Articles

How’s Business: Moussa Barbar: Manager, Cinema Royal, Beirut

It’s almost midnight.

Magazine Bazaar: Interview with Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, founder, editor, and publisher of Soldier of Fortune

If you have nothing more exciting to do, join me for a spot of lion hunting in Africa this season.

Magazine Bazaar: Mat Gleason’s Coagula

When I arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, the highlight of most visits to museums and galleries was picking up the latest issue of Mat Gleason’s Coagula, a free magazine that came out every two months and was left — often by Gleason himself — in big messy stacks beside the front door.

Have Pamphlet, Will Travel: Mid-list authors pushing not-so-recently published books

An informal circuit of poets, essayists, explorers, magicians, and gurus, as well as reams of flyers, posters, and pamphlets produced to promote them.

Magazine Bazaar: John Kennedy, publisher of Haunted Attraction

I can tell you that after making my way through 235 haunted houses… nothing scares people like a chainsaw.

The Bead Thief: Not all theft is forbidden

A good theft is “artistic,” according to my father. “Sometimes you have to get up, run off, put the misbah in your car, and dash back before anyone notices. So that when they ask to look in your pockets, they’re empty.”

Mohamed Soueid

Like a detective or therapist, he waits, listens, and takes his time.

Don’t Believe the Hypernova: The making of an Iranian band

Pink Floyd is so big. And Dire Straits.

How’s Business: Tarek Wazef: Language instructor, Al-Azhar University, Cairo

I studied Chinese at Al-Azhar University the first year the language was offered.

How’s Business: Writer, New York City

There was talk of movie rights. My agent wrote a note to one editor saying he thought the appeal of the book was “deep,” and that the fact that it was as yet “unreported” made it all the more appealing.

How’s Business: Don Sakai: Owner, Satsuma Imports, Los Angeles

My uncle built this store in 1939.

How’s Business: George Russell: Zoroastrian cemetery owner/operator, Huntsville, Texas

George Russell lives in Huntsville, Texas, otherwise known as the “City of Death,” the execution capital of the US.

How’s Business: Vazeer Ahmed: Proprietor, Shabbir Pasha Steel Traders, Bangalore, India

Pasha’s office lies in the corner of a metal scrap yard piled high with old pump sets, girders, air conditioners, and wiring.

How’s Business: M.: Project manager, DynCorp International, Kandahar, Afghanistan

Ramrod is a small military base at the edge of the Red Desert in Kandahar.

How’s Business: Abdul Raheem: Tropical fish dealer, Bharat Fish Aquarium, Bangalore

Abdul Raheem sits on an ancient swivel chair next to an aquarium.

Apocalypse Avatar: Today is a good day to die

The latest heir to Cotton Mather’s tale of moral tribulation on the frontier is James Cameron’s roundly acclaimed, two-billion-dollar grossing, wholly ridiculous science fiction film Avatar.

Freedom of Expression

Group Material: A History of Irritated Material

The late Félix González-Torres used to call Group Material (GM), the New York–based artist-activist collective of which he was a core member for some time, “the best-kept secret in the art world.

Tayy El Khiyaam

In the first piece in the short fiction collection Tayy El Khiyaam, a young man of Bedouin descent chafes at his grandfather’s yearly repayment of a blood debt to members of another tribe.

The Strong Horse

On September 20, 2001, President George W.