We finally decided to join the 90s and convert our old site to this newfangled “weblogging” technology all the kids are talking about. Over the next month, we’ll be slowly migrating all of the old content to this new Wordpress site, and adding the backlog of The Modernist Society Podcasts we’ve been promising along with new episodes of Nikkei Sindex, and the proverbial “much, much, more.”

Stay tuned…

Porochista Khakpour has an op-ed in the New York Times, giving her own take on Barbie’s 50th anniversary. Revisit her 2007 appearance at The Modernist Society in this podcast.

The man behind Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, and the newly-formed Thorns of Life joins The Modernist Society for a chat on Wednesday, February 18.

Doors at 9pm.
Interview w audience Q&A at 10.
DJs D-Mac and Neville C man the decks from 11 til close.
$4 Bourbon specials / 21+
Bourbon:
2321 18th Street NW
Washington DC

Here’s The Modernist Society Podcast of our chat with Nick Gillespie & Matt Welch from Reason Magazine & Reason.tv, an evening that seems to have prompted some “Change” at the Huffington Post!

Notorious Maximumrocknroll columnist and general provocateur Mykel Board spent a year in Outer Mongolia, then turned it into a book. Interview by Edgar Barrington.

The Modernist: I wanted to know what made you decide to turn your year in Mongolia into a novel?

Mykel Board: It’s not really a novel because a novel has a feeling of something that is made up. Even a Daughter is pretty not made up. When I was there I took email notes, I wrote every day about my adventures and I didn’t have a phone let alone an internet connection where I was. So in order to send email I had to physically take the computer down to the email center, plug it in, upload all my email messages and download them and my cousin collected them for the year. And they became my notes and I figured, “Oh I had all of these cool experiences, I should write them.” And that’s when the book came out.

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By guest author, L.P. Omid

If you want to find out why Mark Bowden wrote his latest book, Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam, a journalistic account of the events of the U.S. Embassy seizure and the subsequent hostage debacle over twenty-five years ago, beyond the obvious financial benefits to the author and his publisher, you won’t find the answer in the 637 page book itself. Read the rest of this entry »

Jonathan Ames is the next big thing. There, we’ve said it, and probably jinxed his career from this point forward. But seriously, ask anyone. Okay, ask anyone who’s read The Extra Man. Ask anyone who’s been to his readings, seen his one-man show, or read his columns way-back-when in the New York Press. Ask them, and they will tell you that they can’t believe that he’s not wildly famous. Ask them and they’ll express awe for and admiration of the earnest manner he discusses the sexual exploits of both he and his characters. Ask them and they might be a little upset that you’ve heard of him too, that he’s no longer their little secret.

The Modernist’s Jason Mojica met with Jonathan Ames at his hotel in Chicago’s gold coast. The author was in the middle of his recent tour to promote his new novel, Wake Up, Sir! Born out of Ames’ love for P.G. Wodehouse, Wake Up, Sir! introduces us to a 30-something alcoholic author who, due to fortunate slip on some ice, has become wealthy enough to justify hiring his own valet, a man named Jeeves (of course).

The Modernist: Do you like doing these book tours?

Ames: Is that part of the interview, are you recording already?

Yes. Would I get a different answer if it wasn’t?

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