This is a video of Swedish Olympic handball star Isabelle Gullden (driving) and some other woman singing along (well, sort of–maybe “riffing on” is a better term) to Jason Derulo’s “Whatcha Say” in the car, and it is hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bemIK39WmLA The video raises so many questions (perhaps all of which would be answered if IContinue reading “The Best YouTube Sing-Along Ever”
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Books Acquired Recently
Palahniuk, Chuck. Invisible Monsters Remix. New York: Norton, 2012. I am teaching the first edition (1999) of this novel in my Introduction to Literature course this coming semester, which gave me an excuse to buy the Remix (it is essential research!), a version of the novel in its original form along with commentary by Palahniuk.Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Thoughts on Yogurt
Yogurt fascinates me. I don’t like eating it because it is just too weird, a bizarre amalgamation of other dairy products: part liquid like milk, part flowing solid like ice cream, part fermentation like cheese. But I really enjoy watching other people eat it because I get to observe someone interacting with the above oddContinue reading “Thoughts on Yogurt”
Thoughts on the Weekly Reader
The news that Scholastic is shutting down its Weekly Reader elementary school newspaper (read more about it here: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/25/the-last-weekly-reader/?hpt=hp_bn13) signifies the loss of another piece of my childhood. We would read through it each week in class for several years of my elementary school career (I want to say third grade and fourth grade, andContinue reading “Thoughts on the Weekly Reader”
Some Thoughts on Edgar Allan Poe
Yesterday a friend of mine posted this hilarious cartoon on Facebook: http://i.imgur.com/rlEZr.png. Any time you can combine Edgar Allan Poe and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” you have to do it. I’ve been thinking about the cartoon and chuckling all day, which in turn got me thinking about Poe in general, and how he keeps inserting himself intoContinue reading “Some Thoughts on Edgar Allan Poe”
Book Acquired Recently: Amy Abugo Ongiri’s Spectacular Blackness
Ongiri, Amy Abugo. Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2010. One of my research interests within African American literature is the Black Arts Movement, which has been mostly ignored by critics until recent years. Most texts from the movementContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Amy Abugo Ongiri’s Spectacular Blackness”
Nicholson Baker’s U and I
Nicholson Baker’s 1991 long essay U and I on his obsession with John Updike is rife with the smooth, profoundly observational prose which make him one of my favorite fiction writers, though it is also marred by two deficiencies which make it my second-least favorite book of his that I’ve read. (My least favorite isContinue reading “Nicholson Baker’s U and I”
Book Acquired Recently: Nicholson Baker’s U and I
Baker, Nicholson. U and I: A True Story. 1991. New York: Vintage, 1992. I am very excited to read this book. Nicholson Baker is one of my favorite writers because his prose flows like hot chocolate syrup, which makes his books virtually impossible to put down. I love his attention to detail and his obsessionContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Nicholson Baker’s U and I”
Rooting for the Knicks
With the latest news (it keeps changing! by the time I finish writing this post everything I say might be completely outdated) that the New York Knicks are going to let Jeremy Lin join the Houston Rockets, some people, most notably Bill Simmons, have asked whether it is justifiable for Knicks fans to switch theirContinue reading “Rooting for the Knicks”
Books Acquired Recently
Delany, Samuel R. The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village, 1957-1965. New York: Arbor, 1988. I have the revised edition of this book (published by University of Minnesota Press, 2004), but needed a copy of the first edition for an essay I’m writing on the history ofContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Daniel Shank Cruz 
