- David Owen: Tareytons and Old Spice
In search of the scents of childhood....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Quentin Rowan, a.k.a. Q. R. Markham, plagiarism addict.
Spy novels embrace clichés—the double agent, the bomb-rigged briefcase—and “Assassin of Secrets,” published last fall, made a virtue of this tendency, piling one trope onto another to create a story that rang with wry knowingness. The book is set in the . . ....
- David Denby: “Hall Pass,” “Take Me Home Tonight,” and “Jane Eyre.”
In “Hall Pass,” two fortyish husbands (Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis) are given a week of liberty by their wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate). Go for it, the women tell them. You stare at every shapely young female body you see, so get it out of your . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Fall Preview: Classical music in New York City.
EAST IS WEST
One could be forgiven for thinking that the winds of economic change haven’t buffeted Carnegie Hall. Clive Gillinson, its director, will continue his tradition of fulsome fall festivals with “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices,” a celebration of Chinese culture and its fruitful interaction with . . ....
- David Owen: A life in injuries.
On a hill in the neighborhood where I grew up, in Kansas City, was a suburban ruin that my friends and I called the Burned-Down House. There was a crumbling tennis court, which was enclosed by an overgrown chain-link fence, and there was a concrete slab with a . . . (Subscription required.)...
- David Owen: Colombia’s bulletproof clothing beats Kevlar.
On my first day in Colombia, two women in an old Toyota drove me to an industrial park on the outskirts of Bogotá. There, in a building that from the outside looked like a warehouse, the man I’d come to interview—early forties, black hair, not . . . (Subscription required.)...
- David Owen: Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, and space travel.
We’ve learned a lot recently about what the richest one per cent look like to those below them on the income ladder; we know less about what they look like to themselves. Fortunately, Richard Branson, the highly personable British kazillionaire—who is the head of the Virgin . . ....
- David Owen: Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, and space travel.
We’ve learned a lot recently about what the richest one per cent look like to those below them on the income ladder; we know less about what they look like to themselves. Fortunately, Richard Branson, the highly personable British kazillionaire—who is the head of the Virgin . . ....
- History of Bentley Cars
Walter Owen Bentley founded Bentley Motors on 18 January 1919 and registered it as Bentley Motors Limited in August 1919. Its first car appeared after two year with a 3 1/2 litre engine....
- Goings on About Town: The Theatre
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OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS
Please call the phone number listed with the theatre for timetables and ticket information.
ABSOLUTION
Owen O’Neill wrote and performs in this piece, which explores the mind of a serial killer, produced by Guna Nua Theatre from Dublin. Part of the 1st Irish . . ....
- David Denby: “Midnight in Paris” and “Bridesmaids.”
Owen Wilson’s hair is a damp mop, his much-broken nose wanders at the tip, his manner is rushed and then hesitant; he frequently seems an unfinished man, always yearning to be something other than what he is. The part of Gil Pender in Woody Allen’s . . ....
- David Owen: Hunting extreme weather on “Storm Chasers.”
When Reed Timmer was a freshman at the University of Oklahoma, in 1999, he and three friends abandoned their convertible during a major storm and took shelter under a highway overpass. A huge tornado was bearing down on them, and Timmer could see tree branches, car parts, and pink fibreglass . . ....
- Goings on About Town: Movies
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OPENINGS
THE BIG YEAR
Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black star in this comedy, as three bird-watching friends who compete against each other in a race to spot rare species. Directed by David Frankel; co-starring Rosamund Pike and Rashida Jones. Opening Oct. 14 . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: How top chefs fly with their knives.
Here’s a travel story that will send you back: Some years ago, Eric Ripert, the executive chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, was returning to New York from Washington, D.C., where he’d cooked for a charity event. He put his carry-on bag through the . . ....
- David Owen: A new device for escaping from tall buildings.
This month’s news of Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who grabbed two beers and fled down his plane’s evacuation slide, underscored the importance of having access to effective egress. Another creative thinker on the subject of timely escape is Kevin R. Stone, a California orthopedic . . ....
- Paul Goldberger: Eric Owen Moss and Culver City.
Internationally famous architects—“starchitects,” in the current parlance—tend to be the sort of people who fly constantly around the world, perhaps alighting in Rome to toss off a museum (Zaha Hadid), or in Minneapolis to design a theatre (Jean Nouvel), or in Beijing to do . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Paul Goldberger: Eric Owen Moss and Culver City.
Internationally famous architects—“starchitects,” in the current parlance—tend to be the sort of people who fly constantly around the world, perhaps alighting in Rome to toss off a museum (Zaha Hadid), or in Minneapolis to design a theatre (Jean Nouvel), or in Beijing to do . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Used Bentley – As Relevant Today As Ever
Bentley Motors Limited was set up by Walter Owen Bentley (known affectionately as just W.O) in the year 1919. In 1998 the company was bought. The company it went to is another car manufacturing giant, Volkswagen, of Germany. Bentley comes from humble beginnings, compared to the giant it is today....
- David Owen: If our machines use less energy, will we just use them more?
In April, the federal government adopted standards for automobiles requiring manufacturers to improve the average fuel economy of their new-car fleets thirty per cent by 2016. The Times, in an editorial titled “Everybody Wins,” said the change would produce “a trifecta of benefits.” Those benefits . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Social Register, the original Facebook.
The news, last week, that the Encyclopædia Britannica was discontinuing its book edition seemed to signal a new world order—the decline of print, the surrendering of institutional hierarchies to the democracy of the Internet. But another transformation has occurred in recent months, with less fanfare: the . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Roberta’s, in Brooklyn.
paragraph class="noindent">This gourmet pizza place, located amid a desolate-looking stretch of warehouses in Bushwick, is often described as a D.I.Y. enterprise. The label is slightly ambiguous—aren’t a lot of other restaurant entrepreneurs doing it themselves, too? Carlo Mirarchi, the chef at Roberta’ . . ....
- David Owen: The stars of “Oddities” on Science Channel.
Among the many items on display at Obscura Antiques & Oddities, on Avenue A between Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets, is a leathery, somnolent-looking human head. “It’s an old medical preparation,” Evan Michelson, who is one of the store’s two co-owners, explained. “ . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Fanatics Fantastical
Fans! Fans! Fans! We see them all over the newspapers and television. There are hoards of them....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Caffè Storico at the New-York Historical Society review.
paragraph class="noindent">A serious restaurant in a museum: what a good concept. Pioneered by MOMA, with the Modern, and spreading, with varying degrees of success, to the Whitney (Untitled), the Guggenheim (the Wright), and the Museum of Arts and Design (Robert), the formula, if executed well, can . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Bohemian, in NoHo.
paragraph class="noindent">New York does exclusivity well, but Tokyo does it better. There is a Japanese phrase, “Ichigensama okotowari,” that’s used by owners of certain discriminating restaurants and shops, and means, roughly, “We respectfully decline first-time visitors.” In other words: walk-ins . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: Bohemian, in NoHo.
paragraph class="noindent">New York does exclusivity well, but Tokyo does it better. There is a Japanese phrase, “Ichigensama okotowari,” that’s used by owners of certain discriminating restaurants and shops, and means, roughly, “We respectfully decline first-time visitors.” In other words: walk-ins . . ....
- Lizzie Widdicombe: New York rallies for Haiti.
One of the effects that the earthquake in Haiti has produced in New York is the unfamiliar feeling of total geographic irrelevance: for the first few days, when damaged roads and ruined cell-phone towers made the island impenetrable, New York City seemed like a helpless, remote archipelago. And yet . . ....
- If It’s Fast, Then It’s a Bentley
Bentley was founded by vehicle enthusiast Walter Owen Bentley, in partnership with his brother in 1919 in England. Their initial cars and trucks ended up built obtainable in 1921, about a year afterwards than it turned out expected to get launched. The business was usually lacking funds which led W.O. Bentley to make the choice to seek the help of millionaire Woolf Barnato which sooner...
