October 2005 Archives
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Books
Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006
Comic book collector, superhero aficionado, and novelist Chip Kidd, who pays his rent designing book covers, mostly for the House of Knopf, is the subject of the new mid-career retrospective...
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Peanut
Past Due (August)
Finally, it’s time. Mommy’s off to the hospital, and Daddy, after months of careful training, completely forgets what he’s supposed to do. The newest chapter in our writer’s saga of contemporary paternity.
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Music
The Grass Is Blue, by Dolly Parton
I just discovered Dolly Parton's 1999 album The Grass Is Blue, a collection of sincere bluegrass interpretations of country classics. Sneering poseurs might shake their heads at Dolly, but they can...
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Books
My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism
Insights into the British media don't come more highly praised than Andrew Marr's My Trade, freshly issued in paperback. Marr, formerly the BBC's chief political correspondent, bares the secrets of...
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Magazines
Mastermind
Mastermind, less a magazine than it is a slim book, combines photography, writing, social commentary, and a heck of a lot of art direction. In the second issue, what at...
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New York, New York
Trick or Truffles
In New York, Halloween often sees parents guiding their kids on ransacking missions through enormous co-ops. Our food writer decides it’s time for childless adults to tip the tables and get their due.
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Music
Cambodian Rock
Just like Ethiopian soul in the '70s, Cambodian psychedelic garage rock from the '60s, called "circle dance music," was eventually crushed by the incoming political regime. The Khmer...
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Personal Essays
The Green Ghost of Sleepy Hollow
The Kinderhook area of New York is famously haunted. Though is it only by our own thoughts, or from something altogether different? Memories of home turn up the family spirits.
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Things
Lamb’s Pride Wool
Practiced knitters work one season ahead, planning spring sweaters in February and summer shrugs in April, which is why I'm making mittens in October. The best thing about fall knitting...
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The Education of Elisabeth Eckleman
Semester’s End
It’s Elisabeth Eckleman’s first year of college, and she has a lot of tough choices to make. In this installment, Elisabeth is hit with some unexpected news, and she’s faced with her most important decision yet.
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Movies
Preview of What Is It?
I have now watched the Quicktime preview to Crispin Glover's self-made, low-budget movie What Is It? at least a dozen times. Crispin is dressed like a chorus member from a...
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Reviews
Lone Star Statements
The praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about the best.
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Magazines
Carl’s Cars
Carl's Cars is a "magazine about people," but hey, aren't they all? What makes this Norwegian publication different is hard to nail down. Sure, there's a fashionable streak of one-upmanship...
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Gallery
New York Changing
How much do the faces of New York City—the buildings, the bridges, the stores—change in 70 years? An interview with photographer Douglas Levere, who rephotographed Berenice Abbott’s pictures of 1930s New York, plus a gallery of startling images.
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Music
Raised by Wolves
You cannot listen to Voxtrot without thinking of the Smiths or Belle & Sebastian--distinct echoes of each are all over this Austin quartet's Raised by Wolves EP. But when you hear...
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Birnbaum v.
Jonathan Lethem
A reactionary shudder is sweeping through the book world as the status quo realizes it’s terrified of literature. Our man in the mountains speaks with author Jonathan Lethem, who tears into the idea of “realist” vs. “anti-realist” fiction.
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Things
Strait-Line Chalk Line Reel
Lately, I've been painting my apartment. When I paint a room, I don't just paint a room. I usually add stripes, diagonals, half-tone walls. Why? Because I deserve punishment. Fortunately,...
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Letters From Idaho
Insects Will Not Take Over The World (They Already Own It)
As winter approaches, the insects go underground. What we will miss? Moths that can smell sex a mile away. Butterflies with tongues on their feet. Centipedes able to kill birds. Our man in Idaho reports from the pastoral.
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Things
Belly Bombs
Turn up your nose at Dunkin' Donuts and pass on the Krispy Kremes. Since 1953 the Vineyard Foodshop, aka Humphreys, in North Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard has been knocking out batches...
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Peanut
Due Date (July)
The baby’s late. Life is hell. When the neonatalist tells him to relax and make love, is our writer, the contemporary father, prepared to take his sensible advice? No. Of course not. Resume panic.
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Destinations
Alison Lapper Pregnant
Completed in 1841, Trafalgar Square's so-called fourth plinth immediately suffered a funding crisis and has been statue-less ever since. In 1999, it became a showcase for new sculpture, and now it's coming...
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The Non-Expert
Troubleshooting Your Déjà Vu
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we explain how you can tell if what you’re experiencing is déjà vu or not, and how best to proceed when it is.
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Things
Loteria de la Mujer
Featuring the vibrant artwork of San Diego painter Nuvia Crisol Guerra, Loteria de la Mujer reimagines the popular Mexican party game with images of 20 stages in a woman's life, from...
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Spoofs & Satire
How the World Scores
Though people around the world may measure success in slightly different ways, there is a single scale that is universally accepted. Because, in the end, it’s all about how you made out.
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Music
Cowboy Troy
Next month Troy Coleman, aka Cowboy Troy, will perform at the Country Music Awards in New York City. Cowboy Troy is one of Nashville's hot young stars. But unlike most...
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Books
Wolves Eat Dogs
Anyone who missed Wolves Eat Dogs should put Martin Cruz Smith's 2005 thriller at the top of their holiday list. Melancholic detective Arkady Renko is forced to investigate murder in Chernobyl's...
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Spoofs & Satire
The Last Hurrah of the Mash-Ups
All of these unlikely musical pairings are bound to get unlikable soon. But rest assured somebody out there will still appreciate the effort. Reviews of the very last of the famous international long-playing records.
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Letters From the Editor
News About Three Writers, Two of Whom Are Really Real, Really
Last night’s Gary Benchley party for recently, author-ially outed Paul Ford was a complete success. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it. And thank you also...
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Magazines
Smoke, A London Peculiar
Contemporary writing about London has been slightly cursed by the Iain Sinclair factor, with the author's dense but overbearing style encouraging legions of imitators to laboriously scrape away the modern...
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Notes From the Lawn
Raising the Stakes
Drooping flowers are no gardener’s friend. So how can you fix them? And, more to the point, how did these things ever get by without us? A few simple ways to make the world bend to our will.
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Music
Island Life
Pulsating, hypnotic beats, Latin rhythms, funky bass, and blazing horn arrangements combine in Yerba Buena's latest release, Island Life, a musical celebration of Manhattan's cultural diversity and unique island lifestyle....
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Things
Konzuk Metalwear
Karen Konzuk designs spare jewelry with an industrial feel. She makes clean, geometric pieces in powder-coated stainless steel, concrete, and now diamond and platinum. Even if you don't ordinarily wear...
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Birnbaum v.
Stuart Dybek
Our man in Boston gets nostalgic for his Chicago roots in this wonderful conversation with short story master Stuart Dybek about the city of Daley, Bellow’s turf, and the difficulty of writing in a sentimental, nevermind linear fashion.
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Books
Lectures on Shakespeare
Erudition you can't pray to match can be highly invigorating. Auden's Lectures on Shakespeare is a master class by one master on another--cobbled together from students' notes of his 1946 New...
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Interviews
Elliott Sharp’s Instrumental Vision
What happens when traditional instruments won’t produce the sound the composer wants? Then new instruments have to be invented. A discussion about deconstructing, reconstructing, and ways to break the barriers of sound.
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Destinations
Super Pen Pals Secret Reading Society
If the words "reading series" prompt thoughts of bongo drums, first-person rape fantasies or Ethan Hawke, it's probably time you stopped by Toronto's monthly Super Pen Pals Secret Reading Society....
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Peanut
You Betrayed Me (June)
Striving to be a good father also means being a good husband. And while co-attending birthing classes is a smart idea, our writer learns that springing a surprise baby shower—and not warning his wife about the stain on her top—is not.