Fall 2008

Every book is partly a puzzle to be assembled, a labyrinth to be explored by its reader, a repository of buried secrets waiting to be unearthed. No surprise that the mystery genre, in all its permutations, is so enduringly beloved, because it is in the nature of all readers to enjoy ferreting out concealed treasures and discovering secrets perhaps known only to themselves. Every city has similar hidden delights, and true city-lovers never tire of ferreting out the mysteries of their metropolis.

By Tony Burgess One of the fascinating virtues of higher technology is how it stokes the appetite for the lowest, most primitive processes. Look at the persistence of lo-fi sound recording in both independent and popular music. You can go even further back, to, say, impressionist painters who used the high technology of light, laying in careful beads of pure color to give the impression of "rough" work. Hi-fi has always been lo-fi’s supporting player.