{"id":162658118,"date":"2026-02-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162658118"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:07:42","slug":"friday-links-the-future-and-basketball-are-worth-fighting-for-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162658118","title":{"rendered":"Friday Links: The Future, and Basketball, Are Worth Fighting For Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u201cso, who am I if not the rain? \/ at once welcoming & \/\/ un-welcomed\u201d – upfromsumdirt, \u201c\u2018Sometimes It Snows In\u2026\u2019 (Well, You Know The Rest<\/em>)”<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

First things first: new Lazy & Entitled Podcast<\/em> this week! I interviewed the wonderful Bridget Gordon<\/a> about things we artists can do to fight ICE, Bridget reads her poem “this fickle faith,” Brendan and I read Studs Terkel talking to Rip Torn, and Brendan plays some sick guitar. It’s very fun. Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This blog is going to be fun, I promise, but we gotta eat some vegetables first. I want to give a fair content warning (CW) about one the books talked about this week, because it features police torturing a Black woman in its first chapter. It features racism, misogyny, class-based discrimination, a difficult pregnancy, torture of a pregnant woman, and more. It’s a nonfiction book, so, like, I’m not spoiling<\/em> anything, dude. You can know the broad contours of a story<\/a>\u2014including its happy ending\u2014while still having a hard time with its contents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing about CWs is that they’re somewhat designed for people who have experienced the traumas being discussed, so that those people can prepare themselves. CWs are not here to prevent scaredycat white boys from confronting the facts of history. I’m past telling people you must read this book<\/em>, but I do want to say that if you are looking around the United States of 2025-2026 and thinking “this isn’t us?” Please do some reading. Crucially, if you’re concerned about how we get ourselves out of this mess? Please do some reading. Especially read anarchists, in this moment where Democrats are more concerned with appearing to “reforming Trump’s” ICE than abolishing ICE<\/a>, and the news media is more concerned with asking “how young is 14 really”<\/a> than it is with getting justice for Jeffery Epstein’s victims. The focus must be on bottom-up organizing, the mindset must be punk rock. We<\/em> keep us<\/em> safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do promise this blog gets fun soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I’ve Been Reading This Week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two books that I’ve really been looking forward to. One even dropped into my lap, thanks to Mallory catching some book club ambitions this year. One is a book by someone I know about through Bluesky, and man, for all its ills, social media still comes through with the artist recommendations. The future probably shouldn’t include social media, but the future must include a way for artists to reach each other across cities, states, continents. These two books have me thinking about the future, too, because they both affirm a simple, beautiful truth: the future will have Black people. Some people may not like it, as we’ll see, but the future includes Black people, and Black people are beautiful (some people need reminding of that). I’m not just talking about my own child, either. I’m talking, of course, about Assata<\/em> by Assata Shakur and The Shoes of The Fisherman’s Wife<\/em> by upfromsumdirt. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Assata
Assata <\/em>by Assata Shakur and The Shoes of The Fisherman’s Wife<\/em> by upfromsumdirt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Assata <\/strong><\/em>by Assata Shakur: <\/strong>the last two chapters are genuinely inspirational, so let’s start there. Hope is an overrated feeling, but let us begin with the hopeful. Assata, her daughter, and even her mother survive. They get to leave the United States<\/em>. The FBI gave her mother a heart attack, but she survived. They live out their days (Assata died last goddamn year) in Cuba, which sounds like a great place. The struggle was worth it. Now, you and I can be inspired by it, we can learn from it. I was particularly moved by this passage on whether or not to have a child (she gets pregnant, consensually and by her partner, in prison): \u201c\u2018I am about life,\u2019 i said to myself. \u2018I\u2019m gonna live as hard as i can until i die. And i\u2019m not letting these parasites, these oppressors, these greedy racist swine make me kill my children in my mind, before they are even born.\u201d<\/strong> As someone who did used to wonder \u201cwhy bring a child into a world on fire\u201d and subsequently been overjoyed<\/a> that I brought a child into the world? I\u2019m glad Mallory and I didn\u2019t let the fascists or Exxon Mobil or Robert Kennedy Jr. decide when we have children. And I\u2019m grateful to Assata for validating those feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The struggle is always worth it, because life is struggle anyway. That said, struggling super sucks. Assata is out-and-out framed for a bank robbery and a kidnapping, neither of which she committed. She is held in solitary confinement\u2014which is torture\u2014for over a year. The book doesn\u2019t get into what did or did not happen on the New Jersey Turnpike, only the aftermath. The cops were definitely hunting her, though, and I don\u2019t know how you can look at ICE in 2026 and not understand the need marginalized people in the U.S. to defend themselves from racist cops. Because the difference between the Klan, ICE, and regular cops is barely there. Abolish ICE, and abolish prisons, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would be remiss not to put some focus on Assata\u2019s arguments in favor of socialism. Her criticism of misogyny on the left. Her clear-eyed understanding that capitalism, aka the love of money, is the root of all evil. There\u2019s some noirlike, runaway-on-the-street stuff that would be a fun few episodes if HBO ever makes a miniseries. Assata was committed to liberation, though, so let\u2019s focus on that. One thing I learned from this book is that not only was the Black Panthers\u2019 breakfast program an undeniable good, being disciplined enough to wake up at 4:30 because starving kids are worth your time and effort is even better. I wonder how we could do something like the free breakfast program today. Blowing whistles at ICE is one thing. Sustained neighborhood aid, though?
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The Shoes Of The Fisherman’s Wife<\/em> by upfromsumdirt: <\/strong>I had wildly high hopes for this collection of poems, and it more than delivered. Brother dirt\u2019s mind is fascinating and wholly unique, but still comprehensible (at least to a weirdo like me). If So-crates<\/a> commanded us to know thyself, brother dirt seems to know and embrace himself in every line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an eye towards outer space and the future, but the poems are rooted in, well, dirt. There is tenderness and harsh truths. There is surprising imagery, there are musical lines, and there are parts where it feels like brother dirt is challenging the reader\/audience about as aggressively as he can without alienating us entirely. Again, I\u2019m a pretty weird guy reading this pretty weird book, but I genuinely loved it. Quoting blurbs is something of a lazy way to talk about a book, but Shipwrecked Sailor Blog favorite Ariana Benson is on the back cover, talking about brother dirt \u201cusing the English language against itself.\u201d That feels very accurate (complimentary). I can\u2019t recommend this collection enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something to listen to while you browse? As I’m writing this, “Cabin Fever” by Seafoam Walls is hitting really hard. My little size-of-a-baseball bluetooth speaker is rumbling my desk. Video is sick, too. Some contemporary Black guitar geniuses in this band. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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