Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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Daniel Everett and Internet Isolation
Photographer Daniel Everett has many ways of looking at the sterile technology that isolates us even as it interconnects us. A commentary primarily on computers and the Internet, Everett’s metaphorical subjects also include an elevator that endlessly rises (“Ascension”) and…
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The Triumph of Woman
In “The Death of Macho,” Reihan Salam says “the era of male dominance is coming to an end.” Finally!
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The Theremin: Everything You Didn’t Even Know You Needed to Know
What do Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” Coheed and Cambria’s legendary Neverender concert, Ed Wood (the film, not the director-turned-pulp-novelist), and nearly every alien horror movie have in common? Memorable hairstyles aside, they all incorporate the granddaddy of all electronic…
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Tess Bryant: The Last Book I Loved, The Sea, The Sea
Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea has, despite my initial wariness about reading the journal of a lonely bitter man, worked its way into being the last book I loved. This story of the arrogant and sexist Charles Arrowby…
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An Oral History of Thao Nguyen
It comes down to mental health. I think I have been nuts for the past year and a half or two years because I didn’t have anything rooting me anywhere.
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Morning Coffee
Did you know that in the 1950s and 60s the CIA used prostitutes to test out the possible mind control effects of LSD on the general populace. Operation Midnight Climax has all the details. (via Metafilter.) While we’re on the…
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Country Music in Kenya & Mumbai
“Country music has fans wherever people are departing rural areas. In other words, worldwide. Turns out that the weeping tunes about better days can be understood even without understanding the lyrics. That crying slide guitar is the perfect accompaniment for…
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Stephen Burt On Enjoying New Poetry
Over the weekend, I finally got around to unboxing and shelving my archived litmags in the new apartment. As I placed my issues of the Believer back into magazine files in proper order, the top headline on the cover of the…
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Ryeberg: The curator for YouTube fatigue
Ryeberg is a site that features videos curated by various contributors accompanied by short essays. Contributors include Mary Gaitskill, Russell Smith, and the reliably compelling and often as reliably insane Lynn Crosbie. Check out her recent post dismantling the psycho-sexual…
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An Excerpt From Zeitoun
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business.