Matter of Rothko

I’m going to break this down very simply, and as nonlibelously as possible. On February 25, 1970, my mother received a call from Oliver Steindecker, Mark Rothko’s studio assistant, informing her that Rothko had committed suicide and was lying on the floor of his studio in a pool of blood. My mom took a cab from her house on East Eighty-Ninth to Rothko’s studio, twenty blocks south, and helped identify the body. She then took another cab uptown, to Rothko’s brownstone on East Ninety-Fifth, to tell Rothko’s estranged wife, Mell. She left a message with my father, who was, curiously, attending a funeral. Eventually he showed up as well, and helped to arrange Rothko’s funeral two days later. My mom was one month pregnant with me.

Source: Triple Canopy
Published: Aug 2, 2011
Length: 19 minutes (4,784 words)

To Have Is to Owe: A History of Debt

Never has the governing class allowed anyone to question the sacred principle that we all must pay our debts. That principle has recently been exposed to be a flagrant lie. As it turns out, we all don’t have to pay our debts. Only some of us do.

Source: Triple Canopy
Published: Dec 8, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,162 words)

Mao, King Kong, and the Future of the Book

From Mao to Microsoft, a conversation on the unrecorded history of online publishing.

Author: Bob Stein
Source: Triple Canopy
Published: Aug 1, 2010
Length: 15 minutes (3,978 words)