Welcome to OS Readers’ Picks
This week's RPs in the POST category go to:
Alysa Salzberg - Why I Like Opera
Arlene Goldbard –Groupthink: Annals of the Culture of Politics
Beth Mann - The Story I Told You in Bed
Bob Simpson –The Killing Towers of the U.S. Telecom Industry
Chicago Guy –Talking Wisconsin Union
D Horne - Solidarity is an American Ideal
Dorinda D - Threads
Douglas Berger –New Longmire Show is Good Old School Entertainment
Escrito Por Nada - Over The Hill At Twenty
Fingerlakeswander - Why Do We Mourn Some and Not Others?
J.P. Hart - Napalm, Preparedness, Honey Badgers
James M. Emmerling –Blasé Musings About Being Bipolar: Another Lively Day for Me
Jmac1949 - 1966 - School Prayer, Strange Fruit and Janis Joplin
Frank Michels - My Crazy-Ass "TV of the Future
Joey Piscitelli - Letter in Response to the Diocese of San Francisco
lorianne – The Nature or Nurture of Writing
micalpeace –Don’t Live Here Anymore
Pandora S Box –Transit of Venus on June 5th
Rob Neukirch - Shark
Rob St. Amant – Do You Have Klout?
Sagemerlin - The Vagabond In The White House
Scanner – Swimming With Delia
Ute Sonnenberg – How the Internet Changed Photography Courses
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
REMINDER: Please nominate your choices in the Comments section below. To assist our busy adminstrators, please remember to include the link to the post you are nominating.
Want to participate?
You are all used to Editor's Pick; this one is selected by your fellow bloggers.
For this blog to be useful, we have established criteria, both for recommending posts and for commenting on those recommendations.
To nominate posts:
- Choose posts based on quality of writing, interest of content, or particularly illuminating POV. We are more concerned about whether the blogger is good than whether the blogger is right.
- Explain/justify your choice
- Please avoid:
- Choosing a post based strictly on friendship
- Choosing a post just because you agree with its content
- Bringing a post to our attention for the sole purpose of condemning it. This isn’t Readers’ Pans.
- Choosing a post where most of what’s in the post does not consist of the blogger’s own work.
To comment on nominations:
- Please limit comments to reasons for supporting or opposing the recognition of a post. Comments about specific content belong in the Comments of the post itself.
- Particularly if you oppose recognition, please write about the post itself and write as little as possible about the blogger. Please avoid being insulting – rudeness can get a comment deleted following a PM warning.
To nominate a Comment on any post :
We have added nominations for Comments within a blog. Some OSers do some of their best work in Comments. Same criteria, same ground rules. When nominating, please give us a link to the post and how to find the comment - preferably the name of the commenter and the time and date the comment was made.
How this blog works:
Administrators will check on comments and at least one of us will check on recommended posts, then comment on them. If the rationale for inclusion is present in the initial comment, it is seconded by any OS reader, and the recommendation does not meet with an unusual amount of opposition, a link to the recommended post will be included in the next post on this blog. At this point, it is our plan to post once or twice a week.
We hope this blog proves useful in terms of providing recognition to those you think deserve it and introducing you to bloggers you may not be aware of whose work is admired by your peers. Thank you for visiting.
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Comments
Is there not a once a week thing going on with this?
Or just when there are a lot?
Great choices, I've read many, have more to go. This has been a great way to recognize and give a space to readers' picks...
aren't you folks afraid this might give me
1. a big head
or
2.send me off into hypomanic delusions of grandeur?
too late. ha.
I wanted to second Alysa's piece, which I thought was a real labor of love and just damn good. Will check out others.
Seriously, congrats to all the picks!
And remember folks to NOMINATE! NOMINATE! NOMINATE!!!
You are the ones who make this all possible!!!!
Pandora
Am very much in agreement with Beth about the need to keep the creative juices flowing. Here's to Readers Pick helping to drive that!
Are you considering doing a RP post during the week and one on the weekend?
Another great list! Thanks for all your hard work for us!
R
LIFE WITH FATHER
It's poignant and heartfelt, and makes a perfect Father's Day reflection.
Amy A's post http://open.salon.com/blog/bernadine_spitzsnogel/2012/06/06/life_with_father
http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2012/06/06/surviving_the_unrecovered_borderline_parent
The description therein is so clear, so real, and valuable towards the understanding of disturbed parents, it's a mind-blower. I think I gained some personal awareness on firs reading. It is powerfully conscious and very plainly, clearly perceived.Many of us might benefit.
Peace to all
Seriously though; well done, Reader's Picks. I've read some of these posts but will now go read others that I missed. This project is a LOT cooler than what goes on with OS EPs and cover selections.
http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2012/06/06/surviving_the_unrecovered
That's mighty generous of him.
Maybe you can do one of these lists every day...
For this week I want to nominate the work of Libby in
http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2012/06/06/surviving_the_unrecovered_borderline_parent
I think is one of the most brilliant writings I have ever read uttering an unsρoken truth about the so difficult family relationshiρs and she analyzes the so serious issue,with a clarity in thinking and feeling that offers as all a maturity both to our sense and sensitivity.It is so illuminating in so many ways and the quality of her writing brought quality to my thinking.
Hoρe I have nominated this good work,right,I want to thank you for once more for doing this excellent work!!!
These are the folks, Tea Party types, militia types, and so on, who see impending social disarray coming soon. It's a philosophy that is just a hair from the aluminum hat folks. But it's fascinating, too, because it's how you think about your fellow humans. If there is a disaster, will we all tear each other to bits? Or are we likely to react like the Japanese in the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster--help each other, keep our heads? I'm reminded of the SF earthquake in '89. There was a freeway collapse, in a part of the freeway that ran through the black ghetto. Those folks, the ones at the bottom of the economic ladder, worked tirelessly for days to save the commuters trapped in their cars.
What do you see as your likely behavior in a disaster? Your neighbors? The rest of humanity? Are you a collapsitarian?
http://open.salon.com/blog/mark_pritchard/2012/06/06/apocalypse_any_minute_now
Mark Pritchard's "Apocalypse Any Minute Now".
http://open.salon.com/blog/mark_pritchard/2012/06/06/apocalypse_any_minute_now
Interesting perspective on world collapse.
Linda Lacy's "Do You Hookah?"
http://open.salon.com/blog/lindalacy/2012/06/06/do_you_hookah
An enjoyable little romp with this new OS writers first visit to a hookah lounge. Good stuff this is!
http://open.salon.com/blog/prairiefire52/2012/06/06/thoughts_on_the_morning_after_in_wisconsin
Karen McKim. She sums up what's happening in Wisconsin, which I'm afraid is a microcosm for everywhere. She does great work.
So I came here to nominate it and I see, in another nomination, by a woman of her husband's post, that it was her husband's comment on her post that brought me here - and I didn't know the two were together until just now. Praise serendipity. Praise Sirenita. I nominate late the great: http://open.salon.com/blog/sirenitalake/2012/02/06/stealing_rachmaninoff
http://open.salon.com/blog/scupper/2012/01/31/every_moment
Because this morning I awoke to news --from another OS Friend--that there are dangerous radiation levels east of Chicago. Verified by 2 solid sources. And along with reading more Ray Bradbury, editing one of my books, picking a cover for another, getting ready to start a new contract job Monday, praying for my Dad and making sure my wife knew how much I loved her---I wanted to read one of Scuppers Poems. I picked this one. But you can pick any of them. She is one of the big reasons I'm still on OS after all these years. Her work is unique and it helps. Helps a lot.
I probably won't have enough time to review many of these but I'd just like to add one more second or is it fifth for the nomination of http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2012/06/06/surviving_the_unrecovered_borderline_parent
Good luck with your new project.
Here's the URL again: http://open.salon.com/blog/scupper/2012/01/31/every_moment
Peace and magick to all of you,
joey
...for Alan Milner's Truth Seryum: the Republican Campaign Strategy http://open.salon.com/blog/alan_milner/2012/06/07/truth_serum_the_republican_campaign_strategy. Alan paints a dismal picture of our polictical future which is difficult to refute.
"Growing Old Isn't For Sissies", by Pam Malone.
http://open.salon.com/blog/pam_malone/2012/06/07/growing_old_isnt_for_sissies
Thoughtful, well written POV piece about realities of aging vs. books written by again baby boomers
Check out that snazzy new banner wont'cha!
Thanks, LemonPulp!!!
Lezlie
Middle Aged Woman Talking's "Regulating the Seed Spilling Activities of Men".
http://open.salon.com/blog/middle_aged_woman_talking/2012/06/07/regulating_the_seed_spilling_activities_of_men
A well written, FAR from politically correct, witty, essay on women's rights and politics today. Amy picked! ;)
"Orphan Train" by Rennis.
http://open.salon.com/blog/rennis/2012/04/28/orphan_train
This is a poem followed by the related (true???) story. "Moving" barely covers it. Spectacular would be closer. One of the best things I've ever read on OS.
http://open.salon.com/blog/vcorso/2012/06/08/pick_up_the_pieces_-_how_i_survived_my_borderline_parents
Best wishes to all!!!
"Stealing Rachmaninoff" by Sirenita Lake
http://open.salon.com/blog/sirenitalake/2012/02/06/stealing_Rachmaninoff
A touching recounting of childhood memories. Well done.
http://open.salon.com/blog/califon_jer/2012/06/07 a_gentleman_of_fashion
gerald anderson's characterization and surprise ending was xlent
p.s. hope i got all that url crap right...
...for Linda Lacy's Do You Lookah? short and sweet account of a mother/daughter adventure
Lezlie
http://open.salon.com/blog/califon_jer/2012/06/07 a_gentleman_of_fashion
This is wonderful. Gerald Andersen nails it every time!
"Growing Old Isn't For Sissies" by Pam Malone.
She stated her case clearly and well.
Conservatism means never having to say you're sorry
http://open.salon.com/blog/ted_frier/2012/06/08/conservatism_means_never_having_to_say_youre_sorry
by: Tedd Frier
I considered the source, the writing and the intent of the article and I have to honestly say it's one of the best written indictments of authoritarianism infecting politics I have ever seen.
Love the banner/Logo
I also second the nomination for
V's post --
http://open.salon.com/blog/vcorso/2012/06/08/pick_up_the_pieces_-_how_i_survived_my_borderline_parents
I second the nomination for Ted Frier's piece.
I second the nomination for Rennis Orphan Train....
I think I got them all....if not....pfffft!! :)
http://open.salon.com/blog/ted_frier/2012/06/08/conservatism_means_never_having_to_say_youre_sorry
Middle Aged Woman Talking's "Regulating the Seed Spilling Activities of Men".
well written, brings up interesting points (pun intended), and made me chuckle. very much appropriate for what's going on in the country today.
http://open.salon.com/blog/mpbulletin/2012/06/08/playing_politics_with_government_workers
James Emmerling's "Why I'm Refusing Surgery (after cat scan results).
http://open.salon.com/blog/james_emm/2012/06/08/why_i_am_refusing_surgery_after_cat_scan_results
Seconded especially because I found the comments to be so heartfelt.
Second of JMAC's comment nomination for Brian Carter's comment at 8:40pm
http://open.salon.com/blog/mpbulletin/2012/06/08/playing_politics_with_government_workers
Witty response. I also LOVED that Jmac felt so strongly about it that he wrote a whole post recommending that this comment receive a RP! :D
"Let's Pretend," a poem by Greg Correll
http://open.salon.com/blog/greg_correll/2012/06/08/lets_pretend
Couple reasons: Poetry needs more recognition here, Greg is a master and this poem is one of my favorites. As I am not a poet I can't imagine what I might say that could reach the critical standards I sense poets set for their genre. But for those of us less poetically talented I would say I am riveted by his artful execution of the overall theme of putting on the right face as we struggle with rejection and acceptance, grudging and forgiving in a life we know is going to end for us. This line alone will stay with me a long long time: I expect never is forever, and the rest is a good pretend.
I'd like to nominate James Emmerling's piece on Wartime Romance because of its keen observations of others and the fragile POV of the narrator.
http://open.salon.com/blog/james_emm/2012/06/06/of_wartime_romances_male_inadequacies_and_sex_talk
...for Greg Correll's Let's Pretend. Poetry or prose, this writer grabs me by the heart and won't let go.
Lezlie
...James M. Emmerling's Wartime Romances, Male Inadequacies and Sex Talk. A great example of introspection via storytelling.
http://open.salon.com/blog/james_emm/2012/06/06/of_wartime_romances_male_inadequacies_and_sex_talk
Lezlie