You'd best believe this thing is real
Whatever else you may happen to be doing this afternoon, evening, or morning, please take four minutes and listen to the Staple Singers' "Slippery People." I heard the song first and adore it in Stop Making Sense (1984), but this is the definitive version. It could have been written for them.
Other links while I work until I leave the house for a workshop this evening—
1. Not a quick read, but not a shallow one, either: "When an ex-Fatah Palestinian 'neighbor' took up a Zionist author's challenge." They are a small part of the overall discussion, but I was struck by these lines:
[M]ost Diaspora Jews are still speaking about Israel in a 20th century way, which is: Zionism began with the pogroms in czarist Russia, and it culminates in the Holocaust—an entirely Euro-centric narrative. That is problematic for several reasons. One is because the majority of Israeli Jews come from families that have nothing to do with the Shoah, who came from one part of the Middle East and moved to another part. So we are writing out a majority of Israeli Jews from the Zionist story.
Mizrahi Jewishness does have importance in the diasporic circles I read and talk in, but I suspect my diasporic circles self-select for inclusivity and that means I have no idea what anyone else is doing until, cf. recently the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, they do it wrong. It's the sort of widening ring of awareness that makes me feel uselessly naive. In any case, the piece as a whole is worth your time.
2. I am sorry to read of the death of Sylvia Miles. She was not an unreasonable age for it, but I just discovered her within the last six months and in the way of character actors I could have believed that she was raucously immortal.
3. I found William Meredith's "Navy Field" in Poetry's "The Poetry of World War II" and I just like his language. It reads a little like a translation—it makes me think of Gerard Manley Hopkins—but neither of these is a complaint.
4. I read this article about virtual influencers and I really don't enjoy that we have reached the stage of dystopia where we are just straight-up ripping off William Gibson's Idoru (1996).
5. At least the D.C. Dyke March does not yet appear to have set a trend.
P.S. It took forever and involved nightmares, but last night I slept.
Other links while I work until I leave the house for a workshop this evening—
1. Not a quick read, but not a shallow one, either: "When an ex-Fatah Palestinian 'neighbor' took up a Zionist author's challenge." They are a small part of the overall discussion, but I was struck by these lines:
[M]ost Diaspora Jews are still speaking about Israel in a 20th century way, which is: Zionism began with the pogroms in czarist Russia, and it culminates in the Holocaust—an entirely Euro-centric narrative. That is problematic for several reasons. One is because the majority of Israeli Jews come from families that have nothing to do with the Shoah, who came from one part of the Middle East and moved to another part. So we are writing out a majority of Israeli Jews from the Zionist story.
Mizrahi Jewishness does have importance in the diasporic circles I read and talk in, but I suspect my diasporic circles self-select for inclusivity and that means I have no idea what anyone else is doing until, cf. recently the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, they do it wrong. It's the sort of widening ring of awareness that makes me feel uselessly naive. In any case, the piece as a whole is worth your time.
2. I am sorry to read of the death of Sylvia Miles. She was not an unreasonable age for it, but I just discovered her within the last six months and in the way of character actors I could have believed that she was raucously immortal.
3. I found William Meredith's "Navy Field" in Poetry's "The Poetry of World War II" and I just like his language. It reads a little like a translation—it makes me think of Gerard Manley Hopkins—but neither of these is a complaint.
4. I read this article about virtual influencers and I really don't enjoy that we have reached the stage of dystopia where we are just straight-up ripping off William Gibson's Idoru (1996).
5. At least the D.C. Dyke March does not yet appear to have set a trend.
P.S. It took forever and involved nightmares, but last night I slept.

no subject
Good!
Also some character actors should defnitely go on forever; it should be a thing. <3
no subject
no subject
no subject
Yes! It's wonderful. I did not know she was touring, though; it looks unfortunately as though she'll be in Massachusetts while I'm at Readercon.
no subject
no subject
I'm still not convinced some of them don't do just that. I remember the Year of Denholm Elliott.
no subject
I'm glad it's not just me!
no subject
Nice!
I have seen Pops Staples in True Stories (1986), but I didn't know until last night the connection was older than that.
no subject
no subject
no subject
You're welcome!
(Have I had occasion to state that I approve of that icon?)
no subject
I have been more or less playing it on repeat since last night.
no subject
no subject
That one I recognize! I'm just not sure I'd seen the other one, where she basically looks like Patti Smith (and I approve).
no subject
P.
no subject
That does not sound like a bad thing.
no subject
"Raucously immortal" indeed. She had a good run, but I wish it were longer.
Nine
no subject
She was so good in Crossing Delancey (1988), matchmaking while dismembering roast chicken.
no subject
(This icon technically does have Denholm Elliott in it, honest.)
no subject
Done! That is very good.
I've only had time to read the start of the interview so far, but it looks extremely useful and I will definitely come back to it. Thank you!
no subject
Yay! Once I knew it existed, it had to be shared.
I've only had time to read the start of the interview so far, but it looks extremely useful and I will definitely come back to it. Thank you!
You're welcome!