The Magazine
February 3, 2025
Goings On
Goings On
Liza Minnelli’s Desire to Touch
Also: Merch love for L.A., the Australian comedian Sam Kissajukian’s “300 Paintings,” Heartbeat Opera’s innovative “Salome,” and more.
The Food Scene
Alex Stupak’s Seriously Playful Seafood Joint
At the Otter, the chef behind Empellón offers a fish-forward menu that performs tricks of the tongue.
The Talk of the Town
Benjamin Wallace-Wells on Trump’s return; traffic trackers; a celebrity soup party; extreme-sport graffiti; going Met to Met.
Comment
Trump’s Attempt to Redefine America
The effect of the President’s executive orders was to convey an open season, in which virtually nothing—including who gets to be an American citizen—is guaranteed.
Here To There Dept.
The College Kids Tracking Your Decongested Commute
Benjamin Moshes, a senior, and his brother, Joshua, a freshman, built the Web site that congestion-pricing watchers rely on during a family trip to Japan.
Collections Dept.
Kim Hastreiter, the Queen of Stuff
The co-founder of Paper magazine recounts Kim Kardashian’s famous photo shoot and serving Jackie Kennedy.
On Belay
How to Tag a Skyscraper, Six Hundred Feet Up
Two graffiti artists demonstrate, in midair, how their tags have ended up on taller and taller buildings. The secret? Rock-climbing training.
Blue Nile Dept.
The Met’s New Aida Visits the Other Met
The soprano Angel Blue, the star of the new production of Verdi’s ancient-Egypt spectacle, goes to the Temple of Dendur, crosstown, for the first time.
Reporting & Essays
Annals of Disaster
Inside the Fight Against a Los Angeles Inferno
A reporter embeds with wildland firefighters during one of the deadliest blazes in California history.
Onward and Upward with the Arts
The World-Changing Gaze of Celia Paul
Paul has spent nearly fifty years painting her family, her lovers, and herself in a single apartment. Each portrait reveals not just a person but the power of looking itself.
Letter from Damascus
A Witness in Assad’s Dungeons
Mazen al-Hamada fled Syria to reveal the regime’s crimes. Then, mysteriously, he went back.
Popular Chronicles
How the Capybara Won My Heart—and Almost Everyone Else’s
It’s not hard to understand why capys have a cultlike following on Instagram and TikTok. I fell for the giant rodent decades ago.
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
Production Notes on Amazon’s Melania Trump Documentary
Note 1: Use clip of her smiling, but crop out Putin and Chernobyl.
Fiction
Fiction
“A Visit from the Chief”
She’d seen enough movies to know that this was the moment when she needed to brandish the gun and threaten the man.
The Critics
A Critic at Large
What We Learn About Our World by Imagining Its End
Some fear we’ll be buried in brimstone; others expect to be extinguished by A.I. But is there comfort to be found in our apocalyptic visions?
Books
Briefly Noted
“Black in Blues,” “American Laughter, American Fury,” “My Darling Boy,” and “Too Soon.”
Books
The Insidious Charms of the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic
You’re passionate. Purpose-driven. Dreaming big, working hard, making it happen. And now they’ve got you where they want you.
Musical Events
L.A.’s New-Music Bastion
Monday Evening Concerts has showcased living composers for eight decades.
On Television
Tom Brady, Armchair Quarterback
In his new gig, the former player turned “N.F.L. on Fox” commentator is back to work, but is he any good?
The Theatre
Sanaz Toossi’s “English” Comes to Broadway
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, set in an E.S.L. classroom in Iran, examines the internal displacements of learning a language.
Cartoons
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
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