 | Diary of a Sex Change From the outside, it's difficult to fathom why people would want to change their sex, let alone what they go through in the process. So read these diary entries for a view from the inside. |
 | Mother Mountains In a book excerpt, Gary Paul Nabhan explores Mexico's legendary Sierra Madre mountains, finding a treasure in their ecosystem -- and a tragedy in their encroachment. |
 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control Errol Morris, the creator of such documentary classics as "Gates of Heaven" and "The Thin Blue Line," has yet again managed to reinvent the wheel as far as innovative interviewing is concerned. |
 | Imagining the Scene Theatrical set design -- good work if you can get it. But what does it take to advance set design beyond function into its own realm of art? Christopher McCollum knows. |
 | Live Fast, Die Young, Leave a Good-Looking Corpse James Dean, Charles Manson, Jayne Mansfield, Lenny Bruce... Want to know the sordid details? Read any old book. Want to know what really happened? Read the works of Hollywood biographer John Gilmore. |
November 17 - November 24, 1997
What's New? 
Goodbye, Rainer Ptacek. May your music live on.
One of the all-time best film-review resources on the Web. Sort
alphabetically or by publication, genre, director, or date. Check it out!
Red Meat
The most tasteless and twisted comic strip in the world. Featuring the Red
Meat Archive, Reader Favorite Archive, and the Meat Conference Forum!
A tribute page says goodbye to Rainer Ptacek, the well-loved blues guitarist
who died recently after a prolonged bout with cancer. Also: try our Comics
Xtra, containing first-rate artwork from some of the best national
cartoonists you've never seen; read about National Public Radio's refusal to
air a poem by Martin Espada; and peruse the staff's favorite articles from
the first 10 issues.
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scrolling of Usenet groups and try our cozy, easy-to-use BBS instead.
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News & Opinion
You want articles about mental health, we gots articles about mental health. "Kids on Pills" studies the debate over Ritalin; "What's Killing Psychiatry?" examines why the days of calm-faced Bob Newhartesque shrinks are over; and "Committed" questions how insane one has to get before he can be institutionalized against his will. Meanwhile, "Diary of a Sex Change" tells it like it is, the Sierra Madre turns out to be its own treasure, a soccer mom scores a goal...and more! [9 articles]
Film & TV
Everybody and their mother gets interviewed this week: documentary innovator Errol Morris, "Gummo" director Harmony Korine, "Sick" director Kirby Dick, avant garde king Kenneth Anger, "Wings of a Dove" star Helena Bonham Carter, and many more. Plus: Reviews of "One Night Stand," "Fast, Cheap & Out of Control," "Mad City," "Starship Troopers" and "Predictions of Fire"; a sardonic look at the latest beauty pageant; and a survey of everybody's favorite cartoons. [26 articles]
Music
Charles Mingus's wife keeps his spectacular jazz compositions alive; Bob Dylan's son Jakob attempts to succeed with his lineage undetected; Shania Twain and Mindy McReady apply Spice Girl tactics to country crooning; Cowgirls get bucked off their career paths; Dr. John performs music at the right place, right time; Leon Russell gives new meaning to the term "well-connected"; KMFDM keep industrial pop throbbingly alive; and Metallica kicks butt with a new album. [19 articles]
Arts & Leisure
If you thought European soccer games were violent, just wait till you hear what they do to the losers in ancient Indian arena sports! Plus: Find out how a set designer uses his craftsman's know-how to turn ordinary theatrical settings into a sublime form of art. And: Creative souls redefine the purpose of public art by putting their work in unexpected private places; a playwright has a caustic old time with the Catholic Church; and Argentinians teach us a thing or two about Tango. [7 articles]
Books
Biographer John Gilmore uses his insider's knowledge to tell the real story behind James Dean and many other doomed personalities; the late Herbert Huncke is presented at his sex-crazed, drugged-up, self-destructive best in "The Herbert Huncke Reader"; and Joseph Somoza serves up some slippery poetry in "Sojourner, So to Speak." Also: a nonfiction work rethinks black America, a series of stories remember blacklisting, and LaVerne Harrell Clark delivers black comedy while writing about black gold in Texas. [9 articles]
Comics
Come down from your Staggering Heights and get to the Red Meat of the matter with this swell set of cartoons that also includes Mueller, Eye of the Beholder, K. Rat, Random Shots, and La Cucaracha. [7 comics]
All the contributors to Weekly Wire, along with other AAN (Association of Alternative Newsweeklies) publications, can be read from this one easily accessible spot. Strongly recommended for bookmarking. [107 newspapers]
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