Letters, animal resistance, and Cat Power
So far, my last letter has shown up in Indiana and New Hampshire papers. My next one highlights supportive comments Japan’s prime minister made about cellular agriculture. If you’d like to write your own letters, check out these media email lists:
Anyway, let’s do (Cell) Culture Talk. Here’s what I’ve been playing, reading, listening to and watching lately.
Game — Magic: The Gathering Arena. I collected four copies of Conduit of Worlds and was trying to build a deck around it. No luck so far. Maybe there’s a combination I’m not thinking of or maybe future cards will interact productively with it. But the requirement you only play one spell per turn really seems to limit the card’s usefulness.
Book — Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era by Sarat Colling. The book is a masterful history of nonhuman rebellion that builds on Jason Hribal’s Fear of the Animal Planet. In an effort to establish nonhuman agency, the text chronicles various animals escaping confinement, and, in some cases, attacking human captors.
Music — The Greatest by Cat Power. This is a beautiful, melancholy album I’ve enjoyed since around the time it came out. I like a lot of Chan Marshall’s other work, but I’m familiar with it mostly as individual songs. At some point, I need to go through her discography in a more organized way.
Sports — Knicks beat Pelicans, 128-106. That was a pretty dominant performance by New York. The outcome never really felt like it was in doubt. Congratulations to the 1973 championship Knicks who were honored at halftime.
Sports — Knicks beat Celtics, 109-94. New York is playing so well right now. I don’t really trust it, based on their collapse in the playoffs a couple of years ago and the subsequent disappointing season. But this is a different team, and, however things turn out, it’s been a joy to watch.
Sports — Knicks beat Nets, 142-118. New York crushed Brooklyn in a way I’m not sure even the final score captures. Jalen Brunson had the best first half of his career and barely looked for his own shot in the second. Tom Thibodeau cracked a smile!
Sports — Knicks beat Heat, 122-120. That makes eight wins in a row, courtesy of a Julius Randle buzzer beater. The all-star led the team with 43 points. I wanted New York to trade him based on his performance last year, but I was totally wrong.