Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 982

No One's Sure What to Think About Jay-Z's Performance Art Video

Last night on HBO, Jay-Z debuted the short film/video for "Picasso Baby," one of the better tracks on his maligned Magna Carta... Holy Grail, compiled from clips of his six-hour performance art spectacle at a New York art gallery in July, and the rapper's earning equal amounts of praise and scorn for his efforts. 

The video, directed by Mark Romanek, was filmed in a single afternoon while Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, performed "Picasso Baby" at Chelsea's Pace Gallery for six hours straight as part of a performance art piece last month. The move was inspired by Marina Abramovic, who makes an appearance in the video. Dressed in a white shirt, with a Roc-a-Fella chain around his neck and a crowd surrounding him, Jay rapped the song over and over and over again, giving a new performance and spin on the track, to a different person every time. 

The video is littered with bold faced names: The Smurfs star Alan Cumming, the godfather Fab Five Freddy, director Jim Jarmusch, and The Wire actor Michael K. Williams all make appearances. There was also a weird connection to HBO's Girls, with Judd Apatow, Adam Driver and Jemima Kirke showing up. And, of course, there were the art world heavy hitters: Lawrence Weiner, critic Jerry Saltz, and the aforementioned Abramovic, to name a few.

Whereas Jay drew some criticism within the music world for his stunt, the video has been warmly received so far. Complex highlighted the spontaneity afforded by the live performance. "Jay is clearly having fun, feeding off the energy of the crowd that surrounds him, writes Dharmic X. "At one point, he even forgets a line, distracted by the woman sitting in front of him on the bench, but manages to play it off smoothly." The Smoking Section's Raj praised Jay for pushing the "new rules" he kept talking about while promoting the album. "Overall, it’s another great step for the genre, as Hip-Hop keeps stepping further and further away from the conventional album release and marketing cycle," he says. The reaction from the Twitter cognescenti was mixed, though: 

in the end, jay z's "performance art" is only semi embarrassing, if you ask me. http://t.co/SRv7MeTbkS

— brian boucher (@briankboucher) August 3, 2013

Jay Z should've filmed Picasso Baby in the Rain Room and allowed people to kill two birds with one stone.

— netw3rk (@netw3rk) August 3, 2013

Jay's Picasso Baby vid is fine? It mostly just makes me feel uncomfortable…like watching yr dad interact with Jay Z http://t.co/UyZuZXEZuh

— Lindsey Weber (@lindseyweber) August 3, 2013

Alright, I'll admit it: Jay-Z's "Picasso Baby" video/art-thing is actually pretty cool: http://t.co/ax9sLxymPL

— Kenny Hsu (@kennycity) August 3, 2013

The video's most interesting parts come before and after the music video, when Jay is speaking about the similarities between hip-hop and art, and your typical stadium concert and an intimate performance art piece. The lines have officially been blurred, no thanks to Robin Thicke. 

       

Red Sox Owner John Henry Paid $70 Million for the Boston Globe

Update, Saturday 9:41 a.m.: After 20 years under New York ownership, the Boston Globe will be returning to Massachusetts now that principal Red Sox owner John Henry purchased the paper from The New York Times for $70 million, according to, well, the Times and the Globe. (Of course.) 

The deal closed late Friday evening for the paper to finally return to local ownership, sort of. Henry, a native of Illinois, might as well be a Boston institution after he became the majority owner of the Red Sox and Fenway Park in 2002 and subsequently brought two World Series titles to the city after an 80-odd year drought. The Times bought the Globe from the Taylor family in 1993 for $1.1 billion. Casual observers have taken to cracking wise about the relatively cheap price Henry paid for the paper, especially when compared to the cost he pays some Red Sox players: 

What does it say about newspapers that Bosox owner John Henry can buy The Boston Globe for less money than he's paying his second baseman?

— Dick Polman (@DickPolman1) August 3, 2013

Great paper for $12 million less than John Lackey. RT @BostonGlobe: Red Sox owner John Henry will be owner of @BostonGlobe for $70million.

— Jason Gay (@jasonWSJ) August 3, 2013

While Henry's Boston Red Sox pay Dustin Pedroia $110 million over eight years, and Lackey $82.5 over five years, this all-cash deal will close at some point over the next two months. 

Henry's buying the paper at an opportune time. Over the first half of 2013, few local papers have been as nationally important as the Globe. The Boston paper earned near-universal praise for its coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, the Whitey Bulger trial, and the Aaron Hernandez murder investigation. (To name just a few examples.) 

That Peter Gammons was the person who broke the news is just so brilliantly fitting. The only way this story could get even more Boston would be if Affleck and Damon were the ones who sent Gammons the tip. 

Original: There's a late Friday rumor that Boston Red Sox owner John Henry will buy the Boston Globe from the New York Times company, ending a long search for a buyer for the Boston paper. The report stems from sportswriter Peter Gammons, who cites an unnamed source or sources. Gammons says that Henry will purchase the paper on his own.

The rumor, while very very unconfirmed (we've asked the New York Times Company for comment), is not entirely out of the blue. Days ago, the Globe reported that Henry submitted a solo bid for the paper, soon after the New England Sports Network decided they were no longer interested in purchasing it. Previously, NESN, which is 80 percent owned by Henry's sports investment group, was one of six rumored potential buyers. 

The latest shopping round for the New England Media Group (which includes the Globe and a handful of websites) started earlier this year, and apparently at a lower price than they'd asked for previously. The New York Times Company purchased the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion. It's highly unlikely that they'd sell the media group for that price. 

This post has been updated for clarity. 

       

Bret Easton Ellis Brilliantly Live-Tweeted His Viewing of 'The Canyons'

Sometimes, live tweeting can be a deeply sensitive enterprise, as when NPR host Scott Simon tweeted from the bedside of his dying mother. But it can also be a thoroughly frivolous affair, as novelist-turned-screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis demonstrated on Friday night, when he live-tweeted his viewing of The Canyons, the movie staring troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan and untroubled porn star James Deen.

Part of this is surely promotional, as The Canyons opens tonight in limited release. Ellis, who has half a million Twitter followers, can surely drum up some interest through the micro-blogging service. Then again, as I have noted elsewhere, Ellis is a problematic tweeter who made deeply troubling statements about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's suicide. He also used Twitter to insult the legacy of David Foster Wallace.

The Canyons, directed by Paul Schrader of Taxi Driver fame, has had a difficult path to the silver screen, as a rather incredible story in The New York Times Magazine amply demonstrated. Still, this is Ellis's night, and we will let his tweets speak for themselves. 

UPDATE: Inexplicably, Ellis has deleted many of his finest Canyons tweets. However, we were able to screen-capture them. The best are below:

Paul Schrader. Bret Easton Ellis. Live Tweeting THE CANYONS. Tonight: August 2nd. 10PM EST/7PM PST... pic.twitter.com/zvyFYS9qd9

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 2, 2013

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Bret Easton Ellis Is Live Tweeting His Viewing of 'The Canyons'

Sometimes, live tweeting can be a deeply sensitive enterprise, as when NPR host Scott Simon tweeted from the bedside of his dying mother. But it can also be a thoroughly frivolous affair, as novelist-turned-screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis demonstrated on Friday night, when he live tweeted his viewing of The Canyons, the movie staring troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan and untroubled porn star James Deen.

Part of this is surely promotional, as The Canyons opens tonight in limited release. Ellis, who has half a million Twitter followers, can surely drum up some interest through the micro-blogging service. Then again, as I have noted elsewhere, Ellis is a problematic tweeter who made deeply problematic statements about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's suicide. He also used Twitter to insult the legacy of David Foster Wallace.

The Canyons, directed by Paul Schrader of Taxi Driver fame, has had a difficult path to the silver screen, as a rather incredible story in The New York Times Magazine amply demonstrated. Still, this is Ellis's night, and we will let his tweets speak for themselves. Here are some of his finest dispatches, from earliest to most recent:

Paul Schrader. Bret Easton Ellis. Live Tweeting THE CANYONS. Tonight: August 2nd. 10PM EST/7PM PST... pic.twitter.com/zvyFYS9qd9

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 2, 2013

Coldness. Amorality. Deadness. Vicious and Unsympathetic Characters. Endless Nudity. Violence. I like these things in movies... #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

James plays such a great L.A. douchebag. #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

"I was pretty wasted in those days so anything's possible." Yes, this was an autobiographical script. #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

I am hemorrhaging followers as I tweet about The Canyons. #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

"Suck me off right now. I know you want it." We approached American Apparel to do a T-shirt line with that bit of dialogue. #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

I must admit that as a writer I have been often attracted by the dramatic device of using roofies as a plot point. #thecanyons

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

And there's much, much more on Ellis's feed, though he's threatening to delete the Canyons tweets. Enjoy. Maybe watch the movie, too.

       

Report: Al Qaeda in Yemen Was in 'Final Stages' of Planning Attack

Al Qaeda was in the final stages of planning an unspecified attack in Yemen, according to a CNN report that seems to explain the widespread, planned closures of U.S. embassies across the Middle East on Sunday. 

CNN reports: 

A senior Yemeni national security official told CNN that the government was "on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come. The threat appears much worse than it has in a long time," the Yemeni official said. According to three sources, the United States has information that al Qaeda in Yemen was in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack.

The report would also explain the timing of the closures, along with why the State Department opted to shut down so many embassies (emphasis ours): 

One of the sources said the preparations appeared to have increased in recent days with the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while a U.S. official noted it was unclear whether the plot would be directed at a target inside Yemen or elsewhere.

Rep Peter King, the Republican Chairman of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, weighed in on the alleged plot on Friday, calling the threat "the most specific" he's seen in several years of getting intelligence briefings. “You see unprecedented actions, 21 embassies being closed, the global travel advisory being given. This is being taken very, very seriously,” he told CNN (via Politico). 

On Friday, the U.K. announced that they would close their Yemen embassy for at least two days starting on Sunday. The Foreign Office also re-upped their travel warning for the country. Their existing warning reads "If you travel to Yemen against our advice, you should regularly reassess your security and plan any movements around the country carefully." The warning, updated Friday, adds that the U.K. "strongly urge[s] British nationals to leave now." 

#UPDATE Britain to close Yemen embassy this weekend, too http://t.co/ZTbSXV1OfQ

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) August 2, 2013

The U.S. State Department has also issued a travel warning for Americans travelling worldwide, focusing on "the continued potential for terrorist attacks" in the Middle East in August. "current information suggests that al Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks," the warning continued, with little information beyond that. 

       

Apple Could Get Harshly Punished for E-Book Price-Fixing

The troubles for Apple over its e-book price-fixing just keep coming. A month ago, a federal judge ruled that Apple and five book publishers conspired to raise prices on e-books in an attempt to deal a blow to Amazon's massive market share. Now, federal regulators and officials from more than two dozen states are striking at Apple's core in an attempt to further constrain the insular company with a series of court-mandated proposals.

As Reuters reports, the U.S. Department of Justice's proposals for remedy will hurt Apple's reputation in the market more than it will its financial bottom line, which, with just a single-digit percentage of the e-book market, is already quite low: 

The government's plan, which still needs court approval, would require that Apple end its contracts with the five publishers and be banned for five years from entering contracts that would effectively the raise prices of e-books sold by rivals.

...

Apple would also be blocked from cutting deals with providers of movies, music and TV programs for its iPad tablets and iPhones that would likely increase the prices at which rivals might sell such content. It would also require providers to lower prices for Apple if they lower them for rivals.

One proposal would force Apple to provide hyperlinks to its competitors' e-book stores within apps. The Justice Department argues that this change would make comparisons of company-to-company prices much simpler and restrict any future instances of potential price-fixing. As it stands now, Apple does not allow links to external stores on any of its apps. 

"The proposal strikes at the heart of Apple's power over its platform," writes Thomas Claburn of Information Week. Not surprisingly, Apple does plan to contest what it calls "draconian" measures — and they must still be approved by a court on August 9.

It hasn't been a great day for Apple, as this news comes on top of declining sales that suggest the Apple Store's demise is near. We'll let you come up with your own "rotten Apple" jokes, though it's certainly too early to count out the tech behemoth just yet.

       

The Boston Globe May Finally Have a Buyer

There's a late Friday rumor that Boston Red Sox owner John Henry will buy the Boston Globe from the New York Times company, ending a long search for a buyer for the Boston paper. The report stems from sportswriter Peter Gammons, who cites an unnamed source or sources. Gammons says that Henry will purchase the paper on his own.

The rumor, while very very unconfirmed (we've asked the New York Times Company for comment), is not entirely out of the blue. Days ago, the Globe reported that Henry submitted a solo bid for the paper, soon after the New England Sports Network decided they were no longer interested in purchasing it. Previously, NESN, which is 80 percent owned by Henry's sports investment group, was one of six rumored potential buyers. 

The latest shopping round for the New England Media Group (which includes the Globe and a handful of websites) started earlier this year, and apparently at a lower price than they'd asked for previously. The New York Times Company purchased the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion. It's highly unlikely that they'd sell the media group for that price. 

       

More 'Bourne' Is on Its Way

This doesn't come as a surprise exactly, but we're now getting official word that Universal is moving ahead with a fifth film in the Bourne series. Don't get your hopes up for a Matt Damon return, though. This is going to be an outing for Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross, whom we met last summer in the very exciting Bourne Legacy. Damon says he won't come back to the series without Paul Greengrass (that must hurt Doug Liman's feelings, don't you think?), and this is more than likely going to be another Tony Gilroy picture. So, that's too bad about Damon, but this is still good news, right? Somehow the Bourne movies have remained solid after four installments, so why would a fifth be bad? OK, OK, yes, you could say, "Well, A Good Day to Die Hard was the fifth in that otherwise solid series and it stank to the high heavens," and you would be right, but this is not that. We're dealing with an entirely different thing here. This will be good. As long as the right people are involved, we have no reason to worry. If we hear the names "Brett Ratner" or "Zack Snyder" we'll go running, but until then, we're fine. [Deadline]

Billy Bob Thornton has been cast as one of the leads in FX's upcoming, Coen Brothers-approved and produced, miniseries Fargo. He's not going to be playing the Steve Buscemi character, because this is a different story, but he'll be playing something like that character, a "rootless, manipulative man who meets a small-town insurance salesman and sets him on a path of destruction." Thornton is the first actor cast, but he's probably a good indicator of things to come, right? He's kinda weird and Real Person-looking, the way the people on this show should be. I'm still holding out hope that they'll cast Edie Falco to play Marge Gunderson, like she did on the original Fargo TV show based on the movie, but I doubt that's going to happen. But you never know! There's always hope. Who else should be cast on this hopefully-not-a-terrible-idea thing? [The Hollywood Reporter]

If you missed the sexy maid from season one of American Horror Story, fear not, she will be back for season three of Ryan Murphy's gunky, grimy grotesquerie. It's not be announced who actress Alexandra Breckenridge will be playing, but she'll be there. I can't imagine she'll be a terribly big part though, considering how big the cast is. So far we've got her, Kathy Bates, Denis O'Hare, Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett, Patti LuPone, Gabourey Sidibe, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, Taissa Farmiga, Frances Conroy and Lily Rabe. That's a lotta people! So while Sexy Maid will be back in some capacity, I wouldn't expect too much screen time. I mean this season is just going to be Evan Peters dancing around shirtless for 12 episodes, right? Ryan Murphy got our letters, I'm sure. He must have. And he listened. Maybe Sexy Maid plays the shirt he takes off in the beginning? I guess we'll have to wait and see. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Go tell your YA-obsessed Anglophile friend (why do you have this friend?) the good news: Plans are in place for the sequel to the Inbetweeners movie, the raunchy lads comedy based on the surprisingly winning E4 series that ran from 2008-2010. The film was a big hit in the UK, so they've gone and decided to make another one. No word yet on what it will be about, but it will undoubtedly be full of sex talk that somehow doesn't seem quite as revolting because it's said in British accents, and then some nice, sweet stuff will come along to temper all that. It will be cute but not nearly as good as the series. Anyway, that friend of yours will be happy to hear this. So happy, in fact, that might be an opportune time to tell them you don't think you can be friends anymore. I mean, all they talk about is YA and British television. You can't be friends with someone like that.  [The Hollywood Reporter]

Speaking of Billy Bob Thornton, here's a trailer for a movie he directed called Jayne Manfield's Car. It has a very strange cast (Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon, Tippi Hedren)  and I have no idea what the title refers to or what the movie is about, but maybe you can figure it out. I don't know. It's Friday.

       

Sorry New York and L.A. (and Other Cities), No More CBS (or Showtime) for a While

Some troubling news: If you're a Time Warner Cable subscriber in New York City or Los Angeles (or Dallas or Boston or Denver or Detroit or Chicago or Pittsburgh) — as many people in New York and presumably LA (and Dallas and Boston and Denver and Detroit and Chicago and Pittsburgh) are — unfortunately you might be without CBS and Showtime (and several other CBS-related channels) for a while. Time Warner and CBS are locked in a dispute over transmission fees that, because an agreement wasn't reached by 5 p.m. EDT today, has resulted in Time Warner Cable temporarily ceasing service. So. How about that.

This means that, if things aren't resolved over the weekend, we (us unlucky TWC customers) won't get a new Dexter or Ray Donovan on Sunday. Which is too bad, to be sure. But, far more importantly and more distressingly, we won't be getting a new Under the Dome on Monday! No dome?? What are we going to do with #dome? It's the most important part of our week! And now we're expected to just sit, clueless as to what's happening to Dodee and that damn dome, while everyone else enjoys another adventure under said dome? It just doesn't seem fair. This had better be resolved before Monday night or there will be hell to pay. Hell meaning calling Time Warner to complain and then sadly retreating when they oh-so-gently remind us that our only other option in our area is satellite and, y'know, sometimes we like to watch TV on cloudy days. Sigh. We'll miss you, dome. But there's nothing to be done.

       

America's Top Colleges Face Tough Questions Over Sexual Misconduct

This week, Yale released its fourth semi-annual Complaints of Sexual Misconduct Report. Six students were found guilty of "nonconsensual sex," but none were expelled. Only one student was suspended. This report comes after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, which fined the university $155,000 for failing to properly report all sexual violence crimes in 2011. 

Yale students and alumni are upset because they feel the university hasn't done enough to impose stricter sanctions on offenders since the investigation. Alexandra Brodsky, a 2012 Yale grad and current Yale Law student, filed one of the complaints that led to the 2011 investigation. After reading the university's report this week, she tweeted, 

In Sept I'm returning to a campus where, just like when I was a freshman, rape is addressed with "written reprimands" http://t.co/CouiVoMGUT

— Alexandra Brodsky (@azbrodsky) August 1, 2013

The university has consistently been in the press the past few years for problems relating to sexual assault and intimidation, leading the OCR to investigate Yale's "hostile sexual environment." In 2010, fraternity members famously yelled misogynistic and threatening chants outside freshmen women's dorms. That fraternity was ultimately banned from campus for five years. 

Another prestigious university is currently under investigation for similar issues. The OCR announced earlier in July that it would investigate Swarthmore College administrators for allegedly mishandling cases of sexual assault, underreporting statistics, and retaliating against students who reported sexual assault. In light of the investigation, college president Rebecca Chopp announced a series of policy revisions to make students feel safer on campus. She also made personnel changes. Tom Elverson, the alcohol education and intervention specialist and Greek liaison, had his job eliminated by the university. He was responsible for handling some complaints involving fraternity members and allegedly allowed his fraternity allegiance to influence how he handled those complaints. 

Mia Ferguson, a Swarthmore student and one of the complainants that pushed for the OCR investigation, told The Huffington Post, "having the OCR investigate is validation that violations are occurring at Swarthmore." 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Occidental College, and the University of Southern California are also currently under investigation by the OCR for creating hostile environments for sexual assault victims. These investigations, like Swarthmore's and Yale's, were sparked by student complaints.

Dartmouth College is currently under investigation by the OCR not because students complained (though they did), but because the OCR decided to launch an investigation on its own. The OCR has not said what sparked the investigation. In April, Dartmouth administrators cancelled classes for a day after students protesting the university's culture of sexual violence received rape threats from other students. 

Photo by Pete Spiro via Shutterstock.