Podcast: Erykah Badu, Ron Harper, Clover Hope

 

Host Rob Harvilla begins the episode by talking about how one of Erykah Badu's songs that samples a Kool & The Gang song reminds him of Ron Harper's Basketball Camp. Ron Harper reminds me of the Chicago Bulls, so I said this.

To me, a salient fact about Ron Harper is that he and Toni Kukoč have matching shark tattoos. But that's just me. My thing about Toni Kukoč is, I love him.

Anyway, Erykah Badu is fckn awesome.

— Erin O'Riordan (@ErinORiordan) January 4, 2023

Well, she is.

Harvilla's guest is Clover Hope, the music journalist who wrote The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop. [Not an affiliate link. Informational purposes only.]

But Twitter is a dying platform, so please feel free to join me on Mastodon. I'm a big fan of the #Bookstodon tag.

P.S. My brother and his family gave me a gift card for the winter holidays. I picked out these books:

One is Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951)-adjacent. The other is a book about British witches written by Juno Dawson, a trans woman, one of America's most-banned authors, and definitely not transphobic.

And now, because I happen to be in between day jobs at the moment, please enjoy the following affiliate audiobook link.

Bummer New Year: Unfortunate Literary Happenings of Past Januaries

Previous Installment in this Series: Bummer Halloween

January 3, 2014: Islamist extremists burn the Christian books of Al-Saʼe  Library in Tripoli, Lebanon.

January 5, 2015: Danish martial artist/model/actor Khan Bonfils is rehearsing for a London stage production of Dante’s Inferno when he collapses suddenly. Paramedics are unable to revive him, and the 42-year-old is pronounced dead at the scene.

January 7, 2015: Two Islamist extremists target the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Twelve people are killed, including five cartoonists and two editors.

January 8, 1970: Actor George Ostroska, playing the lead role in a St. Paul, Minnesota, production of Macbeth, dies of a heart attack at the beginning of the play’s second act. Ostroska is 32 years old.

January 9, 1946: Poet Countee Cullen dies at age 42 of high blood pressure and uremic poisoning (kidney failure).

January 11, 1879: The Birmingham Central Library in England catches fire and loses about 49,000 of its 50,000 books and other circulating materials.

January 12, 1965: Author Lorraine Hansberry dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.

January 14, 1898: Mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodson, who wrote under the name Lewis Carroll, dies of pneumonia while suffering from influenza.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Alice-Is-the-Problem-by-ErinORiordan/134066500.EJUG5

January 19, 1729: Restoration-era playwright William Congreve dies of complications from internal injuries he suffered in a September 1728 carriage accident.

January 23, 1943: Algonquin Round Table wit Alexander Woollcott, who regularly performed on the radio, appeared in a panel discussion about Adolph Hitler on CBS Radio. Listeners noticed he was uncharacteristically quiet during the discussion. 

In fact, Woollcott was having a heart attack. He wrote “I am sick” on a pad to paper to let the other participants know he needed medical attention. He died in the hospital a few hours later.

January 28, 1960: African-American folklorist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston dies from heart disease after suffering a stroke.

January 29, 1933: Poet Sara Teasdale overdoses on sleeping pills, an apparent suicide. She is 48 years old.

January 30, 2006: 55-year-old playwright Wendy Wasserstein dies of lymphoma.

Neil Gaiman Reads 'A Christmas Carol'

Illustration for "The Children's Dickens: Stories selected from various tales" (1909) London: Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton by Gilbert Scott Wright (24 July 1880 – 1958). This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

109 Years Ago Today: Ambrose Bierce Disappears

December 16, 1913: Ambrose Bierce writes to his literary secretary, “I am going to Mexico with a pretty definite purpose which is not at present discloseable. If you hear of my being stood up against a Mexican stone wall and shot to rags, please know that I think that’s a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease, or falling down cellar stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico–ah, that is euthanasia!” 

Neither Bierce’s literary secretary nor any of his other acquaintances ever heard from him again after this letter. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/663536.The_Devil_s_Dictionary

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My Goodreads Reading Challenge 2022

 

Art Matters is one of the signed copies of books Tit and I picked up when we saw Neil Gaiman in person.

The book with "No image available" is this one.

102 Years Ago Today: The Gipper Passes On

December 14, 1920: George “The Gipper” Gipp, legendary Notre Dame football player, dies of strep throat and pneumonia in St. Joseph Hospital (then in South Bend, now located in Mishawaka). He is 25 years old. 

George Gipp is buried in his native Michigan, but an often-told legend around the Notre Dame campus is that Gipp's ghost haunts the old theater building, Washington Hall. According to the legend, when Gipp missed curfew and got locked out of his dorm building, he would sleep outside Washington Hall. 

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George Gipp "Gipper" Illustration Tribute by BHB Lange after the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football player's death on December 14, 1920. Scholastic, vol. LIV, no 12, January 15, 1921, pg 209: BHB Lange drawing tribute to football player George Gipp after his death December 14, 1920. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

New Victorian Christmas Horror Story from There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast 2022

 

Find Carla’s short story “Holly Jolly Christmas” in Antimony and Elder Lace Press book Monsters Vol. 1 - preorder for $4.50 

Or follow Carla on Patreon and the cost of your book is included in your Patreon subscription.

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December 10th is the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in 1830.

Lo-Fi Grunge Emily Dickinson Bubble-free Stickers