Kristian Williams

I’m not talking about the elections. I’m talking about literal disasters like fires, floods, earthquakes, wars.

Or rather — other people are talking about those things, and I’ve written the reviews.

Rebecca Solnit has written a remarkable book about the creative and sometimes inspiring ways people have responded to disasters over the last hundred or so years. The book is called A Paradise Built in Hell, and I reviewed it for Socialism and Democracy back in July. (It’s not on the web, I’m afraid.)

Around the same time, I wrote a review of Garth Ennis’ Crossed, Volume One — a comic about a plague that eliminates inhibitions and amplifies cruelty. It appeared on The Comics Journal site in August.

At popculturebomb.com, you can also read a review of my review of Crossed. (Spoiler: They didn’t like it.)

I’ll be on KBOO radio’s “Old Mole Variety Hour” on Monday, October 25th. Bill Resnick will be interviewing me about the culture of police impunity, and in particular the new evidence of cover-ups in the James Chasse and Captain Mark Kruger cases. People in the Portland area can listen on 90.7 fm. Those out of town can find it archived on the KBOO website, though it may take a few days to show up there.

Update: We didn’t actually have time to talk about Kruger, but the interview about the Chasse case is on the KBOO web site.

I’ll also be giving a talk in Portland, on Thursday, November 4, from 7-9pm, at Sisters of the Road Cafe (133 NW 6th Avenue). Local historian Michael Munk will discuss the history of Portland’s “Red Squad,” and I will talk more broadly about the cops’ role in preserving inequality. The event is sponsored by Oregon Jericho.

Humboldt Grassroots issue 3 includes an article titled “Not An Isolated Event,” which draws heavily from an interview I gave with Street Roots years and years ago.

And, I’ll be speaking at the Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair on December 11. (More details to come.)

For the first time, the public is being allowed to observe contract negotiations between the Portland Police Association and the city government.

I went to watch the first day of talks, and wrote a brief report of what I saw.

The Oscholars recently ran a special issue focusing on Oscar Wilde’s essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.” In it, I have an article examining two lines of influence on Wilde: Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw, on the one hand; Williams Morris and Walter Crane, on the other.

I have also written a short review of Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews. It’s in the August 2010 issue of OutSmart.

More of my work on Wilde should reach print in the next couple months, including an essay on his aphorisms.