I’m sorry for the delays. June was one of the worst months of my life. I don’t know what else to tell you. The job search dragged on, I was sick for about a week then our ac broke, then I got ghosted from a pretty promising job right before I needed to pay rent, etc. Nothing to write home about, even though I did, in harried tones.  

I wish I had some awesome thing I had been working on to break you in, but I’ll be honest: I just made a bunch of top 12 lists I’m throwing out there instead. No commentary.  

That all being said: I’m feeling a whole lot better because I’m writing this on a minor break from sorting reports at my job. No man is an island, least of all me. If you’ve read me or kicked me money over the last little bit, or shared my GoFundMe or just listened to me freak out about being unemployed for two months: thank you. I promise I will go in once again.  

SCENE/HERD/RED

Films:

• Mean Streets (1973)- dir. Martin Scorsese (If I never saw Mean Streets, you wouldn’t be reading my writing right now).  
• Thief (1981)- dir. Michael Mann
• Paris, Texas (1984) - dir. Wim Wenders
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) - dir. David Lynch
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)- dir. Tobe Hooper
• Come and See (1985)- dir. Elen Klimov
• Dr. Strangelove (1964)- Dir. Stanley Kubrick
• The Big Lebowski (1995)- Dir. Coen Brothers
• Night Moves (1975)- Dir. Arthur Penn
• Memories of Murder (2003)- Dir. Bong Joon-Ho
• Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)- Dir. Tim Burton
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) - Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Top 12 Rap Verses

• “Quiet Riot”, 2nd verse- Prodigy (Mobb Deep)
• “I Didn’t Ask To Come”- Cee-Lo Green (Goodie Mob)
• “Fear”, third verse- Kendrick Lamar
• “Norf Norf”, third verse- Vince Staples
• “Thought Process”- Andre 3000 (Goodie Mob)
• “Impatient Freestyle”- Drakeo the Ruler
• “Exhaust”- Earl Sweatshirt
• “Dusted and Disgusted”- 2Pac (E-40 feat. Spice 1, Mac Mall, and 2Pac)
• Video version of “Get Throwed” where Pimp C starts burning the money on screen and he just got out of jail after that cop planted an eightball on him and he told the police “If it was mine it’d have been in a big Crown Royal bag.”
• “Holla”, second verse- Ghostface Killah
• “Red Dust”, first verse- Billy Woods
• “We Gonna Make It”, third verse- Jadakiss (feat. Styles P)

Top 12 Novels

• Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison
• Moby-Dick- Herman Melville
• Ulysses- James Joyce
• Twenty Days of Turin- Giorgio De Maria
• The Sound and the Fury- William Faulkner
• The Man with the Golden Arm- Nelson Algren
• The Dog of the South- Charles Portis
• Suttree- Cormac McCarthy
• Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf
• Fever Dream- Samantha Schweblin
• By Night in Chile- Roberto Bolano

No promotion this go around. See you in a couple of weeks.