Riot Grrrls

A Visual Guide to The Revolution Girl Style



Tobi Vail, Kathleen Hanna and Sara Jaffe had them. Miranda July had one. Called Snarla. Goteblud's exhibition of Riot Grrrl zines was one of the more compelling components of last weekend's NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1. In a visual piece for Flavorwire, I document some of the zines I found that were most interesting and significant to the Riot Grrrl movement.

Review of Madame Bovary for The Believer

I Review Lydia Davis's New Translation of Madame Bovary



Number of previous English translations of Madame Bovary: at least nineteen (according to Davis); Plot summary: Dissatisfied, a country doctor’s wife goes to a fancy-dress party, dreams of a better life, has two affairs, buys things she can’t afford and goes deeply into debt, eats arsenic; Representative sentence: “They had to lift her head a little, and at that a stream of black liquid ran out of her mouth like vomit.” Read my review here.

Jonathan Ames for BlackBook

Jonathan Ames Takes Me to the Russian Baths



Before the premiere of the second season of "Bored to Death," Jonathan Ames hosted me on a tour of the Russian baths in the East Village. Following the baths, I attended the premiere, with the cast of BTD.

***

“Yes,” says Jonathan Ames. “Cover yourself up good. Like this.” I look back as he’s putting a towel over his shins. He puts several more over his body, and says, “You can even put one over your head.” He pulls up a brown towel smoothly over his face and drops it. “But then you can’t see the view.”

Tao Lin for BlackBook

On Stealing, Drugs and his Dad



“Where do your parents live?” I say.
“Taiwan.”
“I thought you were from Florida.”
“I am. They moved because their house was confiscated by the government.”

Rick Moody for BlackBook

And Dear Dying Alone



"Twitter itself is not terribly compelling."
I interviewed Rick Moody for BlackBook Magazine.
I also really like his new website: hatredofnaturalism.com. In particular the section called "Rick Moody, Life Coach." He gives great advice. My favorite so far is his response "Dear Dying Alone."

MoMA PS1 Warm Up

Seva Granik



I have a piece up at BlackBook on Seva Granik, who booked MoMA PS1 Warm Up, NY's premiere summer concert series. Granik talks MoMA PS1, Klaus Biesenbach and socializing.

Julian Louie for Gravure

On Marie Antoinette, Wet-Suits and the Skins of Berlin



I interviewed rising fashion designer Julian Louie for Gravure Magazine. How does an architecture student from Cooper Union--with no training in fashion--get handpicked for a job at Calvin straight out of school?

New This Week

Webby Awards and Blue-Point Oysters with Emily Gould



I have new piece up at BlackBook on a talk I had recently with Emily Gould at Five Leaves in Greenpoint where we discussed her new memoir, women and agency, and Tumblr, among other things. She also gives a cheat-sheet of her favorite spots in Greenpoint.

I also attended the Webby Awards on Monday night, of which I wrote a short party report. In his introduction, BJ Novak thanked sponsors by placing their logos in composite photographs with those from Selleck Waterfall Sandwich (see image above), which won a Webby for "Weird" new site.

Week in Review

No End in Sight



This week, the FSG Reading Series returned Tuesday night, with Lydia Davis and David Means. Thursday night, Wells Tower won the Young Lion award at the ceremony at the New York Public Library. Also, this week was Internet Week. Over at the Metropolitan Pavilion the Makerbot was printing plastics and the smallest URL in existence (e.co) was sold at auction.

Continuing this week, and for the foreseeable future, Tao Lin (still!) answers questions posted in the comments section of an interview I did with him that was re-posted last week.

Next week, Webby Awards?

Dear Tao, Are You Happy?

For One Day Tao Lin Answered Everyone's Questions

In September 2009, I did an interview with Tao Lin that was published on The Rumpus. It was a long interview and Tao answered the questions with great detail and thought. The interview was reposted a couple of days ago on The Rumpus and Tao offered readers a small window of time in which to ask him anything they wanted and he would respond. And he did. Here are some of the questions people asked that I liked in particular, either because they were curious or made assumptions unwittingly. All of Tao's answers are honest. See the site for the answers (except the last one where I show Tao's answer)...

“What was the closest that you’ve ever come to committing suicide? i.e – standing on the edge of a ledge, holding shotty in your mouth with toe on the trigger”

“Do you ever feel like you have noticed a ‘tipping point’ in friendships with other people where their accomplishments originally overshadow yours, and then after time your accomplishments begin to be ‘on par’ with them, and then surpass them?”

“What sexual technique has received the best response from partners?”

“How much do you like radiohead?”

“what is your favorite plant? (those that are generally not used for eating purposes)”

“Are you CARLES?????????”

Tao: carles is carles

Manual for a Productive Everyday Life

May 24-28 2010


Joanna Neborsky, Questionable Content

Today, my week at Everyday Genius begins. I asked 24 artists/editors/musicians/writers to do simple tasks, write about the execution of the tasks and send me their accounts through the mails. Each day, 4-5 products of the contributors will be exhibited grouped by the task they were asked to do. I'm honored to be asked to curate this week for Everyday Genius, a site that supports great independent writers and strives to present things in new and exciting ways.

The contributors are: Andrew Bulger, Kara Lee Corthron, Jason Diamond, Luca Dipierro, Giancarlo Ditrapano, Thomas Doyle, Monica Ferrell, Simen Johan, Shane Jones, Andrea Kleine, Franziska Lamprecht, Jeff Lewis, Tao Lin, Andre da Loba, Khaela Maricich, Zibuokle Martinaityte, David McLendon, Hajoe Moderegger, Joanna Neborsky, Sasa Stanisic, Justin Taylor, Deb Olin Unferth, Joel Whitney, Leni Zumas

Flavorpill Fix Episode One

R.I.P. New York Noise

Flavorpill Fix Episode One: Screaming Females, Double Dagger, Future Islands from FlavorpillVimeo. on

This week, Flavorpill debuts its online video series Flavorpill Fix, a collection of new music videos, live concert footage and exclusive interviews meant to be consumed like a TV episode or mixtape. The first installment includes Screaming Females, Double Dagger, Future Islands, MiniBoone, Hammock and Sabrina Chap. Viewers are encouraged to submit their band's videos for the next episode.

Parasol Lady with Gargoyle

Moby Awards

The finalists for the 2010 Moby Awards for Book Trailers have been announced. This one for Gail Carriger's Blameless is great though it makes me want to see the movie that doesn't exist. This is maybe a problem with book trailers you think are great though you'll never get around to reading the book on which they're inspired, eg. Blameless, since you've already got a backlog of books to read and it kind of falls out of the ambit of your interest anyway. I don't know, I'm kind of interested in this parasol lady with gargoyle. (I just read, she gets attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs). Maybe I will read this book.

Gigantic Online May 2010

For Your Monthly Amusement

The May Issue of Gigantic online went up this morning. Included in the issue is a titillating talk between Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers and Joe Wenderoth, the Seizure State editor. We have fiction from Mike Young, Erik Morsink and M. Callen, and a new installment of Until I Find It, the serialized illustrated book by Leni Zumas and Luca Dipierro. You can see an article on Dipierro here, which shows him at work in his studio. Enjoy!

New York Gallery Week

OPEN SUNDAY
Of the exhibitions I went to for New York Gallery Week--actually just a weekend--here are some that I enjoyed in particular. This weekend galleries are open on Sundays and offer talks, guided tours and free buffet lunch with an auction preview with artwork by David Byrne and Elizabeth Peyton.

CHELSEA GALLERIES
AT DAVID ZWIRNER


(Mamma Andersson, About a Girl, 2005)


(Jockum Nordstrom, Meaningless Strength, 2009)

AT SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.


(Amy Sillman, The Plumbing, 2006)

AT MATTHEW MARKS


(Darren Almond, From Sometimes Still, a six-channel high definition video projection)

AT PACE GALLERY


Joel Shapiro

While Pace Gallery isn't part of NYGW, the Kiki Smith exhibition, LODESTAR, is definitely worth a visit. In her first major New York gallery exhibition in eight years, she presents stained-glass panels of mouth-blown glass, depicting a woman’s life in cycles. I could not find pictures of this exhibit. More incentive to go to the exhibit!

Also, while you're in Chelsea why not walk over to the High Line for a stroll, and check out Richard Galpin's installation Viewing Station, and the installment by Spencer Finch that will close in June after its yearlong run.


(Galpin's rendering of Viewing Station.

SOHO GALLERIES
In Soho, here are a couple of interesting exhibitions to check out. And the galleries are right across the street from each other.

AT DEITCH PROJECTS


Shepard Fairey

AT THE DRAWING CENTER


(Leon Golub, Hell's Fire Awaits You, 2003)

Gigantic Online April 2010

Girls, Caskets and Fish Fights

Gigantic online posted its latest offerings today, April 1--no joke. The online April "Issue" presents an interview with Sam Lipsyte, the first installment of a serialized illustrated book written by Leni Zumas and illustrated by Luca Dipierro (both have fiction in the current print issue of Gigantic), and a collection of biographies of famous Americans which develops an idea initiated in the print issue and which are illustrated online by John Dermot Woods.

The Rumpus Jump-Off Contest

In honor of one of the featured writers at the Rumpus's NYC event on April 6 (see below), The Rumpus is holding a short fiction contest that will give winners a chance to read on stage along with Sam Lipsyte.

The one hitch is that writers need to use a sentence from Lipsyte's latest novel, The Ask, as a jump off point for their pieces and keep their verbal acrobatics to 300 words or less. No fee and no limit to the amount of entries you can submit.

The deadline is April 5 at 12:00 noon.

For more details, go here.

A Night Together - April 6

The Rumpus, Tinhouse and Flavorpill Present

Featuring Authors: Sam Lipsyte, Colson Whitehead, and Lorelei Lee

This American Life's Starlee Kine

Comedians Michael Showalter and Dave Hill

and music by Jeffrey Lewis and Alina Simone

Doors 6pm, Show at 8pm

April 6 at the Highline Ballroom
$10 advance, $12 at the door
Tickets:
http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=1298515

Resident Bohemians

Life at the Hotel Chelsea


This week at the Rumpus, in celebration of Armory week and the various art fairs and exhibits going on around New York City, we're featuring a series on the storied artists, writers and filmmakers who lived there for a time. Edie Sedgwick, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen were up this week. Next week will be a new line-up including current resident bohemians.

Ceci n'est pas une fete

Gigantic Launch Party


2/27/2010
Full album
Nice write-up at Scallywag & Vagabond

Photo by Annabel Braithwaite

GIGANTIC ISSUE 2

Gigantic America


This week marks the release of Gigantic Issue 2: Gigantic America. We're already in bookstores like McNally Jackson, Spoonbill and St. Mark's (New York), Prairie Lights (Iowa City), Shakespeare & Co. (Paris), Domy (Austin, Houston), Brookline Booksmith (Mass.), Powell's Burnside (Portland), Quimby's (Chicago) and many more.

We'll be celebrating this weekend with a launch party at PPOW Gallery with readings, performance art, cool hard-to-find merch from our contributors and cheap drinks.

Where: PPOW Gallery 511 W. 25th St. (bet. 10th & 11th Aves.), #301
When: 6:30 - 11:00pm
FREE

Flyer designed by Skyler Balbus

Literary Fashionables

On Style and Letters


In homage to Fashion Week in New York, this week at the Rumpus, we're devoting a post each day on the blog to celebrating two beloved writers who also demonstrated exquisite personal style and decorum. Thus far, we've got Samuel Beckett and Gertrude Stein, Susan Sontag and George Plimpton, William Burroughs and Joan Didion.

New Work from Gigantic Online

Stanisic, Willerton and Hurley

Gigantic has just published some great new work online: short fiction by Saša (Sasha) Stanišić and Brian Hurley, and new installments of Paul Willerton's Little Big Planet series based on Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle, including an exclusive preview of his latest interpretation of Cremaster 3 replete with freemasons, car smash-ups, and the Chrysler building.

We're thrilled to have new short fiction from Stanišić, whose novel How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone (Grove/Atlantic May 2009)--about a boy who endures the war in Bosnia through the solace of language and stories--was the first debut novel to be short-listed for Germany's top literary prize when it was published there.

Listen to Stanišić discuss his novel.

The Rumpus and GIANT

At Broadway East

ONE YEAR LATER, the Rumpus Anniversary Party co-presented by the Rumpus and HTMLGIANT was a success. Caitlin Colford of Scallywag and Vagabond did a fantastic write-up of the event with some great photos by Shoko Takayasu.

TONIGHT, JANUARY 21

THE RUMPUS and HTMLGIANT present

ONE YEAR LATER

A celebration of the first anniversary of The Rumpus

A MULTI-MEDIA PRESENTATION

Readings by RIVKA GALCHEN, author of Atmospheric Disturbances, TAO LIN, author of Shoplifting from American Apparel, DEB OLIN UNFERTH, author of Vacation, JUSTIN TAYLOR, author of Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, STEPHEN ELLIOTT, The Rumpus’s own editor and author of The Adderall Diaries.

Music by ALINA SIMONE, JEFFREY LEWIS and DIANE LOUVEL, DJ: LINCOLN MICHEL, Special Guest DJ: KHAELA MARICICH of THE BLOW, And video art installation by MONOFONUS PRESS curated by JILL PANGALLO

JANUARY 21, 2010

171 East Broadway BROADWAY EAST (nr. Rutgers)

View Map. Kitchen will be open with a light menu of snacks.

7:00pm – 10:00pm, show starts promptly at 7:30

$5

Advance tickets available here.

***

Original animation for event invite © André da Loba.