
Amazing work by Zhong Biao.

Amazing work by Zhong Biao.

4 teams. 4 charities. 48 hours to make a difference. Karyo Edelman’s The Little Give kicks off today. Check back to the site as the event progresses for on location Twitter updates and of-the-moment Flickr coverage.

The team over at Coudal.com are back at it with the launch of the 2008 edition of Field Tested Books, a collection of book reviews by a variety writers, each with an interesting twist. As Jim explains:
“We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it’s possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it.”
This year, the ever-experimental crew are trying their hand at book publishing by offering the Field-Tested Books collection (including all three years of FTB reviews) “in a handsome trade paperback”. I was quite honored to be asked back as a contributor, and in return submitted a gonzo-inspired review of “The Proud Highway” by Hunter S. Thompson as read in Bangkok. (My 2006 submission, “Siddhartha, on a train between Madrid and Barcelona, Spain” can be found here.)
A perfect way to blow a Friday morning: peruse the website, buy the book and be sure to throw it in your backpack this summer when you light out on your own great literary adventure.
“I thought punk would fade like disco, and with any luck, be replaced with a musical movement led by artists who could actually play their instruments. But in the ambulance, the maniacal vibrato and caustic quips of Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra had me gaping.Forever etched in my brain are his Tourettes-like rants about the perils of chemical warfare and the unmitigated cruelty of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, dueling with the wailing siren as my buddy and I wove through rush-hour traffic.“
–Patrick Ambrose writes “Jello Biafra and the Politics of Punk” at The Morning News
Trailer for Alex Gibney’s (The Smartest Guys in the Room, Who Killed the Electric Car) Gonzo.