Last week, I also got this AOC t-shirt which I wore to the campaign launch party for Jamika Scott, who is running for a seat on the Tacoma City Council.
Roxane Gay’s got a Substack called The Audacity, which she describes as “writing that boldly disregards normal restraints.” Every week she publishes recommendations for books, journalisms, and culture in a newsletter called The Roundup. In addition to writing brilliantly, it is clear that Roxane Gay spends a lot of time reading and watching TikTok.
Human beings live in a network of language and everyday, every conversation we have is the result of all the other ones we’ve had, we’ve heard, and we’re having. Roxane’s writing and conversations are fascinating because, as the Roundup demonstrates, her curiosity is boundless and her conversational network is wide.
While I consume only a fraction of the culture she does, here is a very manageable list of 5 things I liked last week which may give you something to read, watch, or listen to in the week ahead. And then you can talk about it and have an interesting conversation.
On the Conspirituality podcast, white cis-male host Matthew Remski interviewed trans journalist Beau Brink. In addition to sharing his deep love for artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Beau gave a thorough rundown on anti-trans legislation, cultural misconceptions about the trans “agenda,” and how right wing debates about high school sports deliberately turn attention away from the life and death concerns trans people deal with on a daily basis.
In anticipation of its deserved Oscar sweep, I took some family members who hadn’t seen it before to see Everything Everywhere All At Once at The Grand in Tacoma. I learned that not everyone is a Michelle Yeoh superfan or relates to existential angst and immigrant mother issues, but for those of who are and do…it didn’t need an Oscar to be one of the Best Movies ever.
The Bear on Hulu. The perfect show for three generations of women in my family who watched it together, it features cooking as art and salvation. I haven’t finished the series, but the shoutout to Al-Anon reminded me of a friend who told me that it had pretty much saved her life. Addiction and dysfunction impact everyone.
After a Thursday night meditation session, I picked up an old copy of Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale For The Time Being from the Tacoma Center For Spiritual Living’s little free library. In the story, an Americanized Japanese girl raised in Silicon Valley returns to Tokyo with her family and writes a journal which she wraps up and throws in the ocean. Ruth, who lives on an island off the coast of Canada, finds it and reads it. So much is going on there.
From a book sale at her local library, my mom bought a two disc CD set of Mozart piano sonatas for fifty cents. Then we drove around Grays Harbor, WA listening to them. According to Spotify, my top artists last year were Beyonce and Miranda Lambert, so this is not the usual. But Mozart reminds me of my dad’s vinyl collection and the melodies brought peace and beauty to our drive.