Fight the Power: Plans to Piss Off a Kleptocracy

hey look everybody, it's my boyfriend! 

Okay, I promised a post that addresses what I'm gonna be doing from this point on regarding the waking nightmare that is the current state of US politics.

A horrible, inexperienced man is president-elect, a MASSIVE downgrade to the wonderfulness that is Obama, massive leaps backwards into the harsh and ugly parts of history. Trump is bringing in people that plan to dismantle civil rights for many marginalized peoples, destroy school systems, spreads white nationalist propaganda, have no regard for the environment, and overall simply doesn't give a f*** about anyone but themselves.

More than ever, we need to be kind to each other. Compassion should be the law of the land as everything goes to chaotic evil.

My plans are to talk more about my feelings and share what I find here and elsewhere. I feel it's my duty as an American citizen with social media and a blog to be a sounding board and a messenger. If you wish to avoid this posts, that is up to you. If you choose to no longer follow me because of this, or for my views, I understand that as well. I only ask you to go out and be kind.

I will continue to post about writing, my life, and whatever else. You'll just be seeing more politics is all.

I also plan on donating more often and even volunteering. I detail a little more below.

~~~

Donations or Volunteering:

I have donated all my birthday money (and soon, some of my Christmas monies) to six non-profits and charities (a seventh to follow...) that will need all the help they can get as they gear up to fight against a president and a cabinet full of horrid, hateful monsters.

If you work with a company that matches donations, take advantage of that as well! I know I will.

Here is a pretty damn good list.

If you want to know who I donated to, here ya goes:

Planned Parenthood of South Texas (I am researching on becoming a clinic escort)
ACLU of Texas (also now a proud member!)
NAACP
Stand with Standing Rock
Southern Poverty Law Center
Bitch Media (along with a renewed subscription to their most excellent magazine)

Posts and a Book to Read:

If you want to improve on your compassion, I highly recommend Karen Armstrong's beautiful book Twelve Steps to A Compassionate Life. I read it a long time ago and found it to be a balm. It has changed how I feel about the world and my interactions with any and all people.

Van Jones gives a realistic view on what happened and what we need to do moving forward.

Tananarive Due talks about why she wasn't active on social media and took to journaling to cope with the horror.

Chuck Wendig drives all the post-election feelings home here very well. In fact, you should read his entry before mine. It is definitely better.

It's interesting to note that this post will be almost a year old, but boy howdy, we are gonna need it more than ever now.

George Takei speaks from painful experience about why a Muslim registry is starting to sound too familiar...

This lovely post about what to do to take care of yourself after all this...

Rowdy Kittens shares some thoughts and some lovely pictures with inspiring quotes.

Susannah Conway tied together the sadness of the political atmosphere along with a sweet dedication to the late Leonard Cohen.

Videos:

John Oliver provides some laughs and outlines some more non-profits to support.


Commander Holly continues to be the human incarnation of sunshine by suggesting non-profits and other ways to be kind this holiday season.


LittleKuriboh eschews politics to get to one heart of the matter: self-care in times like these.

~~~

This is merely a primer of suggestions. There are many posts like this I'm sure, so I'm not saying anything newish. But I like to think it's just an addition to the voices. May my voice not be louder than those who said it better and have more to lose than myself.

I will be blunt and say that a Trump "presidency" is not gonna affect me greatly as a straight, cisgender white person. It will affect me as a woman, but not as much as say... a woman of color. And you know what? That disgusts me more than anything that I will be more okay than a great chunk of friends, colleagues, coworkers, neighbors, and complete strangers. I was raised to be considerate to everyone and not think I was better than anyone regardless of any identifying traits. 

That is why I am going to use my privilege for something good: do anything in my power to stop this madness from getting any worse than it already is. 

Who's with me?!

Thoughts on "Corner of the Sky" by Cut Copy

When the band thanked Talking Heads in the liner notes of the most-excellent Zonoscope, I thought it was more of a "shout-out to my fav band" thing more than an actual hint of influence. I mean, there was no thanks to Fleetwood Mac and "Take Me Over" sounds straight from Tango in the Night*. But I digress. I'm not here to argue about that. So the thanks was more than just a shout-out, it was to answer yes to the following question: "Hey you guys, is it me or does 'Corner of the Sky' sound like a lost Talking Heads song?"

I mean, seriously... it does. Haven't you listened to it? Here, I'll give you some time.



Still not sure? Well, take the time to listen to the entirety of Remain in Light. I'll wait.

...

You back? Cool beans, continuing forward!

So yeah, it does right? I mean, the guitar effects! Bang-on impression of Adrian Belew's signature "elephant"! As for the lyrics, they make no sense, so yeah, totes David Byrne**. The keyboards? Sounds like Bernie Worrell and Jerry Harrison were having an epic synth fight (I'll pay good money to see that in person). And the all-male harmonies! Some Brian Eno emulation (who comes across vaguely baritone-ish, to me at least) whenever he sang backup, like in "Once in A Lifetime". The drums are pretty damn whomp-whomp, which is kinda Chris Frantz's thing. And yeah, the bass is straightforward Tina Weymouth, keeping the whole thing together.

The ending? Yeah, I see what you did there: throwing me off with a slight hint to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and "Drugs" (oddly enough) with usage of "found sound".

And strangely enough, the song's atmosphere sounds like "The Overload" meets "The Great Curve". Weird, no one asked for the two to mate and have a child, but thank God they did...?

Overall, this song is made of pure amazing with a bonus side of "there is a God and He's slowly blessing the music industry".

~~

*Also, Dan Whitford (lead singer/keyboardist) has gone on record (hur-hur) to say that Tusk, well mainly Lindsey Buckingham's songs, were HUGE influences throughout.

**Okay, he has no monopoly on that, but whatever.

~~

And also props to my second all-time favorite album cover (this being my first).

This post was fueled by the music of Cut Copy, a sense of accomplishment, and Dan's utter cuteness.

Four Songs I've Sang in Public (and Three I Want to Sing)

In honor of the release of Rob Sheffield's new book (which I'm digging into right now with gusto), I will list the four songs I've actually sang in public ala karaoke (although they were through the Rock Band video game during a series [read two] of parties. But I'm told this technically counts. Hot dog.) and the three I wish I can do.

"Girlfriend Is Better" by Talking Heads

"Nightwatchman" by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

"Tom Sawyer" by Rush

"Kiss Them for Me" by Siouxsie and the Banshees


And for the three I want to do... (but Rock Band doesn't have em. Booooo.)

"Isn't It Midnight" by Fleetwood Mac

"Kodachrome" by Paul Simon

"Walking After Midnight" by Patsy Cline

Two songs with "midnight" in the title... hardy-har-har-hur-hur. Whatever.

San Francisco Bound!

Hello, this is the obligatory scheduled message from yours truly notifying y'all that I'm currently out of town for a week. Take this time to catch up on the archives here or for your other favorite blogs.

Until then, I'll be back!

Roll that "exit stage right" music, Mr. Prophet!



...

Wait... I do have a stupid sense of humor:

Just finished reading...

the second book of the Angelology series (Angelopolis) and whoo... dat ending.

Dis gonna be good.

This will be my reaction when the final book of the series comes out. I can't wait. I want to know how it will end!

This stupid post was brought to you by the post's theme song:

Mr. Petty, can you be that fun Southern uncle I never had?

*meme does not belong to me*

Two Things

Okay, here is the update on A Wilderness of Spiders:

61543 / 80000 words. 77% done!

~

I have become obsessed with this song:



P.S.: The Band are aaaammmaazzzing (Levon Helm is the man, may he rest in peace) and I'm convinced that Emmylou Harris is an angel on Earth.

~

Oh yeah, today's my birthday. Whee, twenty-six years of living... I mean, WHEE it's my birthday! Yeah, had some cake and homemade chicken wings. And writing. It was a good day.

~

This post was brought to you by "Screw the Nether" and my new favorite meme.

*meme does not belong to me*

New York City, Here I Come!

This is the obligatory post letting all the peeps know that I will be absent for most of the week. I will be in the Big Apple, seeing the sights and going to a big concert (the main highlight). No posts until I return, so take the time to catch up! Until next time...

Play us off, Fleetwood Mac!

This one goes out...

to my best friend and her fiancé, who just got married today.

Y'all are a wonderful couple. Continue being awesome, you crazy kids.

Well, that took f***ing forever...

But I finished one of my first major goals: wrap up the "24 Reviews for 24 Years" before my birthday. The review of The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt was a very appropriate end to this.

Hey, self... if you ever get the itching to do something like this again, remember what happened the last time, okay?

~

And now for something completely different: my favorite Looney Tunes cartoon...

Discussions of a recent interest

A while back, I talked about becoming interested in the politics behind the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I wanted both sides, wanted to know how the thought process went for America when we decided to attack Japan; and then why Japan decided to attack Pearl Harbor (among committing other atrocities, like the Rape of Nanking). Most important, how these atrocities affected everyone, even to this day. For example, after Pearl Harbor, America imprisoned many Japanese-American citizens in internment camps.

Just from the few books I read so far, I have concluded that both countries were in the wrong. Also, that nuclear warfare is one of humankind's shining moments of how we are capable of creation and destruction.

I have no post....

...so here are three songs to enjoy.

Currently listening to (JSYK, the first song):


Currently obsessed with (yep, still...):


Currently thinking about:


~
And don't ask about my writing. I already have yelled at myself enough.

And I'm back/To let you know/I can really shake 'em down...

Glad to be back, everyone. Here is what happened while I was away (for those who care):

• I started my second job at my former internship (so basically, doing what I did before, only getting paid). 15 hours a week. Noice.
• I finished reading The Atrocity Exhibition (liked it), BITCHfest (fricking loved it), and A Plague Upon Humanity (really liked it). 
• Got back into writing Invisible, now I'm stuck again.
• Found myself addicted to "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson. Y'all, I heard God in this song...
• I thank Kanye West for getting me into that song. And yes, "Power" is awesome.
• In lieu of this piece of news, I made an attempt to make my own Volcano Burritos. While they weren't exactly the same, they tasted better. (Yes, I'm going to stop going there. Same goes for Chick-fi-la.)
• Found myself only going on the Internet for a few hours at a time, instead of being constantly on.
• Saw The Green Hornet (liked it okay), Origin: Spirits of the Past (didn't like it), and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (really liked it).
• Learned more about what's going on in Egypt (it's looking rougher by the day...). Check out Mother Jones. Power to the people!

So, back to the regular schedule and back to what I do best: rant about writing and reviewing books.

It'll be like I never left.

*checks sidebar*

Maybe not.

Go Patti Smith!

Joyous news! Smith's memoir Just Kids was awarded the National Books Award for Nonfiction. This is an excellent book, probably one of the best musician memoirs I've read so far. I originally read an excerpt (in all places) in Rolling Stone. Bought the magazine out on a whim and came across the excerpt, read it, and then I bought the book on its first day of release.

In honor of such an achievement for this amazing lady and equally-amazing novel, I shall reread it and review it. In addition, a bonus review of her prime album Horses. Expect this all on the first week of December!

~

Go here for information about the book and its author and watch a clip of Ms. Smith reading the book, along with a nice a cappella performance of "Because the Night":

Here's the dealio...

A review of Guster's new album is forthcoming, as reviews of some books I'll be reading in the meantime. I'm inching closer to the end of Part 1 of Invisible. As I get closer, I came to an interesting realization: that there may be a Part 3. I probably will get an answer once I reach the milestone of Part 1.

This isn't much, but it's better than nothing.

I leave you with music.

"Invisible" is alive once again!

I've been hard at work for the last few days to get the end of Part 1 of the novel. I can't believe it. Nothing really inspired me to go on, other than this need to do it. It also helps that I read Stephen King's On Writing (I read it while working on Blues when I began to hit some rough spots). I've waited over two months to try again and this time, I swear there will be no breaks like that again.

Let's do this thing right.

Quick Hits (or I'm Lazy, Here's A Short Entry)

Currently, I'm reading The Alchemist. I have no idea how to react to this book, so I plan on finishing it tonight and making a final decision. Before that, I finished Steve Martin's memoir, which I enjoyed very much.

~

As for music, I finished Arcade Fire's latest. I wasn't overtly impressed with it (I still prefer Funeral and Neon Bible on odd days), but there were some great songs, especially the title track and this one:



This was my favorite off the entire album.

Oh yeah, and Guster's new song is great:



~

As for movies, I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Repo! The Genetic Opera. I loved the former, it was entertaining and very funny. In fact, I make plans to either borrow or buy the comics and read them. The latter was a poor man's Rocky Horror, most of the singing was horrible. It says a lot about a musical when only two of its songs are really good. But it is better than Grease. Then again, anything is better than Grease.

I'm probably gonna get attacked for not liking Repo. Ah, who cares? When Repo's purported sequel makes an unforgettable scene like this



I'll retract my opinion.

P.S.: Speaking of retracting opinions... after giving it considerable thought: Fear of Music by Talking Heads is not my all-time favorite album. It's actually Remain In Light. Whoops.

And now for something completely different...

I've planned this for a while and now the chance has finally come. For the last few months, I've been going through the Monty Python's Flying Circus box set I bought myself for Christmas last year (I have three more discs left). I've seen the familiar and famous sketches, but also found some fantastic hidden gems.

So, here it is everyone: my favorite Monty Python skits! (the last one being the top favorite)

"Silly Job Interview" - pretty much what did it for me was the end. Watch the whole thing instead of skipping to the punch line.

"Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights" - literature meets flag signals...

"Confuse-A-Cat" - as a cat owner, this was lulzy.

"Ministry of Silly Walks" - kinda typical of a Python fan, but whatever. It's actually a good sketch.

"Self-Defense Against Fresh Fruit" - well, you never know...

"Secretary of State Striptease" - alas no clip. But let's say the title is what it is...

"Camp Square-Bashing" - after the ballerinas, it's not as funny. The part before the ballerinas caught my sister and I off-guard.

"The Lumberjack Song" -one day, I'll memorize the song and torture people with it.

"Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" - my hovering blog is full of eels...

"Dead Parrot" - c'mon, a classic for a reason!

"Bicycle Repairman" - a brilliant superhero parody...


And my favorite Monty Python sketch of all time is... "The Bishop"


And as a bonus, here is my sister's favorite sketch.

Until next time, enjoy the laughs.

*Countdown to 200 entries: 11 left*