Author Topic: In the New Yorker...  (Read 1922484 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2240 on: November 11, 2019, 02:08:46 pm »
Right now I'm trying to decide if I should bother with the cybersecurity article in Nov. 4. It looks awfully, awfully long.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2241 on: November 12, 2019, 09:52:16 pm »
I realized this morning I did want to read that profile of Adam Driver. It seems at least I still have that issue.

Report back if you can figure out why he warranted such a long profile!

You probably weren't wrong to skip the Driver profile. I didn't think it was particularly long. It was interesting to me because I've been hearing the name a lot, but I had no idea who he was--Girls isn't exactly my taste in TV.  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2242 on: November 13, 2019, 09:21:55 am »
I didn't think it was particularly long. It was interesting to me because I've been hearing the name a lot, but I had no idea who he was--Girls isn't exactly my taste in TV.  ;D

Well, by long I meant multiple pages. I'd read a one-page profile of Adam Driver. Maybe even two or three. But I think it was like, five or more, right? And he seemed like just an average guy who's a good actor.

Girls probably isn't your taste because you like Westerns and things like that, and it's more urban, ironic, etc. I watched the whole thing and thought it was good. It's not as "girly" as you might imagine. I actually would read a longish profile of Lena Dunham. Her parents were fairly successful artists, she made her first full-length feature theater film in her early 20s. Her younger sibling, Cyrus Grace Dunham, just published a book called A Year Without a Name that was excerpted as a New Yorker personal essay a while back. He's either a trans man or possibly just nonbinary -- the essay wasn't entirely clear -- but he does use he/him and was born a biological girl. I didn't realize as I was reading the essay that he was Lena Dunham's brother; I just found that out yesterday.




 

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2243 on: November 13, 2019, 10:04:22 am »
Well, by long I meant multiple pages. I'd read a one-page profile of Adam Driver. Maybe even two or three. But I think it was like, five or more, right? And he seemed like just an average guy who's a good actor.

It seemed to me that the length was pretty typical for The New Yorker. I can see where it might be too long for you because you've already read profiles of him. I had not; I only knew the name.


Quote
Girls probably isn't your taste because you like Westerns and things like that, and it's more urban, ironic, etc. I watched the whole thing and thought it was good. It's not as "girly" as you might imagine. I actually would read a longish profile of Lena Dunham. Her parents were fairly successful artists, she made her first full-length feature theater film in her early 20s. Her younger sibling, Cyrus Grace Dunham, just published a book called A Year Without a Name that was excerpted as a New Yorker personal essay a while back. He's either a trans man or possibly just nonbinary -- the essay wasn't entirely clear -- but he does use he/him and was born a biological girl. I didn't realize as I was reading the essay that he was Lena Dunham's brother; I just found that out yesterday.

You know, there was a longish profile of Lena Dunham in ... wait for it ... The New Yorker. I read it for the same reason I read the Adam Driver profile--knew the name, nothing else.


My taste for old Westerns and so forth really has nothing to do with whether or not I might have liked Girls. Good or not, what possible interest could a show that centers on young, generation-whatever women living in NYC have for me? No relevance whatsoever. (Neither did a show like Queer as Folk, about the travails of a bunch of young gay guys.) Before you ask, for me, anyway, relevance doesn't enter into action shows or procedurals. They're escapism for me. Urban drama is not.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2244 on: November 13, 2019, 10:05:04 am »
Right now I'm trying to decide if I should bother with the cybersecurity article in Nov. 4. It looks awfully, awfully long.

I read less than a page, then quit.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2245 on: November 13, 2019, 10:36:28 am »
It seemed to me that the length was pretty typical for The New Yorker. I can see where it might be too long for you because you've already read profiles of him. I had not; I only knew the name.

Neither had I. I knew nothing about him except what he's like as an actor. But I read a couple of pages into it and realized I was just reading a profile of some fairly ordinary guy from Indiana who became an actor. It was about the same length as a typical New Yorker story, which was the problem.


Quote
My taste for old Westerns and so forth really has nothing to do with whether or not I might have liked Girls. Good or not, what possible interest could a show that centers on young, generation-whatever women living in NYC have for me? No relevance whatsoever. (Neither did a show like Queer as Folk, about the travails of a bunch of young gay guys.) Before you ask, for me, anyway, relevance doesn't enter into action shows or procedurals. They're escapism for me. Urban drama is not.

Oh, I don't know. I don't limit my TV watching to shows in which the characters match my demographics. The show wasn't just about girls, it was about boys, too. Admittedly the girls were the main drivers (haha) of the plot. But the only thing I have in common with them that you don't is that I'm female. Oh, and I lived in NYC for a year. Anyway, I watch shows based on whether they're entertaining or interesting. A show about a middle-class, 60+-year-old woman in Minnesota had better be pretty damn entertaining.  :laugh: (Though Fargo came close, and it was entertaining.)

I loved the series Justified. Most of its main characters were men, most at least 10 years younger than me. It's set in Harlan County, KY, where I've never been. It's about law enforcement officers and small-time criminals, neither of which I've ever been. And yet ...


Offline Jeff Wrangler

  • BetterMost Supporter!
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,165
  • "He somebody you cowboy'd with?"
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2246 on: November 13, 2019, 12:12:11 pm »
Neither had I. I knew nothing about him except what he's like as an actor. But I read a couple of pages into it and realized I was just reading a profile of some fairly ordinary guy from Indiana who became an actor. It was about the same length as a typical New Yorker story, which was the problem.

That's exactly why I liked it and read the whole thing.


Quote
Oh, I don't know. I don't limit my TV watching to shows in which the characters match my demographics. The show wasn't just about girls, it was about boys, too. Admittedly the girls were the main drivers (haha) of the plot.

As far as girls driving the plot, that was kind of my point, however poorly expressed. (I also never watched Sex in the City  ;D you could say for more or less the same reason.)


Quote
I loved the series Justified. Most of its main characters were men, most at least 10 years younger than me. It's set in Harlan County, KY, where I've never been. It's about law enforcement officers and small-time criminals, neither of which I've ever been. And yet ...

That looked interesting to me, but there was certainly a reason I didn't/couldn't watch it. Possibly I didn't/don't get the channel/network it aired on. Or I may have watched something else in the same time slot.

And, please, let's not go back to the recording thing again. As I've said before, many times, there are so many choices these days that there is always something to watch "live" instead of something recorded. But there is also the fact that I'm very brand loyal, otherwise, why have I been watching N.C.I.S. and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for well over a decade? If I like a show, I tend to stick with it until the end, or until I feel it really goes off the rails.

(I guess I was brought up to be brand loyal. A few weeks ago I was really pissed off that I had to buy Endust because the supermarket seems not to carry Lemon Pledge, my mother's preferred dusting product.  ;D )
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2247 on: November 13, 2019, 09:28:38 pm »
That's exactly why I liked it and read the whole thing.

Ha! :laugh: I guess we're just opposites in that way.

Quote
As far as girls driving the plot, that was kind of my point, however poorly expressed. (I also never watched Sex in the City  ;D you could say for more or less the same reason.)

I understood your point. Mine was that if I let gender, sexual orientation, age and location determine my viewing choices I'd never turn the TV on.

I never watched SitC because a) at the time I didn't have HBO and b) it didn't sound that interesting. Even though the characters roughly matched me, demographically.

Girls was more interesting. I guess that's at least part of why they let Lena Dunham make an indie feature film when she was like 23.

When I finally did get HBO, the show I watched was The Sopranos. I put it off for a long time, but once I started watching I was hooked and consumed an episode almost every night through five or six seasons or however many. I liked it a lot, even though I don't live in a wealthy New Jersey suburb and am not involved in organized crime. Hell, I've never even killed anybody!

Now the one that's hanging over me is The Wire. I know I would like it once I got into it, even though I don't live in a gritty neighborhood in Baltimore. I'd probably wind up watching it like I did The Sopranos. But it's many seasons, and I did watch the first episode or two and wasn't hooked. But I've semi-joked that it should be my project this winter.

Quote
That looked interesting to me, but there was certainly a reason I didn't/couldn't watch it. Possibly I didn't/don't get the channel/network it aired on. Or I may have watched something else in the same time slot.

Well, I highly recommend it -- all, I think, six or seven seasons? -- if you ever find yourself in a position to watch it.

Quote
And, please, let's not go back to the recording thing again.

 :-X :-X :-X

Quote
As I've said before, many times, there are so many choices these days that there is always something to watch "live" instead of something recorded.

I'm pickier, I guess. I decide what I'm going to watch before I turn the TV on, based on what I already know or have read/heard about it. Then I watch that thing and afterward turn the TV off. So you can see why non-streaming wouldn't work for me.

Sometimes I like combining a heavy and a light and watching for 90 minutes, though. I think while I was watching The Sopranos, I was lightening up afterward with Curb Your Enthusiasm. That was a golden era. Justified might have been on weekly in them days, too.

Quote
(I guess I was brought up to be brand loyal. A few weeks ago I was really pissed off that I had to buy Endust because the supermarket seems not to carry Lemon Pledge, my mother's preferred dusting product.  ;D )[/font][/size]

I can't remember what my mom had but here's a shocker: I don't think I have ever in my life purchased a dusting product of any brand.  :o




Offline Front-Ranger

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 30,288
  • Brokeback got us good.
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2248 on: November 14, 2019, 10:51:36 am »
Sometimes I like combining a heavy and a light and watching for 90 minutes, though. I think while I was watching The Sopranos, I was lightening up afterward with Curb Your Enthusiasm. That was a golden era. Justified might have been on weekly in them days, too.

Interesting that you mention Curb Your Enthusiasm. I have watched only one episode, where Larry's car breaks down, he has to go to the bathroom, and he starts knocking on doors. The only person who would let him in is a lady in a burka. At first, he won't go in, but she insists and then she takes him to get the car repaired, and then a friend of his wants to meet her, but he won't introduce them, etc. It was hilarious.

So that's why I was again interested in reading "Shouts and Murmurs" in the new issue (ta da! Back to the topic at hand!) But, it was mediocre. I could have done better, I think, just using the resources of the food wars in my permaculture group.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline serious crayons

  • BetterMost Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: In the New Yorker...
« Reply #2249 on: November 14, 2019, 01:10:16 pm »
So that's why I was again interested in reading "Shouts and Murmurs" in the new issue (ta da! Back to the topic at hand!) But, it was mediocre. I could have done better, I think, just using the resources of the food wars in my permaculture group.

Agreed. I've seen one or two other things Larry David has written for print and they weren't great, either.

In this case, the topic was kind of interesting, I guess, although politically it seemed like a confusing message. I mean, it wasn't really trying to make a political point, but obviously there are lots of people in this country whose problems are worse than first world problems. However, it's an interesting concept and would have worked if he'd set it up better. Like, better established that this candidate was specifically seeking the votes of people with FWPs (which many candidates actually do -- they're called Republicans  :laugh:).

That said, it would have worked much better if he'd had a wide variety of examples involving different people. As is, I couldn't even really get through it. Maybe it would have worked better as a CYE episode.