Life After Merce Life After Merce
Can the work of Merce Cunningham survive his death and the closing of his dance company?
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Marina Harss
Of Deserts and Promised Lands: The Dream of Global Justice Of Deserts and Promised Lands: The Dream of Global Justice
Jenny Martinez and Kathryn Sikkink offer conflicting histories of the ascendency of international courts.
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn
How to Watch a Police Beating How to Watch a Police Beating
First off, there should be two sets of laws— act like an ox and try not to be nonwhite or named Becky. A hippie, with its gauche idealism still intact, is annoying and self-destroying so administrations can contain it better. It's also an enormous help that your skin is recorded like data on the surface of your body, it broadcasts a signal—that you're tripping your face off at the prom for instance. My eyes feel more Episcopalian than ever, those furry little hellions that forcefully broke up a peaceful assembly of women's rights activists. Parking violations can carry bigger fines than beating up women and you act like these people can tape you but you can't tape yourself. Perhaps if the police bombed a foreign country with lattes my friends would begin to act like themselves again. It seems to me that this is not an assemblage of rights activists at all, said the lion, but a love of replacing state violence with video game violence, great movie gore and plans to repopulate the entire province with horny people again, to participate without these detached coagulations of disoriented rage branching off Falstaff just for the heck of it. To act as banker, you have to live on interest or uncover laughter at a huge obese religious electoral reform corsage. I guess you're supposed to go through and deny each of the five senses individually.
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Drew Gardner
A Man Escaped A Man Escaped
Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film; Kimi Takesue’s Where Are You Taking Me?; Manfred Kirchheimer’s Art Is…The Permanent Revolution
Feb 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
AIDS and Imperialism: Karma and Colonial Crimes AIDS and Imperialism: Karma and Colonial Crimes
A new book shows that the HIV virus was triggered by wanton imperial depredations.
Feb 28, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Bob Dreyfuss
In Defense Of ‘The Help’ In Defense Of ‘The Help’
Though complicated by controversy, a weekend in Los Angeles with thirty domestic workers underscores the power of Hollywood to propel social change.
Feb 27, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Ilyse Hogue
We Pick Rick We Pick Rick
(A Santorum campaign song, sung to the tune of “I Like Ike,” by Irving Berlin) We pick Rick. Yes, Rick’s with whom we will stick. He’s the guy All over whom we’re swarming. We pick Rick. Though some imply that he’s thick, He well knows There is no global warming. He’ll say on CNN The sins that we must smother. And he can keep those men From marrying each other. We pick Rick ‘Cause he’ll tell liberals real quick What God says No matter if they’re willing: Abortion’s baby-killing. So we pick Rick.
Feb 15, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Wislawa Szymborska, 1923–2012 Wislawa Szymborska, 1923–2012
The great Polish poet disclaimed grand political schemes in favor of irony, wit, skepticism and the individual.
Feb 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt
The Treason of the Senate The Treason of the Senate
A famous indictment from a century ago aptly describes today’s corrupt legislative body.
Feb 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / David Sarasohn
Galileo’s Credo Galileo’s Credo
Two new biographies differ over the astronomer’s view of the relationship between science and faith.
Feb 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Paula Findlen