From the Stacks: June 16, 2006

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Utne receives some 1,200 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, and zines. Add in hundreds of books, CDs, and DVDs, and it's a flood of media that lines the walls of our library and piles high on our desks. All the ideas, people, and stories inspire lively daily chatter, but they can't all fit into our bimonthly magazine. So we share the gems here in our weekly editions of 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the freshest highlights of the independent and alternative media.

Don't expect to find any Top 40 artists in Signal to Noise, 'the journal of improvised and experimental music.' Do expect to be dazzled by interviews with artists who push the boundaries between genres and throw the pop culture curve for loops. Take Table of Elements, the collection of musical visionaries who drew a notable crowd of critics and fans to a Texas church after midnight for a South by Southwest performance. Or Pleasurehorse, who rips apart songs before frantically reassembling them with a Powerbook, CD mixers, and the long-deceased eight-track player. Whether you like the resulting sounds or not, the raw talent that births them is reason enough to listen -- and read. -- Kristen Mueller

Battle-torn ghosts haunt the pages of Camerawork's Spring/Summer issue. Rendered as native faces superimposed on tree trunks, transparent figures in crumbling rooms, an anaglyph image of Billy the Kid, and a lone soldier standing amidst a graveyard that's haphazardly scattered with crosses, the photos blur the tenuous boundary between life and death -- calling our own mortality into question. -- Kristen Mueller

It's summer in the city and the streets are buzzing? with bees. The June/July issue of Briarpatch, Saskatchewan's independent alternative news magazine, features the busy workers in their collaboration with city folks in 'Adventures in Urban Beekeeping.' Harvesting local honey relieves the need for imported sugar cane, which the World Wildlife Fund says 'is responsible for more biodiversity loss than any other crop.' Local food is a small step forward, but William E. Rees demands North Americans reevaluate their urban lifestyle to be more sustainable in 'The Myth of the Livable City.' Says Rees: 'The ecosystems that support wealthy city-dwellers' consumer lifestyles are often located in other countries half a world away.' -- Rachel Anderson

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