Features

The Last Gentleman

George Trow was a cultural dissident living outside the mainstream for as long as he could stand it. And then he couldn’t.

What They Were Magically Thinking

At home, in the car, and behind the curtain with Vanessa Redgrave and Joan Didion as they prepare to bring Didion’s harrowing recent past to the stage.

Intelligencer

Hillary Strategy: Get Black Female Voters

New plan to court once-dependable demo.

Dinkins Doubts Rudy’s Run

The former mayor says Giuliani will not prevail.

�Sopranos’ Spinoff Showcase!

Creator David Chase says movie an unlikely possibility.

The Case of the Snippy Fashion Blogger

Style Sherlocks sniff out clues.

Big Regrets From Former Mr. Big

Sex and the City star Chris Noth and the city.

It Happened Last Week

As temperatures soared into the surreal realm of the high sixties last week, some wishful thinking seemed in order.

Blood on the Chessboard

Violence intrudes on sleepy Village Chess Shop: �It was resentment � building and building under the skin until�pop!�it burst.�

Up in Folk

How does Joe Boyd remember enough to write a memoir?

100-Person Poll: Bad Words

What’s offensive? Can language be banned? A random poll at Union Square.

Strategist

Best Bets

A short-sleeved shirt and other artifacts of nerdophilia.

Shop News

Store openings this week.

Ask A Clerk

Alessi, 130 Greene St., nr. Prince St.; 212-941-7300

Look Book

An admirer of Marc Chagall and Posh Spice.

Restaurant Review

Self-satisfaction’s more important than the satisfying food at the Waverly Inn.

In Season

There’s a new potato in town, and not only is its flesh a rakish shade of purple that even Prince might find a little loud, but it’s also really good for you.

Great Room

The last great roller-skating rink meets its end in neon style.

Real Estate

The brownstone shell game in Harlem.

Movers

Word has it that David Geffen's quietly shopping the twelve-room duplex he bought just eighteen months ago at 810 Fifth Avenue.

The Open-House Log

Three-bedroom, one-bath co-op with a separate home office.

The Culture Pages

Shut Up and Dance

James Murphy, the one-man band who brought disco back, is back.

The Movie Review

Ken Loach’s socialist twist on a brother-vs.-brother revolutionary epic.

New Directors/New Films

MoMA and Film Society of Lincoln Center, March 21 to April 1.

The Theater Review

Why Liev Schreiber is the most commanding presence in Broadway drama.

The Book Review

Jerome Groopman’s book about medicine is as engaging as a TV doctor show, and far more illuminating.

Pocahontas’s New Dad: Matthew Sharpe

Matthew Sharpe's new novel, Jamestown, is a funny, violent adaptation of the Pocahontas story.

The TV Review

Jeff Goldblum and Andy Richter are both charismatic in their new shows, but only one’s worth watching.

Planet Earth

Sigourney Weaver, Discovery Channel, and the BBC have teamed up for a month of Sundays to show us what 70 camera operators in 200 locations can do.

Pilgrimage to Karbala

Karbala, in Iraq, is the site of the murder of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson in 680 A.D., in this remarkable documentary from Kevin Sim.

The Wedding Bells

Why executive producer David E. Kelley should be so hard on marriage is a mystery to me.

Long Story Short

How �This American Life’ Turned Radio Into TV� And Brought a Dead Bull Back to Life.

The Classical Music Review

Too bad George Bernard Shaw never got to see his work get the Lerner and Loewe treatment.

The Approval Matrix: Week of March 26, 2007

Our deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies.

Columns

The Power Grid

With Chuck Hagel waffling, does any presidential candidate have the courage or savvy to rescue the GOP from its Iraq-policy morass?

The Week

Things to Do After �Dinner’

Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party dominates the Brooklyn Museum’s new feminist-art wing (opening March 23).

CSI: Central Park West

Do-it-yourself DNA sampling.

Break Dancing

New York City Ballet is on hiatus, making now a perfect time to check out the other great companies around town.

The Party Line

What to do while you wait in line at Danny Meyer's Shake Shack.

Another Spring Awakening

Highlights from the Spring EATfest, which returns for a three-week run of work by up-and-comers.

Departments

Letters to the Editor

Readers sound off on Rudy Giuliani, praising kids, Britney Spears, and more.