A FEW MONTHS ago, at Greta Gerwig's 40th-birthday party, Molly Lewis walked in and began to whistle "Happy Birthday." No one seemed especially surprised. In fact, they knew precisely what was happeningthe Whistler was whistling. "Her tone is so specific that everyone in the room knew who it was," says Mark Ronson, who set up the performance at the request of Noah Baumbach, Gerwig's husband. Someincluding Gerwig-were moved to tears.
Lewis recounts this story while sitting naked, in the middle of a workday, in the so-called ice room at Spa Palace, a popular Korean spa in Westlake. "I appreciate L.A.so much," she says. "I wouldn't have been able to do any of this if I didn't live here.
I really believe that. It's a city that really cultivates the weird and the wonderful." Lewis is 33 and has been whistling in an official capacity for the past eight years. It started as a childhood hobby-her best friend since elementary school in Hollywood, Nora Berman, recalls her whistling as early as the second grade. "Her teeth were kinda suited for it," says Berman. "She had a little space. I remember her making these, like, alien noises." Incidentally, her father, the Emmywinning director Mark Lewis, mostly makes films about niche subcultures. "He was making stuff about ferret competitions and synchronized swimming and the world-champion hairstylists' competition in Russia," she says.
Denne historien er fra February 12-25, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra February 12-25, 2024-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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.
