—Hey.
—Hmm?
—Hi. Are you awake there?
—Errrh…
—I thought you looked like you were coming to.
—Yeah, I guess. I’m cold.
—Yeah. That’s how it is.
—What do you do about it?
—You forget about it eventually.
[Read more…]Heroes & Villains
Theme 3 | Summer 2019
What you’ve been missing, maybe.
Are heroes outdated in a world in which everyone is a perpetrator or an embryonic perpetrator? And what about villains? Who needs them when we have outrage-generation machines sputtering and fuming all day long right in our pockets? Still, still… we notice people—including ourselves—scanning the mostly vacant horizon for something… something pure enough, something clarifying, something motivating. Perhaps we need to keep searching.
Illustration: “Finger Shadow” by Ally Merkley
The Café Carousel Came to Roosevelt
He came here and set up today, the coffee man from Café Carousel.
He set up here today at lowly Roosevelt.
With his craft table and its black skirt; with his gleaming dual-boilers and his array of rainbow syrups.
He came here today to serve staff free drinks: cinnamon mochas, vanilla lattés, and caramel macchiatos.
[Read more…]Hero or Villain?
antivirus software
red lipstick
PINK lipstick
bucket lists
wellness shots
ethics
CaaS
Excel spreadsheets
higher consciousness
The United Nations
wearables
cops
[Read more…]
The Spider’s Gambit
On January 29, 2019, African-American actor and singer Jussie Smollett called Chicago Police to report that he had been assaulted and subjected to racist and homophobic abuse by two masked men. According to Smollett, the two assailants put a rope around his neck, doused him with a chemical substance, and told him that Chicago, including the wealthy Streeterville neighborhood where the alleged attack occurred, was “MAGA country.”
While subsequent developments of the case might tempt us to dismiss it as an overheated farce, the responses to those developments have much to tell us about our competing national mythologies. For the sake of this analysis, we can divide those mythologies into two categories: the dominant, foundational mythology of the normatively patriarchal, white supremacist nation-state; and the numerous mythological traditions of the oppressed and marginalized, of which we shall examine one: the West African trickster, Anansi.
[Read more…]Fan Boys and Girls of the 39-Inch Waist
In collaboration with Theodore J. Swanson
As summer shines upon us, we are bombarded with a new slew of superhero and supervillain movies. This summer we’re being treated to Avengers: Endgame; Godzilla: King of the Monsters; and Men in Black: International. These films will make scores of millions if not billions of dollars because, as journalist Jug Saraiya says:
“Within all of us there is a potential superhero, and a corresponding supervillain…The battlefield of light and dark…is not out there…it is us.”1
We love the battle, and we love ourselves! “The battle is within us?! How exciting!” we say. But is all this superb battling good for us? For our culture? For our collective psyche? For the world? For how can Superman really be within us? How can Magneto — a high-spark villain — really be within us? They are not. While we, of course, have both worthiness and weakness within, it’s the super sizing of our personality notes and flaws that is the problem.
[Read more…]Abelard and Heloise and a Toaster
Abe pushed open the bathroom door and felt the heat and moistness that emanated from his wife luxuriating in the bath. She always stayed submerged until the water turned tepid, which was good for his purposes. Under one arm, he cradled a nickel-plated, four-slice toaster that he’d just yanked out of its place in the kitchen.
His glasses fogged while he closed the door behind himself. He wiped them with one forefinger and spotted the outlet beside the sink. He plugged the toaster in.
[Read more…]The Real Heroes
Us boring people. We’re always there. We’re like a shoe.
— GCK