Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Sept. 22 – 23.
I tried to read On The Road again last weekend. I took nothing else but my 25th anniversary paperback edition – it’s the 50th anniversary this year – with me on the plane so I would be forced to read it and nothing else.
I couldn’t get past page 10. I read the SkyMall magazine instead. There’s a lot of cool stuff in there!
Posted on September 27, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
A weekly review of the magazines laying around Beachwood HQ.
Deja Vanity
The October issue of Vanity Fair feels Green – completely recycled. An airbrushed Nicole Kidman on the cover? Is she still around? The stupidity of George W. Bush? What is this, the 2000 campaign? How the media screwed Al Gore? What is this, the 2000 campaign? Snoopy? Rachael Ray? Sarah Silverman? Hello, she’s been done. Way. Meet the real Stephen Colbert? We met him a long time ago. Cooked intelligence and another botched war? Really? The End of News? Gee, haven’t heard about that. George W. Bush’s disconnect? Really?
C’mon, Vanity Fair. Put all those perfume ads to good use and come up with something new.
Posted on September 19, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
Sept. 15 – 16.
Publication: The New York Review of Books
Cover: Citizen Gore? I’m reading this online.
“There is almost no autobiographical reflection in The Assault on Reason, but early on he tells a story about his first Senate race, in 1984,” Michael Tomasky writes. “He had done no polling when he first ran for the House, but as a statewide candidate, he succumbed. He describes a ‘turning point’ in the race when his opponent, Victor Ashe, was gaining on him:
“After a long and detailed review of all the polling information and careful testing of potential TV commercials, the anticipated response from my opponent’s campaign and the planned response to the response, my campaign advisers made a recommendation and prediction that surprised me with its specificity: “If you run this ad at this many ‘points’ [a measure of the size of the advertising buy], and if Ashe responds as we anticipate, and then we purchase this many points to air our response to his response, the net result after three weeks will be an increase of 8.5 percent in your lead in the polls.”
Posted on September 17, 2007
By The Ethics Guy
You have a right to buy If I Did It . . . but it’s not right to buy it.
After a delay of almost a year, you now have an opportunity to buy a copy of O.J. Simpson’s book, If I Did It.
You have a right to buy it. But you shouldn’t. This is an immoral book that should never have seen the light of day.
Posted on September 14, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
A weekly look at the magazines laying around Beachwood HQ.
Conservative Estimate
“In the fall of 2003, Jack L. Goldsmith was widely considered one of the brightest stars in the conservative legal firmament. A 40-year-old law professor from the University of Chicago, Goldsmith had established himself, with his friend and fellow law professor John Yoo, as a leading proponent of the view that international standards of human rights should not apply in cases before U.S. courts. In recognition of their prominence, Goldsmith and Yoo had been anointed the ‘New Sovereigntists’ by the journal Foreign Affairs.”
Then he got to the White House and it was too much even for him.
Posted on September 12, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
I didn’t get around to this column last week, so this week we’ll do two weeks’ worth.
Publication: Tribune
Cover: “Two of Fall’s Most Buzzed About Novels.” You have to squint really hard at the text under that to find out what they are. In case you weren’t already lured by the illustration of a bunch of male figures with (apparently) hands in pockets standing around thinking (thought clouds) of generic depictions of books.
The Tribune book review is just . . . tiring.
Other Reviews & News of Note: “Military Manual May Offer Clues To Petraeus’ Plans For Iraq.” Is this the Trib’s way to spin the fact that they are the last to get to The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual out of the University of Chicago Press, first noted in the Beachwood on July 23rd and reviewed pretty much everywhere else by now?
Posted on September 11, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
A weekly look at the magazines lying around Beachwood HQ.
Fashion Flub
Neko Case appears in Men’s Vogue wearing an Ann Demeulemeester vest, Juicy Couture jeans, and Calvin Klein shoes.
Noooooooooooo!
Say it ain’t so, Neko!
Posted on August 30, 2007
By Connie Nardini
Connie Nardini begins her occasional series of book reviews and other news as she sees fit.
–
Heavier Than Air: A Collection of Short Stories
By Nona Caspers
–
Short-story writer Nona Caspers creates a tapestry of small towns – mostly of her native Minnesota – and chronicles the lives of people living there who have a hard time coming down to earth. They either don’t want or seem to know that they’re “heavier than air” because they live in unreal worlds of their own making.
Posted on August 29, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
August 25 – 26.
Publication: Tribune
Cover: “Assault. Murder. Corruption. The mob. DNA. Death Row. Does it all add up to a compelling tale in The Chicago Way?”
It turns out the answer is No.
Posted on August 27, 2007
By Steve Rhodes
August 18 – 19.
Publication: Tribune
Cover: Barack Obama for an incredibly weird review by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette executive editor David Shribman of Tribune reporter David Mendell’s Obama.
Posted on August 22, 2007
