Another swell piece. Dunham's nonsense is a perfect example of why I 86'ed my NEW YORKER subscription of over a half century a few years back. The magazine's overall smug tweeness, which, of course had been there for my lifetime, had finally worn out its welcome with my increasingly ancient impatience. And in specifics, I left New York City four decades ago, for purely financial reasons--seeing, as I did, no possible way to survive into my fifties, let alone my seventies. After fifteen years in Los Angeles, I now live in a beach/surf/farm purple town up the coast, and my birthright remains inescapable, regarded, as I am, as a New Yorker on permanent leave, by every fucking person I know.
The financial move, leading to an affordable latter half of life … now that is one I can get behind and the reason we still live in (relatively cheap) Pittsburgh and will eventually move to some (even cheaper) rural area still near relatives. Like you, I’m always a native…even if I’m not there!
The problem with these people, among many things, is that they believe where they live is a character or personality trait. I see the same issues with people who move overseas.
Yes, you’ve covered that in detail. When I was working on my PhD and some in our cohort would spend a couple months a year at some archive in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and so on, it was common to see them coming back as Spanish/French/Dutch/etc versions of themselves, suddenly into FIFA after years of hating sports, specific shows or movies, and all the rest. Like a “French rebrand” of some rich kid from Livingston NJ or something. You clearly know the deal
Yeah for sure. I'm a sucker for watching behind the scenes stuff, and it's quite demoralising watching how things are made these days. I mean, I loved the Game of Thrones 'making off' episodes and OBVIOUSLY they cannot have dragons etc, but we really do seem to green screen everything these days. Why walk down a London street when you can green screen it. Meh.
As for steroidal leading men, there is a reason a still very-in-shape Bruce Willis as John McClane struck a chord. Today, he'd be played by the Rock.
Yeah, Willis and Russell were perfect for what they were doing. And if not the Rock, someone like Kumail Nanjiani - a solid comedic actor - would decide this was his chance to juice up for a change of pace. Sad!
John Krasinski comes to mind. He was beloved for being the everyman in the office. I suppose Matt Damon as well. Neither got insane but enough to not really be representative of the average man any more.
Another swell piece. Dunham's nonsense is a perfect example of why I 86'ed my NEW YORKER subscription of over a half century a few years back. The magazine's overall smug tweeness, which, of course had been there for my lifetime, had finally worn out its welcome with my increasingly ancient impatience. And in specifics, I left New York City four decades ago, for purely financial reasons--seeing, as I did, no possible way to survive into my fifties, let alone my seventies. After fifteen years in Los Angeles, I now live in a beach/surf/farm purple town up the coast, and my birthright remains inescapable, regarded, as I am, as a New Yorker on permanent leave, by every fucking person I know.
The financial move, leading to an affordable latter half of life … now that is one I can get behind and the reason we still live in (relatively cheap) Pittsburgh and will eventually move to some (even cheaper) rural area still near relatives. Like you, I’m always a native…even if I’m not there!
The problem with these people, among many things, is that they believe where they live is a character or personality trait. I see the same issues with people who move overseas.
Yes, you’ve covered that in detail. When I was working on my PhD and some in our cohort would spend a couple months a year at some archive in Spain, France, the Netherlands, and so on, it was common to see them coming back as Spanish/French/Dutch/etc versions of themselves, suddenly into FIFA after years of hating sports, specific shows or movies, and all the rest. Like a “French rebrand” of some rich kid from Livingston NJ or something. You clearly know the deal
Man, I loved Escape from New York - pleased mention of it got me hooked into the article, I really enjoyed that.
It's so good. Gets better with each passing year of CGI action filler and steroidal leading men, too.
Yeah for sure. I'm a sucker for watching behind the scenes stuff, and it's quite demoralising watching how things are made these days. I mean, I loved the Game of Thrones 'making off' episodes and OBVIOUSLY they cannot have dragons etc, but we really do seem to green screen everything these days. Why walk down a London street when you can green screen it. Meh.
As for steroidal leading men, there is a reason a still very-in-shape Bruce Willis as John McClane struck a chord. Today, he'd be played by the Rock.
Yeah, Willis and Russell were perfect for what they were doing. And if not the Rock, someone like Kumail Nanjiani - a solid comedic actor - would decide this was his chance to juice up for a change of pace. Sad!
John Krasinski comes to mind. He was beloved for being the everyman in the office. I suppose Matt Damon as well. Neither got insane but enough to not really be representative of the average man any more.
People in New York city walk too slowly.
many are saying this. some, i think, are even good people