The Magazine
July 1, 2024
Goings On
Goings On
South Africa Mirrors the American West in “Dark Noon”
Also: Cynthia Erivo sings Sondheim, “The Bikeriders” reviewed, the still-lifes of Laura Letinsky, and more.
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The Food Scene
One Weird Night at Frog Club
If a self-consciously clubby restaurant suddenly becomes easy to get into, what’s the point of going at all?
The Talk of the Town
Evan Osnos on the coming Presidential debate; Troye Sivan; the good ship Energy Observer; Marshall Allen; New York’s Dominican election.
Comment
What Can We Expect from the Biden-Trump Debate?
Until recently, it wasn’t clear that the two men would ever share a stage again. Now there’s a potential for even greater stakes and strangeness than four years ago.
Dept. of Hyphenates
Troye Sivan Wants to Sell You a Bottomless Bowl
The Grammy-nominated Australian singer surveyed the Nolita pop-up store where, for three days, fans snapped up his oil burners, candles, and dreidels.
Here To There Dept.
An Around-the-World Eco-Voyage Makes a Pit Stop Near Wall Street
Energy Observer, a ship equipped with solar panels and a hydrogen fuel cell, has spent the past seven years circumnavigating the globe, powered by sun, water, and salads.
Deep-Space Music
The Sun Ra Arkestra’s Maestro Hits One Hundred
Marshall Allen, the musical collective’s sax-playing leader, is celebrating with a deep-spacey video installation at the Venice Biennale.
Election Season
The Dominican Election That Took Over Upper Manhattan
A newly elected representative of the Dominican Republic’s overseas population gives advice to the U.S. on orderly elections and muses on the Yankees star Juan Soto.
Reporting & Essays
Profiles
The Doctor Tom Brady and Leonardo DiCaprio Call When They Get Hurt
Neal ElAttrache, the surgeon to the stars of sport and screen, can fix anything.
Onward and Upward with the Sciences
Would You Clone Your Dog?
We love our dogs for their individual characters—and yet cloning implies that we also believe their unique, unreproducible selves can, in fact, be reproduced.
The Political Scene
John Fetterman’s War
Is the Pennsylvania senator trolling the left or offering a way forward for Democrats?
Letter from Arizona
How a Homegrown Teen Gang Punctured the Image of an Upscale Community
The authorities didn’t seem to pay attention to the Gilbert Goons until one boy was dead and seven others were charged with murder.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Parents in a Chain
The great zucchini-bread disaster of 2024 and other mishaps, on a group text of moms and dads after the library bake sale.
Fiction
Sketchbook
Meet My TV Boyfriend
A wood-panelled cathode-ray television set that lived on my bed—not as much fun as it sounds!
Fiction
“Vincent’s Party”
Probably she’d get in trouble for this tomorrow, but she didn’t care; she was too full of agitated happiness. Anything could happen between now and tomorrow.
The Critics
Books
How to Start a War Over Taiwan
American efforts to deter Chinese belligerence could easily provoke it.
Books
The Radical Faith of Harriet Tubman
A new book conveys in dramatic detail what America’s Moses did to help abolish slavery. Another addresses the love of God and country that helped her do so.
Musical Events
Guillaume de Machaut’s Medieval Love Songs
The fourteenth-century composer’s expressions of longing can still leave an audience spellbound.
On Television
Searching for the Star of the N.B.A. Finals
This year’s series, between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, featured many wonderful players but no obvious main character.
The Current Cinema
The Monotonous Miseries of “Kinds of Kindness”
Yorgos Lanthimos’s new film casts the same set of actors in a trio of stories, all of them cruel.
Poems
Poems
From “Adam”
Weaving together the Genesis myth, Yoruba culture, and contemporary Black British culture, a young poet explores the haunting reverberations of an unsolved killing with an unidentified victim.
Cartoons
1/13
“Don’t let him get to you. I’m sure there are lots of people you didn’t invite.”
Cartoon by P. C. Vey
Cartoon Caption Contest
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.