First off is Rosseau's The Social Contract, republished as the 8th installment of the first volume of Penguin's Great Ideas series. (Hence the cover that while looking absolutely wonderful, pales in comparison to some of the other amazing cover design work that appears in the series.)
As a friend of mine could attest, it was a struggle to make it through this book in a reasonable amount of time, which I think probably comes down to the fact that it's a translation from the native French into very rigid academic English. That isn't to say that it's poorly translated, but as Rousseau himself states at the beginning of the first chapter of the third book: "I must warn the reader that this chapter should be read with care, for I have not the skill to make myself clear to those who do not wish to concentrate their attention". I would argue that was the case of the entire book, rather than solely that chapter.
As far as content, I found myself agreeing with the vast majority of the points being argued. Especially Rousseau's idea that the form of government a nation holds should be dependent on its size and the belief in the unlimited power of the general will. I'm not going to try to summarize anything here, but I will say that if you have even a remote interest in the dynamics of government you should attempt to make your way through this book. Despite being well over 200 years old, it still holds relevance today as we watch how Rousseau's ideas have been sadly eroded and ignored over time.
For a total shift in subject, here's the third (and final, apparently) volume of a collaboration between Danzig Baldaev and Sergei Vasiliev in which they have attempted to document an area of Russian history that has long been viewed with a sense of train wreck-like curiosity. A combination of photographs of heavily tattooed prisoners, and a tattoo-by-tattoo breakdown of what each piece symbolizes (if anything) leads to a series that is worth it for its sheer fascination factor alone. Never before did I think I would even see a tattoo of a man and woman having sex while the woman simultaneously services two male dwarfs. Only in Russia my comrades, only in Russia.
I'll be the first to admit that I (like many) have a border-line unhealthy interest in all things Russian, and even more so all things Russian and criminal. I had heard about this series for a long time, and when I finally stumbled upon this volume (in an architecture museum, nonetheless) I was as giddy as a Soviet school girl. And I was not let down. The book is gorgeous, the photography and illustrations are extremely well done, and there is just enough text to provide a context and explanation without becoming overwhelming. My kinda book.
Now, I'll just have to find the first two volumes, which I have a feeling is going to be easier said than done...
Book number three is the 14th issue of the always underrated Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern. I was thinking the other day about why it is that I like these so much, and I'm fairly sure it's because I have a relatively short attention span (see my comments on Rousseau) and because when I was younger, the only thing I would read were comic books. Comics, you ask? yeah. They're short, and they contain a small chunk of a story (that is good enough to read on its own), with promise of more to come in a month or so. I feel that's what I find in these awesome quarterly fiction collections from McSweeney's. Stories short enough to keep me satisfied, but good enough (and mysterious enough) that keep me wanting more next time.
Anyway, issue fourteen of this publication opens up real strong with Author/Pediatrician (Crazy, right?) Chris Adrian's A Child's Book of Sickness and Death. Telling the story of children's hospital patient Cindy as she deals with the declining attention she receives from her regular hospital visits as she grows older. I won't reveal too much suffice to say that it is amazing and one of my favorite short stories of recent memory.
While it's a shame that nothing surpasses that gem (although Silvia DiPierdomenico's That Which I Am and Chris Bachelder's Deep Wells, USA both come damn close for very different reasons), there are very few stories that are much worse (I wish I had access to issue 9 so I could read the first act of Denis Johnson's Soul of a Whore, I feel like I was missing something without it, but that's more of a fault of McSweeney's part, not his work). If nothing else is to be said about McSweeney's (both this publication and their entire publishing house), it should be highlighted over and over again that they are consistent. Consistently awesome.
Also, any book that has a painting of George Bush as an amputee begging for forgiveness in gym shorts and a t-shirt has my approval. Just thought that might be worth throwing out there.
I know what you are thinking right now, and it's either a) "Man, this guy reads a magazine called Monocle, he must be a genius!" or b) "What's this idiot going to do with a magazine about 'Affairs, Business, Culture, Design and Edits'?"
My responses to those are a) Yes, yes I am. and b)I have no clue.
I'm still not entirely sure what to think of this magazine, it seems to me that for the most part I am not nearly affluent enough to make proper use of it. (Do I want to order a pair of $500 calf-skin slip on shoes? of course I don't.) However, it does have a few redeeming qualities that will probably keep me picking this up for at least one or two more issues.
Firstly, regardless of what the articles are about, this magazine has heaps and heaps of photos. All of them well done, most of them are interesting. Especially considering that the majority of the time they are discussing places that I will never be able to afford to go, and things I will never afford to do. (Owning a private residence in Brazil? yeah right. But it does look amazing, I will give them that). And with these photos comes background information on the architects/designers/artists, which I do appreciate. I just feel like I need to learn to sift through the snobbery that's happening here in order to get down to the good stuff (which I was doing by the end of it).
Highlight articles included
-Fonts of Knowledge by writer Kenji Hall and photographer Megumi Seki, detailing the history of a 60 year old Japanese font-maker, Morisawa.
-The first installation of The Singapore Sessions, in which for experts are given an urban challenge to complete, in this case how to make urban travel more pleasant.
-Finally, writers Marisa Mazria Katz, Tom Morris & Fiona Wilson's Museum Pieces, in which they took a look at various up and coming contemporary art museums, including one that I probably accidentally walked by last week in NYC, oof.
Now that I think about, I was being too hard on this poor little guy. There is a lot of bullshit here, but the good is good enough that it certainly balances out.
I didn't intend to review Maximum RockNRoll #324 back to back with Monocle, but now that I think about it, it's a good shift into something that doesn't make me seem richer than I am.
After much deliberation, I finally subscribed to Maximum RNR two months ago, primarily for long time columnist Bruce Roehrs' reviews and always great columns. Despite the fact that Oi and street punk have always been looked down upon in this so-called "for the punks by the punks" magazine, Bruce was one of the only people who would touch entire genres of awesome music. Looking at it now, I feel like we probably would have mirrored musical tastes. Regardless, two issues into my subscription and Roehrs passes away.
This issue is an amazing memorial to him, as letters are published from people of all sorts recounting the fond memories they had of him, and despite never meeting him I feel like through my short relationship with this magazine and the kind words said about him, I can take the leap and say that he seemed like a man of the "Fucking best best quality, yeah!!!!", as he would have put it.
Secondary highlight of the issue was an interview with Denmark's iceage, a band of 16 year olds that make better music than the vast majority of people in punkrock are doing right now. So it was cool reading what they had to say. Another cool interview with Swedish girl-punk band Kleenex/LiLiPUT, who I wasn't familiar with before hand but love now. And finally a story of how Chris Johnston of Plan-it-X records purchased a run down building in a dying town with a couple of friends in order to open up a coffee shop/bookstore. Much akin to something I have been rattling around in my head for a while now.
Other than that, this issue was a bit of a let down, it could be due to the fact that it had a somber tone due to Bruce's passing, or maybe I was let down by the fact that RVIVR seemed to preach political to the choir. Not that I don't agree with them, I was just hoping to find out more about the band, rather than Maximum RNR's Fred Schrunk taking stab at DRI for not having political motivation.
Last but certainly never least, is the May 2010 issue of The Believer. This is the first time I picked up this monthly magazine published by McSweeney's (take into account my previous comments on the consistency of the publisher), and I can already tell that it will be a long time until my last.
It occurred to me that the easiest way to write this review was to simply highlight all that I didn't like, because it would mean less writing. But then I realized the only piece in the entire magazine that I found to be even remotely tedious was Annie Julia Wyman's A Glimpse of Unplumbed Depths. Here we have Wyman attempting to regale the reader with a tale of her own boredom that spawned from a book on literary criticism she had to read as part of a graduate course. I make it sound worse than it is, but it feels like it starts strong and ends strong, but the middle is a lot of "bleh".
The extreme highlight is the 'triumphant' return of Nick Hornby's book review column, Stuff I've Been Reading. I say triumphant like that because apparently he abandoned the magazine 18 months ago, realized that his life was meaningless without it and has now crawled back to suckle the believer teat. And I'm glad he did. He approaches reviews much like I do with book and record reviews (as in, he just talks about whatever things he's been into lately), except he is a far better writer than I could ever hope to be, I guess I've gotta work on it. So if you for some unknown reason enjoy reading me rabble on about these things, you'll probably like reading him do the same about 10x more.
Also, the comic section of this magazine rules. At a mere two pages, it has more quality in it than I have read in a couple entire comic collections. I'm growing to enjoy the comic strip format more than the comic book, but that's a whole other post. This gave me a ton of great names to toss into Google and try to hunt down other works from, just what I like! (Oh, and there's an extra 35 inches of comic goodness glued to the inside of the back cover thanks to Jesse Moynihan and Dash Shaw,if you like dads or the T.V show LOST, you'll wanna check it.)
I cant say enough good things about this magazine so I'll just end with a ska reference. Pick it up, Pickit up, pickitup.
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