James Frey's Blog, page 98

Steinbeck’s Knickknacks

from The Observer John Steinbeck’s Weirdest Knickknacks Are Going Up for Auction in February By Helen Holmes Within the context of an ultra-modern 21st century that’s increasingly aware of the cultural dominance of white male authors and intent upon dismantling this hegemony, John Steinbeck epitomizes the figure of the 20th century Great American Novelist. He was a profuse […]

2020

F†cking Cats

from Are Technica The surprisingly complicated physics of why cats always land on their feet Ars chats with physicist Greg Gbur about his book, Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics by JENNIFER OUELLETTE  Scientists are not immune to the alluringly aloof charms of the domestic cat. Sure, Erwin Schrödinger could be accused of animal cruelty for his famous thought experiment, but Edwin […]

The Fog

Fog Is Really Cool Yet It Can Be Really Uncool, too.

Exile Revisited

from SPIN Girly Show: The Oral History of Liz Phair’s ‘Exile In Guyville’ How a suburban Chicago songwriter wandered out of a John Hughes script and recorded one of the decade’s masterpieces  by Jessica Hopper In 1993, no rock record was as divisive as Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. With her 18-song double-LP debut, Phair pried […]

Periodic History

from The New Yorker The Histories Hidden in the Periodic Table From poisoned monks and nuclear bombs to the “transfermium wars,” mapping the atomic world hasn’t been easy. By Neima Jahromi The story of the fifteenth element began in Hamburg, in 1669. The unsuccessful glassblower and alchemist Hennig Brandt was trying to find the philosopher’s stone, a […]

Imus Gone

from Showbiz 411 RIP The Great Radio and (Sometimes) TV Broadcaster Dom Imus: Controversial, Crazy, Completely Brilliant and Loyal to a Fault by Roger Friedman Don Imus has passed away at age 79. This was a brilliant, complicated man who had legions of fans and drove people crazy. But he was also loyal to a fault […]

Sex Symbols Gone

from The Hollywood Reporter Camille Paglia: The Death of the Hollywood Sex Symbol (Guest Column) by Camille Paglia The cultural critic and ‘Provocations’ author laments the end of the bombshell and asks why only drag queens and ‘Hustlers’ star Jennifer Lopez still possess “Hollywood’s most brilliant artifact.” Who killed the sex symbol? It’s no mystery that […]

The Black Financiers Behind QUEEN & SLIM

from ESSENCE Did You Know There Were Two Black Financiers Behind ‘Queen & Slim?’ WHEN WRITER LENA WAITHE AND DIRECTOR MELINA MATSOUKAS SAID THE FILM WAS “FOR US, BY US,” THEY MEAN IT. BY DANIELLE YOUNG The brilliance that is Queen & Slim has been described as a “for us, by us” film, with Black women Melina Matsoukas and […]