Zocalo 2009 Book List

Bill Barich’s A Pint of Plain
Morris Dickstein’s Dancing in the Dark
Kal Raustiala’s Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?
Vali Nasr’s Forces of Fortune
Arika Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages
Sandra Mackey’s Mirror of the Arab World
Neil MacFarquhar’s The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday
Archie Brown’s The Rise and Fall of Communism
Hannah Holmes’s The Well-Dressed Ape
Tom Zoellner’s Uranium

The Root 100

Debo Adegbile
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adaora Adimora
David Adjaye
Semhar Araia
Tyra Banks
Melody Barnes
Cornell Belcher
Jerry Bias
Cory A. Booker
Richard Buery, Jr.
Len Burnett
Cassandra Butts
Majora Carter
Maverick Carter
Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter
Staceyann Chin
Delman Coates
Cathy J. Cohen
Cheryl Contee
Audie Cornish
Kimberle Crenshaw
Edwidge Danticat
Angela J. Davis
Artur Davis
Shelley Davis
Junot Diaz
Derek Douglas
Joshua Dubois
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Adrian Fenty
Harold Ford, Jr.
James Forman Jr
Roland Fryer, Jr.
Dean Garfield
Sheldon Gilbert
Robin Givhan
Thelma Golden
Allan C. Golston
F. Gary Gray
Tamron Hall
Hill Harper
Kamala Harris
Maya Harris
Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Mellody Hobson
Anna Holmes
Steven Horsford
Dora Hughes
Jamila Hunter
Christopher Jackson
Ben Jealous
Jessica Johnson
Kevin Johnson
Matthew Johnson
Alia M. Jones
Timothy B. Jones
Marc Lamont Hill
Alfred Liggins III
Suzanne Malveaux
Bryant Marks
Roland Martin
Shireen Mitchell
Otis Moss III
Dambisa Moyo
Elie Mystal
Mark Anthony Neal
Soledad O'Brien
Donna Payne
Steve Perry
Tyler Perry
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Shonda Rhimes
Ian V. Rowe
Francesca T. Royster
James Rucker
Seth Schiesel
James H. Shelton
Lateefah Simon
Tavis Smiley
Dr. Ian K. Smith
Winston "Wole" Soboyejo
Michael Sorrell
Deirdre Stanley
Rabbi Alysa Stanton
Alison Stewart
Steve Stoute
Naomi Tempies
Baratunde Thurston
Raphael G. Warnock
Craig Watkins
Yelberton "Yebbie" Watkins
Carlos Watson
Denmark West
Tony West
Dwight Williams
Norries Wilson
Anthony Woods
Frederic Yonnet
TV on the Radio

XXX

Roman Thirty (11)
Adult Rating (11)
Movie Rating (11)
Moonshine Label (14)
Mason Label (10)
Jug Label (8)
Written Kisses (11)
Bowling Turkey (13)
Chi Chi Chi Fraternity (19)
Tic Tac Toe Winner (15)
Marks the Spots?
Poisonous Potion

People's History

Fathers and Children, Michael Rogin
Violence in the American Experience: Winning the West, Richard Brinnon
Alabama = “Here we may rest”
The Disinherited, Dale Van Every

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
Treaty of Holston
Treaty of Washington

abrogate(d) = to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law.
perfidy = an act or instance of faithlessness or treachery.
brevet = a commission promoting a military officer to a higher rank without increase of pay and with limited exercise of the higher rank, often granted as an honor immediately before retirement.

Treaty of Camp Moultrie
Trail of Tears, October 1, 1838

Nueces River
Santa Anna
Democratic Review, John O’Sullivan
Mr. Polk’s War, John Shroeder

Lead Presidents

What Does Brewing Your Own Beer Say About You?

Scabies is not an adventure. It's Ostracization-Lite. It doesn't make you special, however unique you may seem sitting by yourself.

To those of you unscathed by the tiny little creepy crawlies, it can be a frightening prospect. Intense itching; ugly welts; worrying that you may have contracted a disease far more serious, more permanent, more STD-ey. You may even get to call the participants in your sexual history to remind them that "I am a dirty whore who has mites that have taken up residence in my skin" AND warn them that "You too may have become an unwitting host to this microscopic arachnid. All because you impulsively (see drunkenly [see 9-beers-in]) wanted to fuck me." Let them know that however good it felt, and however much they must have associated you with passion and desire before, that they must now relate to your festering, ugly, cunt.


Your friends and associates may all move away from you and awkwardly avoid a proffered handshake here and there.

But take heart. Remember, you yourself are not a parasite. And with enough ointments and creams the mites will eventually leave or die. (Not like your coworker with the nostrils. Nostrils that are like an unsolicited anatomy lesson, protruding nose hairs and all.) At that point, you can fondly look back on the ones who were unfazed by this brief buggy encounter. Surprisingly unfazed. Remember that guy? The one who heard you had mites and was still interested when he mistakenly thought you said you'd be leaving your boyfriend.

You can ride off into the sunset with him, on his motorcycle, to live in his mom's basement and help him brew his homemade beer. Or live with the wife and two children he never told you about.

APHOTHUS, A Kind of Revolution, page 99

The Constitution became even more acceptable to the public at large after the first Congress, responding to criticism, passed a series of amendments known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments seemed to make the new government a guardian of people's liberties: to speak, to publish, to worship, to petition, to assemble, to be tried fairly, to be secure at home against official intrusion. It was, therefore, perfectly designed to build popular backing for the new government. What was not made clear–it was a time when the language of freedom was new and its reality untested–was the shakiness of anyone's liberty when entrusted to a government of the rich and powerful.

Literacy

Circa Columbian Exhibition

victuals: food or provisions for human beings.
quotidian: something recurring daily.
landau: a sedanlike automobile with a short convertible back.
mucid: moldy; musty.
gonfalons: a banner suspended from a crossbar, often with several streamers or tails.

haiku # 508: Some Ol' Saturday Night

You are probably
Smoking your brains out right now
But I still love you

I <3 Patton Oswalt

foul.

I wanted the whole world or nothing.

_Charles Bukowski (Post Office)

Lightning

I am struck by the lightning of seeing you after you are gone.

How Much Fun You're In For

Haiku #507: old lady worries

Hidden candy dish
Intense secretary spread
Balanceball workout

Haiku # 506: Just a Haircut of a Man

I am unimpressed
He passively opines
Not handling his shit

Science is Fiction, Jean Painlevé

A Man Accused of a Crime of Which He's Innocent

I've never been innocent

Mrs. Belle Lownes
From Nine to Nine
_Leon Perutz

fo'c'sle

The House of Doctor Edwardes

The Paradine Case
_Richard Hichens

Costa-Gavras "Z"

Shadows (1959)

John Cassavetes

Ben Carruthers ... Ben
Lelia Goldoni ... Lelia
Hugh Hurd ... Hugh
Anthony Ray ... Tony
Dennis Sallas ... Dennis
Tom Reese ... Tom (as Tom Allen)
David Pokitillow ... David
Rupert Crosse ... Rupert
David Jones ... Davey (as Davey Jones)
Pir Marini ... Pir the Piano Player
Victoria Vargas ... Vickie
Jack Ackerman ... Jack, Director of Dance Studio
Jacqueline Walcott ... Jacqueline

Cut Copy

Darwin Day!

A Short Ode to José

For as much as there is that goes wrong in this life,
he will remain a symbol, a tide that rises against pessimism.
An argument for surrounding yourself with old buddies
and aging barbacks and your mother–right around the corner.

Find someone who loves you and sleep on their floor.
On the front yard, looking into your window,
I am only slightly intrigued by the mysteries presented
in the backrooms and corridors just out of view.

I am embarking on an exciting, new adventure,
where loose women pepper the margins
and pirates are only a gunshot away.

Curses

zounds = God's wounds
S'blood = Christ's blood

Like a Fine Wine

I find myself more frequently siding with the crowd cops.

Meeting Place from Space

A Fellow of Infinite Arrests

parasitic lifestyle, pathological lying, conning, proneness to boredom, shallow emotions, lack of empathy, poor impulse control, promiscuity, irresponsibility, record of juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility

Killer of Sheep