Books & the Arts

Guided by Voices Guided by Voices

The new Tom Waits album begins, in very Waitsian fashion, with a racket: a squall of percussive noise that sounds like it was recorded in a freight elevator.

Oct 21, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jody Rosen

Because We Could Because We Could

When George H.W.

Oct 21, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Cockburn

Crude Awakening Crude Awakening

On January 9, 2004, Royal Dutch/Shell, one of the world's largest publicly traded oil companies, shocked the international financial community by announcing that it had overstate...

Oct 21, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Michael T. Klare

Art Makes a Difference Art Makes a Difference

The Bush era has seen an explosion of sharply political creativity.

Oct 21, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Alisa Solomon

Pay Attention Pay Attention

A star is on the rise for Death Cab for Cutie. The Seattle-based indie band's last record, Transatlanticism (Barsuk), has sold just over 184,000 copies.

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Hillary Frey

In the Cut In the Cut

Throughout the four decades of his great career--which is the same thing as saying, throughout the history of filmmaking in sub-Saharan Africa--Ousmane Sembene has switched back ...

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

Presumed Innocent Presumed Innocent

Unlike news reports, theater isn't expected to stick to the facts. By nature, the form is duplicitous, built on a sandy foundation of make-believe and pretense.

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Alisa Solomon

About Henry About Henry

Henry James is not a name that springs to mind when we think of adventure stories, prose epics or historical fiction.

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple

Learning to Love the Bomb Learning to Love the Bomb

While I saw Edward Teller at several scientific conferences and heard him lecture, I met him only once. It left an indelible memory. It was at the end of April 1954.

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Bernstein

Dissent at 50 Dissent at 50

In the summer of 1953, the New School for Social Research hung a yellow curtain over a mural by the Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco. Orozco's transgression?

Oct 14, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Scott Sherman

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