Author: operator
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Home and the city
I’ve been working my way through Reportage on Crime, an anthology of Nick Joaquin’s true crime stories. One such piece, “The Lodger,” deals with the demographic shift in Manila brought on by the influx of laborers (and their families) from the provinces. I don’t have the same intimate understanding of Manila as Nick Joaquin does,…
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The Optimal Starbucks Breakfast
Optimization is the millennial affliction. (There was a trenchant Buzzfeed essay a while back that delved into how this impulse drives our generation to burnout.) Since seeing that insight articulated in plain, stark language, I’ve been more conscious of its truth in my own life. Take today’s breakfast stop at the local Starbucks. I lived…
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On “Death of a Red Heroine” by Qiu Xiaolong
I mistook this novel for a murder mystery. It is that, nominally: Chief Inspector Chen Cao and Detective Yu of the Shanghai Police Bureau spend their time investigating the murder of Guan Hongying, a national model worker found dead in an obscure county canal. Chen and Yu dig for clues, interview witnesses, mull over theories about what…
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Hugs From Your Grandma: Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts
I’ve been spending my after-work hours browsing NPR’s rich and varied library of Tiny Desk Concerts. There have been many gems, but even in such fantastic company, the winners of last year’s Tiny Desk Contest stand out: Tank and the Bangas hail from New Orleans, Louisiana, and they play a luminous mix of rock, folk,…
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Rapid-Fire Thoughts: 2018 Read Harder Challenge Update
The Book Riot Read Harder Challenge continues. Since my last reading challenge update, I’ve finished: #2: A book of true crime I came to this title cold (pun unintended but appreciated). The most I knew about the book was that (1) it dealt with a murder of some kind and (2) it’s indisputably Capote’s magnum…
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Ode to Joy: Natalie Prass’ “Short Court Style”
The world is on fire. Or so the relentless news cycle would have us believe. Every hour comes with a litany of scandals, disappointments, and threats to life as we know it. All of us, the headlines scream, are doomed to wail, gnash our teeth, and scrabble at the edge of sanity with the tips of…
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