newyorker--2020-05-06--Florian Schneider-Esleben, of Kraftwerk, Took Music to Uncharted Territory

Florian Schneider-Esleben , one half of the German electronic band Kraftwerk , died from complications of cancer , a few days after his seventy-third birthday .
Schneider-Esleben was famously enigmatic—obscure in a mischievous and impish way—and he had not performed live with Kraftwerk since 2006 .
( He left the band in 2008 . )
Until Sony Music , the band ’ s label , confirmed Schneider-Esleben ’ s death on Wednesday morning , many of his fans didn ’ t know he was sick at all .
There ’ s something perversely comforting about otherworldly figures departing this astral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a loss than a kind of reclamation : stardust to stardust .
In 1970 , an era in which the guitar was still understood as the primary medium for masculine emoting , Schneider-Esleben and his musical partner , Ralf Huetter , founded the Kling Klang Studio , in Düsseldorf , and started Kraftwerk , a musical project that relied on tape finagling , aggressive overdubbing , and the deliberate manipulation of traditional instrumentation via oddball electronic devices .
Their first two releases— “ Kraftwerk , ” from 1970 , and “ Kraftwerk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bizarre experimental rock records .
Already , the band was fusing a kind of primal , proto-punk insouciance with a more measured and cerebral approach to music-making .
In many ways , this remains Kraftwerk ’ s most remarkable achievement : writing songs that somehow sound both careful and totally brazen .
By 1974 , when Kraftwerk released its fourth album , “ Autobahn , ” Schneider-Esleben and Huetter had acquired a small arsenal of analog synthesizers , including the Minimoog , the ARP Odyssey , the EMS Synthi AKS , the Farfisa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mysterious , bespoke machines that made damp and repetitive drum sounds .
I didn ’ t hear “ Autobahn ” for the first time until twenty-some years after its release—by then , what Kraftwerk had invented had trickled down , generously informing two decades of popular music .
But the album still felt revelatory , if not insane .
“ Wir fahren , fahren , fahren auf der Autobahn , ” Huetter sings in a quiet , almost deadpan voice .
“ Autobahn ” is the first Kraftwerk song to feature lyrics ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an early Vocoder .
“ We drive , drive , drive on the highway.
” I can ’ t think of another song that better approximates the soft , giddy feeling of something new suddenly opening up .
The song ’ s first few movements—the album version is almost twenty-three minutes , in total—make me feel as if I have just crested a long hill .
Kraftwerk wrote often about motion—the band was interested in ideas of repetition , inertia , speed—which might be part of why its records feel so transporting .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ briefly depart Earth , I say cue up “ Autobahn , ” close your eyes , and prepare to gently dissociate .
Kraftwerk would release six more albums between 1974 and 2003 , including “ Trans-Europe Express ” and “ The Man-Machine , ” idiosyncratic masterpieces that continue to resonate broadly and deeply .
It ’ s difficult to imagine whole genres of popular music—New Wave , techno , industrial , hip-hop—existing without Kraftwerk ’ s blueprint .
Once a person starts attempting to untangle the band ’ s legacy , it becomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop .
Kraftwerk ’ s studio albums have been sampled liberally ( by Jay-Z , Afrika Bambaataa , Coldplay ) , but its influence feels even more diffuse and profound .
Artists such as David Bowie , Madonna , Kanye West , Radiohead , Nine Inch Nails , Iggy Pop , Joy Division , Depeche Mode , Daft Punk , Björk , even Ariana Grande—anyone who has plugged in a keyboard , or downloaded a sample , or electronically massaged a bit of sound—owe a considerable debt to the band ’ s audacious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it both erased and highlighted the chasm between a computer and a human being .
In 2014 , when Kraftwerk received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys , the Recording Academy described the band ’ s music as sounding “ as mechanized as a Ford assembly plant.
” Most of Kraftwerk ’ s songs relied heavily on drum machines and centered around repetitive , sometimes mesmeric beats .
There might be a familiar sound mixed in ( some flute , a guitar , violin ) , but , then again , maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even now , how much of Kraftwerk ’ s music was unprecedented .
Refining some established mode—working carefully to extend a history—is , of course , a lovely and valid way to make art .
But there ’ s something heroic about disregarding history and inventing an entirely new path .
It ’ s hard enough to see uncharted territory , let alone set forth into it—who wouldn ’ t admire the guts required ?
There is a video of Kraftwerk appearing live on television , in October , 1978 .
The band—a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shirts , black neckties , and charcoal-gray slacks , with white face makeup and dark lipstick .
They ’ re positioned in front of synthesizers , and are standing so perfectly still that , at first , it seems as if they are mannequins .
Huetter is the first to move , then Schneider-Esleben .
“ We are the robots , ” they sing , rolling the “ R ” s .
The performance is an extraordinary bit of theatre—funny , weird , transfixing , prescient .
It is especially wild to consider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apex of disco in America , a year in which the Bee Gees ’ “ Night Fever ” was lodged at No .
1 for eight weeks , and teen-agers everywhere were memorizing the soundtrack to “ Grease.
” Schneider-Esleben holds what looks like a flute , but he never raises it to his lips .
The band returns for a second performance , of “ Radio-Activity.
” Again , they barely move their bodies .
The idea that what makes music powerful is rawness or performing it with humanity—well , that suddenly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the camera zooms in on some kind of gauge .
It takes a moment for a viewer to understand what she has just beheld .

Florian Schneider-Esleben, one half of the German electronic band Kraftwerk, died from complications of cancer, a few days after his seventy-third birthday. Schneider-Esleben was famously enigmatic—obscure in a mischievous and impish way—and he had not performed live with Kraftwerk since 2006. (He left the band in 2008.) Until Sony Music, the band’s label, confirmed Schneider-Esleben’s death on Wednesday morning, many of his fans didn’t know he was sick at all.
There’s something perversely comforting about otherworldly figures departing this astral plane without warning. It feels less like a loss than a kind of reclamation: stardust to stardust. In 1970, an era in which the guitar was still understood as the primary medium for masculine emoting, Schneider-Esleben and his musical partner, Ralf Huetter, founded the Kling Klang Studio, in Düsseldorf, and started Kraftwerk, a musical project that relied on tape finagling, aggressive overdubbing, and the deliberate manipulation of traditional instrumentation via oddball electronic devices. Their first two releases—“Kraftwerk,” from 1970, and “Kraftwerk 2,” from 1972—are gorgeous and bizarre experimental rock records. Already, the band was fusing a kind of primal, proto-punk insouciance with a more measured and cerebral approach to music-making. In many ways, this remains Kraftwerk’s most remarkable achievement: writing songs that somehow sound both careful and totally brazen.
By 1974, when Kraftwerk released its fourth album, “Autobahn,” Schneider-Esleben and Huetter had acquired a small arsenal of analog synthesizers, including the Minimoog, the ARP Odyssey, the EMS Synthi AKS, the Farfisa Professional Piano, and a gaggle of mysterious, bespoke machines that made damp and repetitive drum sounds. I didn’t hear “Autobahn” for the first time until twenty-some years after its release—by then, what Kraftwerk had invented had trickled down, generously informing two decades of popular music. But the album still felt revelatory, if not insane. “Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn,” Huetter sings in a quiet, almost deadpan voice. “Autobahn” is the first Kraftwerk song to feature lyrics; Huetter’s vocals are processed through an early Vocoder. “We drive, drive, drive on the highway.”
I can’t think of another song that better approximates the soft, giddy feeling of something new suddenly opening up. The song’s first few movements—the album version is almost twenty-three minutes, in total—make me feel as if I have just crested a long hill. Kraftwerk wrote often about motion—the band was interested in ideas of repetition, inertia, speed—which might be part of why its records feel so transporting. To anyone who feels a desire to briefly depart Earth, I say cue up “Autobahn,” close your eyes, and prepare to gently dissociate.
Kraftwerk would release six more albums between 1974 and 2003, including “Trans-Europe Express” and “The Man-Machine,” idiosyncratic masterpieces that continue to resonate broadly and deeply. It’s difficult to imagine whole genres of popular music—New Wave, techno, industrial, hip-hop—existing without Kraftwerk’s blueprint. Once a person starts attempting to untangle the band’s legacy, it becomes hard to know when and where to stop. Kraftwerk’s studio albums have been sampled liberally (by Jay-Z, Afrika Bambaataa, Coldplay), but its influence feels even more diffuse and profound. Artists such as David Bowie, Madonna, Kanye West, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Iggy Pop, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Björk, even Ariana Grande—anyone who has plugged in a keyboard, or downloaded a sample, or electronically massaged a bit of sound—owe a considerable debt to the band’s audacious use of synthesizers, and the way it both erased and highlighted the chasm between a computer and a human being.
It’s striking, even now, how much of Kraftwerk’s music was unprecedented. Photograph by Koh Hasebe / Getty
In 2014, when Kraftwerk received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, the Recording Academy described the band’s music as sounding “as mechanized as a Ford assembly plant.” Most of Kraftwerk’s songs relied heavily on drum machines and centered around repetitive, sometimes mesmeric beats. There might be a familiar sound mixed in (some flute, a guitar, violin), but, then again, maybe not. It’s striking, even now, how much of Kraftwerk’s music was unprecedented. Refining some established mode—working carefully to extend a history—is, of course, a lovely and valid way to make art. But there’s something heroic about disregarding history and inventing an entirely new path. It’s hard enough to see uncharted territory, let alone set forth into it—who wouldn’t admire the guts required?
There is a video of Kraftwerk appearing live on television, in October, 1978. The band—a quartet at that point—is dressed in red shirts, black neckties, and charcoal-gray slacks, with white face makeup and dark lipstick. They’re positioned in front of synthesizers, and are standing so perfectly still that, at first, it seems as if they are mannequins. Huetter is the first to move, then Schneider-Esleben. “We are the robots,” they sing, rolling the “R”s. The performance is an extraordinary bit of theatre—funny, weird, transfixing, prescient. It is especially wild to consider it in its proper context—1978 was the apex of disco in America, a year in which the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” was lodged at No. 1 for eight weeks, and teen-agers everywhere were memorizing the soundtrack to “Grease.” Schneider-Esleben holds what looks like a flute, but he never raises it to his lips. The band returns for a second performance, of “Radio-Activity.” Again, they barely move their bodies. The idea that what makes music powerful is rawness or performing it with humanity—well, that suddenly feels irrelevant. The song fades out as the camera zooms in on some kind of gauge. It takes a moment for a viewer to understand what she has just beheld.


newyorker--2020-05-06--A Fair Examination of the Allegations Against Joe Biden Can Strengthen the #MeToo Movement

A truth that burst into public view with # MeToo in 2017 was that sexual exploitation in its many forms has been ubiquitous and experienced largely by women .
So anyone following the story of # MeToo could hardly find it shocking that , after a promising primary season with a record number of excellent female candidates , the first Presidential election since the movement ’ s rise has come down to a race between two men who have both been accused of sexual assault .
Tara Reade has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her twenty-seven years ago , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unwanted touching .
More than a dozen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault and misconduct , and he has bragged on tape about grabbing women ’ s genitals .
It is unlikely that the Democratic Party will abandon their only candidate who remains in the race , and who leads Trump in polls .
So many liberals , who are justifiably desperate to turn the page on the horrors of Trump ’ s Presidency , are grasping at the world of difference between Trump and Biden—and viewing Reade ’ s sexual-assault @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allowed in recent times .
This moment may prove to be a pivotal chapter of # MeToo , which marks its more mature reckoning with its deeper goals .
And , in fact , there is a no more fitting person to embody that development than Biden , whose long career has repeatedly positioned him at the levers of power in the government ’ s responses to sexual violence .
Biden ’ s caresses of the faces , heads , necks , shoulders , arms , and hair of women and girls have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ front of cameras .
Last year , Reade was one of several women who came forward to say that Biden ’ s touching and kissing were unwelcome , after which Biden acknowledged that “ social norms have begun to change ” and promised to be “ more mindful and respectful of people ’ s personal space.
” Then , in March , Reade went public with her allegation that , when she was a staff assistant in Biden ’ s Senate office , in 1993 , he pinned her against a wall in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her , and penetrated her with his fingers .
Reade says that she told Biden ’ s staff about unwanted touching and , after receiving no response , filed a complaint with the Senate personnel office .
She alleges that Biden ’ s staff retaliated against her by taking away many of her responsibilities and soon asking her to leave .
Some aspects of Reade ’ s story have been corroborated by several friends , her brother , and her late mother , who called in to “ Larry King Live ” in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on unspecified “ problems ” while working for a “ prominent senator.
” Biden ’ s staffers have said that they have no recollection of the incident .
Last Friday , Biden went on MSNBC to deny Reade ’ s claim , stating , “ It never happened.
” At the same time , Biden has played a major role in expanding protections against sexual assault .
In the years before # MeToo , Biden ’ s signature project as Vice-President was the federal government ’ s overhaul of the handling of sexual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ IX .
Biden ’ s high-profile leadership helped fuel sweeping reforms that were intended to make it easier for victims to report assaults and to receive support and vindication .
In 2014 , Biden announced the creation of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and called fighting violence against women “ the passion of my life.
” Two decades earlier , Biden had authored the Violence Against Women Act , which expanded penalties for gender-based crime and funded law enforcement , prevention programs , and women ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his “ proudest legislative accomplishment.
” But three years before that , in 1991 , Biden was at the helm of perhaps the most infamously botched treatment of a sexual-harassment allegation—the Senate hearing on Clarence Thomas ’ s nomination to the Supreme Court .
Biden was then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and directed the hearing ; his handling of Anita Hill ’ s allegations looks worse year after year .
Biden failed to call witnesses who could have corroborated Hill ’ s allegations ; he also allowed Republican senators to attack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among other things , if she was “ a scorned woman.
” On Sunday , Reade told Fox News that seeing Biden and other senators mistreat Hill deterred her from reporting her own assault to the police in 1993 .
( Reade filed a police report about Biden ’ s alleged criminal conduct earlier this month , in Washington , D.C .
The police declared it “ inactive ” because of the statute of limitations . )
Last year , after Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh ’ s nomination revived memories of Hill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the 1991 debacle and vowed “ to see to it that we basically change the culture in this country , where a woman is put in a position that she is disbelieved.
” Last Friday , MSNBC ’ s Mika Brzezinski read back to Biden his own statement from 2018 about Christine Blasey Ford ’ s claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades earlier : “ For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus nationally , you ’ ve got to start off with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what she is talking about is real , whether or not she forgets the facts , whether or not it ’ s been made worse or better over time.
” Brzezinski asked whether that means Reade should be believed now .
Biden responded that “ believing women means taking the woman ’ s claim seriously when she steps forward , and then vet it .
Look into it.
” Biden may still have to account for his previous endorsement of a “ presumption ” in an accuser ’ s favor , which goes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he may implicitly rely now .
Complicating the situation for Biden , on Wednesday , Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued Title IX regulations requiring that campus sexual-misconduct proceedings use a “ presumption of non-responsibility , ” turning away from Title IX reforms that Biden himself led .
He will , of course , be called upon to condemn DeVos ’ s regulations , but in doing so might suggest that his own accuser ’ s claims shouldn ’ t be subjected to rigorous questioning , or that other accused people shouldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an accusation ’ s credibility that might help save his candidacy .
We will likely never know what occurred between Reade and Biden twenty-seven years ago .
What we do have are some forms of corroboration or the absence of it , and judgments about character and credibility that may meet one ’ s thresholds for belief .
Liberals largely believed Ford against Kavanaugh in 2018 , based on her earnest , vulnerable , and accommodating demeanor , in contrast to his evasive testimony and alarming displays of fury—or they believed that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was enough to tip the scales against his confirmation .
Senate Republicans did not believe her—or they believed that Kavanaugh ’ s behavior as a teen-ager was less weighty in the larger scheme than other factors favoring his appointment to the Supreme Court .
The claims against Kavanaugh and Biden both suffer from their age , but there are differences between them .
Ford ’ s description of the incident remained consistent throughout , while lacking some details , including the precise location where the alleged assault occurred .
Four individuals signed sworn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later about the assault .
Reade has changed her story in the past year , at first alleging only that Biden touched her neck and saying that she had not been sexually assaulted .
Several people have said that Reade told them aspects of her story , but those accounts vary .
In all , based on available evidence , Reade ’ s allegation is somewhat less credible than Ford ’ s .
This could change : Reade ’ s story could be bolstered or undermined by her own testimony or other evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calculation that is similar to the one Republicans faced during Kavanaugh ’ s confirmation .
They may choose to disbelieve Reade , or they may accept the possibility that her story is true .
If , after further investigation , a state of uncertainty remains , they could advocate for throwing over the presumed nominee , or determine that the possibility of Biden having committed the assault that Reade describes is less weighty than the exigencies of winning the White House .

Joe Biden, who is now facing his own sexual-assault allegation, sits during the Clarence Thomas Senate Judiciary hearings. Photograph by Laura Patterson / CQ Roll Call / Getty
A truth that burst into public view with #MeToo in 2017 was that sexual exploitation in its many forms has been ubiquitous and experienced largely by women. So anyone following the story of #MeToo could hardly find it shocking that, after a promising primary season with a record number of excellent female candidates, the first Presidential election since the movement’s rise has come down to a race between two men who have both been accused of sexual assault. Tara Reade has accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her twenty-seven years ago, and several women have accused him of unwanted touching. More than a dozen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual assault and misconduct, and he has bragged on tape about grabbing women’s genitals. It is unlikely that the Democratic Party will abandon their only candidate who remains in the race, and who leads Trump in polls. So many liberals, who are justifiably desperate to turn the page on the horrors of Trump’s Presidency, are grasping at the world of difference between Trump and Biden—and viewing Reade’s sexual-assault allegation more skeptically than #MeToo has allowed in recent times. This moment may prove to be a pivotal chapter of #MeToo, which marks its more mature reckoning with its deeper goals. And, in fact, there is a no more fitting person to embody that development than Biden, whose long career has repeatedly positioned him at the levers of power in the government’s responses to sexual violence.
Biden’s caresses of the faces, heads, necks, shoulders, arms, and hair of women and girls have often been in plain view, in front of cameras. Last year, Reade was one of several women who came forward to say that Biden’s touching and kissing were unwelcome, after which Biden acknowledged that “social norms have begun to change” and promised to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.” Then, in March, Reade went public with her allegation that, when she was a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office, in 1993, he pinned her against a wall in a Senate-building corridor, kissed and groped her, and penetrated her with his fingers. Reade says that she told Biden’s staff about unwanted touching and, after receiving no response, filed a complaint with the Senate personnel office. She alleges that Biden’s staff retaliated against her by taking away many of her responsibilities and soon asking her to leave. Some aspects of Reade’s story have been corroborated by several friends, her brother, and her late mother, who called in to “Larry King Live” in 1993 about her daughter’s silence on unspecified “problems” while working for a “prominent senator.” Biden’s staffers have said that they have no recollection of the incident. Last Friday, Biden went on MSNBC to deny Reade’s claim, stating, “It never happened.”
At the same time, Biden has played a major role in expanding protections against sexual assault. In the years before #MeToo, Biden’s signature project as Vice-President was the federal government’s overhaul of the handling of sexual assault at colleges and universities under Title IX. Biden’s high-profile leadership helped fuel sweeping reforms that were intended to make it easier for victims to report assaults and to receive support and vindication. In 2014, Biden announced the creation of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault and called fighting violence against women “the passion of my life.” Two decades earlier, Biden had authored the Violence Against Women Act, which expanded penalties for gender-based crime and funded law enforcement, prevention programs, and women’s shelters. He has described it as his “proudest legislative accomplishment.”
But three years before that, in 1991, Biden was at the helm of perhaps the most infamously botched treatment of a sexual-harassment allegation—the Senate hearing on Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Biden was then the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and directed the hearing; his handling of Anita Hill’s allegations looks worse year after year. Biden failed to call witnesses who could have corroborated Hill’s allegations; he also allowed Republican senators to attack her relentlessly; they asked her, among other things, if she was “a scorned woman.” On Sunday, Reade told Fox News that seeing Biden and other senators mistreat Hill deterred her from reporting her own assault to the police in 1993. (Reade filed a police report about Biden’s alleged criminal conduct earlier this month, in Washington, D.C. The police declared it “inactive” because of the statute of limitations.)
Last year, after Senate hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination revived memories of Hill’s mistreatment, Biden took responsibility for the 1991 debacle and vowed “to see to it that we basically change the culture in this country, where a woman is put in a position that she is disbelieved.” Last Friday, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski read back to Biden his own statement from 2018 about Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her more than three decades earlier: “For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she is talking about is real, whether or not she forgets the facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time.” Brzezinski asked whether that means Reade should be believed now. Biden responded that “believing women means taking the woman’s claim seriously when she steps forward, and then vet it. Look into it.” Biden may still have to account for his previous endorsement of a “presumption” in an accuser’s favor, which goes against the presumption of innocence on which he may implicitly rely now. Complicating the situation for Biden, on Wednesday, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued Title IX regulations requiring that campus sexual-misconduct proceedings use a “presumption of non-responsibility,” turning away from Title IX reforms that Biden himself led. He will, of course, be called upon to condemn DeVos’s regulations, but in doing so might suggest that his own accuser’s claims shouldn’t be subjected to rigorous questioning, or that other accused people shouldn’t benefit from the thorough examination of an accusation’s credibility that might help save his candidacy.
We will likely never know what occurred between Reade and Biden twenty-seven years ago. What we do have are some forms of corroboration or the absence of it, and judgments about character and credibility that may meet one’s thresholds for belief. Liberals largely believed Ford against Kavanaugh in 2018, based on her earnest, vulnerable, and accommodating demeanor, in contrast to his evasive testimony and alarming displays of fury—or they believed that the combination of her claims and his intemperance was enough to tip the scales against his confirmation. Senate Republicans did not believe her—or they believed that Kavanaugh’s behavior as a teen-ager was less weighty in the larger scheme than other factors favoring his appointment to the Supreme Court.
The claims against Kavanaugh and Biden both suffer from their age, but there are differences between them. Ford’s description of the incident remained consistent throughout, while lacking some details, including the precise location where the alleged assault occurred. Four individuals signed sworn affidavits saying that Ford told them decades later about the assault. Reade has changed her story in the past year, at first alleging only that Biden touched her neck and saying that she had not been sexually assaulted. Several people have said that Reade told them aspects of her story, but those accounts vary. In all, based on available evidence, Reade’s allegation is somewhat less credible than Ford’s. This could change: Reade’s story could be bolstered or undermined by her own testimony or other evidence. Regardless, Democrats now face a calculation that is similar to the one Republicans faced during Kavanaugh’s confirmation. They may choose to disbelieve Reade, or they may accept the possibility that her story is true. If, after further investigation, a state of uncertainty remains, they could advocate for throwing over the presumed nominee, or determine that the possibility of Biden having committed the assault that Reade describes is less weighty than the exigencies of winning the White House.
The question of whom to believe implicates a key slogan associated with #MeToo: “Believe women.” Some may have taken it to mean, literally, “Always believe women alleging sexual misconduct.” I have not, and I don’t imagine many other #MeToo proponents have, because the idea is so obviously untenable for a social-justice movement that cares for truth and nondiscrimination. Though Biden has previously been reticent on the due-process part of the equation, his current formulation—that “believing women means taking the woman’s claim seriously when she steps forward, and then vet it”—is a good one. Reade’s claim, however, like many, is not easy to vet. The written complaint that she allegedly filed in the Senate may not turn up now, more than twenty-five years later; the Senate Legal Counsel has rejected Biden’s request to search for it. Even if the complaint were found, Reade told the Associated Press that it didn’t mention sexual assault or the term “harassment.” The shift in Reade’s allegations, from uncomfortable touching to forcible penetration, may be troubling, but it is also plausible that it might take more time to muster the courage to disclose an allegation of violent assault than to discuss a less serious harm.
Given that Reade’s claim will not be heard in a court, the Senate chamber, a campus disciplinary proceeding, or even a human-resources department, it has so far fallen on journalists to investigate and report on it. But, as Ben Smith wrote in the Times, mainstream television outlets have dragged their feet in hearing Reade out on camera, in a replay of how Juanita Broaddrick wasn’t heard out on her 1999 allegation that Bill Clinton had raped her decades earlier. Last week, after Chris Hayes covered Reade’s allegation on MSNBC, backlash from the left caused #FireChrisHayes to trend on Twitter. Reade then cancelled a scheduled on-air interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News last weekend, citing death threats.


newyorker--2020-05-06--What to Read and Stream: The Remarkable Out-of-Print Book That Inspired “42nd Street”

“ 42nd Street ” rescued the musical genre , which had been done to death in the early days of talking pictures .
With three spectacular production numbers , the film captured the first full flowering of Busby Berkeley ’ s geometrical and symbolic , and macabre and erotic , imagination .
But for the bulk of the movie , “ 42nd Street ” is a dramatic comedy of backstage life , chronicling the making of a Broadway musical called “ Pretty Lady.
” “ 42nd Street , ” which was released in 1933 , is a Depression story , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jones and Barry , somehow get the money to hire the visionary director Julian Marsh ( Warner Baxter ) to stage their show .
With the help of a dance director named Andy Lee ( George E. Stone ) , he assembles a chorus that features the naïve young newcomer and top-flight tap dancer Peggy Sawyer ( Ruby Keeler ) .
When the Broadway grande dame Dorothy Brock ( Bebe Daniels ) , who ’ s supposed to head the cast , drunkenly breaks an ankle the night before the opening , Peggy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the lead role , and her triumph ( as seen in the Berkeley numbers ) marks the show as a hit .
This story , scripted by Rian James and James Seymour , is based on a novel by Bradford Ropes , published in 1932 , and long out of print .
It has apparently never been reprinted : I stumbled upon a cheap copy at the Strand three years ago , but other copies sell on eBay for four hundred and ninety-nine dollars and more .
( It ’ s also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ read my copy until recently , when TCM announced a daylong tap-dance series , on May 11th , in which the movie is featured .
( The movie is also streaming on a variety of services . )
Though the novel is satisfyingly plotted and page-turningly suspenseful , Ropes ’ s sense of prose ranges from awkward to purple , his sense of psychology is simple , and his view of context and power of analysis are stunted .
Nonetheless , the book is fascinating , because it reads less like a novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of New York ’ s theatre people and , above all , about the practicalities , the personalities , and the sexual politics that go into the making of a show .
In the sharpness of its incidents and the variety of its copious dialogue , it brings the era and the milieu to life in a way that no movie I ’ ve ever watched and no nonfiction account I ’ ve ever read has done ; it the ring of authenticity , the force of direct observation and conversation .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making her début , but she ’ s not naïve , as she is in the film : Ropes presents her as a New England minister ’ s daughter , sensible and principled , who—unlike the movie character—isn ’ t much of a dancer but possesses an air of unpretentious natural dignity and cultivation that distinguishes her from the run of hard-boiled “ hoofers ” dancing alongside her in the chorus .
( She ’ s also determined and assertive behind the scenes , to great dramatic effect , in a way that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is . )
Ropes is keenly sensitive to the fate of young women like Peggy struggling to make their way in the theatre .
He depicts the casual pawings and salacious remarks and wolf whistles to which women are subject , and shows women pressured into sex with male directors and producers as a prerequisite—but no guarantee—for promotions .
He ’ s also aware of the supporting role that women were expected to play in private , as in a comedic scene comparing Peggy ’ s dates with two admirers : Pat—in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ’ s down on his luck , but here a rarely cast straggler and a gigolo , a self-described “ male whore ” —frames glorious and luxurious dreams of European travel and graceful leisure .
Terry , a tough-talking yet tender-hearted dancer , dissects the production and its players in coarse but discerning terms .
Peggy ’ s dialogue in both sequences , meanwhile , is reduced to “ Yes , Pat ” and “ Yes , Terry.
” The dance director of the musical , Andy Lee , is a serial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his employ—and Peggy is warned about him by two women who are veterans of the chorus and who befriend her ( their whisper network is a crucial form of solidarity ) .
One of them advises her that it ’ s safe to accept his invitation to lunch but not to dinner : “ ‘ But can ’ t a girl eat supper with a man without becoming immoral ?
’ Peggy inquired .
‘ She probably can , but it isn ’ t worth the trouble because no one will believe her.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the other experienced chorus member tells Peggy , “ I always see the shadow of an abortion hanging over every corsage I pin to my swelling bosom.
” ) Later , another actress talks of Andy ’ s conquests : Yet Andy is presented as a notable figure of paradox—a skillful and original dance director , despite his crude ways , who was formerly renowned as “ probably the greatest dancer the Ghetto had produced ” ( the “ Ghetto ” is the Lower East Side ) .
A scene of Andy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cultural appropriation that was at the core of American popular theatre at the time , as “ he simulated the slow writhing dance of the Harlem negro ” —along with the implicit condescension that the artful imitation entailed .
“ The slouch , the gaucherie of the Negro were reproduced to perfection .
Each gesture of body and arms was one of a series of details which made the dance a masterpiece.
” In the novel , the producers of “ Pretty Lady ” are Abe Green and Si Friedman , whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ throughout .
Julian Marsh , the “ Pretty Lady ” director—not a tough-talking American , as in the movie , but an Oxford aesthete—is also involved romantically with a member of the company : Billy Lawler , the “ juvenile ” lead .
The novel suggests that he got his role only because of his relationship with Marsh , whom he holds in the grip of erotic passion and , as a result , is able to manipulate into firing other young gay men in the company .
( This relationship , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Winslow , who ’ s openly gay and describes himself , at a drunken cast party , as “ a great big gorgeous camp , ” have given the novel a place among several works from American gay literary history . )
Part of the appeal of the movie adaptation of “ 42nd Street ” is its emphasis on the Depression as the reason for the obstacles to financing “ Pretty Lady ” and the poverty that struggling actors are enduring .
Ropes ’ s “ 42nd Street , ” however , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the Depression but in the Roaring Twenties ( seemingly around 1926 or 1927 ) , when the stock market was still a path to easy money and “ Scott Fitzgerald ” is cited as the cynosure of the high life .
Yet it ’ s a novel of poverty , of widespread economic despair—in the milieu of actors—at a time of over-all prosperity .
The novel ’ s characters live from payday to payday , with long layoffs between gigs and a constant fear of eviction and literal starvation ; keeping food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a literal and constant concern—and many of the young actors live in residential hotels in the Times Square area , with no kitchen , eating out for all their meals .
A pair of young actors and roommates , Terry Neill and Harry Towne , have seventy-five cents between them .
“ I ’ m sick o ’ the Automat , ” Terry says .
“ Well , suppose we crash the Ritz , ” Harry responds .

“42nd Street” rescued the musical genre, which had been done to death in the early days of talking pictures. With three spectacular production numbers, the film captured the first full flowering of Busby Berkeley’s geometrical and symbolic, and macabre and erotic, imagination. But for the bulk of the movie, “42nd Street” is a dramatic comedy of backstage life, chronicling the making of a Broadway musical called “Pretty Lady.” “42nd Street,” which was released in 1933, is a Depression story, in which a pair of producers, Jones and Barry, somehow get the money to hire the visionary director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) to stage their show. With the help of a dance director named Andy Lee (George E. Stone), he assembles a chorus that features the naïve young newcomer and top-flight tap dancer Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler). When the Broadway grande dame Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels), who’s supposed to head the cast, drunkenly breaks an ankle the night before the opening, Peggy is plucked from the chorus and thrust into the lead role, and her triumph (as seen in the Berkeley numbers) marks the show as a hit.
This story, scripted by Rian James and James Seymour, is based on a novel by Bradford Ropes, published in 1932, and long out of print. It has apparently never been reprinted: I stumbled upon a cheap copy at the Strand three years ago, but other copies sell on eBay for four hundred and ninety-nine dollars and more. (It’s also online.) I’d never read my copy until recently, when TCM announced a daylong tap-dance series, on May 11th, in which the movie is featured. (The movie is also streaming on a variety of services.) Though the novel is satisfyingly plotted and page-turningly suspenseful, Ropes’s sense of prose ranges from awkward to purple, his sense of psychology is simple, and his view of context and power of analysis are stunted. Nonetheless, the book is fascinating, because it reads less like a novel than like a documentary about the lives of New York’s theatre people and, above all, about the practicalities, the personalities, and the sexual politics that go into the making of a show. In the sharpness of its incidents and the variety of its copious dialogue, it brings the era and the milieu to life in a way that no movie I’ve ever watched and no nonfiction account I’ve ever read has done; it the ring of authenticity, the force of direct observation and conversation.
In the novel, Peggy is a newcomer making her début, but she’s not naïve, as she is in the film: Ropes presents her as a New England minister’s daughter, sensible and principled, who—unlike the movie character—isn’t much of a dancer but possesses an air of unpretentious natural dignity and cultivation that distinguishes her from the run of hard-boiled “hoofers” dancing alongside her in the chorus. (She’s also determined and assertive behind the scenes, to great dramatic effect, in a way that the movie’s deer-in-the-headlights innocent never is.) Ropes is keenly sensitive to the fate of young women like Peggy struggling to make their way in the theatre. He depicts the casual pawings and salacious remarks and wolf whistles to which women are subject, and shows women pressured into sex with male directors and producers as a prerequisite—but no guarantee—for promotions. He’s also aware of the supporting role that women were expected to play in private, as in a comedic scene comparing Peggy’s dates with two admirers: Pat—in the movie an earnest actor and honorable gentleman who’s down on his luck, but here a rarely cast straggler and a gigolo, a self-described “male whore”—frames glorious and luxurious dreams of European travel and graceful leisure. Terry, a tough-talking yet tender-hearted dancer, dissects the production and its players in coarse but discerning terms. Peggy’s dialogue in both sequences, meanwhile, is reduced to “Yes, Pat” and “Yes, Terry.”
The dance director of the musical, Andy Lee, is a serial philanderer who usually targets the women in his employ—and Peggy is warned about him by two women who are veterans of the chorus and who befriend her (their whisper network is a crucial form of solidarity). One of them advises her that it’s safe to accept his invitation to lunch but not to dinner: “ ‘But can’t a girl eat supper with a man without becoming immoral?’ Peggy inquired. ‘She probably can, but it isn’t worth the trouble because no one will believe her.’ ” (In the same scene, the other experienced chorus member tells Peggy, “I always see the shadow of an abortion hanging over every corsage I pin to my swelling bosom.”) Later, another actress talks of Andy’s conquests:
“I hear old Lily Lowbottom, Andy Lee’s girl friend, ran around with Hughes for a while.” “Yeah? When was this?” “Oh, about five abortions ago.”
Yet Andy is presented as a notable figure of paradox—a skillful and original dance director, despite his crude ways, who was formerly renowned as “probably the greatest dancer the Ghetto had produced” (the “Ghetto” is the Lower East Side). A scene of Andy demonstrating a dance suggests, discerningly, the cultural appropriation that was at the core of American popular theatre at the time, as “he simulated the slow writhing dance of the Harlem negro”—along with the implicit condescension that the artful imitation entailed. “The slouch, the gaucherie of the Negro were reproduced to perfection. Each gesture of body and arms was one of a series of details which made the dance a masterpiece.”
In the novel, the producers of “Pretty Lady” are Abe Green and Si Friedman, whose “Semitic” identity Ropes sneers at throughout. Julian Marsh, the “Pretty Lady” director—not a tough-talking American, as in the movie, but an Oxford aesthete—is also involved romantically with a member of the company: Billy Lawler, the “juvenile” lead. The novel suggests that he got his role only because of his relationship with Marsh, whom he holds in the grip of erotic passion and, as a result, is able to manipulate into firing other young gay men in the company. (This relationship, and brief scenes involving another actor, Jack Winslow, who’s openly gay and describes himself, at a drunken cast party, as “a great big gorgeous camp,” have given the novel a place among several works from American gay literary history.)
Part of the appeal of the movie adaptation of “42nd Street” is its emphasis on the Depression as the reason for the obstacles to financing “Pretty Lady” and the poverty that struggling actors are enduring. Ropes’s “42nd Street,” however, is a historical novel—it’s set not during the Depression but in the Roaring Twenties (seemingly around 1926 or 1927), when the stock market was still a path to easy money and “Scott Fitzgerald” is cited as the cynosure of the high life. Yet it’s a novel of poverty, of widespread economic despair—in the milieu of actors—at a time of over-all prosperity. The novel’s characters live from payday to payday, with long layoffs between gigs and a constant fear of eviction and literal starvation; keeping food on the table is no metaphor but a literal and constant concern—and many of the young actors live in residential hotels in the Times Square area, with no kitchen, eating out for all their meals. A pair of young actors and roommates, Terry Neill and Harry Towne, have seventy-five cents between them. “I’m sick o’ the Automat,” Terry says. “Well, suppose we crash the Ritz,” Harry responds.
“42nd Street” is also a novel of Prohibition; it depicts the city awash in alcohol of dubious quality, with flasks and bottles being transported with impunity, speakeasies abounding, and, as a result, gangsters not only proliferating but making inroads into respectable society. The novel is filled with a tangy array of secondary characters, such the veteran vaudevillians Danny and Daisy Moran, whose diverging professional fortunes cause trouble in their marriage, the experienced chorus members Ann Lowell and Flo Perry, a crusty private eye who’s hired by one of Pat’s clients to follow him, and a young contortion dancer named Polly Blair and her tyrannical stage mother, whose machinations play major roles in the plot. There are also fascinating glimpses of some of the city’s various social settings, such as a fancy night club where arrogant young college boys with trust funds condescend to staff and treat chorus girls to fancy dinners, expecting sex in exchange, and the rowdy exuberance of bohemians’ gatherings in Greenwich Village.
Yet the crucial story of the novel is the world of the theatre, the nuts and bolts of rehearsals and stagings, the cultivation of the artistic element by the many personalities who contribute to it, and the hard-nosed practical wiles that it both demands and supplies. Much is made of the division between vaudeville—where actors travel the country on preplanned routes and do their routines three or four times a day—and so-called production, i.e., Broadway, where a company stays put and the actors, instead of doing their own shtick, follow the script and the stage direction, performing a mere eight times a week, and where the greater prestige comes with greater risk: if a play flops, the cast is likely to go unemployed for the rest of the theatrical season. (Ropes also offers noteworthy observations about the differing temperaments of the actors in the two fields.)


newyorker--2020-05-06--Why Stacey Abrams Would Like to Be Vice-President

Last March , before Joe Biden had formally announced his candidacy for President—but not before questions were raised about his prospects in what was certain to be a crowded primary field—his team floated the idea of picking Stacey Abrams as his running mate .
It was a move that seemed to concede that , despite having served eight years as Barack Obama ’ s Vice-President , Biden ’ s appeal to black voters , particularly black female voters , was not guaranteed .
Abrams , who had just narrowly lost a gubernatorial bid in Georgia , in a race that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the most visible and popular Democratic politicians in the country .
But she was reportedly considering her own Presidential bid , or a run for the Senate , and she demurred , noting , memorably , that “ you don ’ t run for second place.
” The ensuing thirteen months have been wildly disruptive and unpredictable even by the standards of the Trump era .
Biden , after listing through the early primaries , surged in South Carolina and the Super Tuesday contests , largely on the strength of African-American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the victor in the Georgia governor ’ s race , has become a target of widespread criticism—including , surprisingly and more than a little hypocritically , from Donald Trump—for his accelerated schedule for reopening the state ’ s businesses , following a stay-at-home order driven by the coronavirus pandemic .
Kemp ’ s plan , Abrams told me last week , was “ dangerously incompetent and deeply callous.
” She added , “ We do not have the testing capacity , we do not have the public-health infrastructure , and we do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now.
” Given this recent history , it is perhaps not surprising that Abrams has become the focus of renewed national attention—or that she has been very publicly conducting what some have termed a “ campaign ” for the same V.P .
slot that she declined last year .
She explained her recent actions to me , saying , “ I ’ m the daughter of two ministers , and I ’ m also a black woman who has had the opportunity to navigate spaces where I am usually the only one .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those things include the importance of speaking up and not being afraid to ask for what you want .
“ I have been brought into this national conversation since last year , ” she said .
“ And , at each phase of the conversation , I always answer directly , because I know that people of color , that young girls , are watching me and how I respond .
My obligation is to be who I am , and to not allow traditions to continue and perpetuate the consequences.
” Nevertheless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Representative William Lacy Clay , a Democrat of Missouri , called Abrams ’ s candor “ inappropriate.
” He added , “ You know , at the race track , you can not show up at the winner ’ s window with loser ’ s tickets .
You haven ’ t won anything .
You can ’ t show up at the winner ’ s window with loser ’ s tickets and demand anything.
” It was a strange criticism , given that the Biden team had been aware of the outcome of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first floated the idea of choosing her .
As Abrams put it to me , “ We need a man who believes in telling Americans the truth and not lying to protect his own ego .
And if the question is , would I be willing to help him not only win an election but to govern ?
Yes .
Because I believe in what he can do for America.
” Biden himself was once accused of blatantly auditioning for the V.P .
slot .
In May , 2008 , President George W. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , criticized politicians who would “ negotiate with terrorists.
” It was a clear shot at Obama , who had said that he would be willing to meet with even unsavory world leaders .
Biden , who had dropped out of the Democratic Presidential primary just a few months earlier , called Bush ’ s comments “ malarkey ” and “ bullshit.
” He later apologized for the scatological reference , but his message was clear : he was advertising that he would handle the more pugilistic aspects of the campaign , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was more subtly highlighting his decades of experience in foreign policy in the Senate as an asset for the comparatively inexperienced Obama .
Abrams is not the only of Biden ’ s potential V.P .
picks to dispatch with coy , noncommittal answers when questions about the job arise .
Representative Val Demings , of Florida , stated outright that she would accept the offer if it was made to her .
Senator Elizabeth Warren affirmed that she would , too , and Senator Kamala Harris said that she would be “ honored @ @ @ @ @ @ @ position of all these women has been complicated , through no fault of their own , by Tara Reade ’ s allegation , in late March , that Biden had sexually assaulted her nearly thirty years ago—a claim that he publicly denied last week .
On Monday , Warren said that she found Biden ’ s denial “ credible and convincing.
” Abrams told CNN , “ I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe they need to be listened to , but I also believe that those allegations have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible .
I believe Joe Biden.
” In fact , the Times did not specify that Reade ’ s claims were not credible , but said that it could not further corroborate them or find any other allegation of sexual assault or a pattern of sexual misconduct on Biden ’ s part .
But it goes without saying that , whichever woman Biden chooses as his running mate—and he has committed to picking a woman—she will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue .
Yet Clay ’ s remarks echoed , albeit harshly , a point commonly made against Abrams ’ s readiness for the Vice-Presidency : she has no experience in statewide office .
( She served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 , and was minority leader for six of those years . )
To the extent that this is a concern for Biden ’ s newly formed V.P.-vetting committee , it compounds the impact of the 2018 governor ’ s race .
Kemp was Georgia ’ s secretary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the campaign—and in that capacity he enacted policies that were widely seen to favor Republicans .
A fair number of Democrats in the state and beyond , including Biden , have said that voter suppression and , particularly , the prodigious removal of black and Latino voters from the state registry are the reason that Abrams is not now governor of Georgia .
If that ’ s true , and if Abrams ’ s lack of a statewide position removes her from consideration for the Vice-Presidential slot , it would mean that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one but two offices in her career .
This would make for a bitter footnote , given how central an issue voter suppression is ahead of the November elections—it is as yet unclear how people in some states will even be able to vote—and has been to Abrams ’ s political work for the past year and a half , primarily through the organization Fair Count .
There are other factors that mitigate—or , at least , complicate—Abrams ’ s suitability for the V.P .
pick .
A key question is her ability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ College votes .
The state has not voted for a Democrat in a Presidential election since 1992 .
But , during an off-year election and despite all the obstacles facing it , Abrams ’ s campaign employed voter-turnout strategies that brought her within fifty-five thousand votes ( out of nearly four million cast ) of becoming Georgia ’ s first black and first female governor .
That performance has been studied by Democratic strategists across the country , and it makes winning Georgia this year a tantalizing prospect—particularly as a hedge against losing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that voted for Trump in 2016 .
Biden currently leads Trump in both Wisconsin and Michigan , and both states have Democratic governors , yet the lesson of the 2016 election is that nothing can be taken for granted .

Last March, before Joe Biden had formally announced his candidacy for President—but not before questions were raised about his prospects in what was certain to be a crowded primary field—his team floated the idea of picking Stacey Abrams as his running mate. It was a move that seemed to concede that, despite having served eight years as Barack Obama’s Vice-President, Biden’s appeal to black voters, particularly black female voters, was not guaranteed. Abrams, who had just narrowly lost a gubernatorial bid in Georgia, in a race that was beset by controversies, had become one of the most visible and popular Democratic politicians in the country. But she was reportedly considering her own Presidential bid, or a run for the Senate, and she demurred, noting, memorably, that “you don’t run for second place.”
The ensuing thirteen months have been wildly disruptive and unpredictable even by the standards of the Trump era. Biden, after listing through the early primaries, surged in South Carolina and the Super Tuesday contests, largely on the strength of African-American support. More recently, Brian Kemp, the victor in the Georgia governor’s race, has become a target of widespread criticism—including, surprisingly and more than a little hypocritically, from Donald Trump—for his accelerated schedule for reopening the state’s businesses, following a stay-at-home order driven by the coronavirus pandemic. Kemp’s plan, Abrams told me last week, was “dangerously incompetent and deeply callous.” She added, “We do not have the testing capacity, we do not have the public-health infrastructure, and we do not have the leadership necessary to reopen now.”
Given this recent history, it is perhaps not surprising that Abrams has become the focus of renewed national attention—or that she has been very publicly conducting what some have termed a “campaign” for the same V.P. slot that she declined last year. She explained her recent actions to me, saying, “I’m the daughter of two ministers, and I’m also a black woman who has had the opportunity to navigate spaces where I am usually the only one. And I understand a few things.” Those things include the importance of speaking up and not being afraid to ask for what you want. “I have been brought into this national conversation since last year,” she said. “And, at each phase of the conversation, I always answer directly, because I know that people of color, that young girls, are watching me and how I respond. My obligation is to be who I am, and to not allow traditions to continue and perpetuate the consequences.”
Nevertheless, on a podcast last week, Representative William Lacy Clay, a Democrat of Missouri, called Abrams’s candor “inappropriate.” He added, “You know, at the race track, you cannot show up at the winner’s window with loser’s tickets. You haven’t won anything. You can’t show up at the winner’s window with loser’s tickets and demand anything.” It was a strange criticism, given that the Biden team had been aware of the outcome of Abrams’s 2018 bid when it first floated the idea of choosing her. As Abrams put it to me, “We need a man who believes in telling Americans the truth and not lying to protect his own ego. And if the question is, would I be willing to help him not only win an election but to govern? Yes. Because I believe in what he can do for America.”
Biden himself was once accused of blatantly auditioning for the V.P. slot. In May, 2008, President George W. Bush, during a visit to Israel, criticized politicians who would “negotiate with terrorists.” It was a clear shot at Obama, who had said that he would be willing to meet with even unsavory world leaders. Biden, who had dropped out of the Democratic Presidential primary just a few months earlier, called Bush’s comments “malarkey” and “bullshit.” He later apologized for the scatological reference, but his message was clear: he was advertising that he would handle the more pugilistic aspects of the campaign, as V.P. candidates often do, and was more subtly highlighting his decades of experience in foreign policy in the Senate as an asset for the comparatively inexperienced Obama.
Abrams is not the only of Biden’s potential V.P. picks to dispatch with coy, noncommittal answers when questions about the job arise. Representative Val Demings, of Florida, stated outright that she would accept the offer if it was made to her. Senator Elizabeth Warren affirmed that she would, too, and Senator Kamala Harris said that she would be “honored to serve” with Biden. The position of all these women has been complicated, through no fault of their own, by Tara Reade’s allegation, in late March, that Biden had sexually assaulted her nearly thirty years ago—a claim that he publicly denied last week. On Monday, Warren said that she found Biden’s denial “credible and convincing.” Abrams told CNN, “I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe they need to be listened to, but I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources. The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible. I believe Joe Biden.” In fact, the Times did not specify that Reade’s claims were not credible, but said that it could not further corroborate them or find any other allegation of sexual assault or a pattern of sexual misconduct on Biden’s part. But it goes without saying that, whichever woman Biden chooses as his running mate—and he has committed to picking a woman—she will be called upon to defend him on this issue.
Yet Clay’s remarks echoed, albeit harshly, a point commonly made against Abrams’s readiness for the Vice-Presidency: she has no experience in statewide office. (She served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, and was minority leader for six of those years.) To the extent that this is a concern for Biden’s newly formed V.P.-vetting committee, it compounds the impact of the 2018 governor’s race. Kemp was Georgia’s secretary of state—a position he did not relinquish during the campaign—and in that capacity he enacted policies that were widely seen to favor Republicans. A fair number of Democrats in the state and beyond, including Biden, have said that voter suppression and, particularly, the prodigious removal of black and Latino voters from the state registry are the reason that Abrams is not now governor of Georgia. If that’s true, and if Abrams’s lack of a statewide position removes her from consideration for the Vice-Presidential slot, it would mean that Kemp will have succeeded in foreclosing not one but two offices in her career. This would make for a bitter footnote, given how central an issue voter suppression is ahead of the November elections—it is as yet unclear how people in some states will even be able to vote—and has been to Abrams’s political work for the past year and a half, primarily through the organization Fair Fight.
There are other factors that mitigate—or, at least, complicate—Abrams’s suitability for the V.P. pick. A key question is her ability to deliver Georgia’s sixteen Electoral College votes. The state has not voted for a Democrat in a Presidential election since 1992. But, during an off-year election and despite all the obstacles facing it, Abrams’s campaign employed voter-turnout strategies that brought her within fifty-five thousand votes (out of nearly four million cast) of becoming Georgia’s first black and first female governor. That performance has been studied by Democratic strategists across the country, and it makes winning Georgia this year a tantalizing prospect—particularly as a hedge against losing one of the traditionally Democratic Midwestern states that voted for Trump in 2016. Biden currently leads Trump in both Wisconsin and Michigan, and both states have Democratic governors, yet the lesson of the 2016 election is that nothing can be taken for granted.


newyorker--2020-05-06--Coronavirus Task Force Officially Split as Fauci Announces Solo Album

WASHINGTON , D.C. ( The Borowitz Report ) —The rumored breakup of the White House coronavirus task force became official on Wednesday , after Dr. Anthony Fauci announced plans for a solo album .
While fans of the task force had been hoping that the group would somehow stay together , palpable creative differences among the members made Fauci ’ s decision to go solo “ only a matter of time , ” one source said .
“ By the end , it was clear that Tony couldn ’ t stand being on the same stage as Trump , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting very , very uncomfortable.
” The source scoffed at rumors that Trump might attempt a solo album of his own .
“ Tony Fauci was the coronavirus task force , ” he said .
Speaking to reporters , Fauci said that his upcoming solo release would be full of material that he was prevented from using as a member of the task force .
“ I have a lot inside me that I wasn ’ t allowed to express , ” Fauci said .
“ The creative freedom of doing this album @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the album , “ Don ’ t Reopen ( Yet ) , ” featuring Bill Gates , will drop next week , Fauci said .
Once his solo album is finished , the esteemed virologist said that he planned to tour extensively to promote it .
“ I ’ ve always wanted to play the House of Representatives , ” he said .

WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Borowitz Report)—The rumored breakup of the White House coronavirus task force became official on Wednesday, after Dr. Anthony Fauci announced plans for a solo album.
While fans of the task force had been hoping that the group would somehow stay together, palpable creative differences among the members made Fauci’s decision to go solo “only a matter of time,” one source said.
“By the end, it was clear that Tony couldn’t stand being on the same stage as Trump,” the source said. “It was getting very, very uncomfortable.”
The source scoffed at rumors that Trump might attempt a solo album of his own. “Tony Fauci was the coronavirus task force,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, Fauci said that his upcoming solo release would be full of material that he was prevented from using as a member of the task force.
“I have a lot inside me that I wasn’t allowed to express,” Fauci said. “The creative freedom of doing this album has been amazing.”
The first video from the album, “Don’t Reopen (Yet),” featuring Bill Gates, will drop next week, Fauci said.
Once his solo album is finished, the esteemed virologist said that he planned to tour extensively to promote it. “I’ve always wanted to play the House of Representatives,” he said.


newyorker--2020-05-06--What It Will Take for Restaurants to Survive

Tom Colicchio , the chef and restaurateur , has an uncanny knack for being at the center of culinary culture .
His book “ Think Like a Chef , ” published , in 2000 , at the dawn of the celebrity-chef era , inspired countless wannabe stove jockeys ; his star turn on “ Top Chef , ” America ’ s first major culinary reality show and a catalyst of the food-TV boom , made him a household name .
( The show is currently airing its seventeenth season . )
Now , as the coronavirus pandemic has led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , putting millions of Americans out of work , Colicchio is in the spotlight again , as one of the founding chefs of the Independent Restaurant Coalition , a lobbying group that sprang into existence at the end of March .
Before then , there was only one major restaurant lobbying group in Washington , the National Restaurant Association—also known as “ the other N.R.A.
” — which primarily represents the interests of chain restaurants and corporate food service .
Colicchio is the proprietor of Crafted Hospitality , a restaurant group comprised of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fine dining , and other establishments in New York , Los Angeles , and Las Vegas , all of which are currently closed .
He spoke to me recently by phone from his home on Long Island , where his family has been sheltering in place , about the fragility of the American food system , the rights of workers , and the as-yet-uncharted road to reopening .
This conversation has been edited and condensed .
The Independent Restaurant Coalition came together incredibly quickly .
I don ’ t think I realized it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with that kind of speed .
It started with a phone call that I received from a guy named Andrew Chason .
He ’ s an agent who represents chefs .
He was calling to say there ’ s some foundation money available , and can we do something with it ?
I was , like , save it for now , because this is much bigger than a foundation problem .
And then , right after that , I got an unrelated call from a friend of mine who I used to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Policy Action .
And something clicked for me .
I talked to [ the Portland chef ] Naomi Pomeroy , [ the former Obama chef ] Sam Kass , other folks .
Very quickly , within two days , we had some funding , and my lobbyist friend put us in touch with a lobbying firm .
That kind of put us in the game immediately .
There was a coalition of a hundred chefs and restaurateurs down South that was working on the same idea , and another group in the Chicago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Portland , and people from all over .
Every day , we ’ d have a Zoom call , just kind of laying out policy , and then the lobbyists would kind of give us our direction , in terms of sticking to the talking points .
There was a lot of booking on a lot of media—CNN , MSNBC .
They had me on Fox a couple times—that was a shocker !
One of the I.R.C.
’ s initial areas of focus was passing the Paycheck Protection Program .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 7th .
We ’ ve been focussed for weeks now on fixing P.P.P .
The problem with P.P.P .
is that you can do all the stuff you need to do , and the P.P.P .
gives you some revenue that ’ s going to help for the next few months .
But , if your business isn ’ t open , it ’ s essentially unemployment—you ’ re paying your staff not to work .
That ’ s not really helping restaurants .
And let ’ s just say you are open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not going to get anything near the amount of business we ’ d do this time of year , so we ’ re back to restaurants laying people off again .
We ’ re kind of painted into a corner here .
If P.P.P .
isn ’ t a workable solution to keep restaurants afloat , what is ?
What we ’ re now asking for is something we ’ re calling a restaurant-stabilization package .
We saw that the N.R.A .
was asking for a two-hundred-and-forty-billion-dollar package , and we said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the independent restaurants should get a hundred and twenty billion of that.
” Independent restaurants employ eleven or so million people .
When you factor in our supply chains , like fishermen and winemakers and farmers , we indirectly employ probably another six , seven , ten million .
For the most part , with restaurants , every dollar we take in , ninety-five cents of that goes out the door again .
So we feel that we ’ re in a unique position to push as much of that federal relief money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because it ’ s getting spent .
What does actually reopening look like for restaurants ?
For me , it ’ s about safety .
I ’ m looking at various plans , and I just don ’ t know how it ’ s going to go .
Someone walks into your restaurant and they touch the door handle—do you have to go right behind them and disinfect it ?
Waiters with masks on , bartenders with masks on .
Customers are going to have to have masks on , and what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to eat their food and drink their drinks ?
There ’ s so many questions to ask .
Clearly , we ’ re going to have to take at least half of our seats out of the restaurant .
That doesn ’ t work for revenue .
There ’ s no way restaurants are going to be able to open and maintain the staffing levels they had before COVID , unless we get this stabilization fund we ’ re asking for or P.P.P .
is expanded .
Is it better to just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regroup in December ?
I don ’ t know what the answers are .
You can just go into a straight model where you ’ re doing takeout , delivery , some sort of service , plus community feeding , and then combine everything and hope it works .
There are plenty of restaurants that are doing that , but whether or not it ’ s successful , whether or not it ’ s sustainable , I don ’ t know .
Last month , you were talking about September as a likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just mentioned December .
What ’ s your sense of the timeline ?
I definitely see no reason to open to a summer where the customers are gone .
For our restaurants , at least , our customers are already in the Hamptons , and they ’ re not coming back , and the tourists certainly aren ’ t going to be coming to New York .
For neighborhood restaurants and lower-priced restaurants , there ’ s probably more of a reason to open earlier .
But I just don ’ t know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet .
My concern isn ’ t actually getting open , though .
My concern is , once you ’ re open , how do you last for a year ?
So many restaurants will open , and then in six months they ’ ll close and they won ’ t open again .
Just like there could be a whole second wave of the illness , there ’ s going to a whole second wave of closures .
If so much of restaurant revenue goes back out the door , it seems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restaurants safely—and keep them open—would be a priority for more than just restaurant people .
I mean , No .
1 , the farmers .
Especially the folks that you see at the farmers ’ market—their market is independent restaurants .
That ’ s all gone right now .
Some of them are still working through restaurants that are doing C.S.A.s and things like that .

Tom Colicchio, the chef and restaurateur, has an uncanny knack for being at the center of culinary culture. His book “Think Like a Chef,” published, in 2000, at the dawn of the celebrity-chef era, inspired countless wannabe stove jockeys; his star turn on “Top Chef,” America’s first major culinary reality show and a catalyst of the food-TV boom, made him a household name. (The show is currently airing its seventeenth season.) Now, as the coronavirus pandemic has led to government-mandated restaurant closures across the United States, putting millions of Americans out of work, Colicchio is in the spotlight again, as one of the founding chefs of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a lobbying group that sprang into existence at the end of March. Before then, there was only one major restaurant lobbying group in Washington, the National Restaurant Association—also known as “the other N.R.A.”— which primarily represents the interests of chain restaurants and corporate food service. Colicchio is the proprietor of Crafted Hospitality, a restaurant group comprised of Craft, a longtime staple of Manhattan fine dining, and other establishments in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, all of which are currently closed. He spoke to me recently by phone from his home on Long Island, where his family has been sheltering in place, about the fragility of the American food system, the rights of workers, and the as-yet-uncharted road to reopening. This conversation has been edited and condensed.
The Independent Restaurant Coalition came together incredibly quickly. I don’t think I realized it was possible to form a lobbying group with that kind of speed.
It started with a phone call that I received from a guy named Andrew Chason. He’s an agent who represents chefs. He was calling to say there’s some foundation money available, and can we do something with it? I was, like, save it for now, because this is much bigger than a foundation problem. And then, right after that, I got an unrelated call from a friend of mine who I used to lobby with when I was with Food Policy Action. And something clicked for me. I talked to [the Portland chef] Naomi Pomeroy, [the former Obama chef] Sam Kass, other folks. Very quickly, within two days, we had some funding, and my lobbyist friend put us in touch with a lobbying firm.
That kind of put us in the game immediately. There was a coalition of a hundred chefs and restaurateurs down South that was working on the same idea, and another group in the Chicago area. We found people in Seattle, and Portland, and people from all over. Every day, we’d have a Zoom call, just kind of laying out policy, and then the lobbyists would kind of give us our direction, in terms of sticking to the talking points. There was a lot of booking on a lot of media—CNN, MSNBC. They had me on Fox a couple times—that was a shocker!
One of the I.R.C.’s initial areas of focus was passing the Paycheck Protection Program. The due date for those loans is May 7th.
We’ve been focussed for weeks now on fixing P.P.P. The problem with P.P.P. is that you can do all the stuff you need to do, and the P.P.P. gives you some revenue that’s going to help for the next few months. But, if your business isn’t open, it’s essentially unemployment—you’re paying your staff not to work. That’s not really helping restaurants.
And let’s just say you are open by May 7th, somehow—we’re not going to get anything near the amount of business we’d do this time of year, so we’re back to restaurants laying people off again. We’re kind of painted into a corner here.
If P.P.P. isn’t a workable solution to keep restaurants afloat, what is?
What we’re now asking for is something we’re calling a restaurant-stabilization package. We saw that the N.R.A. was asking for a two-hundred-and-forty-billion-dollar package, and we said, “All right, we think that the independent restaurants should get a hundred and twenty billion of that.” Independent restaurants employ eleven or so million people. When you factor in our supply chains, like fishermen and winemakers and farmers, we indirectly employ probably another six, seven, ten million. For the most part, with restaurants, every dollar we take in, ninety-five cents of that goes out the door again. So we feel that we’re in a unique position to push as much of that federal relief money through the system—it’s really stimulus, because it’s getting spent.
What does actually reopening look like for restaurants?
For me, it’s about safety. I’m looking at various plans, and I just don’t know how it’s going to go. Someone walks into your restaurant and they touch the door handle—do you have to go right behind them and disinfect it? Waiters with masks on, bartenders with masks on. Customers are going to have to have masks on, and what are they going to do? Lift it to eat their food and drink their drinks? There’s so many questions to ask. Clearly, we’re going to have to take at least half of our seats out of the restaurant. That doesn’t work for revenue.
There’s no way restaurants are going to be able to open and maintain the staffing levels they had before COVID, unless we get this stabilization fund we’re asking for or P.P.P. is expanded. Is it better to just not open right now and try to regroup in December? I don’t know what the answers are. You can just go into a straight model where you’re doing takeout, delivery, some sort of service, plus community feeding, and then combine everything and hope it works. There are plenty of restaurants that are doing that, but whether or not it’s successful, whether or not it’s sustainable, I don’t know.
Last month, you were talking about September as a likely reopening date for your restaurants. You just mentioned December. What’s your sense of the timeline?
I definitely see no reason to open to a summer where the customers are gone. For our restaurants, at least, our customers are already in the Hamptons, and they’re not coming back, and the tourists certainly aren’t going to be coming to New York. For neighborhood restaurants and lower-priced restaurants, there’s probably more of a reason to open earlier. But I just don’t know. I don’t have answers yet.
My concern isn’t actually getting open, though. My concern is, once you’re open, how do you last for a year? So many restaurants will open, and then in six months they’ll close and they won’t open again. Just like there could be a whole second wave of the illness, there’s going to a whole second wave of closures.
If so much of restaurant revenue goes back out the door, it seems like figuring out a way to reopen restaurants safely—and keep them open—would be a priority for more than just restaurant people.
I mean, No. 1, the farmers. Especially the folks that you see at the farmers’ market—their market is independent restaurants. That’s all gone right now. Some of them are still working through restaurants that are doing C.S.A.s and things like that.
The fear is that if these farmers go, with the great product they supply, what’s going to set our restaurants apart from the big chain restaurants? I don’t want to have to buy into their massive supply chain. That’s not going to do it for me.
Dan Barber is doing something pretty neat up at Stone Barns. He’s trying to keep the supply chain intact, so he’s still using all of his farmers that he uses, his fishermen, all that, and he’s creating these takeout boxes. It’s roast chicken, a couple things of squash, some broccoli—he’s just using whatever his farmers have. He’s realized that he’s no longer a chef—he’s a food processor.
Have you considered doing anything like that?
If I get open, that would be part of it, without a doubt. I think so far it’s the best model to keep the supply chain intact. It’s spring right now, so until recently the farms weren’t producing a lot of stuff, but we’ve got to have some sort of solution by summer. I’ve talked to a few people, like Mateo Kehler, up at Jasper Hill, where they make cheese. They’re changing some of their production away from those soft-ripened cheeses to focus on hard-ripened cheeses, because you can put them in a cave longer. But then they’re running out of cave space! It’s just very complex.
On a much larger scale, if you look at what’s going on with these meat producers—they’re all shutting down because of COVID, because their entire workforce is getting infected. They say as much as ninety per cent of the meat supply could be affected by these shutdowns. Your farmer who’s growing pigs? He’s not slaughtering those pigs himself—he’s selling them to the processor. Well, now the processor shut down, so what are the farmers supposed to do with those pigs? You keep hearing these stories: farmers are throwing milk out, and meanwhile people are lining up for food.When you start tracing things backward through various parts of the food system, you realize how big of a problem this has become.
People have been talking for a long time about how fragile our systems are. Did anyone see this coming?
Especially on the big side—big farms, big meat producers—production is so highly concentrated. When you take a system where so much is getting done in just one plant, and it’s all set up for efficiency—if we spread out that system, if we had more regional producers, I think we’d be much more resilient. But we don’t have that system, and this is because of corporate power and monopolies. There are laws to break these large meat packers up, but we just don’t enforce them. Obviously, that leads to a conversation about wages and workers’ rights in those plants, and that’s probably part of the reason all these workers are getting sick. They had zero ability to actually protect themselves.


newyorker--2020-05-07--Alternative Currencies for a New Economy

• None Pithy little insults between Oasis ’ s Gallagher brothers that can only be described as “ intensely British ” • None We keep money the same but rename it “ snickerdoodles , ” so people take it less seriously , and we just start calling snickerdoodle cookies “ cinnamon sugar cookies.
” Would this do anything for the stock market ?
• None That bouncy whistle sound that comes in forty-seven seconds into “ This Must Be the Place ” • None Something that is impossible for one person to store more than a billion of • None @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not because you were actually happier but because , back then , you relished the uncertainty of the future and now you shrink away and try to mitigate it like a coward • None ASMR soap-cutting videos that throw you into an existential crisis because you refuse to admit how deeply satisfied they make you feel • None Nonsense Oasis lyrics that are somehow still great and make you think , “ If the Gallagher brothers could have just set aside their differences .
.
.
.
” • None Actual bootstraps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pick themselves up with • None A wry , telling smile on Noel Gallagher ’ s face when he hears Liam hit a note perfectly on a lyric that he wrote for him , and , in that moment , you know that these two lads really do love each other

Seeds for fruits and vegetables
Practical advice
Warm socks (money is good!)
Wet socks (money is bad!)
Pithy little insults between Oasis’s Gallagher brothers that can only be described as “intensely British”
Clif Bars
Pebbles that are so smooth they make you feel confused sexually
We keep money the same but rename it “snickerdoodles,” so people take it less seriously, and we just start calling snickerdoodle cookies “cinnamon sugar cookies.” Would this do anything for the stock market?
Breadsticks
That bouncy whistle sound that comes in forty-seven seconds into “This Must Be the Place”
Something that is impossible for one person to store more than a billion of
Memories of a time you yearn for, not because you were actually happier but because, back then, you relished the uncertainty of the future and now you shrink away and try to mitigate it like a coward
Grapes
ASMR soap-cutting videos that throw you into an existential crisis because you refuse to admit how deeply satisfied they make you feel
Literally any form of validation
We all just thumb-wrestle for everything
Nonsense Oasis lyrics that are somehow still great and make you think, “If the Gallagher brothers could have just set aside their differences. . . .”
Eskimo kisses
Chapstick
Antidepressants
Bitcoin (just kidding)
Actual bootstraps that the formerly rich can use to pick themselves up with
Daily riddles
Crayon colors with weird passive-aggressive names like Professional Jealousy Green and Seasonal Depression Blue


newyorker--2020-05-07--A View of New Orleans Under Quarantine

A View of New Orleans Under Quarantine

This spring New Orleans was meant to host the city ’ s fifty-first Jazz and Heritage Festival .
Each spring , thousands of artists and music lovers descend on the Big Easy for eleven days of performances , held in the city ’ s fairgrounds and racetrack , to hear blues , rock , R. & B. , and , of course , jazz .
When the coronavirus pandemic hit , organizers first postponed , then cancelled the festival .
( The state is now under a stay-at-home order through the middle of May . )
Jamiles Lartey , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told me that his R. & B. band LYON—Love Your Own Noise— was scheduled to play an 11:30 A.M.. set on the first Friday of the festival .
That the show will , in fact , not go on “ stung , ” he said .
But he knows that , in the grand scheme , this disappointment is relatively low on the list of pandemic losses .
So many others in New Orleans—a city heavily dependent on hospitality , entertainment , and tourism , industries that have been hit hard by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ March , Louisiana had the highest unemployment rate in the nation .
At the time of this writing , there were more than thirty thousand reported cases of COVID-19 in the state—the twelfth-highest number documented in the nation .
The fatality rate in New Orleans is twice that of New York City .
Moreover , African-Americans account for about fifty-eight per cent of the twenty-one hundred deaths in Louisiana , even though they make up just under a third of the state ’ s population .
This statistic highlights the inequality endemic throughout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the people of New Orleans are proving themselves to be resilient , relying on the spirit of the city and on faith to see them through to the other side of the pandemic .
The short film above shows locations across the city that are usually teeming with residents , revellers , and street performers .
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center , which hosts the annual Essence Festival , has been converted into a medical monitoring station for COVID-19 patients in recovery .
The festival , which usually takes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be held online this year .
At night , Bourbon Street is usually filled with tourists drunk on hurricanes and full of po ’ boys , but , under containment orders , as the footage shows , the famous party street is empty enough for one masked woman to lay down on the pavement for a photo shoot .
Others take solace at the St. Louis Cathedral and the nearby Riverwalk , processing the recent changes by staring out at the fog over the Mississippi River .
The sad song of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ souls gone adrift during the crisis .
Lartey , my musician friend , told me that , because of New Orleans ’ s deep Catholic roots , the Easter holidays have special importance in the culture of the city .
On Good Friday , the city ’ s archbishop , Gregory Aymond , a seventy-year-old who recently recovered from COVID-19 himself , piloted a Second World War-era biplane and sprinkled holy water from the Jordan River over the French Quarter .
Throughout this short film , composed mostly of wide angles and long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we witness appeals to God in myriad forms : reading scripture alone on a bench ; waiting on an endless drive-up prayer line ; televangelism ; and more .
In the absence of the city ’ s group traditions , it ’ s evident that New Orleanians persevere through worship and music .
• How to practice social distancing , from responding to a sick housemate to the pros and cons of ordering food .
• Can survivors help cure the disease and rescue the economy ?
• The long crusade of Dr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between Donald Trump and the American people .
• The success of Hong Kong and Singapore in stemming the spread holds lessons for how to contain it in the United States .
• The coronavirus is likely to spread for more than a year before a vaccine is widely available .
• With each new virus , we have scrambled for a new treatment .
Can we prepare antivirals to combat the next global crisis ?
• How pandemics have propelled public-health innovations , prefigured revolutions , and redrawn maps .
• What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and listen to under coronavirus quarantine .

This spring New Orleans was meant to host the city’s fifty-first Jazz and Heritage Festival. Each spring, thousands of artists and music lovers descend on the Big Easy for eleven days of performances, held in the city’s fairgrounds and racetrack, to hear blues, rock, R. & B., and, of course, jazz. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, organizers first postponed, then cancelled the festival. (The state is now under a stay-at-home order through the middle of May.) Jamiles Lartey, a journalist friend of mine and a drummer, told me that his R. & B. band LYON—Love Your Own Noise— was scheduled to play an 11:30 A.M.. set on the first Friday of the festival. That the show will, in fact, not go on “stung,” he said. But he knows that, in the grand scheme, this disappointment is relatively low on the list of pandemic losses. So many others in New Orleans—a city heavily dependent on hospitality, entertainment, and tourism, industries that have been hit hard by social distancing—have lost their jobs.
In March, Louisiana had the highest unemployment rate in the nation. At the time of this writing, there were more than thirty thousand reported cases of COVID-19 in the state—the twelfth-highest number documented in the nation. The fatality rate in New Orleans is twice that of New York City. Moreover, African-Americans account for about fifty-eight per cent of the twenty-one hundred deaths in Louisiana, even though they make up just under a third of the state’s population. This statistic highlights the inequality endemic throughout American health-care and social systems. Still, the people of New Orleans are proving themselves to be resilient, relying on the spirit of the city and on faith to see them through to the other side of the pandemic.
The short film above shows locations across the city that are usually teeming with residents, revellers, and street performers. The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, which hosts the annual Essence Festival, has been converted into a medical monitoring station for COVID-19 patients in recovery. The festival, which usually takes places around the Fourth of July, will be held online this year. At night, Bourbon Street is usually filled with tourists drunk on hurricanes and full of po’ boys, but, under containment orders, as the footage shows, the famous party street is empty enough for one masked woman to lay down on the pavement for a photo shoot. Others take solace at the St. Louis Cathedral and the nearby Riverwalk, processing the recent changes by staring out at the fog over the Mississippi River. The sad song of a bagpiper sounds like a homage to the souls gone adrift during the crisis.
Lartey, my musician friend, told me that, because of New Orleans’s deep Catholic roots, the Easter holidays have special importance in the culture of the city. On Good Friday, the city’s archbishop, Gregory Aymond, a seventy-year-old who recently recovered from COVID-19 himself, piloted a Second World War-era biplane and sprinkled holy water from the Jordan River over the French Quarter. Throughout this short film, composed mostly of wide angles and long shots that emphasize the social-distancing mandates, we witness appeals to God in myriad forms: reading scripture alone on a bench; waiting on an endless drive-up prayer line; televangelism; and more. In the absence of the city’s group traditions, it’s evident that New Orleanians persevere through worship and music.
A Guide to the Coronavirus