I’ve been working with some groups that try to get tenants organized to push back on the abuses of various types of landlords. This was my first campaign seen from beginning to end.
Tenants in Durham came out to City Council’s late October meeting to support an ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor for landlords to collect rent on slum-like conditions, including lack of water and multiple fire hazards.
Four members were initially skeptical and hostile to the ordinance, hemming and hawing on whether it would put Durham in conflict with the state legislature. But dozens of people came out, pushed back, and spoke out.
The ordinance passed 7-0.
This isn’t a magic wand for tenants living with these conditions. It’s not within the scope of the city’s powers to enforce a penalty for the crime of being a slumlord. But it helps tenants put such landlords on notice. It helps tenants in a lawsuit seek rent abatement. And it helps tenants in eviction court to get the resources they need.
Hover over or tap on each thumbnail to read about my experience. (Scroll for longer text).
Pokémon Legends Z-AVideo Game
Feels a little more restrictive than Legends Arceus, but has enough of that Legends brain-tickling that had me sinking nearly 70 hours into it by the time I finished the story. Will be fun to revisit for the occasional shiny hunt.
Wicked: For GoodMovie
I’m high-key sick of the lazy criticism “they adapted the weaker part of a two part musical, so this is a big disappointment.” I don’t think you can lavish praise on the first part and completely dismiss Jon Chu’s approach to getting into the headspace of the lead actresses. Just admit you got swept up in marketing and now part of you regrets buying in. (I liked this one better than Part 1).
FrankensteinMovie
Some people say this movie lacks subtext and is too obsessed with humanizing the monster. I say, Guillermo should have occasionally interspersed clips of Sam Altman over Oscar Isaac’s face to really drive the point home.
Hades IIVideo Game
I already have the feeling that this will be impossible for me to beat, which is part of what made getting a good “ending” in the first Hades very satisfying.
Scream franchiseMovie
I have Paramount Plus because of Survivor, so the algorithm started recommending these movies to me around Halloween. I binged them over a weekish period and was surprising hooked by Scream 4 and the reboot movies. I do think the meta references broke the tension too much in the second and third movies, but Wes Craven probably peaked with the fourth one before he passed away.
Disco ElysiumVideo Game
Replayed coming off of my Blue Prince and E33 binges. Still among the best writing in the video game medium.
Chain Gang All-StarsBook
One of my bedtime reads. Compelling premise and some engrossing writing, but I’ve lost focus with the multiple perspective shifts and extremely dense world building.
Mexican GothicBook
Finished this for book club. Kara asked if it lived up to the hype and in some ways it did not, but in many ways it was exactly the right book for a stressful spooky season. Fast-paced, cinematic, and with enough social commentary to make it worth reflecting on, I’m glad we did it.
Character LimitBook
My main audiobook for drives. Hate to expose myself too much to Elon’s insanity, but it is satisfying to know he’s been a drooling troll every step of the way.
The Satanic VersesBook
Our September book club pick. I thought I’d gotten in over my skis at first, but it ended up being a pretty memorable and satisfying read.
The Life of a ShowgirlAlbum
Only gave it the one listen-through and I landed on the side of people who gave it a side-eye for all the 180 pivot from celebrating her independence. But Erin has given me a lot of reasons why I should listen again.
Pokemon CrystalVideo Game
This is not my peak Pokemon year, but I am like…three Pokedex entries away from fulfilling my childhood ambition of getting that certificate for the original 150 dex entries. Every now and then I use Crystal to level up the last remaining ‘Mon. Right now, ALL THAT’S LEFT is evolving Kabuto into Kabutops – I’m at Fuschia Gym in the post-game.
Blue PrinceVideo Game
Contender for my Game of the Year. I’ve heard people turn on it as a time-waster, but I was happy to go as far as I did before the overall puzzle got too dense.
Papers PleaseVideo Game
Finally got around to this classic and the clever way the narrative unfolds with the deceptively engaging gameplay is genius.
Fire Emblem: The Blazing BladeVideo Game
Didn’t expect to get sucked into this one, but there was a moment there where any moment not spent working or parenting was in moving my little guys around, making sure they don’t get obliterated.
BalatroVideo Game
I have learned how to make Balatro not ruin my life. But it was dicey for a while there.
Hollow Knight: SilksongVideo Game
I beat Lace! That might be my last accomplishment with this one, at least for a while.
MementoMovie
Floating around Free YouTube movies for quite a while. It was fun to revisit and remember how the pieces fit together, although the plot is less airtight than teenage me remembered.
Our book club theme for September was “banned books” and our nominations list included this one, Looking for Alaska by John Green, Sold by Patricia McCormick, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.
Interestingly, the one we settled on by a substantial margin was the book that wasn’t banned by a typical Western and Christian-influenced censorship apparatus. Whereas books like “Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Fun Home” are banned for exploring queer identities, “Verses” was censored in over 20 countries due to controversy over its portrayal of Islamic mythology. The book’s place in history is anchored by the fatwa declared by Iranian religious leaders more than thirty years ago. The bounty placed on Rushdie’s head did eventually lead to an assassination attempt by a random New Jersey man just a few years ago. (Rushdie survived and published a memoir revolving around the violence).
The uncomfortable thing about online discourse of this book is that there seems to be a micro cottage industry of people who use this book as a way to grind an axe against Islam as a faith. Looking for videos on the book will often surface a dark muttering of commenters who say that the fatwa controversy surrounding “Verses” justifies everything they think about Islam and Muslims.
A befitting irony for the novel’s themes of narratives that are imposed on people and events is that this is hardly a book dedicated as a polemic or committed to poking a finger in the eye of Muslims. It can be irreverent – cheekily so. There’s cynicism about organized religion and since Rushdie was born into a Muslim family, he uses the backdrop of Islamic history to make some points. But if you’ve ever read a satirical retelling of Christian Biblical events, like Lamb by Christopher Moore or seen The Life of Brian movie, you’re already familiar with this approach from writers emerging from Christian worldviews.
Ultimately, my favorite chapter of Satanic Verses is one of the several allegorical visions that alternate with the main plot. It involves a village that has become extremely devout due to the power of a prophetess and is now embarking on an arduous pilgrimage on foot to Mecca. The chapter’s title, “The Parting of the Arabian Sea,” indicates what the final obstacle will be for these pilgrims. I suppose one could walk away from this chapter and say “wow, Rushdie really portrayed some truths about the darkness of religious extremism,” but I came away feeling like this was Rushdie’s acknowledgment about the power of faith and some of the downsides of steadfast skepticism.
Faith is a well. One can draw strength from it, but that well can be poisoned. In a desert with no other reservoirs, one can become so dependent that it leaves you vulnerable to corruption. But in the harsh conditions of reality, an oasis can still be the only reason we preserve and find respite.
I guess I just felt like Rushdie’s views on the faith background he came from are a little more nuanced and complex than the discourse would have you think.
I’m watching Drop and it’s a solid thriller – sort of displaced in time, because it uses the sort of broad strokes that I imagine an old school thriller would, but it’s dependent on modern technology.
Do you know I’ve never seen Rear Window? Hell, I’ve never seen Psycho. I have the DVD. I picked it up at a library sale all the way back in Arlington, but I’ve never “made the time.”
Over the summer, a slew of bands began to make similar announcements on social media: They’d be pulling their music off Spotify, the largest streaming service in the world.
It started in June with indie rock quartet Deerhoof. Within weeks, groups like Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Hotline TNT followed suit. The wave of departures continued into September; most recently, The Mynabirds, WU LYF, Kadhja Bonet and Young Widows have all decided to leave Spotify. So why are musicians — many of them independent — removing their songs from the most popular streamer globally, which has nearly 700 million users?
All artists cite Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s ties to Helsing, an artificial intelligence defense company…. In 2021, Ek’s venture capital firm Prima Materia invested more than $100 million into the German startup. This past June, Prima Materia raised more than $700 million for Helsing, where Ek is now also chairman….TheFinancial Times reported that Helsing is now producing its own drones, aircraft and submarines.
* I’m on board for Gunn kind of reducing the mystique of the billionaire schemer and making Hoult’s Luthor more of his Golden/Silver Age version of a petulant flop. Certainly anyone paying attention over the past ten years would get the sense that this is how Musk or Zuckerberg would behave if anyone got in their face. Still, if there were a bit more done to build up the facade of calm-and-collected Luthor, it would have been all the more effective to see him crash out.
* A good amount of Daily Planet and Lois Being a Journalist in this, but now I have to grimace at Clark being the world’s most unethical journalist. Also, they did nothing with Cat Grant and the tertiary members of the staff. Without the source material, these characters have no business here. And then there’s the front page with Malik, a shot which would have you accept that Perry White is going to get extremely sentimental and subjective in the weeks following a major disaster for the city. Which brings me to Malik….
* Part one of the aspects that actually are kind of glaring. The Malik character feels uncomfortably underwritten. Making him a food vendor is already a red flag. And then he gets to have the one human death in a movie that otherwise seems to adhere to the kinder, gentler superhero movie wherein Superman goes out of his way to save a *squirrel.* But Malik is just an avatar for Metropolis and making a person of color hero-worship Superman and then get dispatched as a plot device is probably not the message Gunn thinks he’s telling. Which leads us to Jarhanpur.
* Yes, absolutely I want to see the story of how Superman handles having the power to save people from war and genocide while trying to hold himself accountable. We take one reasonable step into exploring that and then it becomes, once again, a mere given that Clark’s instincts are 100% correct and that he shouldn’t be confined by the shackles of diplomacy or conflict resolution. It works for a progressive audience in our current context where we’re all sick to our stomachs at what’s being done to the Palestinians. You know who else this would have worked for? People supporting the Iraq War.
Still, I’m on board for simply saying “I’m sick of dithering while innocent people are trampled like this.” But the payoff? “I’m sending Maxwell Lord’s private goons to do this in my name.” That whole third act, I was like “Okay, they’re layering the parallel conflict tension kind of thick,” but the Justice Gang did not earn the Han Solo payoff they try to give them. As it shakes out, Superman doesn’t even fly into Jarhanpur airspace during the actual events of the movie. That one cool scene happened offscreen.
* He just straight-up gave Mr. Terrific a Yondu scene.
Still, a good direction for Superman and the DC Universe overall. If Gunn can give me a Guardians Volume 2 sequel to this, it will probably rocket past the Reeve movies. We’re on a good foundation.
I suppose one of the more significant things to happen to me recently is that I got rear ended on my way to pick up my kid, leading to the car being totaled and us having to buy a new one.
The best thing I can say about our car habits is that we’re a one-car family, so I guess our emissions could be worse. But whatever car we do have, one of us drives it daily and when I do it, it’s several inefficient trips.
I suppose this would have been our opportunity to go EV, but the payout from the insurance -while generous – was $9,000, leaving us with a a total budget of about $20K. You can get like a used Nissan Leaf for under that budget, but there were just a lot of question marks regarding an EV that may have been traded in because it got damaged.
The point is, the ultimate choice of car was a compromise. It’s all gas, not even a hybrid. It’s the biggest car I’ve ever consistently had to drive, despite the fact that it’s a “subcompact” SUV. It’s struggling to get 25 mpg at the moment. It kind of feels like I got owned.
I guess I owe the planet a couple of trees or something.
