Our friend Cooper McBean of The Devil Makes Three has kept himself busy in the band’s downtime, putting together a backing band on the side for his solo efforts and recording a four-song ep available for download over at Bandcamp. Though many of his songs in The Devil Makes Three have a raggy, swingy lilt to them, the stuff on his side project Cooper McBean and the Vested Interests places its boot firmly in the honky-tonk camp.
A look at Sheila Frank and Alex London’s Fall/Winter 2011 collections
An excerpt from Lavinia Ludlow’s new novel alt.punk
If you want the perfect mustard, you’ve got to make it yourself.
I don’t gamble. Don’t really like going to clubs. Definitely don’t enjoy paying $8 for a small beer at a bar. So what is there for me to do in Las Vegas?
Plenty. The opportunities for people-watching in Las Vegas are unparalleled. And the amount of flash and glitter and distraction and spectacle is enough to keep any photographer happy for days.
So this is it. Borders has officially filed for bankruptcy. They have released a list of 200 stores they will be closing over the next several weeks, and it is expected that they will close at least another 75. How should we be feeling about this? As booksellers, as book lovers? Personally, I am afraid, delighted, and saddened. The part of me that works in a bookstore across the street from a Borders that is closing down is delighted. The part of me that works in a bookstore in a city that is losing two bookstores this month (only one of them a Borders) is saddened . . . but also hopeful we will get their business. The part of me that recognizes the impact of a major chain closing down that owes the six major publishing houses around $40 million each is actually freaked the fuck out. This is a big deal.
Levi Fuller finds a few rare examples of design worthy of praise
ART CAN’T HURT YOU BY LAURA M. BROWNING: “This was my first visit to the murals, but it was clear they had changed. I was walking along an abandoned viaduct in Pilsen, one of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. It was gray and cold, like so many glum Chicago afternoons, and the murals struck the same tenor as the late fall weather.”
BY R. JOHN XERXES: Restrepo, a perfect example of the banality of hallowed film tropes
The bleak iconography of digital illustrator Yehteh.
Do you know the difference between introversion and fear? Common mistakes introverts make.
Is Apple’s aggressive new stance on third-party iOS eBook readers monopolist?
To understand numbers, we must first have language.
A FINE LINE BY CAT JOHNSON: A look at Nudie Cohn’s legendary glittering Western suits
Armelle Caron’s “villes rangées“, maps that break cites down to their constitutive parts.
Deb Olin Unferth, in defense of the much-maligned memoir.
Ahem…Naomi Campbell interviews Vladimir Putin.
2011 has already been a year of major transformation for the publishing industry.
THE SCHEME OF SPACES BY LYNETTE D’AMICO: Two scenarios about waiting in an age of instant gratification
Paul M Davis