News from Elsewhere

Barbarian Days, William Finnegan’s long-awaited memoir, is perfect late-summer reading. An excerpt appeared recently in The New Yorker right around the time I was introduced to this short film about the surfer Curt Harper. 

The “Honduran Michael Phelps”: WNYC aired a lovely story in their First Timers series about learning to swim at thirty-five. 

Not wholly unrelated, all this water talk reminds me of Rick Poynor’s column from June on Max Dupain’s photograph.

POTUS playlists: The big Twitter news this week was that President Obama posted two Spotify “vacation playlists.” Canadian magazine The Walrus responded with an imagined summer playlist from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The East Village breathes a huge sigh of relief as B&H reopens

Urban fail: NYC mayor considers removing pedestrian plazas in midtown. The always astute Justin Davidson on the news here.

A recent Maharam Story on Leonard Koren and the bath. Our own Veronique Vienne wrote on his books here in April.

Playwright David Hare has a new memoir—out in the US this fall. An excerpt appeares in the Guardian this week (worth it just for the photo of Helen Mirren).

Enjoy the dog days …

—Eugenia Bell