• Newspapers dying? Maybe it’s just the cities they mythologized

    An interview on New American Media with writer Richard Rodriguez has a fascinating take on what’s happening to American newspapers. Using the famously provincial San Francisco Chronicle as an example, Rodriguez says,  “I don’t think the Chronicle is dying so…

  • Annenberg Photography Space Goes Digital

    The Annenberg Space for Photography opened its doors in Los Angeles on March 27, 2009. Tucked among the high-rises of Century City, the sleek, one-story structure houses a digital projection gallery whose interior design was influenced by the mechanics of…

  • One Man, Two Musicians

    Kevin Gift is a classical pianist. In some circles, however, he’s known as electronic musician Wendel Patrick. This is no ordinary stage name, however.

  • Morning Coffee

    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…

  • TRUTH SERUM:
    New Things Are Scary (Part 2)

    Truth Serum books? Truth Serum books!

  • The Rumpus Long Interview with Dave Eggers

    Dave Eggers discusses Zeitoun, his optimism for print publications, what the kids are reading, and the advantage of attending a state school.

  • The Storymatic

    I’ve always been a sucker for writing prompts, even though they have a way of sometimes being cheesy, forced, and ultimately silly. But recently I came across this interesting product, a paper-based prompt generator that would seem to strike the…

  • Wrack & Ruin

    Don Lee returns to Rosarita Bay with a novel that features Brussels sprouts, kung fu divas, feuding brothers, and a complex look at ethnic identity.

  • A Titanic for these times

    The June issue of the Atlantic has a look at the mind-blowing “Oasis of the Seas,” a gargantuan ocean liner forthcoming from cruise company Royal Caribbean International. Its unprecedented scale of apparent luxury surely required feats of engineering. But any…

  • Binnie Kirshenbaum: The Last Book I Loved, A High Wind in Jamaica

    Stories about pirates and orphans were my childhood favorites. Pirates, orphans, and those ever-so-enviable children–Madeline and Eloise–who lucked out with distant,  absent, or dead parents: Pippi Longstocking, Huckleberry Finn, and Peter Pan, were winners for  featuring distant parents and pirates.

  • Morning Coffee

    Start your day off right with a little Japanese library design porn. “Man is not to end his days on Earth,” Gyula Kosice’s space architecture is on display in Houston. It took people 60 years to figure out that Raymond…

  • Dogfishing

    Those of you with long memories may recall the Monkeyfishing hoax of 2001 in Slate. This was a piece by Jay Forman which revealed the existence of a illicit sport on an island of former medical research monkeys in the…

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