Not a week for finishing things. It was a hard week. Beginning with late night Sunday news from Las Vegas … being glued to the news all Monday, followed by a scare at USC. Everything felt on edge, a little too bright, a little to brittle. Breakable and fragile.
It was a week for hugs. For discussing solutions with smart people, for sharing ideas, for mourning.
It was a week for pictures of the babies.
My week in reading
Books
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
I haven’t finished this, it’s really good though. Exploring some of the same themes as Lolly Willowes (and the play I read this week as well … Yerma in the Desert by Oliver Mayer). Women in uneasy roles, fenced in like animals by societal norms. Woman on the Edge of Time is also a fantasy novel, allowing our protagonist to see glimpses of a future with differently defined gender roles. I’m loving this so far.
Loving it so far.
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Again, haven’t finished this. Taking my time reading this one, and reading along to the audio book (narrated by Christopher Dontrell Piper) to get it further into my brain. This should be mandatory reading all across the U.S. The research is meticulous. The history, bloody. Themes here mirror themes from White Trash, from Reproducing Racism, from The New Jim Crow. We have need of a reckoning. American refusal to look at its history of violence, greed, and oppression has yielded this Trumpian/Orwellian nightmare. So red or blue pill? Wake up or continue being a battery to feed the machine of white supremacy coupled with capitalism.
I know this will be a highly recommended. Amazing so far. The writing is just impeccable, the research deep and meticulous.
City of Inmates by Kelly Lytle Hernández
I should be finished this book, but it is so hard. Not difficult reading, just hard to take. The history of incarceration to keep “problem” citizens under order is relentless. This feels much like reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. A necessary and relentless tale of how those in power use that power to keep everyone else down. How different groups use cartel strategies to keep power for as long as they can. How white became normal, how the settler mentality pushed native and then new “foreign” elements out of their fair city.
This should be read by every single Angeleno. Powerful. Well researched and well written.
Posts from around the digital realm
An older piece from the New York Times … Inside the Power of the N.R.A.
My brilliant friend Lisa argues that: It’s time to require gun owners to carry liability insurance
LitHub brings it with this listicle: 40 OF THE CREEPIEST BOOK COVERS OF ALL TIME
Sarah Gailey’s new look at the original Blade Runner, before the opening of 2049 … This Future Looks Familiar: Watching Blade Runner in 2017
Episode 1, The Real Thing, Dirty John podcast from the Los Angeles Times.
The watching …
Blade Runner 2049 – go.
Season 3, Dark Matter. Didn’t end well, but SyFy not well known for giving creators a chance to end things. I kind of love Dark Matter, and will miss it.
Season 2, The Good Place. If you haven’t watched this show yet. Do it. Stop now, go watch season 1.
This wonderful, moody, atmospheric tale from Iceland … Trapped.
Music
a throwback, couldn’t stop listening to James Blake this week.
Work Life
A tiny break this past week, which was necessary after the horrible weekend and Monday afternoon scare at USC.
Anthony W. Orlando released his interview with Miry Whitehill Ben-Atar on the building of her nonprofit that uses crowd-sourcing to help refugee families settle into their new lives in America.
Listen, and then check out Miry’s List.