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Infinite TV

From Here You Can See Everything

by James A. Pearson

Our current era of on-demand television series does more than facilitate binge-watching—it encourages it. David Foster Wallace already told us what happens next.

Profiles

People like to talk about how bad Detroit is. This city is under a demonic spell.

Crack Rock City

by Mark Binelli
The Global Desk

Everything in This City Must

After six months in Leipzig, a German reporter asks the novelist what he’ll miss. But it’s back here in the United States where more dangerous questions take shape, none easily answered with good beer.

by Alexander Chee
Spoofs & Satire

It’s Complicated

Though mothers may gnash their teeth at forgotten flowers and missing brunches, the poets still sing of the worst Mother’s Day ever: that of Oedipus and his bride.

by David Comfort

Love Your Dress

Siam, I Am (Not)

Small-screen post-Downton satisfaction for costume connoisseurs.

by Liz Entman Harper

TMN Weekender

Inlandia

It's not all just New York and Los Angeles with Mayberry in between.

by The Morning News

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Latest Gallery

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Takuma Nakahira. From the series Circulation: Date, Place, Events. Untitled, 1971. Gelatin silver print © Takuma Nakahira, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.

Paris in the Seventies

From his new solo show in the United States, black-and-white selections from Takuma Nakahira’s “Circulation: Date, Place, Events,” plus a reprint of his 1973 essay, “Looking at the City or the Look From the City.”

Start Gallery

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Infinite TV

From Here You Can See Everything

Our current era of on-demand television series does more than facilitate binge-watching—it encourages it. David Foster Wallace already told us what happens next.

by James A. Pearson

Against my better judgment, I’m watching another episode of The West Wing as I write this. It’s streaming on Netflix in a window next to this one. It’s my third episode of the night, my 80th or so this month.

When I left Uganda this winter I had finally broken the 300-page barrier in David Foster Wallace’s gargantuan novel, Infinite Jest. I’ve started it three or four times in the past and aborted each time for attentional reasons. But 300 pages felt like enough momentum, finally, to finish. Then I hit my first American airport, with its 4G and free wi-fi. All at once, my gadgets came alive: pinging and alerting and vibrating excitedly. And even better, all seven seasons of The West Wing had providentially appeared on Netflix Instant. I’ve only finished 100 more pages in the two months since.

I always binge on media when I’m in America. But this time it feels different. Media feels encroaching, circling, kind of predatory. It feels like it’s bingeing back. Continue Reading

From the Headlines

Afternoon Headlines

May 21

China’s new-home prices rose last month in 68 of 70 cities, with average annual wages for urban private company employees jumping 14 percent.

Japanese researchers figure out why babies respond to patting and being moved: to avoid existential threats.

On the comeback trail, hallucinogens are being tried recreationally by nearly one in five American adults.

Interactive guide offers summer cocktails that only have three ingredients.

See also: Round-up of the best bottled drinks for warm weather. #tmn

Navy’s current use of dolphins and other mammals compared to Jefferson Davis’s employment of 75 camels.

When Zach Galifianakis was unknown, he befriended a woman at the laundromat; since then he has rescued her from homelessness and taken her to movie premieres.

Virginia nominee for attorney general wrote bill that would have forced women to report their miscarriages or face a year in jail.

From 2012, John Hawbaker explains what it’s like when a tornado throws a tree on your house. #tmn

Growing up in the South gives you a fascination with tornadoes. They are evil in intent and mythic in scale, fickle beasts, revered and feared in an almost spiritual way.

Calcutta’s 140-year-old tram service—the only service of its kind in India—faces crippling decline.

Novelist David Foster Wallace not only predicted binge-watching, he had ideas about what comes next. #tmn

“Best organ solo ever” by Ray Manzarek, Doors’ keyboardist who died yesterday. #video

Carla Bruni tries to relaunch musical career while her husband remains in the headlines for political scandal.

What makes Nancy Jo Sales’ The Bling Ring incredible: the lawyers.

More Headlines