Deadbeat Muse

Poet, writer and musician Joy Harjo — a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation — often draws on Native American stories, languages and myths. But she says that she’s not self-consciously trying to bring that material into her work. If anything, it’s the other way around.

“I think the culture is bringing me into it with poetry — that it’s part of me,” Harjo says in an interview with NPR’s Lynn Neary. “I don’t think about it … And so it doesn’t necessarily become a self-conscious thing — it’s just there … when you grow up as a person in your culture: You have your culture and you’re in it, but you’re also in this American culture, and that’s another layer.”

Harjo, 68, will represent both her Indigenous culture and those of the United States of America when she succeeds Tracy K. Smith as the country’s 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (that’s the official title) this fall. Her term, announced today by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, will make her the first Native American poet to serve in the position.

“It’s such an honoring for Native people in this country, when we’ve been so disappeared and disregarded,” Harjo says. “And yet we’re the root cultures, over 500-something tribes and I don’t know how many at first contact. But it’s quite an honor … I bear that honor on behalf of the people and my ancestors. So that’s really exciting for me.”

Joy Harjo Becomes The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate

I’m really sorry that happened to you. It is not excuseable and definitely a still a problem in the LGBT community. Butch women are often a target for sexual violence by virtue of their deviance from gender norms, and are often over-sexualized for the same reason. Neither are acceptable.

However, I feel compelled to explain that asking your partner to participate in bdsm as a means of recovering from trauma is not the same as treating your partner as a sex doll. And while it’s not comfortable for everyone, its not inherently harmful for people who participate in it. Mimicking traumatic experiences in a safe environment allows you to control the narrative of your experience, own it, and even overwrite it. Your partner’s informed consent is obviously key. It’s fine if you don’t feel comfortable participating in these activities, but it doesn’t invalidate them. Not everybody heals the same way.

Therapy can be incredibly helpful in reconciling traumatic experiences, but it isn’t an option for everyone. Engaging in bdsm play has aided many people in understanding what happened to them.

@any women who related to my response, please remember that you are the best person to determine what is healthy for you. Anecdotally, partners of women I know who need this have been happy to support their partner, don't feel traumatized, and are grateful for the opportunity to help them recover and better understand their experiences. Not all butch/masc aligned people feel the same way as op. It is not a fantasy, it is a reality, and exploration of your experiences are an effective way to reclaim them.

I'm really sorry that happened to you. It is not excuseable and definitely a still a problem in the LGBT community. Butch women are often a target for sexual violence by virtue of their deviance from gender norms, and are often over-sexualized for the same reason. Neither are acceptable.

However, I feel compelled to explain that asking your partner to participate in bdsm as a means of recovering from trauma is not the same as treating your partner as a sex doll. And while it's not comfortable for everyone, its not inherently harmful for people who participate in it. Mimicking traumatic experiences in a safe environment allows you to control the narrative of your experience, own it, and even overwrite it. Your partner's informed consent is obviously key. It's fine if you don't feel comfortable participating in these activities, but it doesn't invalidate them. Not everybody heals the same way.

Therapy can be incredibly helpful in reconciling traumatic experiences, but it isn't an option for everyone. Engaging in bdsm play has aided many people in understanding what happened to them.

“Crayola ColorCycle will accept all brands of plastic markers, not just Crayola markers. That includes dry erase markers and highlighters! ColorCycle will eliminate placing hundreds of tons of markers into landfills.”

from late May

The alleged “outrageous targeting” of Orthodox Jews by the township has brought tensions to new heights, with a new lawsuit claiming local officials have been “religiously and racially discriminatory.”

The amended complaint filed by Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group, alleges that township officials passed ordinances banning school and dormitory construction as a way to single out Orthodox Jewish development, a violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which protects religious groups from overly burdensome land use regulations.

And when Agudath Israel originally sued? Town officials spent nearly 18 months pretending to negotiate solely as a way to ensure reelection, Agudath Israel state director Avi Schnall said.

A potential settlement is the most recent wrinkle that led to the upgraded lawsuit. According to the complaint, the two sides had reached an agreement that called for the township to adopt two ordinances in January 2019. While Schnall declined to detail the nature of the ordinances, he said they included mandates on size and acreage for yeshivas.

“They were things to ensure the quality of life in Jackson wouldn’t be disturbed, and that the fears of people would be addressed,” he said.

But the ordinances never appeared on an agenda, according to the complaint. Instead, the township approved an $800-per-hour contract naming attorney Marci Hamilton as special counsel. Hamilton has represented other municipalities in religious land use cases, including Mahwah’s fight against an eruv and as a consultant to Toms River over its land use laws.

The sudden hire took Schnall by surprise, he said. And in March, local news site the Lakewood Scoop, which has a following in the Orthodox community in neighboring Lakewood, published an email from Mayor Michael Reina about the negotiations with Agudath Israel: “Game on, gloves off and representing all our residents is the direction moving forward.”

Another email from township attorney Jean Cipriani noted that “hiring Hamilton was a “terrific idea” and “aggressive stance” after the year of negotiations served to “provide ease to township operations and ensure a quiet 2018.”

In its complaint, Agudath Israel argues that those emails prove the town was negotiating in bad faith and never intended to settle. Instead, the negotiations were a way of ensuring Orthodox Jews voted for Reina in his successful 2018 reelection campaign, Schnall said.

Both Jackson election slates accused the other of paying for anti-Semitic flyers painting the other as “friendly” to Orthodox Jews.

“We were hurt. I thought we had a trust built up amongst us,” Schnall said. “We’re moving ahead with the litigation. The ball is in the township’s court if they want to get back to the negotiating table. They know exactly where we stand.

“They can come back at any time.”

A school has been the white whale of the town’s Jewish community for over five years, when plans for an all-girls’ Orthodox Jewish high school were denied by the zoning board.  

Schnall estimated that nearly 1,000 Orthodox Jewish families live in Jackson, with 1,500 children attending private schools in Lakewood next year since there aren’t any religious schools for them in Jackson.

“We need a school here desperately. At some point, Lakewood is going to say there’s no more room.”

Since then, disagreements have become commonplace between the township, the Orthodox Jewish community and longtime residents fearful of a neighborhood changing before their eyes. There have been clashes over real estate solicitation and first aid groups, as well as Facebook pages and YouTube videos.

The arguments often boil over into screaming matches at public meetings or anti-Semitic statements made on social media.

“The Orthodox Jewish person living in Jackson has a good day-to-day life,” Schnall said. “There are things that put everybody on edge a little bit, but they’re moving on with their life.”

So, sometime last year (?) science invented Vantablack, which is the darkest possible shade of black. Art world got incredibly excited. But as it needs to be very carefully made in a lab, it’s hard to get a hold of, and is extremely expensive. Enter Anish Kapoor, aka FuckFace McGee. Anish Kapoor buys the rights to Vantablack. He is the only human being on the planet that can legally use it, and he’s kind of a prick about it.

Art world is not thrilled with that.

Enter Stuart Semple.

Stuart Semple is an artist, and also makes pigments to sell in his free time. Stuart Semple is astoundingly pissed about this Vantablack nonsense, and Anish Kapoor’s dickery. Stuart Semple makes a new pigment, the brightest shade of pink ever, called Pinkest Pink, and puts it for sale on the internet. To be bought by everybody except Anish Kapoor. Literally, to purchase, you need to confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, do not associate with him, and will not sell or give the pigment to Anish Kapoor or his associates. Art world has a good laugh, everyone buys Pinkest Pink because it’s awesome, and damn it we deserve something.

Anish Kapoor however is a penis, and will not take this lying down, because HOW DARE he not have literally everything.

Anish Kapoor gets his London associates to buy him a thing of Pinkest Pink, and being such a classy human being, posts a picture to instagram of him with his middle finger covered in Pinkest Pink, captioned with “Up yours. #pink”

Everyone flips shit, because. Y’know. Fuck that guy. Especially Stuart Semple. For context here, Anish Kapoor is one of the richest artists on the planet, and has repeatedly been referred to as everything wrong with the art world, and the epitome of the art worlds elitism problem. He’s a giant douchebag. Meanwhile Stuart Semple makes pigments just to get them out there. He turns 0 profit from his now enourmously popular pigments.

Stuart Semple launches an investigation as to who the fuck leaked Pinkest Pink, and plans to strike back. He does so by releasing two new products. First is Diamond Dust, which is a glitter made from glass, so that a painting is still visible after it’s applied, but glitters like a mofo. It’s the most reflective glitter out there, and is available to everyone who isn’t Anish Kapoor. And it being made of glass, if you stick your finger in there, it’s going to hurt quite a bit, so that was Stuart Semple’s way of saying “shove your middle finger in this, asshole, see what happens”. Except without saying that, because he can get an insult across while still being fucking classy.

He also releases Black 2.0, created with the help of over a thousand artists worldwide.

Black 2.0 is the answer to Vantablack. Black 2.0 is a slightly less black black, but looks functionally the same to the human eye. It’s completely safe, smells like cherries, and costs four pounds. Vantablack is highly toxic, potentially explosive, needs to be applied in a special laboratory and sealed properly, can’t be moved across borders, can reach 300 degrees celsius if you’re not extremely careful, and costs thousands of dollars. Anish Kapoor is the only human being who can use Vantablack. He is the only human being who cannot use Black 2.0.

So I think we can guess who got the better deal.

And thus the feud ends, Kapoor defeated.

…But not quite.

Kapoor, in this entire afair, has made exactly two comments to the public. The first being his charming message about aquiring Pinkest Pink, the second being claiming to Buzzfeed that he and his small army of lawyers will be suing Semple, an extremely poor artist who cannot afford a lawyer.

No lawsuit has been made yet, fyi.

The point is, Kapoor is a prick, and doesn’t like talking to the lower classes. So one day in July 2017, he decides he needs another floor on his London studio apartment, and starts making arrangements to have it built. His neighbors are fucking pissed, because this will ruin the light of their apartments. They call to Semple to save them, or at the very least piss Kapoor off some more.

Semple answers to the call, and releases two new paints, Phaze and Shift, as always, banned to Kapoor. They change colours, Phaze with temperature, and Shift is just iridescent. Shift needs to be painted over Black 2.0 to work, and Phaze just works on its own.

So that’s been the art world for the last two years.

1. “Anish Kapoor is however a penis” is the best line in this post.

6/13

“A four-alarm fire decimated a rabbi’s Brooklyn home and spread to two others early Thursday, leaving 13 people injured — and investigators suspect the blaze was set intentionally, authorities and sources said.”

“When reached by The Post, the suspected firebug, whose name is being withheld because he has not been charged with a crime, admitted having a problem with the ­resident.”

“I do hate him. Doesn’t mean I torched his house,” the suspect wrote in a text-message exchange with a reporter. “Of course the ­police will think it is me.”

A fairy fort, with corn stooks of four sheaves each, in Loughinisland, Co Down, in 1962. Photograph: Michael J Murphy/duchas.ie

“A worldwide crowdsourcing movement is currently unearthing Ireland’s deepest fairy secrets and darkest myths. A voluntary collective online is working its way through transcribing 700,000 pages of folklore that were collected throughout Ireland between 1937 and 1939. This mass of previously inaccessible material was gathered by more than 100,000 children who were sent to seek out the oldest person in their community just before second World War to root out the darkest, oddest and weirdest traditional beliefs, secrets and customs, which were then logged into 1,128 volumes, titled the Schools’ Manuscripts Collection.

Half a million pages have been digitised by the National Folklore Collection, of which more than 100,000 pages have now been transcribed by volunteers, revealing the fairy situation in every townland, the types of leprechaun and butter churn common to each area, the names of people who tried to steal gold and what happened to them, or who had relationships with mermaids. There is material on local cures, holy wells, strange animals, travelling folk and spirits.”

The Irish Times

When people find out that I, an adult human woman, am afraid of men: Um, not *all* men, sweetie. You can’t go your whole life being afraid. Get over it.

When my dog was allowed to get a hysterectomy: She doesn’t need to have puppies to have a happy, healthy like with her adoptive family.

This is over 150 employees at Riot Games doing a walkout to protest forced Arbitrations. This is the first walkout to ever occur in the video game industry.