July 18, 2012 Video & Multimedia Watch: The Mosaic Man of the East Village By Sadie Stein Chances are, anyone who has spent any time in Manhattan’s East Village is familiar with the work of Jim Power, aka “The Mosaic Man.” For the past three decades, Power has been on a single-handed quest to beautify an area which, when he started decorating lampposts with beautiful tile work, was far from salubrious. Despite twenty years of homelessness and the city’s destruction of some of his lampposts, Jim has remained undeterred and is a beloved fixture of the neighborhood. Etsy—with whom Power now has a shop—pays tribute with a video. Jim Power and the Mosaic Trail from Etsy on Vimeo. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 18, 2012 Video & Multimedia Watch: Interpublication Sexytimes By Noah Wunsch THE MAGAZINE MAGAZINES FANTASIZE ABOUT from The Paris Review on Vimeo. Story by Noah Wunsch Video by Carib Guerra & Noah Wunsch Special thanks to Eamon Kelly [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 18, 2012 On the Shelf Drama, Tantrums, and Bird-Watching By Sadie Stein High drama at the Oxford American. What exactly is going on? A (very) strong month for booksellers.The beach-read effect? A list of writers who throw tantrums. The great Larry McMurtry book sale. An American Writers Museum? “But the thing that bugs me most about Jonathan Franzen is that he’s becoming the public face of bird-watching.” [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 17, 2012 Bulletin This Saturday: Help St. Marks Books Relocate By The Paris Review Despite your best efforts, it looks as if our faithful friends at St. Mark’s Books will have to move. That’s the bad news. The good news—at least, if you care about keeping bookstores in lower Manhattan—is that they are trying to find a cheaper location in the East Village. Help them raise money for the move: join the “cash mob” at three o’clock this Saturday afternoon. The first five customers who spend $500 or more will receive a free one-year subscription to The Paris Review. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
July 17, 2012 At Work Return Engagement: An Interview with Rebecca Gates By Peter Terzian Image by Dan Sharp Rebecca Gates’s former band, the Spinanes, released their first album, Manos, in 1993. Indie pop was in its halcyon days, and Manos reached number one on the college charts. Like Elliott Smith and Lois Maffeo—her friends and colleagues in the Pacific Northwest music scene—Gates sang opaque, suggestive lyrics in a gentle and ruminative voice. But her dense guitar and Scott Plouf’s propulsive drums (they were a duo, with no bassist) were also inspired by punk. Strand, their 1996 follow-up, expanded their musical palette with experimental sounds and more complex instrumentation. After Plouf left the band, Gates moved to Chicago, where she recorded a third and final Spinanes album, 1998’s Arches and Aisles, with help from members of such simpatico post-rock bands as Tortoise and the Sea and Cake. Read More
July 17, 2012 On the Shelf Wharton Erotica, Peculiar Pulp, Encyclopedia Brown By Sadie Stein Encyclopedia Brown author Donald J. Sobol has died at 87. When Edith Wharton penned erotica. 8-bit illustrations of short stories’ opening lines. Peculiar pulp art. “Don’t deny the change. Direct it wisely.” How best to employ libraries. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]