Author Archives: Felix

Smith

Posted on February 4, 2002 by Felix

Brian McNally is a smart guy. He’s got a new restaurant open in the East Village, and he’s working the media as masterfully as ever. This time, post-9/11, the spin is that it’s low-key, it’s not about the glitz and … Continue reading →

Posted in Restaurants | Comments Off on Smith

Information Superhighway Robbery

Posted on January 29, 2002 by Felix

I’m uploading this page to my web server over my cable modem internet connection. Time Warner Cable used to have a monopoly on internet cable service in Manhattan, but over the past few weeks we’ve started seeing a rash of … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

The fall and fall of celebrity journalism

Posted on January 28, 2002 by Felix

Be worried about the decline of magazine journalism in this country. Talk might not have achieved a cohesive identity, but at least it did run some well-written pieces. To see what Tina Brown was reacting against, I suggest you pick … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Don’t go anywhere near iname or mail.com

Posted on January 24, 2002 by Felix

Many years ago, at the dawn of the internet era, a company called iname had the rather good idea of registering a whole bunch of domain names (you didn’t need to pay for them back then, it was first come … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 26 Comments

More on Sullivan and Krugman

Posted on January 22, 2002 by Felix

Sullivan has now gone mad. Just after 7:00 this evening, he posted no fewer than four new pieces on l’affair Krugman – an affair, I hasten to add, which he single-handedly created. He seems to be an expert at following … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Austerlitz

Posted on January 21, 2002 by Felix

Just finished reading Austerlitz, and everything the reviews say is true. Sebald really did manage to come up with a whole new genre of book, neither memoir nor novel nor concatenation of postmodern digressions. Austerlitz is a great and haunting … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

Talk, with hindsight

Posted on January 19, 2002 by Felix

I went out and bought the final issue of Talk yesterday. I wondered if, with hindsight, one might be able to look at it and see where it went wrong. I thought I would read through the articles and try … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Talk, R.I.P.

Posted on January 18, 2002 by Felix

When I interviewed Tina Brown just after the first issue came out, she told me that "people didn’t necessarily know they wanted something, but I think that when you produce something that is entertaining, smart, fresh and new, they will … Continue reading →

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Andrew Sullivan, Paul Krugman and Enron

Posted on January 17, 2002 by Felix

I’m worried I might be getting old. My 30th birthday is fast approaching, and I’ve recently been reminded of that old canard about how if you’re not a socialist when you’re young you don’t have a heart, and if you’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Finance, Media | 2 Comments

Legal lesbian marriage in Texas

Posted on January 13, 2002 by Felix

It turns out that there are at least two legal lesbian marriages in America. Not civil unions in Vermont, mind, but fully-fledged bona fide marriage. And they’re in Texas! This fact emerges from an article in the New York Times … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 71 Comments

Donnie Darko

Posted on January 12, 2002 by Felix

So I’ve just got back from seeing Donnie Darko at the cinema, and I feel as though I have to put my thoughts down here, in some kind of attempt to get them into shape. One thing is for sure: … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off on Donnie Darko

Felix at the movies

Posted on January 9, 2002 by Felix

I’m disappointed. 2001 was a bad year for movies. Bad films did well, good films did badly, and there was very little that was exceptional. The Oscar race is wide open, not because there were so many good films (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off on Felix at the movies

Air travel

Posted on December 13, 2001 by Felix

Something went wrong somewhere along the line. Fifteen years ago, if someone told you that they’d never been on an aeroplane, you’d be a little surprised, a little sorry for them; but at the same time, you’d also feel a … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour | 7 Comments

The Corrections

Posted on November 29, 2001 by Felix

I can get my life back now: I finally finished The Corrections last night. It’s a great book, it has some amazing virtuoso writing in it, and it certainly kept me up until 5 in the morning more than once. … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

How to win the War on Drugs

Posted on October 16, 2001 by Felix

One of the side-effects of the all-out war on terrorism has been a complete absence of any mention of the war on drugs. The two are linked, however: Afghanistan is one of the largest opium exporters in the world, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

After

Posted on September 11, 2001 by Felix

“There are no words.” It was only happening a couple of dozen blocks away, but I’d come down from the roof, and was watching the World Trade Center attacks on the television, just like the rest of the planet. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment

Magazine notes

Posted on September 7, 2001 by Felix

New Yorker fact-checkers, where are you? In the big lead story in this week’s issue, Jon Lee Anderson’s profile of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, we find this: World Bank or International Monetary Fund austerity packages in return for debt renegotiation … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Harper’s Bazaar: The September Issue

Posted on August 14, 2001 by Felix

Anyone interested in what Glenda Bailey has done to Harper’s Bazaar is advised not to bother picking up the latest issue, hitting newsstands now. The September issue of any women’s magazine is something of a flagship, but the powers that … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Airplane notes

Posted on August 7, 2001 by Felix

It’s 11:55pm, New York time, and I’m on Continental Airlines flight 31 from Newark to Sao Paulo. They’ve served the meal already – I accepted the mini-bottle of Cotes du Rhône – and I’ve also popped a couple of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 2 Comments

A.I.

Posted on July 3, 2001 by Felix

So, the film we had all been waiting for has finally been released. I saw it in Toronto: lucky me. The screen there was enormous, Ziegfeld-size, and the experience was amazing. (It makes up for Canadian passive-aggression: cafés which wouldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Comments Off on A.I.

Hitchens

Posted on June 27, 2001 by Felix

Memory can play nasty tricks on one. I "discovered" Anthony Lane long before Tina Brown, for instance: he was the film reviewer for the Independent on Sunday before he moved to the New Yorker, and I always loved his reviews … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment

Gays in The Wall Street Journal

Posted on June 22, 2001 by Felix

It’s Pride Week this week, that time of year when opinion-formers’ minds turn to the status of gays in society. And helpfully, the Wall Street Journal editorial page is here to give them a little pastoral guidance. [The narrowness of … Continue reading →

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Sexy Beast

Posted on June 21, 2001 by Felix

Sexy Beast is the latest British import to get rave reviews among the art-house crowd, and it’s obvious why: it features first-rate performances from two of England’s best film actors (Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley). Kingsley is astonishing as an … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | 1 Comment

Towards a Radically Contingent Destination

Posted on June 14, 2001 by Felix

In the post-war years, it was quite common for a gentleman to eat at his club every day, never varying his routine in the slightest. Members of the following generation rebelled somewhat against such habits, cutlivating a menu of restaurants … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour | 6 Comments

Friendly neighborhood shops

Posted on June 14, 2001 by Felix

A few weeks ago, I rented a medium format camera and went out shooting bridges at the weekend. I was using slide film, and got the film developed that same weekend; a lot of the shots came out great. So … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | 1 Comment