Anthem - Life & Politics

Nike+ Human Race Global Grand Finale in L.A.

nik.mercer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:14:56 -0700

Nike+ is putting on quite possibly the largest marathon undertaking ever to transpire: on August 31, twenty-five cities will host 10K races with the grand finale being held in our base of operations, Los Angeles (cutely at 8.31.08 PM).

The L.A. marathon is being hosted by Randy Johnson and will feature performances by Kanye West and Common. Not too shabby for a get-together that usually involves a whole mess of tennis shoes, sweat, and Dixie cups.

And it's all, of course, for a good cause! Beneficiaries include WWF, the Global Conservation Organization, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the UN Refugee Agency's ninemillion.org campaign. Here's the rest of the information:

When: Sunday, August 31st at 8:31:08 PM

Where: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exhibition Park, 39th Ave. and Figueroa)

Runners will take off for a course that begins and ends at Christmas Tree Lane at Figueroa St. and 39th Ave. Following the run, participants will be treated to the concert outside of the stadium.

"The Baum Plan for Financial Independence" Review

nik.mercer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:04:58 -0700

I had never heard of John Kessel until I picked up a collection he edited, Feeling Very Strange: A Slipstream Anthology. Slipstream was first named by science fiction author Bruce Sterling during the 1980s—not a good time for a sci-fi/fantasy writer who wanted to be taken seriously. It appeared that in the World of Literature, science fiction was doomed to be Sloth, living in the basement like an animal and eating fish heads. The only hope for science fiction rested with writers who were adopting S.F. and fantasy elements and using them outside the genre with much success. These writers were slipstream, taking science fiction to a place where it could be appreciated on literary terms.

Sterling's list of writers who carry on the science fiction tradition in their works contains some of the most influential writers and books of the last 50 years, and yet the diversity of the list underscores just how difficult it would be to explain why they all belong together. What do Toni Morrison's Beloved, Martin Amis' Einstein's Monsters, and Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 have in common? The definition that was settled on by Sterling was tenuous: all the stories, in one way or another, make you feel very strange.

Despite the problem of nomenclature, slipstream continues the tradition of being aligned with some of the most creative and influential authors of the time. Many of the movers and shakers in contemporary fiction—vibrant talent like Jonathan Lethem, Aimee Bender, Michael Chabon and Kelly Link—have all intersected with the slipstream label at one time or another. In their stories, clowns are really the last remaining descendants of an ancient, Zoroastrian-like cult; alien dogs follow drug addicts through the streets of New York and smoke crack with them; a convenience store's staff tries to figure out what it is that zombies want to buy so they can sell it to them.

Kessel's most recent contribution to the canon is a collection of short stories, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence. The book contains many of the touches that one would align with sci-fi/fantasy: moon colonies, jaunts to alternate worlds, tales from the future. At times, The Baum Plan is bogged down by its science-fictional elements. Lengthy descriptions of exactly how soil from the moon is made habitable for plants and lessons on protein engineering are muddy points in the plot—time-consuming and tiring to get through.

What keeps the reader motivated to power through the slow points has to do with the deftness with which Kessel builds his characters. The stories are based around misfits, nerds, and criminals—people who, for one reason or another, lie about who they are. Kessel's accuracy is dead-on especially when writing adolescents and young adults; in "The Snake Girl," Kessel details the rituals of a first real break-up: the sleepless nights, the reading of and identifying with melodramatic poetry, and the continuous imagined discussions and interactions.

I wished that there had been more humor in The Baum Plan. Kessel's off-kilter sense of humor pops up in the strangest places and is so welcome when it does. One of the funniest, most persistent moments in the book is in a brief, non-sequitur of a story, "The Red Phone." A man and a woman are intermediaries for another woman and another man, respectively, who are having phone sex. The man is relaying phone-sex woman's stock "sexy" lines ("I'm wearing black lace panties and a garter belt... ") when he decides to start making up his own lines for phone-sex man—hilarious indecencies like, "I smear warm guava jelly over your perky earlobes... " It was weird, it came out of nowhere and went on its way just as quickly, but that story is what I will think of first when I talk about The Baum Plan for Financial Independence.

Small Beer Press homepage

Purchase or download The Baum Plan for Financial Independence

Feist Helps John McCain Count His Houses

nik.mercer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:55:13 -0700

Anti-McCain backlash and Feist’s "1-2-3-4" all in one clip? That’s Internet gold, people.

Manifest Hope Gallery

nik.mercer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:00:48 -0700

Art has always powerfully impacted the world around us politically, culturally, and socially. "War Is Over (If You Want It)" will never fade from the public's conscious, for example; likewise, Shepherd Fairy's widespread "Hope" poster of Barack Obama will be in our minds for years to come. The most moving and significant statements are often created by artists—those with the power to unilaterally project their thoughts and feelings in a concise and succinct manner.

The Manifest Hope gallery in Denver, Colorado sets out to get more artists to express themselves in support of the Obama campaign. The 10,000 sq. ft. space will be open from August 25 - 28, 10 AM - 5 PM daily.

Dozens of artists will be showing their politically-driven pieces, so if you need one more reason to vote for Obama—and if you're in Denver!—stop by the gallery for some socially-conscious paintings, prints, and illustrations.

Manifest Hope Gallery

2990 Larimer Street

Denver, CO 80205

Manifest Hope gallery homepage