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Tony Isabella, a renowned comic professional, does book and comic reviews on the website World Famous Comics. Here is a great, short and sweet one of a startling book.
After listening to one of the authors on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," I requested The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer [Doubleday; $27.50] from my library. The book is a fascinating and frequently horrifying account of the outnumbered, under-supplied Mississippi unionists defying the wealthy slave-owners who launched the American civil war to preserve their lavish lifestyles and their "right" to enslave other human beings. It's also the story of the heroic, remarkable Newton Knight and his two families, one white, one black.
This is a page turner, though the chronicles of brutality (on both sides of the conflict) and atrocities (more on the Confederate side) often forced me away from the book. At least when I was in school - and that was before and not long after the Civil Rights Act became law - our history books glossed over the darkest parts of this story. I never knew the Confederate leaders plundered the families of the poor soldiers pressed into fighting for a cause not their own or that those Southerners who sided with the Union were subjected to even worse treatment. I never knew that the racism of Andrew Johnson and the weariness of Ulysses S. Grant allowed these same Confederate monsters to reclaim their power shortly after the war and continue subjugating the poor. Sadly, the reality of the common man blindly following leaders who constantly act against his best interests is all too familiar to me. I see its like whenever the ignorant scream their Faux News talking points at "tea parties" and town hall meetings.
If I were a history teacher, The State of Jones would be required reading for my students. It's an exceptional work of non-fiction and, as such, it earns the full five Tonys.
Read more of his reviews here.
A fine review of an excellent book exploring Kierkegaard deeply, both his negative tendencies and his continuing (if not increasing) importance as the Modern Socrates of philosophy and theology.
JOAKIM GARFF'S justly acclaimed biography of Kierkegaard, published in English in the year marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen, invites us into the literary world of Denmark's golden age. It also calls us to ponder Kierkegaard in the context of his ambitious, anxiety-ridden life and through the eyes of his contemporaries. ...
Steve Durland was famous many years ago for his wonderful and often biting postcards from God, which were just that, sent to many artworld people. He also served as Managing Editor of High Performance magazine from 1983 through 1985, became editor-in-chief in 1986 and remained in that position until the magazine folded in 1997. In 1994 High Performance won the Alternative Press Award for coverage of cultural issues. Linda Frye Burnham and Durland co-edited the book The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of art in the Public Arena, an anthology of 20 years of High Performance magazine that was published by Critical Press in 1998. In 1995 Linda Frye Burnham and he co-founded and currently co-direct Art in the Public Interest, an arts nonprofit that is currently producing the Community Arts Network.
On his website, he has a very amusing Art Buzzword Bingo. The directions:
Print out and take this bingo card with you to your next arts conference. Mark off the buzzwords as you hear them; the BINGO square is a free square. If you get five in a row (up, down, diagonally), stand up and shout "Bingo!" as loud as you can. You've won!
Go here for the card! (The page dynamically draws a new Bingo! card when loaded. You must enable you browser's JavaScript feature to see the card.)
France 24 reports on how the global financial crisis has affected contemporary Chinese art.
China's contemporary art-market bubble has burst. After becoming one of the hottest things in the art world over the last decade, galleries are now struggling to sell pieces, works are failing to reach minimums at auction, and artists are having to rethink their choice of career.
Now would be cheap.
Sotheby's stocks have fallen almost 90 percent! Their profit fell to "only" $28.3 million, the worst result since 2003. You could get them for a song!
As Christi Nielson responded to Sherwin's latest great art post, "A colleague of mine once said 'they're trying to lock the doors to a building where walls no longer exist.' "
Sherwin on myartspaceblog:
I've read some buzz about the ArtPrize competition. A few art critics and NYC art dealers have called it a sign of desperation rather than an opportunity for artists-- implying that anyone who enters it is 'just desperate'. In fact, one critic of the competition-- András Szántó -- suggested that anyone who wins the competition will never be accepted in the mainstream art world.
András Szántó also suggested that the $400,000+ cash prize should have been donated to existing art programs or as grants to artists who are represented by notable galleries. He actually made the case that only a select few should dictate what is 'good' art or 'bad' art instead of the general public-- backing the idea that only certain individuals are capable of understanding or appreciating art.
Elie Wiesel called him a "God." His investors called him a "genius." But, proving correct that old adage from the country and western song, you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.
Bernie Madoff, for at least 20 years, ran a Ponzi scheme on thousands of clients, among them the people you and I would consider the best and brightest. Business leaders, celebrities, charities, even some of his own relatives and his defense attorney were taken for a ride (this has to be the first time a lawyer was hosed by the client).
We're clearly in one of those historic, game changing years: up is down, red is blue and black is President. Aside from Obama himself, no person will provide a more iconic face of this end-of-capitalism-as-we-know-it year than Bernard Lawrence Madoff.
Which is too bad.
Look what Tyler found:
Chicago alderman: Look what I found...
Love this: A Chicago alderman is getting creative [via AJ] in trying to do something about the Art Institute of Chicago's 50 percent admissions increase. The alderman, Ed Burke, has found an 1891 agreement that might require the museum to be free to the public two-and-a-half-days per week. (That would get the AIC almost halfway to keeping up with its peer institutions.) Stay tuned here...
Myth in Material @ Alogon Gallery
Elizabeth Chodos curates: Ryan Fenchel, Rebecca Gordon, Mathew Paul Jinks, Stacie Johnson, and Michael Ruglio-Misurell
Myth in Material
April 18-30, 2009
Alogon Gallery
1049 N. Paulina 3R [entry on Cortez], Chicago, IL
alogongallery.com
The teabag rallies are over and millions thousands hundreds turned out to protest the return to Clinton-era tax rates in 2010. Pathetic.
So here's a simple plan to make all their heads explode, based on the simple idea that they worship Ronald Reagan: instead of returning to Clinton's top marginal rate of 38%, let's return to Reagan's top marginal rate of 50%.
Better yet, let's return to Nixon's top marginal rate of 75%. Or Eisenhower's top marginal rate of 91%.
These were all popular Republican presidents. So why don't we return to good old-fashioned Republican tax rates?
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