Spring 2003
Farfetched Assertions
to Queries
“Who are you people? What are you doing?
When did you have time? Where in the world? How are you reading my mind?
Why are you here?”
On
Singing, Leeds, and Tater Tots: An Interview With Sally Timms
“I was always a big Yoko Ono fan, so
I think there's a closet avant-gardeist trying to get out but not succeeding
very well.”
Mission:
Ambition
On
Southern Rock Opera and 69
Love Songs
Radical
Reinterpretation of the Text
Unusual Cover Songs You’ve Probably
Never Heard (But Should)
Sifting
Through the Pebbles
“Pebbles
is an undiluted romp through the murk of one-single wonders long forgotten
outside of the rarified world of record collectors.”
The
Golden Age of Hip-Hop Is Now
“Everybody wants their own golden age.
The problem is you never know it when you see it.”
Short
Reviews
Mickey Baker, Orville Couch, Kenny Brown,
Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban, and The
American Song-Poem Anthology
Pistol
Opera
“Before Suzuki, primo Japanese cinema
was a Rolls Royce. After him, it was a ’68 Camaro Z28, and it would
never be the same again.”
For
the Sake of the Children
The Long Courtship and Short Marriage of
Comics and Movies
The
Bottom Shelf
“Reality television is the current favorite
whipping boy of the culture, with each new Survivor
knockoff or Bachelor
clone castigated as yet another portent of the inexorable decline and
fall of civilization.”
Infomercials
For Myself
“That’s when it struck me, when the totality of his slouch,
his stomach, his sitcom-Zapata ‘stache and his predilection for chemicals
all came together and caromed the medicine ball of epiphany off my forehead.
“Wait... are you Lester Bangs?””
The Adman Magritte
Magritte as Cartoonist and Shill
McSweetie's
“The
Believer, the latest product from
the McSweeney's
literary fun factory, is a square-shaped “monthly magazine,”
handsome and idiosyncratic in its design, like everything that Dave Eggers
has a hand in.”
by Phil Nugent
Obsessives
Unite!: Lethem Reviewed
“Look, I don’t really want to write a review of Jonathan Lethem’s
novels. I want to hang out with the guy.”
There
Ain't No Doubt: An Anthem For Us, Not Them
“It's fitting that Lee Greenwood's ‘God
Bless The USA,’ began its journey toward anthem status in the Reagan
administration, and completed its trajectory during the George W. Bush
era.”
Eric
Alterman’s 'What Liberal Media?'
“I was reasonably convinced of a rightward
bias in media coverage, even before reading this book, and this book served
to reinforce that notion. I wanted that reinforcement, so mission accomplished
there.”
Beyond
Bush-League Politics: A Hopeful Look
Ahead At 2004
“There are three or perhaps four of
the current Democratic presidential candidates who are capable of running
a strong campaign against Bush”
Stony
Expressions: Facing Facts about
Monumental Faces
“In the middle '60s, when I first apprehended the M&O Man, he
was the ideal symbol of difference for Livingston. He wasn't the conformist
culture or the freak-out culture. He was our saucy cigar sign from another
realm. The realm of the stone faces.”
by Milo Miles
A
Little Not-Music: Adventures in the String Trade
“I didn't care much for orchestral music,
having played far too much of it back in high school. But where better
to meet amateur musicians than in an amateur orchestra?”
My
Days of Engine Whine and Strawberries
“The strawberry harvest lasts six to
eight weeks, and during that time he sets up several roadside stands for
selling berries. I let Mike know that I would be interested in working
for him on weekends at one of the Raleigh spots.”
Static
Algonquin
Kids’ Table: The Office
In which various participants crack wise
about the BBC comedy, The Office.
