The Catastrophe of Success
“Security is a kind of death, I think, and it can come to you in a storm of royalty checks beside a kidney-shaped pool in Beverly Hills or anywhere at all that is removed from the conditions that made you an artist, if that’s what you are or were intended to be.”
On a Remote Greek Island, Learning to Take a ‘Real’ Vacation
In creating a routine “entirely alien to his normal life,” Alexander Chee attempts a real vacation from his work as a writer. As he sketches his way around Sifnos, capturing both the “least famous” Greek island and his memories of it in a Moleskine notebook, he learns how to draw fresh strength to fuel his work.
Phil Ivey’s Semi-Bluff
During poker’s boom in the early-aughts, Phil Ivey was the sport’s first genuine superstar, an intimidating manipulator with an utterly brilliant mind who helped catapult poker (and his own bank account) to dizzying heights. “I like it when I lose so much money I can barely breathe,” he once told a table during the filming of NBC’s Poker After Dark. But then Ivey disappeared, hamstrung by the lingering accusation and subsequent lawsuits that he had cheated casinos out of millions playing baccarat, which begs the question—does poker still need Phil Ivey?
The Town Where Everyone Owns a Gun
After the mine closed nearby, and the residents started to move out of Nucla, Colorado, the town passed an ordinance that every household in the municipality was required to own a gun. But as the residents see it, their main enemy is Telluride, the liberal city next door.
The Benzodiazepine Pilgrim
A man visits the Croatian town where Leo Sternbach, the inventor of benzodiazepines, was born. Benzos were the author’s drug of choice. Thankfully the town’s Margherita pizza outsells the Valium.
The Selfie Monkey Goes to the Ninth Circuit
Can a monkey be an “author” under U.S. copyright law? PETA forges ahead with a claim on behalf of Naruto the macaque, and Sarah Jeong walks us through the details.
The Weather of the Place
Writer and editor Andrew Mitchell Davenport uses Jean Toomer’s Harlem Renaissance novel Cane to shed light on the ongoing reality of racial terror.
Even After 40 Years, Maze and Frankie Beverly Play On
For 40 years, North California soul band Maze featuring Frankie Beverly has drawn crowds of devoted fans to its live shows without mainstream radio play. Bruce Britt offers a thrilling account of the band’s rise.
Late in Life, Thoreau Became a Serious Darwinist
But he died before he could finish his book on natural history. As Emerson put it, Thoreau “depart[ed] out of Nature before… he has been really shown to his peers for what he is.”
“What Are You Doing Here, Sister?”
“In the beginning, there was a plane; and then there was an airport. And then there was a language. And then there was a city that taught me to live. This queer city, this brown city — this queer brown city. Finally, finally, I am home.”
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