Detroit is a place that demands experience, not observation. The powerful forces that converged there — the state, industry, and unions; of capital and labor — give it near-mythical status in the American imagination. read more »

I first wished George Steinbrenner dead around 1998, during the American League playoffs. The Yankees owner would have been collateral damage. He was sharing his box seats with Rupert Murdoch and Rudolph Giuliani. read more »

In the decades following the U.S. Civil War there was a rash of monument building. Plaques were sunk into ground still littered with shards of weaponry and human beings. read more »

The nonprofit urban environmentalist organization Shorewalkers has been instrumental in preserving and promoting New York and New Jersey’s public parks, shorelines and riverfronts. read more »

It’s hard to come by a political optimism that isn’t served up with winking campaign propaganda or tone-deaf idealism, but two recently published books that survey the dark developments of our time through the eyes of preeminent intellectuals read like affirming challenges to forge a better world. read more »

For city dwellers in summertime, movie theaters are the ultimate indoor oasis. Dark and cool, they save us from New York’s humidity, noise and crowds — and there are plenty of non-blockbuster movie venues to counter the worst effects of summer. These are highlights from their summer programming. read more »

If you’ve ever taken comfort in buying “certified fair trade” instead of just organic, or optimistic about driving a fully electric vehicle within the next five years, you’ll have to think again. read more »

Poor George. Lonesome George, the subject of a video installation by Rachel Berwick: he’s a 90-year-old tortoise from the Galápagos Islands who, thanks to some overeager biologists, is now the last surviving member of his subspecies. That’s how it is to think about ecosystems in 2010 — you have to consider The End. read more »

In the late 1990s, an art movement called relational aesthetics undertook, according to theoretician Nicholas Bourriaud, to put art to work. The idea was that art-making would be a socially progressive act, repairing the social gaps identified by Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone: the fragmenting of community, the demise of collaboration and so on. read more »

For the most part, Exit Through the Gift Shop follows Thierry Guetta, a French amateur cameraman with long sideburns that merge with his mustache from under a fedora. The owner of a vintage clothing shop in Los Angeles, Guetta is an obsessive recorder who shoots practically every moment of his life on video, collecting tape after tape, without ever watching them. read more »