November 29, 2021

#22: Tinkerings

1. Why is that — whenever celebrities go transphobic in public — they get … weird? The ‘public letter explaining myself’ from the person who wrote Harry Potter was — amongst many other things — … odd. The guy who created Father Ted, Black Books, and The IT Crowd basically became a walking conspiracy theorist after he decided to go public with his transphobia. And, if this excerpt is any indication as to what’s to come, Dave Chappelle seems to be heading down a similar path by seemingly channeling Dennis Reynolds from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in front of a bunch of high school students. (Also: shout out to an artist who has a walking google alerts for his name in his head who keeps telling people to ‘shut up.’)

2. “A few minutes till closing on a Friday, a kid still in the library, no parent with him, too cold out for him to walk home if he lives any distance away, no coat, only a thin jacket over his shirt.” (Hobart!)

3. “Tian says tennis is beyond human comprehension, which is why he likes it: the spin, the warmup suicides, the fact that nobody makes a tennis ball that doesn’t fluff up and die after thirty minutes.” (Words & Sports!)

4. “so of course i must mention its shape, some sweet moon or toothy smile nestled between loaves of peanut butter.” (HAD!)

5. Here is a terrific audio project on The Mission in SF that features a reading of “LA MISIÓN” by Olivia Peña. (See also: the interview we conducted with Olivia.)

6. Hobart poetry editor Doug Paul Case is stepping down and is throwing a reading on December 16th. Learn more here.

7. December 4th: “A reading & conversation with translators E.J. Koh, Mui Poopoksakul and Ruth Ward and AGNI editors Jennifer Kwon Dobbs and Shuchi Saraswat.”

8. Humphrey Bogart’s sister + James Cagney’s aunt + Sinatra = this.

9. A Jimi Hendrix cover done on a gayageum.

10. Here are a few episodes of Theme Time Radio Hour: Dreams, Spring Cleaning, Time, Thanksgiving Leftovers, Moon, Money, Coffee and New York, Cats, and Musical Instruments.

11. Have a good week. You’ve got this.