From PopMatters, an article on Peter Lunenfeld’s MediaWork Pamphlets. The legacy of the auteurs: Filmmakers like Bergman and Antonioni have taught us to think in pictures. Truls Lie on the two recently deceased film greats (and more from LRB). Killer Films: Why the new vigilante movies are a lot like the old vigilante movies. Why "Torture Porn" Isn't: Notes on the contemporary horror movie. Portrait of the President as a Skin Mag: After his commission for an official presidential portrait was revoked, artist Jonathan Yeo decided to create a montage of Bush using shots from porn magazines. But does it work as political critique? The Spire of Dublin: A modern monument that points up what's wrong with the World Trade Center Memorial. A New Social Construct: Modernism may be dead, but the world desperately needs radically new ideas about living, working, and governing in the 21st-century city.
From Radar, Google controls your e-mail, your videos, your calendar, your searches—What if it controlled your life? A story by Cory Doctorow. The man who found himself: In a moment of crisis, Jim Killeen decided to Google himself, coming up with a wide assortment of identically monikered men around the world. So began his very own journey. Here’s looking at us: Facebook’s appeal lies in the architecture that lends itself so easily to voyeurism and exhibitionism. If anything, the latest social craze may just be sucking us into a false sense of comfort and popularity. Can a social network become Silicon Valley's next multi-billion-dollar profits machine? The buzz around Facebook is increasingly reminiscent of that surrounding Google in the days before the internet search company went public in 2004. Wikipedia doesn't distinguish "need to know" from "didja know?" — and it's lousy for browsing. That's why there's Wired Geekipedia.
From The New Yorker, a review of Edward McPherson's The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer’s Journey Into the World of Bridge. A review of Under the Boards: The Cultural Revolution in Basketball by Jeffrey Lane. Why We Love Football: Grace and idolatry run crossing patterns in the new American pastime. A review of Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport by Michael Oriard. Which sporting event is the best attended? The Numbers Guys finds out. Sex Scandals, Stadium Sponsors, and National TV: Just three of the reasons to boycott big-time high-school football. [The most recent issue of Bookforum includes a review of Michael G. Long’s First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson and a review of Mark Maske’s War Without Death: A Year of Extreme Competition in Pro Football’s NFC East.]
