Here’s some stuff I’ve written recently, with links. Apologies for this data dump!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-I’ve written two reviews for the New York Times Book Review <\/a>in recent-ish times: a dual review of memoirs by actors Henry Winkler and John Stamos<\/a>, and one about David Sedaris’s essay collection<\/a>, “Happy-Go-Lucky.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Here are some recent articles I’ve done from the New Yorker magazine’s Talk of the Town section: a librarian in New Jersey collects vintage wedding dresses<\/a> and then loans them to anyone who needs one; a group of electric guitar players walk around with tiny amplifiers on their backs<\/a> while playing an excerpt from Philip Glass’s “Einstein on the Beach” (among other polyphonic offerings.) (This second article yielded a Word of the Day from Merriam Webster<\/a>: nerd brag!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Meanwhile, in on the New Yorker’s Shouts and Murmurs humor page, I tried to predict the contents of Barbra Streisand’s memoir before it was published<\/a>, and I imagined the “Upcoming Landmarks In Artificial Intelligence<\/a>” and the history of alternative milk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Also in the New Yorker, I’ve interviewed some fascinating people: a theater troupe who perform the classics outdoors in the nude<\/a>; the actor and director Austin Pendleton<\/a>; the Cevallos<\/a>, two octogenarian brothers who live together and make hand-drawn signage for hipster restaurants; the comedian and writer Amber Ruffin<\/a>; spectacular actress and contortionist Kathryn Hunter <\/a>; and the writer and composer Matthew Aucoin<\/a>, who wrote a book about opera called “The Impossible Art,” so I took him to an impossible opera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -“Insomnia: The Opera” gets a star-studded reading! The excellent Sandra Tsing Loh convinced Marilu Henner, John Michael Higgins (a regular in the Christopher Guest and the Pitch Perfect movies), Jim Turner (MTV’s Randee of the Redwoods), musician Julian Fleisher, and John Fleck (one of the NEA Four), among others, to read my recent New Yorker humor piece “Insomnia: The Opera” aloud for “Bookish,” the web series Sandra hosts for S.C.N.G. It’s here<\/a>. Music by Susan Marder. (Also: “Insomnia” in its original prose incarnation was recommended by Scientific American.)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n -I went camping at the country’s newest national park, which is gorgeous but which is located in between a power plant and the world’s largest steel mill (New York Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -RECENT-ISH STUFF IN THE NEW YORKER: I asked fashion designer Norma Kamali to help me style a wearable sleeping bag<\/a> so I could go out for dinner in it…As a hedge against COVID-19, I undertook a series of everyday activities–grocery shopping, going to the bank, etc.–while wearing a 4-foot, plastic bubble over myself. (New Yorker<\/a>) BONUS: While enbubbled, I also met up with a dance buddy, for some socially-distanced dancing (photos here on Twitter<\/a>)…I imagined being the cat that the Bidens are bringing to the White House.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n -Something that my boyfriend and I have been doing in our living room for the past eight years has become a national obsession during the pandemic. (Los Angeles Times<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -I’ve been asking “What if…?” a lot in Airmail , the online weekly from former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. Here are a few: What If All the Miscreants That Trump Pardoned Were Forced to Become School Teachers?<\/a>, What If Kanye West Actually Became President<\/a>?, What If Lindsay Graham Loses His Senate Seat and Opens a Slightly Dowdy Gay Bar Called Feathers?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n -Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder is making a difference during the pandemic. How? By dressing up as the Grim Reaper. (New Yorker<\/a>) -Toilet paper hoarding: why have people been doing it doing the pandemic? What would Freud say? (New Yorker<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -How do farmers determine what is and isn’t “ugly produce”? (New Yorker<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -Everything you’re afraid to ask about human composting (New Yorker<\/a>) -The city of Chengdu may replace its street lights with an artificial moon. Could New York City do it? (New Yorker<\/a>) -Kanye West is running for president?! I imagine his first 100 days. (Airmail<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n -The website Goop now has a section for men (Airmail<\/a>) -The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a show devoted to camp (Los Angeles Times<\/a>) -I spent a lot of the spring lying on my floor reading “Don Quixote” (Los Angeles Times<\/a>)
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