How cool would it be to randomly kidnap someone and kill them?!? That’s what two incredibly wealthy child prodigies thought. And they did it in 1924. Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr and Richard A. Loeb thought of themselves as Nietzschean supermen. Leopold spoke 15 languages and graduated from the University of Chicago at eighteen and Loeb was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan. The author of Compulsion, Meyer Levin, also graduated from the University of Chicago at eighteen. He became a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. Little did he know when he was assigned to the kidnapping/murder case that the perpetrators were acquaintances of his.
This book is a novelization of what was called “The Crime of the Century” and it’s a fantastic read. It’s not one of those “Hey! I was there. Here’s my new book, give me a million dollars!” true-crime tell-alls. Meyer Levin spent over thirty years thinking about the murders before he wrote Compulsion. He really delves into the psychology of the two criminals as he retells this amazing story. How could two geniuses from such good backgrounds commit such a heinous crime? Levin poetically attempts to explain this in the hopes that “…it may be of some help in widening the use of available knowledge in the aid of human failing.” So if you think you’ve got “the perfect crime” you should read this book first, smarty-pants.
Andrew Jeffrey Wright makes the most over-produced zines on the planet. I’m not talking about glossy pages & slick graphic design. I’m talking about silk-screened pages, LOTS of silk-screened pages, full color zeroxes, hand cut stickers, glued in drawings, fold out posters and guest artist homework assignments (I’m a proud contributor to a few of these “sharpie & white only” portrait drawing projects). I guess Andrew is kind of “the king of zines” due to the work he puts into his books. Anyway, Andrew has a crazy sense of humor so this is filled with funny comics & photos. The centerfold has a drawing that’s a total copy of the cover of Retard Riot #12 (which I gave him while he was working on Art is a Smile) very flattering…
Art is a Smile that Gives You a Hug is a catalog for a show he did at Giant Robot over a year ago and it’s a limited edition of 200, so good luck finding a copy. Rumor has it that he’s working on one for the 2006 BUTTON BATTLE show, so maybe you can cop one of those. It’s funny that he calls them “show catalogs”, cuz he usually finishes them long after the show is over. What-ever.
Find AJW in Philadelphia at www.space1026.com
Misaki’s collages & drawing are both cute & weird at the same time. It’s the kind of cute & weird cartoon style that is seen through out a lot of Japanese culture. Well, Misaki is Japanese so that explains that…whatever…this little book is rad! Her characters are sort of South Park style collage dudes and her drawings are semi-retarded. I hold semi-retarded things in the highest regard, mind you. There’s a lady whose fart blasts her sky high, ripping a hole in her pants and gassing a little blue dude down below. The page before that has some little dude licking milk off the side of a giant tit-mountain, on the other side of the super boob is another little dude holding a cane with a shit-eating grin on his face. Pineapple heads, pipe smokers & other weirdness…funny, funny, funny. There’s a great page depicting a balloon headed fellow, bent over, having his spotty butt sprayed with perfume by a green character. There are too many cool pages to describe; you’ll just have to see for yourself.
24 pages, soft-cover, full color, 2006 http://www.misakikawai.com/
“Noah, thanks for the interest and all. We don’t send out promos really. Thanks and good luck with your stuff. Henry”
Henry Rollins is available at http://21361.com/
It is a Jewish tradition to eat Chinese food on Christmas. So like a good Jewish boy I went to Grand Sichuan St. Marks to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. I don’t judge a book by its cover, but I judge a Chinese place by its dumplings. Grand Sichuan serves the Cadillac of dumplings…the soup dumpling! No, this isn’t dumpling soup we’re talking about, this is soup dumplings! I love dumpling soup, but soup dumplings have the soup INSIDE of the dumpling. They are awesome. Be careful not to bite right into one or you’ll get a face full of hot soup! Take the tongs & place a dumpling into a spoon. Then suck the soup out of the little hole in the top! I recommend the pork dumpling as opposed to the crab & pork; they just kind of smear a little crab paste on the top, which blocks up the hole. They cost more too.
Everything else they serve is as delicious as their dumplings. My favorites include the bak choi & the spicy dry chicken (which is filled with those dry red peppers that will kill you if you eat one. Well, not literally but they’re fuckin’ hot and you’re not supposed to eat them.)
I’ve eaten Chinese food basically since I was born. It’s great. It wasn’t until about five years ago that I discovered Sichuan Chinese food. It takes Chinese to a whole ‘nother level. As opposed to American style Chinese food, it doesn’t leave you with that deep fried, not so fresh feeling. It’s cooked hot and fast. And, mmm…Spicy! There’s another thing I really like about it. It’s a very communal dinning experience, with big circular tables & large bowls of food for all to eat from. They also have a menu called “Mao’s home cooking”. Sichuan. Do it! Do it!
Grand Sichuan. 19-23 St. Marks Pl. (bet. 2nd & 3rd Aves.) Manhattan, NY 10003 212-529-4800 there’s another Grand Sichuan at 229 9th Ave & 24th St. NYC 212-620-5200
This compilation is a great introduction to the Boot Camp Clik for the unfamilar and a treasure for the true souljahs who have been down from day one. The B.C.C. are like a lesser known Wu-Tang Clan, a super group spawned from the early 90’s underground hip hop scene. From grimy streets of Brooknam, they rep the real raw shit. No frills, two turntables and mic hip hop. Peep over 32 videos including classics like: Black Moon’s “Who Got the Props”, “How Many Mc’s”, “I got U Opin”, “Buck ‘em Down”, Smif-N-Wessun’s “Bucktown”, “Let’s Get it On”, “Sound Bwoy Burial”, Fab 5’s “Leflah”, Heltah Skeltah’s “Operation Lockdown”, O.G.C.’s “No Fear”, and more. These aren’t your typical rap video’s either. You’ll find no groupies pourin’ Dom P by the pool, no fake dancers and no bling bling. They’re low budget, creative and mad real. They’re shot in project hallways and parks after dark, the places where hip hop was born.
This DVD is the complete music video catalog of the B.C.C.
Over 2 hours! available from www.duckdown.com
To the Viewer:
“I like to walk around N.Y. to see the art shows, particularly of pictures of something dramatic or exciting. That’s my art taste. Even though I love viewing the stuff the ideas that prop up Modern Art are the dumbest in the world. Especially the notion that painting is about itself and the way it’s made. Sure, try reading a book about itself, or going to a movie about itself, not a lot of fun.”
That’s from Peter Saul’s introduction to the catalog of his recent exhibitions at David Nolan Gallery and Leo Koenig Gallery. I couldn’t agree more with his sentiment. The 90’s art scene in NY made me want to puke. Everything was “conceptual”. Conceptual meaning that you had to read a book about it before you could enjoy it. Did I say, “Enjoy it”? What I meant to say was “before you could be bored to death by it”. 10 years later things are brightening up here. Art is exciting again.
Forget the last decade, Peter Saul has been exciting for the last 55 years. His new paintings are as fresh and invigorating as they were in the sixties. They’re colorful, cartoony, surreal, sentimental portraits of politics, propaganda, and pornography. My favorites include “Around Here You Need a Sense of Humor”, “Execution of Jesus”, “Bush at Abu Ghraib”, “Chinese Businessman Lands on Wall St.”, “Sardanapalus”, “Hitler’s Bunker” and “Self Portrait as a Woman”, a true story about Peter & his wife being mistaken for two women, on four different occasions!!! Hmmm. That makes 7 out of 10 paintings my favorite. The other three are great too.
This is a beautiful catalog with ten tipped-in color plates. That’s old school quality for an O.G. artist. Soft cover, 34 pages, available from www.davidnolangallery.com and www.leokoenig.com
Before this zine reached my hands it was smuggled across the Mexican border inside the stomach of the infamous El Coyote. The cover boldly states “#1″. I hope this means it’s the beginning of a series of books by Mr. Palacios. This issue (or top rated book as it may be) is a story written in paintings, vomit style. They don’t smell like vomit or even look like vomit for that matter. They are portraits of menacing creatures with sadness in there eyes. Like beasts that are actually more afraid of you than you are of them. Two pyramids look towards an oil-blackened sky. Under blood-spattered skies, a lone bicycle hurdles through the air while an ominous tank sits in the background. Googley eyed civilians wonder why oil is dripping from the sky. There’s a shy gorilla. There’s a wooly mammoth bewildered by a human fly. Big Foot hides in his own shadow. Our world has turned to vomit and only the extinct know it. Sergio leaves us with these final words: THIS MEANS WAR!
Painterly Palacios, a student of great American painter Peter Saul, combines harsh brushstrokes with intense washes with killer results. I was once at a museum and over heard an elderly lady comment, “His use of color is quite beautiful”. Mmmm…Quite.
5.5×11″ 12 pages full color 2006
If you can track him down, maybe you can get one of these gems from mrelcoyote@hotmail.com
This is a comic that spanned four decades (1916-1944) and every single strip is about a mouse that throws a brick at a cat’s head. The police are always after Ignatz Mouse! He gets incarcerated. He escapes. He throws bricks at Offisa Pup! Here’s the twist… Krazy Kat loves the fact that Ignatz throws bricks at her head. She sees it as a passionate act of affection. She’s sad when the projectile misses her dome-piece. Ignatz tolerates Krazy’s infatuation with him, but I think the mouse’s true passion is throwing bricks. There’s another twist… the brick throwing is not the real reason for Offisa Pup’s crusade to lock up Ignatz. He is secretly in love with Krazy! I refer to Krazy Kat as “she” but Herriman always maintained that Krazy was genderless!
Here’s what I’ve learned from reading Krazy Kat. The law is laughable, throwing bricks is fun and true love triumphs in the end. Life, laughter, love, and anarchy…Herriman is one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century!
This book is just one in series of beautifully designed books that kovers the entire Krazy Kat katalog. 120-page softcover $14.95 available from www.fantagraphics.com
Timz and hood chek. Aight time to write. Why am I reviewing a record that came out 12 years ago? Hip-hop has changed a lot since ‘95, so this review is for da likkle youth man dem. From dusk to dawn this album defines the meaning of “keeping it real”. Tek & Steele’s hardcore storytellin’ and the Beatminerz rugged, yet smooth production make Da Shinin’ a flawless record. Mind-blowing bass lines, bangin’ drums and spooky samples that’ll have your stereo smokin’. Boot Camp Clik! It smells like Bob Marley in here…
Peep some wise words from Steele on the classic anthem Bucktown:
Enter the cipher… withcha lighter
El’s are ready, prepare for another all nighter
But keep watch for the cops cuz they rock glocks
Comin’ on the block tryin’ to rock knots
Pigs be actin’ like they bigga than us niggaz from da streets
Cuz we stalk mad deep and them walk beats
I guess they hold a grudge cuz i won’t budge
Playin’ tough, starin’ down da judge with my hand’s cuffed
Standing there with my nappy hair and my dirty gear, awww yeah
Now i’m up outta here
Pigs look me up and down with a frown
Is it cuz i’m brown or is it cuz i’m from Bucktown?
Check a verse with Tek on the same track:
Another murderer, just another prankster
Rude boy dead ’cause he thought he was a gangsta
Tried ta live da life of a hood from the streets
Test da wrong dread, now he�s in eternal sleep
Mr. ripper I lurk in da stuy
Twist up da ganja when I wanna get high
With my breaddren, a boodah session
Learn ya lesson
Or get blasted by Mr. Smif or Mr. Wessun
This album put Boot Camp on the map with support from Buckshot (Black Moon), Heltah Skeltah and O.G.C. (Originoo Gunn Clappaz). Straight from the underground. With thunder sound. Number one question: Yo, how can I be down? Well, the answer is buy this record and listen to it everyday for the next twelve years. And that boys and girls is your first lesson in keeping it real.
Find out more about the Boot Camp Clik at www.duckdown.com
