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From Stephen Elliott
Want to leave NYC but fear too much about abandoning your beloved Red Hook/Boreum Hill/Washington Heights/Harlem/Upper West Side…? Check out The Morning News’s list of counterpart neighborhoods throughout the US and abroad.
Rumpus pal Alexander Chee recommends Portland, Maine’s Vinalhaven in place of Bushwick, and former Saturday editor Michelle Dean praises Toronto’s Leslieville as Park Slope’s sister neighborhood.
...moreWe’re a day behind. We hope you made it through Monday without the sublime guidance of Notable NYC. A (user) error occurred yesterday and all was lost. But all is not lost, Notable NYC is here to make sure that you don’t go lonely for want of literature this week.
...moreMonday 04/08:
Monday Night Poetry features award-winning poet Major Jackson and author of the great What Is Amazing
The Franklin Park Reading Series welcomes Heidi Julavits, Fiona Maazel, Teddy Wayne, David Gilbert, and Maris Kreizman.
...more...moreRanging widely from densely textured works on canvas formed with layers of an acrylic and pumice mixture on top of silicon molds to abstract representations of the native olive and cedar trees of Lebanon, Nahas’s work consistently oscillates between many aesthetic sensibilities, ultimately driven by his almost religious passion for abstraction.
New York indie band Vampire Weekend somehow have proven that music videos are still culturally relevant.
Earning them the response, “Vampire Weekend are a bunch of dicks,” the music video for their song “Diane Young” (which is great) shows an older Saab burning with the New York City skyline looming behind it.
...moreIf the Strand is a palace for books, then Ben McFall is king—of its fiction section, at least.
A New York Times profile of McFall discusses his history with, knowledge of, and love for the legendary bookstore:
...more“It seems like a feat, but if it were your house, you’d know where things are, too,” Mr.
Late summer 2005 and everything’s under water. The news warns us that New York City could be the next New Orleans—flooded subways, ten thousand shattered windows.
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We are beginning a new series called “The Last City I Loved.” Please send submissions to marie AT therumpus.net.
Chloe Caldwell’s inaugural piece is after the jump:
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Christopher Bollen’s debut novel, Lightning People, thick with detail and plot, paints New York through five main characters, transplanted 30-somethings in Manhattan, where from May and June lightning came without rain.
Ralph Sassone’s first novel explores the devastating emotional craters of first love, and the bumpy, baffling relations between the generations.
Whitman became a regular at Pfaff’s after getting fired from the Brooklyn Daily Times in 1859. The years before the Civil War were a decadent period where Whitman played the bon vivant, finding friends and lovers among the New York counterculture.
“I don’t go down wrong paths, I’d rather stare at the screen and delete until I’ve put something down that is working. So, I don’t discard material; I don’t have a lot of false starts or unfinished stories or novels lying around.
Tao Lin’s characters are constantly connected, yet physically detached. The technology they live and breathe often seems less mechanical than its users.
Dear Sugar,
An old friend recently called for advice. She sounded miserable. She turned 25 last week and went to the city to celebrate, and it brought back all these dormant aspirations to live in New York. She’d been accepted into fashion school and a tragedy kept her from going
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Whoops — Mattel names new American Girl doll after alleged ‘eco-terrorist.’
A better New York City Transit Map (you’re welcome, New Yorkers).
Bookstores worth browsing.
Skaters perform tricks. Catch? They don’t use skateboards.
Feces + a whodunnit = Whopooped.org (even more fun than it sounds).
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Joanna Smith Rakoff’s debut novel follows a group of friends through the trials and triumphs of post-college life in New York.
Mark Blatte’s hip-hop-crime novel brings a touch of philosophy to New York’s mean streets
A review of Nami Mun’s debut novel, Miles from Nowhere