a gated community in L.A., except for the bright-purple carpet that spills down the front steps to announce its new tenant: Prince. One afternoon . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/11/24/081124ta_talk_hoffman Claire Hoffman 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Charles Simic: "Master of Disguises" http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/11/24/081124po_poem_simic Surely he walks among us unrecognized: Some barber, store clerk, delivery man, Pharmacist, hairdresser, bodybuilder, Exotic dancer, gem cutter, dog walker, The blind beggar singing, Oh Lord, remember me, Some window decorator starting a fake fire In a fake fireplace while mother and father watch From the couch with their . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/poetry/2008/11/24/081124po_poem_simic Charles Simic 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Cartoons from the Issue http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2008/11/24/cartoons_20081117 A collection of cartoons from the issue, plus this week's Cartoon Caption Contest. Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/humor/issuecartoons/2008/11/24/cartoons_20081117 The New Yorker 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Calvin Trillin: The best Texas BBQ in the world. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_trillin I approached Texas Monthly’s cover story on “The Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas” this summer the way a regular reader of People might approach that magazine’s annual “Sexiest Man Alive” feature--with the expectation of seeing some familiar names. There was no reason to think that the list’s top . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_trillin Calvin Trillin 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Burkhard Bilger: The rise of extreme beer. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_bilger Elephants, like many of us, enjoy a good malted beverage when they can get it. At least twice in the past ten years, herds in India have stumbled upon barrels of rice beer, drained them with their trunks, and gone on drunken rampages. (The first time, they trampled four villagers . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/24/081124fa_fact_bilger Burkhard Bilger 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Books: "Swindled" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted2 With the revelations in recent months of tainted food--salmonella-infected jalapeños, melamine-laced milk--Wilson’s latest treatise, on contaminated, adulterated, and fake foods in the modern era, feels almost prophetic. If there’s a whiff of pedantry to the enterprise, Wilson overwhelms it with sheer detail: the flavor of lead . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted2 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Books: "Amarcord" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted4 Born in Cesenatico, a fishing village near Rimini, in 1931, Hazan married the son of a New York furrier and began cooking for him. Soon, she was giving classes in her Manhattan kitchen, and when Craig Claiborne came to lunch and wrote her up in the Times Hazan was on . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted4 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Books: "A Revolution in Taste" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted3 Pinkard reveals that before the storming of the Bastille a revolution took place at dinner tables all over France, when ornate, liberally spiced medieval styles of cooking were displaced by farm-fresh food prepared so that it “not only tasted, but also looked, like what it was.” Le goût naturel . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted3 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Books: "A Day at elBulli" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted1 In the world of culinary porn, this five-hundred-plus-page tome of photographs from the fabled avant-garde restaurant elBulli, in Spain, is curiously banal. Little of the chef Ferran Adrià’s radical genius can be detected in the brochurelike text (“To produce a great wine you need the best . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/24/081124crbn_brieflynoted1 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Anthony Lane: Help Wanted http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_lane With immaculate timing, Film Forum has scheduled a series of Carole Lombard films: the perfect response to recession, depression, and other ills, whether of the economy or the soul. One of her most glittering works, showing on Nov. 21 and Nov. 22, is “My Man Godfrey,” directed by Gregory La . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/11/24/081124gonb_GOAT_notebook_lane Anthony Lane 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z Anthony Lane: "Slumdog Millionaire" and "A Christmas Tale." http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/11/24/081124crci_cinema_lane The new Danny Boyle film is called “Slumdog Millionaire,” and a fine title it is, too. As with other mutt-flavored titles, like “Reservoir Dogs,” it sounds like a rabid, crank-it-up rock album that decided to become a movie at the last moment. And here’s the clever part . . . Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/11/24/081124crci_cinema_lane Anthony Lane 2008-11-17T05:00:00Z John Lahr: Botched love in Kevin Elyot and John Patrick Shanley. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2008/11/17/081117crth_theatre_lahr To the list of playwrights whose gravestones should read “Finally, a Plot” let us add the name of Britain’s Kevin Elyot. Elyot’s 2001 play “Mouth to Mouth” (directed by Mark Brokaw, at the Acorn) is a Proustian exercise in guilt recollected in tranquillity. The play begins and ends in a . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2008/11/17/081117crth_theatre_lahr John Lahr 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Joan Acocella: The rise of overparenting. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/11/17/081117crbo_books_acocella We’ve all been there--that is, in the living room of friends who invited us to dinner without mentioning that this would include a full-evening performance by their four-year-old. He sings, he dances, he eats all the hors d’oeuvres. When you try to speak to his parents . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/11/17/081117crbo_books_acocella Joan Acocella 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Readings and Talks http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/readings/2008/11/17/081117goab_GOAT_above1 HOUSING WORKS BOOKSTORE CAFÉ Nov. 11 at 7: “Literary Death Match,” Opium Magazine’s competitive reading series, is taping a TV pilot featuring readings that are eight minutes or less, by Mishna Wolff, Amy Sohn, Tao Lin, and Alex Rose. The judges are Ben Greenman, an editor at this magazine, the . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/readings/2008/11/17/081117goab_GOAT_above1 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Night Life http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/nightlife/2008/11/17/081117goni_GOAT_nightlife ROCK AND POP Musicians and night-club proprietors live complicated lives; it’s advisable to call ahead to con-firm engagements. B. B. KING BLUES CLUB & GRILL 237 W. 42nd St. (212-997-4144)--Nov. 14: Big Daddy Kane is an elder statesman of hip-hop whose libidinous braggadocio set a template for . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/nightlife/2008/11/17/081117goni_GOAT_nightlife 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Dance http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/dance/2008/11/17/081117goda_GOAT_dance INBAL PINTO DANCE COMPANY In “Shaker” (made with the company’s co-director, Avshalom Pollak), Pinto takes us inside a snow globe. (Joyce, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St. 212-242-0800. Nov. 11-12 at 7:30, Nov 13-15 at 8, and Nov. 16 at 2 and 7:30.) BEBE MILLER COMPANY In “Necessary Beauty . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/dance/2008/11/17/081117goda_GOAT_dance 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Classical Music http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/2008/11/17/081117gocl_GOAT_classical OPERA METROPOLITAN OPERA In a very respectable revival of “La Traviata,” Anja Harteros, Massimo Giordano, and Željko Lučić sing handsomely against Franco Zeffirelli’s glittery and dramatically inert production; the conductor, Paolo Carignani, leads his singers with a sympathy that avoids self-indulgence. (Nov. 12 at 8 . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/classical/2008/11/17/081117gocl_GOAT_classical 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Art http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/2008/11/17/081117goar_GOAT_art MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES METROPOLITAN MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-535-7710)--“The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions.” Through Feb. 1. | “Giorgio Morandi, 1890-1964.” Through Dec. 14. | “Landscapes Clear and Radiant: The Art of Wang Hui (1632-1717).” Through Jan. 4. | “Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/art/2008/11/17/081117goar_GOAT_art 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Goings on About Town: Above and Beyond http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/17/081117goab_GOAT_above JOSEPH MITCHELL CENTENNIAL In the fall of 2005, the Fulton Fish Market moved upstream from its historic East River location to a new home in the Bronx. For the past three years, Naima Rauam, an artist who spent more than two decades painting watercolors of the venders and their surrounding . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/events/above/2008/11/17/081117goab_GOAT_above 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Books: "The City’s End" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/17/081117crbn_brieflynoted4 This richly detailed book celebrates the enduring cultural significance of New York with an account of our unending desire to envision its demise. Since the nineteenth century, when the city established itself as a symbol not only of power and wealth but of racial diversity and class stratification, New York . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/17/081117crbn_brieflynoted4 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Books: "Remix" http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/17/081117crbn_brieflynoted3 As Lessig, a law professor at Stanford, sees it, if intellectual-property law is left as it is an entire generation will be criminalized. He argues that the ways in which young people break copyright laws help them to become the sort of people we want them to be--creative . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2008/11/17/081117crbn_brieflynoted3 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z Anthony Lane: "Quantum of Solace." http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/11/17/081117crci_cinema_lane Who wants to be James Bond? Everyone of the male sex, pretty much, in the old days. Schoolboys dreamed of growing up to be 007, and middle-aged men lay awake, in the small hours, and wondered why they had grown into something else--how it was that their wristwatches . . . Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/11/17/081117crci_cinema_lane Anthony Lane 2008-11-10T05:00:00Z