20 Best Episodes of\xa0Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ranked |
Larry David swears that season 12 is the end of\xa0Curb Your Enthusiasm.\xa0We're supposed to believe him... even though he's said it before! We\xa0Curb\xa0fans\xa0here at Esquire are still in denial. Or, as I like to call it, we just\xa0know\xa0better. As\xa0JB Smoove\xa0recently\xa0joked, "I don’t believe that, man."\xa0 \xa0 But if this is really Larry's final farewell, we should celebrate the 110-plus episodes he's given us so far. Not that I need the excuse! My colleague Adrienne Westenfeld and I asked our editor if "every episode" was an acceptable answer to "How many episodes should we include in our 'Best of' rankings?" For sanity's sake, we settled on a top 20—and even that was difficult. We had a meeting in Esquire's largest conference room for this one, which should tell you that this is very important work. |
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Inside the Censorship Scandal That Rocked Sci-Fi and Fantasy's Biggest Awards |
In Hollywood, a Hugo Award for best film or TV series may not carry the same cachet as an Oscar or an Emmy, but in bookstores from New York to Moscow, a bright Hugo Award badge on the cover of a novel can help it stand out. “We usually make a display in the store for the nominees and winners,” says Matthew Berger, co-owner of the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego. In their early days, the Hugo Awards recognized writers who have since become genre legends, like Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Frank Herbert; more recently, honorees have included modern masters like George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, and N.K. Jemisin. \xa0 Last week, the Hugo Awards melted down over unexplained disqualifications. Someone had stolen nominations from The Sandman legend Neil Gaiman, Babel author R. F. Kuang, Iron Widow novelist Xiran Jay Zhao, and fan writer Paul Weimer. All four of them earned enough votes to be finalists—and therefore eventually winners—but for unknown reasons, someone had secretly marked their works as “ineligible” after the first rounds of voting. Among sci-fi and fantasy fans, the uproar was immediate and intense. Insiders tell Esquire what really happened—and what it could mean for the future of literary awards. |
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Five Fits With: Niyi Okuboyejo, Designer of Post-Imperial |
"When I hit my forties, I started my own brand. I realized that as a creative, you only have so many ideas and they expire,” Lagos-born men’s designer Niyi Okuboyejo says of his label\xa0Post-Imperial. Cutting his teeth at Oscar De La Renta after studying women’s wear at Parsons, he claims the allure of the #menswear era crept in. “I was sending my portfolio to people, and they’d say, ‘Yeah, it's good, but dude, you dress really well. Have you considered doing men's?’” After freelancing for a while, Okuboyejo realized he was giving his best work to people who might not necessarily care. “[Dating back to] Parsons, one of the things that I was exploring was how to create within fashion from a perspective that channels the Black experience and the African diaspora.” \xa0 Niyi introduced his brand with accessories, but wanted to find an authentic way to stand out. “We started working with a few dye artisans in Nigeria using a process called Adire, which is a traditional dyeing process that is one of many developed by the Yorubas in the southwest region of Nigeria centuries ago. It's for ceremonial purposes and motifs have symbolic meaning. So, if you were to understand the motif, you can actually tell a story with the fabric and the symbols.” With a unique point of view and increased sales at markets, Okuboyejo was able to expand into full collections. Niyi and I discuss the tenets of Post-Imperial, his love for Yves Saint Laurent, how wearing color and print might unlock your repressed personality, and plenty more. |
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Feud: Capote vs. the Swans: How Truman Capote’s Esquire Stories Ruined His Life |
In the mid-’50s, Norman Mailer described\xa0Truman Capote\xa0as “a ballsy little guy,” yet also “the most perfect writer of my generation, he writes the best sentences, word for word, rhythm for rhythm.” Mailer added, “he has less to say than any good writer I know,” due to his “attractions to Society.” \xa0 It comes as no surprise that\xa0Ryan Murphy, who is drawn to the sordid complexities underneath polished, shiny surfaces, chose to explore the public coming-apart of one of the last great literary celebrities. In\xa0Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, which debuted its first two episodes on FX this Wednesday night (streaming on Hulu), he takes on the Esquire story that ruined Capote’s standing with his society friends.\xa0 |
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Nikki Haley Thinks Texas Has Every Right to Peace Out of the Union |
In the state capitol down in the home office of American sedition, every day during her time as governor, Nikki Haley walked by a statue of John C. Calhoun and, on the wall nearby, a marble rendition of the South Carolina Ordinance Of Secession in which South Carolina officially declared its sedition from the United States. Turns out it's a helluva lot easier taking down a flag than it is jackhammering off a memorial to treason right in front of a statue of treason's intellectual champion. As my friend Roy Blount once put it—secession was a bad idea at the time, and it looks even worse in retrospect. \xa0 My point is that Nikki Haley knows better. She worked around secession's relics every day, and she worked in the second state Capitol building in South Carolina. It was made necessary in 1864, when General Sherman's troops burned the old one, and most of Columbia with it. So, having astonished the world by "forgetting" slavery's causal relationship to the Civil War, Haley\xa0now has endorsed secession\xa0as the right of every state. |
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Moncler's Down Vest Is the Key to Truly Luxe Layering |
The vest is an unsung hero. A winter warmer that transitions seamlessly to (slightly) warmer weather. A layer that gives you everything you need without demanding any concessions in return. A way to stay cozy and comfortable on the road without sacrificing an undue amount of suitcase space. Really, the vest can do it all. \xa0 Provided, of course, you have the\xa0right\xa0vest. And as it happens, we've found it. It's sleek and light but ultra-warm. Softer than you could imagine but remarkably durable. Packable, layerable—all those good things and more. And it's made by the experts at Moncler, a brand that's specialized in down outerwear since its inception. Here's why it's worth the splurge. |
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