The Best of the Decade
When this decade began, Paste’s website was barely a year old, and the magazine was still a twinkle in its daddies’ eyes. So looking back over the first 10 years of the 2000s feels like looking back over our own history. There hasn’t been a new album, film, TV show, video game or book Paste has covered that wasn’t eligible for our “Best of the Decade” consideration. We had dozens of critics vote in each of these five categories, and then we argued some more until we’d focused our spotlight onto the very best pop culture created during the aughts—whether... read more
Catching Up With... The Men Who Stare at Goats Author Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson knows his way around weird. The author and documentary filmmaker has spent his career tracking down some of the most wildly weird people on the planet to bring their stories to us normal folk. His bestseller, Them: Adventures with Extremists, chronicled the tales of wannabe global dominators like Islamic fundamentalists and neo-Nazi Ku Klux Klansmen. But it’s his book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, that’s putting his name on the map—in part thanks to George Clooney. The book, about the secret army unit of soldiers with psychic power called the First Earth Battalion, was just made into... read more
Robert Mattheu: The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story
Could use more raw power If the snarling Iggy Pop of 1969 knew his Stooges would be coffee table book fodder, he would’ve scoffed. But here we are, 40 years later, with The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story. The title tells all: unreleased photos, band testimonials and album reviews. But while rock’n’roll platitudes flourish in books about, say, The Beatles, here the fawning feels awkward. CREEM photographer Robert Mattheu’s stilted writing never dives deeper than anecdotes and base descriptions. We learn Ron Ashton’s apartment, when he hosted Elektra Record executives in 1971, was “too horrible to describe.” The execs... read more
Bruce Springsteen's Autobiography Worth as Much as $10 Million
Most 60-something men can barely get their own grandchildren to listen to their stories. But Bruce Springsteen isn’t your average old dude. For his life story, which he’s currently turning into an autobiography, he could get up to $10 million, reports the New York Post’s Keith Kelly.... read more
The Booky Man: Maus... or There's No Place Like Home for the Holocaust
Comic books in their most familiar form—tales of super-heroes and adventurers—sprang from pulp novel potboilers of the 1930s and ‘40s. They were often lurid, licentious, shocking. In fact, by the 1950s, as America focused on the Red Scare and those dirty Commies tunneling like termites under our American way of life, ‘seditious’ comic books grew so popular among impressionable young people that authorities passed laws banning comics… and even burned them.... read more
New Leonard Cohen Biography Coming in December
You know you’ve made it big when there are two official biographies written about you. So congrats, Leonard Cohen, welcome to the big boy’s club. The second Cohen biography, called Hallelujah: A New Biography and to be released on Dec. 1, will chronicle both Cohen’s origins as a singer-songwriter and his recent resurgence as a sort-of indie godfather.... read more
Berenstain Bears Movie on the Way
In Jan and Stan Berenstain’s beloved children-book series, The Berenstain Bears led simple lives. They learned not to be afraid of the dark, eat too much junk food and talk to strangers. But now, years after its PBS television adaptation, their biggest adventure may be heading to the big screen.... read more
Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis Have Written a Children's Book and it's Coming out Sometime
Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy and his wife Carson Ellis are certainly no strangers to intra-marital artistic alliance—she’s responsible for the art for all of his band’s albums and of his solo CDs, plus most of The Decemberists’ merchandise and a couple of live show backdrops, too. And, according to Ellis’ blog, sometime soon you’ll be able to add a children’s book to their collective CV.... read more
Broken Social Scene Member Releases Children's Book, Learn to Speak Music
While Rockabye Baby aims to develop a child’s taste for music, Broken Social Scene’s John Crossingham wants to teach them precisely what to do with it.... read more
The Booky Man: The Stranger Among Us
God bless the French. They gave us French kissing, French bread, Brigitte Bardot and Tati. They gave us useful terms: ennui and guillotine. They gave us The Statue of Liberty.... read more
Robert Hilburn Recalls the Death of John Lennon
Reprinted from Cornflakes With John Lennon by Robert Hilburn © 2009 by Robert Hilburn. Permission granted by Rodale Inc.... read more
R. Crumb Illustrates the Bible
Interpretations of the Bible come in every medium—from art to music to film, and are made for any variety of audiences, from blood and guts readings to those of the more family-friendly variety. But this new one, well, this one’s got us thinking…... read more
Finalists for 2009 National Book Awards are Announced
The 60th annual National Book Award Finalists have been announced for 2009. The prize is awarded to one work out of five nominees in each of four genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature). This year, 193 publishers submitted a total of 1,129 books for consideration.... read more
Tennessee Williams Festival Kicks Off in Mississippi Today
Festival attractions include porch plays, panel discussions and a "Stella" shouting contest... read more
A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh Book Sees Sequel After Eight Decades
Before Winnie the Pooh was produced as an icon in a plethora of Disney movies, cartoons and colorful picture books, he was drawn in the illustrations of E.H. Shepard as a rather English, rural and naked bear who lived in the Hundred Acre Wood, the setting of the children's tales penned by A.A. Milne in his 1928 book, The House at Pooh Corner.... read more
Writer Walker Lamond is Ready to Share Rules for My Unborn Son
As the past few years have taught us, there's serious money to be made in turning a much-hyped blog into a book (see: Stuff White People Like). Or, you know, at least a shot at converting internet fame into real-life notoriety. And writer/documentarian/renaissance man Walker Lamond aims to do just that by cribbing the choicest morsels from his Rules for My Unborn Son blog and compiling them into a book bearing the same name, due out Oct. 27.... read more
Neil Gaiman Crowdsourcing a Short Story Via Twitter
Coraline author Neil Gaiman wants to make a writer out of you.... read more
Andy Kaufman's Wrestling Career Put to the Printed Page in Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!
In 1979, Andy Kaufman issued a direct challenge to the women of America. Kaufman was a longtime follower of the ridiculous machismo and overblown personas of professional wrestlers, and began to wrestle women as part of his stage act, declaring himself the "inter-gender wrestling champion of the world." The perennial oddball offered a $1,000 prize to any woman who could pin him in a grappling match, with the added guarantee that he would shave his head and also marry the woman who could beat him.... read more
Authorized, Illustrated Stooges Book Hits Shelves
The music of The Stooges has long inspired fans to engage in many a destructive act: throw a fit, break things, crush beer cans, send your pretty face to hell. You know, general rock 'n' rollisms. But how about sitting down with a book? Iggy and company sure hope so—the band's most comprehensive biography, The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story, has just hit shelves.... read more
David Byrne, Sarah Silverman, Billy Corgan, More Tap into the Unconscious at Carl Jung Red Book Discussion
When psychoanalyst Carl Jung found himself face-to-face with haunting visions and inner voices, he did not bow down. Instead, he proceeded to document and decipher his battles for 16 years. The end result is his Red Book, and now, more than 25 music, film and cultural personalities are set to debate each of its 205 pages.... read more
Where Have All The Weird Girls Gone?…
Evil Dead to Rise Again to Theaters…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
Heather Greene - Moon Hangs Fire
James Yuill - This Sweet Love (Earth…
Orenda Fink - That Certain-Something Spring
Fun. - All The Pretty Girls
Susan Enan - Paste Reviews: Plainsong
