February 2009 Archives
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Listening
Empire for Ashes
A thousand American Idol winners singing through a thousand autotune modulators will never make a Voice, a singer to be reckoned with, instinctually appreciated, and surrendered to. Very few of...
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The Non-Expert
Love Sic
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. Our mailbag is stuffed with questions about love, often oddly phrased. We address one of the more curious examples.
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Reading
Our Life in Gardens
No doubt in the publishing world there is a lingering hope that books specific in topic—bread-baking, quilting, knitting, bird-watching—have application to the broader project of the life well-lived—...
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In Plain Sight
Replacing Things Lost
A diagnosis of breast cancer is mind-blowing. A mastectomy can be devastating. But for some women, reconstructive surgery offers a chance for a silver lining.
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Personal Essays
One for You, Nineteen for Me
The president in his speech last night urged for greater federal and personal responsibility to stimulate our economy. But will Americans heed the call on their tax forms? What it’s like to get audited.
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Listening
Hauntology
Two musicians, elegant and focused modern powers, continue in guise, obscuring their true form, for their respective new releases. Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bat For Lashes sooth us, flowing through...
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Of Recent Note
People I Wish I Knew
We asked: “Who are your would-be acquaintances, your potential best friends, your maybe-someday muses?” With hopeful associates living and dead, renown and unknown, the TMN readers and writers respond.
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Gallery
Along the Western Rails
Photographer Mark Ruwedel creates topographical studies and archival files that capture the luminescence of countryside that’s been passed through.
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Spoofs & Satire
Letters From Cousin Yuri
When Alex Rodriguez identified his cousin Yuri on Tuesday, the media had a new fall guy for A-Rod’s steroid problem.
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Reading
Runner
Thomas Perry’s The Butcher’s Boy and Metzger’s Dog are two of the best books of whatever niche/genre in which you place Perry’s fiction. He is...
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Reading
Get Lit
Luckily, only a quartet of so-called small (literary) magazines have chosen to subscribe me. Any more and I am certain I would have to start making ruthless and painful decisions...
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The Rooster
Rooster Shirts, Judges, and Brackets, Oh My!
The Fifth Annual Tournament of Books is preparing to launch in a few weeks. Here are this year’s brackets for your office-gambling pleasure, as well as information about the 2009 judges and our brand new Rooster tees.
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Reader Letters
Not Hideous Enough
Most hideous car on the streets of America? Perhaps you are thinking of the car it replaced, the Dodge Neon. More correctly, the American car with proportions most resembling a...
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Watching
Conason on Paine
To commemorate the Jan. 21 birthday of Thomas Paine (Common Sense, The Rights of Man), the Center for Inquiry annually hosts the Thomas Paine Memorial Lecture. Paine has languished outside the...
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Spoofs & Satire
My Brief Wondrous Life
On Sunday night, Hollywood’s finest will clasp the man of their dreams to their chests. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Oscar.
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Listening
Melting the Mind, Washing the Soul
It was sad to hear Silver Jews call it quits, but heartbreaking to hear founder David Berman reveal, a few hours later, that his father is the high-profile corporate lobbyist...
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Reading
American Rust
A few American writers have captured the desolation and despair of the areas in America afflicted by ravages of post-industrial decline—Russell Banks and Richard Russo come to mind. Now...
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Gallery
An Uncertain Nature
The women and (occasional) men in Alison Brady’s photographs look uncomfortable and provoke our discomfort—exactly what Brady’s going for in her new collection.
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Reader Letters
On Scaring the Co-Workers
Hi, guys, Just wanted to mention that Matthew Baldwin is freakin’ hilarious. Since I’m bored at work I had the pleasure of reading his Mindfuck Movies, laughing the whole...
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Announcements
Your Would-Be Acquaintances
This month's Of Recent Note topic is: People I Wish I Knew. They're your would-be acquaintances, your potential best friends, your maybe-someday muses. They're the person you don't know that...
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Listening
The Bloomed Hill Impasse
Remember how it was all supposed to be? And how the distance between that supposed and that of your here and now is the breadth of the America you inhabit?...
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The Non-Expert
The Superstitious Life
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. In honor of Friday the 13th, we coach a reader on effective use of superstition.
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Listening
Entertainment Hierarchy
The dimensional hierarchy of artistic mediums usually goes like this: Written Word < Music < Video < Music Video < Opera < Virtual Reality. Too often this is mistaken for a hierachy of quality, where...
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Reviews
Mindfuck Movies
Some movies inform. Some movies entertain. And some pry open your skull and punch you in the brain.
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The Novice
How to Trade Options
From our series where the clueless apprentice with the experts, we trade at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and try to keep up with the buying and selling of educated speculation.
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Watching
Bottling Miraculous Creativity
Elizabeth Gilbert summons the spirit of the creativity genie, getting a rare standing ovation after her talk at the TED conference. Gilbert tries to bottle the essence of the creative...
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Spoofs & Satire
You’re Just Not That Into You
Looking for love in all the wrong places? Maybe you should try closer to home. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a new book helps you ladies purge your self-loathing.
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Listening
What’s Your Face
Apparently this band, Fight Like Apes from Dublin, has been around, recording, and touring Ireland and the UK for a couple years now. As much as we rely on the...
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Announcements
TMN Annual Now for Sale in New York
Attention New Yorkers: Our limited-edition TMN Annual 2008 is now for sale at one of our favorite bookstores, the Strand in Manhattan (828 Broadway, between 12th and 13th Streets). Will our shrink-wrapped...
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Gallery
Sirens of Chrome
Bikini models and trade shows may seem to go hand-in-hand, but in the auto-show world, models have evolved from sticker roles to spokespeople and can be just as informed about the vehicles as the auto-industry executives.
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Reading
The Americans
Most of my adult life—what I will in my memoir (in progress) call “The Post-Graduate Years," I have, when given the opportunity, railed against the poor or lack of...
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Reading
Movies: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide to Cinema’s Hidden Gems
Though I hold no fondness for softcover/paperback books, I am enthralled by so-called pocket books, the dimensions of which are approximately four inches by seven inches. Perhaps I have...
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The Non-Expert
Does He Love You?
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. Following our popular guide regarding girls, how to know if the ideal man digs you or not.
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Op-Ed
Curb Your Dog’s Enthusiasm
New York City is a wonderland for dogs—to defecate on, and for their owners to look the other way. An argument for a more civilized scenario, where dogs aren’t encouraged to kill plants.
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Reading
You
How does one wake up every day with a strong imperative to look for some strand of meaning from the frayed reality that relentlessly presents itself to our punch-drunk (collective...
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Watching
Thoreau in the Towel
Mayan apocalyptic events are scheduled for 2012, giving Democrats another four years on the carousel of fear, just as the hell-ride slowed. Documentarians Joao Amorim and Daniel Pinchbeck don't think 2012 will...
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Letters From Mumbai
Not Just Jazz by the Bay
Two months since the Mumbai attacks, the city is numb and rumors breed wildly. Our reporter in India’s financial capital reports on house parties, police lines, and the threatened market for roti rolls.
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Gallery
The Frightening Beauty of Bunkers
Approximately 1,500 bunkers were built during World War II along the French shores to forestall an Allied landing—“the Atlantic Wall.” Decommissioned after the Allied invasion of Normandy, this elaborate defense system now lies abandoned.
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Listening
Carla Bley & Charlie Haden
How I became a literary omnivore remains as much a mystery to me as having the same predilections in the musical realm—I have always gravitated to music and musicians...
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Reading
The Jive Talker
These days Africa seems to be the epicenter of misery stories—if not the planet’s epicenter of misery. Which makes Malawi-born (kudos if you can point to Malawi on...