Thank you for the inspiration, Little Richard.
Credit: Scott
Truth
“I computed the path that would get you there.”
“Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.”
“I sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is.”
“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”
“All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”
“…With my wits, without hatin’, without being bitter, without being mean.”
Triumph of Love by Walter Mosley
With Black History Month drawing to a close, I wanted to share this moving lecture from one of my favorite black novelists, Walter Mosley.
A Cursory Antiquity of Temporal Lengths
Today is the 75th anniversary of the famed English physicist Stephen Hawking! Best known for his groundbreaking cosmology book, A Brief History of Time, as well as his numerous appearances in pop cultural institutions like Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Simpsons, perhaps the strangest homage to the scientist came in the form of A Brief History of Rhyme, a 2004 album produced by web developer and nerdcore hip hop artist Ken Lawrence under the alias of MC Hawking. Here’s a music video for my favorite track from the album, “What We Need More of is Science”.
An Epic for Our Times
Today marks the 99th birthday of comic book virtuoso Jack Kirby (1917-1994), creator of the Fourth World saga and co-creator of many popular and influential superhero titles, including Captain America and The Fantastic Four. Here are a couple of videos showing that his real life experiences were just as extraordinary as the characters and events he depicted on the page.
First, here’s a clip from an interview where Kirby details a chilling account of his involvement as a soldier in World War II:
Finally, here is a clip from the 1987 documentary The Masters of Comic Book Art featuring Kirby discussing his approach to storytelling (with an introduction by Harlan Ellison):
