Category Archives: Previews

Literature, Magazines, Politics, Previews, Stories

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – May 23, 2022

Leave a comment


An illustration of a cat with its claws reaching out.

Ana Juan’s “Making Mischief” – The artist discusses cats, letting fate choose a pet, and spirit animals.

By Françoise Mouly, Art by Ana Juan, May 16, 2022

It is thought that cats lived alongside people for thousands of years, hunting the rodents that inevitably accompany human settlements, before they deigned to become domesticated—a state that many cat owners can attest feels provisional to this day. One research paper on the history of the house cat observes, “Let us just say that our cats do not take instruction well. Such attributes suggest that whereas other domesticates were recruited from the wild by humans who bred them for specific tasks, ancestors of domestic cats most likely chose to live among humans because of opportunities they found for themselves.” 

Read more

Books, Culture, Photography, Previews, Stories, Tourism, Travel

Travel & Photography: ‘Greek Islands’ (May 2022)

Leave a comment

An endless expanse of shimmering waters paired with unmatched Greek hospitality awaits visitors to the islands of the Aegean Sea. Each island is home to a unique spirit and mythology.

From Patmos (a favorite of Aga Khan) to Hydra (which captivated Henry Miller, Leonard Cohen and Sophia Loren), the islands are imbued with a seductive sense of history, tradition and adventure. 

 Several films over the decades have been filmed on them, including Boy on a Dolphin (1957) on Hydra, The Big Blue (1988) on Amorgos and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) on Santorini.

Sources of inspiration for millennia, the ancient ruins, cliffside monasteries and volcanic rims are all can’t-miss sights. Venturing on an Odyssey of their own, the author and the photographer boarded a traditional Greek sailboat and set out to capture the calming atmosphere, quintessential characters and breathtaking architecture of these gems of the Aegean. A spectacular journey re-created in the pages of Greek Islands.

Read more

Business, Finance, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Stories

Cover Preview: Barron’s Magazine – May 16, 2022

Leave a comment

Barron’s Magazine, May 16, 2022 – How Workers Gained Leverage, and Why They Won’t Lose It Soon

Employees in many industries have seized on the pandemic’s upheaval to score higher pay, better benefits, flexible schedules, and more. While some gains will fade, a number of economic and demographic forces suggest workers have the edge.

Art, Books, Previews, Profiles, Stories, Videos

New Art Books: ‘Venice – A Sketchbook Guide’ (2022)

Video Leave a comment

Matthew Rice is a long-time observer and illustrator of cities, buildings and all those who inhabit them, with an uncanny ability to express the energy of a place through a few lines of ink and splashes of paint.

For years, Venice has been a source of deep creative inspiration for him; and now, in Venice: A Sketchbook Guide, he captures the highlights of this most beguiling of Italian cities. Unsurprisingly, given his abiding passion for architecture, Matthew provides a wealth of information about the ‘stones’ of Venice, including an illustrated guide to the main building styles of the city – Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Modern – and exemplars of its balconies, bridges and campaniles.

Further sections explore the city’s sestieri – its six residential quarters – as well as its history, paintings, festivals, wildlife and, not least, its cicchetti and aperitivi. Following the same landscape format as Matthew’s real-life sketchbooks, Venice: A Sketchbook Guide will combine enchanting watercolour illustrations with an informed, personal and witty text, and promises to delight all visitors to Venice, armchair or actual.

Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Cover Preview: Science Magazine – May 13, 2022

Leave a comment

A survey of cell types across tissues as part of the Human Cell Atlas, mapped with single-cell transcriptomics in three papers in this issue, lays the foundation for understanding how cellular composition and gene expression vary across the human body in health, and for understanding how genes act in disease. 

Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Cover Previews: Nature Magazine – May 12, 2022

Leave a comment

Volume 605 Issue 7909

Nova explosions occur when a runaway thermonuclear reaction is triggered in a white dwarf that is accreting hydrogen from a companion star. The massive amount of energy released ultimately creates the bright light source that can be seen with a naked eye as a nova. But some of the energy has been predicted to be lost during the initial stages of the reaction as a flash of intense luminosity — a fireball phase — detectable as low-energy X-rays. In this week’s issue, Ole König and his colleagues present observations that corroborate this prediction. Using scans taken by the instrument eROSITA, the researchers identified a short, bright X-ray flash from the nova YZ Reticuli a few hours before it became visible in the optical spectrum. The cover shows an artist’s impression of the nova in the fireball phase. 

Business, International, Magazines, Politics, Previews, Stories

Previews: The Economist Magazine – May 14, 2022

Leave a comment

The Economist, May 14, 2022 – The Indian economy is being rewired. The opportunity is immense—and so are the stakes.

Art, Exhibitions, Previews, Profiles, Views

Top NYC Art Exhibits: Eric Zener, Gallery Henoch

Video Leave a comment

Eric Zener – Rising – May 5 – 28, 2022

Gallery Henoch is pleased to present Rising, an exhibition of new paintings and resins by Eric Zener, which will run May 5 – 28, 2022.

Zener appropriates the natural world to portray moments of personal decision and change. “He uses vast expanses of water and sprawling forests as signifiers of this realm of forces greater than ourselves. In his canvases we find divers suspended midair or swimmers plunging into deep blue water. Each of these subjects are consumed by their activity, and we can savor this state of immersion vicariously through Zener’s work,” observes Peter Brock in the exhibition brochure.

The artist reveals little about the individuals appearing in his paintings: their faces are turned away or obscured. With the focus shifted away from their identity, we are encouraged to consider our relationship to their experience.

While many of the paintings depict figures situated in water, a number of them explore the mysteries of nature devoid of human presence. In these the viewer is introduced to a world characterized by densely forested views or disturbed water. In these works, Zener finds a “connection to an ephemeral experience” that transcends the personal.

Eric Zener lives and works in the Bay Area and has been exhibited in the United States and internationally for over 25 years.

Books, Literature, Magazines, Previews, Reviews, Stories

Preview: Times Literary Supplement – May 13, 2022

Leave a comment

Times Literary Supplement May 13, 2022 – Raphael: worn out by love, or work? | James Hall [reviews] Antonio Forcellino’s newly translated biography of the “most rounded, efficient and consistently accomplished of Renaissance artists”