Ok this one is late because I’ve been binge-reading The Old Guard fanfiction, but hey, whatever gets me through 2020. #NoRegrets
Books
The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (The Masquerade #3)
Baru reckons with the cost of her actions.
Ok so after how bleak (but also funny!) book 2 was, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this. But… dang, did not disappoint. Also, TAIN HU!111 *pterodactyl screaming* I’m surprised at her much she’s felt throughout books 2 and 3. Please let Baru be happy and love again!
Mikoto and the Reaver Village by forthright (Amarathine Saga #4)
IDEK how to plot summary these books, because they’re often an ensemble affair, but: Mikoto has one last chance to win his childhood love, but magic is afoot this summer…
Forthright’s work continues to be go-to comfort reads for me. I always appreciate how highly intimacy is valued, especially in non-sexual/romantic relationships. So much so, it’s pretty queer. Also I screamed when at the “last chance to win their first love” line appeared in the text because *spoilers *
The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan (Wedgeford Trials #1)
Dude returns to town to woo the chick he’s been in love with forever. Of course, he’s first gotta tell her he’s the Duke who owns the town.
Laugh out loud funny. Also, a historical set in England in a village full of POC? Hell yeah!
Revisits
I Am Not a Princess dir. Eugene Yang
The Old Guard dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood
The Princess Bride dir. Rob Reiner
Cinderella dir. Robert Iscove
Echo of Silence by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling #2.5)
Music
Heaven on Their Minds and Damned For All Time by Carl Anderson (Jesus Christ Superstar film OST)
Superstar isn’t even a musical I like, but damn does Carl Anderson do it for me here.
Friend Indeed and S.O.S by Nicole Bus (Live in NYC)
I’d heard her on NPR’s Tiny Desk, but didn’t go through her stuff until Spotify recommended it. Unsuprisingly, I vastly prefer her live.
Down for Whatever by Kilder ft. Friday Night Plans
That’s The Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson
Okay I’m like 20+ years late, but this is a jam. First heard this at the Oakland Symphony’s Bernard J. Tyson Playlist, where it was a mashup with… a Prince song?
Cool for the Summer by Demi Lovato (BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)
There’s a few of Lovato’s songs I think I’d like if only it had a different (and live) backing track. This is one of them. Really happy to find this version.
Video
Heavenly Brown Body dir. Leslie Foster
Full Moon With Umi, ep 8 “What is Love?”
I really do so much enjoy Umi’s Full Moon videos. And y’all know I fuck with decoupling intimacy from romance and sex.
Food Articles
Riverside’s Newly Legal Home Restaurants Look to Revolutionize California’s Food Scene by Farley Elliott
“Barra de Pan is a home restaurant in the vast Inland Empire, and it has been given full approval to operate thanks to California Retail Food Code AB-626, which legalizes “microenterprise home kitchen operations.” The newly implemented regulation allows anyone to run a licensed restaurant out of their home kitchen and dining room. No commercial space, no food truck, no ghost kitchen, and no staff is needed — just pull some local permits to get certified by the Riverside County public health office.
AB-626 may seem like a small adjustment to the state’s vast body of food regulations, but in reality it’s something much more: The new law could unleash a dining revolution in California, precisely when it’s needed most. Between stay-at-home mandates, high unemployment, and the still-raging coronavirus pandemic, the entrepreneurial opportunities presented by AB-626 could mean tens of thousands of dollars in the hands of local chefs who feed their communities the food they most want to eat. And while Riverside is the state’s only county to fully implement AB-626, the dozens of restaurants that have come online since January 2020 are proving that a path forward for legal home cooking is not only possible, it’s needed.”
How to Save Restaurants by Priya Krishna
“Rebuilding the restaurant business can’t be just about diversifying revenue streams. It requires rethinking how employers and patrons value labor, which means shifting the restaurant model to one that’s centered on workers.”
Employee ownership may help businesses stay open as Boomers retire by Marisa Lang
“But with the rising cost of living in the Bay Area, worker-owned businesses may actually give workers the greatest chance at staying employed and staying in the area, Abell added.
“I’ve lived in Oakland for about 20 years, and in that time the black population of Oakland has decreased in a huge way — by around 40 percent,” she said. “Seeing that and the way that the racial wealth gap keeps getting wider. … Employee ownership is a way to reward and validate the work of low-wage workers, and to help them stay in place, stay in the community.””
Wine’s diversity issue starts with the way we talk about the taste of wine by Esther Mobley
Been saying this for years.
There Really Is No Ethical Restaurant Under Capitalism by Jaya Saxena
“It’s not glib to say that eradicating capitalism is the surest way to build equitable restaurants. Living in a country that provided universal health care, federally mandated paid child leave and sick leave, and a living minimum wage, as well as incentivized sustainable farming, encouraged unions, and got rid of at-will employment, would go a long way toward creating environments within restaurants (and all businesses) where workers had power over their own livelihood.”
Articles
Relinquishing the patriarchy by adrienne maree brown
“If a woman tells you she is tired, that the dynamic of labor between you is imbalanced, it means you have been carried without realizing or honoring it. in naming this, she is reaching for interdependence with you.”
“i’ve also seen how often, when men are left even briefly with labor that women regularly do, they are quickly overwhelmed. the results range from neglect (the home is dirty, the kid is sitting in a poopy diaper, the sick wife is hungry, etc) to full out adult male tantrums (to paraphrase: ‘you didn’t even thank me for doing the things you do every day!!’).”
“9. practice finding something other than women to blame for your feelings. consider that your own behavior might be responsible for the hardships you are currently experiencing.
10. practice listening to the truth: ask the women in your life how they have survived you. this is not to say that all women are innocent, or never abusive/ controlling/ unfair/ harmful. it is to say that women have most often engaged in those strategies in order to navigate staying safe and sane inside of patriarchy. ask her how she carried that emotional, economic, child-rearing, home management, and/or fear burden.
11. practice equality in the workplace – if you are offered a raise, ask who else is getting one. share your salary information with women colleagues so they can know if they are underpaid. if you advocate for a raise, advocate for women’s raises too. if you’re in a position to make those decisions about hiring/pay, never ask how much someone was paid in their last job. pay them relative to those around them.*”
Horns, Feathers, and Scales: Reclaiming Genderqueer Monstrousness by Tessa Gratton
Yes.
Octavia Butler Just Hit the NYT Best Seller List for the FIRST Time. Here’s Why That’s a Problem. by Larissa Irakanda
Clickbait-y title, but.
“I might argue that it shouldn’t take collective mayhem and Black pain in order to make Black stories successful. It shouldn’t be that Black writers—and writers of color in general—are only afforded proper respect and accessibility when something devastating occurs.
There needs to be an active willingness to shift the climate into one that is open and welcoming to true diversity and inclusion. There are still many layers of racism, discrimination, and plain ignorance to reckon with in order to make that happen, but if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that Octavia Butler’s foray into the NYT Best Sellers sparks an important question: What would it look like if she’d been there earlier?
And what could it look like now, if we asked the same question about the other authors of color who remain unspoken?”
It Took Divorce to Make My Marriage Equal by Lyz Lenz
Goes well with Gemma Hartley’s article and subsequent book, Fed Up.
“After the divorce, I had a second book to write. The first I had written while managing a disproportionate share of my family’s domestic responsibilities. But the second I wrote on my own terms. I didn’t have to bargain for child-free hours because we had 50-50 custody. I also didn’t have to convince someone else to let me outsource household cleaning. In the end I didn’t need to hire anyone at all, because my house was cleaner. In renegotiating my life, I had negotiated a better deal for myself, and it was court-ordered. I no longer begged to shift even some of the burden of childcare or housekeeping onto my husband. Our custody agreement mandated that he and I bear an equal share.”
Queer Pressure: #OwnVoices and What We Demand of Queer Authors by Rachel Charlene Lewis
“On a larger scale, the problem isn’t that authors will or won’t come out; it’s that publishing makes it easier for straight, cis, white women to publish books about experiences they’ve never had than for queer people of color to write about their own identity.
It’s a problem that publishing still considers diverse stories unmarketable, leaving little space for LGBTQ-focused books to be published. It’s a problem that there are still so few LGBTQ stories that we sink our nails into the few options available and that there’s still such a sense of scarcity of opportunity for queer authors that we’re immediately pitted against one another. This breeds the idea that a less-deserving author took something that feels like it should rightfully be ours because we’re “more” queer.”
I Need You To Care That Our Country Is On Fire by Charlie Warzel
“The point of this column isn’t to guilt people for where they live or what they’ve experienced, but to convey the desperation that so many Americans are feeling right now. It’s an anxiety that deepens each year. One that turns cloudless summer days in July into harbingers of misery. It’s a psychological toll, as much as it is physical. One that, while you’re living through it, renders it difficult to see a healthy future for the earth through all the smoke.”
Esther O. Lee 