Let Me Know if This Works for You

Once again this weekend has gotten away from me, and I come to you unprepared. I’ve been thinking a lot this week about how corporations will not save us. Dominion cannot punish Fox News for inciting a coup if it’s not in their business interests. Disney is not the hero in their feud with DeSantis - they helped get him elected. 

But unfortunately, I didn’t have time to write it. 

I’ve also been thinking a lot about babies and parents and all of the millions of things that make up people and families, and all the love and care and joy and fear that goes into that; about the ways that we abandon families and parents and kids to fend for themselves in a world we designed specifically to work against them. 

But I’m not going to write about that either. 

Instead, you get recommendations and links! And you can let me know if this kind of post works for you every once in a while. If it does I may introduce this more often, and if not you’ll just have to deal with it this time and then we can never speak of it again! 

Things I’ve Been Reading 

• The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner: a lovely, spare fantasy series, lightly touched by magic and rife with court intrigue, exquisite twists, and brief glimpses of searing, devastating romance. 

• Rules for Revolutionaries by Becky Bond and Zach Exley: I’m reading this one with the Vote Save America book club and it’s a really interesting time capsule for organizing in the pre-Trump world. There’s some incisive analysis and really compelling tactics that we still use today. But there are also some parts that feel really dated and some parts that really highlight how much still needs changing in the world of organizing and activism. I’ll tell you what makes it even better though - the VSA book club which is full of smart conversations and really fascinating insights. You can sign up for the book club here! 

• The Surprising Geography of Gun Violence by Colin Woodard in Politico Magazine: “The geography of gun violence — and public and elite ideas about how it should be addressed — is the result of differences at once regional, cultural and historical. Once you understand how the country was colonized — and by whom — a number of insights into the problem are revealed.”

Things I’ve Been Watching 

• The West Wing: Listen, this show is a pillar of my personality, a core memory. It first aired when I was still in elementary school, and I started watching it at age 13 with my dad. You can pry it from my cold, dead hands. That said, after Aaron Sorkin left at the end of season 4, the show took a steep dive for me and didn’t find its footing again until its last season. I haven’t seen season 5 in its entirety since it aired, but we’re going to give it ago in my apartment. We’ll see how far we make it! 

• Willow Season 1 on Disney+: I never watched the original Willow movie from the 80s (it predates my entry into the world by one year), so do with this what you will, but the TV show is a goddamn delight. Super fun, super gay, a truly exceptional romp. 

• 911/911: Lone Star: Do you like hot firefighters? Do you like team-as-family, a light touch with the drama, and occasional super gross emergencies? Do you like Angela Bassett? This universe is pretty campy and the Lone Star spin off is a bit unbalanced because Rob Lowe doesn’t understand the power of understatement, but I tune in every week! 

Some Places I’ve Been Recently 

• Acadia National Park in Maine: I went in March and it was cold and snowy and beautiful. We sang Taylor Swift’s Snow on the Beach while it was snowing on a beach. “What are men to rocks and mountains?” asks Elizabeth Bennet, only missing the sheer and shivering fulfillment of the place where those mountains and rocks meet the sea. 

• Seattle: It was the coldest April in a hundred years in Seattle last week, but the Japanese camellias tangled in the magnolias and the rhododendrons, a shower of pink against the gray skies and every possible shade of green. 

Finally, Come Hang Out with Me 

I’m hosting an event with Vote Save America on Thursday, 4/27 - a social media organizing workshop focused on raising the profile of all the terrible things DeSantis has done in Florida and how horrendous he would be for our country and our futures. But it’s going to involve memes and probably some bad jokes from me, so it’ll be fun. RSVP here and come hang out with me!