Spent two hours today at the Casket Arts book sale, picking up classics of the leftist variety.

What a weird sensation to be staring down rows of Sydney Sheldon and Dominic Dunne and finding, amidst the dross, the occasional Chomsky or Lenin.

I plowed on through for two solid hours. Picking the gems from the frauds.

The Lace Reader

Just finished reading this book by Brunonia Barry. It starts with a great premise, the unreliable narrator. The narrator begins by saying she lies all the time and that she's a crazy woman.

Okay. Let's see how a crazy woman thinks.

Except we then go into a fairly logical narrative of which we are expected to believe most of what we read, but be prepared to toss out some of the more outlandish claims. That's cheating.

For an amazing example of reading the words of a crazy woman while being able to discern reality from fiction, I recommend and highly prefer Charlotte Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." It's free on the web at Gutenberg.

However, to review the book on its merits, I should say I was pulled along by the plot and kept coming back to it when I had time to read. The sense of place is awesome, I assume, although I've never been to Salem. I was fascinated by the family, Towner, her twin sister Lindley, her mother May and her guardian Eva. All were strong, fascinating women with quirky habits and powerful beliefs. Even the secondary female characters get fleshed out: Angela, Roberta, Anya and Ann.

But I was really bothered by the shift from first person narrative by Towner to first person narrative by Rafferty, the detective who falls for Towner, midway through the book. In comparison to the women of the book, Rafferty is poorly developed. We know little of his beliefs or his desires. He is curiously incapable of action.

I'm not sorry I read this book, but I'm not recommending it to others.

Updated 10/17 flyers

Don't mess with French farmers!

Another flyer for Mayday

First Draft

Flyer for the anniversary of the war in Afghanistan

Great Resource

Look for the Union Label: A Celebration of Union Logos and Emblems



Hat tip to John at Social Design Notes

Protect Insurance Company Executives

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

The worker's flag is deepest red....

Fastest Mammal on Earth is an old lady!

Monkey Momma

From The Daily Mail we learn about a Monkey who adopts kittens of an amazing variety.

Tawny Frogmouth Chick!

Cute little Aussie friends. Found on the Zooborn website. Awwwww!

8 Ways to Prepare Your Pets for Wars

Bunnies are surprisingly warlike

Jamail's new book is great!

Here's a flyer I made for an upcoming event with Dahr Jamail.


Dahr Jamail in Minneapolis

Detroit, R.I.P.

Amazing photography documenting the death of Detroit.

Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe on Lamb Castration, PETA, and American Labor

Next time you have 20 minutes, listen to a man who has spent two years with working people and learned a lesson or two about it.

Zaineb Alani

Last Friday night, I heard Zaineb Alani give this speech at the National Assembly conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Amazing!

Highlights:

"When the late Robert McNamara paid a visit to the Independent country of Vietnam that he had previously 'sought to conquer' and failed, he said to their foreign minister, "We wanted to give you Democracy." The reply was, "We wanted our Independence first." Why do American policy-makers never learn from history?"

"...In fact, the common sentiment in Baghdad today is that we went from living under the rule of a tyrannical Ali Baba to that of 40 hundred ruling thieves."

"The Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani people cannot win against the American war machine. On their own, they are helpless. They have only one hope, you. We need to build a movement so strong that our voices are heard as one, so loud that we force the occupiers to leave the Middle East and elsewhere where they impose their colonial occupations and plunder the natural resources and wealth of weaker nations. American, Iraqi, Afghan and Palestinian peoples are paying a dear price in blood and treasure for the continuation of these wars and occupations."

Half sheet flyer with all the bands in place

Just for Fun

New Poster

This one took a lot of work, in part because I'm not a good artist. I'm a good assembler. Making the truck image was not an easy task. It started out looking like a really bad cartoon. I think I managed to avoid that and to make it a big more abstract. You'll let me know if I failed, I'm sure.