#and there’s a strong focus on indigenous communities which I really liked
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skymed whump list
description: “Follows intense character journeys and high-stakes medical rescues, heartbreaks and tribulations of budding nurses and pilots flying air ambulances.” whump refers to various recurring male characters (unfortunately not all of them are in the pic, but from left to right are Tristan, Chopper, Nowak, and Bodie)
overall notes: apparently you can find the show on paramount plus but I pirated it so I can’t say anything for captions or availability. it’s a little silly sometimes but it’s way more interesting than a lot of your average medical dramas imo.
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Pilots And Nurses And Bears, Oh My! (1x01) - Jeremy: stabbed, stitches Wheezer: plane crash, unconscious, bloody face, carried, broken back Bodie: upset
Line Indoc (1x02) - Bodie: at gunpoint, hit in the head with a gun
The Kids Are Alright (1x03) - Wheezer: in the hospital
Where There’s Smoke (1x04) - Wheezer: on crutches
Bushwhacked (1x05) - Wheezer: walking with a cane Jeremy: hit by a car, in the hospital Bodie: leg caught in a bear trap, carried, in the hospital Tristan: upset, crying
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (1x06) - none
Daj Mi Buzi (1x07) - Nowak: overworked, tired, crashes his car, cut forehead, in pain and struggling to get out, relocates dislocated shoulder by himself, two panic attacks Jeremy: in medical transport, upset Trevor: upset Bodie: upset
Frozen (1x08) - Nowak: panic attack while flying, upset, fight with Bodie Chopper: panicked Bodie: fight with Nowak Jeremy: cold
Leave It All On The Ice (1x09) - Wheezer: gagging Jeremy: stumbling, shot, upset at himself Pierce: trapped under a shelf, reveals he’s going deaf, internal bleeding, in the hospital, upset at himself Bodie: crying
NEW!! Season 2:
Return to Base (2x01) - Jeremy: argument with Crystal Tristan: mildly electrocuted, argument with Nowak Nowak: argument with Tristan Wheezer: scared Chopper: in an explosion, unconscious, impaled with shrapnel, cardiac arrest, field medicine
Spun Out (2x02) - Jeremy: upset, argument with Crystal Wheezer: slip and fall, emotional conversation Chopper: unconscious in hospital, waking up, groggy, arm pain, upset, collapse Bodie: upset Nowak: upset
Things That Matter Most (2x03) - Chopper: upset, can’t use his hand much, hand bandaged Nowak: upset Bodie: plane crash, emotional conversation, crying Tristan: plane crash, broken rib Jeremy: plane crash
Turbulence (2x04) - Chopper: in pain from his injuries, limping, upset, crying
Code Silver (2x05) - none
Little Lies (2x06) - Jeremy: upset, doubting himself Wheezer: stressed Nowak: upset, angry
Old Wounds (2x07) - Tristan: upset, crying Nowak: guilty, panicking, vomits Wheezer: upset, worried about Haley, argument with Haley, angry Bodie: in trouble for breaking rules Chopper: in trouble for breaking rules
Before Sunrise, After Sunset (2x08) - Bodie: upset
Out With a Bang (2x09) - Nowak: upset, trapped by a broken elevator, revelation of past trauma, crying, unconscious, carried, in hospital with ruptured diaphragm and broken ribs Wheezer: sick, delirious Tristan: upset, crying, worried Bodie: in hospital after kidney donation
#i say things#skymed#whump list#it’s not the highest quality out there but it’s interesting and pretty cool#also for those interested wheezer is played by aaron ashmore so…..#also the show is set in the canadian north which is a much more interesting setting than like. the city or whatever#and there’s a strong focus on indigenous communities which I really liked#I doubt it’ll get another season tho but I’d recommend it if you’ve got free time and don’t mind something a little soapy a little silly#the fandom for this show appears to be like ten people and a bag of chips so like. please.#(btw I’ll be writing my last bthb fic for this)#(sorry to disappoint by not doing one of my usual fandoms but I have an Idea)#oh there’s a gifset of nowak in 1x07 somewhere around btw#that’s the top whump ep imo. physical and emotional with lasting talked about consequences#cannot believe we got a second season
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first commonplace book of 2023
monday, january 9, 2023 ~ 6:30pm pst
back ‘at home’ (parents’ place) after a lil trip to see family, during which our flight was cancelled (us and the rest of the world) and we consequently got to spend a total of like 48 hours in the car roundtrip. new year’s at the shore was nice though, and so was roadtrip tunes and reading aloud and the very epic puzzle the family completed.
reading i’m juggling a couple of hot library loans right now, trying to finish them before the loan periods expire while also balancing each one’s tone and vibe etc. so it’s the monster baru cormorant (seth dickinson) when i wake up, maybe you should talk to someone (lori gottlieb) during the day, and the last graduate (naomi novik) at bedtime, in what is a really weird stylistic and emotional smorgasbord now that i look at it... insights and observations to come later when i can focus on one specifically. also, big shoutout to the free knidle download of lord peter wimsey mysteries i already had, and to dorothy l. sayers’ way with words and her ridiculous delightful sweet fop of an amateur detective (and no i don’t mean benoit) who collects medieval manuscripts and quotes poetry every so often mid-sentence while periodically having intense wwi ptsd. every generation needs their fruity little detective, it’s a keystone species. reading this aloud to my mom in the car kept us both awake and discussing things like clues and the picture this paints of things like early 20th century london society’s antisemitism and train system and newspaper/ print culture.
watching just went back to check the previous ilcb and while i did mention this show, i didn’t feature it specifically so: three pines, based on the louise penny novel series of the same name, now streaming on prime. my mom loves the books, and now we’re all loving the show, and alfred molina is absolutely loving this role he gets to play (and it shows). you may feel that the premise of ‘small cute town full of local characters where murders keep happening’ has been done already, and you’d be right, but there’s something about seeing quebec on screen like this-- and the indigenous community’s strong presence from the first scene of the first episode-- that feels different, and important. the music design and landscape are great, the themes are very honest even when details or plot twists (the whodunnit of episodes 1 and 2, and the tragic twist at the end of ep 2) end up feeling a little exaggerated. here are some good articles about the show’s attempts to center indigenous voices, bring topics like residential school violence and indigenous treatment by police to international audiences, and (arguable, but i respect them for the attempt) avoid white saviorism.
also, you may have deduced from the recent glass onion blogging that i did finally get to watch knives out 2 electric boogaloo. things i liked about this movie: 1) the response to it/analyses of it/art and memes and edits which i can now enjoy having seen it (the one which observes that the movie itself is a fugue, seriously, i love how much everyone else has been loving this and it has made it so much better), 2) the celebrity cameos (yo-yo ma! hugh grant! stephen sondeheim!?) and watching janelle monae, 3) the visual palette and coloring and lighting and design choices, 4) PEG, 5) finding out at the end that it’s a beatles song reference. i think that i had seen just enough on my dash to have....overly high expectations in some regards, though not specific spoilers so i was still Not Expecting That.
listening got to play a bunch of my music in the car on the roadtrip, so here’s to my mom deciding she likes orville peck (more than hozier!? who is apparently too sad) and my dad enjoying basia bulat’s the garden, and here’s to all the audiobooks, and audiobook recommendations i got from friends, which i gathered optimistically pre-trip and still haven’t finished. so far i’m really enjoying t.j. klune’s through the whispering door (read by kirt graves), which feels both like a more mature and creative venture than his first book and which this narrator is doing a delightful job of (i think the sense of whimsy comes through better when mediated by narrator, it infuses depth/warmth/nuance into details that i think on their own might have rubbed me the wrong way).
and today i just finished listening to jeannette mccurdy’s i’m glad my mom died, which is a harrowing memoir but also was so riveting. she reads it herself, and again having her specific voice and delivery of some of the dialogue was so, so necessary and heartbreaking and occasionally hilarious, it really adds to the experience. major trigger warnings on this one for descriptions (detailed, visceral) of disordered eating, various mental health problems, alcohol abuse, child abuse, and painstaking personal growth. big shoutout to @dimir-charmer for recommending this one, i was immediately hooked, you were so right.
playing stardew year three, and i’ve bought a bouquet. her art exhibit was so nerdy, i loved it. just waiting for the right time to pop the question ❤️ (probably after my next house upgrade)(is this delaying a sign of cold feet, or just wanting to only offer her the best?? i’ve already got 8 hearts it’s probably fine but ahhhhh)
i’ve also figured out (kinda) how to run celeste on this laptop! and immediately threw my poor sweet girl onto many, many icy spikes. again. and again. this one is not a keyboard game, friends, i’m trying lots of different key configurations to try and make it one but i think at the end of the day we’re going to need a controller of some kind. beautiful though.
making spent a lot of yesterday selecting and writing new year’s cards while discovering the power of the background seinfeld marathon, alkj;lkjalskdg asd and i have other art and or craft plans afoot since having been presented with a calligraphy pen and some good paper. baked a gazillion molasses cookies before the trip, but have otherwise just been sort of coasting on creative things lately.
working on threw together a haphazard conference proposal as a way to make myself work on chapter four, and after spending all day staring at it finally just sent it off with the same idea i’d had days ago (but which i thought if i tried hard enough i might be able to improve on. alas.) otherwise, still chugging on recommendation letter (ah) and reading friend’s chapters (ahh) and coming up with things to say for that thing in february (AH) and RAship hours. we’re back to the grind, baby.
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“Virgin River” fans looking for more while they await another season of the hit Netflix drama should consider the debut of The CW network’s “Sullivan’s Crossing.” Not only is it a fellow romance series, but it’s based on a book series written by the same author, Robyn Carr.
So how do you know whether you’re a “Virgin River” viewer or a “Sullivan’s Crossing” viewer — or whether you’re both? Variety had Carr and “Sullivan’s Crossing” showrunner Roma Roth, who also is an executive producer on “Virgin River,” break down the similarities and differences between the two titles ahead of “Sullivan’s Crossing’s” U.S. premiere on Oct. 4.
A Canadian drama set in Nova Scotia (already different from “Virgin River,” which is set in the U.S. but also filmed in Canada), “Sullivan’s Crossing” stars Morgan Kohan as Maggie Sullivan, a neurosurgeon who returns to her child home amid a professional scandal. There, she reunites with her estranged father, Sully Sullivan (Scott Patterson), and finds a budding romance with town newcomer Cal Jones (Chad Michael Murray).
Now in its fifth season on Netflix, “Virgin River” follows the life and love of Melinda Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge), who answers an ad to work as a midwife and nurse practitioner in the remote California town of Virgin River, thinking it will be the perfect place to start fresh and leave her painful memories behind.
“‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ starts out a bit more intense and slowly than ‘Virgin River’ does,” Carr told Variety. “‘Virgin River’ moves really, really fast. And ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ reminded me a little bit of the early season of ‘This Is Us.’ It’s pretty domestic, and it’s pretty much like a family drama. And it’s a lot of new characters for us, but they they have quite a long history together. And I’ve really, really loved it. I thought they did just a beautiful job. And they added things that I wish I had thought, like the Indigenous aspect.”
Roth made the choice to add a focus on the Indigenous people of Nova Scotia, while maintaining the storyline of Carr’s book-version of “Sullivan’s Crossing,” which she says largely differs from “Virgin River” in that that show is a “fish out of water” story, while “Sullivan’s Crossing” is “a woman who is coming home to try and reconcile who she is now with who she once was.”
“There’s more of a found-family dynamic, and her life has imploded — and she’s now heading back to a home that she hasn’t been to in years to reconnect with friends and family and an estranged father that she hasn’t seen in years,” Roth said. “We do have the romance with Chad Michael Murray and our lead Morgan Kohan, and you still get all the warm and fuzzies that you want out of romance drama. It still has everything that people would love of the other show, which is emotion, drama, characters that you want to make part of your family. And you want to tune into on a weekly basis.”
For Carr, it’s those character and the community bonds in particular that are the biggest connection among all of her romance novels.
“One of the things that make my series so popular with readers and viewers is the strong sense of community,” Carr said. “You really have to rely on your neighbors. You’re somewhat isolated from the larger crowd. And then even if you don’t like your neighbor, you will always have their back. Because that’s the only way you can exist.
“We’ve been going through a time — for probably about 20 or more years now — when we really as a people have been striving and looking for a strong sense of community. And I think that’s what holds us together and gives us hope.”
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If you’ve ever found representations of magic mushrooms in popular culture—within a Film, on Television set, or inside a painting—it absolutely was most probably a golden cap shroom. The golden cap shroom, more commonly called
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What is Absolutely everyone’s impression on stems vs caps? For me, I don’t grind mine and cap them. I buy the mushrooms and just break items off to weigh the days I’m dosing. So clearly lots of my dosing is with stems because there’s more of your stem compared to the cap lol. But what are your opinions on this?
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What I loved about ABC's Preppers
for ABC Everyday / By Molly Hunt
Escaping the fallout of a personal cataclysmic event, Charlie finds herself among a motley crew of doomsday preppers.(ABC TV: Noel McLaughlin)
Why do people prep? To detach from reality and plan for an uncertain end with an uncertain expiration date?
It's like an eventual opening of a mystery box, just less bombshell and more bomb shelter.
I guess a part of prepping is about security and being able to fend and take care of yourself when the time comes, even if the 'when' is as close and as far as the sun rises and sets.
Prepping is the subject of a new comedy series of the same name: Preppers. The show made me laugh. A lot! But it also made me understand the 'why' behind it all, all through a modern lens. Here are my top four moments.
First things first. What is Preppers?
Preppers is a six-part ABC comedy series with a stellar cast. Nakkiah Lui (co-creator and writer) plays the protagonist Charlie and she is joined by six peculiar preppers played by Jack Charles, Meyne Wyatt, Ursula Yovich, Aaron McGrath as well as non-Indigenous actors Chum Ehelepola and Eryn Jean Norvill.
In the first act, Charlie is saved from almost dying in her car, running away and passing out. She is then woken by a water spray to the face, finding herself in the camp Eden 2.
The characters she meets at Eden 2 aren't prepping because of their fears of a zombie outbreak or the coming of The Rapture — well, some are — but mostly because of disasters that have already happened. Floods, pandemic, genocide, and the Stolen Generation. We've already had a real apocalypse and Lui, with co-creator and writer Gabriel Dowrick, cleverly explores this through a modern-day lens on colonialism, patriarchy, false allyship and intergenerational trauma.
Four moments where the show gets it right
Microaggressions
In a flashback, we observe Charlie repeating positive affirmations to herself before she begins to host a morning show: Wake Up Australia.
All the while, she's continuously dealing with an excruciating amount of microaggressions. I had to pause a few times because it was frustratingly triggering; I actually got a nervous itch. So good job Lui and Dowrick on showing that. Some may think it's depicted as an exaggeration, but I differ; this is reality.
Charlie (played by Preppers creator and co-writer Nakkiah Lui). (ABC TV: Noel McLaughlin)
Allyship
Lui and Dowrick really show the dangers of an ignorant ally through Luke Arnold's character, Fig. He appears to be charming and wants to be a part of Eden 2 but he's all under false intentions to be seen as the good ally.
People like this, who don't have their hearts in it but want the status to 'save' and 'help' Indigenous people, are (pardon my blackness): DAWGS!
Fig, played by Luke Arnold, is not a character with the best of intentions.(ABC TV: Noel McLaughlin)
Community
Eden 2 doesn't work unless they all come together. The gang almost gets modern-day colonised by a new white preppers' camp run by Fig after getting kicked out.
Charlie stands up as a leader, empowering the gang to come back and come together, which they do all while tearing down the white preppers' camp, in an amazing angelic scene.
Crackup
The show deals with such complex issues that are portrayed and explained in such a way that it's lighthearted, funny and at times magical.
Each character is equally funny and strong, with lines that had me repeating them, like when Jack Charles' character Monty said: "Fair like a blackfella's bum".
So, should you watch this? Hell yeh! It is clever, witty and dialogue-driven with a focus on the Blak experience.
You might not care too much for prepping, but the relationship between the characters is dynamic, layered and unapologetic — just like the whole show itself and just like us Blackfellas are. No shame, multi-layered and funny ASF.
You can stream all episodes of Preppers now on ABC iview, or watch Wednesdays at 9pm on ABC TV.
Molly is a writer and artist based on Gadigal Country (Sydney).
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A lot of Makorra shippers only moved on because they’re afraid of being called homophobic for not shipping korrasami. I LITERALLY saw someone on Instagram yesterday call a makorra shipper homophobic just for saying korrasami came out of nowhere. Also, Korrasami shippers LOVE to bring up the "popping bottles" backlash to make fun of makorra shippers. I left the tlok fandom in 2014 bc it was so toxic as a teenager, but now i’m 23. I’m no longer afraid of shipping something i always loved.
Ah, yes, I realized I didn’t address the fandom's toxicity in the last ask, but I’ve spoken about it before. I don't talk too much about the past because I was at the edge of the fandom back in 2014/2015. I was aware of fights, but the discussions I saw were moreso on bi-erasure. I saw one post saying it was wrong to ship Makorra. I remember being really confused about why Makorra was actually problematic, but I didn’t appreciate being told who I can ship the only dark-skinned woman protagonist on a major television network with. Why are you forcing me to ignore Mako and Korra’s relationship? Book 1 is practically about Mako and Korra, all other characters be damned. Me preferring the story of one pairing and a popular romance trope, second chances, is not wrong, and no one would know how I view the LGBT+ community based on who I ship in one show.
I ended up leaving the community because I was disappointed with season 4 in general. When Korra was released on Netflix, I figured it was time to rewatch the series again (plus, I’ve been binging all my favorite romance anime). So imagine my shock when I created a new Tumblr and Twitter account to rant and rave about TLOK, and I saw nothing but hate and name-calling in the Makorra tags. I saw people casually throwing around the word “homophobic,” and one person said people who don’t like Korrasami are just misogynistic.
I just wanted pretty pictures, and people are out here psychoanalyzing shippers! So, I dug through some blogs and to feel more grounded with this fandom I didn’t recognize. After reading through their commentaries and experiences, I actually became more upset at Bryke than the teenagers/children who comment on Makorra posts saying how much better Korrasami is or accuse Makorra shippers of being homophobic.
Yes, I truly believe these comments are mostly coming from people in their late teens and younger, at least in 2020. I can’t speak on 2014/2015, but since we were younger, the early 20s/late teens, I wonder if our age group was also the loudest. Don’t get me wrong, adults can be horrible people and can get really nasty. However, every time I look up the rudest commenters' profiles, they were teens. When one Korrasami shipper wrote “screw Makorra” on my AMV, I figured I’d have some fun trolling them until I clicked on their profile and saw a child. Needless to say, I ignored them and reflected on how parents are allowing their babies on TikTok while my parents freaked out at the idea of showing my picture on FB growing up.
*I’m not still mad about that*
Also, while it doesn’t give anyone an excuse to make such a strong accusation, part of me, as a straight person, feels like I can’t get too upset because I also become very aware of my privilege. The space I’m in is a majority of young LGBT+ fans (at least on Twitter where I’ve seen the most toxicity). Some people see TLOK as their safe space and imply why should there be Makorra shippers when they have all these other cis/het shows they can engage with. It doesn’t work like that, of course. TLOK doesn’t only feature Bi characters. They’re POC/Indigenous, women, and Korra has dark skin. That’s a lot of marginalized communities. Makorra/TLOK is my comfort show, not because she’s with a man, but because of the reasons I just listed. Also shipping Korra with Mako doesn’t mean she’s no longer bi. She’d still be attracted to women.
Here’s who I am upset with tho, Bryke. Mostly Bryan. While Makorra shippers called out Korrasami shippers for cyberbullying, the focus seemed to be on Bryan for making it seem like there was something wrong with them for not finding Korrasami’s narrative satisfying. It was especially sad to read bloggers who identified as being part of the LGTB+ community saying Bryan’s hetero-lens dismissed their experience and then having to defend/proving themselves to anonymous messengers.
Fans saw it as a betrayal. They saw it as the go-head for the rude Korrasami shippers to harass Makorra artists because they “didn’t watch the show correctly.” When the creator, the person you admire, also puts the blame on you, that kind of pain is on another level.
Korrasami shippers played a huge role in kicking Makorra shippers out of the fandom, but we can’t underestimate how much Bryan’s statement is a slap in the face. He used his characters and social justice as a shield for reasonable criticism. Just because we say a story is bad and Asami is grossly underwritten doesn’t mean that we’re against the idea of Korra and Asami being a couple.
Of course, I’ve seen some very problematic statements from Makorra shippers. After all, homophobia is real. However, aside from the actual bigots, people have no issue with Korrasami. They just wanted a stronger connection between the girls. Many people seem to think Makorra shippers were looking for more romance, but we know we couldn't expect that. We can expect more screentime, musical cues, and more emotional support, which most people can see as platonic, but be romantic if you really want to. Mako’s interactions in book 4 can be seen as platonic, but all of us Makorra shippers saw it to be romantic.
Popping bottles! I completely missed that joke in 2014 and I discovered it this year. I agree it’s pretty annoying, but I become a troll and say I’m popping bottles for my Makorra moments. I don’t get any engagement, but I don’t seem to lose followers for it. Maybe popping bottles represents “straight-baiting?” I don’t get it why it’s so funny after all this time, but we’re Makorra shippers. We’re the joke 🙄
Anyways, to wrap up, lately, there seems to be a bit of a shift on Twitter. When I first created an account. I stayed in my little corner live-tweeting about TLOK and Makorra. I had to stop looking at the Makorra tag because it was so negative. Now, I’m seeing people admit they’re cute, and then saying they’re platonic soulmates. I’ll take it, although, as one commenter said, “that’s boring!”
Someone led a Makorra Week back in October, and it was really nice! I have feeling people speaking up on the name-calling and reminding people that we’re talking about 2D characters helped. We just want to be left alone and enjoy the scenes we have in the show, art, and fanfiction.
Keep shipping who you want! Don’t let any stranger shame you for your shipping preferences, especially in fiction! I’m so happy you feel more comfortable shipping these two dorks! You’re not alone! I’ve been a Makorra shipper since 2012, and while I find Korrasami cute (I love Korra, and I love Asami), Makorra is my OTP. I really like them, and I think they were meant for each other.
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Mapping the Margins
Christina Serifi is an architect, researcher and urbanist. She is a co-founder of TiriLab, an initiative which explores multi cultural heritage related to techniques, technologies and culture specifics from communities in northern Greece. Christina is associate researcher in Terreform, where she has coordinated various publications regrading indigenous knowledge, alternative educational models and self sufficiency.
Photo © Norman Posselt
Her work investigates forms, collective memories, typologies and local practices, focusing on urban fragments, in-between spaces, as well as osculation of architectural and social space, Christina has been awarded with the Fulbright fellowship and Urban Design Award ’14 from CCNY, she is also a Future Architecture Platform Fellow and Digital Research Fellow of Architectuul.
Mapping the Margins is a series of maps and documentations, identifying, for the first time, all the women associations, local agriculture cooperatives as well as abandoned buildings in Thesprotia province, in order to create an active platform where many cooperatives can find a space to grow. Through these rural commons, we aim to merge formal, non-formal and informal learning models and create encounters with artists, local institutions and inhabitants from and for the region.
Berlin, New York, Athens, where is your basis?
CS: The truth is that I develop my professional practice through constant collaborations with local initiatives, professionals and different institutions. I am a Digital nomad I would say. If you ask about my physical basis is in Berlin, where I spend three or four months. The rest of the year I travel a lot, try to be as close as possible with communities that I work with.
Christina, please talk about your work in Terreform with Michael Sorkin. He has been a very important mentor and friend who has influenced your work a lot?
CS: Yes, this is true and I am happy that you are taking me some years back. This is a very sensitive matter for me because as you know we lost Michael a year ago because of COVID and since then all Terreform members are mourning for this loss.
I joined Terreform team after my Masters studies in New York, when we started to work in Yachay in the North of Ecuador, which was a new Technopole that the government was planning to build from scratch in one of the most fertile lands in the country. We started to investigate during my Masters this topic and Michael suggested me to join Terreform team, which was for me an amazing experience. Not only we manage to focus deeper on Technopoles, but we also travelled to Ecuador, we developed a lot of alternative plans, we talked with the local municipality how to support the local communities and protect this territory. We developed alternative plans, on how many new educational functions can be re-located in the existing near town called Ibarra. We also investigated a lot the integration between formal and informal knowledge. I don’t like to use words scientific or non-scientific, because I believe that this distinction has to do more with power and less with the production of knowledge. We were trying to highlight the local knowledge. This was one of the most interesting project that I was working while I was in Terreform.
Terreform Why Yachay. | Photo © Christina Serifi
We worked in Gowntown, where we interrogated the expansion of the Columbia University in Upper West Manhattan. I also worked in this amazing project that Michael initiated ten years ago called New York City Steady State where we investigated how New York can be self sustainable and self -sufficient in its own boundaries. For me the most important lesson that I’ve learned in Terreform was regarding the work ethics and this amazing environment that we built together. Michael was a very generous and open person. He managed to bring together people from different places around the world and involved them on projects that were really interesting. He was very generous in this sense, offering his knowledge, his guidance, giving the space to every person who wanted to investigate, publishing books from independent authors or people that they couldn’t find publishers. In this sense he was a true mentor and a real light. Although, I left New York four years ago I really miss his light.
Another part of your professional life is TiriLab?
CS: TiriLab is something I was dreaming many years and have imagined since I left Greece and moved to New York. I had this dream of how to return to my hometown, in Morfi, a smaller village where I was born, be closer to nature, work with the community there and different women initiatives. In TiriLab, we work mostly with women through our recent projects. These projects challenge traditional gender norms in rural areas, rediscovering narratives of women from different ethnic groups. Everything started, when I invited 35 amazing friends from all over Europe to come and spend some days in the village. They stayed with local families and we managed to create food encounters, where we were cooking together and meeting different women initiatives from the area. We called it Summer of Nothing. The idea was not to propose solutions as professionals but to go to rural area, stay, listen and understand the life that unfolds in such areas. This was the beginning of TiriLab.
Mapping the margins in Thesprotia by Tirilab. | Picture © Christina Serifi
A lot of local initiatives were organised by women, these small informal or formal groups managed to keep these villages alive during the economic crisis and they are also responsible of the cultural life of these villages. We wanted to empower these women initiatives, give them visibility and foster their multi-layered identity. A big step was last year when Tirilab got selected to be part of Future Architecture Platform encounter in Ljubljana, where I met different other groups and exchanged experiences. After that TiriLab expanded.
Mapping the margins in Thesprotia by Tirilab. | Picture © Christina Serifi
Oikeiology, Satellite Kitchens, Epirotopia - could you explain me these projects briefly?
CS: They are ongoing projects that started last year after I returned from Ljubljana. Oikeiology started as a pedagogical experiment, we wanted to bring to the forefront all the livelihood relationships between communities and natural bodies. It came to our minds in May, when the Greek government passed a law of abolishing the protection of NATURA 2000 areas in the whole country. Specifically in Thesprotia, in the region where we work in Tirilab, more that 45% of the natural areas are protected. The new law will leave these areas without any legal legislation for protection. We wanted to bring to the attention of local municipalities and also neighbourhood communities how to keep these ecosystems alive, how to involve the idea of eco-pedagogy into the schools and learning programs because the relationship of the communities with the natural environment there is really strong. Their food culture, their economic activities are related to the natural landscape. These pastoral communities use the natural resources in a regenerative way and they strongly support their protection. This dialogue is very important. In a bigger scale, with Oikeiology we wanted to examine the connection between urban and rural environments through shared experiences, knowledge, skills, ideas and resources of solidarity.
Satellite Kitchens, Paraskevi Demetriou | Photo © Angel Ballesteros, Muzungu
Satellite Kitchens, Dora Tzani | Photo © Angel Ballesteros, Muzungu coop
With the support of 5th Istanbul Design Biennial we created the project Satellite Kitchens. Through this project we had an amazing chance to collaborate with Muzungu, a group of video producers and journalists based in Madrid and Athens. We spent a month of documentation and researching on exterior kitchens. In this area a lot of women have built their kitchens, where whole communities were created around them. These communities were more pastoral and nomadic. After the 1960s they become more stable and you can see that many houses were developed around the exterior kitchens. We started documenting, drawing and understanding how these kitchens were evolved as spaces and also as places of storytelling, sharing different experiences and stories of women that have inhabited them so long. We saw a kitchen not only as a laboratory but also as an assembly space, as a common space and also as a space of resistance. They are more that 40 communities in the area and we managed to document 15 of them. For me, personally, it was an amazing opportunity to understand and come closer to a lot of these women that I knew since my childhood.
TiriLab’s Summer of Nothing. | Photo © Emanuel Dominguez, Zuloark
Epirotopia started when Zuloark, invited us to create the first parliament talking about the rights of the people in the area. We managed to bring together people from the municipality, local initiatives, inhabitants of different villages and young groups that create interesting projects. We invited them in a first digital encounter last December to envision together different socio-political imaginaries for the area. It was challenging moderate this huge parliamentary session but very rewarding! We are planing to create a physical meeting in August and discuss some of the local issues in depth. We also plan to make it regularly every year. The idea is that each inhabitant could reply to each of the 3 questions: what to protect, what to eliminate and what to bring new in the area.
What about the Future Architecture Platform and the Digital Research Fellow as a part of Architectuul’s joint venue?
I am super grateful having in my professional and personal life both platforms. Through Future Architecture Platform I meet Architectuul, where we started developing an amazing professional and personal relationship. It was a unique opportunity that through FAP we managed not only to bring TiriLab into life but also to create further exciting collaborations.
Christina presenting TiriLab at the Future Architecture CEx2020 Matchmaking Conference, 12. februar 2020, MAO | Photo: Iztok Dimc
I was also very happy to be nominated together with 45 degrees as a Digital Research Fellow and work with Architectuul. We continue with mapping all the best practices that we started in Greece and bring it in another scale, to start highlighting a network around Europe. I was imagining Architectuul as an active knowledge platform where practitioners, activists, researchers, local initiatives and practices can interconnect and create synergies.
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Your theoretical work and research is very much integrated into the core of different communities, you use new digital methodologies and technologies to enable forgotten communities?
CS: This is a hard question! My work is balancing between theory and practice. When I work close to local initiatives I am trying to understand their ways of living and producing and how to deliver this message to reach wider institutions and more specifically educational institutions. When I was working in Terreform, we started using multiple digital mapping techniques, integrating GIS in our research, collecting not only quantitative but most importantly qualitative data. Since then, I had this obsession on creating active digital maps that can operate as an open encyclopaedia or platform of practices, methodologies, local techniques and knowledges. I am really grateful of having the opportunity to be part of a new research project between TU Braunschweig and Central Saint Martins “Architecture after Architecture: Spatial Practice in the Face of the Climate Emergency” where I can explore these mapping methodologies together with an inspiring group of educators and researchers.
But you are still not finished, I heard about some UAU?
CS: UAU! is an amazing collaboration that we started recently and stands for Urban Activation Unit. It’s a joint venture between collectives, professionals, practitioners and educators. The three of us whom initiated UAU! don’t see it as a project that belongs to us. We see it as a bigger platform that can embrace alternative pedagogical experiments and qualities of third landscapes as ecosystems.
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With UAU! we want to challenge the established way of transferring knowledge and we see it as a moving open pedagogic parliament. It starts its route within the Balkans because the three of us come from the Balkans. Our idea is to bring together people from urban and rural geographies, local residents with students, each time on a different program addressing issues that have to do with water recuperation, food production and local educational practices.
Its launch will be at the summer school Informal City: Temporal-Autonomous Utopias in Koper, Slovenia from 1-10 September. During this event we will co-build the Table on the Future, where participants will share food, exchange ideas and open new cultural dialogues regarding lively practices. This table will become an infrastructure where the production and distribution of food will be celebrated to address how can we establish ecological conscious communities. More news will follow from UAU! so stay Tuned!
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Art by Natalie Bui courtesy of 18MR
APAHM Spotlight: 18MillionRising
In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we sat down with Cayden Mak, Executive Director of @18MR, an organization that works to organize young Asian Americans online with a strong focus on building knowledge and identity. With Cayden living in the Midwest, he didn’t have a strong concept of what it meant – or could mean – to be Asian American, but finding the Internet meant finding a like-minded community that didn’t exist in his hometown. For him, this work is urgent. Let’s dive in.
How does 18MillionRising incorporate the importance of activism within the Asian/Pacific Islander community?
Activism by, for, and in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities is critical because our influence on culture is growing. From entertainment to politics, Asian Americans are becoming more visible. We can use this opportunity to make it clear what we stand for and why, or be manipulated by people who don’t have our best interests at heart for their own agendas. In order to properly defend against that kind of dis-organizing, it’s critical to be visionary in what we want, and our activism is about really about that vision. Now is the time to get organized and get involved.
When discussing the importance and impact of immigration within the Asian/Pacific Islander community, what are some common misconceptions about the community?
I don’t think a lot of people realize just how many ethnic groups, nationalities, and languages are encompassed in the umbrella of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. This plays out in a lot of ways, but I notice that people sometimes don’t have an appreciation for the wide variety of experiences that AAPI new arrivals in the United States have. Whether due to class, faith community, reason for emigrating, or any of many other factors, AAPI immigrants struggle against the systems that other communities of color struggle against. For example, the Cambodian American community has been brutally targeted by Immigration & Customs Enforcement over the past few years, but if you live somewhere without a large Cambodian American community, you might not be aware of it.
It seems cliche to say, but AAPIs are far from the model minority stereotype that you often see in the media. It bears repeating, though, because that stereotype was invented to shame and blame Black communities for their own struggles – it’s shorthand for saying, “If Asian immigrants could do it, why couldn’t you?” which elides how immigration policy has shaped the most visible parts of the Asian American community while erasing the ongoing implicit and explicit rules that have kept Black communities from gaining wealth and power in our society -- starting with the way the Thirteenth Amendment was even written.
Let’s talk about your operating principle of “Co-Conspirators Instead of Allies.” How do the truths of anti-Black racism and settler colonialism affect the Asian/Pacific Islander community?
From the colonization of many of our home countries by Europe and the United States to the way skin color impacted the way those colonizers related to and categorized our homelands, it’s easy to see the way these things have played out for us, historically. It’s also the case that here, in the U.S. and in the present, our communities have an uneasy relationship with both anti-Black racism and settler colonialism.
For example, like the vast majority of Americans, we’re settlers – even if we came here as refugees, we have an important role to play in decolonizing this place and supporting Indigenous sovereignty on Hawai’i and the mainland. Our work is focused on figuring out how to come from a place of strength and power rooted in developing our identities as Asian Americans, so we can work as peers and equals with Black, Indigenous, and other people dedicated to mutual liberation.
We’re so grateful for the work that Cayden and his team at @18MR are doing. What has been your experience growing up Asian American? Use the hashtag #APAHM to share your story.
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april reading
oh yeah this is a thing. anyway in april i read about uhhh.... first contact (twice), murderers on skis & victorian church politics
the yield, tara june winch
a novel about indigenous australian identity and history (now and throughout the 20th century) in three narrative strands. imo the narrative strand that consists of a grandfather writing a dictionary of his language (wiradjuri) in order to prove a claim to some land is by far the strongest, but overall i liked this quite a lot. 3/5
land of big numbers, te-ping chen
a solid short story collection focused on modern china and young(ish) chinese people, both in china and the diaspora. i particularly liked the stories that had some slighty surreal or speculative elements, such as one about fruit that strongly evoke emotions when eaten and a group of people stuck in a train station for months as the train is delayed, which imo use their speculative aspects in effective (if not super subtle) ways to talk about society. 3/5
the pear field, nana ekvtimishvili (tr. from georgian by elizabeth heighway)
international booker prize longlist! a short, fairly depressing read about a 18-year-old girl at a post-soviet school for developmentally disabled childred (but also orphans, abandoned children & other random kids) who is trying to get a younger boy adopted by an american couple. there seem to be a lot of novels set at post-soviet orphanages etc & imo this is a well-executed example of the microgenre, with the pear field full of pears that are never picked bc they don’t taste right as a strong central image. 3/5
the warden, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #1)
ah yes, a 6-part victorian series about church politics in an english town, exactly the kind of thing i’m interested in. not sure why i committed to at least the first two entries of the series but here we are. despite this lack of interest (and disagreement with most of the politics on display here) i found this quite charming; trollope has a gift for an amusing turn of phrase & making fun of his characters in benevolent ways. 3/5
the lesson, cadwell turnbull
first contact scifi novel set on the virgin islands, where an alien ship arrives one day. the aliens seem benevolent & share helpful technology, but also react with extreme violence to any aggression. they claim to be on earth to study.... something, but it’s never entirely clear what. the book makes some interesting choices (like immediately skipping over the actual first contact to a few years in the future, when the aliens are already established on the islands) but i thought much of it was kinda disjointed and confusing. 2/5
the heart is a lonely hunter, carson mccullers
look, i get it, it’s all about the isolation & alienation (& dare i say loneliness) of 4 miserable characters projecting their issues on the central character singer, who is kind and patient and also deaf and mute, thus making him the perfect receptacle for their issues without really having to connect with him as a person and how that isolation hinders them socially, artistically, emotionally, politically, but like... i didn’t really like it. i didn’t hate it but i just felt very meh about it all. 2.5/5
acht tage im mai: die letzte woche des dritten reiches, volker ulrich
fascinating history book about the last week(ish) of the third reich, starting with the day of hitler’s suicide and ending with the total surrender (but with plenty of flashbacks and forwards), and looking at military&political leadership (german and allied) as well as prisoners of war, forced laborers, concentration camp prisoners, and everyone else. very interesting look at what kästner described as the “gap between the not-anymore and the not-yet.” 3.5/5
firekeeper’s daughter, angeline boulley)
i’ve been mostly off the YA train for the last few years, but this was a really good example of contemporary YA with a focus on ~social issues. ANYWAY. this is YA crime novel about daunis, a mixed-race unenrolled ojibwe girl close to finishing high school who is struggling with family problems, university plans, and feeling caught between her white and her native familiy when her best friend is shot in front of her and she decides to become a CI for an fbi investigation into meth production in the community. i really appreciated how hard this went both with the broader social issues (racism, addiction) and daunis’ personal struggles. there are a few bits that felt a bit didactic & on the nose (and the romance... oh well), but overall the themes of community, family, and the value of living indigenous culture are really well done & i teared up several times. 4/5
the magic toyshop, angela carter
i love carter’s short stories but struggle with (while still liking) her novels so far. this one, a tale of melanie, suddenly orphaned after trying on her mother’s wedding dress in the garden, coming of age and awakening to womanhood or whatever. carter’s really into that. it’s well-written, sensual as carter always is, and the family melanie and her siblings are sent to, her tyrannical puppet-maker uncle, his mute wife and the wife’s two brothers, both fascinating and offputting (& dirty) make for an interesting cast of characters, but overall i just wish i was reading the bloody chamber again. 3/5
barchester towers, anthony trollope (chronicles of barsetshire #2) (audio)
lol tbh i still don’t know why i am committing to this series about, again, church politics in 19th century rural england, but it’s just so chill & warm & funny (we love gently or not so gently - but always politely - mocking our characters) that i’m enjoying it as a nice little trip where people do some #crazyschemes to gain church positions or fight over whether there should be songs in church or whatever it is people in the 19th century fought about. it’s very relaxing. there also is a lot of love quadrangleyness going on and that’s also fun. trollope has weird ideas about women but like whatever, i for one wish mrs proudie much joy of her position as defacto bishop of barchester, she really girlbossed her way to the top. 3.5/5
semiosis, sue burke (semiosis #1)
i love spinning the wheel on the “first contact with X weird alien species” & i guess this time we landed on plants! plant intelligence is interesting and the idea of plant warfare is really cool. i do like the structure, with different generations of human settlers on the planet pax providing a long-term view but this allows the author to skip over a lot of the development of the relationship between the settlers and the plant and locating the plot elsewhere, which i think is ultimately a mistake. i might continue w/ the series tho, depending on library availability. 2.5/5
one by one, ruth ware
a bunch of start-up people go on a corporate retreat to a ski chalet in the alps, avalanche warning goes up, one of them disappears, presumably on a black piste, the rest get snowed in & completely cut off when the avalanche hits and then they get picked off *title drop* (altho really not that many of them). nice fluff when i had a miserable cold (not covid) but fails when it tries to go for deeper themes... like an attempt to address classism and entitlement sure... was made. also like what kind of luxury skiing chalet does not have emergency communication devices in case internet/phone lines are down... i’d have sued just for that. 2/5
fake accounts, lauren oyler
the microgenre of ‘alienated intellectual(ish) probably anglophone person has some sort of crisis, goes to berlin about it’ is my ultimate literary weakness - i almost never really like them, they mostly irritate me & yet i can never resist their siren call. this one is p strong on the irritation, altho at least the narrator does not ascribe much meaning to her decision to go to berlin after she a) discovers her boyf is an online conspiracy theorist (probably not sincerely) and b) gets a call that said boyf has died, it’s really just something to do to avoid doing anything else. but other than that it’s so BerlinExpat by the numbers, like she lives in kreuzkölln! put her somewhere else at least! there is one scene that elevates the BerlinExpat-ness of it all (narrator asks expatfriend for advice on visa applications, expatfriend assures her that it’s really easy for americans to get visa, adds “especially now” while literally, as the narrator remarks, gesturing at the falafel she’s eating) other than that, the novel is.... fine. it’s smart, but not really as smart as it thinks it is, which is a problem bc it thinks it’s just sooo incisive. whatever. 2/5
the tenant of wildfell hall, anne bronte
this is reductive but:
jane eyre: i could fix him // wuthering heights: i could make him worse // wildfell hall: lmao i’m gonna leave his ass
anyway i enjoyed the part that is actually narrated by the titular tenant of wildfell hall, helen (which thankfully, i think, is most of it) because the perspective of a woman who runs away from her abusive alcoholic of a husband is genuinely interesting and engaging, while gilbert, the frame story narrator who falls in love with helen, is.... the worst. i mean he’s not the worst bc the abusive husband arthur is there and hard to beat in terms of worseness, but he’s pretty fucking bad. imagine if helen had found out that gilbert attacked her secret brother over a misunderstanding, severely injured him & LEFT HIM TO DIE & then (when dude survived & the misunderstanding got cleared up) apologised like well i guess i didn’t treat you quite right! she’d have to run away from her second husband as well! poor girl. 3/5
#the books i read#long post#lol i keep forgetting to finish & post these#anyway gilbert fucking sucks! like his name is gilbert you can do better helen
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Notes: Barkskins Q&A
Barkskins fans! Today (6/28/20), American Cinematheque hosted a Barkskins Q&A webinar with creator Elwood Reid and cast members Marcia Gay Harden (Mathilde Geffard), Christian Cooke (Rene Sel), and David Thewlis (Claude Trepagny). Elwood, Marcia, and Christian were on the call live, while David was interviewed beforehand and his responses recorded. Topics discussed included:
The show’s general scope and the adaptation process
Historical research
Accent coaching
Colonialism and the portrayal of First Nations characters/cultures
Sets and wardrobe
An audience question for Marcia about Mathilde’s daughter
An audience question for Christian about Rene’s physical/action scenes
Here I’m sharing a summary of the notes I took during the talk. This isn’t a transcript and I didn’t write down everything, but I tried to note interesting things as accurately as I was able. Please pardon any misinterpretations or errors; I did the best I could, but if you remember something differently (or have something to add), feel free to let me know.
This got quite long... Lots of notes below!
The Show in General
First, the big one: the show has not yet been renewed for a second season, but Elwood is hopeful! He feels like season 1 just barely “set the table” for the story, only to yank the tablecloth off right at the end, and he wants more seasons so that viewers can really dig into the meal. It was always planned as multi-season, and right now he’s just hoping that there’s been a good enough viewing and that people talk enough about the show.
The season was originally slated for ten episodes, but had to be cut to nine and then to eight due to the weather changing and due to the time necessary to construct sets.
The book was considered to be a huge challenge to adapt -- almost unadaptable. Initially, Elwood had ideas for doing a generational / time-skip structure like in the novel, where each season would start over and focus on a new time period; however, one of the main reasons he scrapped that idea was because of the cast. He really adores the whole cast and is excited to write more stories for these actors rather than switching focus to new characters.
In general, the show was repeatedly described as being essentially about “haves” versus “have-nots” -- who are the “haves,” who are the “have-nots,” what do they want and what are they willing to do in order to become a “have.” It is also a show in which every character (except Rene, initially) has a secret and everyone has something they want that they can’t have.
Also, things such as which characters live/die will not be beholden to what happens in the book.
Historical and Character Research
Marcia and Christian have both read the entire book. Since Mathilde wasn’t in the novel, Marcia called up Elwood with a lot of ideas for how to develop the character, although in the end Mathilde became someone much gravelly, crass, and more conniving than she had initially expected. Christian was very impressed by the scope and uniqueness of the story and found Rene’s simple worldview appealing, describing Rene as a man of the forest, a man of the land, with desires that are simple but meaningful and noble: a better life, prosperity, a piece of his own land.
David read about the first hundred pages, and his initial idea of Trepagny was as someone much tougher and more physically imposing, as portrayed in the book. He then had to work to shed that preconception of the character into the very different Trepagny of the script. He described Trepagny as a man of contradictions: Is he good or bad? Charming or obnoxious? Vulnerable or a bully? Does he live in a cabin or a mansion? Does he worship a god / dual god or a rotten old log? Is he delusional or is he a visionary?
Primary source materials from the period that Elwood used in his historical research include the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, business ledgers describing trade and commerce, and a few memoirs from filles du roi. However, he found it difficult to find primary sources, especially in English, and was careful to remember that these accounts always had a French/colonial bias.
Marcia did a LOT of research on her own in order to better understand what conditions in France might have driven the Geffards to leave. She asked herself, “Why the hell would anyone leave France to come to these mosquito-filled woods with ostensibly hostile First Nations people and English? What was going on in that moment BEFORE they came over?”
Christian didn’t do much historical research but rooted his character in terms of the physical research he did, such as learning woodcutting. He said Rene came from a rural area of northern France and was a woodsman there as well.
Accent Coaching
Marcia said they did receive accent coaching, but they didn’t want to lean too hard into strong accents because they wanted to give the impression that the French characters were speaking French, which, as their native language, would be very fluid. So it was okay to not have a heavy accent in order to better communicate that effect.
It was also okay for everyone to have different takes on the French accent, because they wanted to give the effect that these characters were coming from all different parts of France and each had their own individual background. They felt that communicating the characters was more important than getting the accents entirely correct.
They likewise had Native actors speak English on screen when their characters were talking among themselves (even when the characters should be understood as not speaking English) so that the audience would get that same impression of fluidity, cleverness, and colloquial conversation.
Colonialism: "Whose perspective are we bringing to bear? Whose story are we telling?”
Elwood acknowledged that Americans tend to be bad about looking outside their own history and that societies with a history of colonizing tend to come up with justifications for why it was okay for them to invade and colonize others. They wanted the show to avoid reinforcing that idea and to not sugarcoat the reality of it.
He mentioned the importance of having Migizi Pensoneau’s voice in the writer’s room. They also made an effort to speak with tribal communities and leaders in the area in order to gain their insight.
Elwood also hit on the effect of the Western film genre (as in cowboy Westerns) in shaping stereotypes about Native Americans and exporting these stereotypes to the rest of the world. Wanted to avoid those stereotypes (bc they’re inaccurate anyway and bc Barkskins takes place in the eastern part of the continent, not the western, and in an earlier time period) and in general to avoid portraying indigenous people as a uniform/interchangeable monoculture.
Marcia highlighted efforts to foreground First Nations characters in front of the camera as well, specifically mentioning Yvon and Mari. She mentioned that Yvon was educated at Harvard and that Mari’s father was French.
Sets and Wardrobe
This was my favorite section because I love this stuff and it was very impressive! Elwood basically gushed about how the production designer (Isabelle Guay), costume designer (Anna Terrazas), and wig maker were invaluable to the show. I tried to record the wig maker’s name, but I was going by ear, and I couldn’t find any search results that seemed right based on the spellings I tried. He was a Montreal area wig maker whose name sounded like (but I am sure is not spelled like) “Ray-jean For-jay.”
Isabelle Guay is local to the area and was in charge of building all the sets. She scouted all the areas personally and paid close attention to period details in construction. Authenticity was very important to Nat Geo; it had to look good and feel real.
Most of the costumes were not existing pieces that the show rented or reused; Anna Terrazas wanted to build as much as possible from scratch herself. She and the other costumers dyed deerskins, found period 17th- and 18th-century fabrics to make garments out of, and even hand built shoes.
Likewise, although it would have been cheaper to get okay-looking wigs premade, the wig maker wanted to make high-quality authentic ones himself. He flew to the actors, measured their heads, bought hair in France, and then constructed all the wigs himself.
Marcia on how the costume informed her character: Anna gave her a leather pouch to hang on a belt around her waist. It was filled with lavender, the idea being that Mathilde kept this lavender close to counter the foul smells of Wobik. Marcia viewed it as a “little secret” to draw on in her acting.
Christian found the costumes surprisingly comfortable/immersive and the landscape very awe-inspiring.
The moodboard for Trepagny’s wardrobe/aesthetic included pictures of Nick Cave and Jimi Hendrix.
Mathilde’s Daughter
Marcia was asked how much of the details about Mathilde’s daughter were of her own invention. She said that everything said on screen about Veronique was straight from the script, but she came up with more herself in order to inform her acting.
Marcia imagines that Veronique probably died from a sickness, perhaps something like whooping cough that to many of us today wouldn’t seem so serious but which would be more fatal in that era.
This is the point at which Elwood blindsided Marcia, me, and everybody else by talking about a scene he had been “obsessed” with a planned scene in which Renardette would go down to a room below the inn and find Veronique’s preserved body hidden down there, covered in her own dresses. Ultimately, Elwood felt that this was “too gothic” and that it wouldn’t work for Mathilde in a season of only 8 episodes, because it would too quickly take the audience’s understanding of her to a very bizarre/dark place.
He defended the idea by saying that it wasn’t uncommon at the time for people to do things like that, i.e. keep a loved one’s remains for a period of time. (I will take your word for it, Elwood. Also, I’m totally ready for you to go full gothic on this show, please follow your weird impulses in the future.) Marcia, though, felt that it wouldn’t make sense for a character as pragmatic as Mathilde. She pointed out that Francis is the one who wants things like refinements, whereas Mathilde is much more practical.
Also, I was today years old when I learned that Lola Reid (Renardette) is showrunner Elwood Reid’s daughter. In my defense, it’s not an uncommon last name.
Christian on Rene
Christian was asked about the physical aspects of playing Rene, such as chopping wood, fighting, swimming, etc., and which were most difficult and which most enjoyable. He said that he loved those aspects; he would get immersed in the physical act so much that he would forget he was acting. He could get very emotional in those intense moments and found it very difficult to come out of those scenes because of how emotionally charged they were (such as when watching character deaths) but also found it very enjoyable in a cathartic way.
Elwood said that he thought Christian had the hardest role because Rene is a stoic person who has to hold the screen with very few words. It was at this point that he talked about all the characters having secrets and something they want but can’t have; he pointed out that Rene is the only character who doesn’t have a secret and whose wants and needs are very simple. This makes his character “like a rock” that other characters try to pick up and bash around but can’t figure out what to do with.
In light of that, Elwood felt that this first season was a slow burn for Rene, but that the future focus of the character’s arc is essentially: What’s the breaking point of a man like that? What will make him crack? What will make him act out of his character?
He said it was also similar for James Bloor (Charles Duquet) because he had to take so much abuse in this first season, with Elwood assuring James that it was building toward a big future payoff.
In conclusion...
Aaand that’s all I’ve got! We are all encouraged to keep talking about the show and to make known our desire for a second season. Thanks for reading, and like I said, let me know if you have anything to add or to correct.
#barkskins#elwood reid#marcia gay harden#christian cooke#david thewlis#mathilde geffard#rene sel#claude trepagny#op#this is RIDDLED with little typos cause i typed very quickly i'll fix them later
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This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!
Emily Kate
Toronto-based recording artist, Emily Kate perfectly bridges the gap between country and pop with her unique sound and lyrical storytelling. Pulling from real life experiences, her music conveys relatable thoughtful messages weaved with fresh, soulful melodies. Her meaning filled lyrics coupled with her warm sound is often described as Kelsea Ballerini meets a motivational speaker. She has just released her new EP All In. “These songs have taught me how to love myself, feel inspired, chase my dreams, have fun and grow as a person,” says Emily. “They've been my reminder and helped me through heartbreaks, insecurities, and now they get to be yours. All In features a track which I wrote the morning after a fun night out. This upbeat song is about going out with friends and meeting someone who takes your breath away. Its lyrics are a twist on the common saying, you had me at hello, and instead, this song is about someone having you ‘The Whole Time.’” Listen below.
Emily Kate · The Whole Time
Jordana Talsky
Jordana Talsky is a singer-songwriter and vocal looper who fuses multi-genre influences into her own sound. She accompanies herself by voice with a Roland Boss RC505 loop station. Her ethos is to incorporate digital means into live performance in an organic way, and with the loop machine, she creates a choir on the spot with no pre-recorded parts. Her new single ‘Oh Yeah,’ represents a moment of awakening, like when you remember something you had forgotten about a dream that all of a sudden comes back in a flash, a moment to stand outside of yourself and contemplate, embrace, and inquire of your life. “It takes work, all the time, to choose not to look away and to be honest with ourselves,” says Jordana. “These moments, delicate and challenging, are insights into our authentic selves, that may offer a fresh vantage point from which we can choose to heal and evolve. Inspirational, fun and harmony-rich indie-pop, ‘Oh Yeah’ is about listening to your inner voice and taking faith in the spark you uncovered deep within you.” Listen below.
Jordana Talsky · Oh Yeah
Nimkish
To fully immerse in the multitudes of rising queer Indigenous star, Nimkish, is to honour the past, look ahead to the future, and bask in the resplendent present all at once. The Vancouver-based artist is fearless in her lyricism, confronting anti-Indigenous racism and colonial violence alongside other hard subjects like anxiety, grief and heartache. To the great tradition of singer-songwriters healing through their music, Nimkish brings a bright-eyed aim to flourish in all she has experienced. Nimkish’s lyrics give affirmation to past pain while living in the moment. To some it may sound like escapism, to others it may sound like moxie-driven R&B-pop pulsing through the club. What’s certain is her fortitude — she’s on a mission, combining the coolness and creativity of the TikTok generation with the lucidity and confidence of a grown woman. Nimkish’s anthemic new single, ‘YSB,’ features ASCXNSION and is about the need for healing, freedom, and to be heard. "’YSB’ is about the need for healing, freedom, and to be heard,” explains Nimkish. “Are you listening? Do you hear me? Am I screaming out into nothing? This song is about feeling like you can't get ahead, and specific issues that we as Indigenous women work through on a daily basis. Our generation has been left to deal with trauma and we are continually fighting for equity. It can feel exhausting to constantly try to be truly heard. I wanted to go deeper on this project and write about real shit. What we have created is anthemic, resilient, and confrontational, despite the vulnerability that it took to write about our lived experiences. This release is about showcasing Indigenous excellence and the need to amplify our voices. Our time is now – the future is Indigenous.” Listen below.
NIMKISH · YSB (feat. ASCXNSION)
Tana
Tana is an artist, writer and a topliner with charge and a unique flair for lyrics and melody. Her rich and diverse views on gay culture, have strongly influenced her musical and personal journey. Tana’s music is unapologetic, revolutionary, and liberating. At heart, Tana is a true artist, and is inspired by many things around her - people, sexuality, her heritage (being half Italian and Nigerian), the city she grew up in, and the LGBT community. She places diversity at heart and aims to make music that relates to the masses, whilst pushing her creativity at all times. Her array of influences create new ideas and sounds that break traditional boundaries. Think Halsey & The Weekend. She has just released her new single ‘Bad Habits (Keep On Coming)’. Tana says of the track: “I wrote ‘Bad Habits (Keep On Coming)’ over lockdown, and it’s about wanting to grow from a toxic relationship. I found myself holding onto flaws and limitations that really effected my personal growth, and writing about it helped me recognise these issues and learn from this experience.” Listen below.
Love Crumbs
Love Crumbs is a folk-rock and Americana group based in Massachusetts. Known for blending poignant lyrics with evocative vocal storytelling, their nostalgic, timeless, heart-on-sleeve sound harkens to a bygone era. They have just released their new single ‘Ellipses’. “The track is about trying to connect with someone and not being able to despite the best of intentions,” says Mike. “It's about the things that aren't said or are left unsaid. It's about a meaningful relationship that ended kind of suddenly. The person was typing to me (as evidenced by the "...") but I never got to hear their response. Closure isn't something that someone gives us, in the end. It's something that we have to come to on our own. The sonic influences for me on this track, probably in particular the chord changes in the verses are Neil Young, the pre-chorus Tom Waits. I wanted to stack Ali's vocals because it has an unreal sound (not occurring naturally, similar to Royals by Lorde) that can work in the right context.” Listen below.
Love Crumbs · Ellipses
Anniee
Anniee is an electronic artist and theatre composer based in Montclair, NJ just outside NYC. As a vocalist she has performed in a variety of styles and genres. Recently she has turned her attention to producing synthwave and retrowave tracks with modern and minimalist vibes. She has just released her new track 'Lonely Wolves'. "'Lonely Wolves' is moody and driving, with retro vibes and a modern sensibility—an intense journey exploring breakdown in relationship," says Anniee. Listen below.
Anniee · Lonely Wolves
Leah Rose
Emerging pop songwriter and producer Leah Rose has released her debut single ‘Goodnight’. The melancholic hue of ‘Goodnight’ arises from the sentimentality of a writer reflecting on a landscape they no longer exist in. The song was written and recorded in lockdown and is a prime example of how an artists’ time in isolation can result in the inevitable dissection of their past. Sonically, ‘Goodnight’ was inspired by artists such as Lorde, The Weeknd and Charli XCX. Leah Rose is a Cork-born artist who has spent the last 5 years based in Dublin. She spent much of that time honing her craft, finding inspiration in lyricists such as Alex Turner and Lana Del Rey. Strong imagery and colour play a huge role in Leah’s songwriting. Growing up with artists for parents meant that Leah was exposed to a range of visual art forms at a young age. She strives to create art not only through music but through her artwork, photography and overall visual aesthetic. “I see my songwriting style as atmospheric and somewhat abstract,” she says. “I love being able to use music as a tool to materialise the things I see in my mind. So when I write a song I try to place the listener right in the centre of my memories and daydreams”. Listen to ‘Goodnight’ below.
Leah Rose · Goodnight
Felyce
Felyce's alt-pop root influences shine through on her shuffling and atmospheric alternative Pop/R&B new single ‘Skin’. The Paris-based singer-songwriter Felyce shares the struggle she faced accepting the color of her skin while growing in France. Getting away from slow tempos, ‘Skin’ offers an energetic but still dark ambiance. Felyce wrote and performed ‘Skin’ and she worked with professional arranger Nicolas Lassus to make the song what it is now. She said in statement: "I wrote 'Skin' thinking about that beautiful story I heard once. A young black girl wondered why her skin was so dark and her mother told her the reason was because the sun loved her too much. That story really stuck with me". Born and raised in Paris, she spent most of her time between stage performances and school until high school when she put most of her focus on studying while writing her first full songs on the side. Felyce graduated from university in 2016 before starting a short career in HR but she realized that music was the only career for her and began learning production the next year while working on her debut EP Fear which dropped in 2018. She's been steadily releasing singles and crafting her sound since; embracing her formative influences, including British pop music acts like Sam Smith, Robbie Williams, Birdy, and American pop acts such as Lana Del Rey or Banks. Listen to ‘Skin’ below.
Kenzie Webley
Kenzie Webley has been writing songs since she was 13 years old but only started recording last year just before lockdown. Her new single 'Loveable' is out now to coincide with her finishing her A levels. Her debut album is almost finished and she already has the songs written for her second album! 'Loveable' tells the story of a couple arguing in public after a night out. It's from the perspective of someone who recognises their own culpability in the events. Listen below.
URARTA
URARTA’s new EP consists of four tracks centred around the issues of standing up for yourself and others, respecting the planet’s boundaries and looking out for your own. Musically, the band has its heart in punk, but simultaneously flirts with genres such as post punk, alt-rock, noise, Goth and indie. The lyrics are in English and in the dialect of Skåne –the southern part of Sweden where the band also has its geographical base. URARTA consists of Monica Richter (vocals), Ketty Hagmann (bass) and Tove Lorentz (drums). Listen to the song ‘D.I.Y’ below.
Vol 2: Vi Fick Fel Adress by Ursäkta Röran
#submission saturday#emily kate#jordana talsky#nimkish#tana#loe crumbs#anniee#leah rose#felyce#kenzie webley#urarta
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Hey there, so I really like history as a subject, and I'm pretty good at it. The thing is, I don't know what my career options would be if I studied it, or if I would be able to make money. My parents are heavily discouraging me from taking it as a major. As a 'historian' in training' what's your take? Thank you
Hi there! Sorry for the delay, ‘tis the hectic season…
Oh man, I have so many thoughts for you. Full disclosure: this is something I have worked on a LOT over the course of my graduate career both at my uni and on a national level; most of my advice, however, comes from a PhD candidate’s perspective and may not be directly helpful to an undergraduate, and I should also emphasize that everything I can say on this is very firmly based on the U.S. market only. That being said, a lot of what I can say can be universally applied, so here we go -
The number of history undergraduates in the U.S. has plummeted in the last decade or so, from it previously being one of the most popular majors. There are many interacting reasons for this: a changeover from older to younger, better-trained, energetic professors who draw in and retain students has been very slow to occur, partly because of a lack of a mandatory retirement age; the humanities have been systematically demonized and minimized in favor of the development of STEM subjects, to the occasional benefit of students of color and women but to the detriment of critical public discourse and historical perspective on current events; with many liberal arts colleges going under financially and the enormous expansion of academic bureaucracy everywhere, resources are definitely being diverted away from social and human studies towards fields which are perceived to pay better or perceived, as mentioned in the article above, as being more ‘practical.’ (We do need a ton more healthcare workers/specialists, but that’s a different conversation to have.) But now I feel like quoting a certain Jedi Master: everything your parents say is wrong. Let’s dive into why being a historian is a positive thing for you both as a person and as a professional -
You will be a good reader. As you learn to decipher documents and efficiently and thoroughly read secondary literature, you will develop a particular talent for understanding what is important about any piece of writing or evidence (and this can go for visual and aural evidence as well). This will serve you well in any position in which you are collecting/collating information and reporting to colleagues or superiors, and evaluating the worth of resources. Specific example - editorial staff at publishing houses either private or academic, magazines, etc.
You will be a good writer. This will get you a good job at tons of places; don’t underestimate it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been astonished (not in a punitive way, of course, but definitely with a sense of befuddlement) by how badly some of my Ivy-league students can write. Good writing is hard, good writing is rare, and good writing is a breath of fresh air to any employer who puts a high premium upon it in their staff. History in principle is the study of change; history in practice is presenting information in a logical, interesting, and persuasive manner. Any sort of institution which asks you to write reports, summaries, copy, etc. etc. will appreciate your skills.
You will be a good researcher. This sounds like a given, but it’s an underappreciated and vital skill. Historians work as consultants. Historians work in government - almost every department has an Office of the Historian - and in companies, writing company histories and maintaining institutional archives. A strong research profile will also serve you well if you want to go on to work in museum studies and in libraries public or private/academic. As a historian, you will know not just where to find information, but what questions you have to ask to get to the answer of how to tackle, deconstruct, and solve a problem. This is relevant to almost any career path.
You will provide perspective. Historians react to current events in newspapers and online - not just on politics, but culture as well (my favorite article of this week is about the historicity of The Aeronauts). Historians act as expert witnesses in court proceedings. Historians write books, good books, not just meant for academic audiences but for millions upon millions of readers who need thoughtful, intelligent respite from the present. Historians work for thinktanks, providing policy analysis and development (a colleague of mine is an expert on current events of war in Mali and works for multiple thinktanks and organizations because of it). Historians work for nonprofits or lobbying groups on issues of poverty, environmental safety, climate change, and minority and indigenous rights. In a world when Texas school textbooks push the states’ rights narrative, historians remind us that the Civil War was about slavery. Historians remind us that women and people of color have always existed. In this time and world where STEM subjects are (supposedly) flooding the job market, we need careful historical perspective more than ever. We need useful reactions to the 2016 election, to the immigration travesties on display at the southern border, to the strengthening of right-wing parties in Europe - and history classes, or thoughtfully historical classes on philosophy and political science, are one of the few places STEM and business students gain the basic ability to participate in those conversations. [One of my brightest and most wonderful students from last year, just to provide an anecdote, is an astrophysics major who complained to me in a friendly conversation this semester that she never got the chance to talk about ‘deep’ things anymore once she had passed through our uni’s centralized general curriculum, which has a heavy focus on humanities subjects.]
You will be an educator. Teaching is a profession which has myriad challenges in and of itself, but in my experience of working with educators there is a desperate need for secondary-school teachers in particular to have actual content training in history as opposed to simply being pushed into classrooms with degrees which focus only on pedagogical technique. If teaching is a vocation you are actually interested in, getting a history degree is not a bad place to start at all. And elementary/high schools aside, you will be teaching someone something in every interaction you have concerning your subject of choice. Social media is a really important venue now for historians to get their work out into the world and correct misconceptions in the public sphere, and is a place where you can hone a public and instructive voice. You could also be involved in educational policy, assessment/test development (my husband’s field, with a PhD in History from NYU), or educational activism.
If some of this sounds kind of woolly and abstract, that’s because it is. Putting yourself out there on the job market is literally a marketing game, and it can feel really silly to take your experience of 'Two years of being a Teaching Assistant for European History 1500-1750’ and mutate it to 'Facilitated group discussions, evaluated written work from students [clients], and ran content training sessions on complex subjects.’ But this sort of translation is just another skill - one that can be learned, improved, and manipulated to whatever situation you need it to fit.
Will you make money? That’s a question only you can answer, because only you know what you think is enough money. That being said, many of the types of careers I’ve mentioned already are not low-paying; in my experience expertise is, if you find the right workplace and the rewarding path, usually pretty well-remunerated.
Specific advice? Hone your craft. Curate an active public presence as a historian, an expert, a patient teacher, and as as person enthusiastic about your subject. Read everything and anything. Acknowledge and insist upon complexity, and celebrate it when you can.
And finally - will any of what I’ve said here make it easy? No, because no job search and no university experience is easy these days. It’s a crazy world and there are a lot of awful companies, bosses, and projects out there. But I do very firmly believe that you can find something, somewhere, that will suit your skills, and, hopefully, your passions too.
Resources for you: the American Historical Association has a breakdown of their skills-based approach to the job market, reports on the job market(s) for history PhDs collectively called ‘Where Historians Work,’ and a mentorship program, Career Contacts, which could connect you with professional historians in various workplaces. There is a very active community of historians on Twitter; search for #twitterstorians. For historians who identify as female, Women Also Know History is a newer site which collates #herstorian bios and publications to make it easier for journalists to contact them for expert opinions. ImaginePhD provides career development tools and exercises for graduate students, but could probably be applied to undergrads as well. The Gilder Lehrman Institute is one of the premier nonprofits which develops and promotes historical training for secondary school teachers and classroom resources (U.S. history only). Job listings are available via the AHA, the National Council on Public History, and the IHE, as well as the usual job sites. And there’s an awful lot more out there, of course - anyone who reads or reblogs this post is welcome to add field-specific or resource-specific info.
I hope this helps, Anon, or at least provides you with a way to argue in favor of it to your parents if it comes to that. Chin up!
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Every Book I Read in 2019
This was a heavier reading year for me (heavier culture-consumption year in general) partly because my partner started logging his books read, and then, of course, it’s a competition.
01 Morvern Callar; Alan Warner - One of the starkest books I’ve ever read. What is it about Scotland that breeds writers with such brutal, distant perspectives on life? Must be all the rocks.
02 21 Things You Might Not Know About the Indian Act; Bob Joseph - I haven’t had much education in Canada’s relationship to the Indigenous nations that came before it, so this opened things up for me quite a bit. The first and most fundamental awakening is to the fact that this is not a story of progress from worse to better (which is what a simplistic, grade school understanding of smallpox blankets>residential schools>reserves would tell you), in fact, the nation to nation relationship of early contact was often superior to what we have today. I wish there was more of a call to action, but apparently a sequel is on its way.
03 The Plot Against America; Philip Roth - An alternative history that in some ways mirrors our present. I did feel like I was always waiting for something to happen, but I suppose the point is that, even at the end of the world, disasters proceed incrementally.
04 Sabrina; Nick Drnaso - The blank art style and lack of contrast in the colouring of each page really reinforces the feeling of impersonal vacancy between most of the characters. I wonder how this will read in the future, as it’s very much based in today’s relationship to friends and technology.
05 Perfumes: The Guide; Luca Turn & Tania Sanchez - One of the things I like to do when I need to turn my brain off online is reading perfume reviews. That’s where I found out about this book, which runs through different scent families and reviews specific well-known perfumes. Every topic has its boffins, and these two are particularly witty and readable.
06 Adventures in the Screen Trade; William Goldman - Reading this made me realize how little of the cinema of the 1970s I’ve actually seen, beyond the usual heavy hitters. Ultimately I found this pretty thin, a few peices of advice stitched together with anecdotes about a Hollywood that is barely recognizable today.
07 The Age of Innocence; Edith Wharton - A love triangle in which the fulcrum is a terribly irritating person, someone who thinks himself far more outré than he is. Nonetheless, I was taken in by this story of “rebellion”, such as it was, to be compelling.
08 Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis; Sam Anderson - Like a novel that follows various separate characters, this book switches between tales of the founding of Oklahoma City with basketball facts and encounters with various oddball city residents. It’s certainly a fun ride, but you may find, as I did, that some parts of the narrative interest you more than others. Longest subtitle ever?
09 World of Yesterday; Stefan Zweig - A memoir of pre-war Austria and its artistic communities, told by one of its best-known exports. Particularly wrenching with regards to the buildup to WWII, from the perspective of those who had been through this experience before, so recently.
10 Teach us to Sit Still: A Sceptic’s Search for Health and Healing; Tim Parks - A writer finds himself plagued by pain that conventional doctors aren’t able to cure, so he heads further afield to see if he can use stillness-of-mind to ease the pain, all the while complaining as you would expect a sceptic to do. His digressions into literature were a bit hard to take (I’m sure you’re not Coleridge, my man).
11 The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences have Extraordinary Impact; Chip & Dan Heath - I read this for work-related reasons, with the intention of improving my ability to make exhibitions and interpretation. It has a certain sort of self-helpish structure, with anecdotes starting each chapter and a simple lesson drawn from each one. Not a bad read if you work in a public-facing capacity.
12 Against Everything: Essays; Mark Greif - The founder of N+1 collects a disparate selection of essays, written over a period of several years. You won’t love them all, but hey, you can always skip those ones!
13 See What I Have Done; Sarah Schmidt - A retelling of the Lizzie Borden story, which I’d seen a lot of good reviews for. Sadly this didn’t measure up, for me. There’s a lot of stage setting (rotting food plays an important part) but there’s not a lot of substance there.
14 Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy; Angela Garber - This is another one that came to me very highly recommended. Garber seems to think these topics are not as well-covered as they are, but she does a good job researching and retelling tales of pregnancy, birth, postpartum difficulties and breastfeeding.
15 Rebecca; Daphne du Maurier - This was my favourite book club book of the year. I’d always had an impression of...trashiness I guess? around du Maurier, but this is a classic thriller. Maybe the first time I’ve ever read, rather than watched, a thriller! That’s on me.
16 O’Keefe: The Life of an American Legend; Jeffrey Hogrefe - I went to New Mexico for the first time this spring, and a colleague lent me this Georgia O’Keefe biography after I returned. I hadn’t known much about her personal life before this, aside from what I learned at her museum in Santa Fe. The author has made the decision that much of O’Keefe’s life was determined by childhood incest, but doesn’t have what you might call….evidence?
17 A Lost Lady; Willa Cather - A turn-of-the-20th century story about an upper-class woman and her young admirer Neil. I’ve never read any other Cather, but this felt very similar to the Wharton I also read this year, which I gather isn’t typical of her.
18 The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months of Unearthing the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country; Helen Russell - A British journalist moves to small-town Denmark with her husband, and although the distances are not long, there’s a considerable culture shock. Made me want to eat pastries in a BIG WAY.
19 How Not to be a Boy; Robert Webb - The title gives a clue to the framing device of this book, which is fundamentally a celebrity memoir, albeit one that largely ignores the celebrity part of his life in favour of an examination of the effects of patriarchy on boys’ development as human beings.
20 The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (And Your Children Will be Glad that You Did); Philippa Perry; A psychotherapist’s take on how parents’ own upbringing affects the way they interact with their own kids.
21 The Library Book; Susan Orlean - This book has stuck with me more than I imagined that it would. It covers both the history of libraries in the USA, and the story of the arson of the LA Public Library’s central branch in 1986.
22 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life; Samantha Irby - I’ve been reading Irby’s blog for years, and follow her on social media. So I knew the level of raunch and near body-horror to expect in this essay collection. This did fill in a lot of gaps in terms of her life, which added a lot more blackness (hey) to the humour.
23 State of Wonder; Ann Patchett - A semi-riff on Heart of Darkness involving an OB/GYN who now works for a pharmaceutical company, heading to the jungle to retrieve another researcher who has gone all Colonel Kurtz on them. I found it a bit unsatisfying, but the descriptions were, admittedly, great.
24 Disappearing Earth; Julia Phillips - A story of an abduction of two girls in very remote Russia, each chapter told by another townsperson. The connections between the narrators of each chapter are sometimes obvious, but not always. Ending a little tidy, but plays against expectations for a book like this.
25 Ethan Frome; Edith Wharton - I gather this is a typical high school read, but I’d never got to it. In case you’re in the same boat as me, it’s a short, mildly melodramatic romantic tragedy set in the new england winter. It lacks the focus on class that other Whartons have, but certainly keeps the same strong sense that once you’ve made a choice, you’re stuck with it. FOREVER.
26 Educated; Tara Westover - This memoir of a Mormon fundamentalist-turned-Academic-superstar was huge on everyone’s reading lists a couple of years back, and I finally got to it. It felt similar to me in some ways to the Glass Castle, in terms of the nearly-unbelievable amounts of hell she and her family go through at the hands of her father and his Big Ideas. I found that it lacked real contemplation of the culture shock of moving from the rural mountain west to, say, Cambridge.
27 Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of Lusitania; Erik Larson - I’m a sucker for a story of a passenger liner, any non-Titanic passenger liner, really. Plus Lusitania’s story has interesting resonances for the US entry into WWI, and we see the perspective of the U-boat captain as well as people on land, and Lusitania’s own passengers and crew.
28 The Birds and Other Stories; Daphne du Maurier - The title story is the one that stuck in my head most strongly, which isn’t any surprise. I found it much more harrowing than the film, it had a really effective sense of gradually increasing dread and inevitability.
29 Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Faded Glory; Raphael Bob-Waksberg - Hit or miss in the usual way of short story collections, this book has a real debt to George Saunders.
30 Sex & Rage; Eve Babitz - a sort of pseudo-autobiography of an indolent life in the LA scene of the 1970s. It was sometimes very difficult to see how the protagonist actually felt about anything, which is a frequent, acute symptom of youth.
31 Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party; Graham Greene - Gotta love a book with an alternate title built in. This is a broad (the characters? are, without exception, insane?!) satire about a world I know little about. I don’t have a lot of patience or interest in Greene’s religious allegories, but it’s a fine enough story.
32 Lathe of Heaven; Ursula K LeGuin - Near-future sci-fi that is incredibly prescient about the effects of climate change for a book written over forty years ago. The book has amazing world-building, and the first half has the whirlwind feel of Homer going back in time, killing butterflies and returning to the present to see what changes he has wrought.
33 The Grammarians; Cathleen Schine - Rarely have I read a book whose jacket description of the plot seems so very distant from what actually happens therein.
34 The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network; Katharine Losse - Losse was one of Facebook’s very earliest employees, and she charts her experience with the company in this memoir from 2012. Do you even recall what Facebook was like in 2012? They hadn’t even altered the results of elections yet! Zuck was a mere MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, probably. Were we ever so young?
35 Invisible Women; Caroline Ciado Perez - If you want to read a book that will make you angry, so angry that you repeatedly assail whoever is around with facts taken from it, then this, my friend, is the book for you.
36 The Hidden World of the Fox; Adele Brand - A really charming look at the fox from an ecologist who has studied them around the world. Much of it takes place in the UK, where urban foxes take on a similar ecological niche that raccoons famously do where I live, in Toronto.
37 S; Doug Dorst & JJ Abrams - This is a real mindfuck of a book, consisting of a faux-old novel, with marginalia added by two students which follows its own narrative. A difficult read not because of the density of prose, but the sheer logistics involved: read the page, then the marginalia? Read the marginalia interspersed with the novel text? Go back chapter by chapter? I’m not sure that either story was worth the trouble, in the end.
38 American War; Omar El Akkad - This is not exclusively, but partially a climate-based speculative novel, or, grossly, cli-fi for short. Ugh, what a term! But this book is a really tight, and realistic look at the results of a fossil-fuels-based second US Civil War.
39 Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation; Andrew Marantz - This is the guy you’ll hear on every NPR story talking about his semi-embedding within the Extremely Online alt-right. Most of the figures he profiles come off basically how you’d expect, I found his conclusions about the ways these groups have chosen to use online media tools to achieve their ends the most illuminating part.
40 Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm; Isabella Tree - This is the story of a long process of transitioning a rural acreage (more of an estate than a farm, this is aristocratic shit) from intensive agriculture to something closer to wild land. There are long passages where Tree (ahem) simply lists species which have come back, which I’m sure is fascinating if you are from the area, but I tended to glaze over a bit. Experts from around the UK and other European nations weigh in on how best to rewild the space, which places the project in a wider context.
FICTON: 17 NONFICTION: 23
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How to Effectively Initiate Positive Alliances With Appropriate Spirits Outside of Your Immediate Sphere
Today, I want to write a bit about something very useful I’ve discovered about initiating positive, tangible relationships with spirits who are (at least seemingly) outside of your immediate circle of spirit guides, for purposes of guidance and magical collaboration.
Aside from sometimes collaborating in readings with my clients’ departed loved ones, as a medium who occasionally practices “emergency magic,” up until recently, my spirit guides never let me work with any spirits who weren’t part of the circle of guides assigned to me at birth, or ones sent to me by them for a given purpose, such as helping me predict the future more accurately. This “forbidden list” included saints who are often petitioned in popular forms of practical magic, such as St. Expedite, as well as employing the magic of other practitioners (often working with other spirits) by ordering candles from them, etc. These restrictions existed, and mostly still do, for my own protection, in order to ensure my spiritual and energetic integrity. I know better than to second-guess my guides’ advice.
Luckily, once these restrictions had been established, I came to realize that any magic I had practiced before, without soliciting spiritual helpers, which would involve fairly elaborate manipulations of physical objects as energetic focal points, would pale in comparison in effectiveness to the results I would get from simply going through my channeling preparations, clearly and passionately telling my guides what I needed, and then asking for help.
Sometimes, the results would be dramatic and nearly instantaneous - and if not, my guides would be sure to inform me that results would take a while. Coming to realize just how simple effective magic could be was incredibly liberating!
However, magical work aside, I would sometimes wonder what it would be like to receive guidance or help from a spirit who held a particular cultural or emotional significance for me. Mostly, these were departed artists with whom I felt a kinship.
With the possible exception of murder investigations, etc., the conventional wisdom on evidential mediumship is that you can only successfully interact with a departed person who knew you or your client in life. So, this spring, I decided to do an experiment with an inspiring artist with whom I had a fleeting in-person encounter in life, and about whom I had been thinking about a lot during quarantine: David Bowie. The personal connection may have been tenuous, but it was there.
What I discovered turned out to be an extremely effective way to form new, rich relationships in the spirit world.
One day in May, before it felt safe to get on the subway, after 100 days of not leaving my home borough, I walked all the way from South Brooklyn to Manhattan. When I reached SoHo, I realized that I was not far from where David Bowie used to live. So, I took a little detour.
As I came up to his house, I focused my mind inward, as I would when asking a question of my spirit guides, and silently addressed him:
“Hi, David! It’s Emily, here. Remember me? I’m the teenage girl who quietly interrupted your lunch back in the summer of 1998, at French Roast on 6th Ave., to thank you for all the inspiration you had given me as a musician and artist. You were so touched, you blushed like a beet! I never forgot about it. I’ve been thinking about you a lot, lately, and could really use some inspiration and guidance from you again. We are kindred spirits! Musician to outsider musician, can you hear me? I’d love it if we could interact, and you would accept to be my guide.”
Within a couple of hours, David sent me a synchronicity in the form of the gif below, posted by my friend right around the time I made the connection. (In these cases, I don’t believe in coincidences. My guides pull off stuff like that all the time, and it isn’t limited to random internet posts.)
A similar process has subsequently helped me form several new, extremely satisfying spiritual connections, including with Frida Kahlo, whose birthday party I posted about earlier, and even a couple of saints I never thought I had a connection to before.
That is how I found out that under the right circumstances, there is some flexibility in my “collaborative restriction,” and it is sanctioned by my personal guides. However, it isn’t arbitrary.
When you wish to form a relationship with a spirit outside your immediate sphere, the key is that there needs to be an affinity, cultural, familial or even personal connection between you and what you know of this spirit. This holds true whether it is a person who was known as a prominent spiritual teacher, an artist who passed away relatively recently, or a saint or spirit whose existence has taken on a more “storied” status. (Religions of the African Diaspora such as Santería, Vodou and Espiritismo - which I have no affiliation with - affirm this in their teachings, as well.)
So, here is my technique for forming new alliances with spirits you’d like to work with.
1. Identify the spirit, and define for yourself why you wish to work with them. Look into the spirit’s history, and the various ways in which people have defined and worked with them before. Do you feel comfortable with all of the connotations of what this spirit stands for?
2. Define the connection between you. What is it that you have in common in your temperament, your likes and dislikes, your interests, your cultural connections, your life experiences, your “life missions,” and your general energy? Why and how does your energy “match” theirs? (This is super important!)
3. If the connection isn’t immediately apparent, is there a work-around? For instance, say you wanted to work with The Virgin of Guadalupe, who is a Catholic patron saint of Mexico, and particularly a protector of indigenous peoples, but you weren’t Mexican, indigenous, or even Catholic. Guadalupe is also known as “Empress of The Americas,” and is an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Mary was Jewish. In my case, I’m Jewish-American. I’m a Jewish daughter. Mary is a Jewish mother. I’m part American, and live in the USA. She’s Empress of The Americas - not just Mexico. That would be an effective approach to initiating the connection.
4. Find a way to focus your energy on forming the connection. This could be through setting up a little altar with a picture, a candle, some water and flowers, or simply meditating in a quiet place or sacred space, especially if that place is directly connected to that spirit.
5. Address the spirit with love, trust, enthusiasm and respect. In your own words, explain the connection between you, and why you wish to work with them. So, for the above example, I might say: “Dear Guadalupe, I would love to work with you and your gentle, motherly energy. You’re a Jewish mother, and I’m a Jewish daughter - that makes me your daughter! People love you in my neighborhood. You rule over the Americas. I know your presence is strong here. Would you help to bring peace and love into my home?”
6. Look for a sign of acceptance. In my case, that will usually come in the form of a synchronicity, a dream, or having them straight-up announce themselves in my channeling sessions. (Often, it will be more than one sign!)
7. Once you receive your sign of acceptance, especially if they happen to grant a request, GIVE THANKS! I love buying flowers for my spirits. It’s also great if you can thank a guide or spirit ally with charity or a good deed that benefits people or causes you know are loved by them. In the above example, I would make sure to buy the flowers for Guadalupe from the ladies in my neighborhood who are immigrants from Central America - and possibly undocumented. I might also make a contribution to charities that help detained immigrants at the border. Sometimes your allies will telepathically let you know what pleases them.
And that’s it!
You can maintain your ongoing connection to these spirits through practices such as meditation and channeling, and also doing good deeds in their name. If you only wanted to form a short-term alliance, that’s OK, too. Just be sure to thank the spirit properly for their help, and politely say your goodbyes.
As a final note, it isn’t completely clear to me whether the initial lack of connection to spirits such as these is only skin-deep. One might have past-life alliances, or other unknown connections to these spirits from the get-go. Sometimes, if you feel pulled to a particular spirit, but can’t figure out the connection, if you ask your guides, and the connection is genuine, they will explain why!
We all have “inner circle” guides assigned at birth, whom we can most easily connect with, and especially if we work in the spiritual arts such as mediumship, a whole network of “outer band” helpers in our “team,” who may prefer to remain anonymous, but help us coordinate communication with our clients’ loved ones, etc. You won’t always know immediately who is helping you “behind the scenes”!
Explore these concepts for yourself, and see what you think! ...But do choose your allies wisely, and protect yourself by keeping your energy high, joyful, compassionate, optimistic and loving, and by properly opening and closing your communication sessions. Don’t fall for impersonators! Look for tangible signs.
Any questions? Let me know in the comments!
Good luck!
Love,
Emily
#spirits#spirit guides#spirit allies#espiritismo#magic#magick#practical magic#mediumship#channeling#spiritual journey#guidance#david bowie#guadalupe#spiritual#shaman#shamanism#psychic#psychic medium#psychics of tumblr#mediums of tumbler#witches#witches of tumblr#witchcraft
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Fathers’ Day, Familiarity and Faith | #38 | June 2020
If my COVID-19 experiences were a Netflix Original Series, I feel someone could title it, "The Groundskeeper."
Synopsis: Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Mongolia, now back in Nevada, learns a thing or two about hedge trimming and much more about life living.
The inspirational hit series stars award-winning memoirist Daniel Lindbergh Lang, director and editor. “Please support the official release.”
Quirky thoughts keep me sane. More on these later, of course.
The U.S. celebrated Father’s Day 2020 on June 21, so I commemorate it with reflections from being my father’s son.
The adventures follow both my Mothers’ Day reflections (#36) and Easter in America stories (#35). I focus now on continued COVID-19 adventures in yard work, sorting and reminiscing.
Chronologically, we pick up from my stateside Week 11 (May 15-21), when my sisters came home from their unis’ spring semesters. With them as collaborators, I continued sorting our family’s memorabilia. After a few weeks’ interlude 'round Memorial Day, big changes occurred Weeks 14 through 16 (June 5-25) through Fathers’ Day.
I also consider Pentecost and the Spirit. Easter 2020 ended Sunday, May 31, so we’re in a fruitful new time. In fact, I write here results from the smattering of routines I shared before.
Lastly, to clarify, many assume my dad’s Asian. But that’s untrue. He’s Austrian-American. That’s where I get my “Lang” surname. Ethnically, I’m about half Austrian. Culturally, too, Dad’s family influenced me far more than Mom’s when I grew up. My mom was ethnically full Chinese, hence that half.
Now back to Dad!
Father’s Perspective on My Boyhood
During my 2020 time home since Peace Corps’ evacuation, Dad often prods me to take on projects he sees around the yard. So, I do yard work. I don’t like desert heat, so I usually work the daily tasks an hour or two at dawn, sometimes dusk. Picture three months this way.
But Dad would tend to demand a certain perfection on many projects, expecting me out there working when there’s work to do. I’d rather let nature do as it pleases. Peace Corps experiences taught me decorated yards generally feel overrated. When I’m older, I feel I’d much rather have my family frequent parks to get our yard fix. Nonetheless, yard work lets me chat with God, who reminds me empathize.
It is difficult to say, "I serve the Father," if I do not serve my father.
With this in mind, I consider the patient progress of waiting while working often.
Dad grew up in rural America’s Midwest from the mid-20th century. Dad’s parents and community were largely Austrian-American Catholics. Dad’s grandfather immigrated with Dad’s great-grandfather because land in Austria was scarce, late-19th century, yet plentiful in Kansas. My dad grew up on a farm as a third-generation Austrian-American. He funded his higher ed. through U.S. military service and numerous side jobs, including those in teaching and sales.
Through Dad, I’m a fourth-generation Austrian-American—though, only second-generation Chinese-American, through Mom. I wasn’t quite on a farm, having grown up between Midwestern suburbs and an urban West. Still, Dad regularly tasked siblings and I with yard work.
An Energetic Kid, Ages 4-7
Now this gets interesting!
This mid-May 2020, my younger sister and I unearthed Christmas letters our parents (mostly Dad) had written to Dad’s siblings—my uncles and aunts—since before 2000. Turns out, our mom kept hard copies in the bins beside her desk. From these, Sister and I read pretty enjoyable pieces about our child selves.
Here I share Dad’s tales from grade school me in Indiana (used with permission):
2001: "Daniel is 4 years old now and is looking forward to kindergarten. He likes outdoor activities and he is quite strong for his age. He can do a lot of sit ups and push ups already. He likes to walk with [his mom] at the airport, which is nearby."
2002: "Daniel is five years old. He is in kindergarten. He is [...] very competitive. He is in the same school as [his older brother] and is rapidly learning to read now. He is good at math, and he studies very hard."
2003: "Daniel is six years old. He is very competitive and naughty. He always keeps track of the books he reads and comes home to tell us how many books he has finished. His goal is to reach 100 books this year. He is over 90 already. Well, he likes to pester [his brother a lot]. He thinks that is fun. [...]"
2004: "Daniel is seven. He is goal oriented and a 'do'er. He is good at making all kinds of crafts. He is our family's talented teacher. He taught [his younger sister] how to read before she went to kindergarten. He also gives homework assignments to the others, except [his older brother]. He always pesters [his brother] as usual."
God graced me with energy as a kid.
I noticed three themes. For one, I seemed to follow Dad’s lead in filling my time productively. He served in the U.S. Army National Guard and emphasized self-discipline. As a civilian family practitioner, too, he advocated for daily exercises, such as sit-ups, push-ups and walking. I seemed to follow suit.
On the other hand, I was a kiddo with an older brother, and I didn’t mind expending plenty spare energy to bother him. Thankfully I stopped pestering when I grew up with enough self-awareness to know good people don’t intentionally troll. Uni helped.
Curiously, I noticed the letters seemed to note many of my interests resembling Mom’s. Arts, reading and studying seemed more like Mom’s interests than Dad’s, yet I hadn’t realized my similarities to Mom back then. Of course, Dad values education, too.
Studious Beyond Belief, Ages 13-19
As I went through elementary school, Dad’s military service included deployments overseas to Afghanistan (2005) and Iraq (2007). In 2008, our family moved from southern Indiana to North Las Vegas, Nev., where I started middle school. Since my younger sister and I hadn’t found letters from Dad’s years deployed with the others letter, we figured Mom wrote them. By 2009’s end, Dad retired as a lieutenant colonel. But he continued work elsewhere, including in a dozen nations to indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Here were Christmas letters from my adolescence on. Coincidentally, I noticed the first couple we found both came from my last years at respective schools.
2010: “Danny, 13, is finishing at [...] a magnet [middle] school associated with math, science and technology. He [earned last year] a 4.0 [grade-point] average. He received a letter this past week from a magnet high school stating that he was the type of student they were looking for. [I, Dad, think Danny] is also in the National Junior Honor Society [service group]. [...] Danny continues to have to be at the school bus stop at 5:50 in the morning.”
2014: “Danny is the ultimate study robot, with his inhuman ability to study for hours on end in place of sleep, or other usual activities for high schoolers. He attended NV Boys State this past June, and he has risen to the rank of Division News Editor within [Kiwanis] Key Club--a HS service group. Danny and [his younger sister] also attended Key Club activities in CA in Nov. [...] As this is his senior year [...], he should be starting to apply for colleges now, but [...] he has not applied to Yale, which is causing his mother to feel that she is a ‘failure’ if none of her kids get accepted at this prestigious school--it’s used by Chinese mothers as a guilt trip for their kids! [...] He also received an AP with Honors award [from his magnet high school]. He presently is in the ‘top 10’ students in his class ranking. But if he doesn’t get his applications in, then there is always UNLV [Las Vegas]!”
2016: “Daniel is now a sophomore at UNR (Reno) in the Honors Program, and is an honors ambassador. He says he has 1 major in journalism with 3 minors at the present time, and he works at the library when time permits. He also completed an internship in publishing during the summer session, when he stayed in Reno and frugally survived during the summer by ‘couch surfing’ at several different locations. Several of us attended his confirmation at Easter in Reno. He also [...] presented at a few [conferences]. Additionally, he is involved in [the Kiwanis] Circle K service group on campus, as well as the Knights of Columbus, and he sings in the choir at the local Newman Center. Based on his Facebook postings, he seems to be enjoying college immensely. [...]”
I definitely loved service groups—and still do, if Peace Corps counts!
Seeing these letters in 2020, I feel amused how Dad wrote of my later academic interests with distance. Dad’s 2002 line about 5-year-old me, “[Daniel] studies very hard,” escalated exponentially, noticeable by his 2014 line about 17-year-old me, “Danny is the ultimate study robot, with his inhuman ability to study for hours on end in place of sleep.” I figure my peers were similar, though…
I feel amused, too, how Dad included Mom’s wanting me to pursue STEM careers. Chinese often expect this of their kids. In some sense, I’m glad Dad let me escape the Asian tendency and Mom’s ideal to have me pursue a Bachelor of Science. Back then, I contended a bachelor’s from the professional School of Journalism would still make me hireable.
Sure enough, Peace Corps hired!
Besides, I felt vindicated later when I learned my minors in English literature, Chinese studies and communication studies resembled my late mother’s fields of English literature and international relations... She clearly benefited from Liberal Arts. More on these in previous reflections, though. :)
Back From Mongolia
Snap back to March 2020, when I just returned to America after our COVID-19 evacuation from Mongolia.
I was really into “Frozen II,” the cathartic film easing me back into the States. My first week back felt very different from those after. Because “Some Things Never Change,” I discerned to do “The Next Right Thing.” Waking to various “Frozen II” numbers of looping in my brain, days began with such thoughts.
My first days, I often compared experiences to Mom’s when she raised my siblings and me. Despite being at home, I was alone. Dad worked away, plus siblings had school and work. (This preceded American schools canceling or moving online.) So, I felt confused what to do.
I discerned I could tidy the house, serve where others couldn’t. Whether dishes to wash or rooms to clean, I addressed what I saw. I imagined Mom felt this way when my siblings and I attended school and Dad worked.
I also considered my living father matters as much as my late mother. So, honoring Dad honors her, too.
Dad always had yard projects he wanted me doing. I had to weed so much when I first returned.
I felt insights, at least. I considered, weeds are eternal. Weeds will always grow on spiritual life. Weeds attempt to choke our crops’ life. We must uproot our weeds and prune dead areas to fortify new and better parts of being. The physical and spiritual are one. … Yet, weeds still annoy me.
Noticeably, my labors seemed to confuse many in my family. They seemed mostly to recall the 2015 me who’d choose studying over chores any day. But I guess most hadn’t factored I’ve experienced plenty in my years away from home, especially during my months living alone cooking for myself in Mongolia. House tasks are necessary parts of life.
Besides, I’d already been doing these tasks others seemed disinterested in, even back at Christmas 2019, when I sorted Mom’s books, and later during post-evacuation Week 9 (May 1-7), packing up Mom’s desk after three years gathering dust. I felt frustrated others seemed slow to accept I’ve changed since Peace Corps. I pray for grace.
The New Journey
June 6, 2020—just days after Pentecost and coincidentally one month to my 23rd birthday—marked one huge occasion.
Dad remarried!
I felt excited.
I also noticed a curious parallel in threes. For, on my family history adventures, I discovered something about Dad’s parents. In 1987, his mother's spouse passed away; on the third year, she married again, in 1990. 30 years later, my dad’s spouse passed away in 2017; on the third year, he married again, in 2020. Coincidences comfort me at times.
That day, I’d also finished revisions to submit my thesis to a different journal for publication. I’d tried before with one in June 2019 and February 2020, but unfortunately my work hadn’t fit within their scope. Still, the editor believed that I could publish it in the right place!
College Town Return
That Week 14 (June 5-11), Dad also purchased a house in Reno, Nev., where my kind stepmom may move, too. Dad requested aid moving things in Reno. My younger sister and youngest brother both opted out, so I went instead. I prefer Reno’s weather, anyway.
In Reno again, I felt parallels to past years.
Helping my youngest sister and her friend move from a condo and house to the new place, I recalled the many who helped me move between Reno homes during my undergrad. Honestly, I felt weird to think of my dad relocating to Reno, especially since I hadn’t known the area he chose existed during my years studying in town.
Mongolia returned to mind, too, while I lugged belongings in and out of the condo, up and down stairs. Hard to believe that that was three months ago when Peace Corps evacuated us. Exactly three months before, March 9, 2020, was my first Monday in Nevada again.
Writing of Mongolia, I also recalled every bellhop who's hauled my 23 kg (50 lbs.) luggage up stairs in Asia. God bless them.
On the bright side, with helping the sister and friend move, Dad said I got stronger. That felt good. When he asked how many push-ups I could do, I said 50—my new personal record met just days before. When I started working out the month and a half prior, I could only do half that.
Thanks to the lifting and yard work tasking me in Reno, I paused my fitness routines. I realized, I’ve enough strength and endurance for what I’d want to do. So now, having met the goals, I still work out, just less concerned about gains.
Tests of Faith
Back to that ‘groundskeeping.’
With Reno versus Vegas, I prefer hedges to palm trees. Hedges are more fun and less merciless. They leave my body less bloody than palm trees, too. Reno’s weather also keeps cooler.
As you’d expect, yard work leaves plenty time to reflect, chat with God. In earlier days these chats opened with lamentations about the heat and constant tasks. But God graces peace.
Ultimately, Dad’s tasks need someone to do them. He’s busy working full-time out-of-town, and siblings still have activities they must or would rather do. So I volunteer.
On the other side, Dad at times says he’ll compensate me once the bills are paid. There always seem bills to me, though. Since it’s been three months now, I try to think of this like the Kingdom. Whether or not I see rewards, I try to persevere. I must trust the Father to provide in time, no matter the wait. It’s a spiritual exercise.
Pa says he’s glad I’m financially stable, too—My scholarships, grants and work study graduated me debt-free. Those seem good, I guess.
So, spiritually exercising while laboring, I consider parables of workers in the field and masters. Christ spoke of such. Parables about fields and wages seem more nuanced after feeling comparable questions.
I think, too, to re-education labor camps sometimes. During China’s Cultural Revolution, my mom’s parents—both teachers—were sent to those. So, my ‘toiling’ in Dad’s backyards are surely nothing compared to what my grandparents involuntarily endured. I can bear my ‘shackles.’
These bring me to privilege.
At the day’s end, I have places to stay, food to eat and stable internet. Many Americans and people worldwide face greater turmoil than these, perhaps including you, my reader. So, I try acknowledging my ‘hardships’ hardly compare. I try to focus prayers for the needier. Faith helps me through.
On a happy note, I just reached the Diamond League on Duolingo! So, life could definitely be worse...
The Climb
One day during Week 15 (June 12-18), after Dad came home at dusk from work, he asked me to get out the ladder to climb the backyard tree. I thought that was wistful thinking!
Well, I had the time and realized he wanted me to climb after all. The tree had a fallen limb he wanted me to saw off, since I weigh less than him. I insisted I’d only climb with him around.
Well, he came around.
I ascended and sawed four limbs! Before the climb, we thought I only had to address a single one. But as I climbed for it, I found more. Thankfully, these were thin limbs. Dad gave some advice from below, handed me our hand saw then left me while he took care of other tasks around the yard. I climbed higher, wedged my feet in semi-stable positions and got to work.
Atop, the wind blew, so the tree rocked. I clung high in a swaying tree. Good Lord.
But I felt amazed, handling my saw even with my off-hand. I’d cling with one arm and saw with the other. When branches got stuck, I had to grab them, push and jerk them away from other sections to send them down. Dad had me call out, “Timber!” With the final branch out, I let the saw fall.
Success felt like redemption from that random tree I climbed the first culture-shocked day I returned to Vegas from Mongolia. This time I’d such control. My safety depended on it! Plus, I only grazed the back of my hand, as opposed to gashing my palm like the last time I left a tree. Less bleeding is better.
By the end, my arms and legs trembled, not from worry but from muscle fatigue. Still, I felt empowered. Throughout my childhood, I could never climb a tree. Now I passed the physical I hadn’t expected a month and a half prior.
All told, my climb took just half an hour.
Staying the Course
In a week and a half, I turn 23! So I’ll be one (1) 23-year-old, hehe. Look forward to new reflections on how I’ve grown and changed.
As an extension of my paternal family history projects, I started writing memorable quotes from Dad. My siblings and I wound up adapting these and more into our Fathers’ Day 2020 gift! Dad enjoyed our “Book of the Father” we printed.
Meanwhile, America begins to slightly reopen amid COVID-19 conditions, and the post-solstice summer’s begun. So, I encourage us to, whenever possible, still #StayHome more than usual, wear our face masks, maintain physical distance and of course wash our hands. We’ll get through this.
And I hear some are struggling with loneliness, too—If you need someone to talk to, you can always count on me. It’s among the most challenging feelings, given we humans are social beings staying physically apart. Writing, phoning and video calls help me, at least. Feel free to reach out. I keep you and loved ones in my prayers.
Best wishes, and till we chat again.
You can read more from me here at DanielLang.me :)
#Peace Corps#Mongolia#memoir#story#Catholic#God#memoryLang#USA#moving#Las Vegas#Pentecost#faith#Reno#Coronavirus#COVID-19#hope#summer#StayHome#WithMe#Fathers Day
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War Against Humanity
Friends... I am struggling to find the right words around my outrage right now. 2020 has brought to light the ugliest parts of hatred I have ever been witness to. From the boldness of white supremacists and racists, waving their confederate flags, to the Trump administration rolling back LGBTQIA+ protections in healthcare, it feels like there is an all out war on humanity right now.
Below the cut are some of the most recent outrages...but also concrete actions that you can take to help heal this nation and her people.
The Black Lives Matters protests are still going strong around the country, but are not getting as much publicity, and I fear that--once again--heads are going to be buried in the sand and our black brothers, sisters, and non-binary siblings are going to continue to face police brutality simply for living while black. Did you know Breonna Taylor’s murderers have yet to be arrested? She was murdered by Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13th. Here we are, three months later, and no charges have been made. We have to keep fighting this fight. We cannot let the world go back to pretending that things are okay, because they never were. We need massive reforms to our police force and criminal justice system nationwide.
Amidst the protests, we are still facing a global pandemic and numbers are starting to spike again. It is critical that you listen to experts and scientific facts right now. Maintain social distancing, wear a mask, be safe!! Again, there hasn’t been as much coverage of COVID-19 as there was in the past, but this crisis is not over!! Native Americans and communities of color are among the most vulnerable right now, and need our help.
Today, it was announced that the Trump administration reversed transgender health protections, making one of the most vulnerable groups even more vulnerable at a time when we are facing a global crisis. Not only does this come during Pride month, but on the 4th anniversary of the Pulse shooting which claimed the lives of 49 LGBTQIA+ individuals and straight allies.
Trump’s attempts to appeal to his racist, white supremacist base have become overt and obscene. On Juneteeth, Trump will hold a rally in Tulsa, OK followed by his acceptance of the Republican nomination on August 27 in Jacksonville, Florida. These dates and locations are not arbitrary or random, despite the Trump administration’s claim to the contrary. Juneteeth, is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Tulsa, OK was the site of one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in which more than 300 black men, women and children were brutally massacred. In Jacksonville, on August 27, 1960, a group of 200 white men began chasing black protesters through the streets, beating them with ax handles and baseball bats. Soon, the violence shifted to more than just the protesters--to anyone who was black.
Just recently, in Georgia, after having MONTHS to prepare for the primary election and even postponing it twice, the Secretary of State in Georgia failed to deliver equitable and fair voting opportunities, and most heavily impacted were communities of color. This is voter suppression, and it is systemic racism in action. We have seen this across the country, and it is an epidemic that is fueled by a Republican machine desperate to hold on to power.
If you’re as sick as I am, as outraged, as overwhelmed... please take action. You might be wondering what you can do, how you can help, and feeling lost on where to even begin because of the array of issues we’re facing. Below are some resources to help get you started. I know this list isn’t exhaustive, so please feel free to share additional resources or suggestions.
You need to make sure you make a plan and VOTE in your local, state, and national elections this year. The primaries MATTER, so if your state hasn’t had its primary yet, or it has an upcoming primary runoff, VOTE!! Make sure you’re registered to vote and that you know your polling location. Consider volunteering at the polls during early voting and on the day of the election. Donate to organizations like Fair Fight or Black Voters Matter, who are working to end voter suppression.
Help COVID relief efforts, especially for the First Nations and Black Women’s Wellness.
Consider contributing to the Bail Funds Network, a network of over 60 community bail/bond funds that free people from jail and immigration detention, and specifically the bail funds for protesters. Color of Change is advocating racial justice through specific efforts to change corporate and public policies, and the Advancement Project is supporting organized communities in their struggles for racial and social justice, providing legal, communications and campaign organizing resources. The Collective Pac’s Justice for All Fund is working to recruit, train, and fund Black judicial, prosecutorial and attorney general candidates to ensure more representative leaders for the criminal justice system.
If you can’t give financially, you can also sign petitions to help generate change. Reclaim the Block has a petition to defund the Minneapolis Police Department and invest in the resources that really keep us safe and healthy, especially in Black communities, Indigenous communities and communities of color. Congresswoman Lucy McBath is also working to end voter suppression in Georgia.
Volunteer to phone, text, or write postcards for local or national politicians. It’s important that we focus as much on the down ballot races as we do the presidency right now, so look into who is running in your city, district, and state. Everything from the Railroad Commissioner to Mayor to State Senate and Representatives. There are so many great candidates running across the nation who need your help. Win the Era has recently endorsed 22 candidates across the nation who are lifting up the issues facing this and subsequent generations; who are committed to building a sense of belonging in our country; who are running pioneering campaigns; who are proposing and supporting meaningful, bold policies; and who model the values and spirit of the Pete Buttigieg campaign. Consider donating to some of these candidates, or the PAC itself to help future endorsements, or reach out to the candidates and ask how you can help them get elected.
Join and support organizations like Black Lives Matter and the Human Rights Campaign.
Educate yourself. This is a time to step back and critically look at our own privileges and prejudices and find ways to be better allies. There are so many excellent books about the conversation of race and anti-racism, as well as the LGBTQIA history. As uncomfortable as it is to talk about race, gender identity, and sexuality these are the conversations that we need to be having right now. I encourage you to listen to the conversation between Emmanuel Acho and Matthew McConaughey as a starting point.
Most importantly: Be aware and stay involved. There’s a desire to tune out, turn the channel, and give up right now, but please fight that urge. We need everybody on board with making change happen. Ignoring the problems won’t make them go away. We cannot wait for the next black life to be taken from us to feel outraged enough to want to do something. Use your privilege to amplify black voices, to speak out against injustices for the LGBTQIA+ community, to defend immigrants and their children.
2020 is a defining moment, and we need to make sure it defines an era of true justice and freedom for all in this country. Until we are all free...none of us can be free.
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