Swamplandia! and Other Exclamations

Hello, readers.

Swamplandia! is a book by Karen Russell in which young adult types deal with alligators, ghosts, and other horrible, beautiful (sometimes dead) things. You can read my review at Strange Horizons. You can also read about Ms. Russell's appreciation for Kanye West (Is Kanye sitting around wringing his hands, wondering if he's just written a clunker of a metaphor? No, Kanye responds to his critics with a gleeful "Na-uh, you can't tell me nothing!"), among other things, at Esquire. Or listen to her talk about fantasticalness at NPR.

Also, a Seoul friend has a short story up in text and audio form at Giganosaurus and PodCastle, respectively. It's called "After October" and concerns Russians and zombies.

Also, also, there's this from the Physicians Committee for Responspible Medicine, on the good (it's nice to see a plate of fruit and vegetables) and the bad (it might be nice if the government supported the growing of fruit and vegetables):

Also, also, also, this is a trailer I stumbled across on Jesmyn Ward's blog--she being a future writer-in-residence at the Ole Miss M.F.A. program what where I matriculated once upon a time.

This trailer contains three of my favorite things: French, animation, and magic.

Enjoy.





Happy les lapins, readers.


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June

Hello, readers.

It seems to be June. Amazing how that happens. Just the other day it was some other month entirely.

In the news of me, I finished a draft of a story which garnered two basic comments: it is intoxicating to the point of physical discomfort, and, at some point, Dorothy has to just walk down the road.

Also, my students have had their field day and now, as they were last year, they are tasked with making video projects for their English teacher.

Here is what field day looks like.

The students line-up. They do stretches. They are happy it is not raining like people said it would.

Among other activities, there is the classic sport of synchronized photography.

And there is this, too.

And a lot of races involve various forms of bondage.

See note above.

At the end of the day, the students play a game called X's and O's, which is neither tic-tac-toe-ian nor Lombardian. It is a game where students are asked a question, and then move to either one side or another (the X or O side). The students who are wrong leave the field. The picture below is of the many students who are right.

Also, also, in the news of me, there is the slight swelling/not-exactly-numb thing going on in my TMJ joint (especially on the right side) which has slowed my actualizing the desire to bake chewy wonderful things. Possibly this is allergies of some kind--to some stray bit of gluten or cross-contaminated thing. Or the changing weather and rapture survival. Happily this slightness is possible getting slighter. Or possible I am losing more feeling. Oh, physicality.

Here are some pictures, though, of gluten-free pizzas made for an Italian night writers crit.

This would be after pre-baking. 

And the next two would be after baking baking. One is a spinach-pesto pizza, and the other a 호박 pizza. (Ho-bak is Korean for pumpkin. I've just re-remembered I can type 한글 (hangul) and it's fun.

They turned out quite well and involved yeast and a slow-rise done over-night in the refrigerator, then a bit of a freeze, and then a thawing out and waiting during the afternoon before we writers were ready to eat. At which point, the pre- and bake-baking happened and yumminess ensued.

Happy June, readers. She's a good month.


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