Joshuah Bearman

Backdorms

Last summer I posted to Huff Po about those chinese kids singing to the backstreet boys in their dorm. First, I was alarmed to discover that thoughtful commentary always gets less reader response than a video of musical chinese dudes with bandanas. Our singing friends have since been dubbed the Backdorm Boys, apparently parlaying their Google video attention into Chinese fame. And they've since graduated from an arts school in sculpture, which they used of course to memorialize themselves in three dimensions and full color:

Nice work, but what about that guy playing Half Life in the back of the original video? He must feel very left out.

Housing Crunch

I first saw these photos in Paris, at Colette. That's right, when I was jet-setting in the city of lights last November. They're studies of Hong Kong architecture, which in detail look like machinery or even textiles. Nice, big large format prints. Although Colette was a waste of time. Why that place is such a "destination" I'll never know. I thought the information superhighway was supposed to make high-end collecting, sartorial or otherwise, something you can do from home. Anyway, I just ran across another set of photos by Michael Wolf, this time inside some Hong Kong housing. This is a building with 100 units, each 100 square feet. 10 X 10. Here's a sample:

Here's the rest of the series.

Master's Love Can Unite All Things

Thanks to Eli Horowitz. Be sure to click to enlarge and read the captions:

Mt. St. Helens

At sunset:

Fan Mail

My friend Starlee set up a reading in NY last month where she had Arthur Jones do a series of Post-It illustrations for all the stories. I couldn't be there, but heard it went really well, and was very excited because she and Jorge and David Rakoff took turns reading my story, which I'm sure was better than if I had read it myself. Anyhow, someone wrote the following about the show:

One of my favorite artists is teaming up with one of my favorite independent radio producers for an evening of stories and artwork titled the Post-It Note Reading Series. The event takes place this Saturday at Monkey Town in Williamsburg. It was created by Arthur Jones and Starlee Kine and features the writings of Starlee, Jorge Just and Joshuah Bearman with Post-it Note illustrations by the one and only Mr. Arthur Jones.

And there's more:

For an example of Arthur's Post-it illustrations, you could check out this little bit on the Abominal Snowman. Absolutely freaking awesome. Starlee's piece on the ghost of Walter Schroeder recently made my day. You can listen to it here. Jorge Just's recent piece on Chicago chocolate emissions also tops one of my favorite This American Life pieces of all time. And, aside from Hunter S., Joshuah Bearman's Believer piece on the 2004 elections was probably my favorite bit of political reporting of all time. We still have that issue filed away in the closet.

Well, that sure is nice! We love you too. Joining the pantheon may be quite a charitable assessment (and surely untrue, I must modestly say as look at the shelf great political reportage in my bookcase), but it's great to hear that someone liked reading 10,000 words about the idiosyncracies of the Iowa Caucuses. Thanks. Next up: mid-terms...