Here Are Some Things To Read, Watch And Look At - No. 4
Or Get Some Culture In Your Life
Hey ya’ll. This is one of the things that will be moving to the Patreon at some point. My plan is to do one of these per week. Probably on Friday or Saturday.
This will be part of the $1 per month tier on Patreon. So if you want to sign up now to get a jump on it, please do (and I’ll appreciate that). I’m unsure of when this will slip behind the paywall, but it will.
Here is the post that goes into more detail about the Patreon thing.
Anyway…here you go, get some culture in your life.
Do you know something about UFC, USADA, an MMA manager or a fighter, that I should know? You can email me at trent.reinsmith@gmail.com or contact me via secure messaging on Telegram at trentreinsmith or via ProtonMail at trent.reinsmith@protonmail.com
Learn Something: 7 Fascinating Things You Didn't Know About the Real Dog Day Afternoon
A Good Profile: Thrashed - Jake Phelps has run the bible for skaters for more than two decades. He’s nearly died a few times in the process
Short Fiction: John Updike - “The Slump”
A Book That Deserves to be Read: Pinckney Benedict - “Town Smokes”
“In these nine stories, Benedict evokes the world of hard-bitten Southern men who live in shabby weatherbeaten houses or rickety trailers, who work in tire factories or slaughterhouses, who are slow to speak but quick to explode in anger, and whose women are tangential figures. Benedict deftly delineates his characters and has a good ear for the cadence of Southern speech. But the stories, although powerful, are too grim to be read in one sitting. Most include gory if not violent events: the shooting and flaying of a snake in ""The Sutton Pie Safe''; the killing of a hog in ``Booze'';a barroom fight in ``Hackberry''; and various episodes of stabbing, shooting and dogfighting in ``Pit.'' The title story is as bleak as the others: a mountain teenager is robbed of some of his dead father's possessions at gunpoint as he walks to town to buy cigarettes. At 22, the author is a talent to watch, but one hopes that he injects a note of lightness into future stories.”