Prayers for Richard
A profile of Little Richard in the last years of his life, confined to a wheelchair and living in the penthouse suite at the Hilton in downtown Nashville.
Arts
Can We Escape From Information Overload?
Meet the artist who hid away for a month in total darkness.
The Duke in His Domain
A profile of Marlon Brando, 33, holed up in a hotel suite in Kyoto where he was filming Sayonara.
Downtown Is for People
On the then-new phenomenon of dead downtowns.
“It is not only for amenity but for economics that choice is so vital. Without a mixture on the streets, our downtowns would be superficially standardized, and functionally standardized as well. New construction is necessary, but it is not an unmixed blessing: its inexorable economy is fatal to hundreds of enterprises able to make out successfully in old buildings. Notice that when a new building goes up, the kind of ground-floor tenants it gets are usually the chain store and the chain restaurant. Lack of variety in age and overhead is an unavoidable defect in large new shopping centers and is one reason why even the most successful cannot incubate the unusual--a point overlooked by planners of downtown shopping-center projects.”
Remembering Peter Beard, The King of Old Montauk
The photographer who showed us the world always kept coming back to a little town by the sea.
James Is a Girl
The strange life of a 16-year-old model.
In Search of Inigo Philbrick, the Disappearing Art Dealer
A young dealer goes on the lam after selling multiple masterpieces to several buyers simultaneously.
King of Comedy
The making of Caddyshack.
The Unravelling of a Dancer
Sharon Stern devoted herself to Butoh, a Buddhist-influenced Japanese dance. Did her mentor lead her down a dangerous path?
Mal On the Street: The Ambush Humor of Mal Sharpe
Before The Jerky Boys and Longmont Potion Castle there was Mal Sharpe.
The Awakening of Norman Rockwell
For decades, the artist’s Saturday Evening Post covers championed a retrograde view of America. This is the story of the politically turbulent 1960s, a singular painting, and Rockwell’s unlikely change of heart.
This Is Not a Love Story
When a young author started her novel years ago, she saw it as a romance. She sees it differently now.
How to Write Fiction When the Planet Is Falling Apart
A profile of Jenny Offill, whose latest novel addresses climate collapse.
N.K. Jemisin's Dream Worlds
How the bestselling sci-fi author builds her stories.
What Do We Want History to Do to Us?
On Kara Walker.
How 'West Side Story' Was Reborn
Inside the wildly ambitious effort to reimagine the classic musical for 2020.
If He Hollers Let Him Go
Searching for Dave Chappelle ten years after he left his show.
So You Think You Can Paint
Why is Rick DeVos, the son of Betsy and the heir to the DeVos fortune, investing in a weirdly populous and highly lucrative art contest?
Is America’s Favorite Playwright Too Much for New York?
Lauren Gunderson on the eve of her New York premiere.
'He Was Just Starting'
On the life and legacy of Canadian artist Matthew Wong.
Roger Ebert: The Essential Man
A profile of the film critic.
A Filmmaker Bared His Soul. It Ruined His Life.
Caveh Zahedi’s abject, self-defeating, ethically questionable, maddeningly original approach to documentary.
Fascinated to Presume
In defense of fiction.
How Derren Brown Remade Mind Reading for Skeptics
The mentalist’s manipulation techniques give people too sophisticated to believe in the paranormal something quasi-scientific to hang on to.
When ‘Angels in America’ Came to East Texas
Twenty years ago my hometown made national headlines when the local college staged an internationally acclaimed play about gay men and the AIDS crisis. The people I grew up with are still feeling the aftershocks.
