Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen have forgotten about the guitar between them. It’s the afternoon before their July 25 show in Austin, Texas, and the two musicians are sitting backstage in a dimly lit room marked shared band hang zone. They have been trying out covers—Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down”—but are soon reminded of a Paul McCartney song on the soundtrack to the 2006 film The Lake House, which then prompts them to start dreaming about retiring to the woods. After hearing about her fellow singer-songwriter’s planned time off after this tour, Olsen admits she’s wary of over-touring her latest record, Big Time, which she released in June. Van Etten feels the same way; she doesn’t want her son to grow up with her on the road. “I want to sustain where I’m at,” she tells Olsen.
Despite the decades of touring experience between them, the pair agree that they’re still figuring it out: how to manage their band members’ emotions and keep up personal relationships, all under the pressure of traveling daily and satisfying fans nightly. But this time, as Olsen puts it to Van Etten, “we get to share our weird shit.” It’s not just them—the two are on tour with Julien Baker, who has known Van Etten for years. Baker’s in her greenroom next door, skipping the day’s jam session to rest. Her co-performers can relate. “This lifestyle is not normal,” Van Etten says later.
Denne historien er fra August 15 - 28, 2022-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra August 15 - 28, 2022-utgaven av New York magazine.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
