The myriad connections between sex and war have always been a ripe topic for artistic exploration, from Homer’s portrayal of Helen of Troy to the soldier boy porn site activeduty.com. At North Portland’s Rocksbox gallery, German artist Benedikt Ender contributes a frenzied, X-rated, and bombastic vision to the Eros/violence genre with World War III: The […]
Chas Bowie
Posted inBooks
Shame in the Blood
by Tetsuo Miura (Shoemaker & Hoard)
In its native Japan, Shame in the Blood is a beloved novel that won major literary awards upon publication, was adapted into a film by Nobuhiko Obayashi, and sold more than a million copies. More than four decades after its original release, Tetsuo Miura’s novel has been translated into English for the first time, introducing […]
Posted inBooks
The Entire Predicament
by Lucy Corin (Tin House)
If prudence allowed, I would populate this review with nothing but passages from Lucy Corin’s mesmerizing collection of stories, The Entire Predicament. My notes are filled with sentences and paragraphs that beg to be shared, but my job requires more than rote reproductions of Corin’s delicious prose. For demonstrative purposes, allow me one, from “My […]
Posted inShopping
Immaculate Conceptions, Credit Card Debt, and You…
The Mercury Makes Shopping Fun Again!
Pullout: Shopping Issue 07
Posted inMovies & TV
The Six Faces of Bob Dylan
Why Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There Matters
The central thesis of Todd Haynes’ extraordinary new film, I’m Not There, is that there is no such thing as “Bob Dylan”—or at least no singular entity corresponding to that construct. In an era marked for its public dissection of celebrities, Dylan has always managed to avoid being pinned down. He’s alternately an incoherent mumbler […]
Posted inShopping
The 2007 Mercury Shopping Guide
(or, Where We Got You that Stuffed Coyote
for Your Wedding
Pullout: Shopping Issue 07
Posted inMovies & TV
The Six Faces of Bob Dylan
Why Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There Matters
The central thesis of Todd Haynes’ extraordinary new film, I’m Not There, is that there is no such thing as “Bob Dylan”—or at least no singular entity corresponding to that construct. In an era marked for its public dissection of celebrities, Dylan has always managed to avoid being pinned down. He’s alternately an incoherent mumbler […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Six Faces of Bob Dylan
Why Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There Matters
The central thesis of Todd Haynes’ extraordinary new film, I’m Not There, is that there is no such thing as “Bob Dylan”—or at least no singular entity corresponding to that construct. In an era marked for its public dissection of celebrities, Dylan has always managed to avoid being pinned down. He’s alternately an incoherent mumbler […]
Posted inMusic
The Music and Mythology of M.I.A.
Goofy Dancing, Global Street Cred, and Rapping Aborigines
On M.I.A.’s second studio album, Kala, the globetrotting artist did exactly what everyone prayed for: She did not disappoint. Given her meteoric ascension to underground pop-deification, not letting fans down was a pretty astonishing feat. The story of M.I.A. (known to Homeland Security as Maya Arulpragasam) has reached folklorish levels, and as a music journalist, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
El Ultimo Hombre
Man vs. Man in the Bloody Desert of No Country
Last year, reclusive author Cormac McCarthy, whose seminal novels seemed decades behind him, released The Road, which was hailed as an instant classic and was definitely the gloomiest apocalypse novel ever picked for Oprah’s Book Club. But just a year prior to the publication of The Road, McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men was largely […]
Posted inBooks
The Zookeeper’s Wife
by Diane Ackerman (Norton)
Ackerman will appear at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 227-2583, Tues Nov 20, 7:30 pm, $10-26 In the introduction to her beautiful new book, Diane Ackerman relates an old Polish folktale from her childhood: In a village “with a little circus whose lion had suddenly died,” an old Jewish man was offered the […]
Posted inMusic
Devin, My BFF
Talking Dick and Broccoli with Devin the Dude
As a sort of job requirement, successful rappers come with strong personalities, but sheer likeability is rarely the first quality that springs to mind. Nevertheless, Houston’s Devin the Dude, often referred to as “your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper,” has built a long career on being funny, laidback, and approachable on the mic. That, and possessing […]