review

Book by John Leland. Published by Viking. Few literary brands need to be reduced in size and fable more than that of Jack Kerouac. In honor of the 50th anniversary of Kerouac’s On the Road, the hip European clothing shop Hogan debuted its own line of Kerouac-inspired beatnik clothing, including boots starting at $475. Clearly […]

Published by Black Lizard Over the past 15 years, a steady stream of good, bad and indifferent anthologies has promised to deliver the thrills of pulp fiction. But for all the retro cover art, melodramatic blurb copy and Quentin Tarantino allusions, their contents have been shockingly deficient in what aficionados consider to be the real […]

Ghostface Killah is a brilliant storyteller and lyricist, and is the only Wu-Tang Clan member still making relevant solo albums. He’s a prolific and increasingly media-savvy artist who nonetheless seems to constantly shoot himself in the foot commercially. He’s also a crybaby. Recently, word got out that Wu-Tang Clan would release its first album in […]

CD by Wooden Shjips. Holy Mountain Records. Psychedelic rock has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity over the past few years, and we here in California have been lucky to witness such homegrown talent as Comets on Fire, Citay and Six Organs of Admittance as they have nursed the scene from its humble beginnings to its […]

In concert Thursday, Oct. 25., 2007 At the Eureka Muni. I was convinced that the Snoop show, which went down Oct. 25 at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium, would be a total sausage fest (mostly dudes I mean). I thought said sausages would shed tears and scream and jump up and down excitedly, kind of like […]

CD by Gang Gang Dance. The Social Registry Commenting on MTV in the early ’80s, the critic Greil Marcus famously claimed that the music video was an art form that was “born dead.” Marcus may have been a bit harsh, but the music video as we know it in pop culture is a medium that, […]

By Joni MitchellHear Music Over the last few years, the successful comebacks of rock icons have become old hat. Dylan, McCartney, Simon and Waits are just a few that have showered us with unexpected brilliance. And when these career resurgences are positioned as anything more than a well-executed money grab, it seems a tad inauthentic. […]

Bungie/Microsoft I have a confession to make: I don’t like first-person shooters. Most of the ones I’ve played share the following objective: “Shoot the marines-aliens-terrorists-mutants and escape from the bunker—prison—top-secret facility—warehouse full of crates.” I find this a bit boring. I therefore believe myself uniquely suited to hack my way through the dense jungle of […]

By Naomi WolfChelsea Green Publishing World-renowned feminist and best-selling author of the landmark The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf is back with The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot , a brief, 155-page look at the historical patterns found in all dictatorial regimes. Extensively footnoted, this book draws out astounding parallels between […]

For the past six years investment banker Warren Hellman has bankrolled an impressive free music festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Held the first weekend in October, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass features a multi-generational array of roots-oriented acts, from traditional bluegrass to country-inflected punk, and this year was no exception. The weekend started with a […]

Hell, everybody wants free stuff. And, damn, you see a book called Free Stuff and you’re just absolutely, hyperventilatingly certain that you’re gonna flip that thing open and behold a step-by-step guide to skating by without dropping a penny. Jackpot! With the quarter found on the floor! But sensitive-man-about-town Fhyre Phoenix has got more depth […]

By now, everyone knows what happened: Radiohead reemerged from nowhere on Oct. 1, announcing that they planned to release a new studio album in 10 days, and by the way even though they’re one of the biggest rock bands in the world they’d be releasing it themselves on the Internet, oh and also by the […]