Articles from April, 2009

Xiu Xiu: The Failed Experiment

Jeff Merrion lays out his case against the dissonant, disturbed indie pop of Jamie Stewart’s Xiu Xiu.

Australia: The Flood

In Cooloola National Park, Bowman Leigh and her camping group get caught in the Noosa River flood.

The Rambling American: The Devil’s in the Dissected Fetal Pig’s Entrails

Trying to compare the German and American versions of The Office, Locke McKenzie gets introspective about cultural generalization.

“Grandmas Can’t Find Us”: An Interview with Women

Greg Merrell interviews brothers Pat and Matt Flegel of lo-fi indie rock outfit Women. The band discusses their songwriting process, working with Chad VanGaalen, and the weirdest music they’ve ever heard.

The Gulf: Critics and Construction Workers

Dubai may be the embodiment of modernization, but not without a human cost. Darryl Campbell argues the labors of its labor have been largely ignored by the Western media.

Watterson’s World: Sunday Study Sunday

Nick Martens looks closely at Watterson’s later Sunday Strips—the “golden age” of Calvin and Hobbes.

Straight Eye for the Queer Guy

Caitlin Boersma questions the hetero-normative depiction of gays in mainstream cinema.

Reading “2666″: The Part About the Cover

Kevin Nguyen interviews Charlotte Strick, the designer of 2666‘s U.S. cover.

The Rambling American: Bad Education

Are schools forcing kids to grow up too fast? Locke McKenzie observes that, in Germany, they don’t have to.

The Golden Age Syndrome

Chloe Novak bewails the boring state of contemporary culture, which apparently can muster no higher expression than sepia-toned regurgitations of past generations’ honest labor.

Along Came David

In the Bureau’s first video submission, Emmett Kerr-Perkinson follows Director David Hartstein during the premiere of his documentary Along Came Kinky… Texas Jewboy for Governor at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival.

London Scrawling: Anarchy in the UK

Protests, riots, and violence—everything the UK’s news media would like you to believe happened during Wednesday’s G20 summit. David Tveite sees nothing but the whining of confused, uncoordinated causes.