#wtf do you mean mainstream media is only for straight men

[evilelitest2]

You keep saying certain trends need to be removed from the progressive movement, which ones?

1) Conspiracy theorists, this just fucking murders leftism, because it makes people unwilling to accept new information, which means they just inevitably slide into bad places.  See also Rosanne.  This goes for anti vaxxers, Truthers, people who get into the “Israel Lobby” too much but also just general conspiratorial thinking.  I see a lot of people talking about “The DNC” or “The Media” in terms that are more conspiratorial than factual, and have trouble understanding literally how things work.  Which not only makes people unable to really understand WTF is going on, it also feeds into Right wing thinking.  If Sanders fans are already acting as if “The mainstream Media” is one single unified entity secretly controlled by a cabal of capitalists and so you can just dismiss what it has to say*, it is pretty easy for the Right to justify their own narrative that any media that isn’t Fox News/Brietbart/Drudge Report is a single unified entity with a liberal bias secretly controlled by Jews (or George Soros if they want to hide their true intentions)

* Their are certain biases and issues that are shared by the media, but these are more structural systemic issues rather than deliberate efforts by specific individuals.  There are specific networks/newspapers which are purely propaganda piece but that doesn’t apply to the entire media.  Or to put it another way.  Jeff Bezos owning the Washington Post does influence its content, but they don’t just get their marching orders from him.

2) No tolerance for bigotry.  This should be obvious but it is remarkable how people who are progressive in on issue (class, gender, race, sexuality) are super intolerant in other respects.  In this primary we see this with the dirtbag left and their class reductionist tendencies where they are pretty left wing in regardless to class, but super racist/sexist/homophobic in every other respect.  or how TERFs are pretty good in terms of fighting women’s oppression, but are vile when it comes to the rights of Trans people.  Or Black Nationalists tendency towards antisemitism and misogyny, or Zionists tendency towards Islamaphobia.  People who are marginalized often have a difficult time recognizing others who are marginalized, doubly so if it involves recognizing a certain privilege they do in fact posses (black men, white homosexuals, straight women the list goes on).  The left really  needs to get better at making intersectionality a reality of its practice rather than a tool of rhetoric. 

3) Drop the romantic revolutionary Aethetic The Left gets really into these 60s images of everybody overthrowing the stodgy all establishment and embracing a new exciting world.  And these always crash because its less about the practical reality of actually fixing problems and more about the image of rebelling.  Its like how Rock n Roll did totally overturn the status quo when it first came into the stage, but very quickly became a form of conservatism in its own right.  

Basically end the Leftist cool kids club. I’m really sick of leftists who seem to get into leftist thought primarily to give them a lenses to look down on people but not do anything about it, the Marxistdude bro approach

It also is self destructive because it leads to the left being like...reluctant to persuade people to our side which is just self destructive (see also Sanders 2020 campaign) 

4) Stop stanning dictators and being nostalgic for autocracy.  It is so very frustrating to see people outraged over the US use of torture (as you should be) but being apologists for Assad.  I am very tired of seeing leftists argue against holocaust Denial and then being like “oh but Stalin wasn’t that bad actually”.  

5) Fucking Moral Cholesterol nonsense, purity fixations are autocannibalism

6) No embrace of Gamergate tactics.  Doxxing is wrong regardless of the target.  Bullying, abuse, harassment is wrong even if the victim is an absolute shit head.  Actually I take this further to murder and torture.  We are the side who oppose police brutality, advocate prison reform and oppose war crimes, we shouldn’t be falling into this nonsense.  

7) No anti intellectualism.  The world is complicated, huge, and nuanced, there isn’t a single source of evil for everything wrong with the world, human beings can be bad in one element and good in another, and we aren’t following the narrative of a drama.  The Right’s values are anti intellectuals we need to stop following their lead but just reversing the scripts

#ask EvilElitest #Leftism

[migleefulmoments]

"A gay media journalist is not going to say anything about someone’s sexuality in case he is sure and in case he knows that person is okay with him doing that" lol wtf? this is a blatant lie. I guess they've never heard of perez hilton, who was infamous for outing people. and he's hardly the only gay person to have done so. but sure, D gave this guy the go ahead. they're so desperate to try to make their obsession w/ Darren unproblematic and woke when it's anything but. it's fucked up and sick.

OMG I am gagging at this.  This dude isn’t an important “journalist”. He’s a self-described “influencer” with 2,000 followers. His bio actually says “At the nexus of tech, cinema, and the LGBT community. Happily married 5. Influence dealer. Indie & mainstream film creative consultant”. I don’t know where they got the idea he is a journalist. 

The Tweet they are so obsessed with is Darren’s Met Ball pic “This guy is 150% heterosexual trying to attract the ladies” (Or something like that, I’m too lazy to go look at it again).  It had 2 comments and 1 retweet.  So nobody cared about his petty comment except Abby and CrissVonColfer.

Perez was famous for outing people. He also had a huge crust on Darren back in those days, I have no doubt that he would have outed Darren as well. 

Abby seems to have the idea that everyone in the gay community knows Darren is gay...as if ALL gay men are magically initiated into a secret club the second they come out to themselves. Maybe RuPaul is in charge of the master list?  Abby claimed “I agree with you 100%, he is not going to say anything that is untrue or harmful when implying that someone is queer. And he isn’t going to do it against their will. Just like JM wasn’t going to call D a “gay icon” if he did not feel confident D would approve. D has a ton of support in the LGBT+ community and most know the closeting is completely against his will”. First of all, did he call Darren a gay icon? I don’t remember that but that doesn’t mean he didn’t.  What I know he did say is that Darren is “the sweetest, hippest straight queer boy on the block.” (X) 

The idea that Darren would give permission to this random dude or JCM to out him when he was terrified of the consequences of being out that he married a women he detests is beyond stupid and shows that she can’t keep her story straight anymore. 

[gapimnydiaries]

Diary Entry #21: White Gays are better Filmmakers: What I learned about inclusivity from being a Gaysian filmmaker

Dear Diary,

“The Less I know the Better” by Tame Impala was playing on Apple Music as a good friend consoled me. I was in a space no larger than a handicapped single-stalled restroom. There was just one tiny single bed, a small TV and what you’d call a closet (but wasn’t really). There weren’t any windows and the only source of light I had was a mood lamp I bought at Ace Hardware™ in a mall called Grand Indonesia in Jakarta. I remembered I was trying to play it cool when, in truth, I was crumbling on the inside.

Earlier in the day, I had a Skype call with television development executives from Los Angeles who initially hired us to write a “diverse and progressive” series. But after a series of drafts, we found out that, like most people in a place of privilege, they weren’t as woke as they thought they were. After whitewashing and slashing the storylines that explored the complexities of being a person of color in America, they wanted us to reduce the women characters to serve the interests of the straight, male protagonist. “It’s a post-racial Millennial world” they explained. To make matters worse, the entire call was filled with attempts to other-ize me, from asking what it’s like to live in a rural village in Singapore to pointing out that my iPhone text-tone -- “ding!” -- was some kind of Asian praying bell.

Afterwards, I really wanted to email them and write: this type of behavior is ignorant and unacceptable. But, considering that I really needed the job and I had a writing partner who told me to let it go because we didn’t want to be rude, I remained silent. The silence of course, was really painful because obviously, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. In fact, it happens all the time. When people like me speak up about micro-aggressions or feeling left out, the people in power get angry and then I have to take care of their fragile feelings instead of validating my own. I’m always left feeling silenced, powerless and usually attacked for being “oversensitive.” The only thing I could do at the time was to call my friend and be temporarily consoled while listening to Tame Impala (Yes, I should’ve picked a better band for the occasion).

By this time, I had been alone in Indonesia (not Singapore) for 5 months. I was deep in pre-production on a short film called, Pria. During this time, I’d traveled across Java for months and interviewed countless gay Indonesians who either lived or had lived in rural areas. The film ended up being an amalgamation of their experiences told from their perspective, the perspective of the minority. So, within this context, the experience of that not-so-woke-ignorant phone call felt like such a step backwards, especially after being in Indonesia and realizing how ignorance of minority experiences can have such negative consequences. With these LA Execs, I met privileged people who wanted to promote and capitalize on the “global and diverse” world that “we live in right now,” but were so out of touch with the reality of what diversity really means that they ended up, perhaps unknowingly, becoming part of the problem.

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The author directs a scene on the set of Pria

Curious villagers watching the playback monitor during filming

The author and crew filming a scene in the morning

The author and producers stroll through the village “set”

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Out of all my intersectional identities, my “Asian-American-ness” has always been the hardest to fully embrace. I was born in Indonesia and moved to the US in elementary school. In Indonesia, I’m a minority because I don’t look Indonesian and I’m not Muslim. I’m mostly ethnically Chinese but none of my family members know any Chinese or anything about China. When I returned to Indonesia to do Pria, the locals there thought that I was from anywhere BUT Indonesia. When I came to the US for the first time, people were confused AF. They’d mock my accent and would always yell out “Ni Hau!” I’d try to correct them and tell them that I’m not Chinese, but that only confused the shit out of them. They would counter with the only two other Asian countries they’d heard of: Japan and Thailand (I mean really, if you wanna mock someone, get educated, people). There were definitely other FOB children at school, but most, if not all of them, were actually Chinese or Korean so they’d form their own communities out of their shared culture and language. Plus, the word FOB never felt like it applied to me; I came here on a plane, not a boat.

◆◆◆

(Far Right) The author with his siblings at a mall in 1996

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While I had such a confusing time trying to fit within the definition of Asian American, Gay was something that was always clear. That’s not to say that I didn’t have a hard time; like most queers, it was a process. But I always knew that I was gay and there was no question where I fit within that definition. So, when I started making “professional” short, queer films in 2011, I felt like I finally found a community that embraced me for me, for my work, and not the way I looked, or sounded, or how I presented myself. The LGBTQ film community has always supported me. Since I started, my shorts have been accepted to most LGBTQ film festivals domestically and internationally. But a troubling pattern began to emerge as I attended these festivals year after year. The majority of the films I saw were not diverse and mostly affirmed and celebrated the str8 white male ideal. There was always a lack of diversity, not only in the films, but also the filmmakers and organizers. I would always be one of the few (if not the only) minority filmmakers on the Q & A stage.

◆◆◆

The author attends a photocall at Frameline39: San Francisco LGBT Film Festival in 2015

The author at the Q&A for his short film, “Pipe Dream” at the Castro Theater, San Francisco (June 2015)

◆◆◆

This didn’t bother me at first, but after continually facing micro-aggressions at these LGBTQ festivals, in clubs, apps, and other Queer spaces, it started to really impact the way I saw myself and how I fit within the community. It already sucked enough having to deal with ignorant str8 people, but it’s much more hurtful when it comes from the community that you thought you were a part of. A community that promotes itself as being inclusive, a community that knows what invalidation feels like, and a community of film festivals run by, well, mostly people who identify as LGBTQ.

When I arrived at the centerpiece party for the 2017 Frameline: San Francisco LGBT Film Festival, the majority of the attendees were Gay White Men. I felt like I had just stumbled into an exclusive Mean Girls clique. It honestly felt like I was in a Gay club trying to scan for anyone with an interest in talking to an Asian. The way that everyone looked at me, just looking right through me, made me feel like I didn’t exist. When I told them about my short film from Indonesia, I was met with all sorts of assumptions. One sleazy, white producer from New York (who was trying to fuck an Australian actor all night) told me, “I’ve always wanted to go to Indonesia, it’s so exotic!” He then patted me on the back, “It must be so tough for the ladyboys there.” I guess even in a creative, inclusive, “safe” space like a Queer festival party, it’s as hierarchical as it would be in any other social Gay space, with whites taking the top spot. I wanted to think that this was an isolated incident because I’d been to this same exact party twice before and had a fantastic time. But, I slowly remembered, those other two times, I went with my white friends. There were, in fact, other incidents that occurred throughout the week including (but not limited to): being mistaken for another Asian on 3 different occasions and being grabbed in the ass by someone as I was leaving my Q & A (the latter could just be straight up sexual harassment and has nothing to do with race… but, in my experience, just looking like an “Asian Twink” in a Gay space usually gives other men the permission to violate our bodies...plus the Australians and Norwegian there didn’t get their asses grabbed).

◆◆◆

The author attends a photocall for the shorts program, “Worldly Affairs” at Frameline41: San Francisco LGBT Film Festival

The author during the Q&A session for “Pria” at the Castro Theater, San Francisco (June 2017)

◆◆◆

Of course, how can these white people understand wtf is going on with us “ethnic folk” if most of the films in these programs just affirm their str8-white privileged personhood ideal? There’s already a lack of Gaysians in the mainstream media and when we are ~lucky~ enough to make it on screen, we are only reduced to exotic stereotypical objects of desire or sexless, unattractive background players. If these are the only images shoved down everyone’s throat, it’s no wonder we’re always considered an Other…

Because these LGBTQ film festivals promote themselves as an inclusive safe space, this time, I decided to speak up. Surely, they would somehow understand. These organizers would know what it's like to grow up and not see (LGBTQ) characters like themselves on screen, or at least ones who weren’t child molesters, rapists, villains, creepy psychopathic old men or “sissies” serving as the butt of the joke that reduces their personhood to a minstrel show. They would understand what it would feel like to be erased, othered and/or misrepresented.

I sent out a mass email, Bcc-ing every LGBTQ festival that I’d been accepted to this year (and ones I was rejected from). In the email, I detailed how, when attending these Western festivals, I was always seen and treated as “other” because of my race. I told them how much their programming affects how LGBTQ POC are seen and treated within the general community. I tried to explain that by not including films like Pria, films from the other half of the world, in their LGBTQ Film Festivals, they are effectively erasing our stories and shutting us out. If there are minority films, we’re almost always grouped by race or by issue (why do white people only like us when we’re a cause to fight for? Even then, they want us to be a cause with hope). Are we not good enough to be part of the regular gay white programming? In times like these, programmers, the gatekeepers and privileged people in power have the responsibility to really examine what diversity means to them. Honest and complex representations of minorities are important (as well as minorities behind the scenes). This also means being strategic in programming these types of films. Not only do they determine how other people in the majority see and treat us, but they also shape the way we think and feel about ourselves.

The responses to the email were varied. “Seriously. Well-put,” said one LGBTQ festival. The rest refused to consider my point of view and instead resorted to belittling me and accusing me of being bitter for not having gained a spot in their program (like, honey, please. I sent the email to festivals that I DID get into too). But, to be honest, I am fucking bitter. These invalidating responses automatically reminded me of what happened in Indonesia a year before: that Skype call with the executives, and the many other times where I was either whitesplained and/or mansplained.

So yes. I’m absolutely bitter and I’m fucking angry.

How can I not be when I see these LGBTQ programmers complain about Donald Trump or say that they’re promoting diversity when their actions (or inaction) speak otherwise? Diversity isn’t just literally black and white, it’s something more complex; it occupies the gray area in the middle. Many people seem to think that just because you put a handful of Black people on screen (there are OTHER races too, you know?) and showcase minority “issue” films (on Gay refugees, Gays in the Middle-East, etc.), they can solve racism and inequality.

In truth, however, the work is far from being done. It doesn’t matter how many POCs are on screen if we are only reduced to stereotypes or, in the opposite case, neutered to the point where our complex experiences are distilled to white-people-cause-of-the-moment or worse, erased altogether. I just want to see my goddamn experiences represented accurately and truthfully.

I know that the work is hard. We have to dismantle a system of oppression that has been in place for hundreds of years that’s still an ongoing problem not just within the LGBTQ community but society at large. But, still, I expected better from our own community. How can a community that is fighting for equality perpetuate a system that promotes the invalidation of members within their own community?

It’s a system that allows for my bosses in LA to ignorantly make insensitive comments about my race via Skype.

It’s a system that enables a white, friend-of-a-friend at a Thanksgiving party to confidently assume, because of where I met the host, my appearance, and my non-English name, that it was my first Thanksgiving.

It’s a system that excuses gays when they put “No Asians” on their Grindr profiles and justify it as just “preference.”

It’s a system that allows an African American drag queen in New York to call me up on stage and mock my race and question my Americanness, while excusing such behavior as jest.

It’s a system where, when I was 17, a white, visiting professor took me to his home and raped me, assuming that I wanted it because I’m a “submissive Asian Bottom” who should’ve “relaxed more so that it would’ve felt better.”

It’s a system where, if I do speak up against the people in power who are supposedly on my side, I’d be dismissed and made to feel that I was the problem, that I was the one who was being overly sensitive and needed to check my feelings.

But, the thing is, I’ve been checking my feelings. I’ve been checking my damn feelings every day of my life. And you know what? I’m tired. I’m tired of them saying, “I can’t be racist or ignorant, I have black friends...” or “You obviously haven’t seen our program, we have an eye for colored people!” or whatever dumb-fuck excuse they use to deflect from the actual problem and validate their inaction/behavior/ignorance. It’s time for them to check their own damn feelings and realize that for real change to happen, they need to shut the hell up and listen. I’m sure they’re all well-meaning, but in the end, good intentions won’t matter much when the results are tone-deaf and continue to facilitate segregation and inequality.

I think that as we gain more acceptance within the mainstream, those who are now in a place of privilege tend to forget what it felt like to be in the minority. They forget those in the past who helped fight for our rights, they forget other members of their own communities who are still suffering, they forget what it felt like to be degraded for who they truly are, they forget what the real MO of the LGBTQ community is: Equality. There isn’t just one answer that will fix this Racism problem. The work needs to be highly personal and it starts with examining our own selves. It starts with listening to other members of the community without preconceived judgments and really examining the whys and hows of this system (of privilege) operating within our own lives. And look, I really get it. It’s hard to ask yourself why you’re not attracted to Asians, or why you’re still repulsed by femininity, or why this minority still feels left out when you went out of your way to create a safe space for them. We all want to believe that we’re fighting and living for the right things. And I think it’s now time to stop believing and start doing the real work.

As the Tame Impala song came to a close, I stared intently at my Ace Hardware™ Lamp. It was my only source of (literal and somewhat figurative) light, so after being in this dark room holding in my feelings, the warm glow of the light was oddly comforting. I started sobbing and my friend said, “Don’t worry they’re just hypocritical wannabe-liberal white execs… What else can you do?”

“But..,” I responded. “One of them is black.”

With much love, forever and always, Yudho Vanderhof Aditya

--

Yudho is a recipient of the 2016 Director’s Guild of America Best Asian American Student Director Award. He’s working on a feature film about gaysian Americans, if you’d like to share your experiences with him (which he will repay via coffee or tea at most NYC cafés), contact him: 📧: [email protected] IG: youdough

#gay #gaysian #gay asian #racism #diversity #queer #gaysiandiaries #gapimny

[middleeyt]

Latin Headliners, International Billings... and Idris Elba?

The lineup is finally out in much anticipation and with a better build-up than past years. Coachella teased on the afternoon of January 2nd a handful of artists over their social media and at 8:25pm released the full list of artists heading to the Coachella Valley this April. This will be the 20th year of the festivals running (technically 19th) and so to many of us, the hype was real to find out how the heck Goldenvoice was planning to top last years roundup.

So About This Lineup:

Now first thing is first though, let’s address the elephant in the room. According to a number of sources Kanye West was actually supposed to make appearance at the Coachella venue this year, but allegedly dropped off the lineup due to disagreements with Goldenvoice over his stage setup. Kanye, according to some publications, apparently claimed the current Coachella Stage design to be “artistically restrictive”. (Beyonce added bleachers and a long ass strip... now I'm just wondering what the hell he was trying to turn the stage into?)

This year will mark my 6th attendance to the Coachella Valley (shit, just did the math… that’s a fuck ton of money) so to be quite honest, a large number of these artists I have already seen perform in past years. To any newcomers this lineup offers just the right balance and touchpoint for a variety of genres, but to me it just seems... well... “ok”. Every year Goldenvoice makes a point to grab at least one headliner that will cause some conversation, this year… they’re all just….”ok”. Although Ariana Grande has an amazing voice, and this past album has offered a number of bangers, I just don’t see her as a headliner... just yet (She did just get dubbed as the youngest person to headline Coachella though… dammit thought that was going to be me). Childish Gambino is one that I am actually kinda stoked about, he’s an artists who dedicates great thought into his craft, and this being his last runthrough with the “Childish” stage name, it might make for an epic performance.  Tame Impala… well, that one once again… is just “ok”.

A number of the second tier artists were also a little predictable. It seems that year after year Coachella has swayed in the direction of radio and streaming trends, as more and more “mainstream” artists make their way into the lineup… I’m afraid soon enough the festival might turn into a 97.7 radio artist roundup (shoutout to my 760 locals...wow that came out lame as hell) People like Khalid, Ella Mai, Mac DeMarco, and Billie Eilish I am juiced to see, don’t get me wrong… but they were lowkey guaranteed to be there due to the popularity they've recently gained, and that’s the problem. The one thing that I have always enjoyed about Coachella is the opportunity it offers to catch a large number of underrated artists who you can bank will make some moves in the years to come, or who you might not have heard of and end up loving. This year it just seems like I have heard a good number of these people in some shape or form.

The one thing I will say this lineup does well, is in giving homage to a lot of indie, R&B, Latin, Asian and female artists for the first time in a long while (Ok, now I see where the hype is at!) This line up includes a couple Latin headlining artists (J Balvin, Rosalia, and Bad Bunny) and not one, not two, but THREE international Asian billings (BLACKPINK, Hyukoh, and Perfume) The lineup is also stacked with a good number of women, and I am sure this list is going to give me plenty of opportunities to get in my feels with the number of lyricists in attendance. 

As a friend put it this year is going to be a “chill ass year”. I’m not mad about the lineup but neither am I super excited about it, I am... indifferent. As I have always said, the people make the music, as long as you’re vibing with a good crowd Coachella is going to be a great time come this April.

My Top Picks for 2019:

Now most of us tend to sleep on a good number of artists, like literally… a ton of y’all don’t even head to the venue until like 4pm (wtf). So to help you find some will to hit the venue bright and early, here's a list of my top (tiny name) artists to go give a listen to this year:

Friday:

Tierra Whack- She is nothing but “whack”, the Philadelphia native offers a totally unique and theatrical vibe to her contemporary rap and R&B, if you fuck with 6LACK you'll totally dig Tierra.

JPEGMAFIA- A villain or satirist who knows where he's at. JPEGMAFIA’s music is uncomfortable not going to lie, his lyrics are dark and humours at the same time, but the amount of power each of his songs carry is heavy. Give him a listen and try to figure out where you stand, it's tough and that’s kinda what’s dope about his sound.

RAT BOY- Reflecting millennial fears, Jordan Cardy better known as RAT BOY sings about what everyone my age feels, from fucking around to the prevalent political and socio-economic topics we often think about but don't speak for.

88GLAM- The newly created duo comprised of Derek Wise and 88 Camino gives me Migos and NAV birth child vibes… if you know what I mean.  

Bakar- The cyclical nature of the music scene, and Bakar’s smooth sound help put indie back on the map. Straight out of Virgil Abloh’s debut runway show as Men’s Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton, Bakar brings such a dope blend of rap and indie melodies.

Dvsn, Jaden Smith, SG Lewis- I put these all in one cuz if you haven't heard of them I don't know what the fuck you’ve been doing, and if you have this is just a reminder that I’ll see you at their tent!  

Los Tucanes De Tijuana- Now if you're Mexican… you know this shit is about to be lit. You’re going to be singing all the songs your mom used to make you do Saturday chores with, and y’all already know your non-mexican friends are going to vibe hella hard when “La Chona” comes on.  

Saturday:

Mr. Eazi- Y’all know I love my Afrobeats, if you're ready to get down to some fucking vibes join me for some booty-swaying club smashes with Mr. Eazi.

Sabrina Claudio- R&B songstress Sabrina Claudio is why my Saturday word of choice “VIBES”. Her 2016 EP Confidently Lost released over SoundCloud gained her a ton of momentum with over 3 million plays before it was even commercially released. 2018 became the release of her 8 track album No Rain, No Flowers, and I'm just saying y'all best not sleep on her!

Smino- If 2018 was the year where you went through a lot of “adult shit” well then Smino is the guy for you. His most recent project NOIR reflects on what it means to take experiences as growth and that growth as our reward.  

FKJ- Image what French Kiwi Juice (FKJ) would sound like. Now that’s not only what Vincent Fenton goes by but it legit is what he sounds like (y’all think I’m crazy hu?) With a blend of mellow electronic and R&B this is what Coachella is about right here.

SiR- Can something be soulful and mellow at the same time? It sure can. If you fuck with Frank Ocean (and I mean who doesn't) SiR is the guy to watch.

Soulection-  Independent music platform, radio show, and artist collective with an incredible fucking roster, Soulection is bound to serve us a damn good show!

Sunday:

Clairo- Lo-fi singer/ songwriter Claire Cottrill gives us some intimate and dreamy vocals, if you're ready to get down to the carryover of Saturday’s vibes, come join me.

Shallou- I got to see this guy and his incredible drummer a few months ago, he is one of the few people that I am super juiced to see again. His sad lyrics combined with happy beats make for a dope sound. If you were ever in the car with me within the past 4 months you probably heard his song “Lie” a good 30 times.  

Emily King - Pop-soul singer Emily King is total goals. A year ago she stepped out of her comfort zone by moving from her hometown and taking the NYC scene, that change and chance gave birth to the album that made her career: Scenery. Her story and lyrics tell it all.

Dennis Lloyd- You’ve probably heard his song “Nevermind” somewhere. This guy gives me Hozier vibes, if Hozier was a producer, singer, songwriter, and multi-intrumalist… I mean he might be, but I fuck with Dennis more.

You’ve made it to end! As a gift check out this playlist I made with all the need to know songs by the artists on this list! See ya at Coachella! 

Also checkout the all encompassing Coachella 2019 collaborative playlist and add your picks for the year! https://spoti.fi/2FUWzHz (playlist cover art by @madebyjuhie)

#Coachella music festival #Coachella #coachella2019 #artists #playlist #middleeyt #lineup #coachellavalley

[evilelitest2]

Letters to my Grandmother: How did we get here Zeitgeist

This is part of an ongoing series on my Patron (follow me here, its good for your soul) where I try to explain WTF happened in 2016.  And so lets talk about the ground work . Now if I was writing a book (Which I could do if more people donated to Patron) I could start this story back with the election of Nixon and work our way to President Trump year by year, but we are going to have to skim here (and if this was a musical, I could do a “We didn’t start the fire style musical performance”).  So what is happening in America?   Lets do a brief run down

1) Wages have declined and haven’t risen in decades, despite the fact that the nation is richer than it once was.  This means that workers are getting the same amount of money as their parents but can buy less with it.  This is blamed on Women

2) At the same time, more and more jobs are being shipped over seas or are being automated.  While many jobs are being taken by low wage migrant labor (a minority of which is illegal), that is more of a symptom of the larger problem rather than the cause.  Also companies are starting to remove other benefits from their jobs (gee its almost like getting ride of Unions was a really bad idea wasn’t it?).   This is blamed on Latinos (like...collectively)

3) The US goverment is constantly running a deficit due to the massive amount of money that they spend on the military while the amount of income is dramatically reduced thanks to tax cuts (notice a pattern here).  This is blamed on poor people 

4) Thanks to Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush weakening anti lobbying/anti corruption laws, money in politics have exploded, lobbying is a billion dollar industry and the vast majority of politicians decisions are determined by who donated to them, to the point where they literally grafted it out.  

5) The press is so reliant on ratings that they judge an news story by its potential to get attention rather than by its educational quality and since much of it is owned by major corporations anyways, their news is extremely slanted.  

6) NAFTA’s idea of giving corporations massive legal rights while shipping jobs overseas might have worked if the ground work had been set up first but...they didn’t so it just really hurt a lot of Americans

7) People who are rich basically can get away with anything, especially if they are tied to positions of power.  Also said Politicians constantly lie to their voters whose interests they don’t have in their heart and our electoral process is a massive joke of campaign contributions and buzz words/platitudes by ambitious power hungry insecure pricks rather than genuine governance.  

8) We are involved in a long pointless war in the middle east that we can’t seem to possibly win that was fought on false pretenses and just seems to be a massive wast of time and money

9) our education system is crumbling and is utteryl useless at its job (thanks tax cuts)

10) Something is going wrong with the weather (its climate change but don’t tell the red states)

11) The US film industry is a total mess and has loss any semblance of class, putting it alongside most of our TV

12) The vast majority of our public services aren’t performing correctly, are disorganized, needlessly complicated, ineffective, outdated and just plane incompetent, like the DVA Now the actual reason for this is mostly tax cuts and we haven’t reformed these systems in almost 40 years (thanks Reagan) but people mostly blame “The left” as like a concept.  Or maybe George Soros, I don’t know

13) More and more Americans are in poverty and once there, can’t really get out of it, because that is how poverty works, and social mobility is fading

14) And most importantly of all, the wealth gap in the US is growing every year, which is a pretty good indication of how badly you are failing as a country

    Now it is critical to note that there are many many other problems in the US, the Wage Gap, Police Brutality, the Military Industrial Complex, the prison system, the unfair way our court system is set up, systemic racism, the fact that gay people being allowed to exist is evidently a debate, US war crimes, the growing strain of anti intellectualism, the fact that Climate Change is fucking real, the horrible level of abuse and fraud that makes up the Religious Right, the steady erosion of environmental rights, the anti feminist backlash, the fact that access to abortion and contraceptives is a debate, I could go on forever, but the reason why I listed these 14 specifically is they are all things that 

A) the Vast majority of AMericans agree that those 14 are problems and want them fixed.  They don’t necessarily understand these problems or know who to blame, or even be fully aware of them, but they understand that they are problems and they are upset about them.  Because they effect almost all of us.

B) These are problems that aren’t being talked about in mainstream politics, except as sort of token acknowledgements.  You might see political leaders talk about the problems with the US deficit but they don’t really talk about the fact that the only real way to fix that problem is by cutting the military budget and raising taxes.   

Or to put it another way

These are issues that both White Straight Men and everybody else care about, and yet the political leadership isn’t relentlessly talking about them.

Their use to be a 15th item on the list, Healthcare, but Obama brought that issue out into the open.  

    And the thing is, most Americans know these problems are real, and aren’t happy about them...its just that most of them doing understanding why they are happening, and who to blame because...again education system.  Also because psychologically, who would you want to blame for a seemingly unfair economy?  The leadership of both parties, the most powerful corporations and rich industries in the world, the most well trained lawyers in the world, a good chunk of the news media, and of course the foundation set up of the US itself?  Or blame...Immigrants?  Aka, poor people without resources who can’t really fight back?  i mean really now.  

  So just bear in mind through all of the other stuff, these issues are on the minds of a lot of Americans, and for the white straight ones, they aren’t use to having issues they care about not be address (I know that sounds crazy but mentally my default state towards politically issues isn’t “yeah the country hates me”). Now Americans might not talk about these issues, they might not even be fully aware that they have them, but they are effected by them and they aren’t happy about how the country seems to be failing because of them.  

#Letters to my grandmother #Climate Change #Political Corruption