MAO II by Don DeLillo

 

This is a strange book. Valuable truths and insights. Existentialism before plot. Pregnant sentences before plot. Of course, you don’t read Don DeLillo necessarily for plot, do you? Not to say there is no plot. You read him because he is a master of the craft, his sentences are whispers in your ear. In your heart. This is how good novels are supposed to be. With enough room for interpretation. Like a poem about recluse writers who don’t want to publish anymore, terrorists weary of Western influence, Mao Zedong from guerrilla wilderness tactics to complete, uniform revolution free of outside voices. Faces lost in the crowd, in the multitude. Echoes from that Beatles song, pop hiss of analog sound. Pictures of Chairman Mao. What would Andy Warhol say?

–Gregory Frye, February 2012

Athens, Greece

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (review)

by Gregory Frye

A lot of young, creative people will read this book, individuals – such as myself – who never really thought of or cared about business models, board meetings, and CEOs. And, of course, as Walter Isaacson’s exhaustively researched biography shows, Steve Jobs exemplified none of these things in the typical sense. He was a prototype, a worthy model for new thinking and future innovation.

With full access to Jobs, family members, friends, associates, colleagues current and former, Isaacson had finally agreed to write the biography on commission when he learned Jobs was about to undergo his first cancer operation in 2009. Jobs encouraged everyone to be open and honest with Isaacson, surprisingly giving the author full control over the finished manuscript – with exception to the cover design. Jobs’s primary desire behind the biography was that he wanted his four children to know him better.

Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips

by Gregory Frye

Over twenty five years of making music and The Flaming Lips are still turning heads, attracting new fans and re-inspiring the old ones. Their latest headline involves their announcement to record a 24-hour song to be released via hard drive inside five human skulls on Halloween. Quite a progression from the six-hour song they just released, which actually turns out to be worth listening to.

This group has always blazed its own path – sometimes with actual fire, onstage psychedelic freakouts that won them a record contract with Warner Bros. in the early ‘90s. Since then they’ve evolved over a number of albums, from the early days of scene-changing surreal noise punk to critical masterpieces like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.