Three nice moments from the week: My son asking permission from his teacher to go the bathroom during class, via Zoom. The neighbor banging his hockey stick on the sidewalk during the 7 p.m. cheer for essential workers. Watching the “Hamilton” episode of “Some Good News.” Below, some stories from The New Yorker culture pages:
1. “Bill whistled while he worked. You know, Mozart and Stravinsky. Bill could whistle these fantastic melodies. But I found it just a little, tiny bit irritating.” That’s Elaine de Kooning complaining about her husband, Willem (Bill) de Kooning.
2. Richard Brody has selected forty of the best films on Netflix and eighty-three of the best movies on Amazon Prime. Now he offers twenty-three short films of “unusual artistry.”
3. “I turned to Brahms because I always turn to Brahms, in moods bright or dark.” Alex Ross writes about music and grief.
4. Anna Shechtman and Erik Agard introduce Partner Mode, a New Yorker crossword feature that lets you solve puzzles with a (remote) friend.
5. “Holleran berates himself for not being more invested in politics, for not being angrier, for what he repeatedly characterizes as his uselessness.” Garth Greenwell revisits the writer Andrew Holleran, who chronicled gay life in New York during the aids crisis.
6. A teen-age girl travels from Pennsylvania to New York to get an abortion. Naomi Fry writes about the powerful realism of the director Eliza Hittman and her new film “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”
7. “It’s very hard. I keep wondering: Is this aliens sending a message? Is this Mother Earth sending a message? Is there so much negative energy on Earth right now that we created this virus? You do your best to stay positive.” Patti LuPone speaks with Rachel Syme.
8. “The Wi-Fi doesn’t reach the guest room.” Calvin Trillin offers a humor piece about a grandfather sheltering with his family.
9. “I was young, broke, privileged, and oblivious; I believed that New York was the exact center of the universe. As such, I was almost too perfectly positioned to receive the Strokes as a kind of nihilist gospel.” Amanda Petrusich on her journey with the rock band.
10. A new poem by Deborah Garrison: “After Sex, Checking for Instagram Posts by My Kids, and Other Avoidance Strategies.”