I lost a close friend of mine last week to cancer and I just haven’t been up to posting links at the moment.
Blogging will resume at some point in the near future.
Stay warm and healthy Cynics.
Month: November 2019
Cooking on Rough Seas
Teacher Suspended After Wearing Blackface and Rapping on Halloween in Class
Sooooooooo… one of our WHITE teachers at mhs yesterday decided to paint his face so look like common the rapper yesterday. pic.twitter.com/1WudSddCLZ
— karrington (@karrington_kk) November 1, 2019
I just can’t fathom how anybody would think that this would end well:
A high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave in California after he wore blackface to school on Halloween, according to the Milpitas Unified School District.
A video posted on social media shows the teacher with his face painted black and dressed up in an apparent attempt to imitate the rapper Common.
Books I Read in October
Actually a bit of a slow month for some reason.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson I’m pretty sure I put this on my list because Obama had read it. It’s about a black female CIA agent and I was really looking forward to this. And, it makes a small mistake. It’s just boring. Completely boring. Not sure how you fuck up a spy novel but this one manages it. I gave up about halfway through.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman I read this when it first came out and decided it was a perfect pre-Halloween read again. And you know what. Still holds up. Extremely imaginative and hits all the right notes. Reminds me that I should reread Coraline also.
The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1 I was browsing a bookstore and came across a graphic novel version of some Lovecraft stories. The one I found in the bookstore was Volume 2 and I didn’t think it was worth spending $25 on. My library had Volume 1 so here we are. This volume has some of my favorite Lovecraft stories (Call of Cthulhu, Shadow over Innsmouth, Dunwich Horror, Rats in the Walls) so I was thrilled by the content. The art was well done but I felt like they cut way too much out of each story to make it easily digestible.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving This is more of a short story (maybe a novella? I dunno, read it on a kindle and forget how many pages it is) This is another reread except there have been so many adaptations that have expanded on the story that it’s difficult to remember how the original goes. I liked the simplicity and the ending which leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey Ok, I’m cheating with this one. I haven’t finished it yet. But I should finish it tonight. A good biography about Gorey. I have visited the Gorey House in Yarmouth, MA a few years ago which was filled with his work and amazing if not a bit on the small side. If you’re into his work, this book will be a treat for you.
And what have you been reading lately?