FWD’s Matt Buchanan argues that if you’re going to be buying any sort of tech gadget, make sure you are buying one that is great to use today and not something that has the promise of greatness once it receives an update. The even grosser, hairier underbelly of update culture is beta culture: Companies releasing products [...]
essays
If you read one thing today make it Roger Ebert’s essay or mortality, which was excerpted from his new book. What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I [...]
If you read one article about a summer camp for inner-city Brooklyn youths, make it this one: Camp for most of us meant no homework, no piano lessons, no Little League. For the kids of Camp POWER, camp means no sirens, no territories, no gangs. Camp for most of us meant barely edible mess hall [...]
In this week’s NY Times Magazine, Maud Newton admits she doesn’t like David Foster Wallace’s writing all that much, and blames DFW for the voice of the Internet being too familiar. Of course, Wallace’s slangy approachability was part of his appeal, and these quirks are more than compensated for by his roving intelligence and the tireless force [...]
“In Part 1 of “Big Man, Little Countries,” Josh Levin visits the smuggler’s paradise of Andorra. In Part 2, he surveys the fast cars and rich folks at the Monaco Grand Prix. In Part 3, he goes to San Marino, the world’s oldest republic. In Part 4, he begins his visit in Liechtenstein for the Games of the Small [...]
Bruce Levine looks at the reasons why for Alternet: Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able [...]
John Robb’s essay on America’s current state of affairs might be the best thing you’ll read all day. His analysis is interesting and connects the dots in ways that I haven’t come across anywhere else. The result of central planning in the US has finally hit the wall. The list of problems is endless. The [...]
Jennifer Hopper is the survivor of what’s become known as the “South Park rapes and murder” in Seattle. She wrote and incredibly powerful and brave first-person account of the ordeal for The Stranger. Today, at 38, I find myself craving to have my identity back. I am prepared to have my name enter the public [...]
CNN on the end of the fabled “California dream.” Part of the issue is that the nice things about California are becoming less nice as the state gets more crowded. It used to be the suburban dream to move to Orange County, amid the orchards and farms. With almost all the farmland gone, parts of [...]
Matt Zoller Seitz is on point with his assessment of how Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the guys behind South Park, have become the defining humorists of this generation. Of course they have competition. There’s “The Daily Show,” for sure, though I’d argue that Jon Stewart’s version is as much a news program as a comedy series. [...]
