American Exceptionalism, According to Oliver Stone American Exceptionalism, According to Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States will be rereleased this month on DVD; it tells a different story than the school textbooks we're used to.
Oct 1, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel
In the Tank In the Tank
Is sensory deprivation an escape from or toward the fatigue and distractions of the digital life?
Sep 24, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Neima Jahromi
Time to Empty the Pool Time to Empty the Pool
The rocks set down in the garden and the red sorrel that finds its way to unfold in sunlight its candy-shaped blossom and the water that flattens the grass and floods all the bugs in its path down to the thirsty hostas and the things that fly out from that wrath on tough little wings that look brittle and the big colored towel of dyed cotton with giant faces of cartoons and the frayed nylon of fold-up chairs riveted to hollow aluminum frames and the clouds drifting against blue and the twisting shapes of shade where secretive squirrels and birds ply their gathering trade and the beds of zucchini and basil whose leaves droop in the heat and the territorial spiders and the occasional passing motors over the hot humming road and your soaked lashes and dripping head and your grass- and dirt-covered feet slipping into flip-flops and the stories we read under the lamp and the insects hitting the window pane.
Sep 24, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Bouchard
Imagine: On J.M Coetzee Imagine: On J.M Coetzee
The Childhood of Jesus explores the fictitious dimensions of a just and compassionate world.
Sep 24, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
They Didn’t Start the Fire They Didn’t Start the Fire
Jason Osder’s Let the Fire Burn; Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s After Tiller; Peter Morgan and Ron Howard’s Rush; anniversary wishes to Stuart Klawans from Rabbi ...
Sep 24, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Urgent, Unheard Stories Urgent, Unheard Stories
New novels, poetry and short-story collections from up-and-coming and established writers of color.
Sep 24, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Roxane Gay
Strange Lands Strange Lands
It took years, but I eventually came to terms with loving the idea of NYC more than the city itself.
Sep 18, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Roxane Gay
An Argument With Instruments: On Charles Mingus An Argument With Instruments: On Charles Mingus
How a jazz artist’s relationship to black identity gave his music its stormy weather.
Sep 17, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Adam Shatz
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