HiLobrow 1Q2015
By:
March 31, 2015
Here are a few of HILOBROW’s highlights from January, February, and March 2015.
BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 1Q2020 | 2Q2020 | 3Q2020 SNEAK PEEK.
HiLobrow contributor and friend Tom Nealon’s food secret-history series, STUFFED, so far includes the following entries: The Magazine of Taste (In which an English cook repels a French invasion) | Auguries and Pignostications (The secret history of blood sausages and stews!) | The Catsup War (How did tomato catsup triumph in the 19th century Catsup War?) | Caveat Condimentor (Did its condiment monoculture bring down the Roman Empire?)
Earlier this week, after having taken a few months off, STUFFED returned with a look at the political and economic machinations that led to the dumbing-down of Indian curries, a process resulting in what we know today as… “curry powder.”
MORE POSTS BY TOM NEALON: Salsa Mahonesa and the Seven Years War, Golden Apples, Crimson Stew, Diagram of Condiments vs. Sauces, etc., and his De Condimentis series (Fish Sauce | Hot Sauce | Vinegar | Drunken Vinegar | Balsamic Vinegar | Food History | Barbecue Sauce | Butter | Mustard | Sour Cream | Maple Syrup | Salad Dressing | Gravy) — are among the most popular we’ve ever published here at HILOBROW.
In 1Q2015, we published BOWIEOLOGY, a seven-part series — by HiLobrow contributor and friend Adam McGovern — surveying David Bowie’s cultural contributions as he enters his second 50 years of acceptance and transgression.
MORE POSTS by ADAM McGOVERN: Theater Reviews: The Honeycomb Trilogy, Love Und Greed, Nord Hausen Fly Robot, The Oracle | PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HELL, a 5-part series about characters in Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri’s comic Nightworld | Two IDORU JONES comics by Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri | BOWIEOLOGY: Celebrating 50 years of Bowie | ODD ABSURDUM: How Felix invented the 21st century self | CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: C.L. Moore’s JIREL OF JOIRY stories | KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Data 70 | HERC YOUR ENTHUSIASM: “Freedom” | KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Captain Camelot | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: “Full Fathom Five,” an analysis of a panel from Jack Kirby’s New Gods | A 5-part series on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World mythos | Reviews of Annie Nocenti’s comics Katana, Catwoman, Klarion, and Green Arrow | The 10-part review series FANCHILD | To see all of Adam McGovern’s posts, including HiLo Hero items on Lilli Carré, Judy Garland, Wally Wood, and others: CLICK HERE
SIMILAR SERIES on HILOBROW: BOLANOMICS (James Parker on Marc Bolan’s music and philosophy) | MOULDIANA (James Parker and Tommy Valicenti on Bob Mould’s solos) | ANGUSONICS (James Parker and Tommy Valicenti on Angus Young’s solos)
Back in 2012, HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn finally revealed his long-held secret of self-promotion, a technique he’s named “Schmoozitsu.” This quarter, Josh finally revealed his long-held secret of productivity, a technique he’s named the Virtuous Circle of Procrastination.
It’s a must-read, if Josh does say so himself.
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: TAKING THE MICKEY (series) | KLAATU YOU (series intro) | We Are Iron Man! | And We Lived Beneath the Waves | Is It A Chamber Pot? | I’d Like to Force the World to Sing | The Argonaut Folly | The Perfect Flâneur | The Twentieth Day of January | The Dark Side of Scrabble | The YHWH Virus | Boston (Stalker) Rock | The Sweetest Hangover | The Vibe of Dr. Strange | CONVOY YOUR ENTHUSIASM (series intro) | Tyger! Tyger! | Star Wars Semiotics | The Original Stooge | Fake Authenticity | Camp, Kitsch & Cheese | Stallone vs. Eros | The UNCLE Hypothesis | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | The Abductive Method | Semionauts at Work | Origin of the Pogo | The Black Iron Prison | Blue Krishma! | Big Mal Lives! | Schmoozitsu | You Down with VCP? | Calvin Peeing Meme | Daniel Clowes: Against Groovy | The Zine Revolution (series) | Best Adventure Novels (series) | Debating in a Vacuum (notes on the Kirk-Spock-McCoy triad) | Pluperfect PDA (series) | Double Exposure (series) | Fitting Shoes (series) | Cthulhuwatch (series) | Shocking Blocking (series) | Quatschwatch (series)
Since January 1, we’ve published 35 new installments in the HILO HEROES series, bringing the series’ grand total — since we kicked it off in 2009 — to nearly 1,350 items. We’re grateful to the following contributors for the following HILO HEROES items.
Joe Alterio on Ub Iwerks. Brian Berger on Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, John Ford, Molly Picon, and Frank Norris. Franklin Bruno on Herbie Nichols, Vicente Huidobro, and Al Cleveland. Erik Davis on Robert Anton Wilson. Suzanne Fischer on John Bellairs.
Jerrold Freitag on Bob Marley, Meridel Le Sueur, and Oskar Kokoschka. Mark Kingwell on Murray Bookchin and Paul Fussell. Adam McGovern on Gahan Wilson, Frederick Douglass, Dwayne McDuffie, Jackie Gleason, and William Gibson.
Devin McKinney on Morris K. Jessup, Captain Crunch, Nella Larsen, and Ethel Lina White. Anthony Miller on James Frazer. Jacob Mikanowski on Euclides Da Cunha, Viktor Shklovsky, and Ernst Haeckel. William Nericcio on Simone De Beauvoir and Rolando Hinojosa.
Gary Panter on Tetsumi Kudo. Lynn Peril on Lynda Barry and David Johansen. Robert Wringham on Lewis Carroll, S.J. Perelman, and E.L. Konigsburg.
Josh Glenn is editor of the HILO HEROES series.
Several ongoing, irregularly updated HiLobrow series — LIMERICKANIA, RADIUM AGE: CONTEXT, CODE-X, and CECI EST UNE PIPE — were updated with new installments over the course of 1Q2015. Check it out.
LIMERICKANIA is a series of 10 posts (currently in progress), by HiLobrow friend and contributor Douglas Wolk, featuring limericks inspired by panels from HiLobrow friend and contributor John Hilgart’s 4CP comic book details collection.
MORE COMICS-RELATED SERIES: BLOW UP YOUR COMICS — John Hilgart glosses 30 favorite 4CP images | The HERMENAUTIC TAROT: 54 Writers, on 54 4CP Tarot Cards | The Art of 4CP | SUBSUPERMEN — Golden Age heroes who didn’t make the grade | MASKED MAN | LIMERICKANIA | MEET THE L.I.S. — Implicit superheroes, concealed within comic-book mastheads | 4CP FRIDAY — themed comic-book detail galleries, curated by 4CP fans | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM — 25 writers on 25 Jack Kirby panels | ANNOTATED GIF — Kerry Callen brings comic book covers to life | CABLEGATE COMIX | COMICALLY VINTAGE — that’s-what-she-said vintage comic panels | DC — THE NEW 52 — an 11-year-old reviews DC’s new lineup | SECRET PANEL — Silver Age comics’ double entendres | SKRULLICISM — they lurk among us
CLICK HERE for more comics and cartoon-related posts on HiLobrow.
RADIUM AGE: CONTEXT is a series unearthing the social and cultural context within which Radium Age (1904–33) science fiction was produced and received.
MORE RADIUM AGE SCI FI ON HILOBROW: HiLoBooks homepage! | What is Radium Age science fiction? |Radium Age 100: 100 Best Science Fiction Novels from 1904–33 | Radium Age Supermen | Radium Age Robots | Radium Age Apocalypses | Radium Age Telepaths | Radium Age Eco-Catastrophes | Radium Age Cover Art (1) | SF’s Best Year Ever: 1912 | Radium Age Science Fiction Poetry | Enter Highbrowism | Bathybius! Primordial ooze in Radium Age sf | War and Peace Games (H.G. Wells’s training manuals for supermen) | Radium Age: Context series
CODE-X is a series surfacing and dimensionalizing a select of nodes in the vast a priori network of classifications, categories, and concepts through which each of us intuitively makes sense of everyday life.
MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work
CECI EST UNE PIPE is a series analyzing and celebrating the pipe’s metaphorical significance in US pop culture.
MORE HILOBROW SERIES: EPIC WINS — our versions of epic poems | FILE X — a gallery | FITTING SHOES — famous literary footwear | HILOBROW COVERS — a gallery | LATF HIPSTER | PLUPERFECT PDA — time-traveling smartphones! | SHOCKING BLOCKING — cinematic blocking | SKRULLICISM
In 1Q2015, we published ODD ABSURDUM, a series in which Adam McGovern pointed out that every narcissistic tendency lamented in the decades since The Odd Couple aired in the 1970s, from the self-delusion of talent-show hopefuls to the self-regard of reality-show personalities to the self-absorption of internet do-it-yourself legends, was lampooned in the figure of Felix Unger before many of those trends had a chance to fire their first shot.
Over the course of 1Q2015, HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn published a number of lit lists, each one celebrating an anniversary of some of his all-time favorite adventure novels. These lists include:
- Best YYA Lit 1965 — from Susan Cooper’s Matter of Britain kids’ adventure Over Sea, Under Stone to Alan Garner’s kids’ fantasy adventure Elidor.
- 10 Best Adventures of 1915 — from John Buchan’s Richard Hannay adventure The Thirty-Nine Steps to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Radium Age science fiction novel Herland.
- 10 Best Adventures of 1925 — from Earl Derr Biggers’s crime adventure The House Without a Key to Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical science fiction adventure Heart of a Dog.
- 10 Best Adventures of 1935 — from Robert E. Howard’s atavistic fantasy adventure The Hour of the Dragon to Olaf Stapledon’s science fiction adventure Odd John.
- 10 Best Adventures of 1940 — from Eric Ambler’s espionage adventure Journey into Fear to Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled crime adventure Farewell, My Lovely.
JOSH GLENN’S *BEST ADVENTURES* LISTS: BEST 250 ADVENTURES OF THE 20TH CENTURY | 100 BEST OUGHTS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST RADIUM AGE (PROTO-)SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TEENS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TWENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST THIRTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST GOLDEN AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FORTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FIFTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SIXTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST NEW WAVE SCI FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SEVENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST EIGHTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST DIAMOND AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST NINETIES ADVENTURES (in progress) | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | NOTES ON 21st-CENTURY ADVENTURES.
HiLoBooks continued to serialize the following adventure titles: Helen MacInnes’s 1944 espionage adventure The Unconquerable (serialization will conclude next month); and William Haggard’s 1963 espionage adventure The High Wire (serialization concluded in February). In February, HiLoBooks began serializing Hammond Innes’s 1951 espionage/Robinsonade adventure Air Bridge (serialization will continue through July).
In March, HiLoBooks began serializing James Branch Cabell’s 1919 comical fantasy adventure Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice. Serialization will continue until next March.
SERIALIZED BY HILOBOOKS: Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague | Rudyard Kipling’s With the Night Mail (and “As Easy as A.B.C.”) | Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Poison Belt | H. Rider Haggard’s When the World Shook | Edward Shanks’ The People of the Ruins | William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land | J.D. Beresford’s Goslings | E.V. Odle’s The Clockwork Man | Cicely Hamilton’s Theodore Savage | Muriel Jaeger’s The Man With Six Senses | Jack London’s “The Red One” | Philip Francis Nowlan’s Armageddon 2419 A.D. | Homer Eon Flint’s The Devolutionist | W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Comet” | Edgar Rice Burroughs’s The Moon Men | Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland | Sax Rohmer’s “The Zayat Kiss” | Eimar O’Duffy’s King Goshawk and the Birds | Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Lost Prince | Morley Roberts’s The Fugitives | Helen MacInnes’s The Unconquerable | Geoffrey Household’s Watcher in the Shadows | William Haggard’s The High Wire | Hammond Innes’s Air Bridge | James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen | John Buchan’s “No Man’s Land” | John Russell’s “The Fourth Man” | E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” | John Buchan’s Huntingtower | Arthur Conan Doyle’s When the World Screamed | Victor Bridges’ A Rogue By Compulsion | Jack London’s The Iron Heel | H. De Vere Stacpoole’s The Man Who Lost Himself | P.G. Wodehouse’s Leave It to Psmith | Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” | Houdini and Lovecraft’s “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” | Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Sussex Vampire.”
For more information about HiLoBooks, and the 10 Radium Age science fiction novels we’ve reissued in gorgeous paperback format, visit our homepage.
In addition to the many posts listed above, 1Q2015 also saw the publication of the following:
- On January 18, we celebrated — for the third time since we first introduced the idea — MICAWBER DAY. The only international holiday dedicated to idlers!
- Our annual RONDEL FOR HILO HEROES, which — laboring under multiple formal constraints — celebrates 13 of the HiLo Heroes about whom our contributors wrote during the previous year.
- Josh Glenn’s annual Hypocrite Idler post looked back at his various 2014 projects, including: the launch, in April, of his brand strategy agency, SEMIOVOX LLC; and the publication, in October, of his latest UNBORED book, UNBORED Games (Bloomsbury).
On to 2Q2015!
ALSO READ: BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | BEST OF HILOBROW: 2011 | BEST OF HILOBROW: 2012 | BEST OF HILOBROW: 2013 | BEST OF HILOBROW: 2014