Links! It’s been a while, but I’ve been reading some good stuff lately and wanted to share.
I can always tell when I am dealing with WMWF by their rallying cry “be nice” or “choose kindness”, as if the act of calling out racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia is the problem and not the act of racism, misogyny, ableism and homophobia. — #KidLitWomen: An Open Letter to Well-Meaning White Women
You don’t have to watch The Good Place for long to realize that Tahani Al-Jamil is more than, as Eleanor Shellstrop says, “a hot, rich fraud with legs for days.” She’s also a relentless name-dropper. But when Princess Diana is your godmother and Beyoncé if your best friend, can you really blame a girl for bragging? — Every Celebrity That Tahani Has Name-Dropped on The Good Place
I cried because the film has empathy not only for bright but difficult children but for all children, and because it wants so much for Meg to see herself, just as I would want to be seen and would want my own child to see her value.
I would not have imagined A Wrinkle in Time the way DuVernay has — I seriously doubt I could have imagined it this way — and yet there I was crying my eyes out all the same. I do not need the world to be imagined as I would have imagined it. I want the world and the things in it to exceed my imagination, to show me things I cannot make for myself but can take into myself, hold precious, and make my imagination that much wider from that point forward. — Thoughts on A Wrinkle in Time
It is psychological gravity, not technical inertia, however, that is the greater force against the open web. Human beings are social animals and centralized social media like Twitter and Facebook provide a powerful sense of ambient humanity—the feeling that “others are here”—that is often missing when one writes on one’s own site. — Back to the Blog
I’ve seen a lot of, “Oh, everyone should just stop using Facebook.” It’s not actually a reasonable solution. There’s a whole lot of opportunity cost in leaving Facebook. It’s not just that there are other places where you could post pictures of your kids. It’s not that. It’s really highly integrated into work life and social life. — Why Did Fans Flee LiveJournal, and Where Will They Go After Tumblr?
Deleting Facebook is a privilege. The company has become so good at the many things it does that for lots of people, leaving the service would be a self-harming act. And they deserve better from it, too. Which is why the initial answer to Facebook’s failings shouldn’t be to flee Facebook. We need to demand a better Facebook. — The Problem With #DeleteFacebook
They work in Watts, Chicago, Oakland and Harlem, go on vacation in Provincetown, MA, and return home to Otis, South Carolina (pop. 5,000). They include an Ivy League professor, an ex-CIA agent, a volatile ex-cop, a journalist, a domestic worker, an attorney, a Ph.D. student whose best informers work in a beauty salon, and a saxophone-playing street musician.
Among them are single parents, foster parents, an orphan, and lesbians. They have starred in movies. They work in the past and the present. They are biracial. They partner with white colleagues.
They are African American detectives created by African American mystery writers whose lives are as varied as their fictional characters. — African American Mystery Writers and Their African American Detectives
A Wrinkle in Time is a meandering, disjointed, nonsensical slog through 109 minutes of 90s level CGI, heavy-handed dialogue, stilted acting, and shots up actors’ nostrils. 95% of the movie is made up of close-ups. The glimpses we do get of the colorful, sweeping landscapes — and trust, they’re only glimpses — are stunning until someone interacts with them. The standout moments from the trailers make up the missing 5% of shots and exist as the solid touchstones in the midst of a quantum gyroscope of a plot.
Honestly, I left the film frustrated and annoyed. A Wrinkle in Time has the potential to be a better movie. But even with all the faults I found as a thirty-something moviegoer, a little girl somewhere behind me sobbed openly during one of the film’s denouement. And ultimately that’s what matters: the nine-year-old so completely invested in this story, these characters, and their happiness that it brought her to tears. — Children Will Enjoy ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and That’s What Matters
Although it employs all the tools of high melodrama—evil twins, gaslighting—it doesn’t have a camp sensibility. Instead, it ballasts the most outrageous twists with realistic emotional responses. How would you feel if your twin stole your identity and drugged you into paralysis, thus intensifying your postpartum depression? This is one show that will take your trauma seriously. — “Jane the Virgin” Is Not a Guilty Pleasure
“You get to a point where you love a story so much you want to tell a story back.”
“I certainly could not control whether I was talented but I could keep on trying. I spent so much time – 10 years – knowing I wanted to write, talking about writing, collaring people and saying I’m a writer and not writing. Oddly enough, that time was what gave me the [incentive] to keep on persisting because I didn’t want to go back to being the person just talking about doing it.” — Kate DiCamillo: How she became a bestseller after 473 rejection letters
The decision to come forward about his experience came as a relief, according to Crews. But it also came at a cost. “Once I hit send, I literally felt this weight come off me,” he said. “I went back to work, and I turned my phone off. And when I came back to my phone, the world had changed.”
“People don’t understand that Hollywood is a very violent place,” he continued. “The best way to put it is that it’s like a plantation. You use extreme violence. You see a lot of people who never work again. For even speaking up the whole thing is that they cut your head off so that the next person doesn’t speak.” — Terry Crews Is Not Going Down Without A Fight
when “the arsenio hall show” was cancelled in 1994, @iamqueenlatifah asked @arseniohall if she could produce a surprise segment for the final show – the result was one of hip hop’s most historic moments pic.twitter.com/bybfn2vxsS
— 🌊 (@mattwhitlockPM) March 21, 2018
When students indicate that the workload in a course is heavy, they usually opt for surface approaches to learning. They memorize facts and focus on details, often at the expense of understanding. Students who take deep learning approaches do not usually perceive the course workload as heavy. — Course Workload: What Influences Student Perceptions?
I only discovered the story of Annie Turnbo Malone in researching Madam C.J. Walker; apparently, this is a common occurrence (see below). While not as strong in marketing and self-promotion as some other women I discuss in this post, Malone nevertheless deserves her place here as one of the pioneers of the beauty business. — Women 101—Looking Good; Feeling Good
The Englishist 
I deleted FB years ago. I’m not sure that I think I am privileged, as much as sensible. When it comes to any online activity, I go by the saying: “if you aren’t paying for it, then you’re the product.” I didn’t like being the product there. I have no idea what I’ve missed out on, but so be it. I don’t feel self-harmed, but maybe I have been.
And now I’m off to read about Kate DiCamillo. She’s one of my favorite authors. Thanks for the link.
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Ah, see, deleting FB for me would cause harm since most of my friends and family are way far away. It was a vital lifeline for me during my move.
FB can be replaced. But it hasn’t been yet and it offers a valuable service that isn’t replicated anywhere else.
Ultimately, though, people will have to do what’s best for them. I frequently engage with the site (not right now since I’m on a hiatus), but I know several people who use it rarely if not at all. If I know someone isn’t on FB, I will still find ways to engage with them, but I will admit that’s not always the case.
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Hmmm…I’ve thought about deleting FB, especially recently but not because all of our lives and info have been compromised. It’s more a feeling of boredom with the site. On the other hand, the reason I don’t delete it is because it’s so efficient. I don’t have to send a million texts, or call everyone and re-tell the same story. It does work for what it’s supposed to.
Wrinkle in Time was not a well-made movie and what’s worse is it came on the heels of Black Panther. I know the two can’t be compared, but expectations were high. It wasn’t a bad movie. I just think it was for children, not adults.
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Yeah, it was definitely for children, not adults. And that’s okay! Unfortunately, since two black directors putting out two movies are rare, of course they’re going to be compared directly against each other. This is why we need to be allowed to make a gajillion movies a year just like everybody else.
FB is convenient, for sure, and it serves its purpose well. I need to be better about checking FB less often so then there’s more news to be excited about haha.
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