Photos of Photos of the Great War
January 2nd, 2010 by BMThese are from the Douaumont Ossuary, just outside Verdun, France. It is a surprisingly beautiful monument and mass grave—containing the remains of some 130,000 unidentified German and French solidiers. There are another 25,000 proper graves outside. The walls are covered, Maya Lin-style, with names of yet more casualties of the battle. And then there are these images, captured by the photographer Didier Pazery, of survivors posed with photos of their former selves. It’s one of the more moving memorials of tragedy that I’ve ever seen—probably more so because the Great War is just about to pass entirely from living memory.
Behold, the Mad Prophesy
November 6th, 2009 by BMWay back in 1955, in the pages of Mad #19, Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder imagined the dark side of Disney: “Mickey Rodent.”
It only took Disney 55 years to catch up, with its reimagined “cunning,” “cantankerous” Mickey.
Hello Again
November 1st, 2009 by BM
Lately I’ve been consigning most of my self-promotion to Twitter (where I am @brettmartin, BTW), where the sting of shame is like pulling off a Band Aid. Forgive, then, these two quick notes about recent pieces:
In the NYT Sunday Styles section, my report on the World’s Greatest Rock-N-Roll (Wedding) Band. It even got Gawker to be kind of nice. And to dig up this.
In the November issue of GQ, there’s my essay about ordering all my food from foreign lands, via FedEx. AKA: Screw LocalandSeasonal! (UPDATE: Now online.)
Also, in the same issue, a short, food-centric dispatch from lovely Oxford, Mississippi.
Digital versions of both to come, I hope, but do buy the magazine. Times is hard in the paper media biz. And check out the awesomely revamped GQ.com, for good measure. Read the rest of this entry »
Close to home
June 2nd, 2009 by BMIt’s not the most exotic travel piece I’ve ever written, but my feature on eating in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is in this month’s Bon Appetit. It includes a host of newish joints, along with a certain, older steakhouse I’ve covered before.
Down in New Orleans
May 13th, 2009 by BMSome random pics from JazzFest 2009. Now off to the other LA.
Seriously, Portland?
March 3rd, 2009 by BM
Enormous amounts of good food and drink in Portland, OR, this past week. Seriously, though, way to go out there and dispel stereotypes. The motto of this chain, in case you can’t read it, is: Clogs: The Comfortable Alternative to Shoes
.
Tomorrow will be fat
February 23rd, 2009 by BMIn honor of Mardi Gras tomorrow, here is my recent GQ story on eating and killing time between meals in New Orleans.
As Tom Waits said, I wish I was there. Or, more particularly, here:
The Biggest BM
February 7th, 2009 by BMMatchstick Men film I bow to the mighty Bernarr and I insist you buy this book.