The Believer July/August 2011
Is there a smarter pop musician on the planet than Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno? I don't think so. Not only does he make interesting records. He makes other people's music interesting, people like U2, Coldplay, Paul Simon, David Bowie and (the late) Talking Heads. Further, he's a heady, articulate conversationalist - a fact affirmed here in an interview with fellow erudite Brit David Mitchell, the Cloud Atlas author .
It's a real meeting of minds, with Mitchell lobbing lots of provocative observations ("For me, you've always been a sonic Rothko, Brian") and questions ("Why are some chords sinister and dimly lit, and others seem wistful, while others are brash and extroverted?"); and Eno responding in kind. At one point, trying to pinpoint why something as abstract as music can provoke and evoke so many emotions, Eno claims he used to think that "given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to 'get' any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera." He also says he is "made furious by a minor chord lazily used in songwriting, or a throwaway middle eight written just for 'variety.' I despise variety for its own sake."
This Magazine July/August 2011
Two interesting articles in this summer number, both by Torontonians. The first, by Lindsay Mar, explores how some educators are turning to graphic novels and comic books as tools to improve literacy in Canada, where "a staggering 48 per cent of [the population]over 16 struggles with poor reading skills." Of course, some criticize the visuals in comics as stunting readers' ability to conjure a narrative on their own. But as Vancouver English teacher Guy Demers puts it, "Would Citizen Kane have been better as a book? … It's a different form and needs to be examined on its own terms." Adds Toronto librarian Diana Maliszewski, "Reading comics is still reading."
Chelsea Murray's piece, Town and Country, looks at the effect that Ontario's Greenbelt has had on farms and farm families located within its 1.8-million-acre swath. It's generally agreed something had to be done to halt suburban encroachment by the province's Golden Horseshoe, but since the Greenbelt's creation in 2005, many farmers feel they're too hemmed in, overregulated and at too great a remove from tractor mechanics and other agricultural infrastructure. Eventually, they fear, the Greenbelt will become the preserve of both hobby farms owned by affluent urbanites and industrial-style food producers.
Vogue August 2011
There's something inexplicable about Sarah Jessica Parker. Inexplicable, that is, about the magnitude of her success. Sure, she has a great pair of gams and a fabulous body tailor-made for Chanel - but the face is decidedly horsey. (There's even a website dedicated to illustrating her equine-imity). As for her acting, what has she done that's been halfway decent since the Sex and the City TV series ended seven years ago? Certainly not the Sex and the City movies.
Still, at 46, SJP rules, especially at Vogue, where she's just scored her sixth cover story. It's a 12-page sprawler, with photographs by Mario Testino, pegged to the imminent release of her new flick, I Don't Know How She Does It - a title writer Eve MacSweeney deems an apt description of SJP's life as wife, mom of three, actor, producer, Unicef ambassador, product shill and design-and- parfum executive. There's nothing terribly revelatory in the profile ("How Parker does it seems to come down to a combination of organization, boundary-setting and formidable will"). But the story succeeds in portraying her as a decent, unstuffy person who knows that, for all her workaholism, there's been a lot of Cinderella in her success.