Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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Childhood as a Branch of Cartography
“We have this idea of armchair traveling, of the reader who seeks in the pages of a ripping yarn or a memoir of polar exploration the kind of heroism and danger, in unknown, half-legendary lands, that he or she could…
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IKEA Hacker
Your night editor was MIA yesterday for a very good reason: he inadvertantly got locked into the Emeryville IKEA overnight, and in the end there was nothing to be done but curl up on a DALSELV (or anyway a JAREN…
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Who Needs Philosophy?
Back when I was a little boy, living in a yellow stucco house in San Diego, I would sit in the hot tub at night, under desert-clear stars, listen to the coyotes howl and ask my Dad about those dead…
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A Little Bit About AK Press
For the past couple years I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the Oakland-based AK Press, a small, “anarchist collective” press that publishes about twenty to thirty books a year, most of which deal with radical politics, current affairs, anarchist/leftist…
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Through a Glass Darkly
“I don’t know where we got the idea that helping sick people means keeping them away from the jaws of death at all costs…”
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Why Do Scandinavians Seek The Darkness?
One of the biggest selling, most highly-praised novels at my bookstore right now is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Since it just came out in paperback, we’ve been selling like six of them a week. Based…
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Random Media Notes
New York Times Magazine withdraws altered photo essay. Is unconcious plagiarism, ala Maureen Dowd, real? Yes and no. Pandora, online radio stations, reach fee deal. Analyst who made forecast about Up admits to being wrong. NFL says no to players…
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Dirty Pictures
21-year-old student Jesse Graves started putting up graffiti to promote environmental awareness nearly two years ago, and has never been harassed or arrested. Many of his pieces remain intact on walls around the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus.
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THE EYEBALL, The Rumpus DVD Column: #24 Nicolas Roeg’s First Five Films
Years ago I happened upon a series of arresting images on cable. There was a young Mick Jagger cavorting in a bath tub with two svelte beauties. A child wearing a fake mustache. A still image of Jorge Luis Borges…
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Beauty and Body Image in Nepal
“Although female virtue in Nepal had traditionally been expressed by keeping one’s shoulders and legs covered, young Nepali women are now increasingly eschewing the traditional kurta surwal (a long tunic over baggy pants), and opting to wear more body-baring Western…
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Billy Twitters and His Big Blue Whale Problem
Mac Barnett, former director of 826LA, has released a children’s book: Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem. JR at Three Guys One Book has this to say:
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Josh Nathan: The Last Book I Loved, Slapstick
I began reading Kurt Vonnegut after I had slid too far down to climb back up the slide of becoming a full-blown pessimist. I remember feeling this during a month long trip to Mexico. I saw villages with homes made…