GC Presents: Roxane Gay, a powerful literary voice and one of today’s most-watched cultural critics, joins in a reading and conversation with acclaimed fiction writer Katia D. Ulysse. (Courtesy of GC CUNY’s Public Programs archive.)
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
Shared Thoughts
The grand pyannah, glorious
but somewhat out of tune,
awaits my amateur tickling.
It‘s a great distraction.
Tell me you’re distracted,
mowing down the pages
of your rare old books.
GC CUNY Keeps the Conversation Going:
Milanovic, Piketty, Stiglitz, and Krugman
While events are postponed at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York in the heart of Manhattan, videos of recent public programs will be featured from its archive for your enjoyment. The videos provide illuminating discussions in two main categories: insights into current events and conversations with leading writers and artists. (Courtesy of GC CUNY’s Public Programs archive.)
Twitter Fingers Has It ‘Totally Under Control’—Oh Yeah.
As of two weeks ago, about a million people saw this. Some three hundred million more need to see it. Now he’s trying to kill ads that use his own words against him.
Virus Cooking: Some People Go Stir Crazy
Guillaume Robert goes salad crazy.
Trump to the Rest of Us: Drop Dead
President Twitter Fingers had the Center for Disease Control send a mailer to promote himself of course. It showed up in my mailbox yesterday touting his “coronavirus guidelines for America.” But we know what he really means. The caricature is by Donkey Hotey.
Modern Life
This 13-second video has been making the rounds. I nearly fell down laughing.
Coping with the Shitstorm #1
A friend writes: “At the clinic some of the people asked after me, and the doc said, ‘Well his routine hasn’t altered one minute. Or one millimeter.’ All of them in stitches—and of course it is true. I have been in self-isolation since age 15— so lots of fun seeing the rest deal with it. […]
In a Time of Crisis . . .
. . . here’s a tune to calm the nerves. It’s called “My Fate Is in Your Hands,” composed by Fats Waller and played by Dick Hyman. An anecdote goes with it. But first the tune.
Out of Stock
President Twitter Fingers and his cabinet officials. Questions have come in asking if those beak masks are real or a made-up joke. The answer is they are real. The headline and caption are the joke of course.
Artaud for Our Time
“And I told you: no works of art, no language, no words, no thought, nothing. Nothing except a sort of incomprehensible and totally erect stance in the midst of everything in the mind. And don’t expect me to tell you what all this is called, and how many parts it can be divided into; don’t expect me to tell you its weight; or to get back in step and start discussing all this so that I may, without even realizing it, start THINKING.”
‘Where the Press Is Free . . .
. . . and every man able to read, all is safe.’ — Thomas Jefferson
‘Would that it were so.’ — Straight Up | Staff of Thousands
What . ? . No Patti Smith?
Just kidding . . .
Last Breath, Memorialized
Cold Turkey Press has printed a card of this photo and poem in a limited edition.
Trump Centaur, Redux
An insult to pigs . . . and a liar to the marrow of his bones. “The Republican Party has become the most dangerous organization in world history.” — Noam Chomsky
Last Breath
There are things / closer than rain / that keep hope alive— /
tenement flowers / seasoned with heartbreak, / chattering weeds / and the silence of fireflies— / things that may not be / more brilliant / than a wine-stained shirt / and crow’s-feet eyes. / But they will do …
‘I Do Not Think. I Am Thought. I Am Thought in Action.’
I am that I am that I happen. /
I am a resultant. /
—a coincidence of fields. /
Am is my here. /
That is I there. /
What am I here for? . . . /
I am here to go. /
When the magnetic fields shift / There / is no here. / I am gone.