Archive for Improving Society
From Le Guin’s “Introduction to Planet of Exile” (intro written in 1977 or 1978; can now be found in The Language of the Night). Worth reading the whole piece, but here’s a bit of it: […] Planet of Exile was written in 1963–1964[…]. The book exhibits my early, “natural” (i.e., happily acculturated), unawakened, un-consciousness-raised way […]
Some assorted notes about today’s March for Our Lives rally in San José: Followup on my previous post: I was glad that the march started at 11:00 a.m. That gave me time to have a leisurely start to my day and still arrive before the march started. When I first arrived, the crowd nearby was […]
What I want to do today: Laze around the house, reading and watching TV and labeling photos and maybe doing laundry. What I’m going to do today: Go to the March for Our Lives in San José. I’m generally oddly reluctant to attend marches and rallies and such. They involve a lot of people, and […]
I have complicated feelings about this mashup of “Story of Tonight” (from Hamilton) with “You Will Be Found” (from the musical Dear Evan Hansen). On the one hand, it’s a lovely song, and it’s a benefit for March For Our Lives. On the other hand, I had never heard of Dear Evan Hansen before (content […]
I found this gun-control segment on The Takeaway yesterday useful. Lois Beckett, senior reporter for The Guardian US covering guns and gun violence, discusses a number of different gun control proposals, their viability, what they could accomplish, and how much they may actually address America's problem with gun violence. If I understood right, she said […]
Even more about Black Panther’s record-breaking box-office: […] only the fifth film to ever deliver over $200 million in its first three days of release and the second largest four-day gross in history. [Second to The Force Awakens.] […] Black Panther has already outgrossed the lifetime domestic totals for Doctor Strange ($232.6m), Thor: The Dark […]
Just happened across a Joanna Russ essay from 1972, “The New Misandry,” which focuses on praising misandry but is also about feminism and change and differentials of privilege (though she doesn’t use that word) and incrementalism vs radical change. Content warning (both in the article and in my quotes below) for descriptions of behavior patterns […]
Back in September, I attended a training to be an observer at ICE raids. I hadn’t heard anything from them...
I think it’s fascinating to observe toxic masculinity in action in Westerns. (Some quasi-spoilers here for Shane (1953).) In this...
I'm watching Underground season 2, episode 1, “Contraband,” and I just got to a scene in which one of the...
Several interesting and informative Tesla Model 3 links: Specs and prices, including prices for various options, from the official Tesla...
I've long loved John McCutcheon's 1991 rendition of Leon Rosselson's 1975 song “The World Turned Upside Down” (not to be...