Stunning New Slabs of Gaga, Weiwei and Rauch If ever there was a more photographed (or photographical) figure than Lady Gaga, you sure couldn’t prove it by me (or her). Neither Mae West (to whom the Lady owes plenty) or Jayne Mansfield (who had Hearst at her disposal) or Madonna (whose triumphs pretty much ended [...]
Two Monumental Looks at Our Storied Past Miami Book Fair may be over, but books of course will endure, as will history, whether or not we’re doomed to repeat it. To ensure we swing with those who know (and know better) though, here’s the lowdown on two (relatively) recent historical offerings, each of which will [...]
Putting Down the Most Wanted Man in the World As even those living under rocks now know, on May Day 2011, U.S. forces snuck into Pakistan and took out Osama Bin Laden, questionably the most wanted man in the world. It was an exemplary moment for America’s armed forces, as well as for America’s President, [...]
Maus Gets Meta The universe “is not an ethical place,” said Art Spiegleman to the LA Times’ David L. Ulin. But does that mean we must be ethical creatures? That’s some “conundrum,” and one he’s not willing to let be “the take-away” from his mighty Maus. The whole “God has a plan even if I [...]
James C. Clark Recounts the 1950 Pummelling of Claude Pepper From 1963 until he died in 1989, Claude Pepper represented Florida’s 18th Congressional District, which included Key Biscayne, Bal Harbour and Coral Gables, as well as all of Miami Beach. For the last decade of those 26 years, Pepper was so popular with his constituents [...]
Bound Deborah Reed Knows What Makes a Heart Grow Fonder Life’s funny. Not funny ha-ha, of course — but funny peculiar. What’s especially funny are the things that normally make up a life. Take love, for instance, which only a Mencken would consider to be laugh-out-loud. Love is something that pretty much everybody has spent [...]
Telling the Tall Tale Behind the Ballad of Tom Dooley On May Day, 1868, in the town of Statesville, North Carolina, a man named Tom Dula was hanged for murder. The victim, a slip of a woman named Laura Foster, had been stabbed to death and hastily buried on a ridge in nearby Wilkes County. [...]
To wade through Amazon’s 81 thousand-plus September 11 search results would in itself be a formidable task; to read even a fraction of those titles would probably take till the next 10-year mark. By that time there’d likely be another unwieldy score of written offerings and you’d have to start all over again. But it [...]
The Literary Legacy of a Hipster Borough Forget the suits, bespoke or otherwise. Disregard the hats and the saddle shoes, the custom shirts and the silken ties. For like Walt Whitman I am at heart “one of the roughs.” Sure, I chew with mouth closed, mostly, and can manage all of the other manners one [...]
Three Evil Ways to While Away an Evening Blame Donald Ray Pollock’s The Devil All the Time. Because the very day I filed my review of his depth-charged novel, I received not one but three books in the mail of similar descent. I’m speaking of Demon Fish (Pantheon $26.95), The Fang Family (Ecco $23.99) and [...]
Exploring the Hollers and Knobs of Donald Ray Pollock “Some people were born just so that they could be buried,” thinks lawman Lee Bodecker in Donald Ray Pollock’s The Devil All the Time (Doubleday $26.95). The thought is sparked by the ”sad, worn-out-looking fucker” standing before him, but it also brings to mind his mother. [...]
Time-Traveling with Some Exemplary Americans Returning home from Paris, no matter where home happens to be, is never an easy thing. It’s especially difficult to do after a hundred year trip. So it was with some discomfort — and deep reluctance — that, after more than a century away, I came back to Miami last [...]
