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Rumpus Articles
Steve Almond’s Bad Poetry Corner #5: Trained
(Writing wretched verse so you don’t have to since 1995) Trained You will ask why I never tore her down with my famous claws and arrowed jaws why instead I…
Random Media Notes
“New York Times San Francisco Edition Launches Today” Condé Nast continues to cut staff. Ted Turner says he would like to run CNN again. Nick Denton: “At meetings at Gawker,…
The Rumpus Review of A Serious Man
What is it with the Coen brothers, technical masters who tend to use their skills for no meaningful purpose?
Chronic City
Happy day, happy day!! Jonathan Lethem, one of my personal favorites, has a new novel out! It’s called Chronic City, and is, according to Lethem, “the best thing I’ve done.”…
Drew Toal: The Last Book I Loved, I am Not Sidney Poitier
My only previous exposure to Percival Everett had been his book American Desert, which I had liked but not loved. So it was with middling expectations that I picked up…
Morning Coffee
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Marshall McLuhan, and critical outrage. Seed Magazine on evolving towards extinction. The newly redesigned Zoo de Vincennes will change the way you think about zoos.…
Erick Lyle’s Secret History Of The City
If you live in San Francisco long enough, you start to wonder: “Where the hell can I go at 3 a.m. which isn’t home or a laundromat or a massage…
The Rumpus Review of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
My boyfriend insisted I read Brief Interviews with Hideous Men when we started dating. “It will help you understand the way men think!” he exclaimed. Secrets of those bearing a…
The Kakutani Two-Step
“The Kakutani Two-Step. It works roughly like this: belittle a novelist’s finest work to date – preferably by tossing around unsupported adjectives…say, “arbitrary,” “flimsy,” and “unfinished.” Then, five or six…