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Join NOW!By pretty much all accounts, last night was tense but hopeful for the Occupy movement in the Bay Area. (For an account of the national movement, check out Brian Spears’ roundup from this morning.) This is somewhat of a relief after Tuesday night, when a coalition of Bay Area police used tear gas, nonlethal rounds, […]
...moreHoly crap. As many of you know, on Monday night, Oakland police raided the Occupy Oakland encampment, arresting and tear-gassing residents and destroying the entire camp. Last night, 500-1500 people reportedly came out to protest, and they were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, a sound cannon and concussion grenades. Just to portray the seriousness […]
...more“I will find a way to harm you or cause you suffering* if you fuck with the mechanics of this piece” — DFW writes to Harper’s and signs with a skull and crossbones. Maud Newton eats rattlesnake, and it’s kind of gross! “The imperative to develop new technologies and implement them on a heroic scale no longer seems like […]
...moreSunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. Here’s what we published last week.
...moreI just spent 16 hours on a train going from San Francisco to LA. I hate everyone in the world right now except … no, no exceptions. Everyone. Sorry. As a result, though, everything I link to today will be awesome. And by awesome I mean nerdy. Because nerdy things make me happy. Stan Lee! Kids […]
...moreSunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. Come see what you missed this week.
...moreLast night, as part of the Occupy SF Art and Performance Series, Foxtails Brigade, Sherilynn Connelly, and others came out to support the protestors at Bierman Park. By pretty much all accounts, it was incredible. Foxtails Brigade—with Laura Weinbach, Anton Patzner (Judgement Day, Bright Eyes), Jo Lewis (Os Beaches, F-Pod B-Pod) and Jascha Hoffman—even played an […]
...moreThis week, come check out the Occupy SF Art and Performance Series, with local awesomes like Michelle Tea, Nato Green, Kamau Bell, Heklina, Literary Death Match’s Alia Volz, and more A few days ago, Hiya Swanhuyser and I ran into each other as we were checking out Occupy SF in front of the Federal Reserve downtown. […]
...moreA “(h)elpless tribute, I suppose, to the all-time ego king.” Jonathan Lethem has a phenomenal essay on Norman Mailer over at the LA Review of Books, which is also really turning into a sort of powerhouse in its own right.
...more“It’s new for many observers, on the left and the right, to grasp how a movement might unfold without a clear agenda, set of leaders — or even one anthem. Many people find the non-hierarchical structure of Occupy Wall Street frustrating. Among the presumptions it overturns is the one that leads us to expect and […]
...moreHey, everyone likes a quiz! “Match the author with the pen name. ” (via) The Book Bench writes up The Occupied Wall Street Journal, a newspaper that’s popped up at occupation. Bookfox on the difference between creative writers vs other kinds of writers. Michael Copperman’s “letter to my talented writer-friend A., who fears she will never be […]
...moreHoly crap, this was quite a week. Come read what Rumpus Books has been up to.
...moreAfter an impressive rally of 800 yesterday, police shut down the Occupy SF encampment last night, taking all the supplies the encampment’s residents had rounded up. This seems to me to be a significant misstep from the City of San Francisco. The protesters aren’t giving up, and they’re starting over again from scratch. I wasn’t […]
...moreCanongate speaks out on publishing Julian Assange’s unauthorized autobiography. Kesey and Kerouac sitting in a tree, or not really at all. This is how to master not feeling so bad about your employment prospects in two weeks in book review format, and it’s very timely for yours truly. “Maybe this will be another century in […]
...moreThe founder of Project Gutenberg, Michael S. Hart, has passed away. If you’ve never been to Project Gutenberg, go check it out. It changed my life, and maybe will change yours, especially if you have a boring job. (via) The New Pages is looking for reviewers. “since we haven’t entirely killed the bookstore yet, I […]
...more“Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war.” I’m not a particularly devout tennis fan. In fact, I call pretty much all athletic competition sportsball, because I don’t have to keep track of […]
...moreToday, the earth has traveled around the sun ten times since a bunch of assholes made our world a worse place. Electric Literature has a good roundup of what the book blogs have written up about 9/11. Moving on: this will go down in the annals of excellent book marketing: if you become a fan […]
...more“This is a police state. This is Arizona, and worse, this is my country. I must remember this moment. I must not forget even if I want, even if, when I’m back home in bed, the whole scene seems impossible.” — From Day 5 of Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo’s trip to the Arizona-Mexico border. You can check […]
...moreHere’s some very very short stories that only take a second to read but will make your day better. “She’d busted me ogling high heels and cleavage at an after-hours party.” — At 100 Word Stories, “Seasoning” by R. Neal Bonser. “The ending of this all is that I butchered the cow in my garage. […]
...moreI’m feeling concise today. Jessa Crispin on sexism in the arts. Flannery O’Connor tweets? (via) A classic but always excellent video: Vonnegut charts a story. (via) At the Paris Review, on William Steig’s art.
...moreHappy Labor Day Weekend from The Rumpus. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week.
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