A balding conservatively dressed Investigator comes to an unnamed town to investigate a series of suicides on the grounds of the Enterprise. What follows is an odyssey of frustration, bureaucracy, and confusion. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: The Investigation, by Philippe Claudel
The final volume of Kissinger’s memoirs details his tenure in the Ford Administration, along with my analysis on our current foreign policy situation and what conservatism has become. Continue reading Years of Renewal (1999) by Henry Kissinger
The new Akashic anthology “Venice Noir,” edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Says reviewer Karl Wolff, “There is something for everyone in this [book], a delicious sampling of tastes, styles, and stories.” Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Venice Noir, edited by Maxim Jakubowski
I’m published!!! My short piece, “The Anarcho-Libertine Manifesto, 2nd Iteration” (page 31) has been published by Paraphilia Magazine. In a nutshell, I call for the arts to be dangerous again and to not be afraid to use lush and opulent language. Continue reading Published!!! Read my manifesto in the pages of Paraphilia Magazine
The Driftless Area Review interviews Isaac Goldman, author of “Isaac: a modern fable,” to discuss folklore, favorite writers, boxing, and why you shouldn’t try to sell the Tonight Show a joke. Continue reading An Interview with Ivan Goldman
After an overlong hiatus, “The Art of Reviewing” returns with a profile of Roland Barthes, exploring his the French semiotician and literary critic expanded the subject matter for reviewers, his influence of pop culture studies, and his usefulness in curatorial practice. Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Roland Barthes
Wonder is a strange book. By turns sarcastic, hallucinatory, satirical, and dreamlike, it relates the misadventures of one Victor-Denijs de Rijckel, a teacher who pursues a mysterious woman only to find himself posing as an expert of Crabbe, a messianic figure associated with Nazi collaboration. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Wonder (1962), by Hugo Claus
I begin a limited-run series where I review three books about the Supreme Court of the United States, exploring its historical and ideological conflicts, and the transformations it wrought upon law and society. Continue reading Mondays with the Supremes: Part I: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
The words “exuberant” or “idiosyncratic” don’t usually pop into one’s mind when one hears the words “Soviet architecture.” The usual description of Soviet architecture involves unimaginative gray concrete structures created to fit the vision of a totalitarian state. Photographer Frederic Chaubin sought to prove otherwise upon his discovery of a radically energetic architectural aesthetic that arose during the latter days of the Soviet empire. Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed, despite its gimmicky title, offers a revisionist overview of this architecture. Chaubin’s introduction is written in an arch yet playful manner, throwing references to Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida and the movie … Continue reading CCCP@CCLaP
The first coins, the first hamburger, the first military motor vehicle. These are but a sampling of Robertson’s Book of Firsts. Researched and compiled by Patrick Robertson as a culmination of a lifelong passion, the book aims to chronicle not invention, but innovation. This means a look at social and technological development and some surprising entries. Robertson approaches this collection of firsts from a unique position. A former government employee and a former chairman of the Ephemera Society, he also owns the largest private collection of vintage magazines in Britain. Firsts are ephemeral, since once a first is achieved, social … Continue reading Robertson’s Book of Firsts: Who did what for the first time, by Patrick Robertson
The Driftless Area Review 