The backdrop looked familiar -- the Jamaica Ave., Elevated train -- The El.
It was the hub when I was a kid. In Sunday's NYT, there is a story about Brandon Blackwell, who broke into the British quiz shows, representing not Oxford, not Cambridge, but London's Imperial College. Great article by David Segal. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/business/uk-university-challenge-brandon-blackwell.html I hope you can access the article. *** Great stuff in the NYT in recent days. Wesley Morris wrote a literate and knowing article about the last show of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," 12 years of aggression and bruised feelings. I will admit, I never watched the show -- mainly because I had the feeling, "Wait, I know those people." I'm from New York, I know people in LA, I've had dealings with people in movies and journalism and just-plain-life. The only series I watched, obsessively, in the recent third of my life was "The Sopranos." I plotted my whole week around a TV set that carried it -- finding a motel on a reclaimed coal strip mine in Eastern Kentucky. I totally understand "Curb" fanatics. Wesley Morris, one of the best writers at the NYT, explains why Larry David annoyed and entertained people with his intrusive stands with friends and strangers. I hope you can access this masterpiece. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/05/magazine/larry-david-curb-your-enthusiasm.html *** Finally, has anybody noticed the reappearances of stars from the NYT sports section before it was disappeared in favor of stuff from a sports website? The stars have found places in the diaspora of former sports bylines, and have been encouraged to write wise and literate articles about sports, the kind readers used to expect: My Queens pal, Andrew Keh, has a piece in Sunday about soccer fans who congregate to a Brooklyn bar whenever their favorite team -- from Denmark -- is playing. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/07/nyregion/akademisk-boldklub-new-york-owners.html Billy Witz was assigned to write about the Caitlin Clark phenomenon at Iowa, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/us/march-madness-women-iowa-lsu.html And Talya Minsberg, a versatile editor and byline in the lamented Sports section, now writes for the Well section -- so naturally she explained the physical and mental training that brought Clark and Iowa to the NCAA finals. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/05/well/live/caitlin-clark-iowa-training.html As we used to say when I was a reporter on the National staff half a century ago, I detect a trend. May I quote Bruce Springsteen in his epic "Atlantic City:" Everything dies, baby, that's a fact But maybe everything that dies some day comes back
15 Comments
Ed Martin
4/7/2024 12:59:06 pm
GV, thinking of Times sports writers, I came up with one, I think you might have known as a “yout.” A LI resident, Roslyn Heights.
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Altenir
4/7/2024 08:19:42 pm
George: I read Wesley Morris' article on Larry David. I loved it so much. I follow the series, and I think he did a meticulous job, like those forensic experts from the now-extinct CSI series, in depicting Larry David's journey. Thank you so much for sharing these links.
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Roy Edelsack
4/8/2024 10:04:15 am
Allison Danzig made me think of Herbert Warren Wind who made me remember the football coverage of the Ivy League that used to appear in the old, “untableofcontented” New Yorker. You can’t top coverage that began: “Yale’s incomparable Winterbauer…”
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Randolph
4/8/2024 01:17:52 pm
“ I saw it in the Times.”……Today.
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Ed Martin
4/8/2024 03:12:34 pm
Forgive me, it’s old-guy-itis.
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Randolph
4/8/2024 04:06:33 pm
Ed,
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Bruce
4/12/2024 02:03:33 am
george,
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Josh Rubin
4/15/2024 01:13:43 pm
I missed the Springsteen quote at the end, until now. George, I hope you've heard your partner in moviemaking Levon Helm's version of that song (it's a reconstituted, Robbie-less version of the Band, but it's really Levon who owns that version). A favorite in our house, for sure.
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GV
4/19/2024 07:36:06 pm
Josh: absolutely right, the Levon vocal on "Atlantic Cty" is a classic -- due respect to Springsteen. Covers are a great music category -- including k.d. Lang's dark version of "Hallelujah," by Leonard Cohen.
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Gene Palumbo
4/24/2024 01:40:43 am
When I see "k.d. lang," I immediately recall her singing "Crying" with Roy Orbison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uNoAp7RNUA
Gene Palumbo
4/17/2024 11:56:14 pm
Another sports article in the Times by a Times sportswriter, not by The Athletic: After 5,631 Yankees Games, John Sterling Calls His Own Walk-Off, by David Waldstein
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GV
4/19/2024 07:32:56 pm
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/nyregion/aaron-rodgers-jets-podcasts.html?campaign_id=61&emc=edit_ts_20240419&instance_id=121012&nl=the-great-read®i_id=1420096&segment_id=164256&te=1&user_id=4e50a8be18b66a531edc479e076fb397
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Bruce
4/24/2024 01:50:30 am
gene,
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epalumbo2000@gmail.com
4/24/2024 03:00:57 pm
Bruce,
Gene Palumbo
4/24/2024 12:49:07 am
If you'd like to hear the Levon Helm version of "Atlantic City," it's here:
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