- Ben Greenman: “Wager.”
The big game was on the horizon, and, as was customary, the governor of the Eastern Seaboard state put up a crate of the local delicacy, a seafood, and his West Coast counterpart responded by staking a case of his state’s finest wine. The wager between the two . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
ART
GAME ON
March 14-July 9
“Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration,” at MOMA, borrows its theme from the Surrealist game, in which works of art come together collaboratively, Frankenstein-like. On view are works by modern . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
MOVIES
WORLD SERIES
Jan. 12-28
The spotty state of foreign-film distribution makes MOMA’s “Global Lens” series all the more welcome. This year’s edition features new films from a wide range of countries, including Iraq (“Qarantina,” a drama about a . . ....
- John Lahr: Sideshows of sexuality in “The Pride” and “A Lie of the Mind.”
Theatre is a game of hide-and-seek. For both the hiders and the seekers, the thrill is in the discovery. When the rules of the game are too vague or too complicated, however, the audience can lose its urge to play; the prize no longer seems quite worth the . . ....
- Hendrik Hertzberg: Who’s afraid of the “Ground Zero mosque”?
A couple of weeks before the last election, the Republican nominees for President and Vice-President granted a joint interview to Brian Williams, of NBC. “Governor,” he asked, turning to the distaff half of the ticket, “what is an élite? Who is a member of the . . ....
- Emily Nussbaum: “Game of Thrones” review.
For critics, sorting through television pilots is an act of triage. Last year, when “Game of Thrones” landed on my desk, I skimmed two episodes and made a quick call: we’d have to let this one go. The HBO series, based on the best-selling fantasy . . ....
- Hendrik Hertzberg: Did Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum in Iowa?
Last week, after the former governor of Massachusetts “defeated” the former senator from Pennsylvania in the Iowa Republican caucus, the commentariat was faced with a conundrum. We know who “won,” but who really won? The tally was as close to a tie as has ever been . . ....
- Goings on About Town: Readings and Talks
goatTitle-->THE POWERHOUSE ARENA
Ben Greenman, an editor at this magazine, and the writer Neil Strauss celebrate the publication of Greenman’s new book, “Celebrity Chekhov,” and Strauss’s forthcoming volume, “Everyone Loves You When You’re Dead: Journeys Into Fame and Madness . . ....
- David Remnick: “Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports” review.
Sports, not religion, is the opiate of the people. Think of it in terms of time. Mass takes about an hour. You’re lucky if a “Monday Night Football” game is over in three. The average Yankees-Red Sox game last year ran about the length of . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Ben Greenman: Richard Thompson’s “Dream Attic.”
paragraph class="noindent">Richard Thompson has been turning out literate, moody, spiky albums for four decades, three on his own and a decade before that in partnership with his wife, Linda. There are so many highlights in his catalogue (“Shoot Out the Lights,” “Hand of Kindness,” . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
THE THEATRE
ON THE RISE
Jan. 5-16
The Public’s annual “Under the Radar” series, which presents works by both up-and-coming and veteran theatrical innovators, includes a new piece by Taylor Mac, “The Walk Across America for Mother Earth”; “Ameriville,” by . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
THE THEATRE
ON THE RISE
Jan. 5-16
The Public’s annual “Under the Radar” series, which presents works by both up-and-coming and veteran theatrical innovators, includes a new piece by Taylor Mac, “The Walk Across America for Mother Earth”; “Ameriville,” by . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
THE THEATRE
BEST IS YET TO COME
March 1
Twyla Tharp applies her dance-musical formula (a success with “Movin’ Out,” less so with “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ”) to “Come Fly Away,” a new show set to recordings of Frank . . ....
- Books: Victor Cha’s “The Impossible State” review.
8220;Industrialized,” “urbanized,” and “high tech” are not words one typically associates with North Korea. Yet, in the wake of the Second World War, as China and the U.S.S.R. vied for influence in the Korean peninsula, it was just that. Since then, political paranoia, economic . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Richard Brody: “The Rules of the Game” on DVD.
Many directors are, in effect, actors who reserve their performances for their cast and crew. The one time that the director Jean Renoir gave himself an onscreen star turn, however—in his panoramic 1939 romance, “The Rules of the Game” (Criterion)—he didn’t just . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
NIGHT LIFE
FULL SERVING
Feb. 23
The bombastic erstwhile arena-rocker Meat Loaf brings “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” and other old hits to wee Irving Plaza. (800-745-3000.)
THE THEATRE
BLAME “SOUTH PARK”
Feb. 24
Trey . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
MOVIES
BEFORE THE FALL
Nov. 17-March 7
MOMA presents “Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares,” a program of seventy-five films, including two musicals from 1932 written by Billy Wilder, “The Blue from the Sky” and “A Blonde Dream.” (212-708-9480.)
THE THEATRE
KEEP . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
MOVIES
ROMAN EMPIRE
Sept. 7-30
The acclaim that Roman Polanski received for his first feature, “Knife in the Water,” which he made in his native Poland, launched him into a long career that has included such classics as “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown” . . ....
- John Lahr: “All’s Well That Ends Well” and “Measure for Measure”
8220;The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together,” one of the courtiers in “All’s Well That Ends Well” says in a piece of throwaway brilliance that reveals Shakespeare’s argument and his theatrical game. The ever-changing . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Ben Greenman: Paul Simon’s “So Beautiful or So What.”
paragraph class="noindent">Paul Simon spent the eighties venturing eventfully into African and South American music, but on his twelfth album, “So Beautiful or So What” (Concord), his excursions are more temporal. The lead single, “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” partly about a soldier in Iraq . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Tad Friend: A game of pool with Will Ferrell.
Will Ferrell had racked the balls and chalked his cue for a game of eight ball. The only thing lacking was atmosphere. “A little Robert Goulet, if you don’t mind,” he suggested. The actor dropped the tonearm on his Stack-O-Matic turntable, and “(Where . . ....
- Ben Greenman: Dave Alvin’s new album, “Eleven Eleven.”
paragraph class="noindent">While much of Dave Alvin’s recent work has found him in an acoustic mood, his new album, “Eleven Eleven” (Yep Roc), announces its intentions from the first. The record opens with the squalling “Harlan County Line,” which was inspired by (and . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Ben Greenman: Jason & the Scorchers’s “Halcyon Times.”
paragraph class="noindent">Jason & the Scorchers were one of the bright lights of the mid-eighties, fusing rock guitars, punk tempos, and country songwriting on albums like “Fervor.” The band’s double-speed take on Bob Dylan’s “Absolutely Sweet Marie” confirmed the . . ....
- Isaac Chotiner: Is “Globish” the new world language?
In 1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay, the British historian and statesman, arrived in Madras. He travelled north to Calcutta, then India’s capital, to assume the role of Law Member of the Governor-General’s Council. “We know that India cannot have a free Government,” Macaulay had . . ....
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
MOVIES
AGAINST THE GRAIN
June 30-July 8
“Contraband Cinema,” BAM’s series of thirty-three challenging political films, defines the genre to include Peter Brook’s “Marat/Sade,” his film of sexual and political revolution in an asylum; “The Polymath,” Fred . . ....
- Lauren Collins: Dinner with Christopher Hitchens and Salman Rushdie.
8220; ‘Laughterhouse Five,’ ” Guest No. 1 said. “ ‘Romeo and Julie.’ ”
“No, no, no,” Guest No. 2 replied. “That’s the ruining-everything-by-changing-one-letter game. Let’s do the substitute-‘dick’-for-‘heart . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “In a Better World” and “Super.”
The winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, “In a Better World,” is a tale of two countries. One is Denmark, the native land of Susanne Bier, the movie’s director. The other is an African state, and it is there that . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Goings on About Town: On the Horizon
THE THEATRE
LOVE HURTS
Jan. 13
“Venus in Fur” is something of a departure for David Ives, who was most recently represented on Broadway with “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” Classic Stage Company presents the drama, which is based on the erotic novel by the . . ....
