Recommendations

  • Rereading Wallace Stevens March 12, 2010
    Since buying The Selected Poems of Wallace Stevens at City Lights, I’ve been rereading many Stevens poems and trying to understand it from a more mature perspective.  Last time I read a vast amount of Stevens was when I was 22 for a class on Stevens, T.S. Eliot, Yeats, and Marianne Moore.  With fifteen years [...] […]
    Soo Jin Oh
  • Best Translated Book Award 2010 March 12, 2010
    The 2010 Best Translated Book Awards were announced last night at Idlewild Books, Manhattan. The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven, translated by Dalya Bilu won the fiction award, and the poetry award went to Elena Fanailova for The Russian Version, translated from the Russian by Genya Turovskaya and Stephanie Sandler. Check out the [...] […]
    Jeff Waxman
  • NBCCA March 12, 2010
    The National Book Critics Circle Award is announcing their winners tonight.  The diversity of their nominations, from the better known (such as Hilary Mantel and Mary Karr) to the less mainstream (such as Rachel Zucker and Eula Biss), makes the blog entries on the nominees an interesting read.  I added Stephen Burt’s Close Calls with [...] […]
    Soo Jin Oh
  • Different Ways of Translating al-Khamissi March 12, 2010
    Translator Jonathan Wright said last night that he felt, for the English-language reader, "religious references [in Arabic literature] are in general problematic." […]
    M Lynx Qualey
  • Dear Camera: Bees and Poems. “An accidental moltingâ€� March 12, 2010
    Poems and Paintings by Salena Gerdes and Joseph P. Wood in the newest issue of Dear Camera […]
    Carrie Olivia Adams
  • Norwegian Wood Film Adaptation March 12, 2010
    Haruki Murakami’s breakout novel, Norwegian Wood, is being made to a film. But wait! There’s more! It’s being scored by Radiohead. […]
    Scott Esposito
  • Out of Print, Out of Mind March 12, 2010
    To mark the one-year anniversary of his outstanding literary webzine, The Second Pass, editor John Williams asked a whole bunch of reading folks to wax on about their favorite OP titles. […]
    Jeff Waxman
  • “It is one of the hardest days of the year to bear. Truly a memorable 10th of March,â€� or, Time travel with Thoreau March 12, 2010
    Despite Eliot's oft-quoted line about April, we all know that March is really the cruelest month, refusing to set us free of winter's bleakness even as it tantalizes us with hints of spring. This year however, Thoreau's journals in hand, I've decided to choose my own March. […]
    Levi Stahl
  • Mass-market paperback postmodernism March 12, 2010
    or, Artifacts from a World I Do Not Recognize I love coming across mass market editions of books by writers whom you wouldn’t normally associate with that format (at least for those of us who were born in the seventies or later). Below are a few I’ve come across in used book stores. I always wonder: [...] […]
    Scott Bryan Wilson
  • “Alphabet graves in your hairâ€� March 12, 2010
    Selections from Andrew K. Peterson's "Bonjour Meriweather and the Rabid Maps." […]
    Carrie Olivia Adams

Seeing Sounds by N*E*R*D Review

Seeing Sounds by N*E*R*D ReviewShare

When I think of what defines postmodern popular music, I place my criteria into two groups: sounds and subject matter. Sonically I think of music that draws on the forms and sounds of the two last great traditions in popular music: rock and hip hop. Topically, I think of the sometimes . . . continue reading Seeing Sounds by N*E*R*D Review

Friday Hip Hop: J-Live

Friday Hip Hop: J-LiveShare

<A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fconversatio07-20%2F8014%2Fca6ec0ee-5127-483d-8cca-26bcd1a4a688&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A>

I’m using the Amazon clips widget to preview J-Live’s new album here. Click on the above box to listen to clips from any one of the album’s tracks.

J-Live has been one of my favorite MCs for going on 7 years now, and I constantly am surprised that more people . . . continue reading Friday Hip Hop: J-Live

Friday Hip Hop: Common–I Used to Love H.E.R.

Friday Hip Hop: Common–I Used to Love H.E.R.Share

It just doesn’t get much better than this. Wait, of course, for the last 8 words.

Friday Hip Hop: Southernplayalisticcadiilacmuzik

Friday Hip Hop: SouthernplayalisticcadiilacmuzikShare

Here’s a classic for you all.

Friday Hip Hop: Edgar Allen Floe

Friday Hip Hop: Edgar Allen FloeShare

Now this is what its all about–a rapper whose name is a literary reference. That’s nice.

I’m a pretty big fan of Little Brother and, since Edgar Allen Floe is a part of their crew (also known as the Justus League), I figured I’d give his album Floe Almighty: The Remixture . . . continue reading Friday Hip Hop: Edgar Allen Floe

Friday Hip Hop: No Hook by Jay-Z

Friday Hip Hop: No Hook by Jay-ZShare

Now that he’s had as many number 1 albums as Elvis, people are finally beginning to recognize the kid of cultural force that Jay-Z represents. You can argue whether he’s the MC that deserves all this attention, but it’s pretty clear to me that American Gangster is his best . . . continue reading Friday Hip Hop: No Hook by Jay-Z

Friday Hip Hop: Lovin’ It by Little Brother

Friday Hip Hop: Lovin’ It by Little BrotherShare

Here’s a live version of one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite hip hop groups. If you are at your job, I recommend not doing what Phonte recommends.

This track is off of this album. If you like hip hop, you should definitely hear Little Brother.

Friday Hip Hop: My Melody by Eric B, and Rakim

Friday Hip Hop: My Melody by Eric B, and RakimShare

They don’t get much more classic than this.

Check out Eminem’s homage at the beginning of verse three on I’m Back.