Alexander Putin may not be preparing to invade Europe, but he understands the value of spectacle in establishing a nation’s place in the world. The Winter Olympics opening ceremonies in Sochi may have been the grandest show in history. It may also have been the grandest propaganda spectacle in history. It’s easy to get caught up in an artistic endeavor
Read moreI’ve never quite understood the conventions surrounding the terms “midsummer” and “midwinter.” Each is used to describe the solstice – June 21st or so and December 21st or so – which are, as you know, the beginnings of summer and winter, not the middle. Today is Imbolc, which we popularly celebrate as Groundhog Day.(I’m not sure whether Punxatawney Phil saw
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Poetry, fiction, music reviews, art and photography from one of the country’s fine young independent online art and literature journals. We’ve pointed you in the past toward Amethyst Arsenic, one of our favorite online literary and arts journals, and the Winter 2014 iteration is now posted. This edition features fiction from Victor Infante, art by Jill Christian, a few music
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Progressives with more passion than intelligence provide aid and comfort to conservatives, and as usual, Huffington Post is leading the charge. Twitter is stupid and Instagram is Twitter for people who can’t read. @OfficialKat The picture you see here has ignited a firestorm of outrage over the past few days. In an airy white blouse, art gallery owner Dasha Zhukova
Read moreInteresting item from Kevin Pocock over at Poejazzi, which I found out about because he linked my piece on walking away from it all. Much to think about there, but items #2 and #9 are near and dear to my heart. Also #5, which certainly describes me, as much as I hate to admit it.
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Google honors the father of industrial design; so does Scholars & Rogues I have grown to really appreciate design in recent years. I’ve never had any formal training in it, unfortunately – what I know has mostly been learned ad hoc, on the fly. I have done a bit of low-level design work in the course of my work and hobbies,
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Government shutdown, debt crisis reveal how much GOP has in common with other sociopaths… Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris? I believe Philip K. Dick had it right in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Technology had, in that not-so-distant future, created androids that were
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As I’ve noted before, I grew up working class in the South. My neighborhood, my school, my family and friends, it all oscillated between “redneck” and “white trash,” and yes, there’s a difference. I wrote not long ago about the challenges facing those of us trying to climb the socio-economic ladder when nothing in our upbringing had taught us which fork
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It’s become a little too common a story: police thugs beating the hell out of a citizen (who may or may not have done anything) citizen with camera takes pictures or video of police abuse police arrest photographer because apparently it’s illegal to record police brutality The new trend is to make photographing the police illegal, although they will also
Read moreWhen I first saw this story on NY artist Danny Evans’s Celebrities Make Under project, my first reaction was…well, let me quote my Facebook comment directly: Oh, this…I mean…gods, no. They…WTF?! To summarize, Evans has used the magic of Photoshop to “normalize” (my word, not his) some of our artificially beautiful celebrities. “It was a reaction to the insanely over-retouched photos
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I wrote my first poem when I was a senior at Ledford High School in Wallburg, NC. It was called “Octoberfaust,” and while it wasn’t a terribly good poem, it wasn’t bad for a 17 year-old having his first crack at something brand new. My English teacher, a guy named Jim Booth, whom S&R readers may have heard of, was
Read moreMarch 21 is the UN’s World Poetry Day, and we here at S&R invite our readers to celebrate the event along with us. Hit the comment thread and offer up a bit of verse – something you admire, something you wrote, whatever. I’ll go first, and I’ll do a bit of both. In my latest (as yet unpublished) book, there
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I visited the Denver Art Museum back in February. Here are some of the shots from that outing.
Read morePart 3 in a series. Our first couple of installments in the series where characterized by rage, I suppose. So today let’s step away from the anger and look at videos of a more artistic bent. First up, the video I’ve always sort of regarded as the best ever: “Dirt,” by Death in Vegas. Avant gardiste to its core, and very
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lullaby pit 