Connecting the Dots in South Minneapolis: Floyd, Good, Pretti, and More

 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/chescaleigh

If you're not familiar with Minneapolis, you may not realize how close these three events are geographically, namely, the murders of George Floyd in 2020, Renee Good on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti just yesterday (Jan. 24).

My Grandma lived at 31st and Chicago when I was a kid (seven blocks from the corner where Floyd took his last breath). My Grandma's church is around the corner from where Good was murdered in her car, and I have family members who regularly buy donuts at the store Pretti was gunned down in front of. I visit Minneapolis at least once or twice a year.

"Bullets Don't Have a Name on Them": Civil War (2024), Gaza, and Guns

 

"Bullets don't have a name on them."

- One of my neighbors

Alex Garland's Civil War (2024) is one of the more disturbing films I've seen recently, and that's saying something, because I also watched Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest several weeks ago. I've been meaning to write something about Civil War since I saw it last week. And here I am. 

Looking for Hope on the 5th of July

Yesterday was US Independence Day. I have complicated feelings about this holiday, as I have complicated feelings about the country it celebrates. 

I’ve never really been big on conventional displays of patriotism. It all feels so jingoistic and bombastic. And there’s something a bit gauche about pretending a patch of dirt is special because I happen to live on it. 

But this doesn’t mean I don’t love my country in some sense. I love the people here, because I love humanity and part of humanity lives here, the part that most influences me and which I can influence most. 

Outside the Boundaries of Reason: The Outsider by Stephen King

 

Stephen King's The Outsider makes me interested in things I wasn't all that interested in before: crime fiction and King's previous Bill Hodges trilogy. And it has all the Stephen King goodness we all love: developed characters encountering something otherworldly.

So You're Going to Quote MLK?

 

So you're going to quote Martin Luther King, Jr.? Great! Here are a few pointers.

Pandemic Journal, Part 20: A Different Kind of Weird

 

It has been a while since I posted Part 19 of my pandemic journal (March 23 to be precise). The last couple months have brought a lot of changes. Instead of a "new normal," I think we've reached "a different kind of weird." I'm fully vaccinated, my arm is healing (still not back to full range of motion), and I finished the semester. A lot of people are vaccinated here in the US (but rates are slowing down), there was a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, India has had a massive COVID surge, there are people (mostly Palestians) being killed in Israel/Palestine, and the CDC announced that fully vaccinated people don't have to wear masks even inside.

In addition to all that, I've been collecting a lot of memes for your enjoyment. So let's get to it.

Some Thoughts on the Chauvin Verdict

 

Now that it’s been a few days, here are some thoughts on the Chauvin verdict (he was the former Minneapolis police officer who was recently found guilty of murdering George Floyd in May 2020).

Women's History Month Review Round Up 2021: Brackett, Alexander, Moreno-Garcia, and Le Guin

March is Women's History Month, and like I did in 2019, I decided to celebrate by reading and reviewing works written by women this month. I'm reviewing the 1974 science fantasy novel Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett, the 2010 modern classic on mass incarceration The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, the 2020 creepy haunted house tale Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and--bookending the post with 70's SF--the 1975 strange little novella The New Atlantis by Ursula K. Le Guin.

I may try to keep up with my themed month reviews that I started in February for Black History Month. So stay tuned in May for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

Thoughts on the Pandemi-versary: Will we really learn anything?

 

Sign of the times: the collection of masks I've accumulated over the last year

Today is the anniversary of the day when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. Here's an entry from my pandemic journal on the topic. I'll keep posting that journal, but I thought excerpting this entry would be a good way to commemorate our pandemi-versary.

Pandemic Journal, Part 17: Memes for the Holidays

2020 brought us many things: a pandemic, elections, upheavals, and... my pandemic journal, which continues here with my entries from December 2020 (and one from January 2021). I have also been collecting memes that amused me for the last month or so. Maybe some of them will amuse you, too. In any case, let's hope 2021 will be a better year!

2020 in Hindsight

                      

What a fucking year. At the beginning of 2020 I was looking forward to a year of tenure and travel. Here, at the end, I’m looking back on a year of turmoil.

Realism and Other Fantasies: The Changeling by Victor LaValle

 

I'm a huge fan of Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom (I even assign it in my course on horror and philosophy), so I was excited to read more from the same author.

The Changeling is a really different book than The Ballad of Black Tom, but it also shows LaValle's ability to blend realism and fantasy to tell an engaging story.

Pandemic Journal, Part 16: Our Non-Normal November

My Pandemic Journal continues with Part 16: Our Non-Normal November. (I tried to think of something catchier. Maybe you can do better!) 

It has been a non-normal month (granted, we have had a lot of non-normal months lately). But this one had the bizarreness of the US election on top of everything else.

One thing that has become normal (at least on this blog): memes! Enjoy!

HBO's Lovecraft Country: A Non-Review

From HBO's Lovecraft Country

I reviewed Matt Ruff's novel Lovecraft Country about a month ago, and I told myself I'd review Misha Green's HBO adaptation once the season was complete.

My analogy of the relation between the book and the show is like the relationship between Bob Dylan’s and Jimi Hendrix’s versions of “All Along the Watchtower.” All the versions are good and technically the latter things are adaptations of the former, but the adaptations in both cases explode the original ideas into higher, mind-bending dimensions. (Misha Green's adaptation plays with this idea in interesting ways that I won't spoil).

I enjoyed the book, but I loved the show. Sometimes the show moved so fast it was hard to keep up, but... I'm not sure the world needs another white dude's opinion. Definitely not about this show.

So, instead, here are some resources from Black academics, creators, and critics that can help to explore the multi-layered dimensions of HBO's Lovecraft Country.

Pandemic Journal, Part 11

My Pandemic Journal continues with Part 11, which covers most of July 2020 until the 25th. You can see Part 10 here. And as has become tradition, there are lots of random memes. I have an even larger than usual store of memes saved for this post. I may have gotten a little carried away. Enjoy!

Pandemic Journal, Part 9 (A New Hope?)

My pandemic journal continues (see my previous entry here). It's an understatement to say that a lot has been happening the last couple weeks. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll see. And of course, there are memes.