Policing the Color Line Policing the Color Line
Two books on modern policing and the racial dynamics that go with it.
Sep 13, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Christian Parenti
Monarchs Landing and Flying Monarchs Landing and Flying
If they have come for the butterflies then bless their breaking hearts, but the young pair is looking nowhere except each other's eyes. He seems like he could carry them both over the street on great wings of grief tucked under his coat, while all around them float, like wisps of ash or the delicate prism sunlight flashing off the city glass, the orange-yellow-black-wing-flecked monarchs. Migrant, they're more than two dozen today, more long-lived than the species who keep to the localized gardens--they're barely a gram apiece, landing, holding still for the common milkweed that feeds their larvae, or balanced on bridges of plumegrass stalks and bottle-brush, wings fanning, closing, calmed by the long searchlight stems of hollyhock. If they have come for the butterflies then why is she weeping when he lifts her chin? He looks like he's holding his breath back-- or is he trying to shed tears, too? Are any left? He's got his other hand raised, waving, and almost before it stops the taxi's doors flare on both sides open. Nothing's stirring in the garden, not us, not the thinnest breeze among the flowers, yet by the time we look again they've flown.
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / David Baker
On the Record: Toward a Union Label On the Record: Toward a Union Label
Courtney Love's plea to fellow recording artists to join her in the creation of a new musicians' guild, printed below, is the latest blow to the beleaguered "Big Five
Sep 6, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Courtney Love and Johnny Temple
Vagina Monologue Vagina Monologue
In his essay for the catalogue that accompanies "Picasso Érotique," beautifully installed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts until September 16, Jean-Jacques Lebel repro...
Aug 23, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto
Catchers in the Wry Catchers in the Wry
Ah, the films of summer. When they get it right, they win our hearts. A sublime treat with which to beat the heat, Ghost World deserves every bit of the praise that has been ro...
Aug 23, 2001 / Books & the Arts / B. Ruby Rich
Chekhov Takes Wing Chekhov Takes Wing
"Stop all printing of my play. I shall never write another one again." So wrote the frustrated young Dr. Chekhov to his publisher the morning after his new play, The Seagull, wa...
Aug 23, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Carol Rocamora
Merrill Table Talk Merrill Table Talk
Alfred Corn reviews Alison Lurie's Familiar Spirits.
Aug 9, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Alfred Corn
Elegy for Edinburgh Elegy for Edinburgh
Linda Gardiner reviews Irvine Welsh's Glue.
Aug 9, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Linda Gardiner
Whitewash in the Ionian Whitewash in the Ionian
Maria Margaronis reviews Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Aug 9, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Maria Margaronis