Books

The Mask of Mirrors and The Liar’s Knot by M.A. Carrick (Rose and Rook #1 & 2)

I binged these. Once Mask of Mirrors popped off at the 50% mark, I read like… 1100 pages in 3 days? During which I read 90% of The Liars’ Knot in one day. TMoM is broody, but TLK is rip-roaring fun full of humor and identity shenanigans.

The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith

Hello, yes, sisterhood of nuns who spin the wind into magic. I need a sequel ASAP about Grace when she’s older and on her pilgrimage. And yes the magic system is cool AF.

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Re-reads

All of these helped me remember important things.

Alyssa Cole’s Can’t Escape Love (Reluctant Royals #2.6)

Joey W. Hill’s Branded Sanctuary (Nature of Desire #7)

Nalini Sigh’s Last Guard (Psy-Changleing Trinity #5)

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Music

Utada Hikaru Live at Air Studios

They performed tracks from their new album, Bad Mode, plus some deep cuts from Exodus. The entire streaming concert will be included in the hard copy release of Bad Mode. In the meanwhile you can listen to the lives of Face My Fears (English) and Find Love.

Utada Hikaru’s Somewhere Near Marseilles

Pharaoh Sanders and Floating Points’ Promises album

Pharaoh Sanders’ Love is Here 2 (Live in Paris 1975)

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Articles

Mia Mingus’ You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence

“You enjoy connection at the expense of our isolation. Your needs are always more important than the collective. When you choose to gamble with your own health, you only take into consideration your own risks and never the risks of others. Abled entitlement ensures risk assessment will always be, “Will I get sick? I will be able to recover OK. My family will be OK. My children will be OK.”  Never, “Will they be OK? Will their children be OK? Will their family be OK? Will everyone they might also interact with be OK?” Never, “Could this harm their country? Their state? Their continent?” Shielded by your abled privileged bravado, “it can’t happen to me. I’m healthy.”  Never, “Who might I be exposing? I might be OK, but someone else may not.””

Garrett Schlichte’s Why Don’t We Kiss Our Friends More?

“Bobby is also a toucher. And a holder. He’s a walk-up-behind-you-on-the-sidewalk-and-slip-his-arm-around-your-waister.”

Emma Silvers’ ‘This shouldn’t be our job’: Bay Area musicians, venues face weighty pandemic choices

““We could have gone through with the show and no one would have stopped us, which is a little insane,” [Matt Goff] told The Chronicle a few weeks later. “The reality is, we as musicians are not qualified to be making these decisions.”

[…] said Patrick Brown, founder of San Francisco music label Text Me Records. “When it comes down to it, most people will risk their health rather than go bankrupt if you’re not giving them any other options.” […]

“We are getting no guidance or support from the city,” DNA Lounge owner Jamie Zawinski told The Chronicle. Zawinski referred to Breed’s recent statements as “the Trump approach: telling people to ‘personal choice’ their way out of a structural, societal problem.”

“If the mayor cared about protecting people rather than protecting capital, all restaurants and bars would be closed right now … (but) for us to just unilaterally close down, while every other nightclub is going full speed ahead, isn’t really an option. For that to happen, we would need support from our government, both legal and financial, and that support doesn’t exist anymore.””