Sunday, January 1 1995
Habeas Codfish: Reflections on Food and the Law by Barry M. Levenson
Most of the people here in Madison are like everyone else in the state: Packer lovin', Milwaukee avoidin', fried cheese curd eatin' 'Sconsinites, and that's that.
Heart of the Old Country by Tim McLoughlin
Tim McLoughlin's 'Heart of the Old Country' exposes the soul inside the seamy underbelly of New York. It's a gritty slice of life drawn from McLoughlin's experiences, as he reveals in an interview with 'PopMatters'.
High Drama in Fabulous Toledo by Lily James
The central unifier involves a computer programmer who leaves the Novell basement of Unix realtime and attempts to blend into corporate culture, thinking the 1950s ideal man is what he needs to emulate. Knowing he is socially illiterate, he figures the only way to acquire a wife is by taking a woman hostage. [Review and interview with Lily James, author of 'High Drama in Fabulous Toledo'].
Greatest Hits, 1975-2000 by Joel E. Chace
[T]he mystery becomes, really, two mysteries: how someone so apparently skilled and dedicated to a life of writing poetry can fall so far; and second, why?"
Glued to the Tube: The Diary of My Week in TV Hell. 200 Channels, No Escape by Bill Brownstein
There are more painful pursuits of a week's time than sitting with a 200-channel television from the early rays of the morning to the dark crevices of twilight.
Ghastly Terror: The Horrible Story of the Horror Comics - PopMatters - Books - Reviews
IIn the days of my callow youth in the early 1970s I spent more hours than I now care to admit hanging around newsstands and…
Girl Beside Him by Cris Mazza
The dialogue is fast-paced, the narrative engages the reader, and Mazza rarely dwells on minute details. She also gives the reader a chance to feel superior to her characters by creating a group that is as emotionally evolved as a concrete chicken.
Generation Fetish by Lee Higgs; The Beauty of Fetish Vol II by Steve Diet Goedde; Secret Space: The
Bondage is represented in many images, but as an adornment and an enhancement rather than as a means of subjection and degradation. Kenneth Tynan, the English theatre critic, and a lifelong devotee of bondage and sado-masochism, remarked that pain is not, as Freud assumed, the masochist's source of pleasure: it is the unpleasant but necessary side effect of fully embodying a masochistic fantasy.
Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America’s Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam
How can a book about mental hospitals and wacky rock stars/geniuses be anything 'but' interesting?"
GoTo by Steve Lohr
The story of computer languages is really the story of rock 'n' roll. It's the story of the exodus out from under the iron fist of early computing Rat Pack.
Gunman’s Rhapsody by Robert B. Parker
Next time Robert B. Parker decides to time-travel, especially when mucking about with mythology, he'd be well-advised to bring his 'old' shooting-irons with him.
The Ghastly One. The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan by Jimmy McDonough
Jimmy McDonough at one point describes Andy Milligan as 'one of those creatures who ride the midnight train, come from the land of the screaming skulls.' Even though we may not wish to take a journey on that vehicle or experience the territory from where it came, the ride is one I will not soon forget.
Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counter-culture by Albert Goldman
By the end of an absorbing piece, Goldman concludes that rock acts 'like a magnet, drawing into its field a host of heterogeneous materials that has fallen quickly into patterns. No other cultural force in modern times has possessed its power of synthesis'.
PopMatters Books Review - University of Illinois Press: French Film Guides
University of Illinois Press: French Film Guides [13 April 2006] At 128 pages a pop, these books burst with fascinating trivia (Clouzot used to physically…
Forrest J. Ackerman’s World of Science Fiction - PopMatters - Books - Reviews
Forrest J. (“Forry”) Ackerman is a legendary figure in the world of science fiction (or “sci-fi,” as Ackerman — the coiner of the term —…
Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist (The Gonzo Letters, volume
'Fear and Loathing in America' . . . helps distinguish the difference between a writer and the work, which has always been a source of aggravation for Thompson. . . the general assumption was that because he 'wrote' about being stoned, he always 'was'.
The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness
... not only an important work by a Nobel laureate who brought his modern country lasting literary fame, but also the fascinating voice of an earlier, more insular Iceland.
Fixer Chao by Han Ong
Feng Shui is the so-called ancient Chinese art of arranging one's environment to promote peace and prosperity. Its popularity among the well-to-do in this country speaks volumes about how certain kinds of knowledge, including quasi-knowledge, are appropriated and consumed by different social classes. This is what makes 'Fixer Chao' so timely and worthwhile.
Falun Gong’s Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or “Evil Cult”? by Danny Schechter
It's almost unbelievable, the scope of these abuses, and the sheer insanity of the accusations being made -- how on earth could a seventy-year-old grandmother, a former school principal and lifetime Communist Party member, be considered a 'dangerous revolutionary?'"
