I've had a foot in and out of the cultural scene in many cities around the world, and still no place compares to Cairo in that regard. The energy, enthusiasm, and genuine interest is simply unmatched.
Above photo from a series of talks related to Egyptian and Lebanese film history at Cimatheque in downtown Cairo a few days ago.
I am the grinch.
It is true.
I would appreciate Christmas in America much more if all the money that was spent on lights and gift-giving between family members who certainly have no real need for the gifts being given, if all of that was instead spent on the ever-increasing homeless forced to withstand the elements without shelter and those truly in need.
The national mood in America right now.
Poster available from Garage.Ganzeer.
Fancy pre-framed options also available for the champagne socialists in your life.
When this pops up as you unsubscribe from a service, you can't help but wonder: Well, why didn't y'all just price it that way in the first place?!?!
On a completely different note, I was today years old when I discovered the term “emotional age”. Based on this excellent interview with Jane Pratt on the Oldster substack, I think my emotional age may have capped at 32.
Finally got around to populating the webshop with much work. Discount code BYEBYE24 shaves 24% off all orders until Dec. 6.
It is now confirmed that I'll be off to Italy on December 9th to attend the opening of Oltremari at the Palazzo del Fumetto in Pordenone, which features some of my work alongside that of Deena Mohamed, Tracy Chahwan, Twins Cartoon, and Issam Smiri.
There will also be some kind of joint bookshop event in Venice with Lina Ghaibeh, who has a new book out translated to Italian, IN/OUT.
With Italy's proximity to Egypt, I couldn't not take this opportunity to pay my family a visit. Which means the month of December is now more or less completely obliterated for me, and thus completing work on THE SOLAR GRID before the end of the year will no longer feasible. Which is really frustrating because I'm so damn close.
About halfway through in pencils, with a few pages completely inked, colored, and lettered (the mixed media ones, since the process for those is very different).
This less-than-ideal realization has, I must admit, put me in something of a mood.
Do I know anyone between Venice and Pordenone?
Sending this out into the ether because it looks like I'll be attending a comix-exhibition opening at the Palazzo del Fumetto in Pordenone (featuring work from THE SOLAR GRID) around mid-December and it would be delightful to connect with anyone I know who might be out there.
The Great American Nuclear Weapons Upgrade – Undark: “In the plains of western South Dakota, about 25 miles northeast of Mount Rushmore, the Ellsworth Air Force Base is preparing to receive the first fleet of B-21 nuclear bombers, replacing Cold War-era planes. Two other bases, Dyess in Texas and Whiteman in Missouri, will soon follow. By the 2030s, a total of five bases throughout the United States will host nuke-carrying bombers for the first time since the 1990s.”
The Outer Limits of Optimism – Heather Parry: “In 2009, an 81-year-old man named Orville Richardson died, having been a member of Alcor with a view to preserving his head after his death; he had paid a lump sum lifetime membership fee. His brother and sister, who were his co-conservators, evidently did not agree with his plan for cryopreservation... they had him buried. Two months after his death, the relatives demanded a refund of the lifetime membership fee, which seems to have annoyed the company; Alcor subsequently sued to be allowed to exhume Richardson’s body, and though they lost initially they won on appeal. The Iowa Court of Appeals then ordered the Richardson family to dig up their late sibling, cut off his head and give it to Alcor, so they could freeze it.”
Bluesky raises $15M series A – Tech Crunch: “The Series A round is led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Darkmode’s Amir Shevat, and Kubernetes co-creator Joe Beda. The presence of a crypto-focused firm might alarm skeptics, especially since CEO Jay Graber used to be a software engineer for a crypto company, Zcash...”
Now that the newsletter is out of the way, finally catching up on email (inbox: 165) and RSS (653). I loathe that it has gotten so out of hand.
A new edition of RESTRICTED FREQUENCY is finally upon us, and this is how it starts: “James Baldwin was accused by Richard Wright of being a tool of the CIA. This accusation did not emerge from a vacuum; 'I'm going to destroy you,' Baldwin once told him to his face at a Parisian cafe. He then proceeded to do just that by writing a series of not-so-veiled character assassinations in a variety of magazines.”
Extensive reading and quite a bit of research went into this one and writing it consumed me. Hence the lateness and off-schedule release. I didn't think it would be right to wait until next Saturday to release it, but then again I'm not entirely sure anyone cares. In any case, it's out now. This is where it lives online, and this is where signing up for future newsletters is possible.
