Beyond Exhaustion: Dan Graham’s Period Pieces Beyond Exhaustion: Dan Graham’s Period Pieces
Does the art of Dan Graham and his disciples promise deceptive simplicity or formulaic thinking?
Aug 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
A Music of Austerity: The Poetry of Wallace Stevens A Music of Austerity: The Poetry of Wallace Stevens
In his best poems, Wallace Stevens makes deprivation feel seductively like plenitude.
Aug 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
“We must count…” “We must count…”
We must count in Babylon. Surely in Babylon we must count, count the days and the dead, the chambers of the palace, its stones, its steps, its flaring lamps, must count the clouds, the petals of the flowers, the hours, we must count the hours as they pass so slowly for the young, so swiftly for the withered masters of this place, ardent assassins of speech hidden away. Surely in Babylon we must count the gardens tended, the towers raised by slaves in this city soon to be dust, count the days and the dead. Must we count the dust?
Aug 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Michael Palmer
GI Joe, Post-American Hero GI Joe, Post-American Hero
Why is it that GI Joe--like all action figures in all action movies of this moment--has left the all-American battlefield for outer, or future or alternate space?
Aug 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Tom Engelhardt
Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story
In his latest film, Michael Moore goes after Wall Street fat cats and congressmen who love them, tracing the path of the economy through Bush, bubbles and bailouts.
Aug 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / The Nation Video
‘Do the Right Thing’: Still a Racial Rorschach at 20 ‘Do the Right Thing’: Still a Racial Rorschach at 20
Is Spike Lee's seminal film still relevant in the Obama era?
Aug 18, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Viveca Greene and Chris Tinson
Tyler Perry’s Gender Problem Tyler Perry’s Gender Problem
Filmmaker Tyler Perry may see himself as creating modern-day fairy tales for black women, but he's actually reinforcing some seriously conservative gender politics.
Aug 13, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Courtney Young
Creatures of the Night: On Park Chan-wook and the Dardennes Creatures of the Night: On Park Chan-wook and the Dardennes
Park Chan-wook's Thirst, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Lorna's Silence and Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman.
Aug 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
La Despedida: A Lost Memoir of the Spanish Civil War La Despedida: A Lost Memoir of the Spanish Civil War
A long-lost memoir of the Spanish Civil War moves jaggedly between boredom, fleeting triumphs and terror.
Aug 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Dan Kaufman