The new iPhone rec­og­nizes, and auto­mat­i­cally cap­i­tal­izes, the acronym “NYRB.” Its a charm­ingly fussy idio­syn­crasy, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing the fact that the soft­ware is still sure you mean “it’s” every time you type “its.”

Two of the four major net­works and NPR get the same treat­ment–ABC and FOX lose out for obvi­ous rea­sons–but other organs of the haute bour­geoisie don’t fare so well. In fact sev­eral get down­graded: “nyt” becomes “nut,” “lrb” changes to “orb” or “leg,” depend­ing, and, my per­sonal favorite (how­ever inac­cu­rate), “tnr” trans­mutes itself into “TNT.”

I’ve posted some photos from last Thursday’s Chicago Review launch party. The event fea­tured a set of tremen­dous read­ings by Eleni Sike­lianos, Ed Rober­son, and Dan Beachy-​Quick, as well as a bril­liant per­for­mance of Bar­bara Guest’s “The Office” directed by Peter Thomas.

In lieu of orig­i­nal thought, a few items of pos­si­ble interest:

+ John Conroy is back! But he’s on WBEZ now instead of writ­ing for the Chicago Reader. (This is not exactly news, but a story today–not up yet on the WBEZ web­site–reminded me to men­tion it.)

+ Emily Wilson (the clas­si­cist, not the poet) reviews John Tipton’s Ajax: “He suc­ceeds bril­liantly at cre­at­ing a living, con­tem­po­rary Sopho­cles. His ver­sion is a chill­ing mirror.” (The original’s in The Nation, but trapped behind a paywall.)

+ Marty Riker inter­views the Flood fel­lows: “Just for the record, I was not, in fact, an angry young man. Con­fused and obnox­ious, but not really angry.”

+ Auf­gabe’s edi­tors undo “Numbers Trouble”: “Should we be thank­ful or irri­tated that the draft is gendered?”

+ Danielle Allen speaks for her­self on the Obama Muslim smear: “Worse than mud.”

+ Kent John­son is still not sure about “A True Account of Talk­ing to the Sun at Fire Island”: “‘It is a real mys­tery, that poem.’”

Come to Hyde Park next Thurs­day (July 17th) to help us cel­e­brate the launch of Chicago Review’s new issue!

We’ll have:

+ Read­ings by Eleni Sike­lianos, Ed Rober­son, and Dan Beachy-​Quick

+ A staged read­ing of Bar­bara Guest’s “The Office”

+ Food, drinks, and music

+ Dis­counted copies of the new issue on sale

 
The party starts at 7pm on July 17th at the Exper­i­men­tal Sta­tion in Hyde Park (6100 S. Black­stone - map) and will last at least until 11pm. The event is free, but dona­tions to sup­port the mag­a­zine will be accepted. All are welcome!

Email chicago-review@uchicago.edu or leave a ques­tion in the com­ments for more information.

The Chicago Review Launch Party is co-​sponsored by the Center for Gender Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago and the Writ­ing Center at the School of the Art Insti­tute. The event is sup­ported by a gen­er­ous grant from the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Arts Council.

(Photo by Fred McDarragh)