take me to the next phase, baby
take. me.
I want to link out to a few early pieces that place the terror in Washington DC in perspective: at Twitter, people are responding to this video timeline; and there’s this raw phone footage from the reporter who wrote this vivid in-depth piece. Black people cleaning up the mess has me grinding my teeth. And here’s something about country music culture and how it does and doesn’t intersect with the terror on Capitol Hill. What I’m not into though, is contributing to the trauma and terror by posting glam shots of criminality and likely treason. So that’s why (Oakland’s own) Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is up top. We’re about moving forward, and we’re about what new cultures are going to be like.
six things that are keeping me sane:
1) My therapist suggested the Headspace app last spring when the pandemic was new, so I could be more consistent with meditation. Okay so that never happened. Why? One, riding my bike is my meditation. Two, I’m skeptical about a weird disembodied voice guiding me to relax or focus. But I’ve been having trouble sleeping (ping back if you are in this club with me) and my trick of falling asleep to old television shows (Psych, the original Perry Mason, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) stopped working so I’m using Headspace for falling asleep and I’m literally out in under ten minutes. So now, though my focus is pretty crisp (writing keeps me from freaking out about chaos) I’m thinking about using Headspace specifically for focus. There’s a free trial. And this is not sponsored!
2) Farai Chideya. I love everything she’s doing. Speaking truths. Plus, Her podcast, Our Body Politic, “is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those very issues.”
3.) This whole photography archive situation: “It was like one of these things I never expected. To see Muhammad Ali in a Chinese American archive.”
4) Nikita Walia on “who we choose to idolize, who we ignore, who we lionize — and who we ignore” and “what influence, celebrity, and the idea of being an icon even mean anymore.” Right here.
5) Javicia Leslie being Batwoman.
6) Been doing a lot of thinking about print recently, and about how Vibe’s In the Mix section relentlessly documented black culture.
please be well and safe in these wild times.