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'Run-Out Groove' Shows the Dark Side of Capitol Records
Music promoter Dave Morrell's memoir, Run Out Groove, recalls the underbelly of the mainstream music industry.
30 Jul 2020
Reading Pandemics
Poe, Pandemic, and Underlying Conditions
To read Edgar Allan Poe in the time of pandemic, we need to appreciate a very different aspect of his perspective—not that of a mimetic artist but of the political economist.
26 May 2020
Books
Home Computers: 100 Icons that Defined a Digital Generation (excerpt)
Whether you remember waiting for dial-up access, tiny screens, and green lines of text or not, you'll get a kick out of Alex Wiltshire's travel back in time to when computers came with wires. Enjoy this excerpt of Home Computers, courtesy of MIT press, with nostalgia photography by John Short.
Alex Wiltshire
06 May 2020
Books
Mieko Kawakami's 'Breasts and Eggs' Is a Feminist Masterpiece
Fearless in its demand for accountability, transcendent in its honesty, Mieko Kawakami's Breasts and Eggs breathes life into feminist literature and throws down a gauntlet for other writers to aspire toward.
29 Apr 2020
Books
'Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over (A Companion to the Film by Beth B)' (excerpt)
An accompaniment to Beth B's documentary of the same name, Nick Soulsby's book is the first comprehensive overview of Lunch's creative campaign of resistance, a celebration of pleasure as the ultimate act of rebellion. Enjoy this excerpt courtesy of Jawbone Press.
27 Apr 2020
Books
What Has a Real Critic Got to Offer? On Stephanie Ross' 'Two Thumbs Up'
Stephanie Ross' book on aesthetic philosophy, Two Thumbs Up, can be used as a dissertation template. Just expect -- like a critic -- to argue with it, at times.
23 Apr 2020
Books
Comedy, Pathos, and Bibliophilia Merge in Jean Giono's Wartime Journal
In addition to its literary significance, Jean Giono's newly translated Occupation Journal is also an important reminder of the value of pacifism in a world where over-eager partisanship is once more merging with the enthusiastic violence of political dogma.
17 Apr 2020
Books
Graphic Novel 'Big Black' Is a Stunning Depiction of the Attica Prison Uprising
Fifty years ago Attica prisoners rose up for justice -- and were slaughtered. Graphic novel Big Black: Stand at Attica is a powerful story from a survivor's point of view.
15 Apr 2020
Books
'Trans Power' Is a Celebration of Radical Power and Beauty
Juno Roche's Trans Power discusses trans identity not as a passageway between one of two linear destinations, but as a destination of its own.
03 Apr 2020
Books
Does Inclusivity Mean That Everyone Does the Same Thing?
What is the meaning of diversity in today's world? Russell Jacoby raises and addresses some pertinent questions in his latest work, On Diversity.
02 Apr 2020
Books
The American Robot: A Cultural History [By the Book]
In The American Robot, Dustin A. Abnet explores how robots have not only conceptually connected but literally embodied some of the most critical questions in modern culture, as seen in this excerpt from chapter 5 "Building the Slaves of Tomorrow", courtesy of University of Chicago Press.
Dustin A. Abnet
31 Mar 2020
Books
When You Discover Your Father Had an Affair with Frida Kahlo...
The story of one of Frida Kahlo's short affairs, captured in Marc Petitjean's excellent book, The Heart, offers an inspired glimpse into the surreal Parisian art scene of 1939.
26 Mar 2020
Books
'Miss Iceland' Is a Brilliant Novel of Sexism, Homophobia, and the Writing Life
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir's Miss Iceland Is at once a poetic, light-hearted narrative and a sharply edged social critique that is caustic and righteous in its portrayal of the enduring nature of sexism, misogyny and homophobia.
12 Mar 2020
Books
'Going Stealth': Trans Politics and Surveillance Practices
When activists cooperate with a repressive state, who gets left behind?
05 Mar 2020
Books
'Year of the Rabbit': How Quickly Cruelty and Genocide Can Become the Norm
Tian Veasna's superb yet harrowing graphic portrayal of the Khmer Rouge regime, Year of the Rabbit, conveys what damage a living nightmare can do to a country and its people in a mere four years.
02 Mar 2020
Books
Why Everyone Should Read Samra Habib's Queer Muslim Memoir
Matter of fact in its presentation of difficult material -- sexism, child marriage, emotional and sexual abuse -- what's most striking about Samra Habib's memoir, We Have Always Been Here, is the sense of compassion with which she writes.
28 Feb 2020
Books
The New World Will Be Built by Refugees: On Two New Japanese Novellas
The latest two Red Circle Minis, by Takuji Ichikawak and Kanji Hanawa, deal in archetypes; one set in the distant past, the other in the all too near future.
26 Feb 2020
Books
For All Governments: Gendry-Kim's Graphic Novel, 'Grass'
The powerful graphic novel Grass documents the atrocities against WWII "comfort women" through the recollections of a survivor. This is an incredibly powerful and urgent work that, frankly, should be read by the governments of all nations that must face, admit to, and begin real reparations for their country's atrocities.
12 Feb 2020
Books
Journalist Desmond Cole Confronts Canada's Anti-Black Racism
In The Skin We're In, Canadian journalist Desmond Cole reveals the shocking scale of racism in a country that prefers to look the other way.
09 Feb 2020
Books
Annie, Get Your Gun
Women gunslingers engender justice in new fantasy Westerns from Charlaine Harris and Lyndsay Ely.
05 Feb 2020
Books
Sam Wasson's 'The Big Goodbye' Puts Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown' in Its Place
Social historian Sam Wasson's The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, is a graceful and compelling elegy to both Roman Polanski's landmark film, and the end times of old Hollywood.
09 Jan 2020
Books
The Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts Matters, Dammit! An Interview with Biographer Mike Edison
Mike Edison's biography on the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts, Sympathy for the Drummer is a full-throated assault on the notion that, in music, more is better, and that perfection is a friggin' virtue.
06 Jan 2020
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'Shapeshifters' and Other Trans-forming Humans
Supernatural Historian John Kachuba deftly demonstrates in Shapeshifters: A History that change is the only constant in life.
06 Dec 2019
Books
Abjection Incorporated: Mediating the Politics of Pleasure and Violence (By the Book)
Escaping abjection's usual confines of psychoanalysis and aesthetic modernism, the contributors to Abjection Incorporated examine a range of media, including literature, photography, film, television, talking dolls, comics, and manga. Enjoy this generous excerpt, courtesy of Duke University Press.
Maggie Hennefeld and Nicholas Sammond
22 Nov 2019
Books
'Morning Glory on the Vine' and Joni Mitchell's Amalgam of Craft
Joni Mitchell's latest book denotes the next step in the Joni evolution, and indicates that perhaps those different languages for her—of visual art, poetry, and music—will finally be held in equal regard.
12 Nov 2019
Books
Irving Berlin: New York Genius (By the Book)
Exploring the interplay of Irving Berlin's life with the life of New York City, noted biographer James Kaplan offers a visceral narrative of Berlin as self-made man and witty, wily, tough Jewish immigrant. Enjoy this excerpt of Kaplan's book, Irving Berlin: New York Genius.
James Kaplan
05 Nov 2019
Books
On André Aciman's Psychodrama of Flirting with New Beaus While Brooding over Old Flames, 'Find Me'
André Aciman's long-awaited sequel to Call Me By Your Name, Find Me, isn't so much an extension of the previous book's queries about romance and sexuality as it is a work of convenient revisionism.
01 Nov 2019
Books
'In the Dream House' Nothing Will Change -- Until Something Erupts
Folk tales, fantasy, pop culture and family weave gracefully throughout Carmen Maria Machado's harrowing yet graceful memoir of domestic abuse, In the Dream House.
25 Oct 2019
Books
On Making Sense of the World at Jack Kerouac's Directive
Reading Kerouac, I saw in living flesh all of the Cody Pomerays, Dean Moriartys, Sal Paradises, and Alvah Goldbooks in each and every sailor I bunked with, each and all from every corner of America, revealing all and true as only comrades can do in the cocoon of shared experience.
21 Oct 2019
Books
On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey (By the Book)
Paul Theroux is among PopMatters' favorite travel writers. In this excerpt of On the Plain of Snakes, wherein he traverses the Mexico/US border, Theroux takes us to the ancient city of Oaxaca, bringing forth the dignity of its Zapotec and Mixtec people.
08 Oct 2019
Books
By the Book: Soviet Metro Stations
Underground palaces in communist spaces provide not only transport but also refuge in the former USSR. Enjoy this excerpt of photographer Christopher Herwig and author Owen Hatherley's Soviet Metro Stations, from FUEL Publishing.
Christopher Herwig and Owen Hatherley
27 Sep 2019
Books
Does Amber Tamblyn's 'Era of Ignition' Ignite Your Flame?
Actor Amber Tamblyn is aspiring to something deeper than just the chronicle of herself as a young ingénue who came of age as a TV star in her memoir, Era of Ignition. In our politically tumultuous times, does she succeed?
30 May 2019
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Joy Division and Jon Savage's Latest, 'This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else'
Jon Savage's This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else, marks a time for considering how Joy Division became, and continues to be, so popular.
02 Apr 2019
Books
By the Book: Pick up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music
In this excerpt of '70s music, Pick up the Pieces, John Corbett puts his critique of Kraftwerk's Autobahn to poetry and pogos with his conflict for the Clash and their album, The Clash.
29 Mar 2019
Books
Complicit Christianity vs. Courages Christianity: 'The Color of Compromise'
Jemar Tisby's historical overview of the American church's complicity in racism, The Color of Compromise, will help provoke dialogue, but we face significant challenges, still.
Justin Cober-Lake
25 Mar 2019
Books
'Sleeping with Strangers' May Be More Prurient Than Its Hollywood Subjects
In an apparent attempt to generate understanding and contextuality in film history, David Thomson only ends up perpetuating myths and stigmas against homosexuals in his latest, Sleeping with Strangers.
12 Mar 2019
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