November 2008 Archives
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Reading
Poetry As Insurgent Art
Poetry As Insurgent Art (New Directions), a slender (90 pages), pocket-sized, clothbound volume with the title embossed on the black coverboard is a work in progress (the earliest version transcribed from...
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Watching
Determining the Best Thing
This vs That. Lobsters vs Godfather II. In this video, some architects, as part of their work with the Counter-Intuitive Comparison Institute of North America, ask us to think about...
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Profiles
Iggy Pop Lusts for Life
More than four decades into his career as a rock mentor, Iggy Pop talks about getting back with the Stooges and finding a daily rhythm that suits him.
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Guides
The 2008 Good Gift Games
This holiday season, rather than hock what’s left of your 401(k) for Starbucks gift cards, gather friends and family around a cozy, non-energy-dependent board game.
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Listening
Feeling for Iceland
I feel for Iceland. They've got supermarket flags flying over their parliament, they've spent way too much money. It's economic meltdown for real. You wouldn't blame them hibernating til spring,...
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Gallery
Wax Figures
Matt Duffin’s paintings aren’t what you’d call cheery—but who wants Disney these days with the sky falling around our heads? Anxiety and dread, and perhaps hope, are the keywords for today.
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Listening
Larkin Grimm
Before, Larkin Grimm sung folk for the forests--see her myspace for country chanting, etc. Now, she rides out of the trees on great magical horses--like a Tolkienian spaghetti western. Years...
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Personal Essays
Pilgrimage
Many people hope to be authors, even some in the publishing business. Going back to a monastery to see both sides of the story.
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Reading
The Chicagoan
As an expatriate Chicagoan living in benighted eastern Massachusetts, I can attest to the geographical affliction prevalent in these and other parts of the East Coast that are apparently blind...
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Announcements
Guilty Favorites
Tell us about your favorite, semi-secret, slightly (or mostly) guilty genre of books and a couple of recent favorites in said genre. You know: crime, romance, sci-fi, founding father biographies,...
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Listening
What the Kids Don’t Stand
It's become difficult to remember the hazy epoch that was last year, when the musical contents of a simple CD-R became an epidemic. The songs of Vampire Weekend were everywhere,...
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Profiles
I Will Sing When You’re All Dead
Professional opera singer, mountain climber, race car driver, and Vladimir Nabokov’s best translator and collaborator, Dmitri Nabokov has led an impassioned life.
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Reading
Voices in Chicago
I was searching for video of one of my last visits to Chicago’s Grant Park; that trip took place in August 1968, when Sen. Eugene McCarthy walked across the street...
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Gallery
Forest for the Trees
Myoung Ho Lee’s photos use a complicated process to create a simple image: trees separated from their surroundings, hinting at the world beyond.
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Reading
“Have You Seen…?”
Though he is the author of more than 20 worthy tomes that range over a broad literary landscape—novels, essays, biographies, histories—eagle-eyed cinephile David Thomson is likely best known for...
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Listening
Message to Mitch
Early Wednesday morning, Mitch Mitchell was found dead in a Portland, Ore., hotel room. Most notably, he was the last surviving member of the ridiculously beloved Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hendrix's...
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Letters From London
Hours Away
Even five time zones removed, last week’s election returns carried an electricity felt by locals and expats alike. An absentee voter watches an ocean shrink to a pond.
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Letters From Haiti
The Spine of Port-au-Prince
Following last Friday’s heartbreaking 93 deaths, another Haitian school collapsed yesterday, injuring nine. Our woman in Haiti shows what street-level looks like in Petionville.
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Reading
Best Thought, Worst Thought
Given the titans residing in the pantheon of aphorists—Oscar Wilde, Karl Kraus, G.K. Chesterton, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Dorothy Parker, Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce—it takes a writer of high...
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Listening
Make of That What You Will
Just as a cat meows or a man who graduates with a Psych or Liberal Arts degree will most likely keep working at whatever service industry position he was holding...
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Profiles
Mr. Bowyer’s Fantastic Machine
Lots of machines can manufacture things. What about one that could produce everything, including itself? Visiting the man who taught a machine to replicate.
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Personal Essays
Hard Times Dog
From the financial crisis to the election and even the weather, unhappiness abounds.
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Reading
A Great Idea
The decision by the Christian Science Monitor to no longer print a hard-copy version got me to thinking about my reading habits vis-à-vis that great American news appliance, the...
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Announcements
TMN Talks with Jad Abumrad
To inaugurate a new feature on TMN we’re calling TMN Talks, this Friday we’ll be joined by the great Jad Abumrad, co-host of one of our favorite radio...
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Gallery
Building the Emerald City
For baby doll Dorothy in Graham Rawle’s version of The Wizard of Oz, home is an elaborate set made from containers and Christmas decorations, populated by a ratty toy lion and a balsa-wood Scotty dog.
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Reading
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity
In the end, it is difficult to view perennial Countdown “Worst Person in the World” candidate and Fox Network blabbermouth Bill O’Reilly as anything other than a blustering clown...
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Listening
When a Stunt Pair Is Not
Stunt pairings come in all forms, be it award presenters, buddy/action flicks, or commercial endorsements. And who can forget those irascible "maverick" twins of way back before the election?...
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Letters From Mumbai
Big B Gets a Bellyache
In Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan is a big deal. When his tummy has troubles, so do Indian cinema and all of its star-crazed fans.
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Of Recent Note
Fall Food
From wild mushrooms to alcoholic tea, Thanksgiving casseroles to the perfect pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, here are the TMN writers’ favorite foodstuffs for autumn.
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Reading
In Memoriam: Studs Terkel
[Photo by Robert Birnbaum] Having grown up in Chicago I had the great good fortune to be introduced to Studs Terkel’s work early on—as well as the other...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
Nov 4-3
First polls close in less than 20 minutes and I've started drinking. I blame the Obama campaign because they sent me this: Friends--If you aren't already out canvassing, Barack needs your...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
November 4-3
Did you notice Palin's blatant dressing down for the cameras when she went to the polls this morning? I know she's still stinging from the $150,000 wardrobe, but come on. Wear...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
Nov 4-2
I voted. No epic lines at our polling place, but steady business, all eight (touch-screen) machines occupied with a line of 10-12 at the check-in table. From a purely demographic...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
November 4
Before I weigh in with my predictions for tonight, I want to point to your contest once again, for anyone who hasn't entered yet. We've been getting some informed entries...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
Nov 4
I'm not even sure it's a matter of probability at this point, since your poker analogy relies on random chance and there doesn't seem to be that much chance left...
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Op-Ed
Friending the President
Facebook and other online social networks have played an extraordinary role in this election season. But to what effect? Confronting your status-update addiction.
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
Election Day
It's down to simple probability now. John McCain's last chance at winning this thing relies on a bunch of "and" statements. McCain needs to win Indiana AND Missouri AND Ohio...
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Listening
We’re All In
Last week saw the U.S. debut album release, titled Na Na Ni, of yet another group of almost disgustingly talented and natural-sounding Swedish indie poppers. According to their MySpace...
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Reading
Fred Astaire
The venerable and imaginative Yale University Press, which publishes a cornucopia of wonderful titles each year, including many groundbreaking art tomes (or so-called “coffee-table books”), has commissioned a series of...
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
Nov 2
As we arrive on the cusp of election day, I find myself with less and less to discuss. There's nothing left but the doing, which makes me begin to wonder...
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Gallery
American Farmer
Inspired by books and news specials and farmers markets, the foodie movement is driving droves of Americans to figure out exactly where their meals come from, and seek out food that wasn’t conceived by marketers.
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The Guilfoile-Warner Papers
November 1
When I said we were sending Obama to "vanquish the bully" I meant that I hoped we can replace a thuggish and bullying administration with something far more intelligent and...