Wayward In The Light
Set in a dive bar, Joshua Mohr’s new novel, Damascus follows a weird gang as their lives crumble. Somehow it’s still life-affirming.
...morePosts by: Anisse Gross
James Franco Does His THING
If you don’t know by now, THE THING is an object-based quarterly, created by artists Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan, where different artists create an object that incorporates text. All of the designs are objects you can use.
...moreBlood, Snow, Glory: Mountain Goats Meet Sir Arne’s Treasure
I basically hurt myself with excitement when I read that the San Francisco Film Society was presenting Mauritz Stiller’s 1919 silent film classic Sir Arne’s Treasure with live musical accompaniment by indie rock icon John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.
...moreTwo Calendars
Please enjoy the 2010 Miss TSA Calendar. After you’re done laughing, why not purchase a Rumpus Women Literary Calender?
...moreThe Rumpus Interview With The Bots
The Bots are a band of two brothers, Mikaiah Lei, 17, and Anaiah Lei, 13, hailing from Glendale, California. Mikaiah sings and plays guitar while his younger brother Anaiah holds it down on the drums.
...moreInterview with Arthur Ganson – The Man Behind the Machines
Arthur Ganson is referred to as a kinetic sculptor, but I think his machines are more like spiritual beings. He largely makes what’s known as Rube Goldberg machines, overly complex machines that execute simple tasks.
...moreLetters to Fictional Characters
To Humbert Humbert of Nabokov’s Lolita: “Hey Humbert, How’s jail? I hope it’s as bad as they make it out to be in those undercover exposes. I mean, I really hope you’re suffering, I want to be clear on that from the outset.” To A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh character (affectionally called Edward, the original name […]
...moreEvery Person In New York
Woman at Taco Bell on 14th Street. Man Sleeping on a bench in Madison Square Park, May 30, 2010. He is wearing 3-D Movie Theatre Glasses. Lewis Lapham. Three people out of the current 8,008,278 people of New York City. That’s 8,008,278 people that artist Jason Polan is attempting to draw in his Every Person […]
...moreThe Rumpus Review of Littlerock
If films were fighters, Mike Ott’s second offering, Littlerock, would weigh in at 123 minutes, placing it in the featherweight division, a deft, gentle movie, lithe and light during its two hours in the ring. Not to suggest that it’s diminutive — this indie sleeper is rich and moving and packs an emotional left hook.
...moreTeenagers on Salinger
We keep reading tributes to Salinger by famous authors or, more worth noting, written by adults. But what about teenagers, the main readership of Catcher in the Rye? Over at The New York Times’ Room for Debate a discussion panel recently focused on the role of Cather in the Rye with young audiences today. They […]
...moreAmanda F’n Palmer Goes to the Golden Globes
It might be new news or old news to you, but Amanda Palmer is engaged to Neil Gaiman, and because Coraline (based on Gaiman’s book) was nominated for best animated feature, Amanda Palmer ended up walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes. Here’s her absurdly lengthy and hilarious account of her trip there, including […]
...moreWriters Remember Salinger
As we mentioned earlier this morning, Dave Eggers, arguably one of the most actively engaged and socially involved writers (almost the living antithesis of Salinger) paid tribute to Salinger for The New Yorker, probing the question of why Salinger retreated so deeply away from the public eye. But Eggers is not alone in his remembrance: […]
...moreCuba Pays for Sex Change Operations
Cuba’s progressing fast when it comes to recognizing the rights of transgendered peoples. First the ban was lifted on sex-change operations in 2007, and now not only are the surgeries being performed in Cuba, they’re being paid for under the government’s universal health care plan. It probably doesn’t hurt that the president’s daughter, Mariela Castro, […]
...moreThe Not Top Ten Films of 2009
The first weeks of 2010 are inevitably flooded with top ten lists of 2009, because people apparently can’t live without them. But maybe instead of reading the same top ten lists, we could have interesting lists of overlooked, underrated, left behind things. Yeah, we know that Inglorious Basterds is probably on most top 10 film […]
...moreChina Created a Small Black Hole and We Bombed the Moon
Harper’s has a condensed, slightly humorous (not funny haha) and downright offputting review of 2009. From “Scientists in San Diego made a robot head study itself in a mirror until it learned to smile” to learning that the actual Man in the Mirror died, 2009 was a rough go. Some highlights? – Newspaper circulation in […]
...moreYour DFW Fix
It seems that people will only grow to love David Foster Wallace more as the years go on. It’s what usually happens when you can’t get someone anymore. Here’s a great link to more DFW morsels from Lincoln Michel over at The Faster Times, from the anticipation of Wallace’s unfinished novel, Pale King (due to […]
...moreThe Catchphrase of the Decade is…
Ron Rosenbaum over at Slate, has been chronicling catchphrases for a while, and now at the dawn of 2010, he picks the catchphrase of the decade, and also does away with the awful ones by “throwing them under the bus.” For example, who doesn’t hate “it is what it is”?
...moreWhat to Read
Laura Miller, staff writer at Salon as well as a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, has come out with a new feature called What to Read. Salon’s not doing away with it’s exceptional book coverage, from reviews to interviews – rather it’s just adding to it. How? Well, in Miller’s words:
...moreZak Smith’s Top Three Books of the Year
Rumpus contributor Zak Smith has made known his top three books of the year over at HTMLGIANT. Smith’s picks are a delightfully eclectic mix: The Original of Laura by Nabokov (a fragmented, not meant to be published, unfinished novel), Ugly Man by Dennis Cooper, and Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave. Missing from Zak […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats
“Why should only famous people be famous? Fuck that! Fame for all! Even if it’s just the tiniest bit (which turns out to be the perfect amount).”
...moreWerner Herzog Has Never Seen Taxi Driver, So No He’s Not Talking to You
If you haven’t caught a whiff of the hubbub surrounding Werner Herzog’s latest film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, that might be because you’re not much of a cinephile, which it turns out, neither is Herzog. His latest movie starring Nicholas Cage is essentially, maybe, sort-of, a very slight non-remake remake of Abel […]
...moreIf Twitter Is a Person, Then What am I?
Seriously. Time Magazine originally started out selecting a “Man of the Year” as a way to sell magazines in the down holiday season, which then turned into “Person of the Year”. Now they’re thinking of naming Twitter as 2009’s Person of the Year. It seems we’ve thrown out the concept of words having meanings.
...moreBack from The War – Here’s some Ecstasy.
Rates of PTSD for Iraq war veterans have been estimated as up to 35% in a Stanford University study. The Army has reached out to alternative therapies from yoga to reiki to holding and petting an animal, and now a South Carolina psychiatrist is trying to bring Ecstasy into the mix. Michael Mithoefer has […]
...morePortnoy’s Complaining Again
I’m not sure why Philip Roth seems so concerned about the future of the novel; perhaps because he’s about to die, he thinks the novel should go with him? Or maybe he’s talking about it because he has a new book just out, The Humbling. In this Guardian article, Roth, who at 76 has been […]
...moreHear That? That’s the Sound of Someone Reading to You
I remember all the nights I spent tucked into bed with my other sisters and our mother perched on the end of the bed reading Goodnight Moon to us. Those were the days; now I just stay up late at night reading to myself. It doesn’t sound like anything now, just a quiet void. To […]
...moreUniversal Authorship
You saw it coming. Your grandma has a blog and your friend’s tweets are invading whatever small sliver of silent privacy you had left. We’re all becoming authors. Is this trend inevitable?
...moreGoogle’s Unicorn Defense
This week in the New York Times, Google co-founder Sergey Brin wrote an op-ed about Google’s efforts in the realm of digitizing so-called orphan books. Despite ongoing legal drama, Brin insists that their efforts are for the good of everyone, and for all important texts that would otherwise be lost. Erick Schonfeld, co-editor of […]
...moreStill Bored to Death?
Jonathan Ames has a great blog about his HBO TV series Bored to Death. In this post he talks about the irony of engaging in an S&M session with his former student and then the very next evening being part of a presentation on torture put on by the PEN American Center and the ACLU. Then […]
...moreShakespeare and Thomas Kyd
The popular software [email protected] used to detect cheating students by comparing their papers against published texts was recently used by Sir Brian Vickers, an authority on Shakespeare, to determine whether or not Shakespeare collaborated with Thomas Kyd on The Reign of King Edward III. The debate on whether or not Shakespeare contributed to the play […]
...moreThe Definition of Doing It
If you thought having sex was complicated, try defining it. Lexicographer and language expert Jesse Sheidlower, author of the famed F-Word, and currently serving as Editor at Large (North America) of the Oxford English Dictionary, writes about the challenges of defining sex in all its various manifestations in the dictionary. Sure, we all know what fuck […]
...more