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Issue No. 24

The View from Here

Few things seem as forced as all those end-of-the-decade retrospectives that list the most important people (Pope Francis, Tina Fey), worst disasters (the climate crisis, the Sopranos finale), or best podcasts…

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The Runaway Groom Britain’s most-wanted con man bewitched, bamboozled, and embezzled

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EPISODE VI: “Weekender Loonies and Sicko 212s!” A final missive from Lansy Everett, formerly of the New York Herald Tribune, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue, Worth, and Harper’s Bazaar

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Shades of Blue Shots are fired outside an unsavory Tennessee bar, killing the proprietor—an off-duty cop. When the case goes cold, the cop’s grieving family takes matters into their own hands

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Canadian Kama Sutra Happy New Year! Your long-awaited guide to romance north of the border is here

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A Midwinter Night’s Dream

Walt Disney’s seven-part paean to classical music, Fantasia, opened in 1940 to calamitous box office. While reviews were mixed, few cartoon features have been as galvanizingly influential over Pop art and high art. This audiovisual smorgasbord animates eight basic repertory pieces—including The Rite of Spring—with fanciful stories, picturesque scenes, and abstract designs. On the high side, it gave American audiences their first chance to experience The Nutcracker as intoxicating dance. Decades later, after a smash 1969 re-release as a “trip” movie, it catalyzed a new genre: the classical-music video. READ ON

Featuring Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform segments of Disney’s Fantasia live in concert on January 3, 4, and 5.

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Discover
Design for Living

An Address Most Magical

Small Talk
“New Year’s resolutions are fine, but we should really focus on our squad goals.”

Who Really Killed Jimmy Hoffa? (And was the frozen salmon a red herring?)

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Must-See Events

Birds Are Losing the Climate Fight

Global warming causes some species to become smaller
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Small Talk
“Introspe-e-ec-shun!”

The Speed Demons of Medellín “Gravity biking,” a wild sport in which teenage boys hurtle down steep streets on bicycles at 70 m.p.h., is taking over Colombia

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Small Talk
“Have you tried doing the thing you just told me you tried?”
Style

Ars Longa, Bullshit Longer How we are fooled by pretentious titles on art

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The Brooklyn of the North Sea Fermented blubber and other chef’s delicacies lure die-hard foodies to the Faroe Islands

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Bonjour Tristesse Once again, the French novelist Michel Houellebecq is a step ahead of current events. But his themes are timeless

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Lee Child On the unlikely books that offer a break from your routine reads

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Small Talk
“Same thing every year. You can’t get them to do a blessed thing the week between Christmas and New Year’s.”
Books

The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves

by Andrew Lownie
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The Sacrament

by Olaf Olafsson
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Prince Among Men The photographer behind My Name Is Prince, the largest-ever collection of images of the star, recalls the extraordinary experience of being in his orbit

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Wagner Takes Brisbane

To followers of Richard Wagner, the none-too-enthralling Bavarian market town of Bayreuth is the navel of the world, for that is where the master built his “theater of the future,” the Festspielhaus, specially designed for his 17-hour, four-evening epic, “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” Things might have turned out otherwise; for a time, when money was tighter than usual, the spendthrift megalomaniac considered pulling up stakes for greener pastures in Minnesota. One wonders how many of the crowned heads, fellow composers, and other glitterati who assembled for the inaugural three-“Ring” circus in August 1876 would have followed him there. Maybe not even Dom Pedro II of Brazil? READ ON

Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen, who is set to lead Opera Queensland’s production of Tristan und Isolde in Brisbane come fall. Also in Brisbane, a new production of Wagner’s “Ring” rounds out the fall 2020 season.

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Discover

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Best
Watch The Apartment ’Tis the season to argue over what to watch after dinner, a holiday tradition that can get tiresome… Listen The Time for Peace Is Now In 1998, David Byrne founded the Luaka Bop label to “turn friends on to stuff I liked.”… Carry On The Essential Duffel We first learned about the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel 55L from a foreign-correspondent friend… Peep Wittiest Instagram There aren’t many opportunities (especially of late) to laugh with the royal family. Eat Zagat 2020 Apps have made a wealth of dining reviews available in an instant, but sometimes all that’s needed to assure a restaurant’s quality… Fly Electric Seaplane Electric cars have made city streets somewhat quieter and cleaner over the past decade. Now we may be a bit closer… Watch The Apartment ’Tis the season to argue over what to watch after dinner, a holiday tradition that can get tiresome… Listen The Time for Peace Is Now In 1998, David Byrne founded the Luaka Bop label to “turn friends on to stuff I liked.”… Carry On The Essential Duffel We first learned about the Patagonia Black Hole Duffel 55L from a foreign-correspondent friend… Peep Wittiest Instagram There aren’t many opportunities (especially of late) to laugh with the royal family. Eat Zagat 2020 Apps have made a wealth of dining reviews available in an instant, but sometimes all that’s needed to assure a restaurant’s quality… Fly Electric Seaplane Electric cars have made city streets somewhat quieter and cleaner over the past decade. Now we may be a bit closer…

Ask Richard

I’ve been hearing a lot about Hudson Yards, and am tempted to hole up there on my next visit to New York, but the location—in the middle of nowhere, really—is worrying. Will I find enough to do in that neighborhood to keep me entertained?

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A Very Air Mail Holiday Monkey Bar’s Mountain Frost Punch

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Small Talk
“Remember, my cover story is that I’m leaving politics to spend time with you.”

Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Deputy Editors

Chris Garrett Michael Hainey George Kalogerakis Nathan King

Design Director

Angela Panichi

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Style Editor

Ashley Baker

Articles Editor

Ash Carter

Senior Editor

Julia Vitale

Columnists

Cazzie David Emma Freud Walter Isaacson
Pico Iyer John Lahr James Wolcott

Photo Director

Ann Schneider

Cartoon Editor

Bob Mankoff

Music Supervisor

Randall Poster

Assistant Editors

Elena Clavarino Clementine Ford Alex Oliveira

International Editor

Isabelle Harvie-Watt

London Editor

Bridget Arsenault

Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

Photo Editor

Emine Gozde Sevim

Production Editor

H. Scott Jolley

Associate Editor

Elinor Schneider

Chief Operating Officer

Bill Keenan

Chief Marketing Officer

Emily Davis

Brand Partnerships

Anjali Lewis

Financial & Business Operations

Marc Leyer

Integrated Marketing Manager

Madeline Spates

Intern

Eshaan Jain

Issue No. 24
December 28, 2019
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Issue No. 24
December 28, 2019

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