About the March 2, 2009 Edition

Not that you need to know, but true to form, I wrote my intro to this blog after reading my first New Yorker magazine and I begin actually commenting after reading the second issue.

Of all the erudite offerings to top my list of readings, I begin – as I believe I will be wont to do when I open each new issue, with the delightful cartoons sprinkled throughout. That The New Yorker was source of sometimes sharp, sometimes odd, and many times enjoyable humor is not new to me. It was some years ago that I made the happy, and at the time surprising, discovery that Charles Addam’s Addam’s Family series had it’s started here. If you are only family with the TV show (showing my age) and the movies (we are all poorer for Raoul Julia’s passing), then you’ve missed most of the fun. While it was many years after that discovery that I read an actual article in The New Yorker, my view of this mag as a staid, aloof bit of reading had been altered for years.

This week I passed my 2 article goal by 2 +, including the Fiction piece “Brother on Sunday”, the Letter From Washington – “The Gatekeeper”, A Reporter At Large “The Back Channel”, On Television “The Dollhouse”, and from Talk of the Town - The Boards “Notes from Beyond”.

“Notes from Beyond” was a light bit of fluff about auditioning psychics for a consultancy on “Blithe Spirit”. As short an frivolous as it was, “Notes” was an enjoyable read.

“The GateKeeper”, about Rahm Emmanuel, was a respectful profile which may not have added much to my understanding of Mr. Emmanuel, but delivered in the personal glimpses it afforded. It’s possible that I came jaded to this story, being a news junkie and having heard many previous stories about this man. But I did enjoy the writing style, and the insights offered through quotes from those people Mr. Emmanuel has work with, and against, in his career. I guess the one noteworthy character note was the focus in having quality time with his family, as demonstrated by his anxiousness to leave on a trip with them.

On Television, “Dollhouse” was a pleasant surprise for me. In my consideration of a lowly 2 story per week goal I had determined that I read enough entertainment reviews elsewhere that I didn’t need to add The New Yorker’s to my reading habit. But I am a Joss Wheadon fan. Not in the sense of loving and defending every thing he’s ever done, but more as being admiring of his success and his outlook. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was must see TV for my family and I in it’s first run. We even liked Spike so much we followed him to Angel. But I never bonded with Firefly. Though I did enjoy Serenity. However, his biggest contributions to recent entertainment history are both musical. I still listen to “Once More With Feeling”, his Buffy musical, on my ipod occasionally and “Dr. Horrible” was simply a delight. So, I gave myself this one more path to a subject I enjoy. Not yet, sure how far I’ll go with the show (Dollhouse) though.

The fiction offering this week was character study by the name of “Brother on Sunday”. It was and interesting read, if shallow in scope. Not to denigrate it, as I developed opinions and feelings about at least the main character which wouldn’t be possible in a lesser story. I have to admit, having stated my preference for Sci-Fi that I enjoyed the previous week’s short story better. “The Daughters of The Moon”, by Italian writer Italo Calvino, is a whimsical fantasia of a story blatantly critical of our consumer culture.

The granddaddy article of this issue was “The Back Channel”. This article took me half of the week to read. At least an hour, in small fits and starts. My habit is to read at breakfast and lunch and before bed. While I didn’t finish Rahm Emmanuel in one sitting, “The Back Channel” took at least 4, if not 5. It is a sprawling monograph on the Indian-Pakistani conflict and efforts by the principals to find a solution. Along the way we are treated to an overview of the Kashmir issue, the relationship between Pakistan’s military intelligence community and jihadi groups (the jihadi’s are seen as a cheap way to keep India “off-balance”), the extent to which high level Pakistani’s and Indian’s have worked to open and keep a dialogue going ( w/ a nod to the fact that they’ve done this on their own and are better off for the US and Britain not being involved), and the speed bump Pakistan’s recent regime change presented. But the one thing that impressed itself upon me when I saw it in print, and mind you this is one paragraph – practically a side comment, was the part Great Britain played in fomenting this conflict. As with other sections of the middle-east, as Britain’s empire began to wan and she divested herself of territories she could not longer even pretend to govern, this former world dominating force cut and run with only the most cursory consideration for what it was leaving behind. The extent of Britain’s ineptitude can be seen today on the various long running conflicts ongoing in their former holdings. It makes me wonder how a people who could fuck up so much with so little effort ever built an empire in the first place.

I truly haven’t been able to show much interest for the other articles in this issue, even if I had the time. I still have a book of Sci-Fi short stories from the library and was sorely tempted to revert to it for a less rigorous read this week, but felt it was too early to backslide. And beside, when I get home I expect to find the next issue waiting.