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Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Mark Gonyea–A Book About Design: Complicated Doesn’t Make It Good (2005)

Posted in Art, Children's Books, James Kochalka, Mark Gonyea, Neverest Songs on June 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEVEREST SONGS-“Calculator” (2010).

Opening with a simple, discordant piano, this song quickly morphs into a fast chaotic piano run, all the while the vocal stay slow and calm.  Once the bass kicks in, the song feels less like a solo track and more like a band effort.  And it’s amazing that this simple bass can add so much to this swelling track.

I heard about this band from a nice review at wallernotweller.  I think I’ll have to order this CD, if for nothing else than because it looks beautiful.

I’d like to hear more from this label, but all their songs seem to be linked to last.fm, which I find very awkward to use.  One band’s “radio page” didn’t play their own songs and now at home it says I don’t have a plug in or some nonsense.  Pity.  But you can hear this song (and watch their mesmerizing webpage here.

[READ: June 7, 2010] A Book About Design

This book was also part of Sarah’s birthday present.  Inexplicably, although James Kochalka has absolutely nothing to do with the book, he autographed the inside and made a little cartoon that says, “Hi Sarah.”  Cute.

So this book is a wonderfully illustrated primer about design.  It is so basic that I read it to Clark (aged almost 5) and he loved it, too.  There are some sections that I had to use different words, obviously, but he enjoyed the basics very much.

Not including pictures almost makes this review pointless, (but you can see many pages at Google Books) and yet I have to say something here, so I’ll talk about a few things.  Chapter 1 talks about the effects on Object B if you change the appearance of Object A.  Chapter 2 starts: “Take a look at the square in the right.  Imagine drawing two straight lines that intersect only once inside the square.”  When I turned the page to reveal the basic window design of four equal squares, Clark said, “How’d it know that?”  It was very cool. (more…)

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Guy Billout–Something’s Not Quite Right (2004)

Posted in Art, Children's Books, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Guy Billout, The Beatles on June 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEATLES-Rubber Soul (1965).

After the breakthrough of Help!, the Beatles followed up with their first proper album that is full of all original songs and which really pushes the envelope.

The opening song, “Drive My Car” opens the disc with a unique sound and style.  And yet, lyrically, “Baby you can drive my car, and baby I love you,” is as lame as The Doors, “Hello, I love you won’t you tell me your name?” in terms of dealing with the opposite sex.

But with “Norwegian Wood” things really get interesting.  It introduces the sitar–the first inclination towards their flirtation with Eastern/Indian influences.  And I can’t help but think it must have been rather shocking in a rock song in 1965.  It also features “Nowhere Man,” a song featured in the Yellow Submarine movie.  The song is a standout, from the harmonies to the language play.

I suppose everyone knows a person named Michelle who hates the song “Michelle.”

They really mix up the styles on  this disc (while always sounding like The Beatles). “What Goes On” is a sort of country tinged rocker, while “Girl” feels sort of tin pan alley ish, (the big sighs during the chorus are a bit excessive, but work within the song).

The disc ends with the really distrubing, murderous boyfriend lyrics of “Run for Your Life.”  I’m not sure what inspired this song, but frankly it’s lyrics are really dreadful. It’s not the first “I’ll kill you if you date someone else” song and it’s certainly not the last, but it mars an otherwise really catchy song.

Amazingly, all of the songs still clock in under 3 minutes, except “You Won’t See Me”.  While Rubber Soul is probably their first fully realized disc, it’s not until the next album (just a few months down the line) that they blow the lid of the joint.

[READ: May 28, 2010] Something’s Not Quite Right

This book almost doesn’t count a there are virtually no words (one per page). But the book is so awesome that it has to be included just because.

Something’s Not Quite Right is 32 pages of oversized pictures in which, yes, something is not quite right.  Note the cover illustration for an idea.

So, each page features a brilliantly rendered piece of art.  There’s a caption for each picture which reflects (often humorously) on the picture.  The book is a children’s book (Clark enjoyed the nonsense very much).  But even adults will say, Whoa, cool, when they look at these pictures that are just…wrong. (more…)

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Herman Melville–Moby-Dick [Week 2] (1851)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Bible, Big Books, Death, Demons, Fishing, Funny (strange), Grateful Dead, Herman Melville, Huh?, Infinite Zombies, Moby Grape, Racism, Religion, Whales on May 31, 2010| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: MOBY GRAPE-Moby Grape (1967).

Moby Grape is one of those bands that I’ve always heard of but had never heard.  I know, their debut is 43 years old and yet I’d never heard it.  Well, thanks to the internet (lala.com, RIP as of today), I was able to listen to what I assumed was their Greatest Hits.  If only I had done a modicum of research.  The disc I chose was Legendary Grape, which it turns out is not a greatest hits at all, but is actually some weird pesudo-Moby Grape record released in 1989 under a different band name due to legal protractions, but then reissued as Moby Grape.  It was rather uninspired and nothing at all what I thought it would sound like.  Nothing dreadful, just nothing worth thinking that this band “legendary.”

So, with a little research, I learned that their first album is what I should have been checking out.  Moby Grape is the eponymous release and it sounds much more like what I assumed this psychedelic era-band would sound like.  This disc is pretty much in keeping with what a band that produced an album cover like this would sound like.

It’s sort of a folksy Grateful Deadish sound.  But they move beyond a simple genre with a host of writers and instrumentalists contributing their own thing, man.  So there’s a few rocking numbers, a few ballads, and a bunch of other fun things. To me the most notable thing is that in a time when trippy psychedelic songs were long events, Moby Grape played mostly short songs (the longest one is the final track at 4 minutes, but most are around 2 minutes long).

I think I may be too far removed from this scene to really appreciate the disc.  I like what I hear, and a second listen made it even more enjoyable, but I can’t imagine investing a lot of  time with the band.

[READ: Week of May 31, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 19-41]

Plug #1:
In case you didn’t see it on Infinite Zombies, Daryl has created what he calls Moby-Diction, which allows you to search the text for any word and see where and how often it occurs.  Geek heaven!

Plug # 2:
A visual treat is found at Matt Kish’s monumental: One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick, which is pretty well explained by its title.  It is an amazing site (sight) to behold.

Now, back to our story.

Week 2 of the Moby-Dick read is amusing because it continues a minor thread that has been going on for some 100 pages (of my edition): When are we going to meet Captain Ahab?  We hear a lot about him, including a portent of doom from Elijah, but he doesn’t appear until Chapter 28.

Elijah, meanwhile, appears on the Nantucket streets.  He reveals himself to Ishmael and Queequeg as a sort of homeless man who asks them if they’re sailing with Ahab.  When they say yes, of course, he warns them about some bad things that happened to Ahab and his leg and future portents of doom.  Ishmael is a bit freaked by the guy, especially when Elijah seems to be following them, but he tries to out the madman out of his mind. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #34

Posted in Adventure, Annie Holmes, Anthony Doerr, Art, Arthur Bradford, Ben Marcus, Bridget Clerkin, Daniel Handler, David Means, Death, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Greil Marcus, History, Jack Pendarvis, John Hodgman, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Lethem, Julie Klausner, Lisa Brown, McSweeney's, Mike Leigh, Mona Awad, Nick McDonell, Sarah Vowell, Sean Casey, Short Story, Silver Mt. Zion, Stephen Elliott, T.C. Boyle, Tim Carvell, Tom Barbash, Violence on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra-Kollpas Tradixionales (2010).

Silver Mt. Zion are back!  And they are noisy!

This disc continues their fine output of haunting, rambling epics.  The opener is a 15 minute slow builder called “There is a Light” and the finale is a 14 minute story called “‘Piphany Rambler.”  In between we have  a couple of multi-part tracks: “I Built Myself a Metal Bird” and “I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds” which are some of the fastest tracks they’ve recorded.  The other “suite” is 3 versions (and spellings) of the title track.

The one consistent thing about Silver Mt . Zion (in whatever version of their name they employ) is that they write incredibly passionate music.  It’s often raw and it swells and ebbs with feeling.  I especially enjoy the (multiple) climaxes that fill all of the longer songs.  And when the band brings in the horns and the strings and the whole group sings along, it’s very affecting.

The one thing that I’m still not totally on board with is Efrim’s voice.  On previous releases, I bought it because he sounded very angsty, but I’m starting to think that the tenor of his voice just doesn’t work with the bombast of the music.  When the backing singers chime in, the sound is glorious, but I find his voice to be simply the wrong sound.  There’s a few parts on the disc where he sings in a lower, softer register, and I found them really moving.  I think if he sang all of the parts like that, they would impact the songs more strongly (and maybe even be more understandable).

I realize that the vocals are an essential part to the disc, and I definitely get used to them after a few listens, I just feel like the whole disc (and not just the music) would be amazing if Efrim used that deeper register more.

Nevertheless, the music is really fantastic, and if you buy the LP, you get some great artwork, too.

[READ: May 13, 2010] McSweeney’s 34

After the enormous work of Panorama, (McSweeney’s newspaper (Issue 33)), they’ve returned with a somewhat more modest affair.  Two slim books totaling about 400 pages  Each is a paperback. The first is a collection of short stories artwork, etc.  The second is  nonfiction work about Iraq.  Both books are bound together in a clear plastic slipcover (with a fun design on it).  [UPDATE: I cannot for the life of me out the books back in the cover.  They simply will not sit without ripping the plastic.  Boo!]

The first collection opens with a Letters column, something that we haven’t seen in years!  And, as with the old letters column, the letters are absurd/funny/thoughtful and sometimes just weird. (more…)

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Scott Teplin, Mac Barnett & Eli Horowitz–The Clock Without a Face: A Gus Twintig Mystery (2010)

Posted in Adam Rex, Adventure, Art, Children's Books, Chuck BB, Collecting, Contests, Eli Horowitz, Mac Barnett, McSweeney's, Mystery, Puzzles, Rheostatics, Scott Teplin, Short Books, Smarty Pants, The Beatles, Travel, YA Books on May 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: My Volkwagen Jetta hates The Beatles.

Lately, I have been playing some Beatles discs in my car.  And my Jetta clearly hates them.

First it was Please Please Me, when the entire CD player shut off mid-song.  It had lost all power.  I had to bang on it for about 5 minutes before it came back on.

The player played other discs fine after that.  Then, last night I played A Hard Day’s Night and half way through the disc it shut itself off again.  This time I was able to power it back on, but it wouldn’t play the disc anymore.  I ejected it and put in a new disc which worked fine.  When I put A Hard Day’s Night back in, same spot on the disc (“Can’t Buy Me Love”), and the player was totally off: no power at all.

A bit more pounding on the face and it came back on, and today played a Rheostatics disc with no trouble.  I guess I’ll not be listening to The Beatles in the car again.  Is it because the Beatles recorded versions of their songs in German but they weren’t included on the disc?

[READ: May 8, 2010] The Clock Without a Face

This review is about my first read of this book.  When I get to the end you’ll realize why there will have to be a second read and updated review.

This is an amusing tale.  And also a confounding (and evidently very real–see the bottom paragraph!–) mystery. (more…)

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Glen E. Friedman–Keep Your Eyes Open Fugazi (2007)

Posted in Art, Books about music, Corporate skewering, Dischord Records, Essays, Free Speech, Fugazi, Glen E. Friedman, Greed, Ian F. Svenonius, Nation of Ulysses, Photo Essays, Punks on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-Repeater + 3 Songs (1990).

This was Fugazi’s debut album and my first exposure to them.  They’d put out some singles before this but I missed them.  Listening to it now, it sounds great, but not revolutionary.  And yet, I remember back then, this was a pretty mind-blowing album.  It’s full of heavy chunky guitars and yet it is underscored by a punk vibe (that comes from the source: Minor Threat).

And yet, despite that pedigree, the album is also quite diverse.  There’s some pleasantly melodic sequences, including the very nice instrumental “Brendan #1.”  There’s some wildly unpreditcable chord sequences and sounds, like the opening fof “Greed.”

Of course before you forget that this is a punk band at heart you get the hardcore chanting of “Sieve-Fisted Find” which sounds like every chanted hardcore record from the 80s (a nice touch).

And yet there’s also great diversity throughout, chugging guitars in “Two Beats Off.”  “The slow, almost jazzy twists and turns of, “Shut the Door.”  And I haven’t even mentioned the two lead-off tracks: “Turnover” and “Repeater” one of the best statements of purpose to open a disc in the 90s.

I have enjoyed other Fugazi releases, but for me this is the one to get.

[READ: April 9, 2010] Keep Your Eyes Open

My brother-in-law Ben got me this book for Christmas a couple of years ago.  It’s primarily a photo collection.  Well, it IS a photo collection, but there’s also an introductory essay that I hadn’t read until the other day.

Glen Friedman has evidently been Fugazi’s official photographer for years (and this is, I gather, his second book of photos).  The book is a good mix of live and “posed” photos.  Obviously, the live ones are more dynamic (and you can really see that way the band is totally immersed in their show).  There’s got to be at least a dozen shots of someone in the band upside down, on his back or in some way not normally upright. (more…)

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Daniel Zalewski–“Vagabonds: Roberto Bolaño And His Fractured Masterpiece” (New Yorker, March 26, 2007)

Posted in Adventure, bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, Communists, Dada, Daniel Zalewski, Death, Drugs, Foreign Books, Harper's, History, Marriage (Happy), Military, Nazis, New Yorker, Political Humor, Roberto Bolaño, Smarty Pants, Translation on February 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[READ: February 18, 2010] “Vagabonds”

After reading Infinite Jest, I got totally het up about reading all of David Foster Wallace’s works. Of course, I discovered that he had an awful lot of uncollected works (which were all conveniently gathered in one location by a much bigger DFW fan than I). Since I’m reading 2666 as part of an online group, I wondered if I would be similarly obsessed with Bolaño’s output.

Well first, I’m not loving 2666 as much as I did Infinite Jest (but I’m only 1/3 of the way through, so that may change).  But, on a more literal note, there seems to be very few short stories literred around the place. A very cursory search revealed a couple things in Harper’s and a couple things in the New Yorker, but very little else.  Now, I assume that’s primarily because his stories need to be translated first, so there’s possibly a bunch of uncollected Spanish stories, but as for English ones?  Well, let’s just say that scouring the globe for a complete list of short stories in English that are not part of a previously released collections is something of a dificult task.

In fact, further investigation into the stories from The New Yorker and Harper’s shows that these stories are either already released or soon to be published in translated collections.

One of the things I found in my search was this article which is more or less a review of Bolano’s, The Savage Detectives.  However, in true New Yorker fashion, it is also a detailed overview of Bolaño’s life as well. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 3] The Part About the Critics (3 of 3) (2004)

Posted in Art, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, Boredom, Culture Shock, Dreams, Drinking, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Infinite Zombies, Muse, Mystery, Natasha Wimmer, Queen, Radiohead, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Smarty Pants, Translation, Travel, Universities, Violence on February 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MUSE-The Resistance (2009).

If someone were to create a band that tickled all of my fancy spots, on paper it would be Muse.  Vocals like Thom Yorke from Radiohead.  Heavy heavy guitars.  And yet, not afraid to have prog rock keyboard sections.  On top of that, throw in pretentious titles (how about a subtitle in French?), or, just for kicks, a three part suite called “Exogenesis: Symphony.”  Oh, sure and let’s just throw in a clarinet solo in one of the songs too.  Okay, so that’s Muse.

I’ve been a fan of Muse for quite a few years, before they really broke in the U.S. (Origin of Symmetry being a particular favorite).  I’m still amazed that they’ve had success here, given their proclivities towards excess.  But more power to them.

For some reason, this disc (despite all the pros in the first paragraph) didn’t really grab me that much at first.  The first single “Uprising,” is awesome: heavy, rocking, over the top choruses, everything you could want in a pseudo political rebellion type song.  But somewhere after that I felt the disc drifted a bit.

Further listens changed my mind though, and I think that “United States of Eurasia” is great while “Guiding Light” (which could easily be mistaken for Queen) is fantastic.  In fact the entire end of the album, “MK Ultra,” “I Belong to You/Mon Coeur S’Ouvre a Ta Voix” and the symphony are a wonderfully decadent 25 minutes of music.

Clearly Muse isn’t for everyone, but I’m really pleased that they’re finding their fans.

[READ: Week of February 1, 2010] 2666 [pg 102-159]

This week’s reading contains a lot of dreams and it often felt like a dream while reading it.

We pick up right where we left off, with El Cerdo telling our friends about his visit with Archimboldi.  We learn a little about why Archimboldi called El Cerdo, but nothing about what he was doing in Mexico City. It turns out that El Cerdo knows Archimboldi’s publisher Mrs Buber. (And Dieter Hellfield speculates that she, herself, may be Archimboldi. [I secretly wondered if he might be a woman given that earlier in the book, it was mentioned that [part of what was so unusual about Archimboldi’s name was that it was a feminine form of the name.]  However, his incredible height has definitely thrown me. And of course, since El Cerdo reports to have talked to him, it seems very unlikely at this point.) (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 2] The Part About the Critics (2 of 3) (2004)

Posted in Art, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, Culture Shock, Dreams, Infinite Zombies, Mystery, Natasha Wimmer, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Sonic Youth, Translation, Universities, Violence on February 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THURSTON MOORE-Trees Outside the Academy (2009).

Thurston Moore is a founding member of Sonic Youth.  He’s put out several solo albums over the year, although I feel like only two really “count,” Psychic Hearts and this one.

Anyone familiar with Sonic Youth knows that the band has pop sensibilities but that they bury their poppiness under layers of guitars or noise or other things.  And everyone knows that Thurston is one of the main noisemakers (you don’t put screwdrivers under you guitar strings and expect to break the top 40).  So it may come as some surprise just how accessible and poppy this record is.  In fact, I first heard one of the songs on a Radio compilation (true it ‘s an awesomely hip radio station…88.5 WXPN Philadelphia), but I couldn’t get over how supremely sweet the song “Fri/End” was.

And, although there are a few noisy moments on the disc (Thurston loves his feedback squalls), the large majority of the disc is really catchy almost folky indie music (acoustic guitar and violins!).  But it’s important to mention that Dino Jr’s J. Masics is also on hand and that he plays some wild solos on about half of the tracks (most of the longer instrumental pieces).  Like on the the title track, a nearly 6 minute instrumental that has a great melody; the middle section just screams with a great Mascis solo.

Okay, so technically that’s not the final track.  “thurston @13” is a home recording from when the man was 13 years old.  It’s him recoding various things around his house (spraying Lysol, dropping coins) with hilariously pompous 13 year old narration.  It reminded me of me when I was kid and got hold of the family tape recorder–I used to record myself doing all kinds of weird kid things (I wish I still had those tapes).  It’s just silliness, but I really enjoyed it.

Even if you’re not particularly a fan of Sonic Youth, this is a worthwhile addition to any record collection.

[READ: Week of January 25, 2010] 2666 [pg 52-102]

As this second section opens, we see Norton and Morini still together during his visit.  She takes him to an area of London that has become trendy, and features great restaurants.  She relates the story of the first famous person to move there, a painter named Edwin Johns.  Johns is famous mostly for one painting but its notoriety led it to sell for a ton of money.

As this week’s reading draws to a close, we get a wonderful parallel story about this very painter.  Espinoza, Morini and Pelletier travel to the sanitarium where the painter is currently residing.  Morini is compelled to ask the man one very specific question.

For in the story that Norton related, she revealed that Johns chopped off his hand, had it embalmed, and placed it at the center of his one masterpiece painting.  This painting became the centerpiece of a very successful exhibition.  Morini is queasy during Norton’s story and when he later confronts Johns at the sanitarium, he demands to know why Johns cut off his hand.  As this section draws to a close, Johns reveals to Morini that the answer is, simply, money.

But fear not, Archimboldi fans, the man is not forgotten, and the next revelation about him comes from an unlikely source.  A Serbian writer reveals some tactile information that sheds light on Archimboldi himself.  One of the details is that he bought a plane ticket flight but never showed up for the flight.  The Serbian writer believes it was because he canceled the flight under the pseudonym and then rebooked the flight under his real name.  Although Pelletier published the article in his journal, further scrutiny by himself and Espinoza lead them to doubt its credibility or use. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #33: The San Francisco Panorama (2009)

Posted in Adrian Tomine, Airlines, Alia Malek, Andrew Sean Greer, Art, Art Spiegelman, Big Star, Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Brent Hoff, Caddyshack, Canadian Music, Cars, Carson Ellis, Children's Books, China Miéville, Chip Kidd, Chris Adrian, Chris Ware, Comic Strips, Constellation Records, Daniel Handler, Dave Eggers, Deb Olin Unferth, Dicky Murphy, Dip-in Books, Do Make Say Think, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, Edna O'Brien, Entertainment Weekly, Essays, Flash Fiction, Food, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Geoff Nicholson, George Saunders, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Greed, Harper's, J. Malcolm Garcia, J.G. Ballard, James Franco, Jessica Abel, Jon Scieszka, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kara Walker, KPOO 89.5--San Francisco, CA, LGBTQ, Mary Williams, Matthew Klam, McSweeney's, Meatballs, Michael Chabon, Miranda July, Mogwai, New Yorker, Newspapers, Nicholson Baker, Prospect, Rachel Maddow, Roddy Doyle, Salman Rushdie, Seth, Seth Fried, Short Story, Sports, Stephen King, The Blues Brothers, The New York Times, The Onion, The Walrus, Tom Bissell, Travel, Universities, Violence, Wajahat Ali, War, Wholphin, William T. Vollmann on January 16, 2010| 8 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: DO MAKE SAY THINK-Other Truths [CST062] (2009).

I’ve always enjoyed Do Make Say Think’s CDs.  They play instrumentals that are always intriguing and which never get dull.

But this CD far exceeds anything they have done so far (and  they’ve done some great work).   There are only four tracks, and they range from 8 to 12 minutes long.  Each track is named for a word in the band’s name: Do, Make, Say, Think.  And each one is a fully realized mini epic.

“Do” sounds like a gorgeous Mogwai track.  While “Make” has wonderfully diverse elements: a cool percussion midsection and a horn-fueled end section that works perfectly with the maniacal drumming.  “Say” is another Mogwai-like exploration, although it is nicely complemented by horns.  It also ends with a slow jazzy section that works in context but is somewhat unexpected. Finally, “Think” closes the disc with a delightful denouement.  It’s the slowest (and shortest) track, and it shows that even slowing down their instrumentals doesn’t make them dull.

It’s a fantastic record from start to finish.  This is hands down my favorite Constellation release in quite some time.

[READ: December 2009 – January 13, 2010] McSweeney’s #33.

The ever-evolving McSweeney’s has set out to do the unlikely: they printed Issue #33 as a Sunday Newspaper.  It is called The San Francisco Panorama and, indeed, it is just like a huge Sunday newspaper. It has real news in (it is meant to be current as of December 7, 2009).  As well as a Sports section, a magazine section and even comics!

[DIGRESSION] I stopped reading newspapers quite some time ago.  I worked for one in college and have long been aware that the news is just something to fill the space between ads.  I do like newspapers in theory, and certainly hope they don’t all go away but print issues are a dying breed.  When I think about the waste that accompanies a newspaper, I’m horrified.  Sarah and I even did a Sunday New York Times subscription for a while, but there were half a dozen sections that we would simply discard unopened.  And, realistically that’s understandable.  Given how long it took me  to read all of the Panorama, if you actually tried to read the whole Sunday paper, you’d be finished the following Sunday (or even two Sundays later).

Their lofty goal here was to show what print journalism can still do. And with that I concur heartily.  Even if I don’t read the newspaper, the newspapers as entities are worth saving.  Because it is pretty much only print journalism that finds real, honest to God, worthy news stories.  TV news is a joke.  There is virtually nothing of value on network TV.  Fox News is beyond a joke.  CNBC is sad (although Rachel Maddow is awesome!) and even CNN, the originator of all of this 24 hour news nonsense still can’t fill their airtime with non-sensationalized news.

Obviously, there are some decent internet sites, but for the most part they don’t have the budget to support real news investigation.  You either get sensationalized crap like Drudge or rebroadcasts of real news.

So, print is the last bastion of news.  And you can see that in journalistic pieces in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Walrus, Prospect and, yes, in newspapers.

But enough.  What about THIS newspaper?  Oh and unlike other McSweeney’s reviews I’ve done, there is NO WAY that I am writing a thorough comment on everything in here.  There’s just way too much.  Plus, there are many sections that are just news blurbs.  Larger articles and familiar authors will be addressed, however.  [UPDATE: January 18]: If, however, like Alia Malek below, you bring it to my attention that I’ve left you out (or gotten something wrong!) drop me a line, and I’ll correct things.

There is in fact a Panorama Information Pamphlet which answers a lot of basic questions, like why, how and how often (just this once, they promise!). There’s also a Numbers section which details the size, scope and cost of making this (it shows that with an initial start up, anyone could make a newspaper if they talked enough about what the readers were interested in). (more…)

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