Short Takes
October 11, 2011
Steve Jobs and My Mother
My 94-year-old mother — a lifelong reader, mother of a writer and a medical researcher who writes beautifully about science — is losing her sight. She’s been admitted to a pilot program that might stop her vision loss; if it doesn’t work, darkness awaits. But on the just-introduced Apple iPhone 4S, there’s an amazing voice-recognition feature that opens the world for the visually challenged. Watch for the blind woman at the end of the video and you’ll understand why, across the country, some people are crying for happy. And thanking Steve.
October 5, 2011
You’ll Never Guess Whose Music Is In An NFL Commercial
Unlikely choice. But kinda terrific. Can’t get it? It’s this.
October 3, 2011
Paolo Conte: Come to the Cabaret
He defies description. The European Tony Bennett? A saloon singer? Or just… Paolo Conte.
September 21, 2011
The Show to See: Willem de Kooning at MOMA
I wrote a short take on my Gilt blog about the influence of the Hamptons on de Kooning’s work, but the piece to inhale before you go to this exhibition is Jill Krementz’s picture-and-text tour in New York Social Diary. Jill is one of our best chroniclers of writers and artists, and here she delivers a brilliant primer on de Kooning’s evolution as a painter — and a who’s who of MOMA guests at the opening.
