Good morning blue bonnets! How are you? How are you managing these dark mornings and dark evenings? Will the sun ever return from war? Who knows. How have you been taking care of yourself this week? I blocked almost every word I could think of that might come up in the news and only listened to 10 minutes of NPR every day. It was helpful, but I’m still worn out. So! Here’s some good news from last week to take care of you and me. Enjoy!
Queer Profiles
+ Bust‘s been unapologetically feminist for 20 years
+ Hayley Kiyoko: Lesbian Jesus Touches Down: “Art affects a lot of people,” says Kiyoko, whose own deeply affected fans have come to lovingly call her Lesbian Jesus. “So it’s so important as an artist to approach it seriously. And I do.”
Soon, her fans will get what they have been waiting for: Robyn’s sixth album, Honey. But it may not necessarily be exactly what they wanted. There were periods, during its making, where Robyn no longer felt at home crafting tidy pop songs. “I was interested in songs that didn’t have a beginning and an end,” she said, “and things that were hypnotic. I wasn’t interested in melody at all.” The album’s pristine pop moments are nestled among exploratory dance music that reflects the hopelessness and ecstasy that informed her time away from the spotlight. She felt no pressure to repeat her biggest hits or embody the hustler persona that informed them. “I didn’t have that killer instinct,” she said.
From Austin to Romania
+ Two adorable teenage couples got the administration at Austin High to change the outdated gendered rules about homecoming royalty and now they are both on the ballot!!
+ After decriminalizing homosexual activity, Indian courts ruled in favor of a lesbian couple living together. “The two women said they “are unable to separate and intend to live together as life partners,” and the court agreed.” ????
+ Romania’s top courts decide same-sex couples should have equal rights!
The Best Vibes
+ This cow is playing fetch!
https://twitter.com/FluffSociety/status/1046263513369464832
+ These baby lions were conceived using in vitro, which is something queers know a lot about.
+ Kiera Knightley is down for a lesbian sequel to Bend it Like Beckham.
+ MISANDRY ALERT: A Russain woman is pouring bleach onto manspreading men’s legs.
Okay farewell I love you! I’m gonna go put together my dresser (I’ve been living out of boxes for two years!!) and write a paper and table at a trans art festival! I hope your week is everything you need it to be!
Good luck on your paper Alaina! I’m sure it’ll be amazing! Thanks for a delightful link bouquet
New idea: instead of watching/listening/reading the news we all go and play fetch with a cow.
I wonder how long that cow’s fetch-playing attention span is? Because if it’s less than 2 hours, which is suddenly how long my dog insists we play, I might consider a trade-in…
Love the cow, so cute.
I’ll pass on the bleach though. Pouring toxic chemicals on strangers is not cool. Water would have been a better choice to get your point across without causing burns.
I want that sequel in my life.
This is so wonderful!! Also I think “Knightley” is missing an E in the main headline thingy ❤️
Blue bonnets! Good luck with everything.
NPR pissed me off so bad during the election. They signal boosted everything the clown in chief said and I felt like it played into this awful dynamic that got him elected. I took my then-one-year-old daughter to vote and felt so proud and the resulting crash/fear/anger made me go on an NPR fast for the past two years. It was part of a major cleanup of my life to deal with teeth-grinding, binge-eating, no-sleep anxiety. Also Facebook fasting makes a huge difference for me. In fact AS is one of my main sources of news at this point so thank you for your service. Sometimes you reference major news items and I have to look them up.
Agreeeeed! I got so pissed w/ NPR during the election cycle ?
I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t actually listen to NPR for myriad reasons. So my opinion might be woefully uninformed.
But it seems to me that every proud NPR listener I know is the kind who gets incredibly self-congratulatory when facilitating conversations that involve any Republicans even if the views being shared are abhorrent because Oh My Goodness We Can Get Along. They are the only people I know who use the term “coastal elites” unironically and think the 2016 election was a wake up call to how the other America lives.
I mean, granted, I live in the Northern Virginia bubble and the proud NPR listeners I know are the type who are white and moderate and usually male. Maybe NPR attracts different crowds elsewhere. But man, I am tired of seeing bipartisanship touted as though it doesn’t represent a fundamental compromising of values, and NPR listeners – to me – do that more than anyone else.
(Also omg yes, the only news I read these days are AS and a handful of opinion columnists from the Guardian and I’m so grateful to have those options rather than having to read the NYT and all that!)
It might be, because I live in a fairly conservative mid-sized midwestern city and I think our news NPR station boasts the highest per capita listenership in the country? So for me almost everyone I know regularly listens to that station except for family who are into conservative y’all radio. But that’s just my local situation. I mean it’s been a few years but I was most mad about more liberal leaning news sources not taking more of a “don’t feed the trolls stance” on Trump and instead of ignoring him when it would have been totally appropriate, they repeated his nonsense and gave him more press.
Hah, typo. “Conservative talk radio” not “conservative y’all radio”
I have noticed a lot of the animals that are used as food are more than capable of having a meaningful connection with their human friends!
I raised chickens with my partner and they were my crew. I would call to them and they would run, beaks down and butts up at me. I could hug them! They had little personalities too.
I also rented from a friend’s parent and lived at the back of a cattle property for about a year. I spent a lot of time trying to befriend the cows and bribing them to come near me.