Artist: Mirah

Song: “The Garden”

“We need to be able to digest and give people who are very far away the time and space to tell their story in their own words …more

Rory Stewart’s LRB article “the Irresistible Illusion,” analyzes the language current Western leaders use when speaking about Afghanistan. Then he compares it to similar speeches made by others since 1868.

Spoiler: Nothing new has been said in over 140 years.

If anything, according to Stewart, our rhetoric has gotten worse. …more

Paul Madonna
&
The Rumpus
Celebrate “Small Potatoes”

Opening art exhibit of large multi-panel cartoons

Ritual Coffee Roasters
June 12, 2009
7-9pm

For the Ritual Roasters exhibit, Madonna has made a series of large-scale multi-panel cartoons, furthering his comics as art approach. A perfect venue for Madonna’s Small Potatoes series, The Rumpus is an online magazine focused on cultural comment, daily publishing content on books, art, music, media, film, politics, and sex by professional artists and authors from around the world.

Exhibition:    Small Potatoes
Opening:    Friday, June 12, 7-9pm
Location:    Ritual Roasters, 1026 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Cost:    Free
More info:    www.paulmadonna.com or www.ritualroasters.com or www.therumpus.net

Paul Madonna also writes and draws the weekly strip, All Over Coffee in the San Francisco Chronicle. His first book, All Over Coffee, was published in 2007 by City Lights Books, and the first edition of his new drawing book series, Album, will be published this November by Electric Works. Paul’s drawings and prints are shown in galleries and museums, and this summer a five-year anniversary show of All Over Coffee is on display at the Jewett Gallery in the San Francisco Main Public Library. And in 1993 Paul was the first ever Art Intern at Mad Magazine, for which he proudly received no money.

In December 2008, online photos of the Simpsons characters performing sexual acts were legally deemed child pornography, prompting Columbia University professor Anne Higonnet to question why we use our limited resources on cases against pictures of children, rather than for social workers and social programs that could protect against actual sexual abuse. …more