One night shortly before the Oscars ceremony, my boyfriend decided to catch up on “Flow,” the animated film from Latvia that would go on to win best animated feature. When I returned home from dinner, I found that the film had also captured the attention of another viewer — my dog Daisy, a corgi mix. … Read more
In a room full of cubicles, workers in headsets read from their computer screens, addressing callers who dialed a 1-800 number. They have a script. “Were you or your loved one sexually abused by Sean ‘Love’ Combs, known as Diddy, Puff Daddy and P. Diddy?” “If the abuse occurred at a party, please list the … Read more
Gwen McCrae, whose gospel-infused R&B hits of the early 1970s like “Lead Me On” and “Rockin’ Chair” featured bouncing, dance-floor-friendly grooves that helped open the door to disco, died on Feb. 21 in Miami. She was 81. Her former husband and frequent singing partner, George McCrae, said she died in a care facility from complications … Read more
Dear readers, I’m not going to get into the various reasons you might have for wanting to go somewhere else right now — somewhere, let’s say, on the other side of an international border. The fact is that Americans have always been eager tourists and willing expatriates, game to study the histories and decode the … Read more
When Randall Park was first approached about playing an F.B.I. agent in Netflix’s new murder mystery series, “The Residence,” his first thought was: Another one? “I just didn’t want to do the same thing,” said Park, 50, who has a recurring role as Agent Jimmy Woo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in “WandaVision,” “Ant-Man … Read more
The day before Janiva Ellis’s exhibition opened in Cambridge, Mass., on Jan. 31, most of her paintings weren’t done. Most of them still aren’t. In fact, that’s intentional: The 14 pieces gathered for “Fear Corroded Ape,” on view at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts through April 6, had been knocking around her studio … Read more
Within a modern but nondescript building a few hundred feet from Stockholm’s pretty Riddarfjarden Bay, a frosted glass wall in Josef Fares’s office displays etched characters from It Takes Two, his video game studio’s “Toy Story”-esque cooperative adventure about an adult couple’s broken relationship. Near his desk, in a lighted case, sits a pair of … Read more
Two men, barefoot and wearing traditional loincloths around their waists, tussled with each other on a stage transformed to look like a sumo ring. A fighting consultant, who had been observing the rehearsal nearby, stepped in to offer advice: The men’s arm movements were too straight; their motions needed to be smoother and more circular. … Read more
There really was a woman who photocopied her butt at a workplace in the 1980s. Curtis Sittenfeld, 49, heard about the incident when she was a girl and filed it away. Four decades later, the Great Butt Xeroxing makes an appearance in her new short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” She mentioned it one day … Read more
