Is Alex Ross Trying Too Hard To Be Eclectic? It's a great article but, imho, a few false notes are struck here and there. Can you love classical and popular music at the same time? Classical types always like the same popular stuff (Dylan and Pink Floyd, of course) and popular types always like the same classical stuff (Wagner, Puccini, Mahler) but somehow the suspicion remains that one's heart can't be in two places at once. There's something ingratiating and icky about attempts to pretend "it's all music". It isn't, is it? Also, God forgive me, 20 is way too late to start listening to Pop.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 20, 2004 - 50 comments

The New Yorker Book Of Martini Cartoons, as such, doesn't exist. Nor Does The New Yorker Book of Internet Cartoons. But since nobody knows you're a dog, much less an editor, on the Internet, it very well could. Here are a few of my favourite Martini cartoons to start you off.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 16, 2003 - 6 comments

The Unforgettable Gertrude Stein: A charming miscellany of first encounters with the fascinating writer and personality, compiled by Dana Cook. [From The New Yorker's excellent web guide to Gertrude Stein .]
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 28, 2003 - 4 comments

So What Happened After The Wise Man Discovered He Was Wearing The Red Hat? Don Steinberg's hilarious brainteaser aftermaths inevitably makes one wonder what happens after fairy-tale endings or the punchlines in jokes.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jan 31, 2003 - 20 comments

Captionistas Wanted: This year's New Yorker cartoon competition, slightly more challenging than last year's is now online, awaiting witty captions until November 20.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Nov 4, 2002 - 48 comments

Pssst...Got A Good Caption For A New Yorker Cartoon? Because the winning entry in this year's caption jamboree isn't very funny. Neither are the other shortlisted suggestions. It may be up to The New Yorker's standards, but it's certainly not up to MetaFilter's...
posted by MiguelCardoso on Feb 11, 2002 - 25 comments

Women's Bodies or Women's Fashions: What Should Come First? Comfort in Western dress is a relatively modern and liberal concept. In the last few years, though, it seems to have been forgotten by increasingly unforgiving - even sadistic - designers. Or is it just Art? Last Wednesday, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a new exhibition called Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed. Judith Thurman, in the current New Yorker, suggests things have gone too far. The question is: should leading designers be free to be absolutely creative - as they seem to be at the moment - or should they adapt their creations to the actual shape of women's bodies? Has "haute couture" finally become an art in itself, with no pretence of actually clothing real women? Is, in fact, a certain hatred of women involved?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Dec 10, 2001 - 23 comments