Post-Gay? No, Two Boys Is Pre-Gay

J. Bryan Lowder: “I’m interested in how impressively and arrestingly [the new Nico Muhly opera] illuminates the psychic space where [labels like ‘gay’] honestly don’t (quite yet) apply. … It’s all the stuff that is retroactively explained by ‘gay’ once you’re out, but is something else while you still don’t quite realize that you’re in.”

The New Yorker Reviews Virgin America’s Flight Safety Video

Richard Brody: “What’s fascinating, at first, is the mere idea; then, the whimsical tone (the electronic nun-sense, the snark about ‘the .001 percent of you who have never operated a seat belt before – really?!?’). But as the video progresses, it offers remarkable signs of the cinematic unconscious – or a subtly brazen audacity – at work.”

How Jeremy Denk Made Peace With The Goldberg Variations

“In fact, the Goldberg Variations have caused me more misery than any other piece of music in history, with the exception of the Tchaikovsky Trio (for totally different reasons). How many hours have I spent backstage fretting, knowing that there will be several insufferable know-it-alls in the audience, with their 700 recordings and deeply considered opinions?”