Tag Archives: essays

The Weekly Urchin Recap

Posted on 5 May 2013 by The Urchins

By Geo Ong This Urchin’s going on assignment, y’all. I leave tomorrow, and for ten days I will live in and explore the mystical city of Los Angeles. Yes, that one. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, I did … Continue reading →

Posted in Geo, Literature, Travel | Tagged abandon the old in tokyo, books, christa wolf, city of angels, essays, in motion, los angeles, novels, rebecca solnit, the faraway nearby, tony hiss, travel literature, yoshihiro tatsumi | Leave a comment

What Are Animals For?

Posted on 29 January 2013 by The Urchins

By Geo Ong The question, as my eyes fell over it, took my mind captive. The question is disturbing in its honesty and thus thought-provoking, even (or should I say, especially) for me, a practicing vegan. The ‘use’ of things … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Environment, Geo, Literature, Politics & Global Issues | Tagged a report to an academy, an encounter with du chaillu, animal rights, anthropomorphism, apes, bears, books, cave trout, children and animals, children's books, children's literature, christine m. korsgaard, christopher stone, david egan, essays, fabien tepper, frank tashlin, franz kafka, getting animals in view, gorillas, humans, i don't like the look of him jack, John Berger, king kong, literary magazines, metaphor, periodicals, should trees have standing?, the bear that wasn't, the point, vegan, veganism, walton ford, why look at animals?, zoos | 5 Comments

That’s What They Said: An Extended Edition

Posted on 8 January 2013 by The Urchins

By Geo Ong Included in Truman Capote’s collection Music for Chameleons is a charmingly self-indulgent piece titled ‘Nocturnal Turnings,’ in which Capote, unable to fall asleep one night, conducts an interview with himself. The self-interview maintains a high level … Continue reading →

Posted in Geo, Literature | Tagged essays, honesty, marianne moore, music for chameleons, nocturnal turnings, poems, poetry, poets, truman capote, writers, writing | Leave a comment

It’s Bookshelf Time

Posted on 30 April 2012 by The Urchins

Spring is here! And so are new books to the Urchin Bookshelf! Check it before you wreck it. (Actually, don’t wreck it at all. We only have one, and it was given to us by a large man with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaborative, Literature | Tagged alison bechdel, are you my mother, biographies, books, c.s. lewis, desert solitaire, edward abbey, essays, granta, london, london the lives of the city, michael pollan, prince, ronin ro, the botany of desire, the london scene, the omnivore's dilemma, till we have faces, urchin bookshelf, virginia woolf | 76 Comments

The New York City Reader

Posted on 29 July 2011 by The Urchins

by Geo Ong Before I made the move to New York, I planned to prepare myself the only way I knew how: by reading. So I made up my very own NYC reading list, by no means comprehensive, but I … Continue reading →

Posted in Geo, Literature, Travel | Tagged books, e.b. white, edward rutherfurd, essays, everyman's library, fiction, fran lebowitz, fran lebowitz reader, geoff nicholson, here is new york, historical fiction, john dos passos, manhattan transfer, matthew goodman, metropolitan life, new york, new york city, new york stories, nonfiction, short fiction, social studies, the lost art of walking, the sun and the moon, travel literature | 1 Comment

Going Places with Short Stories

Posted on 12 May 2011 by The Urchins

By Geo Ong Here are two collections of short fiction (and one collection of short nonfiction) with a strong sense of place, with themes reflective of its environment. Reading these is probably the closest you’ll get to the places and … Continue reading →

Posted in Geo, Literature, Travel | Tagged billancourt, billancourt tales, books, essays, fiction, fran lebowitz, francisco coloane, hbo, martin scorsese, new directions, new york city, nina berberova, nonfiction, paris, public speaking, short fiction, short stories, tierra del fuego | 1 Comment

The Urchin Book Trunk

Posted on 29 July 2010 by The Urchins

As we mentioned earlier, the Urchins are embarking on our first ever Urchin road trip. In preparation for our journey, we look to the interesting minds that have done it before us. Here it is – the Urchin Book Trunk! … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaborative, Examples in Urchinism, Literature, Travel | Tagged air-conditioned nightmare, america, america day by day, Beat Generation, beats, bennington, Bill Bryson, books, dogs, edna st vincent millay, electric kool-aid acid test, england, essays, expatriates, frasier, gothic literature, henry david thoreau, henry miller, Jack Kerouac, john steinbeck, london, mark twain, new journalism, nonfiction, novels, on the road, poetry, poodles, pulitzer prize, riding toward everywhere, road trip, roughing it, sal paradise, shirley jackson, simone de beauvoir, sixties, stephen fry, stephen fry in america, the lost continent, tom wolfe, train hopping, travel literature, travels with charley, urchin book trunk, urchin bookshelf, Vermont, walden, we have always lived in the castle, william t vollmann | 3 Comments

Bad Nature, Bad Words, and Bad People: Three More Revolutionary Books

Posted on 16 July 2010 by The Urchins

By Geo Ong Part Three of the ongoing and hopefully infinite list of revolutionary books. If you haven’t yet read Part One: Begin from Within or Part Two: You Animals!, be sure to check out those posts, too! Civil Disobedience … Continue reading →

Posted in Examples in Urchinism, Geo, Literature, Politics & Global Issues | Tagged art as social revolution, books, castro, civil disobedience, communism, communist manifesto, discrimination, essays, false consciousness, fox news, friedrich engels, gandhi, henry david thoreau, immigration, imperial, injustice, joseph mccarthy, karl marx, martin luther king jr, marxism, mccarthyism, mexican immigrants, mexican-american war, mexico, pol pot, poverty, resistance to civil government, revolution, revolutionary books, slavery, stalin, tariq ali, the idea of communism, War!, william t vollmann | Leave a comment

You Animals!: Four More Revolutionary Books

Posted on 4 June 2010 by The Urchins

As we mentioned in our previous post about revolutionary books, the artistic written word is a powerful and important tool in fueling change. From the political and the social to the economic and the scientific, art as revolution continues to … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Collaborative, Literature | Tagged a modest proposal, america, animal cruelty, animal liberation, animal liberation movement, animal rights, animal welfare, art as social revolution, bible, biology, books, charles darwin, darwinism, england, essays, evolution, fiction, food and drug administration, ireland, john bunyan, jonathan swift, london, meatpacking industry, muckraker, muckraking, museum of natural history, nonfiction, novels, on the origin of species, peter singer, pilgrim's progress, poverty, pure food and drug act of 1906, revolution, revolutionary books, satire, science, speciesism, the jungle, theory of evolution, upton sinclair, vegetarianism, working class | 3 Comments

Begin from Within: Four Revolutionary Books

Posted on 14 May 2010 by The Urchins

Spinning off Margaret’s post on revolutionary songs, we’re proud to present some of our favourite revolutionary books. The truly wonderful thing about compiling a list of titles is coming to understanding that revolution takes all forms and covers many different … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaborative, Literature | Tagged a room of one's own, Allen Ginsberg, art as social revolution, beats, Big Brother, books, cambridge, essays, feminism, fiction, george orwell, howl, nineteen eighty-four, nonfiction, novels, poetry, ralph waldo emerson, revolution, revolutionary books, self-reliance, totalitarianism, trandscendentalists, transcendentalism, virginia woolf | 3 Comments

Tag Archives: essays

The Weekly Urchin Recap

What Are Animals For?

That’s What They Said: An Extended Edition

It’s Bookshelf Time

Going Places with Short Stories

The Urchin Book Trunk

The Urchins

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