MetaFilter posts tagged with thenewyorker

Ahmet Ertegun profiled by George W. S. Trow in 1978

Kattullus — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:42:39 -0800

Ahmet Ertegun was profiled by George W. S. Trow in The New Yorker in a classic piece back in 1978. Ertegun was the son of the Turkish ambassador to the US and he remained behind in D.C. studying medieval philosophy at Georgetown. Instead of devoting himself to his studies he founded Atlantic Records with his friend Herb Abramson. Trow charted how Ertegun moved from tramping through muddy, Louisiana fields in search of hot new sounds to the whirl of Studio 54. Below the cut are links to the songs mentioned in the article, as best as I could find, in the order in which they appear. Hugues Panassié, Le Jazz Hot (performed by Julie Andrews). I couldn't find any online versions of Dirty Mother for You but here's Roosevelt Sykes rippin' it up on Swedish TV in 1972. Couldn't find Ruth Brown singing A - You're Adorable, so here's the Sesame Street version. Ivory Joe Hunter, Since I Met You Baby. I couldn't find any footage or recordings of Bob Howard and His Rhythm, who recorded Button Up Your Overcoat and Memories of You for Atlantic Records, but here's Ruth Etting's 1929 version of the former and Sinatra's 1956 take on the latter. Here's a performance by Boyd Raeburn and His Orchestra who recorded The Lady is a Tramp and How High the Moon for Atlantic, here's Jaye P. Morgan doing the former and Les Paul and Mary Ford the latter. Sticks McGhee and His Buddies, Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee. Couldn't find Clovers' version of Skylark, so here's Bette Midler. I couldn't find a version of Don't You Know I Love You online. Joe Turner, Chains of Love. Ruth Brown, Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean. Joe Turner, Shake, Rattle and Roll. Clyde McPhatter and The Drifters, Money Honey. The Coasters, Searchin'/Young Blood. I couldn't find Chuck Willis' Hang Up My Rock n' Roll Shoes, but here's Bruce Springsteen covering the song and another song by Chuck Willis, What You Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You. Bobby Darin, Splish Splash. Ray Charles, What'd I Say? and I Got a Woman. The Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man, Satisfaction and Love in Vain. Stevie Wonder, Happy Birthday and Uptight/Satisfaction (with The Rolling Stones). Muddy Waters, Hoochie Coochie Man. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Professor Longhair, Tipitina (with The Meters). I can't figure out what that Trammps song is that's referenced, but here they're performing Shout. It's impossible to know what Johnny Dodds song Ahmet Ertegun is da da dooing along with, so here's some random Johnny Dodds. I couldn't find Brown Skin Man by Lovie Austin and Her Blues Serenaders, but here's Charleston Mad (Priscilla Steward singing). Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, King Porter. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, You Can't Get That Stuff No More. Fred Astaire, Puttin' on the Ritz. I didn't find The Jealous Kind online. If I missed anything, please add a link.

Keep your hands to yourself.

shadytrees — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:37:30 -0800

Jonah Lehrer in The New Yorker profiles Walter Mischel, whose recent research indicates a child's ability to delay gratification can predict the child's academic success. Mischel was previously mentioned in a thread on behavorial economics. He is best known for the marshmallow experiment in the 1960s. (via)

Selling snake oil

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:44:07 -0800

An unexpected corollary of the modern marketing-and-distribution model is that films no longer have time to find their audience; that audience has to be identified and solicited well in advance. The Cobra - The New Yorker on the art and science of movie marketing.

The New Yorker: The Gerbil's Revenge

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:09:30 -0800

Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.

Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker. Non-print version

Via Antares's own site, interestingly enough.

Previously: 1, 2

Sasha Frere Jones's personal site, New Yorker blog.

Those who appear to be a little too happy will be asked to leave.

amyms — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:12:25 -0800

How I Want To Be Remembered by Jack Handey. He was fabulously wealthy, but he would pretend to be broke, and often tried to borrow cigarettes and money from people. Little did they know that those who gave him stuff would later be rewarded in his will, with jewels and antigravity helmets. You may know Jack Handey from his Deep Thoughts which first gained fame on as filler between sketches on Saturday Night Live. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker (scroll down this page for his other essays).

essays and short stories in the New Yorker and "Best American" series

stbalbach — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:40:15 -0800

Here are the essays and short stories originally published in The New Yorker that were later collected in Houghton Mifflin’s annual “Best American” anthology series (1915-present). Some of the later ones are freely available online, all are in the Complete New Yorker collection (it's a sort of best-of guide to the archive).

Race and Intelligence, Redux

ubiquity — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 14:51:05 -0800

About a month ago, a MeFi FPP on this article sparked a controversy here on the usefulness of the concepts of IQ and race in determining whether some ethnic groups can be shown to be intrinsically less intelligent than others. Now James Flynn, discoverer of the Flynn effect, has written a book, What is Intelligence?, that settles many of the issues of this controversy. In this week's New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell summarizes Flynn's arguments succinctly in a review entitled "None of the Above: What IQ doesn't tell you about race."

What is poetry? And does it pay?

oldleada — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:14:15 -0800

Are bad dreams good? Is "Bad Dreams Are Good" good? Is Joni Mitchell a poet?

That's right, Ishmael Twist.

supercrayon — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:06:30 -0800

The Compleat Steve has a number of articles written by Steve Martin. I especially liked A Public Apology, How I Joined Mensa, and Writing Is Easy!

What war looks like.

skimble — Fri, 06 Dec 2002 13:26:37 -0800

What war looks like. Susan Sontag has written an important essay on the intricate relationship we have with images of human suffering (e.g., war photography) in the December 9 issue of The New Yorker. A sample:

Perhaps the only people with the right to look at images of suffering of this extreme order [i.e., gruesome combat horrors] are those who could do something to alleviate it – say, the surgeons at the military hospital where the photograph was taken – or those who could learn from it. The rest of us are voyeurs, whether we like it or not.

The essay is not online but there is an excellent introduction with links to other galleries of the imagery discussed. With a new war likely on the way, her essay provides a timely set of insights into wartime suffering and how it is usually depicted, often manipulated, and never understood.

semmi — Sat, 30 Mar 2002 23:33:08 -0800

The Law of the Mental Mirror Image. We write what we are not. It is not merely that we fail to live up to our best ideas but that our best ideas, and the tone that goes with them, tend to be the opposite of our natural temperament. --Adam Gopnik on Popper in The New Yorker