The places that can withstand change feel life-affirming.’ Russ & Daughters’ Niki Russ Federman

Stinge Watching Is the Opposite of Binge Watching

JESSE WALKER: Taylor Swift Is Just the Latest Subject in a Long History of Pop Conspiracy Theories.

Conspiracy theories about the music industry come in many flavors. A century ago, to give one of the uglier examples, Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent claimed that a “Jewish combine” was suppressing gentile music and promoting jazz. “Popular music is a Jewish monopoly,” the paper declared in 1921. “Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, the slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.”

You didn’t have to be a Ford-style bigot to suspect that a cabal was behind the music you disliked. In 1958, Vance Packard—the author of The Hidden Persuaders, a best-selling attack on the advertising industry—testified to the U.S. Senate that “the public was manipulated into liking rock and roll” and that “the rock and roll, hillbilly, and Latin American movements were largely engineered, manipulated for the interests of the [music-licensing group] BMI.” When a Michigan senator objected that many of his constituents genuinely like hillbilly music, Packard agreeably replied, “I like some of it too, but I think the quality of it lately has been degenerating.”

The psychedelic ’60s gave us such pamphlets as David A. Noebel’s Communism, Hypnotism, and the Beatles(which claimed that the Kremlin was using the Fab Four to induce “artificial neurosis” in the American child) and Gary Allen’s That Music: There’s More to It Than Meets the Ear (which speculated that the Beatles’ music was “put together by behavioral scientists in some ‘think tank’”).

Curiously, the magnum opus 2006 book Recording the Beatles is over 500 pages long, and there’s not onemention of those behavioral scientists in their think tank! (On the other hand, Oliver Stone just called and said, “Wake up, sheeple! That’s how deep the conspiracy goes…”)

On the other hand, given that Walker’s article is in the Atlantic,physicians, heal thy selves: Who Said It, Adolf Hitler or Taylor Swift?

The places that can withstand change feel life-affirming.’ Russ & Daughters’ Niki Russ Federman

Le Bernardin

New York is all about change. The places that can withstand it feel life-affirming. Le Bernardin is one of them. It’s got three Michelin stars and is elegant but ungaudy. It’s a power-lunch type of place, but, for me, it’s a special occasion restaurant. And there’s a synergy with Russ & Daughters in that it’s fish-forward. 

Fraunces Tavern

As a city, we don’t have a lot of historical places that are preserved, so Fraunces Tavern, which dates back to 1762, is special. George Washington has one of his last meetings there. It’s cosy in the winter, with all these different dark rooms. They make great cocktails and the food is what I’d call “tasteful Americana” — a good burger, salads.

Al Di La Trattoria

I live in Park slope, the Brooklyn neighbourhood where I grew up. Al Di La, which just celebrated 25 years, is the platonic form of my favourite spot. Delicious Italian food from husband and wife owners, served in a homey way — that sweet spot of comfort and excellence.

Katz’s Deli

Katz, famous for its pastrami, is just a block from Russ & Daughters and feels like out sister establishment. There’s a grit and hustle there — it’s crowded and you have to figure out its ordering system . . . but it’s fun. And you can go at 3am if you need a place to recover.

Veniero’s

It’s a cheap-and-cheerful 130-year-old Italian pastry shop and café in the East Village. My go-to is their cannoli. Growing up, that was the treat when I went there with my parents. We need to cherish these places, they offer so much richness.

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