The Buzz Board
Picks from the Inner Circle
Lee Eisenberg
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Lee Eisenberg’s new book is Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What. Excerpts and the author’s blog can be found at LeeEisenberg.com. Author of Shoptimism |
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 Right now I’m plowing (slowly) through a book I’ve long hoped would be written—Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, by Robin D. G. Kelley, a professor at USC. What allows the book to come alive is the ease with which you can put it aside and log onto iTunes, there to hear for yourself, and not just be told, how Monk’s chord changes on “Rhythm-a-Ning” echoed Gershwin’s on “I Got Rhythm,” no matter that you’ve listened—rapturously—to both songs a million times. |
Lyle Lovett
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Lyle Lovett is a country singer who has won four Grammys. He has recorded 13 albums, his most recent, Natural Forces was released in 2009. Singer-Songwriter |
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 There is a great British band I like called Florence and The Machine. They have a rock-indie vibe and a great energy. |
Christopher Caldwell
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Christopher Caldwell is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (Doubleday). He is a regular contributor to the Financial Times and Slate. His essays and reviews appear in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe |
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 The filthy-minded, sports-obsessed Boston drunk Paul “Fitzy” Fitzgerald—who posts his Wicked Pissah Webcasts and peddles his T-shirts at www.TownieNews.com—thinks fuckin’ is the only adjective in the English language. He is a bullying ignoramus except after a Red Sox loss, which turns him into a quivering neurasthenic. He mistakes his homoerotic crush on Tom Brady (“TFB”) for an ordinary part of being a Patriots’ fan. He is proud of his ability to drag out a burp. He can’t stop talking about the sex lives of other people’s mothers and the fact that Wes Welker is white. Fitzy is actually the proletarian alter ego of comedian Nick Stevens, a Bay State native. This does not make Fitzy a fictional character, though. Sox fans will see him more as a long-lost (and probably disowned) brother. Everyone else, as Fitzy would say, can GFY. |
Trisha Posner
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Trisha Posner is a journalist and author. This is Not Your Mother’s Menopause was her journey through menopause, hormone-free. Her follow-up was No Hormones, No Fear. Author |
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 In the late 1980s, I spent a month in Naples chasing a story with my husband, Gerald, on the Camorra, Naples' secret society that is really just a bunch of thugs. It was then that I fell in love with the raw, gritty city. Now, Johnnie Shand Kydd, Princess Di's step-brother, has brought back a flood of memories with his searing descriptions of Naples and his eight-year "love affair" with it. In this photo-essay, Kydd touches on the essence of what makes Naples unique, a place that "can drive you mad," and that while at first glance seems glamorous, the more time you spend there, "the darker the city becomes." His vivid and startling photography is a remarkably honest chronicle of what makes Naples unique, from his coverage of the Camorra to a riveting sequence with a transexual giving birth to a doll, Kydd finds magic in the squalor and revels in that Naples is anything but homogenous. It is why, as he says, "Some people loathe it, other people get it." His paean to Naples makes me want to run to the airport and buy a one-way ticket. |
Choire Sicha
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Choire Sicha is co-proprietor of The Awl and is at work on a nonfiction book for HarperStudio. Co-Proprietor of The Awl |
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When you work on the Web, everything online feels picked over. This is exacerbated by the hamster wheel routine. So many of us visit the same 12 Web sites over and over again—and we see our same "friends" on Twitter and Facebook every time we go. When you find an entrancing Web site that offers something valuable, exciting, and nearly impossible to get—and for free!—it's like finding a unicorn in a barn full of bleating goats. In the interest of sharing the magic, I give you: Awesome Tapes from Africa, an anonymous and irregularly updated blog which features fantastic, gorgeous music in mp3 form from Zambia, Kenya, Morocco, Angola, and Egypt. |
Kerry Eleveld
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Kerry Eleveld is the Washington Correspondent for The Advocate and was the only reporter from an LGBT outlet to get a sit-down interview with Barack Obama during the 2008 election. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade and cut her teeth editing business journals. Eleveld regularly offers commentary about political developments to news outlets such as The Associated Press, CNN and MSNBC. You can follow Eleveld’s twitter feeds at: http://twitter.com/kerryeleveld. Writer |
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 This Washington Post editorial is the most articulate and consequential piece I have read in weeks regarding the Catholic Church’s attempt to use whatever means possible to stem the same-sex marriage movement. Beyond the moral implications, it certainly raises interesting issues around whether entities should be allowed to retain their tax-exempt status while using their might to effect political outcomes in this country. |
Steve Inskeep
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Steve Inskeep is host of Morning Edition the most widely heard radio news program in the United States. He co-hosts the program with Renee Montagne. Co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition |
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You never want to get stuck on a plane with nothing to read, which is why I walked into an airport bookstore and bought a copy of Eagles and Empire, by David A. Clary. Of course I never opened it until I got home again, but it was worth lugging around. It traces the tortured relationship between Mexico and the United States. It centers on the Mexican War, that great American land grab and war of choice. Clary traces the decades leading up to that war, as two nations sparred across the continent, forever blundering, forever improvising. President James K. Polk never had a clue what the Mexicans were thinking. The Mexicans changed their president every few months. Finally, the issue was decided by American generals whose strategic thinking rarely went deeper than this sentence: “Taylor decided he might as well take Matamoros.” This, plus a lot of bloodletting, was how we got our hands on California. |
Vivienne Walt
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Vivienne Walt has written for TIME Magazine since 2003. Her assignments have included Iraq, Iran, the Niger Delta, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Sudan and numerous other countries. Walt was a staff writer for Newsday. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and elsewhere. She is currently based in Paris, where she lives with her husband and their son. Correspondent for Time Magazine |
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 If you’re in Paris this winter, don’t miss the photo exhibition L'Afghanistan et Nous by the famed agency VII, including photographers James Nachtwey, Lynsey Addario, and Christopher Morris, together with French military photographers. Spectacular, yes. But gruesome? Hardly. (My 3-year-old son was enthralled, not terrified.) Even the world's finest photographers struggle to capture this war’s gut-wrenching rawness, thanks partly to the Pentagon shielding us from images of death and torture. And maybe because tech-perfect artistry can smooth the rough edges off even battle. For a reality check, see the Vietnam photos in Ho Chi Minh City’s War Remnants Museum, with its images of Americans in agonizing deaths, and Viet Cong hanging from trees. Blurry, monochrome propaganda—but some unforgettable photojournalism. Don’t expect to see such images from Afghanistan any time soon in The New York Times. And they’re definitely not suitable for 3 year olds. |
Andrea Cavaliere
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Andrea Cavaliere is the corporate chef for Soho House in New York, London, and soon in Miami, as well as Cecconi’s in West Hollywood. Chef |
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 I’m in love with Langhe in Piedmont, Italy. This hilly, foggy, and picturesque region provides us with white truffles, castelmagno, robiola, wine, mushrooms, and Fassone—a special breed of cow that is only bred in Piedmont—that yields the best meat. You can dine in any small osteria or trattoria and experience one of the best meals of your life—preferably one that includes bollito misto. Autumn is the best time of year to travel to this region. Not only is it truffle season, but the colors are stunning and the trees turn shades of orange, yellow, red, and green. It is a beautiful place. |
Divya Gugnani
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Divya Gugnani is the CEO and founder of BehindtheBurner.com, an emerging culinary media brand that creates expert-based content about food, wine, mixology, and nutrition. Entrepreneur |
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In Oviedo, Spain, I sampled mixologist Jose Luis Bonga’s Gin Fizz, the best I’ve tasted. In town, I reveled in tapas such as gambas al ajillo, and jamon iberico, a specially cured ham available only in Spain. The jamon is created from the black Iberian pig, and fattened with maize and barley. The animal is left to dry for up to 12 months; the flavor rich and delightful. I found after a meal the best way to explore was by foot; the highlight of the journey was a cute statue of Woody Allen whose glasses are always missing. |
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