By: Brian Berger

A composer in search of ambivalence and revelation.

By: Lucy Sante

Dashiell Hammett vs. The Situationists

By: Peggy Nelson

She showed us how to color outside the lines.

By: Lynn Peril

A story that everyone knows even if they don’t remember the author’s name.

By: Mike Fleisch

A repeating slideshow from a series of knee-high cameras.

By: Gary Panter

He inspired a movement of self-aware, less cool folk artists.

By: Deb Chachra

She pioneered human-readable program­ming language.

By: Greg Rowland

He pushed the Hammond’s delicacy and dirt the furthest.

By: Lynn Peril

Scream­ingly funny, yet type­cast forever as Ted Baxter.

By: Mark Kingwell

“Yale Scholar Wrote for Pro-Nazi Newspaper”

By: Lucy Sante

She could make a rising inflection transcend all the bitterness.

By: Tor Aarestad

A Pat-Benatar-loving Linda Blair gone to seed?

By: Barbara Bogaev

“I’d sooner clean and paint the house / Than read a book by Botho Strauss.”

By: Brian Berger

He replaced an irreplaceable genius.

By: Alix Lambert

Hurt Locker was very good — not always a pre­requisite for Oscar-winners