October 19, 2020 Issue

My favorite piece in this week’s New Yorker is Ian Frazier’s "Talk of the Town" story “Biting Back,” an account of his latest visit with artist Scott LoBaido at his gallery on New Dorp Lane, Staten Island. I like it mainly because of one particular sentence – a description of what Frazier sees as he approaches LoBaido, who is taking a break at a table on the sidewalk:

From a distance, a vertical view would include the table, covered with a white cloth; a Martini in a Martini glass (yellow dab of lemon peel); a pack of Marlboros; a brushed-chrome Zippo lighter; the seated artist, deliberately unshaved, dressed in a white T-shirt and a gray knit hoodie (unzipped; purchased at a Salvation Army store); the awning of the gallery, which says “American Artist, Scott LoBaido”; and, atop all that, on the roof, an unrelated billboard for a personal-injury law firm, with the words “Bite Back” in big letters and a picture of a snarling dog in a spiked collar.

That is an amazing combination of objects and details – the verbal equivalent of an inspired street photo.

Postscript: Two other Frazier "Talk" stories on LoBaido are "Don't Tread On Me" (October 3, 2016) and "Mr. 'T' " (November 28, 2016).