#31: I know. I know!!

Actual updates

Well. Obviously a lot has… happened. Most of it is bad; some in the big, lifechanging way that you know about, and some in the small, disappointing way - but I have ever so slight an amount of good news to share, too. I know, who am I??

Bur first, let’s get into the bad. You know, by now, of course; Roe v Wade was repealed and abortion bans went into effect all over the US, and even in states where they didn’t, doctors are getting nervous. People are reporting their doctors refusing to refill prescriptions of necessary medications that might also cause a pregnancy to end, even if that’s a very rare side effect or would require a radically different dosage. There are so, so, so many ways this is going to go badly beyond the obvious. But I feel like everyone who tries to make that point by talking about all the people who will die and all the people whose lives will be derailed and destroyed is missing the point. Because that is the point: you’re not going to change the minds of people who want you to be afraid by telling them you’re afraid. This is a feature, to them, not a bug. The idea is to force every boot back onto every neck that it was ever so temporarily removed from.

As such, this is one of many similar judicial and legislative decisions designed to strip rights from people. The number of anti-trans bills that have been introduced or passed is a long and growing list. The “Don’t Say Gay” bill got a lot of attention. Voting rights are being diminished. This is not the first in a list, it’s somewhere in the middle; the idea is that everyone should be scared into obedience because there could once again be harsh consequences for stepping out of line: if it’s illegal to be gay (which is apparently a decision that’s on the table), someone can threaten to out you; if it’s illegal to have an abortion, someone can threaten you with pregnancy (especially if contraception stops being legal, which is a possibility). And so on. The whole idea is for anyone who isn’t in a power group to be at the mercy of anyone who is.

So what do we do? I am, of course, very leery of “just vote!!!” solutions - we did, now do something with that power we handed you - but in terms of getting the law actually changed or the decision overturned it will likely have to be a legal or legislative challenge. So call your representatives and so on, donate to organizations that are mounting legal challenges, but: say it doesn’t work, or the Dems decide that inaction is the better part of valor1. Then what? What type of action will actually have effect? What will be heard? I don’t phrase it that way to make you give up hope, but rather just to watch what I say out loud on this internet, which I recommend you do too.

So what to do while they hem and haw and don’t do anything? Abortion funds and similar groups on the ground are going to be the way - they know what they’re doing, and in many places they have been doing it for a long time already. Don’t make social media posts about how people can stay at your place if they need to visit your state for winky reasons; don’t put it out there how you’ll get pills for people either. Communicate with your friends and family directly and securely, and remember that there are professionals who are here to help strangers (give those professionals your money). What you don’t need to do is wind up getting arrested or sued and put someone in danger through inexperience.

We’re all we’ve got, you know? We help each other, because if we don’t, no one will - but we all have strengths and skills, and we have to use the ones that are most useful to each other.

Okay. So from a huge, societal tragedy to a small-scale one, remember when I was all excited that the band was getting back together and one of the coolest people I know was inexplicably interested in joining us? We were supposed to practice the other day but we cancelled because she couldn’t after all. I’m still not sure if it just means “not today” or “agreeing to join this band was a mistake,” but I’m leaning towards the latter because we really aren’t heavy enough. It isn’t a loss, exactly - we never really had this band this way anywhere other than inside my mind, and you can’t lose what you’ve never had - but it still feels like one. I realize I am not being very Fuck It 40 about this! It’s a process and a journey, okay???

Okay. Okay okay. Let’s shift gears to the small victories. I am typing this from my parents’ house2 in Vancouver, where we are visiting (no, we haven’t moved yet, yes, I would like you to get off my back about it). We just got here a couple hours ago3. It smells familiar in here even though they’ve done a lot of updates and renovations. I can’t wait to snack my way through their pantry and also go to Science World. Update: went to Science World. They’ve changed a lot of stuff in there and added plenty of cool new stuff; I thought they had gotten rid of my favorite thing, the shadow wall, but it turns out they had just moved it, but it didn’t matter because there was a line to get in, so it was the only thing we didn’t do. Hap had a whale of a time, and that’s what matters. I got told off for hurrying him, but I also got pressed to hurry so that our parking wouldn’t expire, and that’s what the whole trip has been like so far!

And why, you may wonder, was it suddenly ok for us to take this trip? Okay, yes, a big piece of it was that we had all gotten Covid and were, presumably, protected for some amount of time by the immunities that generated, but also: Hap just got his first shot! The under-5 vaccine finally came out and we jumped on it immediately, so he’s only a week and a half deep in getting those antibodies, it’s still miles better than what he had before, and it’s a huge relief to have it. Of course, now we have to worry about BA.5, which has either little enough resemblance to what we caught and what we were vaccinated for, or has enough ability to evade the immune system, that it makes all of this nearly moot, but that news hadn’t hit yet at the time, so: small moment of joy!

What am I reading

Two books, kind of! I was reading 1602 at home, which answers the question “what if Marvel heroes, but in Elizabethan England/the New World?” - I’m actually almost finished it, and if I were caught up on reading from my vacation4, I probably would be.

At the same time, I didn’t want to take a book so close to the end on my trip, so on planes I had a small amount of time to read a chunk of High School, by Tegan Quin and Sara Quin - that would be the Tegan and Sara of music fame, yes.

So let’s talk about both! The first is a comic, and the premise is interesting - mutants and people with powers are considered to be witches or born of witches, and thus hunted by the Inquisition, although some rulers tolerate them more than others (or use them for their abilities). However, something has gone terribly wrong with the world - weird weather! signs and portents! - and it’s going to be up to the freaky folks to fix it! Your standard, you know.

It’s fine! It’s not going to change my life but I’m not going to throw it out the window (except for one incredibly loud example of cultural appropriation, which was perhaps the most hamhanded way to get a character into the timeline). Also, for some reason all of the women have baby bangs, and most have white hair - not blonde, white. The fact that they all have the same face is, of course, barely worth mentioning. I like the ways they’ve tried to make people’s names fit the timeline. I wish an editor had piped up that nobody called Europe “Europe” in 1602, though - it was “Christendom” and it didn’t include countries that weren’t.

Okay! Other book! So, High School is a memoir written by both twins, in alternating chapters, about their youth - mainly, as the title would suggest, high school. It’s fascinating to see the same events described or alluded to by both, especially when one of them goes into great detail about it because it was massively important to her life, and the other mentions it in passing because it wasn’t.

It’s primarily concerned with both of them realizing, simultaneously but independently, that they’re gay, and also with both of them deciding, again simultaneously but independently, that they want to write and perform music (and were actually pretty decent at it even as teens with no prior training!). It’s fascinating how they were both coming to the same conclusions about the same things, without discussing with each other - twin magic is pretty wild. It makes me want to look up studies of twins5 to see if they tend to mirror each other in terms of skills and talents, and in terms of sexualities.

Also!! The book is being adapted into a tv show! They have a newsletter of their own that you may enjoy:

Some links

Stripper union! Honestly, all strip clubs should organize; not just because everyone should, but because their jobs are often difficult and poorly-protected. Why These North Hollywood Dancers Are Trying To Form The Only Union For Strippers In The US

Buk buk!!! I may be making this up but I think the chicken got domesticated by everyone all over the world at roughly the same time? How the Wild Jungle Fowl Became the Chicken

This is old but fun: All the Ken Dolls You Will Meet in Your Lifetime

This is also old (like, a couple hundred years old) but also fun: Two Boys Found 48ft Creature with “Human-Like Head” on Cornwall Beach

This is even older! Cities in the Amazon! “Mind Blowing” Ancient Settlements Uncovered in the Amazon

This isn’t that old at all but I love good industrial design and I love accessible products being good for everyone, and, like you, I have at least one or two OXO kitchen tools. How OXO Conqured the American Kitchen

Every time in the past year or so that I’ve thought “hmm, should I buy a new ‘going to a wedding’ dress?” I have had to discard the idea because everything is full of puff sleeves and dust ruffle hems! I am not Anne Shirley and I am not your aunt’s childhood bedroom! Fashion Has Abandoned Human Taste

Shipping containers are interesting in and of themselves (shut up, yes they are!) but this is a look at the actually staggering scale of container loss and what it all means. Also, this article taught me the difference between a stevedore and a longshoreman! When Shipping Containers Sink in the Drink

Okay so you know how Matt and my little “band” project (aka: us playing country-adjacent tunes in our living room) is called Divorce Ranch? I didn’t realize the earliest incarnations of those ranches were hotels for ladies in South Dakota! Escape from the Gilded Cage

Appropriate, on the day that the new space telescope was launched and everyone’s sharing that one photo of galaxies! Have a gander at some more space stuff! The Black Hole in the Middle of Our Galaxy Looks Like This

This is simultaneously kind of cool, incredibly depressing about how far backwards things have rolled, and parents-talking-about-sex level embarrassing. When Spider-Man Teamed Up with Planned Parenthood to Stop a Forced Pregnancy Alien

Tunes I’ve been listening to lately

I can’t remember what made me think of this song for the first time in years - maybe someone played it on our internal work radio station? - but it is IN FACT a jam and I’m not ashamed to say it.

There was this one cool, rainy day after a few hotter ones, and I was working at home with all the lights off and the window open (it wasn’t raining that hard) and had this record on and it was just lovely. As the youth say, a vibe. I also say that, but the youth do too.

Also in June was the Boston US Air Guitar competition, the first one back to in-person shows in 2 years, and it was at Bone Up, and I competed, and I did an edit of this song, so I probably heard it more than anything else just by practicing. Which paid off: I can now stand here and say I’m the 3rd best air guitarist in town (an honor I share with, I think, two other people?). Also I got the first 6.0 of my life, which I can honestly say I did not deserve - the judges had a heavy pour with the scores! Not to say it was garbage, but it wasn’t flawless! But for real, I did really well and I think I deserved to do well, the actual score numbers being ultimately irrelevant.

This month’s top 5: thoughts I had in Vancouver

1. Haha holy shit it took me a full 24 hours to see someone the same size as me

2. Why did they go and change up the bus routes (15-20 years ago but I’m still not over it)? It made sense for the #10 bus to run along 10th! It says 10 right in the name!!

3. If my mom does not stop suggesting more lunch options while I’m actively making something for lunch right in front of her I shall simply pass away

4. My legs are not sticking to every chair even though it is July and this is a MIRACLE

5. It really does just… look like this here, doesn’t it? Just goes around looking like this like it’s fine.I mean… really???

Well, it’s practically the middle of July already so let’s get this bad sally out the door, huh?