"'Saudi Girls Revolution' is an attempt to show the rest of the world that there’s a lot more to us as Arab women," Ahmed said. "We’re strong. We’re powerful. We know we overcome. We’re badass. We’re so many other things."
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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).
A Round-Up Of Terrible People Who Still Received More Flattering News Coverage Than The Late Michael Brown
For those who don't know, The New York Times recently posted an article about the life of Michael Brown, the teenager who was recently gunned down in Ferguson, MO. The piece, which ran opposite of a flattering profile on the life of the (surviving) police officer who shot the poor boy six times for the crime of walking down the street, criticizes the dead teenager who can't even defend himself for being "no angel." His numerous faults include occasionally disagreeing with his parents, drawing on the walls as a toddler, trying to escape from his crib, dabbling in drugs and alcohol, and listening to "the rap music." These behaviors reflect a common psychological condition known as "being a god damn kid" — a condition which, yes, is fatal, but usually not for another 70 years or so.
If you're struggling to understand why painting a dead black teenager as a "thug" because he did the things that teenagers do, The Boston Globe offers a particularly eloquent takedown of the problematic of this piece. I suggest you read it. Meanwhile, I've rounded up some of my favorite responses from the around the web (read: seen on Twitter), comparing Brown's obituary to similar mainstream retrospectives on other individuals who are almost universally accepted to be more deservedly reviled.
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Here's the full Mass Hands article, focusing on me as a homebrewer. The project overall is meant to be an interactive/new media exploration of handcrafted work that still thrives in Massachusetts. (Personally, I wish I had a worn a t-shirt that more flattered my figure in the opening photograph, or at least that they had chosen a less-awkward picture of me, but you know what they say: Magneto was Right)
Mass Hands: Brew Mastery
Review: The Nightly News
The VOICE says: When killing activists, never shoot for the head, always aim for the heart."
Over at DailyGenoshan.com, I've posted my review of Jonathan Hickman's debut book The Nightly News, which combines contemporary graphic design, infographics, prose, photorenderings, and comic book dialogue with a gazillion conflicting narratives to tell the story of a domestic terrorist cult determined to take down the American news media. In case that sentence wasn't clear, it's absolutely nuts. Check it out.
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Especially When There's Time Travel Involved
It’s hard to stay together once you’ve watched your partner die. Katie never understood this. She thought I was being irrational. “Everyone dies,” she said. Or will say, I’m not sure if she’s actually said it yet. “It’s something that happens. But you and I, we’ll always be together, at least somewhen in time."
Check out my latest piece, Not Dead Yet, at FiveByFiveHundred.com!