Play the Matrix

New York is consistently a good read. I discovered this by accident, sort of. Several years ago a friend of mine was complaining that she had asked her mother for a subscription to The New Yorker and her mom got her New York instead. I found by reading it each week that there’s a stable of good music and film critics on staff, they’ve executed a great redesign over the last two years, the front of book and regular columns are solid- particularly Kurt Andersen’s Imperial City column, and the crosswords are a Tuesday- or Wednesday-level NY Times degree of difficultly. My only complaint is the hit-or-miss features (my bias is based on my interest level). Funny- as a NYer now, I turn right to the Approval Matrix. And I do my own online as well- see how you score. The Web site is constantly updated a la Gawker with media news and its restaurant-industry blog Grub Street is interesting as well.