The Art of Reviewing: Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain’s impact on food writing. Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Anthony Bourdain
Tag: culture
The Art of Reviewing: Clive James
Clive James and his many books Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society. During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit. Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. Clive James and the Spice Girls. A fascinating interview. Clive James has done it all. He’s a poet, wit, lyricist, TV presenter, cultural commentator, author, and memoirist. This Australian native represents the Old Guard, sharing a similar background with Christopher Hitchens and Martin Amis. His critical stance may be a … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Clive James
The Art of Reviewing: Introductory Remarks
Every blog needs a large-scale project. The Art of Reviewing will explore reviewing as an art form and as a valuable element to understanding society. During this project, I will profile specific reviewers of merit. Several specific cases also explore other facets of reviewing. What makes a good reviewer? A review is only good as the individual reviewing the work. But what is meant by good? Good – like value, civilization, and culture – is a loaded term. It should be not be used in a cavalier fashion or overloaded with moral baggage. Does the reviewer have a technique, a … Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Introductory Remarks
Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #3: “Epitaph One” and the mutability of the Dollhouse Canon
Los Angeles, 2019: Another ‘Verse. Another Vision. More Human Than Human. L to R: Scut Farkas, Little Miss Sunshine, Codex. Apocalypse Now That’s What I Call Entertainment The TV series Dollhouse faces a unique canonical situation with “Epitaph One.” The episode was produced but unaired, while the series was renewed for another season. With Season 2 unseen and speculation rife, with a series finale full of cliffhangers and unanswered, where does one place “Epitaph One”? The title name winks at the possibility of the series ending. The episode’s narrative and setting allude to finality. Set in the year 2019 in … Continue reading Dollhouse Riffs: Riff #3: “Epitaph One” and the mutability of the Dollhouse Canon
The New Comics Anthology (1991), by Daniel Clowes (editor)
A stunning collection of comix, from the punk funnies to foreign voices and places in-between. Published in 1991, the chorus of independent voices range from Harvey Pekar to Gary Panter to Art Spiegelman to Chris Ware and Los Bros. Hernandez. Before the publishers marketed the heck out of the term “graphic novel” and prior to Maus legitimizing the genre to cautious, middlebrow, suburban white people, this anthology stood out like a lighthouse in the storm of Reaganomics, Cold War paranoia, and the tights-and-capes crowd. The ensuing decade has seen these artists become more and more mainstream, which isn’t necessarily a … Continue reading The New Comics Anthology (1991), by Daniel Clowes (editor)
The Black Doll, by Edward Gorey
“The Black Doll” is a screenplay for a silent movie Edward Gorey wanted to make. The screenplay itself is a wonderful mishmash of McGuffins, archeology, masquerade, and comic dread. Heiresses, thieves, the Fiend, and others try to capture the Black Doll and the PRO (the Priceless Religious Object). The screenplay, like all of Gorey’s work, is set in Gorey-world, a time roughly analogous to Victorian, Edwardian, and Roaring Twenties UK and USA. Gorey is masterful in his use of atmosphere. Also included is Anne Nocenti’s interview with Gorey. Nocenti worked on “Typhoid Mary” a Marvel comic book villain associated with … Continue reading The Black Doll, by Edward Gorey
Neuromancer by William Gibson
This novel made me fall back in love with science fiction. Gritty future noir set amidst AI, evil multinationals, and organized crime. The novel glitters with beautifully written passages, amalgamating techspeak with Japanese, Haitian creole, and back-alley slang. Sure, it’s been criticized as “surface and gloss,” but what surface, what gloss! When most speculative fiction writers — including some Grandmasters who will go unnamed — became prolific typists with good ideas, Gibson took a well-worn idea (hard-boiled crime fiction), gave it a spin, and produced a spectacular gem. To top it off, Gibson wrote it on a typewriter — how … Continue reading Neuromancer by William Gibson
From the Vault: The Feejee Mermaid: The Milwaukee Taxidermied Treasure & Others
A look at a strange artifact from the Milwaukee Public Museum. Continue reading From the Vault: The Feejee Mermaid: The Milwaukee Taxidermied Treasure & Others
Book Review: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, by C.M. Mayo
Mexico has been in the news lately. It has also been part of the literary tsunami following the publication of Roberto Bolaño’s epic 2666. In the section entitled “The Part about the Crimes,” Bolaño brings us into a world of chaotic violence against women in Santa Teresa near the US-Mexican border. The free flow of capital and drugs turns Santa Teresa into a zone of relentless murder, brutality, and violation. But to understand the violence of modern Mexico, one must also understand the violence of 19th century Mexico. C.M. Mayo’s historical romance, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, brings … Continue reading Book Review: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, by C.M. Mayo
The Cantos by Ezra Pound, A Critical Appraisal
I: The Mount Everest of Modernism “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” – Sir Edmund Hillary The Cantos. Ezra Pound. The very mention of those names send shudders down even the most well-read literary snob. T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” seems like a small indentation in comparison. The only work with comparable difficulty and lit crit caché is Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. Reading these works carries along serious bragging rights. “I saw the new Terrance and Philip movie. Now who wants to touch me?” Eric Cartman said in the South Park movie. As a reader … Continue reading The Cantos by Ezra Pound, A Critical Appraisal
The Driftless Area Review 