Its that time of the year again, when the cream of the country’s elitists gather in New York for a three day talkfest which is likely to emit more hot air and do more damage to global warming than all the foreigners (think French tourists burping garlic and cheese, German tourists with their beer burps at Oktoberfest in Lexington Ave, and the British with their foul smelling fish & chips) enjoying their New York vacations.  We’re talking about the ninth annual New Yorker Festival, which runs Oct 3-5. Photo copyrights - CondéNet, Inc.

A three-day congregation of writers, artists, thinkers, strategists, and performers, returns for its ninth year, from October 3rd through October 5th. Taking place a month before the Presidential election, this year’s Festival will feature incisive political programming and a weekend-long voter-registration drive, along with participants from across disciplines and continents.

Fiction Night returns on Friday, with writers joining New Yorker editors to discuss the themes that inform their work. On Saturday night, we’ll be joined by directors, singers, and humorists. The Festival concludes on Sunday, with talks, master classes, and site-specific events around town.

Here’s the full festival schedule and more details from the New York Times. Includes a discussion on race and class, moderated by New Yorker magazine’s editor David Remnick, with participants including scholar Cornel West, the linguist John H. McWhorter and the journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, among others. There’s also a panel on political humor with Andy Borowitz, Samantha Bee of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and Allison Silverman, executive producer of “The Colbert Report”.

Then there’s a discussion with Oliver Stone about his coming movie “W.,” based on the life of George W. Bush; and interviews with Stephen Colbert, Elizabeth Edwards, Clint Eastwood, the soprano Dawn Upshaw, the novelist Haruki Murakami and others.

Oh, yeah - bunch of librul elitisist tree-huggers ganging up to bash poor ol’ W. Classic New York. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Obama buttons and posters festooned at the New York hotels this bunch will be staying at. I say we rendition the whole gang to Gitmo and let them continue the discussion on political humor and W’s policies over there, with some breaks in between for waterboarding. Sleep derivation likely won’t work, cause they haven’t really slept for 8 years, since the Florida chads sent Al Gore into exile.

Posted on October 3rd, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Festivals, NYC