People in the book world are always giving Rupi Kaur a hard time. They say her poetry isn’t actually poetry. It’s too sanitized. It’s too accessible. Well pardon the f&$! out of me, but I don’t think you should need an MFA to be able to access poetry. Maybe it’s jealousy? Maybe they’re pissed that Ms. Kaur is out here stacking up paper while twelve people in the entire world are telling them they’re the next Emerson? I don’t know and I don’t really care. If something someone reads resonates with them and makes them feel something, then damn the literati and their thinly-veiled colonialism. Mazel tov.
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Nevertheless, do not allow yourself to be carried away by how you shoot in the morning, whether well or badly. There are many more days ahead, and each arrow is a life in itself. Use your bad moments to discover what makes you tremble. Use your good moments to find your road to inner peace. But do not stop either out of fear or out of joy: the way of the bow has no end.
How does Billie Eilish respond to criticism of her newest full-length offering, Happier Than Ever? With a dismissive eye roll and a snappy comeback.
Apparently, many “fans” of Eilish are not enamored with her sophomore effort, ostensibly because of its lack of radio-friendly tracks. This doesn’t seem to bother Eilish, however, who’s too busy counting her stacks and referencing her rack at the same time to be bothered by petty inanities.
This doesn’t seem to bother Eilish, however, who’s too busy counting her stacks and referencing her rack at the same time to bothered by petty inanities.
Clapping back at a slate of recent TikTok videos made by so-called fans, Eilish posted a video with “NDA” playing in the background while her eyes are rolling up at the text is it just me or is billie in her flop era like why does she suck now. Her c(l)aption: literally all i see on this app…eat my dust my tits are bigger than yours.
…eat my dust my tits are bigger than yours
Billie Eilish
This is the very reason the world (and yours truly) loves Billie: she doesn’t play by anyone’s rules except her own. The same woman who drew criticism for wearing excessively baggy clothing on the red carpet is the same woman who drew criticism for posing seductively on the June 2021 cover of British Vogue wearing a corset and sporting new blonde locks.
Happier Than Ever embraces these complexities while at the same time rejecting all classification whatsoever. What matters more than anything is what Billie wants to say in the moment, and she has a lot to say on this record—about fame, mental health, sex, and the (im)balances of power inherent in all relationships (toxic and otherwise).
What matters more than anything is what Billie wants to say in the moment, and she has a lot to say on this record—about fame, mental health, sex, and the (im)balances of power inherent in all relationships (toxic and otherwise).
Haters are never happy with how women own their power and inhabit their sexuality, always attempting to reify a made-up circumscription placing them within a false dichotomy of prude or slut, Madonna or whore. How much cleavage is too much? How little is too little? Is she pure or just a tease? It’s all nonsense rooted in the detractors’ own unavoidable mediocrity: eat my dust my tits are bigger than yours.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/4)
Favorite Tracks: “I Didn’t Change My Number”, “Oxytocin” “OverHeated”, “Your Power”, and “Happier Than Ever”.
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
I was a humble ant in the middle of the world and I had so much to learn.
My love for Drew Barrymore is everlasting and today’s quote from her memoir Wildflower perfectly encapsulates the humbleness and sense of wonder that pervades her entire being. And if you think about it, aren’t we all just ants in the grand scheme of the cosmos? Smaller than small, playing out our tragedies and triumphs against the backdrop of the biggest stage in the universe. That thought grounds me. I hope it does the same for you.
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
Some artists just have a knack for what sounds good. Emily Weisband, who until just recently escaped my radar, never planned on becoming a performing artist. The Grammy-winning songwriter originally relocated to Nashville, Tennessee to score a publishing deal and did just that. She’s penned songs for the artists as diverse as BTS, Halsey, Camila Cabello, Lauren Alaina, Jeremy Camp, and Hillary Scott and The Scott Family. It was for her work on the song “Thy Will” with Hillary Scott and The Scott Family that garnered her a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Now she’s started recording her own music. The result is something fresh and unique yet wholly resonant and recognizable at the same time. I Call It Being Human deals with all of the messy emotions that are the hallmark of great art and great pop music specifically. Weisband doesn’t really break new ground here, but instead shows that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to get from point A to point B.
I’ve already added the rest of her catalog to my Apple Music queue if that tells you anything.
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
None of us can ever know the value of our lives, or how our separate and silent scribbling may add to the amenity of the world, if only by how radically it changes us, one and by one.
Do your best, Scott Bell. You were always a fucking cunt.
I AM SCREAMING!!!! Slay him, Busy, whoever he is.
Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please follow, like, comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at thevoraciousbibliophile@yahoo.com or catch me on Twitter @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.
Forgive me this brief exposition, but one of the world’s greatest tragedies was Crash “beating” out Brokeback Mountain for the Academy Award for Best Picture. A tender portrait of the lifelong love between two cowboys, Brokeback Mountain was groundbreaking when it first hit theaters in 2005. Far from being just “that gay cowboy movie”, it really brought queer cinema into the mainstream. Whether they were praising it or bashing it (often without having watched it), *everyone* was talking about it.
The performances in this film are some of the best and most evocative in the history of cinema. Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway all did excellent work, and it is because of their efforts, along with those of Annie Proulx for her source material, Ang Lee for his directorial acumen, and Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for their faithfully adapted screenplay that the film will be remembered, discussed, and appreciated for as long as moving pictures are considered an art form.
Annie Proulx’s original story (of the same name) on which the film is based was originally published in The New Yorker on October 13th, 1997. It alone is proof that short stories can pack just as much of an emotional wallop as can novels or other works of narrative fiction. A slightly-altered version of the short story was published in the collection pictured above, which was itself a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000. It is from the version published in Close Range: Wyoming Stories that today’s quote is taken.
There was some open space between what he knew and what he believed and nothing could be done about it. And if you can’t fix it, you’ve got to stand it.
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I’m going to cheat today. Normally, I only share one quote on these posts but being as how Born with Teeth is one of my favorite memoirs of all time, I am sharing three quotes from this amazing book.
It’s hard to know what’s in a person’s heart when she never says goodbye.
Find what you love and the rest will follow.
I set myself on a course and didn’t look back.
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Audiobook cover of Havana Nocturne by T.J. English
***Note: I read the unabridged audiobook version of Havana Nocturne, which was narrated by Mel Foster. It is available to order wherever audiobooks are sold.***
The post-Prohibition years brought the United States Mob a lot of unwanted governmental scrutiny. Gone were the days where they could do pretty much whatever they liked and get away with it. Gone was the unchecked commercialization of vice and sin that filled the Mob’s coffers and lined the pockets of more than a few corrupt politicians. No, the Mob knew that if it was to remain a dominant force, a new playground would need to be found. Luckily for the Mob, Havana was ripe for the picking.
Gone was the unchecked commercialization of vice and sin that filled the Mob’s coffers and lined the pockets of more than a few corrupt politicians.
Truth be told, the convergence of circumstances couldn’t have been more perfect. While the Mob could no longer count on a complacent government to turn a blind eye at home, Cuba in the 1950s was suffering under the brutal and repressive regime of Fulgencio Batista, a cruel and avaricious tyrant if ever one drew breath. Meyer Lansky, one of the most infamous gangsters of that era, got himself, Charles “Lucky” Luciano, and their compatriots in good with Batista and started building casinos, hotels, and other entertainment venues in Havana. As long as Batista received his cut, the Mob was free to turn Havana into a kind of alternative Eden, a place where any sort of illicit fun could be had—for the right price, of course.
As long as Batista received his cut, the Mob was free to turn Havana into a kind of alternative Eden, a place where any sort of illicit fun could be had—for the right price, of course.
What Lansky, Luciano, and Batista failed to realize is that there were other players at the table with agendas of their own. Fidel Castro and his 26th of July Movement was determined to overthrow Batista’s regime and usher in a new era for Cuba, one based on Marxist-Leninist principles as well as egalitarianism.
Fidel Castro being questioned by reporters, date and location unknown
From 1956 to 1958, Castro and his fellow revolutionaries staged their uprising and engaged in guerrilla warfare on both urban and rural fronts, all culminating in the Battle of Santa Clara on January 1st, 1959. Led by Che Guevara, the battle was a decisive victory for the rebels as it led to Batista’s departure to the Dominican Republic (ruled at that time by former ally Rafael Trujillo) and allowed Castro to seize power. The Mob’s playground had new kids on the swings. The rest as they say is history.
Che Guevara after the Battle of Santa Clara
T.J. English’s book is impeccably researched and expertly told, making the narrative equally compelling for those familiar with the story as well as those who are reading about it for the first time. Havana Nocturne is not to be missed.
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