Tag: pop culture

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Oldest Chicago by David Anthony Witter

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David Anthony Witter puts a new spin in the crowded field of travel guides.  Oldest Chicago offers the reader a guide to the oldest places in Chicago and its suburbs.  The guidebook encompasses everything from the commonplace (oldest school building: St. Ignatius College Prep, 1869) to the esoteric (oldest tamale shop: La Guadalupana, 1945).  From the oldest church to the oldest magic shop to the oldest slaughterhouse, they are all in here and much, much more. Witter seamlessly blends the historical, the informative, and the personal into a unique take on the travel guide.  Throughout the guide, the dark undercurrents … Continue reading Oldest Chicago by David Anthony Witter

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book reviews, books, Critical Appraisals, TV5 Comments

Critical Appraisals: Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

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During the Thirties, Louis-Ferdinand Céline shocked the literary establishment with the release of two novels: Journey to the End of the Night (1932) and Death on the Installment Plan (1936).  Both novels acted as companions to each other, focusing on different parts of re-imagined autobiographical material set within fictional narratives.  Ralph Manheim, the translator of Death on the Installment Plan, dubbed the genre “creative confessions.” The original French title is Mort à crédit, a staccato-sounding title that became translated as Death on Credit by John H. P. Marks.  The book braids together the strands of comedy, despair, and debt, since … Continue reading Critical Appraisals: Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

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Internecine by David Schow @ Joe Bob Briggs

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Conrad Maddox is the Vice President in charge of development for Kroeger Concepts, Ltd. He’s an ad man who specializes in selling our dreams and desires back to us a steep price. On his return from a business trip, he discovered a key in his rental car. The key belonged to a locker that contained a Halliburton-style briefcase. The briefcase contained fake IDs, cash, a cell phone and several guns. Conrad calls the number on the cell phone. As they say, hilarity ensues. Internecine is a thriller written by David J. Schow. Schow is the Hollywood scribe who wrote Critters … Continue reading Internecine by David Schow @ Joe Bob Briggs

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Interview with Martin Shepard, co-founder of the Permanent Press

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The Permanent Press is a small publisher based in Sag Harbor, New York.  With high standards and a small staff, the Permanent Press possesses both the longevity and critical acclaim usually associated with larger publishers.  Martin and Judy Shepard approach the business of publishing with small print runs and putting out only a dozen new titles every year.  Unlike the mainstream conglomerates, the Permanent Press is more of an artisan than an agent of mass production. Martin Shepard, co-founder of the Permanent Press I had the opportunity to ask Martin Shepard, co-founder of Permanent Press, some questions about the book … Continue reading Interview with Martin Shepard, co-founder of the Permanent Press

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The Reckoning by Howard Owen

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In Howard Owen’s ninth novel, The Reckoning, the lives of George James and Freeman Hawk meet again after decades of separation.  Freeman was an African-American civil rights activist who fled to Canada to avoid getting drafted.  George James was a scion of the old money South and an heir to the Old Dominion Ham Company.  Owen shifts between past and present, reflecting the tense relationship between George James, widowed and alcoholic, and his son Jake.  Freeman Hawk returned to George, but George’s idealization of Freeman makes the opaque circumstances harder to pick up.  George tells Jake how Freeman led the … Continue reading The Reckoning by Howard Owen

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5000 Pages of Kissinger, book reviews, books, Critical Appraisals, film2 Comments

Years of Upheaval (1981) by Henry Kissinger

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A Second Term and a Third-rate Burglary Now Watergate does not bother me Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth. “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974)   Years of Upheaval, the second volume of memoirs by Henry Kissinger, continues his personal account of public service, spanning the time of Nixon’s re-election to Nixon’s resignation following the Watergate scandal.  The memoirs record a short span of time although it encompasses a plethora of geopolitical, domestic, and personal events.  In the words of Homer Simpson, this volume has it all, “the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles.” Riding on … Continue reading Years of Upheaval (1981) by Henry Kissinger

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Critical Appraisal: The Landscape of Hell

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The representation of Hell as a cartographic region has its origins in Dante’s Divine Comedy.  Dante adapted the imagery already present in medieval painting and sculpture to comment on his political situation and his own scientific and theological beliefs.  He populated it with real people, including political heroes and villains, good popes and bad popes, adulterous princesses, and monsters human and mythological.  On Dante’s spiritual journey, he traveled with the Roman poet Vergil down the various circles of Hell and then up Mount Purgatory.  Finally, led by his beloved Beatrice, he journeyed through the heavenly spheres until he was in … Continue reading Critical Appraisal: The Landscape of Hell

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Dead Weight by John Francome @ Joe Bob Briggs

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Phil Nicholas is a National Hunt jockey psychologically shaken after a bad fall. The National Hunt is a popular series of races involving horses in steeplechase races. Phil’s horse didn’t make it over one of these barriers, making the fall particularly nasty. He has had symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and it is making him not race as well. Because of the fall, he seeks psychiatric help, but keeps it secret from his wife Julia, a horse trainer, and his fellow jockeys. Phil is afraid the therapy might make him appear weak. Keith works as a gamekeeper and has been … Continue reading Dead Weight by John Francome @ Joe Bob Briggs

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Essays on Capital, First Series: Essay One

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Essay 1: Capital and the historical moment From commodities to citizens. O garment not golden but gilded, O garden where all men may dwell, O tower not of ivory, but builded By hands that reach heaven from hell; O mystical rose of the mire, O house not of gold but of gain, O house of unquenchable fire, Our Lady of Pain! “Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)”, Algernon Charles Swinburne (1866) The Civil War: Revolution in Labor Relations The Civil War ended in 1865 bringing about the cessation of hostilities between the United States and the Confederacy.  After four years and … Continue reading Essays on Capital, First Series: Essay One

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Elysiana by Chris Knopf

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The novel Elysiana is about the eponymous barrier island off the coast of South Jersey.  Chris Knopf, known for the Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery novels, has written a self-contained novel set in the summer of 1969.  It begins with Midwestern girl Gwendolynn Anders suffering a bad drug trip.  Time loses coherence as Gwendolynn experiences memories and flashbacks, seeing herself at a party, and then finding herself in the back of car.  She gradually regains control of her mental faculties and then realizes she is on Elysiana.  The island, only twenty-five miles long and a mile wide, presents a microcosm of … Continue reading Elysiana by Chris Knopf

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