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Erica Schwiegershausen

By Erica Schwiegershausen 8/21/12 6:15pm

Dining al Fresco

diner 16

White, Wine: The Second Annual Dîner en Blanc

Packs of diners clad exclusively in white descended upon Lincoln Center on Monday evening for the city’s second annual Dîner en Blanc, an American version of the shared-meal-cum-flash-mob started by François Pasquier in Paris in 1988.

This year’s more than 3,000 attendees arrived in groups led by volunteers—as per tradition, the location of the dinner is kept a secret from the diners until that evening, to preserve at least an illusion of spontaneity. The rules for participants are strict: they must carry in their own table, chairs, white tablecloths, flatware and four-course dinners, and they must dress entirely in white. “This means no ivory, no cream or any other color will be permitted,” a discussion thread on the event’s website from one of the hosts stated, advising attendees to dress “elegantly.” Elizabeth Hill, an elementary school teacher, even wore her wedding dress.

“Well, it’s white, and it’s all I had!” she said, explaining that she and her husband had decided to come at the last minute when their friends offered them tickets. “Might as well,” she shrugged. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 8/09/12 11:30am

cats

6 Photos

Sphinx in a green dress

Catwalk Mysteriously Absent from the Algonquin Hotel’s Kitty Fashion Show (Slideshow)

It wasn’t until The Observer arrived at Wednesday evening’s cat fashion show and reception at the Algonquin Hotel to benefit NY Save—hosted by cat-in-residence Matilda and her handler, Alice de Almeida—that we realized there would be no catwalk.

Feeling a little foolish, we asked Ms. de Almeida whether Matilda, a 4-year-old ragdoll who is the third female cat to inhabit the lobby (or part of it anyway) of the Algonquin, enjoys dressing up.

“No!” she exclaimed, looking at us somewhat incredulously. “She doesn’t dress up. We just let the other cats dress up,” Ms. de Almeida said, showing us a rhinestone collar that she was going to attempt to get Matilda to wear for the show.

In lieu of a costume, Matilda showcased her notoriously snobby disposition and remained in her cage in a separate room from the other fashion show participants for the majority of the reception. In a second-floor hotel room, Savannahs in tuxedo shirts and studded leather jackets and sphynxes in tutus lounged on couches, while some of the younger show cats jumped on the bed. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 8/02/12 12:07pm

readings

Rabies chat, with Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy.

Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, Authors of Rabid, on Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Rabies

The first slide of Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy’s informational presentation on rabies last night at The Strand read: “Be Afraid.”

Though their tone was for the most part sweet and mild, their subject was not. The husband and wife are the authors of Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, out last month from Penguin, which chronicles the cultural evolution of what remains the world’s deadliest virus. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 7/30/12 1:05pm

semantics

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At Má Pêche Panel, ‘Curators’ Defend Their Ownership of the Term and Vilify the Plebeians of Tumblr

A well-dressed crowd, including many senior members of the MoMA staff, turned up to contemplate the state of contemporary curation at Friday’s 56th Street Round Table at Má Pêche, hosted by the New York Public Library and Momofuku.

The panelists—Jeremy Geffen, the director of artistic planning at Carnegie Hall, Julia Hoffmann, the creative director of advertising and graphic design at MoMA, Maria Popova, the founder and editor of Brain Pickings, and moderator Elias Altman, the associate editor of Lapham’s Quarterly conceded almost immediately that none of them considered themselves curators—a point which would be interrogated throughout the discussion.

In his introduction to the subject at hand, Mr. Altman noted that the word “curation” has come to be thrown around “more often than a ping pong ball at a fraternity house,” alluding somewhat disdainfully to a dissemination of “curation” to the masses, a phenomenon which he would later attribute to the Internet.  He questioned: “Is the new definition of curation, like, ‘I assemble things on my Tumblr and then I put them up for the world?’ Is that why we don’t want to be called curators?” Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 7/27/12 9:30am

sex ed

From left, Erica Jong, Melissa Febos, Ian Kerner, and Daniel Bergner.

Erica Jong and Others Discuss Sexual Progressiveness of 50 Shades of Grey and Conclude It Is a “Piece of Shit”

McNally Jackson was packed full of women—many in their twenties, and a few slightly older—and even a smattering of men for Wednesday night’s 50 Shades of Grey panel, featuring Erica Jong, along with Melissa Febos, a former dominatrix and author of Whip Smart, sex counselor Ian Kerner, and Daniel Bergner, author of The Other Side of Desire. Roxane Gay, who wrote warily about 50 Shades of Grey for The Rumpus, Skyped in.

Ostensibly the panel had gathered to discuss whether E.L. James’s blockbuster book was a step forward for American sexual culture. “I just want to say right off the bat that we are not going to be discussing the book’s literary merit,” said McNally Jackson’s Amy Lee, the moderator for the event. Yet despite this disclaimer, many of the panelists seemed unable to resist taking a few cheap shots at its notoriously clumsy prose, referring to the book repeatedly as a “piece of shit.”

Ms. Jong seemed especially preoccupied with the book’s literary offenses. “What possessed the publisher to not even edit the book?” she began. “I don’t believe anyone ever said ‘holy cow’ at the moment of her first orgasm,” she said disdainfully, voicing a familiar criticism that she would repeat more than once before the end of the night. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 7/20/12 6:15pm

The Problem with Publishing

From left: Emma Komlos Hrobsky, Tin House; Halimah Marcus, Reccommended Reading; Celia Johnson, Slice; Jamie Schwartz, CLMP; JD Scott, Moonshot; David James Miller, SET; Brigid Hughes, A Public Space.

How Will Indie Lit Mags Stay Afloat? These Six Indie Lit Mag Editors Have No Idea!

The conversation at Wednesday night’s indie lit mag panel at Powerhouse Arena did not stray from its predictable territory: the challenges of getting funding, the ever-evolving landscape of digital publishing and self-satisfaction about being Brooklyn-based.

Though quieter than some nights at Powerhouse, the audience that turned up to hear the discussion between six editors (from Moonshot, A Public Space, SET, Slice, Tin House, and Electric Literature’s newly launched Recommended Reading) and moderator Jamie Schwartz, managing director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, was considerable.

Ms. Schwartz began the conversation by asking about money, a topic panelists returned to over the course of the night. “I think it’s a mystery to most people how the economics of literary publishing works,” she commented. “It’s really like an oxymoron.”

Anyone who hoped this mystery might be illuminated further was sorely disappointed. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 7/19/12 12:00pm

the literary scene

Writer Steve Fishman, recounting his Jason Bourne moments while hunting Bernie Madoff.

At Ebook Launch Party, New York Writers Dish on Getting Lady Gaga and Bernie Madoff to Talk

The mood was largely self-congratulatory Monday night at the celebratory release of New York Magazine’s first ebook, a collection of the magazine’s 26 most popular stories from the past five years, published by Byliner. New York staff and readers gathered at The Half King, singing praises to the publication over sliders and spinach salad and interrogating writers on their celebrity interview techniques.

New York editor-in-chief Adam Moss introduced “three of the longer lasting writers at the magazine,” Steve Fishman, Vanessa Grigoriadis and Jennifer Senior, who each read selections from their iconic cover stories—a profile of Bernie Madoff, Lady Gaga, and a sociological exploration of “why parents hate parenting,” respectively.

In the Q&A that followed, Ms. Grigoriadis was asked about her ability to “seduce the celebrity, to get her to … share intimate details of her life, only to end up reading a piece in which many things are said about her that she doesn’t particularly wish were said about her.”

“I never do that!” Ms. Grigoriadis replied indignantly. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she added, with only a trace of irony. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 6/28/12 12:00pm

literary events

Rebecca Mead and Janet Groth.

Former New Yorker Receptionist Discusses Misogyny, the Condé Nast Cafeteria and Her New Memoir

“Twenty-one year flat-line” was the way that Janet Groth, receptionist at the New Yorker from 1957-1978 described her aforementioned career last night at the reading of her memoir The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker at Greenlight Bookstore.

Ms. Groth recounted a time of William Shawn, E.B. White and Joseph Mitchell with a slightly nostalgic but none too romanticized air. She recalled telling the man who first interviewed her for the position that she wanted to write. “Can you type?” was his response. Not professionally, she told him. He reviewed her resume and inquired about a short story prize she had won while in college. “Did you type that?” Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 6/26/12 12:30pm

Young Ones

Instagram photo from @rookiemag.

Rookie Road Trip: Teenage Editor Tavi Gevinson Eats Cupcakes With Fangirls in Brooklyn

By the time Tavi Gevinson arrived at Littlefield in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon a full hour late (her plane had been delayed), the venue was packed with waify, whimsically dressed teenage girls in carefully considered outfits. There were some shrieks from the audience as the revelation that Ms. Gevinson had arrived spread around the room, and a few trembling “oh my god’s” were emitted as the 16-year-old editor-in-chief took the stage. Pink crepe paper streamers were strung along the walls and metallic stars were had been stuck around the stage. There were boxes of cupcakes on the tables and a few moms chatted in the background.

Ms. Gevinson read from her Rookie DIY article “How to Bitchface,” demonstrating each of the facial expressions discussed and drawing loud laughs from a generous audience. Her voice had an air of self-assured confidence and grace, which was a welcome change from the syrupy tone of the young Rookie writers who read before her, even when she slipped up on a few notes in the text. “Sorry, I should have looked over this more,” Ms. Gevinson apologized to the audience. Read More

By Erica Schwiegershausen 6/25/12 9:00am

literary events

Will Patton, left, and Denis Johnson.

Denis Johnson Says His Novel Tree of Smoke, a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, “Shouldn’t Have Been Published”

“I’m here to sell books. That’s why I came,” Denis Johnson informed the audience after reading from his recently released book of plays, Soul of a Whore and Purvis: Two Plays in Verse, at BAM Thursday night. Despite this early disclaimer, Mr. Johnson appeared to thoroughly enjoy performing.

The crowd was about what we would have expected for an event series entitled “Eat, Drink & Be Literary” with a $50 ticket price—a mix of sweet-looking bespectacled couples with haphazardly tucked button downs and more seasoned residents of Park Slope who dressed in summer whites and chewed slowly. Not, in other words, stereotypical Denis Johnson fans. Read More