Morning Bites: Biggie and Bukowski, Melissa Broder, New Role For The 1%, NBCC Winners, and More

Ornette Coleman was born on this day in 1930. Charles Bukowski and Biggie Smalls died on this day. Geoff Dyer, Edith Pearlman, and the rest of the NBCC winners. Melissa Broder talks to Mark Asch at L Magazine. The New Republic is purchased by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. A film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild is in the works. “They have the power and the money, they own our government, and they won’t go down without taking everyone and everything else […]

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Morning Bites: Anti-Putin punk, Malick’s muse, On Englander, fantasy illustrators, and more

“They were dressed in summery short dresses and tights, but brightly colored balaclavas masked their faces. Dancing frantically to keep warm, they launched into a song that could be delicately titled “Putin Got Scared,” though the lyrics in Russian were ruder than that.” – Pussy Riot, our new favorite band on the planet, gets profiled by NPR. Gary Shteyngart, Douglas Rushkoff, and a bunch of other smart folks weigh in on Facebook $5 billion dollar IPO at Motherboard. At Tablet: Adam […]

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Morning Bites: Defending Updike, Salem witch trials, Rushkoff’s leap, Chelsea Wolfe, and more

“The faux-democratic ideal of plain-spokenness, the sense that a novelist should not write too beautifully or he sacrifices some vaguely articulated, semi-mystical claim to honesty, is not a million miles away from the Sarah Palin-ish suspicion of east coast liberals, or a Harvard education, or people who know the dates of wars.” – Katie Roiphe feels it necessary to go on the defensive for John Updike on the anniversary of his death. Ben Shattuck at The Morning News on historians […]

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A Kaddish for Jewish Zines

By Jason Diamond Gawker’s proclamation of the “Heeb Magazine Deathwatch” got me thinking again about “radical Jewish culture”, but this time in terms of it’s short life, possible death, and whether the tag really means anything other than getting donors to contribute to off-kilter non-profits. Of course, I find that there have been valiant attempts to get the old gears of Jewish thought turning again. From what I can gather, John Zorn coined the phrase with his marvelous Tzadik label, […]

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Bites: Michael Gira, Douglas Rushkoff, Sharon Van Etten, Vampire lit

I Am Not Insane – 20 Drawings by Michael Gira is exactly that, twenty drawings by former Swans current Angels of Light mastermind Michael Gira. Out on his record label Young God Records (cover pictured above) Douglas Rushkoff discusses Iran and Twitter on The Daily Beast The Rumpus asks “Why are possessives so popular in novel titles?“ Salon said: “Buffy fans: read this”, and I did read their piece on Vampire lit, and I can say as a Buffy fan […]

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