November 2005 Archives

By Justin Quinn Pelegano
Photographed by Carey Denniston

Pick up Phoebe Hoban's biography on the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It's reading I highly recommend, and this from someone who refused to crack a single book all through college. (Gracias, Cliff's Notes.) For what it's worth, it's worth your time. But not for the reason you'd think. True, Basquiat was a self-destructive street-cum-gallery artist who ran (in a stupor) with an infamous crowd and flamed out way too early - and how could that not make for intriguing book material? But the real gem in Hoban's work is its early '80s NYC history lesson, particularly its detailed look at the East Village art scene. She writes of a time when artists were collaborators were boundary-pushers who, with bold strokes, were redefining the canvas. Painters were stars, and art was accessible due to that very fact. The Dream was being chased by artists across the board and throughout the city.

By Jessica Cogan

When you come out at the other end of Elizabeth Merrick's Girly, "refreshing" may not be the first word that comes to mind. Haunting, certainly. Almost chemically addictive, for sure. Exhausting - oh yeah. But when I finished the novel and set out for a new read, only to be met with stacks of novels about angst-ridden 30-somethings worrying over marital status, crap jobs and Jimmy Choos, Girly strikes me as refreshing in a filthy, gritty way - like eating a bloody steak after months on sprouts and tofu.

Girly is a sometimes dark, often unsettling novel that tackles sexuality, religion, secrecy and familial roles as experienced by three generations of the Hart family, particularly its females. The novel begins by following Racinda and Ruth, two sisters growing up in rural Pennsylvania to a troubled and frail mother, Amandine, and her brassy, take-charge mother-in-law, Button. Ruth is the elder sister. Beautiful, exciting and deeply disturbed, she is the vitality and the violence that courses through the family's veins. Her presence and, eventually, her absence define those around her.

By Troy Tolley

With their third album release, Live It Out, Metric is officially the most popular rock band you have never heard of. If you haven't heard of Metric, then you are truly missing the slow, underground swell of a band that already stands as solidly, historically, and classically as any other true rock and roll band across time. Sneaking down from Canada and up from Brooklyn and in through the back door of an industry and culture that the band at once despises and depends upon, Metric is re-educating the bored, numb, cloned masses raised on American Idol and boy bands that there is more to Rock and Roll than contrived beauty and text voting.