Archive for April, 2007

Colum McCann – Dancer

Colum McCann’s novel Dancer is a fictional biography of the prominent Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Dancer seeks to tell his story through the stories of those touched by his art, in a sequence of narratives by various characters: his maid, his sister, his dance partner, an interior decorator...

April 30th, 2007 | Books | Read More

Motherhood

(UPDATE: Many of you might have noticed some very long load times for our site…longer than a site should take. This is due to our server, which has caused a lot of problems over the last few months. We’ll be switching servers in the next couple weeks. We’re hoping to also institute...

April 30th, 2007 | Letters from the Editor | Read More

Hey Everybody! Let’s Celebrate Turn Off Your TV Week!

(Note: We understand fully the hypocrisy of running a review of television shows two weeks ago, and running an article on turning off your TV this week. Your letters and snide comments will only make us stronger…) The only contest I have ever won was at my church

April 30th, 2007 | Social Justice | Read More

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

Here are two truths universally known in my heart: 1. Wilco make marvelous records. 2. Jeff Tweedy is a genius in the truest sense of the word. Having confessed my slavish and slightly unbalanced devotion to every note, word and frantic guitar chord proceeding from the mind of Tweedy, I will attempt...

April 23rd, 2007 | Music | Read More

What is the What, by Dave Eggers

An introductory essay from Dave Johnson, co-moderator of Burnside Collective Reading: Welcome to the first installment of the BWC reading community. Over the next several weeks this page will be the site of an online conversation about Dave Eggers’ most recent novel What is the What, a fictionalized...

April 23rd, 2007 | Books | Read More

LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

Here’s this – I’m a white guy & I can’t dance. Oh, one of the benefits of being a musician is that you have rhythm, but that doesn’t mean I can move my body well and do so in time with the music in a way that’s pleasing to the eye (especially to the female eye)....

April 23rd, 2007 | Music | Read More

My First Summer in the Sierra, by John Muir

Long before Donald Miller pondered prayer on a road trip in a Volkswagen, John Muir took a journey through the Sierra that not only changed his life, but continues to influence ours. His vivid descriptions of God’s creation in My First Summer in the Sierra foreshadows his founding of the Sierra...

April 23rd, 2007 | Books | Read More

Angels with Citrus

What do angels look like? This is not a question that sprang from the mouth of my five-year-old daughter. This is a serious topic I’ve been pondering lately as I look outside at these busy Chinese streets (especially after today). The picture of “angel” I hold in my mind is dominated...

April 23rd, 2007 | Social Justice | Read More

A Man Without a Country, by Kurt Vonnegut

It’s amazing what you can learn when you’re willing. Even if you’re an Evangelical Christian and your teacher is an atheist. Even if you’re a no-name wannabe writer and your teacher is Kurt Vonnegut. Even if you never meet. Vonnegut’s newest book, the one he said he’d...

April 16th, 2007 | Books | Read More

What We’re Reading Now – April 2007

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather...

April 16th, 2007 | Books | Read More