Zenyatta: From the Back of the Pack, But a Backseat to None
Pete Hausler11.04.10
This coming Saturday, November 6th, breeders, bettors and plain old racing enthusiasts around the world will be focused on the Breeders Cup, a contest that offers the largest payout in all of the horse racing sport. And this year it’s super special, with a heap of hype all over one mare, Zenyatta. With 19 victories so far, and beyond incredible stats, Zenyatta is said to retire after the race, hopefully with an even 20 wins/ zip losses. Pete Hausler explains her confounding talents, exacting style, and why he will be betting against her. Art by Danny Jock.
Secret Historian: Samuel Steward
Kevin Killian11.02.10
In Kevin Killian’s review of Justin Spring’s Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade, Killian recounts his own close encounters with Steward, who lived in the Bay Area in the ’80s, and his divergent viewpoints with a man whom he found, while not entirely fascinating, intriguing, not only for his sexual prowess and Stud File, but for Steward’s relationship with Gertrude Stein, his life as a tattoo artist in seedy postwar Chicago, his artistic endeavors, and multiple identities during an age of homosexual persecution. It was a transitional time for Killian as well, and his initial apprehensiveness toward Steward as subject matter gives way to real understanding.
Book: The Death of Bunny Munroe – Nick Cave
Michael Louie11.01.10
Bunny Munroe, a serious cocksman of the real incorrigible sort, is set on a tail spin with reality and fate after the suicide of his wife, who killed…
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hausu: The Haunted House Meets The Holy Mountain
Grace Krilanovich10.27.10
Orange Eats Creeps, Grace Krilanovich’s debut novel, has been intensely praised by Shelley Jackson, Steve Erickson, Blake Butler, Brian Evenson and, um, Gawker. Set in a meth-ravaged section of the 1990s Pacific northwest, it includes junkie vampires, drug-induced ESP and a missing foster sister. By all reports it is awesome. Here, as a Halloween mood-setter, Krilanovich reviews the 1977 Japanese psychedelic horror film House, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi, an experimental filmmaker who had previously directed a Charles Bronson commercial for "Mandom" cologne. The film has just been lushly re-released by Criterion Collection.
Invisible Missive Magnetic Juju: On African Cyber-Crime
Louis Chude-Sokei10.24.10
Using William Gibson’s Neuromancer as his guide book, Louis Chude-Sokei, author of The Last Darky, examines the culture surrounding Nigerian internet scams, often known by the name "419" derived from the Nigerian legal code. Along the way, we see Colin Powell dancing to African hip-hop, the largest bank theft in history, a series of corrupt military dictators, Frantz Fanon, smoldering piles of e-waste, the most trusted man in Nigeria and the kidnapped star of the Nigerian film adaptation of Things Fall Apart.
Press: Awkward Birkensnake
Ben Bush10.21.10
Novelist Brian Conn and Fanzine contributor Joanna Ruocco edit the fiction journal Birkensnake. While issue two was bound in a weird, plasticky…
Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, an excerpt from the 33 1/3 series
Richard Henderson10.19.10
It’s hard to summarise the surreal variety of Van Dyke Parks’ career. He worked as a child actor in a film starring Grace Kelly, arranged the song "Bare Necessities" for Disney’s Jungle Book and perhaps most famously co-wrote and arranged The Beach Boys’ long-shelved, ambitious concept album SMiLE. Along the way, he has collaborated with innumerable musicians, including The Byrds, Frank Black, Joanna Newsom, Laurie Anderson and Bob Dylan. He has also appeared in an episode of Twin Peaks and Robert Altman’s film version of Popeye. His own albums have often tackled unusual, quintessentially American themes, such as Brer Rabbit and Japanese-U.S. relations. It seems likely that wittingly or unwittingly you have encountered Parks somewhere. Richard Henderson delved into his Parks’ first solo album Song Cycle for Continuum’s 33 1/3 series.
Metal Blog from our friends
Michael Louie10.15.10
Our friends Melissa and Nithtya made this awesome metal blog called Waves of Mutilation. It has a good dose of great humor but don’t mistake this…
Jackass 3D in a 4D World
Jimmy Chen10.14.10
Jimmy Chen asks whether it re-contextualizes the question "Does life imitate art?" to rephrase it as "Do teenagers imitate TV?" It seems impossible to believe in the power of art to change lives without also conceding that art can change lives, not only for the better, but also for the worse. Using this lens, Chen examines the live-acton genital mutilaton of Jackass 3D.
That Which
Lonely Christopher10.13.10
Lonely Christopher brags "You might be the loneliest person in the world. You’ll never be as lonely as me," but what he lacks in friends he seems to be making up for with admirers. His short story collection The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse is due out in February from Akashic and has already been praised by Dennis Cooper, Kevin Killian and Dale Peck. His story "That Which" explores the mother-child bond with the apocalyptic intensity that only a true shut-in can know.
