Judging the Book By Its Cover is a column where we, you guessed it, judge books by their covers. Or more accurately, we judge the covers of books, examining the different aesthetics they’ve had through the years (and in some cases titles) to determine which are the most and least effective. Even in crime lit, […]
The History of Rock & Roll Vol. 1 is a Disappointingly Dry Rundown of a Rowdy Genre
There are a number of things you can argue killed the soul of rock and roll. Perhaps you believe it was the consolidation of the music business in the ’70s, the shift towards technicality over feel with classic rock’s heyday or even the metric shit tons of coke everyone consumed in the ’80s. These are […]
Dystopic Homesick Blues: The Postmortal by Drew Magary
Because the world is always a mess, we’ve decided to look back at dystopic works and examine why they remain so potent no matter how many years have passed between their creation and now. Today we explore Drew Magary’s hit novel The Postmortal, which lacks any redeeming aesthetic qualities but nonetheless serves as a now depressingly […]
Judging the Book by Its Cover: The Synthetic Man by Theodore Sturgeon
As much as I agree with the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” as a life principle, I have to confess that I spend a lot of time picking up old books and records in bargain bins and thrift shops specifically because I judged them on their covers. I know I’m not […]
Play It Loud is a Delightfully No-Frills History of the Electric Guitar
Few instruments are as symbolic of revolution as the electric guitar– visually, sonically, conceptually, the electric guitar is a riot in your hands, capable of beauty and destruction, chaos and structure. But if you go looking for reading on the instrument itself rather than on its most iconic wielders, you’ll soon be buried in dry […]
Outrageously Unfunny: Abrams’ Bad Little Children’s Books and the Death of Satire
If 2016 has been about anything, it’s been about the power of shouting down criticisms with angry untruths and using the defenses of the disenfranchised against them. On the macrolevel, you see it with the ascent of Trump, who donned a teflon coating of mock outrage and bigotry marketed as “truth” and rode it all the […]
Dystopic Homesick Blues: The Long Walk by Richard Bachman
Because the world is always a mess, we’ve decided to look back at some of our favorite dystopic works and examine why they remain so potent no matter how many years have passed between their creation and now. Post-apocalyptic works never seem to go out of style, probably because the question of what happens after the […]
In Memory of David Bowie: 7 Artists Who Made Great Art in Their Final Days
Just over a week ago, we were celebrating the arrival of new David Bowie album Blackstar (on his birthday no less) and its accompanying music videos. Now, Bowie is no longer with us, having passed away on January 10, 2015. To the public, his death came as a devastating shock, as Bowie and those close […]