Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Kevin Killian08.27.08
HBO released a new documentary this summer by Marina Zenovich about director Roman Polanski’s long ago scandalous sexual encounter with a young girl – Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. An exile from the States ever since this event and the subsequent bumbling, showy court case, Polanski has weathered more storms in his life than most could handle; yet Zenovich, in Kevin Killian’s view here, seems to be letting Polanski a little off the hook (for such a serious charge) in her retrospective cut. Art by Danny Jock.
Online Help
Robyn Weisman08.26.08
The world of employment agencies and temp workers is a bizarre one, and when it intersects with a graveyard shift proofreading at a legal firm, things can can get downright maddening. Here, Robyn Weisman recounts the experience of working with the kind of woman that temp agencies just love – pleasant, chatty and eager to increase her words-per-minute – and watches her true identity emerge over the course of the night. Art by Danny Jock.
Cloak of Invisibility… Revealed!
The Fanzine08.12.08
Long the envy by the likes of man, the cloak of invisibility, a technology once only possessed by Predator, Federation Starships, and Frodo Baggins, is one step closer to reality.
Talk Show #16 with Elizabeth Crane, Michael Dahlie, Tony D’ Souza, and Salvatore Scibona
Jaime Clarke08.12.08
In this gadget edition of Talk Show, host Jaime Clarke asks his participants about the technology that changed their lives—pens, toilets, sewing machines, and televisions—for better or for worse. Art by Danny Jock.
Have you changed your password lately?
Casey McKinney08.11.08
It might not matter if your IT department is run by a guy like Terry Childs, aka Maggot617, the network administrator accused of blocking…
Gold Free Games
Tom Flynn08.08.08
America, unlike a lot of small countries, expects its fair share of Olympic medals each time the torch lands somewhere around the globe. For smaller countries, those three disks of metal – gold, silver and bronze are a lot more elusive, especially that most esteemed medal, the gold. So hopes are often pinned on a sport or two, maybe one athelete even, while a bronze is nothing to be scoffed at, but lauded. Tom Flynn remembers the success of one Norwegian runner, who could stand as a lighthouse for other underdog countries as the Olympics begin in Beijing this week.
Review of The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball
Richard Parks08.05.08
Baseball is best viewed live, though it’s also a comforting respite on a lazy day spent sprawled out on the living room couch. Speaking of couches, have you ever talked baseball on the couch at your shrink’s office? Did that baseball talk give you the answers you needed to reconcile a painful love/hate relationship with your father? Well probably not. But if so, or if you at least find the baseball-as-psychological lens interesting, you should check out Nicholas Dawidoff’s latest memoir The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball, reviewed here by Richard Parks.
Review of Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary
Ben Bush08.04.08
Hypertext Lit is no longer a fad but a fact. From the earlier experiments of Shelley Jackson and Robert Coover on to today’s ebooks on iPhones and Kindles, electronic literature is here for the long haul, making its mark in more ways than you’d think. Ben Bush reviews a thorough study of the subject – Professor N. Katherine Hayles’ Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary.
Free Coke Anyone? Have One (Without The Smile)
Casey McKinney08.03.08
Free Coke Anyone? Have One (Without The Smile)
