PicoBlog

An ocean away from home, Intae Hwang’s two young children sat in an arena watching an NBA preseason game. They knew the sport well; even back in Korea, their father was obsessed, scrutinizing game film late into the night. The kids looked for their dad now, and they found him running up and down the court. Then the crowd started to chant. “Ref! You! Suck! Ref! You! Suck!” Neither of the Hwang children spoke English yet.

I was a bit busy last week so I didn’t get a chance to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’. I wanted to talk a little bit about it because it's a seminal hip-hop album and perhaps the most important album of my high school years. (Daaamn homie, you old AF!) It was only when I got older did I realize 50 was able to do so because he mostly because he embraced a fake persona—though not the one you might think.

A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575mHappy Race Day, especially to the two heroes who threw a mid-street dance party next to their flashing neon Nissan to Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight.” Yes, there’s a drum solo. I’ve had some pretty incredible opportunities lately. Holiday sales are racing, and if you want to pick up a last minute copy of Slow Car Fast you can do it here.

One thing that has always stood out to me about the modernist architecture of Harry Weese is that he did not follow the trends of the day. In my personal opinion, his work is truly timeless. Not only is it original, but it also covered a wide range of projects including transit systems, infill townhouses, churches, and office towers. In the 1960s he was ahead of his time by saving and restoring historic structures like Adler & Sullivan’s Auditorium (he offered his services free of charge).

Every two weeks or so I am publishing an essay from an emerging writer. This week, we are publishing “The fat girl allegory” by Andriana Mendoza. Andriana is a poet and short story writer from Hayward, CA. She has a Bachelor’s in English and Education from UC Davis, and a Master’s in Creative Writing Fiction also from Davis. You can find her works in th… ncG1vNJzZmiZpZmupLXTsmWsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXy1tMRmnZqsXZy2s7iMmqOlnZekv7o%3D

Deaths from Fentanyl and stimulants mixed with fentanyl increased 276% from January 2019 (2.9%) to June 2022 (10.9%). This was 68% of the reported 107,081 drug overdose deaths in 2022 according to the CDC, and in which group younger people are overrepresented. I’m not writing to reconcile those statistics but rather to show the sheer scale of this epidemic. Compare this to car accident fatalities nationwide, estimated to be 42,939 in 2022, and in which younger people are overrepresented.

Click here to read this essay on Substack. Kamala Harris and the Death of Representational Politics On Saturday, November 7th, Kamala Harris made history as the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian person to hold the title of Vice President of the United States. In her acceptance speech, the former California Senator addressed her female audience specifically: “I may be the first woman to hold this office,” she said.

By Oksana Torop and Svyatoslav Khomenko. Evening had set in on Wednesday, February 23rd 2022, and National Guardsman Ruslan was on duty with seven other men stationed alongside the runway at Hostomel airfield outside Kyiv. (We have changed his name and that of some others interviewed for this article to protect their safety.) During the day, members of the military command had come to check on the situation but by now they had left.

On January 23, the filmmaker Taylor Reece received an email from Vimeo, the video platform that had been hosting her documentary, Dead Name, since its online debut in December. “We have successfully unpublished your film,” it said. Apparently, the film, which profiles the lives of three parents whose children suddenly began to identify as transgender, had violated Vimeo’s Terms of Service, which prohibit “discriminatory or hateful content.” Reece was disappointed, but unsurprised.