AltWeeklies Wire
The Case of the Golden Thong, and Other Baseball Superstitionsnew
According to George Gmelch, cultural anthropologist and author of the article "Baseball Magic," superstitious behaviors among ballplayers fall into two major categories -- rituals and taboos. Nomar Garciaparra's famed batting gyrations, that's a ritual. When he jumps over the base line to take his position in the infield, that is a taboo.
Charleston City Paper |
John Strubel |
08-06-2008 |
Sports
Frank Bidart's New Poems Sing Hymns to a Meaningless Universenew
His excellent new book, Watching the Spring Festival, reflects a man feeling his age, the slip of time, and the tug of oblivion. It attempts to confront the paradox of being while trying to inscribe something lasting, and also expressing unblinkingly man's cosmic dilemma -- that maybe, just maybe, there is no exit.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
08-06-2008 |
Poetry
'Ancient Highway' Sculpts Three Generations of Family with Concise and Poetic Prosenew
Author Bret Lott, a professor at the College of Charleston, deftly maneuvers across three generations, running a ribbon through the arms of despondent family members, using rhythmic, undulating prose to deliver an assiduous, heart-worn tale.
Charleston City Paper |
Kevin Murphy |
08-06-2008 |
Fiction
In the Wake of E3, Gaming's Big Three Move Towards Indistinguishabilitynew
Even as little as two years ago, the Big Three had distinct identities, market niches, and competitive advantages that set them apart: Sony had the mass appeal and the vast library of exclusive titles, Nintendo had the family gamers, and Microsoft catered to the hardcore online crowd. Funny how a little cutthroat competition over a few billion dollars changes the equation.
Charleston City Paper |
Aaron R. Conklin |
08-06-2008 |
Video Games
Wealth and Privilege Have Rarely Looked So Luscious as in 'Brideshead'new
Lust for companionship. For God. For love. For real estate. For family. Everyone in Brideshead Revisited is hungry for something, and it gets them into terrific trouble.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
08-06-2008 |
Reviews
How the Neocons Gave Obama the Worldnew
Republican talk radio says Obama's popularity overseas is simply a reflection of the big government socialism Europe has become accustomed to. Talk host Sean Hannity even said that Germans have long been attracted to charismatic personalities, implying that Obama's appeal was more fuhrer than philosophical. Nonsense.
Charleston City Paper |
Jack Hunter |
07-30-2008 |
Commentary
Fraser's 'The Reavers' Might be as Good as They Saynew
"This book is nonsense," the late George MacDonald Fraser writes in the introduction of his last book, The Reavers. "It's meant to be."
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
'Mermaids in the Basement' is Fluff for Smart Girlsnew
Even fluffy books should have their standards. Which is why I was so thrilled to find Michael Lee West's Mermaids in the Basement.
Charleston City Paper |
Erica Jackson |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
Hard-Boiled, Soft-Centered: What does Casablanca mean in a post-9/11 world?new
Conservatives will lay nostalgic claim to Casablanca as an exemplar of tradition to be gotten back to; liberals like it, because its idealism is worldy, not naïve, and tough enough to triumph over both wrongness and cynicism.
It endures as a classic because both parties are essentially correct.
Charleston City Paper |
Jonathan Kiefer |
07-23-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz
David Sedaris Continues with Un-Fiction in 'Flames'new
Sedaris, in addition to the previous charge of not being a journalist, is now also found guilty of being entertaining.
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
07-23-2008 |
Nonfiction
In Catherine O’Flynn’s New Novel, Your Heart Breaks -- Eventuallynew
O'Flynn, author of What Was Lost, gives a pretty spot-on description of mall life. Green Oaks, the Birmingham shopping center detailed in the novel, is a nightmarish complex, and she gives an accurate insight on how suffocating it may be to work there long after you should have moved on.
Charleston City Paper |
Susan Cohen |
07-23-2008 |
Fiction
Stories about Stories: Kevin Brockmeier’s new story collection retells (relatively) new talesnew
Each of the 13 stories in The View from the Seventh Layer is some ingenius variation of narrative genre — there are four fables, a ghost story, an alien abduction story, a fantasy, a science-fiction romance, a situation comedy of sorts, and even a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story.
Only a few of these breezy and sometimes elegant stories subscribe to that 20th-century dogma of short-story writing that Michael Chabon has called — in the tongue-and-cheek introduction to McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales — the “contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story.”
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
07-23-2008 |
Fiction
Nipple? We Don't See No Stinkin' Nipplenew
The most shocking thing about the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunction during the 2004 Super Bowl was its brevity. And yet somehow in that split second, an America that was still reeling from the realization that it was not invincible, that it too could be attacked, found a way to fight back. At what exactly we were never quite sure. But, boy oh boy, did it ever cause a bustle in our collective hedgerow.
Charleston City Paper |
Chris Haire |
07-23-2008 |
Media
Why It's Worth Reading and Re-Reading the Great Toni Morrisonnew
Long before Barack Obama forced us to re-think race, Toni morrison said it matters when it matters, it doesn't when it doesn't.
Charleston City Paper |
Consuela Francis |
07-23-2008 |
Books
City of Exiles: Learning to be American means finding oneself, even after 9/11new
Outlegged by news networks that never sleep, outsold by the juggernaut of visual entertainment, the novel doesn't bring us the news as it once did. Or at least it's easy to think so until you pick up a book like Joseph O'Neill's splendid Netherland.
Charleston City Paper |
John Freeman |
07-09-2008 |
Fiction
