October 2012 Archives
-
Day of the Sparrow
Money in Poetry
I just looked it up, on BrainyQuote: Robert Graves. But Graves was wrong. There is a little money in poetry—at least for me. For example, on Aug. 6 (Hiroshima...
-
Scary Stories
The Missing Bride
A bride disappears on her wedding day, never to be seen again—or will she? Continuing a grand TMN Halloween tradition, our writers and editors craft new endings to a familiar tale.
-
Gallery
Makers of American Signs
The sign industry is making a comeback, restoring brush and paint into our contemporary landscape of sameness. From the new book Sign Painters, portraits of America’s best sign painters and their work, with an essay by artist (and former sign painter) Ed Ruscha.
-
End Zone
The Patriots Stink
The Patriots-specific sections of the Boston Sports fan forum “Sons of Sam Horn” is no different. While the passion and vitriol on display don’t offer solid...
-
The Election
The Break-Up
Elections once conferred a larger knowledge that made us feel more connected to what’s important. But this cycle’s meaningless content overload has delivered little more a desire to unplug.
-
TMN Weekender
Fear Not
With the Great Pumpkin’s return just around the corner, we present a selection of spooky stories to get you in the mood. Ready to read here on TMN...
-
Reading Roulette
Olga Slavnikova
We’ve emptied half the cylinder in our Reading Roulette series of contemporary Russian literature—stories you won’t find anywhere else in translation, unfortunately. This month we usher to the table a 2013 Russian Booker Prize contender for a shot at blowing your mind.
-
Cloud of Atlases
No Trespassing
(One clue to get you started: The map doesn’t represent gross national anything.) [Answer]
-
News From America
Here You Know Pretty Much Everybody
Our series continues with more random phone calls around small-town USA to find out what’s really going on. This time our editor only makes his calls at night, to see what happens when America goes dark.
-
Day of the Sparrow
Shepard & Dark
Everyone else in America has no time; I have too much time. But once a year, 12 miles away, the Woodstock Film Festival convenes. It’s really like the circus...
-
Roundtables
The Master and Moviemaking
Once again, we convene our film scholars, plus critic Michelle Orange, to discuss a major movie: The Master, by Paul Thomas Anderson—a masterpiece of craftsmanship, or merely an exercise of cinema and violence with no story in the center?
-
Gallery
Comedy of Manners
New paintings where time periods and people shift within the frame, and everything and everyone is unsteady.
-
End Zone
The Texans Stink
Instead, most of us living outside the greater Houston area feel a kind of neutral respect for the team, despite their enviable narrative momentum: They’re plucky upstarts! Their...
-
The Election
What to Expect When You’re Electing
Small donations comprise more than half of President Obama’s war chest. Small donors, on the other hand, constitute some of the world’s most overwhelmed email recipients. But all that follow-up isn’t just about cash—it’s about subtle changes being made inside your head.
-
TMN Weekender
High on Life
In this edition of the TMN Weekender, a selection of stories about overcoming our instinct for self-preservation. Ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you can export...
-
Spoofs & Satire
MarketStrong
After resigning in disgrace from the charity he helped found and losing his sponsorship with Nike, Lance Armstrong now must cope with the leak of his new memoir—excerpted here.
-
Our Passions, Our Day Jobs
Under the Bridge Downtown
When you’re a competition-level grocery-store bagger, it’s easy to overlook the messy lives of your co-workers. But when one of them goes missing, and you start to grow up, the picture changes.
-
Cloud of Atlases
Bring Along Your Cadillac
(One clue to get you started: The map doesn’t represent gross national anything.) [Answer]
-
Day of the Sparrow
My Birthday
I walked into the kitchen. Through the window, I could see the field behind my house: purple asters, yellowing birches, the hunched weeping willow. It was like an exquisite painting,...
-
Gallery
The Sea, The Sea
To the uninitiated, they’re just paintings of ships on the ocean. Curator Joe Vallejo explains what makes the tradition of marine art romantic, enigmatic, celebratory.
-
The Biblioracle
Reading Is in the Air
From 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET today, tell the Biblioracle the last five books you’ve read, and he’ll recommend your next favorite novel.
-
End Zone
The Vikings Stink
It doesn’t take a mathematical savant from Football Outsiders to know those numbers stink. In fact, when the Daily Norseman (that’s a real website devoted to...
-
The Election
The Pleading of President Forty-Four
The White House has been lauded for its grassroots internet campaigns to raise money. But what happens when a man takes the president’s messages too personally?
-
TMN Weekender
Wonder Woman
In this edition of the TMN Weekender, a selection of stories examining women and power--political, social, sexual, and creative. Ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you...
-
Our Digital Selves
Paris and the Data Mind
Registering everything from fitness levels to sleep patterns, personal tracking devices satisfy our desire for self-knowledge. But when we hand control to our holograms, we may be surprised at what they want.
-
Cloud of Atlases
All of New York City Misses You
(One clue to get you started: The map doesn’t represent gross national anything.) [Answer]
-
The Election
I Am Paul, Paul I Am
Preparing for Thursday’s vice presidential showdown, Republican candidate Paul Ryan consults Theodor Seuss Geisel to simplify his message so that even a child—or American voter—can understand.
-
Gallery
The Artist Perseveres
In a meta-exploration of the “struggling artist” myth, Joe Fig paints portraits of artists—Basquiat, Rembrandt, Kahlo—as portrayed in classic films.
-
End Zone
The Saints Stink
Neither answer tells the whole truth. Football also appeals to something more fundamental in my character, something worse: a desire for neat narrative arcs. Football narratives are easy and dangerous....
-
TMN Weekender
We Need to Talk
In this edition of the TMN Weekender, a selection of stories about the mysteries of the mind. Ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you can export...
-
We Were the Kids, Too
For the Price of a Dime
Since the 1980s, changing social mores, rising gas prices, and advancing technology have resulted in an information gap just screaming to be studied. A guide to demystifying songs from the ’80s for later, digitally native generations.
-
Satan's Cinema
Secret Horror
Yes, yes, The Exorcist and Night of the Living Dead are reliably traumatizing, but at this point they’re comfort food, and there’s plenty more to discover in the world of horror cinema.
-
Cloud of Atlases
The Roadside Fire
(One clue to get you started: The map doesn’t represent gross national anything.) [Answer]
-
The Final Frontier
Interstellar Hard Drive
All your precious data, everything you’ve created and every memory you’ve captured and stored, is etched on a hard disk somewhere on Earth. Back it up all you want—it won’t matter if the planet goes. The search for storage beyond the cloud.