Over the past year or two, I’ve become quite enamored with Josh Ritter, a singer-songwriter and guitarist who pens folk-infused tunes that straddle the alt-country and alt-rock genres.  His songs tend to be quite simple, structurally speaking, sometimes no more than three or four chord progression augmented by lush instrumentation.  He sings with an earthy voice [...]

While viewing this New York Times photo slide show on English malapropisms in Shanghai.  The newspaper reports that for “the last two years, the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use has been trying to clean up English-language signs and menus.” Your first instinct may be chuckle at descriptions of an ATM as a [...]

I recently let my subscription to Foreign Policy magazine lapse, albeit reluctantly.  I’ve always found the publication’s articles quite thought provoking.  They’ve forced me to challenge my thinking of everything from renewable energy to local food.  But it’s the photo essays in FP that have always grabbed me the most, perhaps because of their ability [...]

I found this passage from The New Yorker’s recent article on the iPad and the book business to be kind of depressing: “According to the American Booksellers Association, the number of independent booksellers has declined from 3,250 to 1,400 since 1999; independents now represent just ten per cent of store sales. Chains like Barnes & [...]