Posted by Abraham Riesman Let’s have a little thought experiment. Take the following paragraph and replace “Icelanders” with, let’s say, “Koreans,” and “Scandinavian” with “East Asian”: Maybe because there are so few Icelanders in the world, we know next to nothing about them. We assume they are more or less Scandinavian—a gentle people who just want everyone to have the same amount of everything. They are not. They have a feral streak in them, like a horse that’s just pretending to […]
Punks in Indonesia are punker than you and I
Posted by Jason Diamond When I was a kid, I thought I had it tough when a cop named Officer Woods wrote me a ticket for skateboarding in front of a Walgreens and told me to stop dying my hair red. If you get arrested at a punk show in Indonesia, they make you bathe in a lake, change your clothes, cut your hair, and force religion on you. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, and our Tumblr.
Morning Bites: NYRB almost at 50, Person of the Year, Women in famous novels, Updike’s house, Ted Leo’s faves, and more
The Protestor is the Time magazine Person of the Year. The magazine’s managing editor, Kurt Andersen, explains why. The Atlantic takes a look at 50 or so fantastic years of the New York Review of Books. At The Nervous Breakdown: Sabina Murray on the women of famous novels by Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey Eugenides. David Haglund at Slate wonders if people pay more for houses once owned by famous writers? With that, Vol. 1 is ready to bid one trillion dollars on […]
Morning Bites: 100 years of Patchen, Downton Abbey Booker Prize, Vanessa Veselka, Yoram Kaniuk’s movement, and more
Poet Kenneth Patchen was born 100 years ago on this day. Matthew Crawley is judging next year’s Booker Prize! (You have to watch Downton Abbey for this to matter. Also, if you haven’t seen season two, there’s a major spoiler. Tread lightly.) How Vanessa Veselka tried to unionize Amazon. Novelist Yoram Kaniuk started a movement when he sued to become the first Israeli citizen “without religion.” (You should consider reading his book Life on Sandpaper, which is on Dalkey.) Chloe Caldwell […]
Mark Yarm added to Greatest 3-Minute Stories About the 90s
Hey, so this little-known zine called The New Yorker has written up our event for this Wednesday. We can only guess this will help us bring out a few lowbrow types. We’re also excited to mention that Mark Yarm has been added to the lineup, which means we have an official expert on Grunge since he is the guy who put together the massive oral history on the genre that pretty much defined the decade. Have you RSVPd yet? You […]
The ten greatest Stephen King adaptations
Last night A&E aired the first episode of the latest Stephen King film adaptation, Bag of Bones. It is another example in a superb list of the writer’s works that have made the transition from book to screen. Today, Jason Diamond, Tobias Carroll, Lincoln Michel, Jen Vafidis, Dustin Luke Nelson, Royal Young, and Dustin Luke Nelson discuss ten of those works, and why they’re so special.
Morning Bites: Samovar reading, Literary tote bag fever, Attenberg’s year, Sandburg’s house, and more
I guess before winter comes that the cold winds have to rise. At least that’s what the Game of Thrones trailer leads me to believe. Ellen Ullman and Will Hermes read at the Russian Samovar tonight. Sadie Stein (who is reading at our Greatest 3-Minute Stories About the 90s event on Weds.) talks to the New York Times about tote bags. Remember that time when we talked about what your literary tote bag says about you? John Mayer reviews Jeffrey Eugenides. […]
Morning Bites: Another American Psycho, Sara Levine’s music, Unpopular Proverbs, and more
Another American Psycho film? Seriously? Is that really necessary? Is Bret Easton Ellis hard up for cash or something? Emma Straub on Amazon kicking bookstores while they’re down. Sara Levine talks to Largehearted Boy about the songs that helped inspire her book Treasure Island!!! Slate doesn’t seem to like the trailer for the movie adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Teddy Wayne lists another unpopular proverb at McSweeney’s. Greil Marcus really wants you to know […]