Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X to 197X
Gean Moreno04.19.11
A certain type of architectural book has proliferated from the 1990s on – mammoth "doorstops" from heavyweights such as Rem Koolhaas in pubs like S, M , L , XL. But in the 1960s and 70s a different breed of architecture publication was common – smaller, handmade, with the DNA of the maker visible (well almost surely a fingerprint or two). Artist and publisher Gean Moreano has researched these magazines collected in the book Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X to 197X for inspiration.
The Pale King, An Unfinished Novel
James Greer04.12.11
David Foster Wallace died before finishing his third novel, The Pale King. If he imagined while living that he’d be pleased to have it published in this state, after checking out, we can’t know (…um). But I can barely explicate briefly how pleased I am that Jim Greer is Fanzine’s man of the hour writing the review of the manicured "mess" we are left with. He nails it. Death and taxes, and oh boy. Whatever Wallace might have thought of Michael Pietsch’s Herculean task of putting The Pale King together, he, a bit of Yorick’s skull now, would certainly smile back on Greer’s words here.
As We Here: Destroyer, Kaputt (double-LP vinyl issue)
Jeff T. Johnson03.04.11
Jeff T. Johnson reviews the double LP release of Destroyer’s Kaputt. More than a recount of Dan Bejar’s usual brilliance & heavy thoughts on a record of smoother than usual vibes – with this special edition, we look inside the songster’s ellipses: "If most lyric sheets disappoint because they banalize the vocals, Kaputt’s sheet is a fair representation—or recollection—of what goes on on the album," Johnson riffs alongside/through Bejar.
Music: Dumbo Gets Mad: ‘Elephants At The Door’ LP
Casey McKinney03.03.11
Dumbo Gets Mad is like…like…The Clientele meets Clinic…and I know, comparisons are cheap. But I found out about them because they were…
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Oscars Host
Benjamin Strong02.28.11
I wouldn’t call him irascible, Mr. Strong, as he has certainly thought long and hard about the young Oscar host last night and nominee for best actor, James Franco, but he does get downright sardonic about this jack of all…ummm…and about other things concerning the 2011 Academy Awards. Ouch… (but then maybe this is just Ben’s performance art; in any case, Strong plays bad cop to Killian’s good for our 2nd Oscar piece of the day).
The 2011 Minna Street Oscars Party
Kevin Killian02.28.11
So you’ve saddled up to your desks and are wondering what the hell happened at the Academy Awards last night, or actually why they may have been the least surprising in years… still there remain a few head scratching queries in Kevin Killian’s inimitable style, like: Personally, all it took was nine words, “Gwyneth Paltrow will perform ‘Coming Home’ from the film Country Strong,” for me to hand back my SAG card, the way that boys my age used to burn their draft cards in the age of Vietnam. Where was poor Cher? as Randy Newman may have wondered. It’s another homestyle San Francisco Oscar Party!
The Prison Suit: Incarceration during China’s Cultural Revolution
George Barber02.16.11
As a 20-year-old, Xiaoda Xiao drunkenly ripped a poster of Mao off the wall and used it to mop up his spilled drink. Without a trial he was sent to a prison where he spent the next five years working in a gravel quarry. The Prison Suit describes this time through interconnected essays, each one focused on a different topic or fellow prisoner. Egor Lazebnik reviews the book, both as part of the genre of prison literature and as a part of history.
Everyday Magic: On Julianna Barwick and The Magic Place
Brian Howe02.11.11
At a club in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Brian Howe chats over burritos with Julianna Barwick, a singer with a voice of angelic proportions, who can do it all it seems harmonically with one throat, one diaphragm and a loopstation (no band, at least no plans for one yet she says). Having already titillated critics with a pair of albums, her latest, The Magic Place, out February 22 on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label, is also reviewed here to high marks.
Everything Sings: Intimate Cartography
Rob Tennant02.04.11
Rob Tennant reviews Denis Woods’ Everything Sings, a book of eccentric maps exploring an array of aspects of Boylan Heights, a neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, including the distribution of its jack-o-lantern, the areas in which different radio stations are available, the route and duration of the newspaper boy, shades of autumn leaves and many others.
Other: The Jejune Institute
Ben Bush01.07.11
Psychic cult, Jungian therapy or brilliant art project? If you’re at all near San Francisco, do not miss visiting the remarkable Jejune Institute….
