The Drunk Sonnets
Like most winning drunken acts, The Drunk Sonnets is comprised of extremes. I came away from each poem thinking it was either the best damn thing I’d read in years…
Rumpus Original
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The Rumpus Review of Kick-Ass
If the sight of a 10-year-old girl acrobatically and graphically hacking up a roomful of muscle-bound drug dealers makes you squirm, then Kick-Ass is not your kind of film. Also,…
Plrknib: A Tale of Stand-Up Comedy
Cincinnati, 1980. In late November on a Sunday morning my mother burned something she was cooking and the smoke alarm went off. And the joke was there – right there…
From Russia with Love
Elif Batuman offers a rogue’s gallery of Russian writers, scholars, and literary characters—the only oddball missing is herself.
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #36: Icky Thoughts Turn Me On
You can take that power back at any moment.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Progress
“People were gathered in the entryway looking at something, and when we stepped forward we saw what: a couple laying on the floor, kissing and embracing in slow motion.”
10/40/70 #7: New Moon, Twin Peaks
This ongoing experiment in film writing freezes a film at 10, 40, and 70 minutes, and keeps the commentary as close to those frames as possible. This week, I examine…
Cometbus #52: The Spirit of St. Louis; or How to Break Your Own Heart, A Tragedy in 24 Parts
On most sunny summer days, Aaron Cometbus can be found leaning back in a folding chair behind a well-organized used book table on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, scribbling in Sharpie…
FUNNY WOMEN #24: Torture, Please!
My theory of the tortured artist is to be an artist, you don’t have to be tortured. But it helps. I am in graduate school. Because I have nothing better to…
Who’s the Narcissist?
Emily Gould may be the queen of oversharing—but you’re the one reading this review of her book.
Ted Wilson Reviews the World #35
FOOD ★★★★★ (3 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing food.
Have I Earned These Clichés?
When life is not the slightest bit luminescent, I read Lorrie Moore. She honors a commitment to the search for truth and morality through emotional and reachable means.