Innholdsfortegnelse for December 7-20, 2020 i New York Magazine

1 Lord & Taylor DEPARTMENT STORE Lower East Side, first opened 1826 America’s oldest department store, tracing its origins to a small dry-goods shop on Catherine Street. By 1860, it anchored Ladies’ Mile at Broadway; the flagship on Fifth Avenue at 38th Street opened in 1914 but shut last year. In August 2020, the store announced it was closing all its remaining locations IHADN’T BEEN IN Lord & Taylor for decades when I heard it was closing. But my memories of the store go back to my childhood, when I would be so happy doing anything with my mother by myself without my two sisters and brother in tow—not that I didn’t adore them, but as I was the eldest of four siblings who all arrived in rapid succession, time…

Are you a regular? Yes. Two times a week, usually. It’s just a place where you can lovingly gaze at folks in the queer community without some of the—well, you know sometimes how when you’re in a queer bar, it feels kind of like a meat market? MeMe’s never felt like a meat market. So you’re a chef? Yes. I’m about to start work on this baking project: making za’atarflavored pretzels for this campaign meant to put pressure on General Mills and Pillsbury to stop producing their products in Israeli-occupied Palestinian land. So solidarity, and they’ll look good on Instagram. When was the last time you were here? The day Kobe died. We had this great meal and then walked out, and this man in a full suit stopped us…

MOKYO: IDEAL MEAL: Corn dumplings or oxtail spring rolls, cauliflower, gumbo, “Pop Rocks” mascarpone. NOTE: There was no tent or outside heating system set up on our visit, so dress warmly. OPEN: Tuesday through Sunday for dinner. PRICES: $11 to $15. SILVER APRICOT: IDEAL MEAL: Crab rangoon, Brussels sprouts, fried rice, pork or steak, sesame panna cotta. NOTE: The outdoor tent is equipped with heaters, and you can warm up with cups of hot-toddy apple cider. OPEN: Dinner Wednesday through Sunday. PRICES: $10 to $36.…

1. THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio This work hit me the way the adrenaline injection hit Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction. Cornejo Villavicencio writes about growing up undocumented with humor, bravery, and style. 2. FRATERNITY, by Benjamin Nugent Reading this book about a crew of frat-house members, I felt transformed into a dude named Kevin with a Natty Ice in one hand, a lacrosse stick in the other, a spray of acne across my back, and a dream in my heart. 3. ROMANCE IN MARSEILLE, by Claude McKay A sexy, black-humored novella that feels contemporary but was written 90 years ago. Published for the first time this year. 4. PIRANESI, by Susanna Clarke Ever had your…

1. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (HBO) No other 2020 series did as many things as superlatively well as this one. Director Liz Garbus’s longform adaptation of Michelle McNamara’s posthumously published true-crime book charts the author’s quest to find and punish the Golden State Killer (later identified as Joseph James DeAngelo) for his decades-long string of home invasions, sexual assaults, and murders. But the series also has a lot to say about the changing nature of crime and punishment over the past five decades, the effects of McNamara’s obsessive search on her loved ones, and the difficulty of creating while battling depression. Most impressive, it found a way to capture savagery without re-creating it by focusing on the domestic spaces the killer profaned and making shadows seem to glide…

1. ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS (Nintendo Switch) “The game of the pandemic” is probably not the distinction its creators were hoping for, but this quickly became one of the best ways to visit real-world friends. 2. HADES (MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PC) A new take on Greek myth that you play as prince of the underworld, determined to escape his father’s realm and learn why his mother left. 3. FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (PlayStation 4) This loving reboot of the 1997 sci-fi epic about ecoterrorists battling for the planet has become a meditation on fandom. 4. KENTUCKY ROUTE ZERO (MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) A trucker finds a secret highway, taking the player on a uniquely…

➸ IN APRIL, 187 NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHERS—among them Pari Dukovic, Jason Nocito, and Justine Kurland—donated prints to benefit Elmhurst Hospital Center, which was among the hardest hit by the city’s surge of COVID-19 cases. The benefit, called Pictures for Elmhurst, raised over a million dollars. Now it has become nearly impossible to keep up with all the online art benefits; there’s a ton of work for sale (which, in more normal times, would have been much more expensive if procured through galleries or private dealers) to support various causes, such as Justice for Black Lives, bail funds, and election campaigns. On the following page are eight art benefits with pieces available for purchase, from a $175 Maurizio Cattelan bone-china plate benefiting the Coalition for the Homeless to a $100 Anthony…

THE STOVE Owner Patrick Clark restored this cottage, once owned by the artist Richard Mott, in part by using pieces from Mott’s other house, circa 1860, also in the Rockaways, which was demolished. “I made a new hearth under the coal stove with blue tiles I had salvaged from the Mott Mansion. I also got matching white tiles there to repair the white porcelain tiles behind the stove.” THE HOUSE SITS on one of the lowest elevations in the Rockaways,” says Patrick Clark, who bought the 19th-century shingled cottage in 1998. He soon realized, among other things, that it had to be raised in order to avoid being flooded every month with the new moon, which sends about 16 inches of water from the bay across the street. Clark is…

The chef Antonio De Livier is credited with introducing birria ramen at his Mexico City canteen, Caldos Ánimo, but the first time Andrés Tonatiuh Galindo María tried it was from a street vendor who made it with Cup Noodles. He was hooked. “I’m a big fan of ramen,” the chef says, so at his bite-size Nene’s Deli Taqueria, it was a no-brainer to serve it. His comes in a jumbo-size Tapatío ramen, the noodles cooked in the heady consommé and served with birria de res, cilantro, and onion. Squeeze a little lime in for some zip and to cut into the beefiness of the broth, but a word of caution before you try to tackle the whole container by yourself—it might knock you out for the day. Off-menu special at…

The “Renegade” Challenge The first dance of the year to go mainstream viral, as in Fortnite, Super Bowl commercial, NBA All-Star Game viral. “Renegade” is what propelled Charli D’Amelio (@charlidamelio), TikTok’s biggest creator, to her massive stardom, but it was soon apparent that the clout should have been going to Jalaiah Harmon (@jalaiahharmon), the 14-year-old who actually came up with the moves. It also set the stage for the “Savage” challenge, with Megan Thee Stallion’s song, a couple months later. The #ImBlackMovement In late spring, Black TikTokers who were concerned that the app’s algorithm was keeping Black creators from reaching as many people as non-Black creators decided to start boosting themselves, spreading awareness of plagiarism and other issues facing Black creators on TikTok. Social justice has become just as integral…

1. Fiona Apple, Fetch the Bolt Cutters Apple labors at a sculptor’s pace, having crafted only five studio albums since her 1996 debut, Tidal. It took time for Apple and her band to realize that her raw songs about navigating mental illness and patriarchal social circles don’t need a formal studio. Much of Bolt Cutters was recorded in the singer’s L.A. home, which makes the autobiographical elements of songs like “Shameika” all the more personal. The further Apple strays from the pop-oriented sound of Tidal, the more she comes into focus as one of a kind. No one else would think to make this album. No one else could. 2. Adrianne Lenker, songs/instrumentals When the initial spread of COVID-19 cut touring short for Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Big Thief, lead singer…

1. END TIMES FUN, Marc Maron Maron was living in a place of intense apocalyptic anxiety even before the pandemic. A cantankerous demonstration of how to keep making fun of the world. 2. NATE: A ONE MAN SHOW, Natalie Palamides In character as the clownishly masculine Nate, Palamides keeps the audience in a state of unease, upending our expectations. Deserves repeated viewings. 3. MOMMA, I MADE IT!, Yvonne Orji Orji comes off as both totally comfortable and absolutely meticulous, switching between Nigerian and American characters with perfect control. 4. WEAKNESS IS THE BRAND, Maria Bamford Bamford has an uncanny ability to balance her inner monologue with her interest in how other people’s brains work. Warm, sharp, strange, and…

IF YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK long enough—and it doesn’t have to be very long—it gradually becomes unrecognizable. And maybe, you begin to realize, it’s for someone else entirely, someone new or from somewhere else, someone perhaps with more money, more energy: someone circumstantially or possibly constitutionally ignorant of what you took to be authentic about this place when it felt like it was yours. (Nothing makes you feel old like listening to someone talk about what you know to be an upstart as iconic.) It’s too big a city to live in all of it, so you find your corners, your go-tos. Sometimes they are long-running, but mostly they come and they go. It’s part of the Darwinian, self-alienating thrill of the place: More often than not, you outlive…

HUNTER ABRAMS Photographer, Crown Heights How often did you come here? Well, this is my third day coming in a row, and I keep running into people. My roommates are here and my friend Kia—it’s her birthday, and I just saw her waiting to get some cake and a patty melt. I’m back in the city now, but over the past few months, when I was living with my parents on Long Island, I would drive in a couple times to pick up takeout. What dish will you miss the most? My signature order: the Buffalo-chicken salad and a slice of cake. I also tried to buy the dressing recipe off Libby, one of the chefs, a couple of weeks ago. I was like, “Can I purchase access to the…

QUARANTINE CULTURE began on March 11, when Whoopi Goldberg rattled out a greeting to a studio of empty chairs on the set of The View: “Well, hello, hello, hello! Welcome to The View, y’all. Welcome to The View! Welcome to The View! Welcome to The View! WELCOME TO THE VIEW! WELCOMETOTHEVIEW! WELCOMETOTHEVIEW.” That day, the reality of the coronavirus pandemic breached the walls of pop culture: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they had contracted COVID-19 and were self-isolating in Australia; Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz made light of social-distancing measures before testing positive too, forcing the NBA to suspend its season indefinitely. And the mad cherry on top? A clip from The Masked Singer—featuring former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin rapping “Baby Got Back” in costume as Bear while…

1. Bacurau It doesn’t take a leap of logic to understand the appeal of cinematic sanctuaries in 2020. For me, there was no movie-made haven more memorable than the titular town of Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s Bacurau. Set in a remote stretch of northeastern Brazil, Bacurau is a wild-eyed neo-Western about a close-knit community that’s being wiped off the map. Its inhabitants take measures to protect themselves, and the resulting showdown is funny, thrilling, and ferocious. Bacurau is about people who, having long been failed by institutions, have taken on the responsibility of caring for one another. A modern classic made for a world poised for decline. 2. Lovers Rock Each of the five installments in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe can stand alone. Lovers Rock, the second, is…

1. Floodlines (THE ATLANTIC) Vann R. Newkirk II’s gorgeous audio documentary revisiting Hurricane Katrina and the botched federal response that followed is only partly an examination of institutional failure exacerbated by systemic racism. It’s also a meditation on what kinds of restitution are needed to make a deeply traumatized society whole again—if, indeed, that’s even possible. Excellently reported, written, and composed, Floodlines is one of the best-sounding audio productions you’ll ever hear. 2. Lost Notes: 1980 (KCRW) The poet, essayist, and critic Hanif Abdurraqib wrote and hosted the entirety of Lost Notes: 1980, the third installment in KCRW’s music-documentary podcast, and it is a stunner. As the subtitle indicates, the season is a collection of stories from the year that kicked off a wild decade for American pop music. What…

1. Anything I Could See in Person Galleries are my way of knowing the world. Seeing art in the flesh sustains me. Before the pandemic, I’d been seeing 25 shows a week, every week, since 1982. As with much else, the coronavirus stopped galleries in their tracks. Except for the profiteering auction houses and the multinational megagalleries that deplete the rest of the system of financial and critical oxygen, the art world held its breath. Many feared galleries could suffer a mass-extinction event. Some did die—including one of the best, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, whose proprietor shut down his own space to partner with Gladstone Gallery. Yet in September, when galleries began to open again in limited ways, it was clear that many had survived by doing just enough business online.…

“COURTNEY ALEXANDER’S Dust II Onyx tarot deck is top of mind. This has been a year of intense self-reflection and as writer Soleil Levé Bon Mambo Elizabeth Ruth writes in Black Futures, Alexander’s deck is ‘inviting you to move from dust on the ground to the solid, amazing, and spirit filled gems “that encourage self-mastery.”’ This year we lost grasp of what we know about the future. Thinking of this deck, I ask myself: How might I invite the guidance and vulnerability that comes from decks, scriptures or other sources of divination and healing? How can that shape my future?”…