Hello all! This issue of Melendy Avenue Review is coming to you from an altogether different street in an altogether different town. I got my second covid shot and will celebrate Mother’s Day here. This will be a fairly light issue (we had quite a heavy one last week) with a new video and an Observed Life, with Peter. Enjoy!
CONTENTS
Video Content
2020 Birthday Lecture: Fear and Loathing in Genre New England
Lagniappe
The Observed Life, with Peter: Somerville Excursion
VIDEO CONTENT
I’ve recorded video of my last birthday lecture, which mostly went out over video anyway as it was August 2020, plague times. It’s about New England, the historical meaning of regions, and genre fiction, specifically two major genre writers from the region: horror master H.P. Lovecraft, and crime big wheel Dennis Lehane. Enjoy!
LAGNIAPPE
The Observed Life, with Peter: Somerville Excursion
I went out to Somerville early Saturday morning. Some comrades from Boston Democratic Socialists of America are running for city council there, and were mounting a canvass. I don’t like canvassing outside of my constituency, but they had gotten some threats from right-wing randos, so I came to help keep people safe.
For those who don’t know the geography, Somerville was a suburb of Boston, but given its proximity (and subway connection) to the city, it has rapidly gentrified. First you got a lot of artists and young people, now you’re getting the condos. Trum Park, where we gathered, is far from the epicenter of Somerville gentrification, but you can still see the signs. The park was named for a local who died in World War One, ten days before the Armistice, according to this plaque. Americans often don’t know what to make of WWI.
As you can see, the city fathers are particular about what ball games happen where. No whiffle ball or kick ball here!
I like the punctuation on the sign below. It gets across exasperation with the effort to get people to improve themselves via ingesting neighborhood history.
The canvass had a good turnout! Somerville is ready for an alternative. I like to think I’m not naive about my organization. It’s very white and very post-collegiate. I don’t think we can make the revolution all by ourselves. But we can do our bit.
One of my peculiarities is that I’m not big on projecting political opinions on to animals. Mithra does her bit by being beautiful and cuddly!