The New Yorker, April 25, 2016
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PRICE $7.99 APRIL 25, 2016 THE ENTERTAINMENT ISSUE APRIL 25, 2016 11 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN 33 THE TALK OF THE TOWN Jelani Cobb on the return of the working class; Bernie Sanders’s high school; family-court ilm; Professor Pothole; William Hamilton’s cartoons; James Surowiecki on L.G.B.T. rights and big business. ANNALS OF TELEVISION Willa Paskin 38 The Brutal Romantic Sharon Horgan’s couples comedies. SHOUTS & MURMURS Paul Rudnick 44 A Special Seder A CRITIC AT LARGE Adam Gopnik 46 Long Play Paul McCartney’s good life. PROFILES Kelefa Sanneh 50 Godmother of Soul Erykah Badu’s new sound. LETTER FROM HOLLYWOOD Emily Nussbaum 58 In Living Color Kenya Barris’s family ties in “black-ish.” PORTFOLIO Matthew Trammell 70 Teenage Dream Photographs by Elizabeth Renstrom. FICTION Lara Vapnyar 80 “Waiting for the Miracle” THE CRITICS ART AND TECH Andrew Marantz 86 Making virtual-reality movies. BOOKS 95 Briefly Noted James Wood 96 Edna O’Brien’s “The Little Red Chairs.” MUSICAL EVENTS Alex Ross 100 The Big Ears Festival. THE CURRENT CINEMA Anthony Lane 102 “The Jungle Book,” “Tale of Tales.” POEMS Analicia Sotelo 40 “Death Wish” Andrea Cohen 62 “Cloud Study” COVER R. Kikuo Johnson “Closing Set” DRAWINGS William Hamilton, Jack Ziegler, Roz Chast, J. C. Dufy, Frank Cotham, Kim Warp, Paul Noth, Michael Shaw, Benjamin Schwartz, David Sipress, Barbara Smaller, Bob Eckstein, Tom Toro, Corey Pandolph, Liam Francis Walsh, Robert Leighton, Shannon Wheeler SPOTS Oliver Munday CONTRIBUTORS Jelani Cobb (Comment, p. 33), a staf Kelefa Sanneh (“Godmother of Soul,” writer, received the 2015 Hillman Prize p. 50) first wrote for the magazine in for Opinion and Analysis Journalism 2001 and became a staf writer in 2008. for his New Yorker columns on race, politics, and social justice. Emily Nussbaum (“In Living Color,” p. 58) is a staf writer and the winner Willa Paskin (“The Brutal Romantic,” of the 2014 National Magazine Award p. 38) is the television critic for Slate. for columns and commentary. She lives in Brooklyn. Matthew Trammell (“Teenage Dream,” Analicia Sotelo (Poem, p. 40) won the p. 70) covers night life for the Goings 2016 Disquiet Literary Prize for poetry On About Town section of The New for “Do You Speak Virgin? And Other Yorker. Poems.” Elizabeth Renstrom (Portfolio, p. 70) is Adam Gopnik (“Long Play,” p. 46), a a photographer and the photo editor longtime staf writer, has published of Vice. many books, including “The Table Comes First.” Lara Vapnyar (Fiction, p. 80) will pub- lish “Still Here,” her third novel, in Paul Rudnick (Shouts & Murmurs, p. 44) August. is the author of “Gorgeous” and “It’s All Your Fault,” which was published Andrew Marantz (The Talk of the Town, in January. p. 34; Art and Tech, p. 86) is a writer and an editor at the magazine. R. Kikuo Johnson (Cover), an illustrator and a cartoonist, teaches cartooning at James Wood (Books, p. 96) teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. Harvard. “The Nearest Thing to Life” This is his first cover for the magazine. is his latest book. NEWYORKER.COM Everything in the magazine, and more. PORTFOLIO VIDEO Songs by the artists featured in our Dance moves from the past decade— photo essay about the cool kids who dabbed, dougied, and shmonied by are redefining pop music. those who helped make them go viral. SUBSCRIBERS: Get access to our magazine app for tablets and smartphones at the App Store, Amazon.com, or Google Play. (Access varies by location and device.) ELIZABETH RENSTROM LEFT: 6 THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 25, 2016 THE MAIL REGISTERING SHAME sands of individuals to a lifetime of in- majority of the arts-and-culture sector. stability and danger and expect public Even state-owned museums survive, and I was dumbfounded by Sarah Still- safety to be improved by it. thrive, because of substantial private do- man’s article describing how children Sebastian Solomon nations. The millions that citizens such who engaged in sexual behavior with New York City as Rubenstein have provided to support other children when they were as young 1 our nation’s cultural treasures and accel- as nine can spend their entire lives as HOW WE TAX erate their transformation would not registered sex ofenders (“The List,” otherwise have come from the federal March 14th). If everyone who engaged Alec MacGillis, in his article on the bil- government. Because of the govern- in the conduct Stillman documents were lionaire philanthropist David Ruben- ment’s size, deficits, and demands, the reported and registered, I’m sure that stein, shows how the carried-interest cultural sector has always relied on civic- most people would be on the list. Chil- loophole in tax law has allowed Ruben- minded citizens to implement what An- dren don’t have the same moral or eth- stein and others to accumulate vast drew Carnegie called the “duty of the man ical boundaries that most adults have— amounts of wealth (“The Billionaires’ of Wealth,” which insures our shared how could they?—and their curiosity Loophole,” March 14th). This is only prosperity and our advancement as a will naturally lead them to experiment one example of how rate diferentials civilization. with all sorts of behaviors. Our soci- between capital gains and ordinary in- Leslie Greene Bowman ety has chosen not to judge children come allow highly compensated tax- Charlottesville, Va. as adults in most other aspects of the payers to reduce their rate of taxation. 1 law. Why treat them as adults where According to calculations based on I.R.S. SLOW HUMOR sexual behavior is concerned? data from 2013, preferentially taxed cap- Joris Stuyck ital gains comprise around twenty-four I enjoyed Anthony Lane’s review of New York City per cent of the income of the top one the Disney film “Zootopia,” particu- per cent of American earners; for the larly his reference to the vehicle- Stillman highlights many of the self-de- bottom eighty per cent of taxpayers, the registration bureau that is stafed by feating consequences of registering chil- percentage is approximately two per sloths—“Of course they are,” Lane dren as sex ofenders. Even a minor con- cent. These preferential rates apply not writes (“Beauty and Beasts,” March viction, like a misdemeanor for indecent only to the profit share of private- equity 14th). My seven-year-old grandson and exposure, received as a juvenile or as an partners like Rubenstein but also to sales I watched the movie together, and col- adult, can result in being placed on a of appreciated stock, houses, and prop- lapsed into laughter. It’s nice when sex-ofender registry for decades—or erty used in a trade or business—these comedy is able to breach a sixty-plus- for life. State and federal registry laws are assets that lower-income taxpayers year age diference. Readers, and mov- form a complex web of restrictions that are less likely to have. The preferential iegoers, may be interested to learn that make it nearly impossible for adult rate is said to spur investment, but there the entire scene was inspired by a skit ofenders to find stable housing and em- is no compelling evidence that this is by the comedic duo Bob and Ray, who ployment, both of which are crucial to true. What is clear is that the discrep- worked in radio and television during reducing recidivism. Restrictions on ancy between capital-gain rates and or- the second half of the twentieth cen- where ofenders can live within dense dinary income rates exacerbates wealth tury. In the original skit, Bob Elliott cities, like New York, make them almost inequality in America. (who died earlier this year) explains, entirely of limits to the majority of reg- Manoj Viswanathan with agonizing slowness, that he is in istrants, forcing people onto the streets, San Francisco, Calif. town for the Slow Talkers of America or into shelters and unlicensed “three- convention, while Ray Goulding, his quarter houses.” At the same time, fed- At the end of his piece, MacGillis quotes interviewer, grows nearly apoplectic eral law renders lifetime registrants an expert in tax law who suggests that with impatience. It was funny forty permanently ineligible for federally sub- Rubenstein’s so-called patriotic phi- years ago, and it is funny today. sidized housing. Classifying such a wide lanthropy—repairing the Washington Richard C. Baron swath of people (more than eight hun- Monument, purchasing a copy of the Philadelphia, Pa. dred thousand as of 2015) as likely to Magna Carta, or supporting the plan- re-ofend requires law enforcement to tation at Monticello, where I serve as • constantly monitor each person, drain- president of the Thomas Jeferson Foun- Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, ing police resources and making it vir- dation—might be less necessary if he address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to [email protected]. Letters may be edited tually impossible to focus on those who were more heavily taxed. Unlike some for length and clarity, and may be published in pose the highest risk of harm to others. European countries, the United States any medium. We regret that owing to the volume We cannot relegate hundreds of thou- encourages private stewardship of the of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter. 8 THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 25, 2016 APRIL 20 – 26, 2016 GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman started performing as the cabaret duo Kiki & Herb in San Fran- cisco in 1992, their tipsy, scorched-earth revelry providing a demented catharsis for the AIDS years. The act went all the way to Carnegie Hall and Broadway before disbanding, in 2007.