An unfinished autobiography and a 1980s biopic turned Frances Farmer, one of the great golden-era stars, into a lobotomized zombie. The main trouble: Frances Farmer wasn’t lobotomized. An investigation to set one of Hollywood’s most convoluted stories straight.
Husband, Father, Writer, War
Since the Last War
The reporter is wearing an eye patch.
“And who do you work for?” she says, clearing her throat.
“I’m retired,” I say.
A grizzled tribe of Middle East correspondents has gathered at the Mayflower Hotel’s wood-paneled bar in Beirut. Wine is poured, mugs of beers are guzzled, and cigarette smoke hangs in blue clouds. I don’t really belong. I’m here by marriage. Continue Reading
Gallery
North American Scum
Blazing, husky paintings that deal with class in America—where everyone has an equal opportunity to be a mess.
This Week
Why We Fought
Every Friday we take a look back at the week’s headlines, centering on a theme we’ve singled out as particularly important. This week fighting raged and little heed was paid to Valentine’s Day. The more everyone fought, the less sense they made, and damn if we couldn’t keep our eyes off them.
Fantastic Economist summary of the Syrian situation:
Continue ReadingMany Syrians are convinced that, eventually, Mr. Assad will go. What worries them is how.
Our Passions, Our Day Jobs
Diary of a Post-Adrenaline Junkie
Some decisions are best made heedlessly, based on the chance for an epic story—and some people think like that all the time. A report on what it’s like to slide down a volcano on a piece of sheet metal at 55 mph.
Portraits by Other Means
Comeback Kings and Queens
Friends! Alas, it has been far too long since we’ve seen each other. One of the things I love about America is how willing the public is to accept someone stepping back into the spotlight (most of the time) (athletes especially). Well, you be the judge.
Personal Essays
Call and Response
Sometimes a book appears in your life and starts to pester you. The characters act like your friends. Events occur in the plot that reappear inside your home. It’s enough to drive a man to wonder which world is more real, until danger appears.
Husband, Father, Writer, War
Right Into the Fire
This week we’re debuting a new microfeature series, “Husband, Father, Writer, War,” in which Nathan Deuel recounts what it’s like to be an American citizen, young father, and supportive husband while he and his family settle down in Lebanon.
My daughter is bawling, red faced, legs held ram-rod straight.
Loretta was born in Saudi Arabia, turned two in Turkey, and we’ve just moved to Lebanon. In a stroke of luck, we found a rare flat in a stunning French Mandate house. But until our boxes arrive, the place is empty, echoing. Continue Reading
Gallery
Paper Mountains
In Laura Plageman’s “Response” photographs, nature pictures are ripped, folded, and turned into sculptures, then re-photographed to become unusual new landscapes.
This Week
Don’t Talk About It, Do It
Every Friday we take a look back at the week’s headlines, centering on a theme we’ve singled out as particularly important. This week, despite the apathy that greets the idea that meaningful change is possible, protestors continued to make their voices heard. And beyond the streets we were seeing the beginnings of important change—along with the positive and negatives consequences when people start to really do it.
The key question is not whether Vladimir Putin—and Putinism—will survive. They will not:
Continue ReadingRussia is facing growing problems of enormous complexity—economic, social, demographic, ethnic—that are impossible to solve within the rigid confines of neo-authoritarian “sovereign democracy.”
New York's Roadside Attractions
Wyckoff Farmhouse and Queens County Farm Museums
I grew up in North Florida. I wouldn’t disagree too strongly with those who consider it South Georgia. After all, Georgia is only a 45-minute drive from my childhood home.
When I was in the fifth grade my class took a trip to a historical farm museum in Tifton, Ga., called Agrirama, a fully functioning re-creation of a Reconstruction-era sugar cane farm. There were historical re-enactors who split the class on gender lines, boys going to work in the barn and fields, girls taken to prepare the meals and take care of the homestead. We were there for a full school day. I shoveled shit (literally), fed a sugar cane press, and was remonstrated for the inexperience I showed in doing both. All of this was historically sound, because any able-bodied boy was expected to contribute in like fashion. It sucked. Continue Reading
Letters From London
The City Is Wilder and Kinder Than You Think
Situationist invades Hoxton… Street poems arouse Londoners… Public discourse colored by disfigured Futura… Robert Montgomery’s street poems have something to say to you.
China Welcomes You
How to Officially Forget
More than two decades later, a return visit to Tiananmen Square finds it scrubbed clean—just as it was immediately following the Incident. Except now there is thick smog, and ghosts. In contemporary Beijing, the past is like Kentucky Fried Chicken: unavoidable.
The News From America
People Here Actually Show Their Livestock
The United States is an enormous country, much too big for the nightly news. We asked one of our editors to randomly call people in towns around America and find out what’s really going on.
Gallery
Cartographies of Time
Selections from Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton’s captivating history of timelines, now in paperback—from time circles to time dragons, to a history of civilization drawn on a single piece of paper.
From the Editors
The Morning News Seeks an Intern
The Morning News seeks an intern for the Spring 2012 semester. You should be an opinionated writer and editor and have a strong interest in social media and learning how a web magazine is produced.
This is an unpaid internship. Geographic location is not important, but please have a sturdy internet connection.
To apply, email a cover letter, including any résumé-like points, clips/experience as well as links to your Twitter, Tumblr, and/or blog to talk@themorningnews.org by Feb. 17, 2012.
End Zone
Super Bowl, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bill Belichick
Like a lot of people this Sunday, I’ll be choosing sides in a contest whose outcome is going to be disappointing. The team I’m rooting for (the 2007 Green Bay Packers) can’t win. This is a replay of one of my least favorite Super Bowls in recent memory, one which offended me so thoroughly the first time around, I actually refused to watch it. So to have any fun, I have to pick a side. I have to get emotionally invested. When I watch a football game, I have to mean it.
TMN vs. Explodingdog
Have Faith in Duck
Today is the final installment in our series with Explodingdog. Over two months, Sam published a comic story here each week on TMN based on your suggestions. Today’s is a special double-feature.
Spoofs & Satire
Life After Long-Term Unemployment
You wanted it. You were willing to give up BBC dramas for it. Now it’s time to readjust to the working life. Welcome back.