Draft-Brewed Goodness: A Look Back, and A Look Ahead
Adam Underhill06.26.09
Woke up to two emails this morning. First, Danny Jock, responding to the news of Michael Jackson’s death. “I heard. I was in a diner. Where were you when the king of pop died? I immediately said, they should reshoot the video THRILLER now with him. An old lady said, you shouldn’t make fun of the dead. I said yeah? They could put you in the video?” Which I have to say after all the hullabaloo yesterday, which was a big deal (and ABC’s going on and on about Farrah Fawcett’s hair, which wasn’t, her hair that is) was a refreshing let’s move on kind of moment. Then in kind, Adam Underhill’s NBA draft piece came in, which reminds us that something else happened yesterday besides two icons dying – some were being born, or at least just suddenly becoming rich. Art of course by Danny Jock.
Strawberry Jamming: Darryl’s Dodger Days, Memories of a Young Fan
Richard Parks06.22.09
Richard Parks grew up across the highway from one of the rougher hoods in Los Angeles, Crenshaw (as this editor knows, I used to teach there), and Crenshaw High is where Darryl Strawberry honed his talent on the baseball diamond before jaunting back and forth to New York as both a Met, a Yankee, and an interim return stint as a Los Angeles Dodger, a period that would also introduce him to his arch nemesis, crack cocaine. It was during Straw’s Dodger days that Parks, aged 9, first fell in love with the old American pastime (too young for Nirvana yet), and Strawberry was his first hero. A couple of newish books chart Strawberry’s checkered, storied career involving drug use, redemption, fall and redemption again. Loosely referencing those texts, Parks here mostly recalls his memories as a young fan and the changing city he knew at the time.
This One Will Last a Lifetime
Pete Hausler06.21.09
Pete Hausler reminices over the last Stanley Cup victory for the New York Rangers, which came in 1994, after he caught a recent television replay of the final game. Part tribute to his father—who, like Pete, is a lifelong Rangers fan, but who languished in Stanley Cup-less futility for 54 years until the fateful night—and part memoir of the weird and fortunate circumstances in which he watched the final series, Hausler brings the victorious times up to speed with the modern day reality of another decade-plus of fan frustration. This year’s hockey season is over, with the Pittsburgh Penguins taking the Cup from the Detroit Red Wings in seven games. The Rangers were bounced out in the opening round, but for the true fan there’s always hope for next year over and over again.
Provocateurs and Participants – a review of Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video at the ICA Boston
Julie Perini06.17.09
Artist Julie Perini describes the current exhibition at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Acting Out: Social Experiments in Video as one “sidestepping the moral responsibility of academia,” as 5 international artists: Yael Bartana, Johanna Billing, Phil Collins, Javier Tellez, and Artur Zmijewski act as rogue sociologists who “freely borrow from the methods and conventions of fiction and documentary filmmaking while deploying their own hybrid strategies.” These works are complex aesthetically and tackle the politics of the body, both from the individual and global perspective. They beg not only physical engagement from their players, but intense attention from their viewers. If you are in New England this summer don’t miss it.
Talk Show 26 with Aimee Bender, David Leavitt, Dennis Lehane, Sam Lipsyte, Peter Rock, Dana Spiotta, A.J. Verdelle
Jaime Clarke06.16.09
Long before buying a record myself, there were a couple of LPs I took on as my own (besides Urban Chipmunk, Tom T. Hall and yes, Peter Rock, the K-Tel stuff); 1) the first Kiss LP I convinced my dad to buy around the time their solo albums were coming out, and 2) Funkadelic’s One Nation Under A Groove (that was the one that folded out with the naked lady on the inside right?). Well I was obsessed with the art, the nakedness, the makeup (in Kiss’s case) as much as the music, and while not always a good rule of thumb (think Insane Clown Posse) often if the art or makeup is wild, then the music (your ass) follows. Here in Talk Show 26, host Jaime Clarke chats with authors Aimee Bender, David Leavitt, Dennis Lehane, Sam Lipsyte, Peter Rock, Dana Spiotta, and A.J. Verdelle about their first favorite albums. Art by Danny Jock. -CM
(HH) Hamlet House – A Play In Progress
Thom Donovan06.07.09
Lilac Co and St. John’s Theater program have been engaging in a work in progress titled (HH) hamlet house that was performed last week at the Warsaw theater in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Thom Donovan was there and reviews here the play written and directed by Sean Lewis and featuring Lewis, Elisa Matula, Seth Powers, and John Morena. It’s an inventive take on Shakespeare that has Hamlet played by two, doubling characters, an Ophelia forefronted, some merry prankstering and an invite for audience participation that is unique and welcomed. If you missed this showing, read up and then see the next one!
OH, CALVIN! I FEAR YE HAVE ANGERED THE RACING GODS: Why Saturday’s Belmont Stakes is More Than a Two-Horse Race
Pete Hausler06.04.09
[Update: yep, Borel finished 3rd, jumped for the lead early on the long track. Another Bird, Summer Bird Wins, read Pete’s Postmortem here]. The ancient greeks warned against betting this way – swearing on one’s own abilities with excessive pride. It’s a trait known as the big H and has nothing to do with horses (it’s the humans that are teeming with Hubris). If you don’t like Calvin Borel, you likely don’t have a heart, but if you think he may end up the first jockey to have his own "jockey triple crown," (winning the big three on different horses) a prize up till now relegated to the horses themselves, then you’re either just reading the odds right, or tempting fate along with the quite boastful (and favorite) Cajun. Careful with those bets this Saturday, read Pete Hausler’s piece here beforehand (other tips included). Art by Danny Jock
A Two-Week Disney Waltz: Thoughts on the 2009 NBA Finals Between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic
Jason Jude Chan06.04.09
In our preview, the line was Lakers in 6, they got it in 5. We didn’t see the LeBron James and Kobe Bryant matchup that some were hoping for. No, while James, perhaps Cleveland’s highest figuring GDP, was couching it for the 2009 NBA final series, before the first tip off Jason Jude Chan imagined what may happen over the next couple weeks as a largely favored Los Angeles Lakers took on a somewhat less formidable Orlando Magic. Art by Danny Jock.
Talk Show 25 with Brian Evenson, Lev Grossman, Elizabeth McCracken, Karen Shepard, & Gary Shteyngart
Jaime Clarke05.20.09
A treat and a milestone, TS#25 came in on my birthday, May Day, but is just now going up as we’re a little ahead of ourselves in the Talk Show arena. Danny’s gone bat shit prolific with the drawings and Jaime’s ever surprising with the authors he brings in, like Brian Evenson, a fave, and the amazing rest, including Lev Grossman, Elizabeth McCracken, Karen Shepard, and Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart. The focus of the chat is a blast too, a sort of Rorschach sans the drippy subterfuge – Clarke simply asks: what’s the big "irrational fear?" So get prepped to laugh, relate or cringe along. Woody Allen’s sold the spiel that all writers are neurotic as hell, so see for yourself with this Whitman Sampler…
