“Over three decades of almost constant composing and recording, he would amass over sixty LPs, running the gamut from early records with his band the Mothers of Invention that helped to create the milieu we think of as the Sixties, to caustic send-ups of that same counterculture, doo-wop pastiche, tape cut-ups, film scores, gonzo cabaret, big-band charts, way out prog, show tunes, music composed entirely on and for the Synclavier digital sampler, full-score orchestral music, and thousands of scabrous, exploratory guitar solos.” On Frank Zappa, music theory wizard and occasional public intellectual.
I Have a Mortgage
Mussolini and Mario and the Magicians
Thomas Mann’s parable "Mario and the Magicians" was inspired by Mussolini, but its content is also applicable to a certain political candidate we all know and are trying to make sense of. Pair with our piece on Trump: The Novel.
Ask Her About Her Uterus
"Too often, a woman’s pain is not merely met with doubt, but suspicion, both within the medical community and outside of it." The New Republic writes about female pain, the medical community, and Abby Norman's book, Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain.
Best Foreign Fiction from Jessa Crispin
Jessa Crispin offers "Picks for Best Foreign Fiction," at NPR, including selections from Russia, Colombia, the Netherlands, and Israel.
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The Ear Man
If you have a spare $7,743 dollars lying around, Freud's couch has fallen into disrepair and could use some restoration.
Dispatch from Italy
Over at Asymptote Journal, Aamer Hussein discusses three well-kept Italian secrets who aren’t Elena Ferrante. Pair with Cora Currier’s Millions essay on reading Italy through Ferrante’s books.
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Snapchats of a Native Son
"That has always been the unsettling irony of the carefree aesthetic. Rhetorically, it denies the full unpredictability of black experiences in America. It is a stereotype, albeit one intended for benevolence and created, perhaps lovingly, by black people." Doreen St. Félix writes about the roots and ramifications of the "Carefree Black Boy" phenomenon.