http://www.identitytheory.com/ A literary website, sort of Wed, 7 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT Wed, 7 May 2008 03:37:00 GMT en-us editor@identitytheory.com editor@identitytheory.com 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 http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_lov.php Wed, 9 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT "It's strange to me that so many hands can have a part in someone's self-expression. It puzzles me that what I think is so bad can be considered to be so good by so many, and something that is so good can go undiscovered." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_lov.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/middlebrook_index.php Mon, 7 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT The relationship between humans and nature--and "humans' endless fear and misunderstanding" of nature--is at the center of artist Jason Middlebrook's work. http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/middlebrook_index.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/bullen_budnick.php Fri, 4 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Wetlands was unlike any music venue or any nightclub I had ever entered, let alone one in New York City. I remember being blown away by the use of space, in particular the downstairs lounge, which was something of the ultimate chill zone." http://www.identitytheory.com/film/bullen_budnick.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_perro.php Wed, 2 April 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I have this physical need for being around and making music, and I think I’ve had that inside of me from the very start." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_perro.php http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/hall_foosball.php Mon, 31 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT "And you, I love you!" the prom queen said to Sylvia, who sat quietly, never looking up from the television. Sylvia was watching "The Price is Right" and she didn't like to be disturbed. Every now and again, she'd yell out, "Four hundred and fifty-one dollars, idiot number two! Goddamn you, you're losing, loser!" but mostly, she just sat slack-jawed until one of the nurses came by to give her another plate of mush or a cup of pills. I heard she was in for trying to stab her mom, which was probably true. With all the side effects and lawsuits, they hardly gave anyone Thorazine anymore, but they handed them to Sylvia like jellybeans on Easter. http://www.identitytheory.com/fiction/hall_foosball.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_gath.php Wed, 26 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT "When you look back in history there are great musicians and great artists who've been screwed over, who stole others' material and passed it off as their own, who went unnoticed 'til they were dead..." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_gath.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/wood_faust.php Fri, 21 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT Is the struggle to control destiny nothing more than an internal wrestling match? Svankmajer hints that things are no more settled in heaven or in hell. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/wood_faust.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_ginblossoms.php Wed, 19 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT "In the past, it always took so much effort and [money] to get a band into record stores across the country. That was one of the main things you needed a record company for—so that you could be in every Tower Records. But, obviously, Tower Records is gone." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/okie_ginblossoms.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/blueprint_sanko.php Wed, 19 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT Seven years after its release, musician Erik Sanko reflects on the process of creating his single "The Perfect Flaw." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/blueprint_sanko.php http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/biss_relations.php Mon, 17 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT In New York City, in the spring of 1999, a story hit the newspapers of a Long Island woman who had given birth to twins--one white and one black. The woman and her husband were white and the black baby was not theirs, at least not biologically. The embryo that became that baby had been accidentally implanted in the woman's uterus with the embryo of her biological son, but it belonged to a black couple who were clients at the same fertility clinic, and they wanted their son back. http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/biss_relations.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_sian.php Thu, 13 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Sometimes it all stretches out in front of you in an instant, and other times you really have to put the hours in. Each song has its own rules." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_sian.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/delois_whyle.php Tue, 11 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT Author of the YouWriteOn.com Book of the Year talks about the publish-on-demand industry, the online peer-reviewing process, and the role libraries play in selling books. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/delois_whyle.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/boniver_reviews.php Thu, 6 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT Two years ago, Justin Vernon spent the winter alone in his father's Wisconsin cabin, wrestling with the ghosts of past relationships and his former self. Following a split with his band DeYarmond Edison and having moved cross-country from North Carolina, Vernon's only plans were to cocoon himself away for three months in the remote woods. He planned to split wood, drive a tractor, make time for self-reflection. "For Emma, Forever Ago," the musical result of Vernon's cabin experience, was recorded under the moniker Bon Iver, an intentional misspelling of "good winter" in French. The album suggests a renewal, like a spiritual cleansing in a Native American sweat lodge. As the snow melted around Vernon's cabin, it sounds as if certain emotional and mental boundaries also melted, or were sweated, away. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/boniver_reviews.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_martina.php Wed, 5 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I was exposed to lots of different kinds of music and culture living in London, and my parents traveled a lot and loved bringing stuff back from their travels. I suppose it's made me open to non-mainstream music." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_martina.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/gavin_index.php Mon, 3 March 2008 03:37:00 GMT The London-based author of "Street Renegades: New Underground Art" talks about how today's underground artists are taking Guy Debord's ideas to city streets and forcing everyone to take a look. http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/gavin_index.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_idaho.php Wed, 27 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT "Many of my favorite trees in Los Angeles came from somewhere else. Also something about that city makes you feel like people aren't supposed to live there." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_idaho.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_brandon.php Mon, 25 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT The newest McSweeney's wunderkind ruminates on his literary debut, "Arkansas"--a darkly comic novel about Ozark-based drug runners. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/okie_brandon.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/sorrento_ellison.php Fri, 22 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT Matthew Sorrento reviews the new documentary about famed speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/sorrento_ellison.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_czars.php Wed, 20 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT "I always thought once I had written something it had to stay that way. I don’t know why." http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_czars.php http://www.identitytheory.com/social/elham_video.php Mon, 18 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT "If the media is made by just one elite percent of the global population, how much of the world's reality must we be missing? We need to change this." http://www.identitytheory.com/social/elham_video.php http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/thompson_melville.php Mon, 18 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT What can we face? The face as mystery, sign, image. "Bartleby" stages the terrible unworkability of faces, the equally terrible unknowability of our own. Facing it, face offs, to turn one's face to the wall, to lose face, to gain it. The tragedy of each is the tragedy of all... http://www.identitytheory.com/nonfiction/thompson_melville.php http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/south_index.php Fri, 15 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT Jane South's creative impulse comes from a seemingly unlikely source: bike rides around New York City. The shifting perspective that results from moving toward and away from structural objects inspires her exploration of the human relationship with architecture. As her media, South chooses materials fundamental to art and to architecture--paper, balsa wood, acrylic and ink. With these basic elements, she creates three-dimensional sculptures that reference the industrial forms she is exposed to almost every day. (Incidentally, her studio window looks out on the Brooklyn Bridge.) What does South seek to capture in her whimsical, almost cartoonish constructions? With dozens of individual elements, folds, and marks, the meticulously constructed works are both sturdy and flimsy, modern yet archaic, encapsulating what South calls "the fluidity of our architectural experience." http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/south_index.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_susanna.php Wed, 13 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT Perhaps the most lasting impression of Susanna's music is its unyielding tastefulness. Where one would expect a drum loop, a soaring harmony, or a bed of violins or keyboards, one is left most often with Susanna's bare voice, a few notes on a piano, and a lingering melody. The effect is pure, haunting, and entirely successful. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_susanna.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/borondy_leavitt.php Mon, 11 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT Floridian novelist and editor of Subtropics talks about being "chosen" to write his new novel about Ramanujan ("The Indian Clerk") and discusses the philosophy behind the University of Florida's first literary magazine. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/borondy_leavitt.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/sorrento_trachtman.php Fri, 8 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT "April Fools!" Lior Liebling says to people when he realizes he has unintentionally embarrassed himself. This exclamation highlights not only his high functionality as a boy with Down syndrome, but also his innate charm and likability. These traits are on full display in Ilana Trachtman's new documentary, "Praying with Lior," which traces Lior's journey toward his Bar Mitzvah. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/sorrento_trachtman.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_rioenmedio.php Wed, 6 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT Danielle Stech-Homsy's primary instruments are a ukulele and a sweet, fairy-tale voice, though she balances these with spooky samples and arrhythmic loops. Recording as Rio en Medio on Devendra Banhart's record label, Gnomonsong, Danielle writes songs about her parents and turns other people's poetry into music. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_rioenmedio.php http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tursita_moriarty.php Mon, 4 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT The author of "The Rest of Her Life" and "The Center of Everything" talks about the significance of mother-daughter relationships, religious communities, and breast implants in her latest novel. http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/tursita_moriarty.php http://www.identitytheory.com/film/murphy_barley.php Fri, 1 February 2008 03:37:00 GMT In spite of an almost constant barrage of shouting and shooting and arguing, echoing through forests and jails and houses, there also are many, more subtle, echoes linking this story to the larger revolutionary history of Ireland. http://www.identitytheory.com/film/murphy_barley.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_minotaur.php Wed, 30 January 2008 03:37:00 GMT Minotaur Shock is a one-man band made up of Dave Edwards, who has been prolifically composing and remixing in Britain for the last decade. His music is predominantly instrumental and could roughly be called electronic music, but it never lacks for warmth and never just settles into the pocket. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_minotaur.php http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_phononoir.php Wed, 23 January 2008 03:37:00 GMT Matthias Grübel, a.k.a. Phon°noir, hails from Germany and crafts songs that sound at once intimate and cautious, whispered and clattering. http://www.identitytheory.com/audio/alw_phononoir.php