October 2008
The Archives
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10.31.08Ich bin ein Krapfen in Berlin
October 2008
The Archives
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10.29.08By the time I get to Berlin…
…I’ll be hurlin’? Twirlin’? Unfurlin’? Girlin’? Could someone consult with Jimmy Webb and get back to me?
I just landed in Dublin for a stopover on my way to Berlin, for a long overdue vacation. Now where are the Shamrock Shakes? Here’s a picture I shot just before landing at dawn:
- About to land at Dublin Airport. Photo: Jim Newberry.
Stay tuned–I plan to post pictures here regularly while “I’m abroad.”
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10.23.08“Eastern Shame Girl” pulp novel
"Eastern Shame Girl" pulp novel cover ©1947 Avon Book Company
While browsing at Myopic Books, my favorite neighborhood bookstore, I stumbled upon this gem–the pulp novel, “Eastern Shame Girl.” Here’s a peek at the steamy contents, from the inside flap:
Delightful and Exciting
Here is a new and different reading experience. In this volume are assembled some of the best of the classic tales of China and the Far East. Written in a graceful and beautiful style, each story is redolent of the exotic excitement and forbidden pleasures of the Orient.
The title story, Eastern Shame Girl, recounts the love of a rich young man for a girl of doubtful virtue, and what transpires when he becomes her lover and takes her away with him. The Counterfeit Old Woman tells the adventures of a handsome young man who dons female garb and introduces himself into those quarters usually reserved for women alone. The Temple of the Esteemed Lotus is the strange account of how the women who came to the temple to pray for a child had their prayers answered in a highly diverting manner.This edition was published in 1947; the book was originally published in 1935 under the much less saucy title, “Chinese Love Tales.” Here’s one of the fantastic inside illustrations:
"Eastern Shame Girl" pulp novel illustration ©1947 Avon Book Company
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10.21.08
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10.19.08Big and soft
Big and soft, NYC 2007. Photo: Jim Newberry
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10.14.08The Thin Man: free show at Quenchers Saturday Oct 25th
You can catch The Thin Man for free this NEXT Saturday (October 25th) at Quenchers.
- Kennedy Greenrod/The Thin Man. Photo: Jim Newberry
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10.13.08Cheapskate Halloween costume: Sarah Palin mask
For those of you who like to dress up on Halloween, but are too cheap and/or lazy to come up with an actual costume, you can download a printable Sarah Palin mask from the Chicago Tribune. Joe Biden mask now available as well (although really–whatever your political ideology–does anyone really want to trick or treat dressed as Biden?). McCain and Obama masks promised for later this week.
Sarah Palin mask from the Chicago Tribune. Drawing by Rick Tuma.
And don’t forget to vote!! Many states allow early voting starting today. Fellow independent-minded, progressive Chicagoans, here’s a ballot guide from IVI-IPO, which you’re permitted to bring with you while you vote (I’m sure you know whom you’d like for POTUS, but how about Water Reclamation District and Cook County Circuit Court?), if you’re so inclined.
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10.11.08Matt Groening and Jonathan Franzen on Charlie Brown
First Peanuts comic, October 2, 1950, by Charles M. Schulz
Today’s Guardian has Simpson’s creator Matt Groening and The Corrections author Jonathan Franzen paying tribute to Charles M. Schulz’s genius comic strip:
Groening:
I got to meet Schulz once, in May 1998. I was holed up on the Fox lot in Century City, working on some Simpsons nonsense, when I received word that the great man was eating lunch nearby. I dropped everything and raced across town, stumbling into the restaurant where the affable Schulz held court before a group of fans and friends. I told him of my all-time favourite Peanuts comic strip, which I hadn’t seen in 40 years. The strip shows Lucy methodically making a series of tiny snowmen, then stomping on them, as Charlie Brown looks on. Lucy explains matter-of-factly: “I’m torn between the desire to create and the desire to destroy.”
“Thank you for that strip,” I said. “In one sentence you summed up my life.”
Schulz smiled politely. Do you hear me? He smiled politely! I made Charles Schulz smile politely! I just now realise I’m more like Charlie Brown than I’ve ever admitted to myself.
Franzen:
Schulz wasn’t an artist because he suffered. He suffered because he was an artist. To keep choosing art over the comforts of a normal life – to grind out a strip every day for 50 years; to pay the steep psychic price for this – is the opposite of damaged. It’s the sort of choice that only a tower of strength and sanity can make. The reason Schulz’s early sorrows look like ‘sources’ of his brilliance is that he had the talent and resilience to find humour in them. Almost every young person experiences sorrows. What’s distinctive about Schulz’s childhood is not his suffering, but the fact that he loved comics, had a gift for drawing and was the only child of good parents.
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10.11.08Cold War Kids: Tonight at the Vic
The Cold War Kids are in the Windy City tonight, playing at the Vic. Here’s a pic I shot of the band for Interview magazine in 2006:
Cold War Kids. Photo: Jim Newberry
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