Michelle Orange on Lynn Shelton
Lynn Shelton‘s third feature film, Humpday (trailer after the jump), is getting a lot of love for its quiet, almost bashful take on this year’s favorite buzz-relationship: “the bromance.” Humpday…
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Rumpus Articles
Harry Allen on the Death of VIBE
Harry Allen, Hip Hop activist and writer for The Source, The Village Voice, and other publications, has a touching and insightful piece about the death of VIBE magazine on his…
Journal Highlight: Guernica, The Believer and Cabinet
Guernica talks to Fatima Bhutto, 27-year-old poet and Pakistan’s heir apparent, about the death of her father in one of Pakistan’s famous “encounters,” the two sides of Benazir and why…
A Mashup of Devils
These days one doesn’t have to look strictly to horror movies to find devils.
Vertigo in the Stacks
“When I first went to work in Harvard’s Widener Library, I immediately made my first mistake: I tried to read the books. I quickly came to know the compulsive vertigo…
Farzana Versey Remembers her Walkman
“I do not have an iPod. The Walkman is 30 now. I resisted it, as I have resisted several new innovations. I still have an old cassette player. I like…
Evening Cocktail
Summer Thursdays are good for barbecues and movies. Take it from me. The New York Times on the recent upscaling of the humble hamburger. Plus recipes. Have some cheese with…
We Need Studs Terkel
At the bookstore I work at, we recently got in a HUGE shipment of remaindered books. Books by Michael Ondaatje, Virginia Woolf, Alain de Botton, all of them brand-new and…
William T. Vollmann Made Me A San Franciscan
One of the more anticipated summer novels of the season is also probably one of the longest, most disturbing and most intimidating: Imperial, William T. Vollman’s mammoth exploration of the…
Somalian Refugee Writers Show the Way
Dadaab is not an oasis. There is no water. In July, food rations are expected to be cut back to 1000 calories a day. The camps are short 38,000 latrines. Every year only twenty students from the entire camp escape to university, the only legitimate way out.
What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going
Five short stories modeled on the works of the old masters make up this smart, witty first collection
Movies Briefly, The Proposal (2009)
The title The Proposal has two meanings; it refers to the improvised marriage between shrew boss Margaret (Sandra Bullock) and exasperated assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) devised to stave off her…