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Issue No. 11

The View from Here

The president of the United States wasn’t crazy back when I first met him, in the early 80s. Craven, tacky, self-regarding—yes, he had all of those enduring attributes…

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All Quiet on the Cameron Front In a new book, the former P.M. has little to show for the Brexit disaster he gave life to

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Very High and Drying The little-known “third pole,” in Asia’s high peaks, is one of the most ecologically diverse places on Earth

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Standing Room Only

Merce Cunningham was one of the three most influential choreographers of the 20th century. (The other two were George Balanchine and Martha Graham.) He choreographed nearly 200 works of modern dance between 1944 and his death, in 2009, fundamentally redefining the genre of modern dance for the second half of the century. This year marks the centennial of his birth, and classic Cunningham dances are being performed all over the world. One performance stands out: the double bill of Beach Birds and Biped at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. READ ON

Merce Cunningham, who made standing his signature, will be honored with performances of his dances at the Kennedy Center in early October.

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Discover

Top Dogs

The comedy show created by Ukraine’s new president skewered Donald Trump
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Take the Money

The Whitney, M.I.T., the Museum of Natural History, Sloan Kettering, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Shed at Hudson Yards—these are just a few of the places under fire for their financial ties to individuals now deemed problematic…

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Small Talk

Golden Head Whodunit? A $6 million toilet is stolen from Churchill’s ancestral home

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Meet Jesse Cohn, the Gordon Gekko for Millennial Brahs

Attention C.E.O.’s of America: Do not ignore him
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Drop That Corn Dog No platform is better suited for letting candidates bypass the hokey rituals of retail campaigning than the humble, motley podcast

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Lady Hale, Boris Johnson, and the Spider Brooch The president of the U.K.’s Supreme Court tells the prime minister what’s what, and creates a legion of fans

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Small Talk
“Where has this plain white T-shirt been all my life?”

Populist Art

In 1972, Andy Warhol added a series of paintings of Chairman Mao to his ever growing gallery of icons, and his irreverent blend of mythology and mass marketing caught a big political shift. (President Nixon made his historic visit to China earlier that year.) Fourteen years later, in his final series before his death, Warhol pulled another figurehead of Communism—Vladimir Lenin—into what had become a fully fleshed-out Pop ideology. READ ON

Andy Warhol’s Lenin. Nine of Warhol’s Lenin images head to auction at Phillips in London on October 4.

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Cynthia Talmadge The American artist who takes inspiration from female courtroom villains—and their outfits

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George Stubbs, King of the Beasts The 18th-century British painter was the “Liverpudlian Leonardo,” revered for his portraits of racehorses and other creatures

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Style

Faces in the Crowd

Intersection. The word is a perfect fit for JR, the French-born photographer who started out as a teenage graffiti artist, switched to a camera, began pasting large (and largely illegal) photographs on walls all over the world, and then, inspired by Diego Rivera’s murals, developed into a roving portraitist of cities and their citizens. Working at the intersection of photography, street art, and the impromptu happening, JR pounds the pavement, collecting passersby for group portraits. When he has enough of these portraits he digitally collages them into one epic work—an intersection, you might say, of urban diversity and commonality, an open-air choir in soaring shades of gray. READ ON

A detail from JR’s The Chronicles of New York City, 2018, on view through October 26 at Perrotin New York.

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Discover
Small Talk
Books

Crown Jewels A new book unites fashion and classical dance, from tulle to tutus

Books

Frankissstein: A Love Story

by Jeanette Winterson
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I Will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer

by Ahmet Altan
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Olive, Again

by Elizabeth Strout
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Short List

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Joseph Altuzarra Recommends three coming-of-age novels

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Small Talk
“We have ways of making you small-talk.”

Two-Track Mind In the lifetime Carrie Fisher spent in the public eye, she became known for her fierce wit and unsentimentality. Three years on from her death, her biographer unveils her vulnerable, virtuous side

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My Month of Rest and Relaxation In Asia’s posh postpartum hotels, new mothers are pampered while newborns are sequestered in the nursery

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Small Talk
Best
Wear Marlon Brando’s Rolex If you’ve seen the documentary Hearts of Darkness, you know what a horror show the filming of… Ride Ducati Motorcycle In 1972, the motorcycling world was stunned when Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari took first and second… Eat Tetetlán Bertha González Nieves is the co-founder of Casa Dragones tequila. In her native Mexico, she loves Tetetlán. Watch The Politician The rich, Santa Barbara, California, kids competing in a high-school election are as calculating and cutthroat as Tracy Flick in the 1999… Listen Broken: Jeffrey Epstein When a scandal is truly shocking, people can’t hear enough about it… Cozy Up Lingua Franca Rachelle Macpherson, an air mail Editor at Large and the founder of Lingua Franca, is a chronic collaborator… Wear Marlon Brando’s Rolex If you’ve seen the documentary Hearts of Darkness, you know what a horror show the filming of… Ride Ducati Motorcycle In 1972, the motorcycling world was stunned when Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari took first and second… Eat Tetetlán Bertha González Nieves is the co-founder of Casa Dragones tequila. In her native Mexico, she loves Tetetlán. Watch The Politician The rich, Santa Barbara, California, kids competing in a high-school election are as calculating and cutthroat as Tracy Flick in the 1999… Listen Broken: Jeffrey Epstein When a scandal is truly shocking, people can’t hear enough about it… Cozy Up Lingua Franca Rachelle Macpherson, an air mail Editor at Large and the founder of Lingua Franca, is a chronic collaborator…

Cultural Evolution

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has blossomed much like its home city, which has evolved from a key port during the Opium Wars to dazzling colonial outpost, to besieged wartime center, to a megalopolis of 24 million. When the orchestra’s 140th anniversary opens this weekend, it won’t be a Geritol-fueled tux-and-gown-fest. More than half the Chinese classical music audience is thought to be under 40, which is a reflection of Shanghai itself, a place where the future seems to have already found its footing—yet another magnet for the disposable income drenching China these days. READ ON

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra performing at the Forbidden City, in Beijing.

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Discover

Ask Richard

Dear Richard,

I’m heading to Shanghai for a work conference. You know the drill: serious wonks, forgettable hotel, rubber-duck dinners. If I extend my trip a few days, how can I best experience the city—and a bit of the countryside?

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Eternity’s Gate The love letter that made it out of Auschwitz intact

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View With a Room

Downton Abbey Is Open for Business Verified super-fans can book a room in Fellowes-land for a mere $160 a night. But just for one night


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A Dior look the artist found evocative of the postwar period in Paris, where Fashion Week is now in full swing.
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Issue No. 11
September 28, 2019
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Issue No. 11
September 28, 2019

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