January 2009 Archives
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The Non-Expert
You Noogie My Heart, I’ll 69 Yours
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we counsel a young man who can’t read the road signs in a doomed relationship.
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Letters From London
Dense Photography
Snapshots from a trip can seal a memory forever, yet boxes of vacation photos dilute what really happened. How to take a picture with a thousand meanings.
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New York, New York
The Out-of-Towners
They arrive on airplanes, in cars with colorful license plates, bearing camera equipment and unseasonable clothing. Welcoming our friends beyond the Hudson.
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Reading
Lawrence Weschler
[Photo by Robert Birnbaum] Inclement weather may have scuttled my chat this week with multifaceted writer Lawrence Weschler, but I want to take the opportunity to bang the drum loudly...
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Reading
Scrapbooks: An American History
These days I must admit a preoccupation with matters of history and gloomy concerns about our country’s governance. Despite being a failed scholar of history—as in, lacking the...
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Birnbaum v.
James Howard Kunstler, Redux
In a wide-ranging discussion, our man in Boston talks with novelist and skeptic James Howard Kunstler about life as it is, life as it could be, and life as we may encounter.
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Watching
Herzog’s Ecstatic Antarctic Truth
Werner Herzog continues his quest for ecstatic truth in Encounters at The End of the World. The Academy Award nominated documentary shares the lives of people shaken down to Antarctica,...
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Listening
Up Anchor!
If you've misplaced the Knife in all the mist, turn back and find their best half in a new guise as Fever Ray. Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson nurtures her solo...
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Gallery
It Happened in Wisconsin
With a vision that relies on many years residing in Wisconsin and lots of love for the state, Mark Brautigam’s photos are lighthearted, loving, and frequently beautiful.
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Personal Essays
Ballad of a Thin Man
In a country so proud of its apple pie, there is an element of distrust for thin men.
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Listening
Out With the Old
For so long we've seen decline, dissolution, and departure. From our vantage here in the middle of winter we've seen Nature itself stripped of life and leaf, but memory serves...
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Of Recent Note
Broken Resolutions
Three weeks ago, you swore you’d stop smoking and start running. So far, you’ve only jogged to the bodega. The TMN READERS AND WRITERS know your shame, and confess their lack of resolve.
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Reading
Our White House: Looking In Looking Out
In this current wave of hopeful historiocity (sic) comes a fine new book for children of all ages that splendidly arrays American history. The National Children’s Book and Literary...
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Op-Ed
The Crippling Fear of Corriearklet
Pity the English. Not only are they cursed with bad weather, and the habit of talking about it all the time, they also fear eye contact with strangers in long corridors.
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Reading
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
When Barack Obama mentioned 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper in his inspiring victory speech, he utilized a device (if I can call it that) suggesting the immediacy of history through the...
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Personal Essays
Civil Plights
Is there room for civility in Civil Rights? On the day of Obama’s inauguration, facing down the moment you nearly brought President George W. Bush to task.
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Reading
The Only Son
It makes good sport to speculate on the men and women worthy of placement in the pantheon of world historical figures. In the 18th century and beyond, Swiss-born Jean-Jacques Rousseau,...
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Watching
Parental Guidance for Star Wars
Spending $3,000 on a Lego Star Wars diarama is considered obsession. Not having watched and understood the entire Star Wars series is heretical and exile-worthy. Hearing these Heretics recount the 380 minute...
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Announcements
The 2009 Zombie Poll is now open
Update: The Zombie Poll is now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted! The 2009 Tournament of Books Zombie Poll is now open, so please click here and vote for your...
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Gallery
Domestic D(io)rama
Amy Stein’s photography features concepts on the surface that you can grasp right away and tensions underneath that take a second longer to emerge.
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Listening
SXSW 2K9
The Academy of Indie Rocks and Cultural Science People has released its official list of candidates for consideration during the Academy's annual Spring bacchanal in Austin, TX. Among these...
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New York, New York
The Night New York Avoided a Riot
In the days following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, more than 100 cities experienced significant civil disturbance. In New York, everyone expected riots. What happened next.
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Reading
Disguise
Sometime in the mid-’90s, in a conversation with British writer William Boyd, I offhandedly asked if he wanted to name a writer he thought deserving of wider recognition. “Justin...
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Spoofs & Satire
How I Survived the Various Apocalypses
From zombies to aliens to zombie-aliens, the times that, with civilization at its very brink, against all odds—you know the drill.
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Announcements
Broken Resolutions
It's that time of year again. The time of year when you get to feel like a failure because you did not stick to your pre-appointed resolution. Perhaps because you...
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Reading
Nemesis
Possibly the next fad in literature will see an upswing of publishing Scandinavian crime-story writers in the U.S.A. Stieg Larsson (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) has been...
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Spoofs & Satire
The Week After
Barack Obama’s inauguration next week will be full of significant, historical events. But what about the seven days to follow?
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Listening
Wish in One Hand
This Friday past, peeps over at the Hype Machine finished up their year-end Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008, which uses data compiled by the search results and bookmarked favorites of registered users...
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The Rooster
The 2009 Tournament of Books
We interrupt our regular publishing schedule to bring you news of one feisty Rooster. Enjoying its fifth year, the 2009 Tournament of Books is coming soon, and we’ve got the nominees to prove it.
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Reading
In the Devil’s Territory
Sometime last year, I commended the George Pelecanos-edited The Best American Mystery Stories 2008, which included a riveting story by Floridian Kyle Minor, “A Day Meant to Do Less.” It turns...
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Gallery
The Naturalist
Los Angeles graffiti, squeaky-voiced models, and animals carved into Indian temples all have a home in Deedee Cheriel’s paintings.
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Reading
The Wasted Vigil
Afghanistan, frequently referred to as the burial ground of empires or somesuch, may well turn out to be Barack Obama’s pivot point to a second term—and the United...
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Reader Letters
The Best Worst Curse
To Pasha Malla, Fuck you so very much. You wrote the best description of love I have ever seen or could hope to imagine. You made me remember and to...
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The Non-Expert
Cocktail Flu
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. We offer tried-and-true excuses for calling in sick to work, including examples of the maladies we can claim to hide the malady we have.
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Listening
We Will Fall
It would be remiss not to mention the recent passing of Ron Asheton, guitarist for Ann Arbor's most acerbic contribution to the late 60s garage rock scene, The Stooges. As...
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Personal Essays
Jewish Like Me
To be Jewish in America can be a gefilte fish served with wasabi and a dollop of paranoia. And things get even more complicated when you don’t look the part.
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Reading
Winter Reading List
The holiday (publishing) hiatus did not much change my reading habits other than two glorious days spent in total horizontal bibliophilic repose. I was able to read Louisianan writer Tim...
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Spoofs & Satire
I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell
A new sport is taking hold, one that involves marshmallows, sticks, and fire.
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Listening
Animal Collective
Animal Collective have a new album and we have a new year. It'll take a while to get to grips with both, so I'm jumping in, spread-eagle, and soaking it...
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Personal Essays
Drink Your Meds
The impulse to weigh decisions with coffee spoons can seem charmingly eccentric on TV. But real-life obsessive compulsive disorder is no fun, what with the imminent death and all.
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Reading
Annie Leibovitz at Work
Annie Leibovitz is arguably the best-known photographer in the U.S.A. (Who else? Richard Avedon? Herb Ritts? Ron Gallela?) Based on years of service at hippie-qua-boomer journal Rolling Stone,...
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Gallery
Calhalla
The ladies in Lauren Bergman’s paintings may leave a smear on your pristine mind, and that’s part of the point.