Local Retailers Sing Recession Blues

Local

If you're not convinced that the economic downturn is a crisis writ large, walk down any commercial street in Brooklyn and count the vacant storefronts or signs advertising 70%-off sales.

What Is to Be Done?

Express

It’s hard to imagine a more stunning demonstration of the theoretical bankruptcy of economics as a putative science than the ongoing discussion of the current economic situation.

The Proof of the Honey

Express

Some people conjure spirits. I conjure bodies. I have no knowledge of my soul or of the souls of others. I know only my body and theirs.

Alfredo Jaar

Art

"It's too easy to blame Kevin Carter for being the vulture, where in fact we are the vultures, the vulture is us," says Jaar.

Matvey Levenstein with Phong Bui

Art

While preparing for his forthcoming one-person exhibition at Larissa Goldston Gallery, on view from April 2nd to May 9th, the painter Matvey Levenstein stopped by the Rail’s Headquarters to talk to Publisher Phong Bui about his life and work.

Roberta Smith with Irving Sandler

Art

"I believe in individual taste, but taste-making is a kind of fiction. It's just a way to organize things that as time passes are going to fall apart again," says Smith.

Fair is Foul

Amidst the rightful popular outrage against the continued handouts to Wall Street, one man has stood defiant—the mayor of New York City.

The Perfect Mix: Assembling Angela’s Mixtape: Playwright Eisa Davis With Tommy Smith

Theater

"The play is about the Angela Davis I knew from growing up with her until I was about 19," says Eisa Davis.

Don’t Shoot the Player Piano: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot Taps into Unplayed Musical Realms

Music

Without a pianist at the bench, pianos can foray into wildly perplexing terrain.

The Good Citizen

Fiction

There is a section of the 110 freeway in Los Angeles that drops into downtown and at night it feels like you are driving through the skyscrapers, lit up like a big carnival on the edge of the city.