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Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: art, Barack Obama, Bob Staake, books, covers, David Fincher, David Remnick, Dylan Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, movies, Richard Yates, Ryan Lizza, Zoe Heller
Been busy at the Alpine hacienda the last week or so, and I’ve been remiss in posting lately. Schemes gang agley and all that. So here’s one of those omnibus posts everyone likes.
Wonderful to see so much of Emily the last day or two! Thx Thanks for that unmistakable verve!
As Emily reported, David Remnick will write a book on Barack Obama. It will be his first book that isn’t a compilation or an edited work since he took over as New Yorker editor in 1998. That is a big deal. And, of course, good news!
How very nice to see an abstract cover on the magazine’s big year-ender.
David Fincher’s newest movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on an unlikely F. Scott Fitzgerald story, appears to be a stunner. On the subject of making movies of Fitzgerald stories, has anyone considered adapting “The Jelly-Bean”? On a road trip many, many years ago, I listened to Dylan Baker marvelously reproduce the lazy Southern rhythms of the story (it’s set in Georgia), and I think it might work on the big screen. It’s nothing like The Great Gatsby, which apparently is also true of Button. Anyone agree or disagree, or have other candidates?
Oh, and how do people feel about the new adaptation of Richard Yates’s novel Revolutionary Road? I don’t think I could bring myself to watch such depressing material, honestly. I had the same problem with Zoë Heller’s Notes on a Scandal; the book was excellent, but I was not able to finish the movie.
I wanted to mention a swell new blog, “Daily Routines,” an ongoing compilation of passages from writers discussing their daily routines. It cites The New Yorker about as much as any other source. I am a sucker for this sort of thing, interviews with artists, honest discourse on the process….
Sigh. I suspect (fear) that “The Transition” podcast is so named because they’ll be putting the “Campaign Trail” in hiatus until there is an actual, you know, campaign under way. I trust that Ryan Lizza will be able to find plenty to occupy him in Obama’s first year.
I’ve recently taken up cooking. (Until now I have always been strictly a microwave chef.) So when is The New Yorker going to come out with a cookbook, anyway?
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Reviews: theater writing (for Time Out Chicago)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Here’s an appreciative Unbeige story on Bob Staake’s abstract cover! I linked to it in your post, too.
Thanks! The Mondrian connection was so obvious I forgot to mention it.
Regarding your last question, this isn’t too far off:
M.F.K. Fisher, With Bold Knife and Fork, G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Perigee Books), 1969
Nearly all the material in this book originally appeared in The New Yorker in somewhat different form and focuses on recipes collected from various sources and food remembrances. This book is the closest that Fisher ever got to publishing a traditional cookbook.
Wow! That is an impressive tip. Did you know about it already or did my question prompt an impromptu (??) research project?
Indeed, your question posed the irresistible temptation of a zesty instant research project!
(I should have made clearer, by the way, that the description of the book comes from the linked site, it’s not mine.)
Plus, if you read Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink, there are recipes within in a narrative way, as in early Robert Parker novels.