http://www.identitytheory.com/ An online magazine of literature and culture Thu, 25 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT Thu, 25 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT en-us editor@identitytheory.com editor@identitytheory.com http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/woan_beijing.php Thu, 25 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT Grandpa bought the place for cheap back in the sixties, a Communist blessing. Grandpa did good for high-ranking Reds. Black-and-white photographs of him with the Chairman hang where house guests will look. http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/woan_beijing.php http://www.identitytheory.com/verse/spring2009 Fri, 19 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT "For the poet / a tree is the fruit / not the root of poetry. / Origins are unimportant. / Color, shape misleading. / What's lovely is the sound." http://www.identitytheory.com/verse/spring2009 http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/spaide_gasp.php Wed, 17 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT Somewhere in the inaccessible reaches of my brain a control panel was lighting up, buttons were flashing, bells were ringing, but my feet were nailed to the floorboards of the Last Gasp Hotel. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/spaide_gasp.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tamim_ansary.php Mon, 15 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT "The story-like essence, that deep narrative structure, is the thing that is most true about a life. Writers who make up additional facts or change the facts in order to make of their memoirs 'a better story' are breaking faith with the proposition that the story-like essence actually exists." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tamim_ansary.php http://www.identitytheory.com/lit/jensen_alltheliving.php Thu, 11 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT The good news about C.E. Morgan's debut novel is that it is not a big, noisy novel where information and sub-plots sprout like weeds on every page. In fact, rather than suffer from an excess of vitality, it might be argued that "All the Living" suffers from a vitality deficiency. http://www.identitytheory.com/lit/jensen_alltheliving.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_midlake.php Wed, 10 June 2009 10:37:00 GMT "I guess we got into more of this British folk thing and a 'fair maiden' thing as I call it, but I don't think we really sound like these bands, though there is more than a hint of it on the new album." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_midlake.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/joe_meno.php Tue, 26 May 2009 10:37:00 GMT "I feel like whether you're religious or spiritual or not, I feel like that's probably the most important part to me about being alive is being able to use your imagination. It's really, really sad that there's not enough opportunity." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/joe_meno.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/grinberg_communist.php Thu, 14 May 2009 10:37:00 GMT Though I am definitely myopic, I'm not naïve. I've met Communists in America before today. But not the real ones. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/grinberg_communist.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/nick_nigro.php Tue, 12 May 2009 10:37:00 GMT Author of No Job? No Prob! discusses how to engage in a proactive job search, revamp your resume, and remain optimistic even when the odds are against you. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/nick_nigro.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/yiyun_li.php Thu, 7 May 2009 10:37:00 GMT "William Trevor influences me more than any other writer, so in reality I write stories to talk to his stories. And a story can talk to another story in many ways--a line, a character, a few details, or sometimes it is the mood of the story, the pacing and the music of the story..." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/yiyun_li.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/ashfeldt_california.php Thu, 7 May 2009 10:37:00 GMT After this, you will leave the chocolate factory for a job on the Kölner-Düsseldorfer Linie bringing American tourists to see castles along the banks of the Rhine. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/ashfeldt_california.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_acamp.php Thu, 30 April 2009 10:37:00 GMT "Melancholy is not really the right word to describe the mentality. Swedes are more... serene and mellow, and not afraid of the dark, and this is something that I still think is a big part of my personality." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_acamp.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/vestal_mcintyre.php Mon, 27 April 2009 10:37:00 GMT "When you're a writer and your creative life involves endless hours alone, thinking, it's good to have a job that involves running around, putting on a friendly face, enjoying the occasional screaming fight with the kitchen guys." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/vestal_mcintyre.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum182.php Mon, 20 April 2009 10:37:00 GMT "The aestheticization of the politics of ordinary life—of being able to wake up every day and be in a play, in a drama, in a political drama—this is what the 20th century lived for. It is what destroyed civilizations that came before, but...this is what the communists and the Nazis and the fascists were all offering." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum182.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_klum.php Mon, 13 April 2009 03:37:00 GMT "I assume people don’t really know who is singing what because sometimes we don’t even remember who sings certain parts that are on the record. The most important thing to us is just that it’s good." -Brock Flores http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_klum.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/peter_rock.php Mon, 6 April 2009 03:37:00 GMT "I'm stuck back there when a girl skateboarding is the most beautiful thing in the world and any blowing piece of magazine could be a 1976 Playboy." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/peter_rock.php http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/weinstein_noise.php Tue, 31 March 2009 03:37:00 GMT The problem with the noise was that it silenced the silence. Now, in the spaces between sirens and garbage trucks and screams and shouts and machinery heavy and light, in those places where there should have been silence, there was only more noise. http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/weinstein_noise.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_montgomery.php Wed, 18 March 2009 03:37:00 GMT "Most people who write need to work on some level. You hear people who teach whine that it destroys their work. I just don’t know there's a good way to support yourself as a writer. I mean, perhaps the best way is to work as a florist, and then write…to be able to focus all your energies [on writing]. It's something I really battle with quite a bit. But I have a perfect situation. I think working for a literary journal is maybe a little different." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_montgomery.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/drugay_curve.php Wed, 18 March 2009 03:37:00 GMT Jack and Sheila went to the Laidlaw Grill every Friday night for fried perch and Manhattans. They always sat in the Shingle Room, right next to the bar, and especially liked the third booth on the left because the foam-cushion seats were covered with fabric, not plastic like the other booths. Marion, the head waitress, kept an eye on the booth and always made sure to seat the other customers in the plastic booths first, to save the fabric one for Jack and Sheila. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/drugay_curve.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/jon_raymond.php Thu, 12 March 2009 03:37:00 GMT Jon Raymond is the author of the novel The Half-Life and of the recently published short-story collection Livability. He is also the co-writer of two films directed by Kelly Reichardt, Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy--both adapted from stories in Livability. He is an editor at Plazm magazine, and his writing has appeared in Bookforum, Artforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications. He lives in Portland, Oregon. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/jon_raymond.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/barker_crow.php Wed, 4 March 2009 03:37:00 GMT I was handed over to a boy called Glen, who I didn't know. Glen had stayed behind last year when the other boys in his class had come to Sydney. I winced at him. He had hair like wheat, and he wore a checked shirt instead of a school uniform. I felt duped. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/barker_crow.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/isaacman_hole.php Wed, 25 February 2009 03:37:00 GMT I live in the basement underneath a house where everything has changed. Bugs crawl in through the open window, and on the carpet. Once I found a slug making its way up the wall; I put him in a cup and set him free in the backyard where the dogs do their business. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/isaacman_hole.php http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/bauman_father.php Wed, 18 February 2009 03:37:00 GMT Entwined contemplations of author Chris Hedges (War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning) and former ad-man Bruce Bauman, and their respective relationships to this essay’s author (a ne’er-do-well novelist and ex-soldier); one poem by Gerald Stern and that poet’s perceptions of God and Paul Giamatti; the writing process of an older book by Hedges (wherein there be soldiers) and the contents of a more recent book by Hedges (wherein there be Fascists); Ocean City, New Jersey tongue-talkers who later go on to become hosts of the 700 Club; what it means to be a born-again Episcopalian Jew; Ralph Nader's time in the army; and trying quite unsuccessfully to stop the war in Iraq. http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/bauman_father.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/foster_eye.php Wed, 11 February 2009 03:37:00 GMT The ramshackle farmhouse on Taggart Road held two Witts, three LeClairs, and one Belmont. Kyle, Hannah, Jessie, Monique, Darren, and Sadie, ages 16, 14, 11, 10, 6, and 2. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/foster_eye.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/curran_interview.php Wed, 4 February 2009 03:37:00 GMT Philadelphia-based painter Joan Curran creates urban still lives inspired by the interaction between humans and nature--a constantly fluctuating relationship that reveals both beauty and excess. http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/curran_interview.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/kaufman_project.php Wed, 28 January 2009 03:37:00 GMT I remember the day he was conceived. The day Lily said, "Today's the day." She actually said that, "Today's the day." We hadn't heard about your organization yet, what you do. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/kaufman_project.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/mack_voyeur.php Wed, 21 January 2009 03:37:00 GMT "We both know how to manipulate the public. Let's play the game." http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/mack_voyeur.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_uncleowen.php Wed, 14 January 2009 03:37:00 GMT "My music really is like a journal, so as soon as I know my feeling or idea has been documented, the song is done. It's so fast and introspective that I forget about the rules." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_uncleowen.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/rohan_tangled.php Tue, 13 January 2009 03:37:00 GMT Jim leaned across the dark cherry desk, accepting the prescription like it was a snotty tissue. He struggled up from the leather chair, a bitter taste flooding his mouth. He was still reeling from the shock. His tests had all come back negative. They hadn't found a single thing wrong. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/rohan_tangled.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/ayres_dinner.php Tue, 6 January 2009 03:37:00 GMT I knew if I ever got my act together, I could write poetry about Renee. I knew I could feel the heightened energy and will of that skin and put it all into words. She made me think of Byron's Don Juan and Henry Miller at his raunchiest. Who couldn't live with a healthy combination of both? http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/ayres_dinner.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/bates_how.php Mon, 10 November 2008 03:37:00 GMT After listening to her new album, "Silence is Wild," it is impossible not to feel that Frida has genuinely revealed herself, leaving the listener feeling slightly awkward, and highly impressed. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/bates_how.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_frida.php Thu, 30 October 2008 03:37:00 GMT After listening to her new album, "Silence is Wild," it is impossible not to feel that Frida has genuinely revealed herself, leaving the listener feeling slightly awkward, and highly impressed. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_frida.php http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/perez_dollstalk.php Thu, 30 October 2008 03:37:00 GMT I was eighteen years old when my daughter, Belinda, was born--a kid having a kid. I didn't see myself as a kid, of course. That understanding came later. http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/perez_dollstalk.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum181.php Wed, 1 October 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I am even more persuaded than I was ten years ago that governments are essentially rotten and not to be trusted. To put it another way, the anarchist distrust for government—as more history parades itself before us, the more events come into our view—the anarchist distrust of government seems to me more and more legitimate." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum181.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_midnightoil.php Fri, 19 September 2008 03:37:00 GMT From the first rumblings of the opening riff--the brassy stomp of "Beds Are Burning" (i.e., the now-famous duh, duh, du-u-uh!)--I became stupid with goosebumps. My heart pounded like some long-extinct herd. And for the first time in my rock-n-roll life, I felt my very aliveness... http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_midnightoil.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_miatodd.php Wed, 10 September 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I like to listen to the arc of a record, like reading a book from start to finish. I make records that way." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_miatodd.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_boniver.php Wed, 10 September 2008 03:37:00 GMT "With all your lies, you're still very lovable" http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_boniver.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/katz_under.php Wed, 10 September 2008 03:37:00 GMT "His eyes, my Andere Vater's eyes, they would hurt so much, but he kept smiling, never frowning, never complaining." http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/katz_under.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_diaz.php Mon, 2 September 2008 03:37:00 GMT "But I do think that because we're sort of 'living in the Matrix,' we have this hunger for truth and fact because we know these things are important--and we’ve abdicated truth and fact in the larger society--so we’re just projecting our need for them onto other areas. I just think that fiction, like many other areas, is being asked to carry the burden for a society that no longer wants to confront itself." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_diaz.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_benway.php Mon, 14 July 2008 03:37:00 GMT "For a band that's just starting out, it's still fun and exciting and very Kerouacian to be in a van and touring the country. That's the spirit I wanted for "Audrey", and listening to that music definitely helped to infuse the book." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_benway.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/ryan_cityofgod.php Mon, 14 July 2008 03:37:00 GMT Fernando Meirelles' "City of God" crackles and depresses, exhilarates and horrifies. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/ryan_cityofgod.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/reproduce_revolt.php Thu, 3 July 2008 03:37:00 GMT The co-authors of "Reproduce and Revolt," a twenty-first century primer on creating socially radical art, discuss the power of visual culture--and our ability to use visual tools to make change. http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/reproduce_revolt.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_notwist.php Thu, 3 July 2008 03:37:00 GMT "In the end it was all about finding a way to express something that you cannot express otherwise." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_notwist.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/sean_spectacle.php Thu, 3 July 2008 03:37:00 GMT Reece parked in front of the store, which read "Squadrito and Son's" in rusty neon across the façade. He'd bought the place after the old man died, but never bothered to change the name. At least once a day, someone walked in, "You Squadrito?" http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/sean_spectacle.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_heim.phpp Wed, 25 June 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I was just out driving in my car, and five totally different things came on--an old New Order song... a track from the new Portishead record... a Brian Eno 'Music for Films' song... 'Touch and Go' by the Cars... and then this campy '70s disco song called 'Let's All Chant.' I love how this weird mix put me in five different moods within twenty minutes or so." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_heim.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_tech9.php Wed, 18 June 2008 03:37:00 GMT "When Reagonomics hit--if you recall--a lot of after-school activities were taken away...so that left a lot of young people on the street...[Then in] '85, crack hit...so if we were on the streets, instead of in school, that's what we were doing." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_tech9.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum180.php Mon, 16 June 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I like reading reviews not for the truth element but as a form of writing—I don't even know what they mean. We have reached this juncture in the country where nothing is what it is supposed to be. Who knows, books aren't books anymore. I don't know what we are up to. We're in a new phase." http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum180.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/cusack_interview.php Mon, 9 June 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Their game has been to privatize the entire essence of what it means to be a state--from military to disaster relief. They want these unaccountable elements. They want to turn everything that it means to be a state into a for-profit enterprise, including outsourcing the advanced interrogation techniques, which is torture." http://www.identitytheory.com/film/cusack_interview.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_moren.php Wed, 14 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT "The things I go through, most people go through, so I think it communicates." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_moren.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/bullen_pray.php Wed, 7 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT "When I got out of film school, there was sort of this realization like, 'Oh my God, I have to make this happen.' You don't get jobs out of film school. Nobody ever says, 'Oh, did you go to UCLA? I have a fine position for you.'" http://www.identitytheory.com/film/bullen_pray.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/daniels_review.php Wed, 7 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Fear of Flying" is an intense musical exploration of life's hardest questions. Daniels does not rely on catchy gimmicks to quickly gain our attention. The delicacy and emotional weight of these songs demand our time, our patience. They are more than worth it. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/daniels_review.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/gaffney_pat.php Thu, 1 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT Pat walked into the specialist's office with a worried mind. Just last week, in for his yearly check-up with Feingold, he'd been given a clean bill of health. So why had this other doctor's secretary called to set up an appointment? http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/gaffney_pat.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/huddleston.php Thu, 1 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT Armed with a camera, Middlebury College professor John Huddleston makes pilgrimages into the American landscape to capture touchstones for shared cultural memory. http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/huddleston.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_kozelek.php Thu, 1 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Sometimes I write in the voice of someone who I believe is trying to get through to me, sometimes. But I never really understood that Nick Cave style of 'I am a murderer on this album' kind of thing. It's just not me. I'd rather just cover someone else's song." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_kozelek.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/ryan_yuma.php Thu, 1 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT "3:10 to Yuma" plays on the idea that storytelling and narratives are deeply involved in identity formation and that stories help make sense of human motives and experiences. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/ryan_yuma.php http://www.identitytheory.com/verse/spring2008/index.php Tue, 22 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT In this collection, reading and writing add up to a life lived well. No distinction is made between the literary creation and the human being. As Australian poet Em McAvan writes in her poem "Reading," "I think to myself that / our bodies are like books." What's written in those books, if they are poetry, is elaborated upon in New Jersey poet Doris Arnett Gary's revealing piece, "What's Your Poetry?" Her answer may be surprising--as well as satisfying--for anyone with a limited and academic view of poetry. http://www.identitytheory.com/verse/spring2008/index.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_highplaces.php Wed, 16 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT "The whole idea of playing in a band as a way of paying the bills is a new concept to Rob and me. We come from a basement show, pass-the-hat-to-pay-for-gas mentality." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_highplaces.php