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by Samuel Smith
on May 12, 2013 in American Culture, Arts & Literature, ArtSunday, History, Music & Popular Culture, Personal Narrative, Photography, Science & Technology
As I’ve noted before, I grew up working class in the South. My neighborhood, my school, my family and friends, it all oscillated between “redneck” and “white trash,” and yes, there’s a difference. I wrote not long ago about the challenges facing those of us trying to climb the socio-economic ladder when nothing in our upbringing […]
by Jim Booth
on May 12, 2013 in American Culture, Arts & Literature, ArtSunday
Maira Kalman’s collage/slam book/illustrated diary The Principles of Uncertainty probably deserves better than it’s going to get here. This latest completed read from my 2013 reading list has put-up job written (and drawn) all over it. While this book has charm, it also has smarm in abundance. Only a New Yorker with “the right connections” – in publishing, in society, in […]
by Jim Booth
on May 11, 2013 in Arts & Literature
A quick turnaround with the next book from the 2013 reading list. This time I ventured into a new area: picture books. No, I haven’t decided to re-read The Runaway Bunny or The Cat in the Hat (although they’re both very worthy of repeated perusal in their own right – and for the pleasurable memories they’d trigger for me of reading them to […]
by Jim Booth
on May 9, 2013 in American Culture, Arts & Literature, WordsDay
I returned to the history genre for the next book in the 2013 reading list – or so I thought. The Road to Salem is a “constructed” memoir – historian and archivist Adelaide Fries (a descendant of the original Moravian settlers she writes about) tells, though the use of the autobiography of Anna Catharina Antes- Kalberlahn/Reuter/Heinzmann/Ernst (yep, she was […]
by Jim Booth
on April 28, 2013 in Arts & Literature, ArtSunday
And so we come to Jane Austen. Be forewarned. I have read each of Austen’s novels at least 10 times – some more. I wrote my master’s thesis on Austen’s novels (using Rogerian theory as a device to explain the social integration problems of each heroine – and, by the way, I would argue, as do some other scholars, […]
by Jim Booth
on April 25, 2013 in Arts & Literature, WordsDay
The 2013 book list is moving along at its own steady pace as I complete Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (a book I’ve read about a dozen times and am savoring as I plan a long piece on what for me is the great Jane’s most problematic work), so I’ve decided to write something about a book I finished late last […]
by wufnik
on April 22, 2013 in Arts & Literature, Environment & Nature, History
The British Museum’s astonishing exhibit, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Human Mind, is one of the best shows they’ve had since we’ve been in London. It’s a collection of carvings from the dawn of modern history in Europe, mostly on mammoth or reindeer ivory. The carvings are of a variety of objects—women, mostly, but […]
by Chris Mackowski
on April 20, 2013 in Arts & Literature, Personal Narrative
I’m staying in a place called the Sunrise Cabin, but there’s no sunrise—only an uneven cover of clouds that’s getting progressively more translucent as dawn breaks somewhere beyond them. I’m not sure this cabin gets much sunlight, anyway, judging by the layer of algae that slicks the wooden deck. The pines around the cabin must […]
by Joshua Booth
on April 18, 2013 in Arts & Literature
I’m not afraid. I’m back at work. I go to the bars at night. I don’t take it personally. I just think it’s terrible. It used to be survival of the fittest. Now it’s survival of the luckiest. I saw an old man with his face completely wrapped in bandages walking his dog. He’s not […]
by Jim Booth
on April 18, 2013 in Arts & Literature, WordsDay
I am no fan of science fiction. When I was in college I had a bandmate who loved the stuff – he pushed Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and Herbert’s Dune on me. I waded though all this stuff diligently (one of my neuroses is that once I begin a book I have to finish it – […]
by Joshua Booth
on April 15, 2013 in Arts & Literature
Against humankind at our most blind, pursuing perfect control of our bodies, sacrificing flesh to the fire of free will. You fail to understand the race. No obstacle can defeat the human spirit. That is what sports fans are: humans in a race whose spirits still contend.
by Samuel Smith
on April 15, 2013 in American Culture, Arts & Literature, Media & Entertainment, Race & Gender
When I first saw this story on NY artist Danny Evans’s Celebrities Make Under project, my first reaction was…well, let me quote my Facebook comment directly: Oh, this…I mean…gods, no. They…WTF?! To summarize, Evans has used the magic of Photoshop to “normalize” (my word, not his) some of our artificially beautiful celebrities. “It was a reaction […]
by Samuel Smith
on April 15, 2013 in Arts & Literature
Well, part self-promotion and part shout-out to a worthy online literary journal. I recently retired from writing poetry, but I still have things in submission and will likely continue trying to find homes for the things I have already written. I’m pleased to direct everyone to Poetry Pacific, where three of the poems from my latest […]
by Jim Booth
on April 14, 2013 in American Culture, Arts & Literature, ArtSunday
“We live in our own souls as in an unmapped region, a few acres of which we have cleared for our habitation; while of the nature of those nearest us we know but the boundaries that march with ours.” – Edith Wharton, “The Touchstone” Reading Edith Wharton again after many years is a revelation. This next author […]
by Jim Booth
on April 7, 2013 in Arts & Literature, ArtSunday, Music & Popular Culture
“Will was beginning to come to the conclusion that he was not, as he had always previously thought, a good liar. He was an enthusiastic liar, certainly, but enthusiasm was not the same thing as efficacy, and he was now constantly finding himself in a situation whereby, having lied through his teeth for minutes or […]
by wufnik
on April 5, 2013 in Arts & Literature, Leisure & Travel, World
Thursday started out in a bit of frustration, but turned out okay after all. The plan was to head out by tram to the Naval Museum, then double back to one of the university museums to see a map show, and then wander around the Galata area. The first two were a bust, sadly. First […]