These days, everywhere I go tries hard to sell me on their martini. One place swears they make the coldest in town; another has a variety of vermouths that they ask me to select from. Meanwhile martinis have gotten dirtier than ever. (Oh, yours is "filthy." Ha ha.) It used to be so simple to order a martini. Now I have to put thought into it. Isn't the purpose of a martini, as with meditation, to give one's thoughts a break? |
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Up to 50% off gear for that impending resolution. |
| Embrace the holiday with a list of films that will last you until (at least) January. |
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I used to be able to sing track seven off the album and the whole stadium would know it. These days I can sing the first single and the stadium don't know it. It happens in everyone's career. I don't like that.
In my particular line of work, it's not about you; it's about them. I don't want to get up and do the same songs every night, but I also want to facilitate the best evening possible because people have paid good money to receive that. |
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From an incredible spate of new novels to nonfiction from some of our finest intellectuals, our favorites took us to dazzling new frontiers. |
| This might just be the best sale of the season. |
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Christmas comes just once a year and sometimes it comes early. I think I speak for the entire shebeen when I say...GREAT FARKING TONSILS OF ZEUS!!!! In sum, the Committee found substantial evidence that from at least 2017 to 2020, Representative Matt Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him. All of this is predictable, and very evanescent. This report is forever. In the annals of congressional sleazery, Matt Gaetz now stands as the modern exemplar of the form. However, in the universe of modern conservatism, he is now a bigger star than he ever was. Just you watch. |
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 A (Probably Too) Comprehensive Guide to Sex in Movies This Year |
Daniel Craig snowballing Drew Starkey. Harris Dickinson commanding that Nicole Kidman drink milk out of a saucer. Kristen Stewart asking Katy O'Brian to show her how she masturbates. Josh O'Connor playfully slapping Mike Faist's boner. These are but a few images that defined sex at the movies this year. If there's any doubt as to the prevalence of cinematic sex, and its ability to feature squarely in a critical darling that just may take home an armful of Oscars, look no further than Sean Baker's Anora, in which a sex worker with a heart of glass is swept up by the son of a Russian oligarch. In addition to the big movies like Challengers and Babygirl, some small ones also demanded consideration, like the tale of challenged ethical non-monogamy Throuple and Joanna Arnow's hilariously cringey exploration of kink, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed. |
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Inside the Restless Mind of A Complete Unknown Director James Mangold |
Say what you want about the merits of James Mangold's super-hyped new Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, just don't call it a biopic. "It's a way of putting your movie down," says the director and cowriter of the film, which stars Timothée Chalamet and will be released on Christmas Day amid a blizzard of rave reviews. "It's a term used as a pejorative to indicate this cradle-to-grave story with lots of cameos of famous people marching in and out. When people use that term, they mean something that feels like it doesn't earn its own emotional gravity—that it's living off the 'it really happened' fumes to give itself an integrity that the actual work of art may not have." |
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What Does a $55,000 Whisky Taste Like? |
As we contemplate the light-amber liquid in our long-stemmed tasting glasses, Shinji Fukuyo uses a surprising word to describe the delicate flavors in his latest creation: antique. Fukuyo is the chief blender for House of Suntory, the esteemed Japanese whisky producer perhaps best known to non- aficionados as the brand that brought Bill Murray to Tokyo as its pitchman in the 2003 movie Lost in Translation. Here in an elegant hotel dining room in midtown Manhattan, it is very much Suntory time again. And my lucky fellow tasters and I are about to sample a rare new bottle—with a price tag that's hard to fathom. Fukuyo has come to New York to introduce the Hibiki 40-Year, the oldest "expression" ever offered of Suntory's premium blended-whisky brand. It combines five different whiskies from three separate distilleries. Just 400 bottles of the Hibiki 40-Year are being made available for sale globally at a retail price of $35,000 each. |
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It's Time to Just Buy Them Some Uggs |
I won't lie to you: It's late. We're in buzzer-beater, Hail Mary, "Mike Tyson last shot at greatness" territory. Whatever sports metaphor you want, we're there, well past the time to think about luxury, tech, and all the standard gifts. The big day, assuming that's also December 25, for you, is fast approaching. Most standard shipping deadlines are tonight, December 17. The most important of which, in my mind, is for Ugg. Slippers are a no-fail holiday gift, something you get your dad alongside a bottle of whiskey. When in doubt, they won't hate a new slipper. This year, though, I've been bullish on this pair of leather Ugg Tasmans. They're a standout gift in our big Gifts for Men roundup, easily one of the most popular gifts on Esquire this year. I got my brother a pair. He's in love. Since they're made with smooth, tanned leather—instead of the normal soft sheepskin—they feel, and look, a lot more luxe. They're even more giftable. So this is my advice to you: Buy a pair for everyone who's still not checked off your list. It'll do the trick. |
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The Woman Who Made Us All Italian |
Fifty years ago, French gastronomy reigned as the aspirational cuisine of choice—for restaurant diners and for home cooks. But we were in the dark ages when it came to regional Italian cooking. We didn't know about fresh pasta or why the shape of the pasta is as important as the ingredients in the sauce. We'd never heard of pesto or risotto or pancetta. Hell, we didn't even know Parmesan from Parmigiano-Reggiano. All of these remained a faraway mystery to the average eater. And then one woman changed it all and turned us all into amateur Italians. You may know her because of certain dishes of hers that have come to be deified. Lemon roast chicken. Tomato, butter, and onion sauce. Her Bolognese. Probably you know her simply by her first name: Marcella. |
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The Cup of Coffee That'll Never Get Cold |
What gets me out of bed every morning isn't the idea that today is a new day to conquer or that I should be making the most out of life. It's the promise of a cup of coffee. The first thing I do is make a beeline to my kitchen and brew a hot mug of steaming coffee. I know from one too many scorched tongues that it'll be too hot to drink right away, so I let it cool down. I go do something else for a bit, and then I come back to my coffee. I take a sip, and most of the time it's disappointingly cold. Fellow hot-beverage lovers know the struggle—unless you time your wait perfectly, precisely, and accurately, you miss out on that super-short window of enjoying a just hot enough cup of coffee, and that walk of shame to the microwave never gets any easier, does it? | |
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