hadaverde

Andrea Pitzer, “The Century-Long Year”

Pitzer is the author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, which I recommend reading to anyone who wants to understand an important facet of what’s going on in the United States right now. Her newsletter and podcast are worthwhile; they mirror each other, so you can absorb this content in whichever way works best for you.

This entry is an elucidation of the idea that Trump is less a cause of the U.S.’s current situation, than a symptom. Even once he’s gone—and he will be, someday—the circumstances that put him in power will remain. If that doesn’t sound great to you, Pitzer has some advice at the end.

Bret Devereaux, “Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars”

I always had this feeling that much of what happens in Lord of the Rings was in the intersections between Tolkien’s deep love and knowledge of ancient literature, his Christian faith, and his experiences in World War I. This excellent essay directly addresses two of those things, thus highlighting some key differences between battle scenes in Tolkien’s work and, say, the Iliad (which sometimes enumerates exactly which internal organs a spear impales when it kills someone).

Isaac Saul, “The ICE Shooting in Minneapolis”

There’s tons out there about the killing of Renée Good; this is probably as decent a summation as any. If you’re not familiar with Tangle, its habitual approach is to round up sources from the political left and right that are representative of what’s being said on a topic or story. Note that it does not claim that these are the most accurate reports, just the most representative. I link to this one because I think Isaac is probably saying what a lot of people are thinking right now, especially those who haven’t been anticipating (by which I mean dreading) something like this.

Something that I don’t think is getting enough attention, at least not yet, is just how quickly the Trump administration framed the entire event to suit its purposes. It’s not new for the administration to do this, but they’re getting bolder about it. (Have a look at what the official White House website says about January 6th, if you can stomach it.)

To that latter point, and how we got here, Sherrilyn Ifill’s “Whether It Is ICE or Local Police, the U.S. Has Normalised Anti-Democratic Law Enforcement Practices” is an important read. This week’s shooting is an outcome of something that’s been building for a long, long time.

David Williams, “Ten Reasons to be an Urban Naturalist”

I’ve been a subscriber to Williams’s (no relation) newsletter for awhile now, and appreciate the lens he brings to the natural world with which our cities are enmeshed. Nature’s not out there, somewhere—it’s on our streets, in our backyards, in our homes, and in us. While I can attest that seeing an elephant in its home environment (for example) is an amazing experience, so was the screech owl I spotted outside my house by following a ruckus of crows. What he calls Birding by Butt here is very similar to the practice of sit spot: go find a place to sit on a regular basis, and see what turns up. My city backyard has featured rabbits, cats, robins, raccoons, red-tailed hawks, barred owls, and one memorable season, a junco nest.

Junior Kimbrough, Bellinzonia Blues Festival 1993

I’ve been going through some CDs I haven’t listened to in awhile (and sending some off to donation), and came across a few Junior Kimbrough albums. There’s not a lot of videos of him out there, but I found this one today. This is hill country blues, similar to but distinct from Delta blues. If you like Mississippi Fred McDowell or R.L. Burnside, you’ll like this.