Well, I thought I was getting close to caught up, but here I am, having fallen behind yet again. I've got three days to finish up, because it's almost Labour Day! Yikes!
Juxtapoz: Issue 127 was more of what I enjoy from the magazine, art and artists with whom I'm generally unfamiliar. Though I think the magazine may focus too frequently in graffiti artists from month to month, I particularly enjoyed the articles about Emek, a poster designer/graphic artist, and Mary Iverson, who draws shipping containers on landscape photos, and the interview with Gus van Sant.
Among my lighter reads this summer was Pop by Gordon Korman. Korman has been trying to branch out a bit in recent years, experimenting more frequently with adventure serials (Island, Everest, etc.) and with more "young adult" novels (Son of the Mob, Born to Rock), and Pop falls into this latter category. While it's not as whimsical as Korman's earlier teen novels (Don't Care High, A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag, in particular), it was still a decent, light read.
Marcus moves to a new town with his mother and finds himself dealing with the politics of the local High School Football team. He is buoyed, if stymied, by the unexpected friendship of an eccentric, middle aged man he meets in the park and who ends up participating in Marcus's informal training. When the nature of his new friend begins to come to light, Marcus finds his life more complicated than he'd first realized.
Back to a magazine (my favourite magazine, incidentally), Issue 81 of The Believer was another eclectic and enjoyable read. Highlights of this issue included "The Forefather of Charm", an article about the Genuine Fakir of Ava, a magician with a knack for enticing audiences with the promise of prizes (and to whom shows like The Price Is Right owe a debt of gratitude, I'm sure), and an interview with photographer Lena Herzog. A low point, as always, were the stupid comics, which are not generally insightful, witty, or funny. The magazine is so wonderful that the comics always make me a little sad.
Later in the summer, I read yet another issue of The Believer, which I'll get to mentioning before Monday leaves us.
Dexter is Delicious, fourth in the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay, was next on the completion list. An enormous step up from the third in the series, which went off the rails, in my opinion, it seemed that Dexter was getting back on track story-wise. Though I still think the character seems to be pretty consistently sloppy for someone who has been established as obsessively careful and systematic, I generally liked where things went. Though I'm not sure that I'll be able to "buy" where things are headed with elements of Dexter's happy home life, I'll still be picking up the next book when it's out in paperback.
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