Processing a Tragedy in Monterey Park

Plus: how Native Americans will shape the future of water; two key things to know about this confusing economy; and “Learning from Las Vegas.” View in browser | Update your preferences Friday, January 27, 2023 In today’s newsletter, violence in America, and then: • How Native Americans will shape the future of water • Two key things to know about this confusing economy • Revisiting a revolutionary book on architecture Processing a Tragedy in Monterey Park America’s first suburban Chinatown becomes one of the latest communities to struggle for explanations in the wake of a mass shooting. Photograph by Mario Tama / Getty “Do you know who the victims are? Are they Asian?” On the morning after last week’s shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, in the Los Angeles County city of Monterey Park, where eleven people were killed, residents grappled with the reality of what had happened in a place they had long considered safe. As Emily Witt reports, “The question seemed to be rooted in disbelief that the most grotesque expression of American violence could find its way even here.” In California, gun-safety laws are stricter than in many other parts of the country, and Monterey Park is a place where “this kind of thing does not happen,” as one resident put it. But the repeated tragedy of mass shootings—crossing lines of “social class, race, immigration status”—has resulted in an “absence of a comprehensible explanation beyond easily accessible weapons.” “It has almost become a kind of travel writing,” Witt writes, “mapping the path of gun violence around every American demographic.” Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the News Desk Letter from the Southwest How Native Americans Will Shape the Future of Water in the West Tribal nations hold the rights to significant portions of the Colorado River. In the increasing drought, some are showing the way to sustainability. By Rachel Monroe Letter from Biden’s Washington The Trump Enablers Dance On As the ex-President runs unopposed, so far, even Facebook welcomes him back. By Susan B. Glasser Our Columnists Two Key Things to Know About This Confusing Economy Output and employment have rebounded impressively from the pandemic, but the Fed needs to heed some warning signs. By John Cassidy Editor’s Pick How Do We Change America? Illustration by Jamiel Law Five Memphis police officers were indicted yesterday in the death of Tyre Nichols, a twenty-nine-year-old Black man, following a traffic stop. Video of the incident is expected to be released publicly tonight. In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor wrote about how the quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police: “We cannot insist on ‘real change’ in the United States by continuing to use the same methods, arguments, and failed political strategies that have brought us to this moment.” The New Yorker Recommends On Fridays, we’ve been spotlighting recommendations from New Yorker contributors. Today, we spoke with the television critic Inkoo Kang, who joined the magazine last fall. She’s written recently about the HBO drama “The Last of Us” and the TV adaptation of “Fleishman Is in Trouble.” Best film that didn’t receive an Oscar nomination: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Broker” was hands-down my favorite film of 2022. Set in South Korea and starring Song Kang-ho, of “Parasite,” it’s probably the warmest, funniest, most deeply felt drama about baby-trafficking you’ll ever see. Like Kore-eda’s 2018 Palme d’Or-winning “Shoplifters”—a nearly perfect film to which “Broker” is intended as a companion piece—it follows a chosen family formed of social outcasts. “Broker” wasn’t submitted by either Japan, Kore-eda’s native country, or Korea for the Best International Feature Film category, but its beautiful characterizations and surprise-filled plotting are not to be missed. 🎥 Best companion to an Oscar-nominated movie: Hong Chau has been one of my favorite actors to watch onscreen ever since her breakthrough, in 2017’s “Downsizing,” so I’m glad she clinched an Oscar nod for “The Whale,” a terrible film she’s pretty good in. (That description also applies to the other movie she’s currently in: “The Menu.”) I hope the awards attention means that at least a few people will seek out her lead performance in Andrew Ahn’s “Driveways,” the 2019 indie in which she plays a single mom cleaning out the overstuffed house of her recently deceased sister, while her young son forges a relationship with an elderly neighbor (played by Brian Dennehy). Ahn’s understated approach allows his actors to create their characters outside of contrivance, and Chau delivers a wonderful performance as an overwhelmed woman grappling with the challenges of parenting a sensitive son. 🏆 The most recent thing I’ve seen that I can’t stop thinking about: “Tár” is the film I’ve wanted to argue with friends about ever since I caught it, last fall. It’s magisterial and exquisitely incisive, especially as a portrait of an entitled luminary who discovers that the rules governing the prerogatives of the powerful have shifted under her feet. It’s also undeniably flawed. Most excellent films have small faults you forgive or don’t, and then you move on. But I’ve been consumed with the small but lingering dissonances in “Tár”—don’t get me started on that Juilliard master-class scene. I reëmbraced classical music during the pandemic, resuming the piano lessons I gave up after college, and it was a delight to see that the writer-director Todd Field had gotten so many details right about the classical world. Apparently I’m not alone in being unable to shake Lydia Tár—the character’s social-media afterlife, especially on Twitter in the form of parody accounts, has been as life-sustaining as the androgynous-chic style worn by Cate Blanchett in the film. 🎶 Culture Dept. Cultural Comment Fifty Years of “Learning from Las Vegas” The cool appraisal of Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s revolutionary book has a lot to inspire the architects of today. By Christopher Hawthorne Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Matt Jackson Daily Shouts What I Would Have Done Differently as Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter I know we can’t go back and unpublish “Spare,” but maybe my ideas will help Harry when he “writes” the sequel. By Devorah Blachor and Wendi Aarons Crossword A Themed Puzzle For starters . . . By Rebecca Goldstein Daily Cartoon Friday, January 27th By Jon Adams P.S. Let there be light! On this day in 1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his incandescent lamp. Edison has been recognized as the genius behind dozens of modern innovations, including the phonograph and the alkaline battery. But, as Casey Cep has written, he was not so much an inventor as a perfecter of ideas. “My so-called inventions already existed in the environment,” Edison once said. “I’ve created nothing. Nobody does.” 💡 Today’s newsletter was written by Jessie Li. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.