today i read

it is the day where we talk about mental health, and i am not sure i want to talk about it, i am having a lot of thoughts about it, and i don't want to engage any of them right this minute. so. other people can talk. this is good, sad, helpful, true (sorry so tiny, click it, click it):

{sarah nicole pricket}

* snp tumblr ask january fifth

that is all.

today i read

* a look at the race conversation from 'in conversation - chris rock' (by aisha harris)

{from slate's browbeat}

oh hot damn, this is good shit. yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss exactly. yup yup. yes.

today i read

{tweeted by anonymous}

 

{a beautiful awful not funny at all 'today in tab' - by bijan stephen}

{...}

{chronicle of a riot foretold - by jelani cobb}

{teaching our sons to be afraid is not the answer to cops who shoot children - by latoya perterson}

{the parable of the unjust judge or: fear of a nigger nation - by ezekiel kweku} 

i was a sensitive kid, am a sensitive adult.
rioting never made sense to me. destroying the place where you live - i never understood that rage and recklessness.
learning about the riots of 1968, although i understood the reasons, i could never get my head around the acts. the thought of it filled me with terror.

i am no longer afraid of the rioters.
nothing scares me more than guns except for white men.
i am no longer confused by the burning down of cities.

today i read

{denise balkisson}

today? today is anger. (anger is always, if i'm thinking about it. some days i manage not to and then they are not angry. but today is. raging.)

just a minute ago i wrote on facebook:

tired of the ghomeshi shit? too bad. some people have been tired for a long time.
this piece gets, so well, into the rage that i am scared of in myself, that i don't know what to do with. wasn't ray rice a watershed moment? and before him, and before and before and before...

* sorry, we haven't reached a 'watershed' on violence against women

(also. news stories i listened to last week calling the death of two rcmp officers the worst murders in canada's history - not that their deaths aren't awful, but how 'bout the more than 26 women victims of pickton? i can't i can't i can't.)

and this quote, from sue chapman on cbc world at six news, november 3rd. she was asked, about women coming forward with abuse allocations:

as a former prosecutor, what would you say to women as they were expressing these concerns? what would you say to them at the time?

SC: I would explain to them fairly and fully what the issues were, but quite honestly I would also say to them that it’s very much in the public interest that they proceed with the case.  That they be prepared to cooperate and take the years that is [sic] necessary to pursue a prosecution. But privately in my own mind I would often think, however, if you were my sister, I’d tell you to go home now.

emphasis mine.

just think about that for a while.

(i've transcribed the whole interview, if you aren't able to listen to it via the link above. i'm happy to share.)

today i read

what with all the fashioning and horror-filming, there's been less of the reading. sorry about that. but i finally got myself through a piece i've been wanting to read for a while. on kanye west. and also on maybe not being a very good feminist. well worth the time.

{kiese laymon for gawker}

*kanye west is better at his job than i am at mine (but i’m way better at being a fake-ass feminist) - kiese laymon

today i read

 {durga chew-bose for adult magazine}

 

* the miracle of love streams

 

durga starts with a quote from cassavetes, and I will end with the end of it, because: yes.

 

"Finding tears coming into my eyes during stupid conversations is a miracle. And after so much of my life has been difficult, repellent, and a turnoff, I find that still being able to love is a miracle."
——John Cassavetes, Playboy magazine, July 1971

today i read

{bijan stephen on medium}

* The Talk

(this one deserves very much the capital letters i so rarely use here.)
(and doesn't that fear sound like the fear you have felt being a woman alone in an elevator, cab, bar, boy's home, street, etc etc etc. i find it comforting, though sad, to feel as though i can have some level of connectedness to this pain and fear. that we can share some small solidarity.)

today i read

hallo. really i read this yesterday, shhhh. you're not the boss of this blog!

{ales kot puts some numbers out there}

* whose narrative

today i read

 

{sara benincasa for human parts at medium}

* stick around

find the thing that helps you stick around. flowers. trees. when things are okay, the list can be a million times longer, but when things are not okay, a list of one or two... it can be enough. it could be.

recently i added: books. if one option is to not be here, and another option is to quit everything and read books in bed for the rest of forever, forsaking all other things (except, of course, flowers, dogs)... i'm just saying... it is an idea.

today i read

always a source of wisdom: captain awkward.

* how do i reach out to my friends who have depression?

today i read

***

{sara corbett for the new york times}

* the weird, scary and ingenious brain of maria bamford

if you didn't already know of maria bamford, well... shame on you and also now you do. i also strongly recommend listening to basically any podcast she ever guests on.

today i read

{nikki lee for medium.com}

* ride like a girl

maybe this is why my blood boils when I talk about bike vs car infrastructure etc... maybe it is a little too much of the same... well. yes maybe.

today i read

* ron daniels, responsible for six-figure student debt, receives honorary law degree
by naimh harraher for now

that first graduate mentioned there? with the button and the courage? that's my roommie, it is! i, too, was sporting a yellow button on friday, as were sarah's parents whom i had the privilege of attending the events with. and when sarah gave the valedictorian's address that same day - which you should totally listen to because it is a power-house speech, at the 16 minute mark, below - i cried for pride. for her and for her classmates whom i love so. these remarkable smart, kind, fierce, brave, considerate, passionate, resilient, hopeful, strong humans. these bold humans. oh man, i love them so much i could just die.

today i read

a new thing i'm gonna do here! pick the best thing i read from my collecting things-to-be-read-aka-instapaper. and then tell you. the blorg. what it is. in case you wanna read it. too. it is like today-in-tabs except instead of summarizing all the things i will not summarize and only give you one thing. and i won't email it to you. you'll have to come get it. here. but. you know. you get it. (i'll have original content again for you one day... one day.)

today i read:

the racism beat - what it's like to write about hate over and over and over
by cord jefferson