July 2009 Archives
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Personal Essays
Lacoste of Living
After three-quarters of a century, a quintessential shirt picks up a lot of baggage—some good, some ironically so, all obsession-worthy.
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Personal Essays
This Loop of Light and Life
The supernatural is all sheets and spooks—Hamlet, Casper, and Field of Dreams—until it’s sitting in your bedroom.
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Writing About Writers
Attention Must Be Paid
Merce Cunningham's recent death at the age of 90 reminded me that--except for the New York Times and colonial outposts of New Yorkers--the passing of nonagenarians (save Walter Cronkite) of great...
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Genre Genre Genre
Grandmaster Burke
Texas writer James Lee Burke, author of 30 or so books (his Dave Robicheaux novels no doubt being the most well-known), and winner of two Edgar Awards for best crime novel...
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Cuba
Fiasco Unfixed
My recent roundup of books on Cuba made no claims for completeness--nonetheless I think it a glaring omission not having included University of Alabama history mentor Howard Jones's vital monograph,...
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Gallery
The Storefront Churches of Chicago
Small details make a space unique, familiar, and alive. Photographer Dave Jordano knows that a personal, individual spirit can bring a place to life, and shows us it’s not only how, but where congregations pray that defines their faith.
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Announcements
What Is Your Favorite Conspiracy Theory?
From our president's citizenship to the moon landing to rent control, conspiracy theories are eating up headlines. For this month's Of Recent Note we want you to tell us: What...
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Roundtables
Music Bloggers Roundtable Redux
The music industry’s devil and savior bear the same name: the web. Five years later, we reconvene our panel of music blogfathers for a look into the future.
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Interview
Andrew W.K.
After launching a music career built on positivity and partying, Andrew W.K. keeps busy by going in several directions at once. He is co-owner of lower Manhattan’s Santos...
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Birnbaum v.
Gil Adamson
Our man in Boston chats with author Gil Adamson about Toronto’s literary mafia, the fact-checking that plagues novelists, and the difficulty of listing 10 Canadian writers.
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Bookbag
Back in the Day
If you are paying attention to the ideas I am trying to express here (I hope they qualify as ideas, and I thank you if you are paying attention), my...
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Spoofs & Satire
Interview With the Genie
For man and djinn alike, a soft economy makes for a tight job market.
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Back Matter
Reading v. Kindling
If it were possible to embarrass corporations such as Amazon, the recent snafu over Amazon's recall (that would be the kind word for it) of Kindle versions of George Orwell's 1984...
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The Book Was Better
West Coast Work
The relationship of writers to the Hollywood dream machine has been extensively documented--the Coen Brothers' Barton Fink even gave us a spoof of poor William Faulkner's stint writing for the...
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Current Reads
American Utopia
If you have read novelist John Crowley's fiction (Endless Things and Little, Big), his new opus may come as something of a surprise--as his penchant is for what some refer...
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Gallery
A Stroll Down First Avenue
Matthew Baldwin and photographer Caitlin Burke take a jaunt along downtown Seattle’s main artery.
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Current Reads
A Fictional Dickens
Tasmanian (go ahead, tell me you know where Tasmania is) novelist Richard Flanagan (Gould's Book of Fish, The Unknown Terrorist [which he dedicated to the beleaguered and persecuted Australian Muslim...
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The Coffee Table
Delhomme du Moment
The Cultivated Life (Rizzoli), a delightful anthology written and illustrated by Jean-Philippe Delhomme, is a thin tome containing more than 100 of the ubiquitous French illustrator's works. As is the case...
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Current Reads
Sage Advice
At some point, someone will probably fabricate one of those pop-sociology books about the generation that is averse to reading instruction manuals: The Dummies' Guide to Dummies. (Who is buying...
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Letters From London
The Present Sound of London
A big city creates a unique din and racket as recognizable as its skyline. Presenting a day in the sounds of London.
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Interview
Nina Paley
Cartoonist Nina Paley is the creator of Sita Sings the Blues, an interpretation of the Ramayana, the Hindu epic. The film was released online earlier this year and set to...
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The Spider and the Fly
Are We Not Men?
Of the free games included with Windows, none is more treacherous than Spider Solitaire. In the latest installment, the apprentice gnashes teeth, rends hair.
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Gallery
Cool, Cool Water
Photographer Christian Chaize’s presents a charming portrait of a small patch of sand as it changes from day to day.
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Current Reads
Revolving Snub
National Book Award-winning writer Denis Johnson (Tree of Smoke) occupies an anomalous place in the melee that passes for the American literary culture. Viewed as a prickly sort and outsider ...
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Current Reads
Ghostly Pursuits
Stories attach themselves to all manner of things, and occasionally those stories rise to some level of perpetuity. I wish I had a dramatic story for how I came to...
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The Non-Expert
God Save the Queen From You Chumps
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we defend Britain against a cursing student of Anglo-Saxons.
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Of Recent Note
Favorite Worst Movies
Summer movies tend to crush box-office records, dumbfound critics, and be terrible. Our staff and readers tell us about the movies they know they shouldn’t love.