If you weren’t watching the Olympic Women’s Soccer semifinal between the U.S. and Canada this afternoon, you suck. It was one of the most thrilling, well-played soccer matches I have seen in my twenty-plus years as a fan. Both teams played their guts out, with the U.S. scoring the winning goal in the 123rd minuteContinue reading “The U.S. Wins a Thriller Against Canada”
Author Archives: danielshankcruz
Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters Remix
Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters Remix is a fantastic printed object that deserves space in the canon of American postmodern fiction. It is the 1999 version of Invisible Monsters in its original intended form, which asks the reader to jump back and forth throughout the volume, kind of like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book from the 1980s. ForContinue reading “Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters Remix”
Book Acquired Recently: Fifty Shades of Grey
James, E L. Fifty Shades of Grey. 2011. New York: Vintage, 2012. I bought this book because a student of mine wants to write an essay about it and its popularity. I have heard that it is written horribly and would not read it on my own, but will do so for professional reasons. I feel aContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Fifty Shades of Grey”
Books Acquired Recently
Delany, Samuel R. The Einstein Intersection. New York: Ace, 1967. I bought this and Anne Sexton’s book for $1.00 each at Savers Thrift Store in Salt Lake City, whose book section was recommended to me by a student. I already have the current Wesleyan University Press edition of this novel, but I collect different printingsContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
The Best YouTube Sing-Along Ever
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”
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”
Daniel Shank Cruz 
