First Saturday of Summer in Virginia First Saturday of Summer in Virginia
Day lilies dotting the ditches orange, between tilting mailboxes, amid blue chicory and swales of yellow buttercups. Northwest on Jefferson Highway, alert for bright yellow signs printed YARD SALE, freight train clanging on my right. To follow arrows onto gravel driveways through the woods to arrive at run-down trailers or two-story homes with wraparound porches, wide front lawns and tables of children’s clothing, glassware, games, dolls, obsolete electronics. All around, blue tarps on wet grass with bags of worn quilts and sheets, paired shoes and boots, jeans laid out like Civil War soldiers piled in an open grave. To drive from sale to sale as the sun climbs the sky, blue as Hollywood eyes, coffee in a GO cup. To end at the Art & Craft Show at St. Jude’s, where men with orange flags direct parking across the street from mounds of mulch, gravel, sand, compost. To watch a teen tap dance to the beat of a jangly country song, swirling her flared skirt.
Sep 17, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Joan Mazza
Salaam Cinema: On Mohsen Makhmalbaf Salaam Cinema: On Mohsen Makhmalbaf
An Iranian director’s ongoing meditations on the nature of illusion and reality, truth and consequences.
Sep 17, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Adina Hoffman
Reading the Stakes in Syria Reading the Stakes in Syria
The Syria Dilemma, edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, offers a range of perspectives on the Syrian dilemma from within Syria and beyond.
Sep 17, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Roxane Gay
Reagan Republicans Freak Out Over ‘The Butler’ and Race Reagan Republicans Freak Out Over ‘The Butler’ and Race
The smartest thing about the new film The Butler is its depiction of Ronald Reagan’s inadequacies on civil rights—which is something conservatives can’t stand.
Sep 17, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Rick Perlstein
A Literature of Her Own: ‘It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris’, by Patricia Engel A Literature of Her Own: ‘It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris’, by Patricia Engel
The author's absorbing debut novel chronicles a young woman’s year in Paris, where she will have to choose the home wants most.
Sep 13, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Roxane Gay
Remembering Saul Landau Remembering Saul Landau
Saul helped ignite a political awareness and a passion for history in me.
Sep 11, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Andrés S. Pertierra
The Long Goodbye: On Steven Soderbergh The Long Goodbye: On Steven Soderbergh
Hollywood’s wonkiest director hasn’t stopped working. He’s finding new problems to solve—and toying with us again.
Sep 10, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Robert Neer’s Napalm: An American Biography; Juliette Volcler’s Extremely Loud: Sound as a Weapon
Sep 10, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Peter C. Baker
Great Perturbations: On George Packer Great Perturbations: On George Packer
The Unwinding is a fine-grained account of economic collapse that runs aground on causeless abstractions.
Sep 10, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Chris Lehmann
Rising Above the Failure of Imagination Rising Above the Failure of Imagination
The conversation about diversity in Science Fiction & Fantasy reveals how racism constrains even imagination.
Sep 10, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Roxane Gay