Well this was certainly a hell of a week. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, gone on consecutive days. Then Peter Cullen not long after. Three wonderful people with amazing voices.
Reading
I just finished reading Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera. It takes place in antebellum New Orleans, and has a lot to say about American society of the time, including the lives and tribulations of slaves and immigrants. Reading it soon after finishing Human Capital put my mind in a particular place, and I am adding a lot of content to the notebook for one of my novels-in-progress
When looking back through old reading lists I realized I read Season of the Swamp last year around this time, but I don’t remember a single thing about it. This time it stuck.
Writing
The creative juices are trickling like treacle. I have rough drafts of a couple of poems intended for a time capsule project, due at the beginning of October. Any momentum I had at the beginning of July has ended and the remaining inertia is just enough to occasionally jot down a line or two in the middle of long journal entries about how I don’t have enough time to write. So it goes.
Weekly Writing Prompt
Subject: Economics, Aliens
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Magic Realism
Listening
“A Fifth of Beethoven”, by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I heard it recently while picking up a couple of slices at Martha’s Pizza. Now it’s in your head too.
Interesting Links
- “Simulacra of Democracy” (Elzbieta Matynia, Public Seminar)
- “I Like ’em Thick” (Adam Mastroianni, Experimental History)
- “Understanding Iranian Victory: Iranian Strategic Logic and Why Tehran Believes It Has Already Won” (Joseph Busby, Reality-Based Analysis Group)