Cross-posted from Haywire Hip Hop This week seems like a particularly apt time to discuss the value and artful components of a successful debut album, as a certain Jay-Z protégé’s long-awaited and much-discussed debut album hit stores to heavy fanfare across the Twitter world and the web’s best rap blogs. But before we toss around … Read more
In the midst of an economic meltdown, high unemployment, an increasingly interesting presidential candidacy race, relations with China, and the war on terror, it becomes easy to lose sight of a crisis that has the potential to not only bring our country to its knees but also has the ability to threaten the livelihood of … Read more
In the latest episodes of the popular reality series America’s Next Top Reagan (also known as the 2012 race), we’ve been seeing contestants reaching out to the former president’s legacy more than ever. But do they really know the man they try too hard to emulate? Whether his spirit is being channeled by numerous Republicans, and even the … Read more
Hip hop has historically been an arena of society known for fostering competition. The past two decades have seen rap “beefs”—from Biggie and 2Pac to Jay-Z and Nas to 50 Cent and, well, almost everybody—grow and fester, fueled by shots fired within songs and inflammatory actions of one form or another outside of them. In … Read more
I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 after reading an interesting review by Dave Thier on the Atlantic, praising the movies for helping Rowling do what she wants but fails to do in her books, which characteristicly focus on detail and silliness. The movies develop the sense of gravity and … Read more
Jane Eyre‘s popular reception sparked a publisher’s fight over its author’s next work. Publishers of Harry Potter, meanwhile, are undoubtedly pleased at the Gringott’s-sized sum of $15 billion that the brand is now worth. It’s probably coincidence (or magic) that they look alike, but there are a few literary similarities, too. Jane Eyre is often … Read more
The third-grade recipe for natural history goes like this: start with a few cells swimming in a sea of nutrient-rich gloop-soup. Fast-forward millions of years and those cells have multiplied and diversified. We’ve gone from plain miso to a chunky cup of wonton. Now there’s a sponge – a starfish – even a flounder! The … Read more
The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 By Irving Kristol. Basic Books, 2011. Hardcover: $29.95, 416 pp. Irving Kristol may have passed away in 2009, but his spirit lives on in the latest collection of his writings, The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009. As a founder of such magazines as The Public Interest, The National Interest, … Read more
From “King of the Bingo Game” (1944) by Ralph Ellison, in Flying Home (1996) ed. by John F. Callahan A man spins an electric wheel at a public bingo game in order to win $36; however, he refuses to stop. Didn’t they know that although he controlled the wheel, it also controlled him, and unless … Read more
In Irving Kristol’s posthumous new book, The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009, the godfather of neoconservatism writes that philosopher Leo Strauss “turned one’s intellectual universe upside down.” In this interview, Harvard University’s Harvey Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Government, talks about Strauss’ philosophy, as well as its impact on both Kristol and … Read more