Indholdsfortegnelse for February 26- March 10, 2024 i New York Magazine

1 In New York’s latest cover story, Reeves Wiedeman profiled Bill Ackman, the billionaire crusading against DEI initiatives and the “liberal elite” (“Empire Strikes Back,” February 12–25). The New York Times’ Matina Stevis-Gridneff called it a “masterclass in the genre.” “Why is it that so many people who are wealthy beyond most people’s dreams have such insecure loser mindsets?” wrote dutchvandal, while venture capitalist Hussein Kanji said, “It’s easy to dismiss Ackman as an out-of-touch billionaire who has decided that reforming higher education would be a fun and easy hobby. But he also comes across as a very in-touch billionaire, who is having the time of his life antagonizing people.” Many readers were disturbed by Ackman’s shifting politics. Sociology professor Jeffrey Parker wrote, “The ‘I’ve always considered myself a liberal’…

WHEN I ARRIVE at the 1907 Beaux Arts office building a few blocks south of the World Trade Center, a guard in the slickly renovated lobby of 101 Greenwich swipes me through the security turnstiles to an elevator that takes me to the 19th floor. The doors open to a sunny, 18,000-square-foot raw office space, cords dangling from the ceiling, with a wall of windows overlooking the Trinity Church spire and various skyscrapers. Not so long ago, this floor was home to Daniel Libeskind’s architecture practice, but now, like a number of other floors in this building and many more throughout the post-pandemic city, it sits empty. This desolation seems to delight the artist Christopher Wool, who has rented the space to put on a show of his recent paintings…

CELEBRITY SHOPPING Cherry Jolly Ranchers, One-Pound Bag, $20 “A doctor told me when your throat is dry, a cough drop actually dries it out more. Instead, they suggested a Jolly Rancher because it causes you to salivate, which creates more moisture in your mouth. I only eat the cherry ones because if I eat a blue or green one, I look crazy in a meet-and-greet photo. That I learned the hard way.” Philips Sonicare ExpertClean 7500 Electric Toothbrush, $200 “I had no idea electric toothbrushes feel so good and are so effective. I was like, Whoa, this is insane. I’ve been using a caveman’s toothbrush forever. I love this toothbrush. I’ve been raving about this shit for, like, two weeks.” DeWalt Glue Gun, $30 “I use glue guns a lot…

WHEN I BOUGHT it close to ten years ago, I knew this little bag would become my most-worn accessory. Called the Pasticcino, it is made from gathered fabric, all attached with a small metal frame and ball closure. Even though it’s mini, it fits a mighty amount of on-the-go necessities. Beyond the usual suspects, it can hold a balled-up pashmina, a detachable strap, a portable phone charger, and some sort of snack. I have five versions now, and functionality aside, it checks two important boxes: First, this bag already looks old. No risk of appearing dated next season as this style spans decades. Second, it is the flair that tips an outfit into personal-style territory. This bag, in all its fun colors and prints, doesn’t actually go with anything and…

What’s dating as a therapist like? It sucks, mostly. I think some people are like, I don’t want to go on a date with this guy. He’s going to analyze me. But others know therapists aren’t weird wizards. You’re one of the organizers? Yes. I went to a wedding and a bat mitzvah in the fall, and I was like, We need to do that. A lot of times therapists get together and it becomes deep and heady. I wanted to ensure this was light and fun. Many therapists are just in the office all day; now, with an election year—I mean, we’re going to be in the trenches. Who’d you come with? My partner, who’s also a therapist. As you can imagine, our fights are really good. We’ll have…

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, Fabián von Hauske was an intern for Dave Arnold, the French Culinary Institute’s director of culinary technology. Together, the two distilled vodka with canned pumpkin purée, turned potatoes into ice cream, and churned deodorized cocoa powder with freeze-dried tomatoes to make “ketchup chocolate,” which, Arnold recalls, “everybody hated.” Arnold left the FCI to open Booker and Dax, the cocktail laboratory in the back of Momofuku Ssäm Bar, while von Hauske paired up with another FCI alum, Jeremiah Stone, to create the restaurants Contra and Wildair, among others. This spring, the duo will turn the Contra space into a cocktail bar with their newest partner: Arnold. This city is thick with men who threaten to “do something different,” but these three could actually pull it off. At Bar…

THESE DAYS IN THEATER, it seems like everyone is a belter with a healthy mix—talented, of course, but lacking personality—thanks to an increase in movie-based musicals, jukebox musicals, and pop-influenced songwriting. Casts now largely consist of musical-theater robots designed to view Broadway as a place for technical ability without vocal storytelling. Yet there is reason for hope. There are currently more types of voices on display than we’ve seen in a long time—here are some of the standouts. 1. THE POP STAR Maleah Joi Moon in Hell’s Kitchen ➽ The Alicia Keys jukebox musical doesn’t innovate so much as combine a slew of musical-theater references. But its chief revelation is the newcomer in the lead role—Moon’s earthy tone is more common in pop and R&B than on Broadway, and it’s…

STEREOPHONIC is in previews starting April 3. IN 2013, playwright David Adjmi came up with the idea for Stereophonic, a show about a group of ego-clashing, Fleetwood Mac–esque musicians working on their soon-to-be-epochal rock album in the mid-’70s. The play would need music—mostly bits and pieces of it as the band struggles to finish their own Rumours. A friend had suggested Adjmi reach out to Will Butler. At the time, Butler was still a multi-instrumentalist in Arcade Fire (he left the group in 2021). He had never worked in theater before but was drawn to the concept. Eleven years later, Stereophonic is making its Broadway debut in April. In the fall, it received rapturous reviews during its Off Broadway run (it was one of our picks for best play of…

For more culture coverage and streaming recommendations, see vulture.com. TV 1. Watch The Regime Chancellor Kate. HBO, March 3. From The Menu writer Will Tracy and directors Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs is a show that’s very blackly funny in an “absurd but it’s too upsetting and I’m not really laughing” kind of way, starring Kate Winslet as the head of an unnamed European country that slides into authoritarianism as her character goes off the rails. KATHRYN VANARENDONK MUSIC 2. Listen to Eternal Sunshine Thank you, next! Republic Records, March 8. While we await further news about her upcoming turn as Glinda in Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of Wicked, there’ll be plenty of time to pore over Ariana Grande’s new album. “Yes, And?” with longtime collaborators Max Martin and…

CRYING HAS BEEN one of the most popular activities of the past four to eight years; the ability to do it on command has been considered the apex of acting ability for much longer. Consider the 2017 Decider investigation that revealed 96 percent of Best Actress winners over the past 50 years openly wept during their performances (compared with 60 percent of Best Actor winners, thanks to boring yet pervasive sociological dynamics that have long poisoned the human experience). Or the fact that, for decades, it was considered normal for directors to psychologically torment their actors in the hopes of getting them to break down on-camera—think of Alfred Hitchcock throwing live pigeons at Tippi Hedren on the set of The Birds. Hollywood’s craven obsession with crying is perfectly dramatized in…

I WILL SAY that I did give beanies a shot. For years, I gazed longingly at girls wearing slouchy cashmere beanies, their long hair somehow tucked underneath just so. But no matter how chunky, finely knit, soft, long, or short, the beanie always ended up swallowing my head and my personal style with it. Then began my journey to find an alternative. I ventured to the land of earmuffs, then fur headbands, then fuzzy bucket hats, and there was even a brief stint with a sheepskin trapper hat in 2017. Then recently, outside my front door, the “It” girls of Brooklyn were all wearing bonnets. I had to have one. But which one? From Paloma Wool to Acne Studios, lots of designers began making them over the past few years.…

STRATEGIST ROUNDTABLE You notice a pimple. What is the first thing you do? CRYSTAL MARTIN,Senior Editor: I use red light. It works for everything. I’m just like, “Give me the red-light bed.” I have a CurrentBody mask ($380), but the LightStim handheld ($249) is what I use when I need a heavy hitter. When I feel the soreness of a hard lump under the skin, I use the red light immediately. Sometimes I can stop a pimple from forming if I feel it early enough. TEMBE DENTON-HURST,Writer: I get these very cystic pimples. In the beginning, I drink hella water and take ibuprofen, and that helps to calm down some of the inflammation. RACHAEL GRIFFITHS,Writer: I’ve been taking ginger shots for the past three months, and that’s helped a lot.…

THE MOST INSTAGRAMMED restaurant dish in the city is a $19 serving of two boiled eggs. They are halved, set face down, and blanketed with downy mayonnaise, a sprinkling of trout roe, and snips of chive. They are on the menu at the Far West Village brasserie Libertine, and they are not even the most opulent or expensive eggs in town. The Four Horsemen in Williamsburg serves a single egg, cut in half, on a bed of diced kohlrabi, cloaked in a marbled mixture of mayonnaise and squid ink, punctuated with a thimbleful of Osetra caviar. It costs $25. Both dishes are revisionist oeufs mayonnaise, the old-fashioned bistro favorite that is, at its most economical, a one-bite, deconstructed deviled egg without the paprika. “It’s eggs on eggs,” says Jake Leiber,…

A DOZEN OR SO years ago, the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels decided he’d had it with a Scandinavian culture that disdained arrogance, and he made a beeline for the world capital of self-regard. He soon became a fast-talking futurist, putting up a modern pyramid on 57th Street, schmoozing at Davos, and calling his firm BIG (for Bjarke Ingels Group) even before it was. Soon, he learned this city is where ambitious projects come to stall. BIG’s elaborate coastal-flood barrier for lower Manhattan, a World Trade Center tower, a police station in the Bronx: All have been delayed or pared back. Yet he has not been completely thwarted. Construction on the Spiral, an office building wrapped in a ribbon of aerial gardens near Hudson Yards, was completed late last year, and…

In October, a line started to form outside St. Brigid, a former Catholic school on the corner of East 7th Street at Tompkins Square Park. No one in the neighborhood really knew what it was. Soon, hundreds of people—almost exclusively men, almost exclusively underdressed for the freezing weather—began arriving around five every morning and staying until evening. The line became longer as the year ended, and by mid-January, as temperatures dropped into the 20s, it was more of a throng. St. Brigid had been quietly transformed into what City Hall describes as a “reticketing center,” the first in the city: a place where migrants can be processed into a new shelter after their stay in another one runs out. Shelter stays never used to be time-limited. The city’s “right to…

. . . . . . . . . . . THE LOOK BOOK GOES TO A THERAPIST PARTY . . . . . . . . . . . AN OEUFS-MAYO MOMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WHEN OUR senior writer Liza Corsillo asked more than 20 well-dressed guys to name their favorite socks, nine had Uniqlo’s Colorful Socks atop their lists.…

IF YOU’RE DECIDING between the two, know that percale is lightweight and crisp and better for hot sleepers, while sateen has a heftier, smoother feel and is warmer. Both are durable, but sateen sheets are less likely to thin out. That said, percale sheets have a minor superpower of their own: They can stretch without ripping, which is particularly helpful when it comes to the awkward task of changing a fitted sheet. Both percale and sateen start with the same base material—cotton—but the way they’re woven yields vastly different fabrics. (Percale has a tight weave; sateen’s is loose.) Whether you choose percale or sateen, look for long-staple cotton. Its fibers are stronger than regular cotton yet still sumptuous and soft.…

JILL GENTILE Psychologist, Highland Park, New Jersey How did you hear about the party? My dear friend Ali Shames-Dawson invited me. She’s such a love. When she told you she was throwing it, what did you think? Uh, therapists don’t party. I had no conception of this. I really thought it was going to be a conventional book party, a small thing where maybe 50 people gather and maybe there’s a glass of wine and you say something serious about psychoanalysis. This was not that at all. I was in a tight elevator with about 20 other people, and I clearly was a generation older. And that created some anxiety because I’m like, Whoa, the field has changed, and I know no one here. If you’re feeling anxious at a…

AMID THE FRENZY of highly publicized openings and whispered-about, semi-private debuts stoking curiosity (hello, Frog Club!), a hardworking restaurant critic can go out every night and still overlook some of the neighborhood steadies. I am guilty. I am here to make amends. I have been to Jean-Georges’s new Park Avenue dining room, and I have occupied one of April Bloomfield’s 20 seats at Sailor; having recommended both, let me now recommend an uninspiring stretch of Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, hard by the tire shop and a nondescript liquor store. In an area I called Park Slope, until a Park Sloper of my acquaintance protested that the Gowanus dividing line is right down the middle of the avenue and we were west of it, stands Alma Negra, which opened during the…

INSIDE:Amy Herzog and Sam Gold Victor Cazares Stereophonic SITTING IN A CHAIR next to a window in a break room at the Hayes Theater, where she’s rehearsing Mother Play, the new work by Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), Jessica Lange has a regal presence and a storybook narrator’s voice. There’s a subdued gravitas to the way she tells her own tale: She was a hippie intellectual from rural Minnesota who went off to Paris and New York to study mime and dance and figure herself out. Despite having no money, no industry connections, and almost no formal training as an actress, she landed the lead role of Dwan in the 1976 King Kong, played her as a daffy sexpot, made the cover of Time, and got pilloried by…

A TRANSLATION IS a new experience of something that is essentially, fundamentally the same. Twice in one week we had run home from the forest: once with her, and now once without her. It was the ultimate example of loss in translation, a catastrophic dereliction we couldn’t yet begin to comprehend. ¶ Back at her house, we fell upon the document inside our emails like a pack of ravenous wolves. Irena had sent us Grey Eminence, the novel she’d been working on over the past couple of years. It would be hard, if not impossible, to overstate our rapture. ¶ We loved Our Author. But as we ensconced ourselves in her living room, with its sooty fireplace and its probably impenetrable chests, all we really wanted was her work. We…