MetaFilter posts tagged with longform

Bret, Unbroken

mudpuppie — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:51:59 -0800

After a receiving a poor prognosis after suffering severe head/body trauma as a six-year-old, Bret Dunbar is now a 39-year-old who runs marathons. Photo essay. *Warning: Article is for no good reason written in the second person.*

Looking back at Hunter S. Thompson's classic Kentucky Derby story

AceRock — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:26:19 -0800

Director's cut: "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved": An annotated look back at one of Hunter S. Thompson's greatest hits. Part of the Grantland "Director's Cut" series, in which they "look back at classic works of sports journalism and give the writers, athletes, and other figures involved in making the articles an opportunity to reflect on their work and recall some deleted scenes." Previous entries:

Down Great Purple Valleys John Lardner's 1954 True profile of legendary middleweight Stanley Ketchel. Bringing It All Back Home Tony Kornheiser's 1980 Inside Sports profile of Nolan Ryan. Silent Season of a Hero Gay Talese's 1966 Esquire profile of Joe DiMaggio. The Making of a Goon Johnette Howard's 1990 piece from The National. Back in Play David Remnick's New Yorker piece on the return of Michael Jordan. How Jacksonville Earned Its Credit Card Paul Hemphill's 1970 piece on the greatest, strangest NCAA title run in history. The Man. Amen. An annotated look at Charlie Pierce's illuminating GQ piece on a 21-year-old Tiger Woods. Oh, No! Not Another Boring Interview With Steve Carlton How columnist Diane K. Shah turned the tables. The Disciples of St. Darrell on a Wild Weekend Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins's famous portrait of Texas football fandom.

"Most kids are not like those in Kids, and never will be, I hope."

mwhybark — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:02:56 -0800

Legends Never Die Two decades after a low-budget film turned Washington Square skaters into international celebrities, the kids from "Kids" struggle with lost lives, distant friendships, and the fine art of growing up. Caroline Rothstein writes about the cast of the Harmony Korine / Larry Clark film twenty years on for narrative.ly.

Head of the Dragon: The Rise of New Shanghai

Cloud King — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:03:06 -0800

Head of the Dragon: The Rise of New Shanghai

The Last Man Up

vidur — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:13:46 -0800

"Like a lot of things in Alaska, the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward is famously brutal, even dangerous. Which is precisely why Michael LeMaitre ran it--the last day he was seen alive."

The Bobcat in Winter

workingdankoch — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:39:24 -0800

Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building. Wright Thompson of ESPN: The Magazine profiles Michael Jordan as he turns 50 and finds himself in a world where his body may age, but his obsessive drive to compete never goes away.

Anatomy of a Heroin Ring

box — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:23:08 -0800

What turned out to be most notable about the operation, though, was how typical it was. (Chicago Reader, via longform.org)

The Man Behind The Brilliant Media Hoax Of "I, Libertine"

Rustic Etruscan — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:53:20 -0800

"In the 1950s, a DJ named Jean Shepherd hosted a late-night radio show on New York's WOR that was unlike any before or since. On these broadcasts, he delivered dense, cerebral monologues, sprinkled with pop-culture tidbits and vivid stretches of expert storytelling. 'There is no question that we are a tiny, tiny, tiny embattled minority here,' he assured his audience in a typical diatribe. 'Hardly anyone is listening to mankind in all of its silliness, all of its idiocy, all of its trivia, all of its wonder, all of its glory, all of its poor, sad, pitching us into the dark sea of oblivion.' Shepherd's approach was summed up by his catchphrase: a mock-triumphant 'Excelsior!', followed by an immediate, muttered 'you fathead ... '" (via) Shepherd and I, Libertine previously.

Winner's History of Rock and Roll

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:40:33 -0800

Grantland's Steven Hyden writes the winner's history of rock and roll, in four parts (so far), and charts the death of rock music as a major pop-cultural force in the 21st century by looking at some (not necessarily well-loved) bands that helped to transform it into a Big Business: Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith (and coming up in the next installment, Metallica). Rock isn't dead, by any means. But for better or worse, it ain't what it used to be.

The Book of Coach

MattMangels — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:36:24 -0800

"For those who coached under Walsh, Finding the Winning Edge was a study of the genius beyond his playbook. For those who coached against him, it was a window into the mind of their nemesis." -- The Coaching Philosophy of Bill Walsh. The book is now out of print and even a used copy will cost you $1,249.99 on Amazon.

Level 2 is more worrisome. Level 3 is hair-raising.

vidur — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:12:28 -0800

"We decided to go on an adventure through the financial statements of one bank [Wells Fargo], to explore exactly what they do and do not show, and to gauge whether it is possible to make informed judgments about the risks the bank may be carrying. We chose a bank that is thought to be a conservative financial institution, and an exemplar of what a large modern bank should be."

Sheed and Stack in the Big Apple

Cloud King — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:28:45 -0800

Sheed and Stack in the Big Apple is a new piece by Grantland's Jonathan Abrams about the NBA veterans Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse

The sale of the century

scruss — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:38:31 -0800

How We Happened to Sell Off Our Electricity is James Meek's dissection of the systematic re-privatisation of the UK power industry.

Are you an enemy of liberal principles if you question the fact that, when local electrical engineers dig up the roads in London, they’re working for East Asia’s richest man, the Hong Kong-based Li Ka-shing? In north-east England, they work for Warren Buffett; in Birmingham, Cardiff and Plymouth, the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company; in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool, Iberdrola; in Manchester, a consortium of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and a J.P. Morgan investment fund.

Any little vibration could reduce the whole creaking arrangement into a heap of rubble and ashes.

mhjb — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 03:30:41 -0800

James Howard Kunstler's forecast for 2013

The Ultimate List of Gawker Media Longreads

reenum — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:39:25 -0800

The Ultimate List of Gawker Media Longreads for 2012

Willie and Trigger

mudpuppie — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:50:26 -0800

A biography of Trigger, Willie Nelson's guitar. Thirty+ years of Willie and Trigger in action: Whiskey River (1974) Bye-Bye Love / Medley (w/ Glen Campbell and the Bee Gees, 1979) Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground (1980) Over the Rainbow (1981) Interview with Barbara Walters (1982) Part I, Part 2 Georgia on My Mind (1983) Night Life (w/B.B. King) (1984) Forgiving You Was Easy (1985) Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys (w/Waylon Jennings, 1986) Medley, with Dolly Parton on The Dolly Show (1987) Goodnight Irene (1988) Me and Bobby McGee (w/Kris Kristofferson) & I Saw the Light (w/kd lang, Roger Williams, Dwight Yoakum, Emmylou Harris, and Kristofferson at the Grammy Living Legends awards, 1989) In concert with the Highwaymen (w/Kris, Johnny, and Waylon, 1990, 90 minutes) "The Man," an unfortunate ad for Taco Bell inspired by the IRS (1991) Graceland (w/ Paul Simon) (1992) Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (w/ Edie Brickell and Paul Simon, 1993) All Along the Watchtower (w/ Neil Young, 1994) Amazing Grace (1995) Just One Love (w/ Kimmie Rhodes, 1996) Three Days (w/ Emmylou Harris on Letterman, 1997) I Never Cared for You (1998) Jackson (w/ Sheryl Crow, 1999) Pancho and Lefty (w/ Emmylou, 2000) Rainbow Connection (2001) Bridge Over Troubled Waters (w/ Mitt Romney, 2002) If You've Got the Money (2003) Mama Tried (w/ Merle and Toby Keith, 2004) The Harder They Come (2005) Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (2006) Jambalaya (2007) Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (w/ Flaco Jimenez, 2008) Hesitation Blues (w/ Asleep at the Wheel, 2009) We Don't Run (2010) Still is Still Moving to Me (2011) On the Road Again / Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die (2012)

Why's This So Good?

AceRock — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:06:12 -0800

Conceived as sort of a companion to Longreads, Longform, Pocket, Byliner, etc., Nieman Storyboard's Why's This So Good? series looks at why some great long-form journalism and narrative nonfiction pieces are so great. There are over 60 installments of writers talking shop about writing. A good place to start is their Reader's Choice post which highlights installments on pieces by Malcolm Gladwell, Buzz Bissinger, David Grann, Gay Talese, and John McPhee. Other highlights include pieces on pieces by Calvin Trillin, J.R. Moehringer, Jeanne Marie Laskas, Michael Lewis, Katherine Boo, and Joan Didion.

Dark Souls – the Hollowed Killer of Lordran

Cloud King — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 07:48:28 -0800

Dark Souls – the Hollowed Killer of Lordran

So f*>%ing future

Potomac Avenue — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:43:33 -0800

"Yelp Reviews As Poetry". "A guide to the queer teen stars of YouTube." "Can a video game company save capitalism?" "In Defense of Ke$ha." "Playing golf inside Louisiana's largest prison." "What getting an abortion is like in a Red State." "We may have reached peak infographic." Here ye Here ye! The first (& only?) issue of Tomorrow Magazine [founded by fired Good Magazine editors] is out! Also: Fuck, Marry, Kill = Baby Boomers Good.is previously

Life on Matinicus Island

flex — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 07:44:42 -0800

Life on Matinicus Island: "Matinicus lies 23 miles out to sea, the most remote inhabited island on the Atlantic seaboard... one of a vast necklace of islands, more than 3,000 in all, spread out along the Maine coast as far north as the Bay of Fundy. A century ago, 200 or more of them were fishermen's communities; today, only 14 are inhabited year-round... Today, two years after putting a bullet into the neck of another lobsterman, in defense, he says, of his daughter, Vance Bunker is a pariah on the island: legally acquitted but privately unforgiven, widely but quietly reviled." (via longform)

He's behind you

Cloud King — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:31:26 -0800

How Colonel Gaddafi and the Western Establishment together created a pantomime world - new blog post by Adam Curtis

Two Fires - on the horrific fire in a garment factory in Karachi

Cloud King — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:08:31 -0800

Two Fires - on the horrific fire in a garment factory in Karachi

Keeping in-depth reporting alive

beagle — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 17:20:48 -0800

Narratively is "devoted exclusively to sharing New York’s untold stories—the rich, intricate narratives that get at the heart of what this city’s all about." The site, launched in September, presents one long-form piece of journalism, sometimes text, sometimes video, sometimes a photo essay, sometimes audio.

That Face! The Uncanny Art Of Studio Photography's Heyday

Cloud King — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:56:59 -0800

That Face! The Uncanny Art Of Studio Photography's Heyday

The Throne of Zion

Cloud King — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 06:01:46 -0800

The Throne of Zion: A Pilgrimage to São Jorge da Mina, Ghana’s oldest and most notorious slave castle