self-care

Notes Toward a Poem on Self-Care...

Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). 

​start with decisions — take a break from mirrors… decide to stay in bed today and tomorrow… count time only through midnights… isn’t there some voodoo about being the middle child/ of a middle child?… you should Google that… start humming… to broken bones of electrical appliances… that old CD player? yep you can fix it… take on do-it- yourself projects — face cream, shelves, the perfect guacamole, and a Home Alone arsenal just in case a Joe Pesci-like villain tries to arrive… pretend the varnish brush is a stag horn… who needs an app for calm??… be greedy about breathing… be greedy about breathing… avoid phone conversations and relate only through yes and no texts or emails… hey baby, can I be your Melanin Maid Marion? yes … does _____ have a job? oh no girl… is your brother/ father/husband accounted for?… (silence)… yes… if voice is required, realize that he/she/they can’t be your Sun… trust what you can hold in the hand… when we talk the body vibrates… aim for a dinosaur roar when people least expect it… enjoy words like Kilimanjaro and origami… write odes to the Do-rag, … sonnets to the Soul Train line where you dance in military-choreographed precision… so fresh and so clean Outkast, take a look it’s in a book Reading Rainbow…  Jolly Ranchers, your mother’s kitchen table… at any altitude remember that ink can hold the right kind of memory…   VIA

Unknown. Hanging flower arrangement by a mirror, about 1865. Hand-colored albumen silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Ah August Series

You won't have to read a word all month (unless you want to.)

Ahhh AUGUST - Ahhhh COLLAGE! We're going to mix it up!

READ about why I love collage HERE

archives-dada.tumblr.com

rabbits rabbits rabbits

it's the last day of July - say Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

you think?

You Busy, too?

Beavers are one of nature's greatest engineers #AlaskaLive pic.twitter.com/yiFlwZyTdk

— BBC Wild Alaska Live (@BBCAlaskaLive) July 26, 2017

We don't have a picture of our little beaver family outside in the creek...they talk all night... what are they talking about? Help BOOM get some sleep!

The SERENE Shelburn Falls

popular movie location

I love rust

last Sunday in Shelburn Falls, Massachusetts - very serene

in the swarm

Wrestling with my addiction to and loathing of the Internet, I’ve been taking notes from In the Swarm, a pamphlet by Byung-Chul Han, a Korean-born German philosopher, published by MIT Press in April. 

“Sovereign is he who commands the shitstorms of the Net,” Han declares.

Sound timely? Han believes the Internet is “a narcissistic ego machine” that cashiers traditional democratic politics. Once upon a time, it may have been possible for rage to inspire the people of a nation into action, but that was because mass media, like radio, taught citizens how to surrender their individuality and become a people. Today, online, there is no collective soul but only a swarm of isolated individuals, through whom political indignation ripples like a wave—and dissipates. Some of Han’s aphorisms sound very translated from German—“The new man will finger instead of handling”—and he’s a bit too orphic for a pragmatist like me to take him without a grain of salt. But his pessimism feels salutary. —review by Caleb Crain (“Envoy”)


...Byung-Chul Han counters the cheerleaders for Twitter revolutions and Facebook activism by arguing that digital communication is in fact responsible for the disintegration of community and public space and is slowly eroding any possibility for real political action and meaningful political discourse. 

DEEP! BOOM! I am reading this summer!




bad joke?

Florida man –

>>Associated Press: "Authorities in Florida say they arrested a man who robbed a bank, stripped naked and ran down the street throwing stolen money — a spectacle that he somehow thought would jump-start his career as a comedian." Naturally, "the FBI says 25-year-old Alexander Sperber is charged with bank robbery."

It's kind of like boob jail

the next time

SOOOO... the next time a game show host wants to be president, I think we should pass...

this is me (could be you)

Appreciation Friday: Artist Nick Cave - Art in Motion

and go visit ARTSY

war-mongers

A wise person once said to me "War makes money for some people (war-mongers) but those people aren't the ones fighting and dying..." Let that sink in.. we're talking military empire here folks. In the good ol' US, it seems the war-mongers are winning.

***
"The trillion-dollar national security budget" –> At TomDispatch,  (and also reprinted at our site) William Hartung writes, "you wouldn’t know it, based on the endless cries for more money coming from the military, politicians, and the president, but these are the best of times for the Pentagon. Spending on the Department of Defense alone is already well in excess of half a trillion dollars a year and counting. Adjusted for inflation, that means it’s higher than at the height of President Ronald Reagan’s massive buildup of the 1980s and is now nearing the post-World War II funding peak. And yet that’s barely half the story. There are hundreds of billions of dollars in 'defense' spending that aren’t even counted in the Pentagon budget."
READ

it's real

Dracula saulii from Colombia- (The Mimicry Orchid) mirrors a simian face in it’s petals. This remarkable orchid grows in cloud forests on the side of mountains, at elevations of between 3,280 and 6,560 feet above sea level.

trippy Leckey

Inspired by the 90s rave scene, the artist has filled the Queens space with footage of sweaty nightclubs, trippy images and soundsystems blasting fart sounds

SWELL read: Mark Leckey: the raving artist goes large at MoMA PS1 in New York | Art and design | The Guardian (2016)

How Mark Leckey became the artist of the YouTube generation.(audio)

Mark Leckey in the x-room at Statens Museum for Kunst

Talk with artist

BOOM 360 degree video of sounding rocket's Maxus 9 launch

we already knew

"He's crazy" –> "At the end of a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday morning, someone sitting near Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) didn’t switch off a microphone," reports Philip Bump at The Washington Post. What followed was a rare behind the scenes look at Collins chatting with Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. In one exchange, Reed says he worries that Trump is "crazy," and adds: "I don’t say that lightly." Collins doesn't disagree, but appears more concerned that nobody in the White House seems to know the first thing about governing.

7.26.17

happy birthday Cathy, one of the Harlow Girls

Clothing of the Future! BOOM!

human interest

Rodeo Good Stuff
I’m following a truck with a gun rack
and the bumper sticker reads, Take the migrant
out of immigrant, and I think
I’m an immigrant. I think
of the time José forgot Shangxin’s name
and called him foreigner,
and I said, I’m a foreigner
then laughed on the inside, but José
laughed out loud bahaha
because he thought
I was in on his joke. Once,
a young woman on a bus
shot up the aisle
to get a better look at my face
before asking, What ethnicity are you?
But before I told her, I said
on the inside, I’m American.
I run red lights, tail old ladies,
honk at texters while texting.
I have four American flags on the roof of my car.
How many do you have?

from Human Interest by Valerie Bandura
here

city of angels

my friends

You may order a copy of Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England (2014) directly from the University of Nebraska Press or through amazon.

Here is a complete table of contents. 

#nowyouknow

Scientists discovered a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, contradicting their chewy caramel center theory. #NowYouKnow

go back and read these

plans plans plans

Primary Source - Poet Jason Schneiderman

Dec 29, 2016

Some of your favorites (mine too)

crow talk

can you do nothing?

Places I have Lived: Seattle

Seattle, Washington


I love Seattle. I miss Seattle. I wrote this post about band clothes:

Years ago I had a conversation in Seattle with a musician who told me, "music is medicine." He even had a small record label by that name.

Music was my focus and life in my teens and 20s.  I was a professional rock musician. It was more than a career. It was a calling... (and the weird thing is I am not finding any people in my first family who had musical talent but both my adoptive parents were both talented musicians.)

I'd kept quite a few "vintage" dresses from my rock band days, which was in my 20s, eons ago.  They are kinda like a scrapbook of fabrics (yet I don't sew a lick!)

Why do I keep them?   ...these are many many good reasons...

First, I am from a family of dressy women. My adoptive mom Edie wore evening gowns! I can't even imagine a holiday dinner when she and I (and guests) weren't dressing up.  When I left home at age 17 I had little money to buy like her but I did collect a mix of vintage rayon, satin, silk and retro velvet.
Second, when you are in a rock band, you barely make rent money. Wearing unusual band clothes was a "fitting" thing to do... especially if you are female.  Fitting is my way of telling you it was very hard for me to afford tailoring.  The rock bands I joined had no budget, seamstresses, or dress codes. When I started in the late 70s, there were a tiny handful of female singers.  ((Hint: Linda Ronstadt was one. Heart came along eventually.))

Third, most of these dresses were found in thrift stores yet they are probably the most precious creations I could own or wear.  One vintage 1940s black rayon midi-length has two beaded hummingbirds. (see photo)  I also wore this to work in Seattle, I wore it to nightclubs, I wore it on a cruise. It is still lovely but I did a crappy job hemming it years ago...I found a tiny hole in the bottom of the dress. (No tag inside means it must have been handmade.)

Fourth, mainly it's the feel of fabric and touching recreates memory for me. (Sometimes I think being adopted did cause me some brain damage and trapped some memory in fog.) (I've kept some old tshirts from my travels too; some are from bands, of course.)

I think of band clothes as body armor; in a way these simple clothes create an illusion that isn't there.  Black leather pants -- and what do you think?
Some of my rock band clothes were gifted.  One blue velvet dress was given to me in college by a classmate (the mother of Wendy who I knew somewhat in high school). Her mom wanted me to have this family heirloom and of course I did wear it often.  (I do wonder if Wendy knew about this?)
There is even a pink quilted bed jacket my mom gave me.  No, I have not worn it.  When did the bed jacket thing get popular? I think women in the 1930s and 40s had much better "taste" than we do now.  (I'll admit I've a taste for kitschy colorful table linens, too.)
The rayon green print wrap dress was found in an abandoned house in Wisconsin (my friend's grandmother lived there and was deceased)(top photo of dresses) (I scooped up a black fur coat, too.) That green number was what I was wearing when I met Blackfoot. (You will have to read my memoir One Small Sacrifice to know that rock and roll saga). I also wore it when I sang in Automatic and then Tropic Zone in Minneapolis.
I didn't give up on music; my first marriage killed it for me.

Another post about my working for Jerden Records in Seattle 
Oprah spoke of Maxi Priest and his music is medicine HERE.

Apprecation Friday: Poet Maurice Kenny: In Memoriam | Dawnland Voices

Monahsehtah
Evicted into the frozen teeth of winter
by the landlords of the plains;
cast into the bloody waters of the Washita
where your father’s corpse flowed in the stream . . .
his manhood stuffed into his mouth,
his scalp made guidon for Custer’s soldiers.
Torn from the band of helpless captive women,
a suckling child, mewing and puking in your arms;
driven by Long Hair to feel out the ashes of the village,
scout out the vital hearts of your people.
Did Sheridan’s eyes admire the loveliness
of your young Cheyenne cheeks?
Did Custer claim you like a trophy until
his civil wife pulled his sweaty thighs
from the Cheyenne Mystery of your life?!
You held your childish hands to your womb
and felt the kickings of a bird, the fledgling seed
planted like so much corn by Yellow-locked Long Hair!
Where did you find the love to mount his cot, knifeless,
or did he find your flesh upon his earthen floor?!
Custer strutted your grave to glory, foolish girl.
Now in the winds of the Washita Valley cottonwoods cry
for the slain Cheyenne. No winds moan in the leaves
for the head-strong girl, daughter of Little Rock,
who followed the pony soldiers.
 
Monahsetah’s Answer
How do I answer?
Do I call, hey you half breed, white man
with blue eyes, you half red man standing
within your breech clout?
You ask why
did I not take my knife and rush it
into his belly allowing his enemy blood
to river into my people's Oklahoma earth.
He called me to his bed.
His tent would be my sacrificial altar.
His body become my demise once my face
had been softly stroked by his hand . . . cold,
clammy; his body. I was his war treasure,
a hunk of gold, a pot of flesh. There was no escape.
In fact his man took my knife and slit an open
run of blood on my arm . . . just to warn
that I had better smile and be content.

Maurice Kenny: In Memoriam | Dawnland Voices

There are some people who I am glad came to this world and left us their words good words great words, words like this... LT

spoiler alert

People enjoy a story more if they know how it ends.

Song Exploder: Michelle Branch

click for interview:

Episode 108: Michelle Branch

“Best You Ever”

DOWNLOAD: iTUNES · MP3

Michelle Branch is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. She put two platinum albums when she was still a teenager. Those records were huge hits, and so her sound on those records defined her as an artist—for better or worse. Over a decade later, and after a long stretch, in 2017, Michelle put out her third album, Hopeless Romantic. In this episode, Michelle talks about why she was in musical limbo for so long, as she takes apart her song “Best You Ever.”

CASTLE ROCK Season 1 Stephen King J.J. Abrams Series

This town of Orange isn't far from the BOOM location so we'll report what we hear!
Castle Rock Synopsis

Here's the official synopsis for the show: A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King’s literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT, and Needful Things, as well as novella "The Body" and numerous short stories such as "Rita Hayworth and t"he Shawshank Redemption are either set there or contain references to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.

math issue too?

p is for privacy

Want more real talk?

The fact is, online vs. offline is a false distinction. We only have one life, and we live it online and off. Dive into the disconnect in our new podcast series called IRL, because online life is real life.
Listen to the full first episode, All Your Data Are Belong to Us, when host Veronica Belmont talks with a private investigator, a data broker, a guy who claims his headphones secretly spied on him and more. What’s their take on your data privacy? Tune in and find out.

Find IRL on our Website, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

(and we have it listed on this blog under podcasts! BOOM)

Tuesday Terrific Thought: reLOVEution

learn to grieve?

I am known to binge-watch HOARDERS. It's not appealing or appetizing, but rather stomach-turning and sad. Why do I do this? To remind myself we are not what we OWN and we really must learn to grieve better... You know - CRY and process...
Almost every hoarder has suffered a loss of a family member and they never finished grieving... HMMM...it's not rocket science, people...learn to grieve...  BOOM!



Got Clutter? Buy Less Stuff 
Between extreme hoarding and extreme minimalism, there’s a sustainable middle ground for staying organized and generally clutter-free. Amanda Sullivan, author of Organized Enough, says that getting there starts with developing reasonable habits. Two good ones: regularly donate things, and don't shop if you don’t need to. (The Leonard Lopate Show)

OY/YO

PUBLIC ART: Deborah Kass’s “OY/YO” (2015) was placed on the Williamsburg, Brooklyn waterfront by the North Williamsburg ferry terminal.

own your feelings

I own my desire to sleep in a teepee

Shiny Toy Guns - You Are The One

AMHERST, MA 

You know how you can get lucky? I bought a used CD "SHINY TOY GUNS" and never expected what I heard would be my best go-to road-trip music...
They may not be famous (not yet) but you may agree with BOOM

Sunday Sound: Wild Wild West

We love this! BOOM!

Sinkhole swallows 2 homes, continues to grow in Land O' Lakes

trust me: peace is cheaper

circles

A Ghost Story | Official Trailer HD | A24

What to Watch in July

Appreciation Friday: Lakota Author Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Water coming off my roof on 6-30-17 - big thunder booms too

Excerpt By Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Recognizing, Honoring, and Respecting Water

There has to be recognition, honor, and respect given to Water in a way that equates all life’s thinking, feeling, memory, consciousness, and motion with what Water gives and with what Water represents to all the cultures of Grandmother Earth. Water is in your breath, on your tongue, fingertips, and water keeps your eyes moving in your sleep. Water dreams with you and retains what we humans forget in our busy “timed” lives. Water keeps us humble when we think ourselves too important. Almost every morning nearly everyone has a Water ceremony whether or not they are aware of it. This includes all plants, birds, trees, and all life that depend on the life-giving being of Water.

I splash Water on my face and cool the fire in my eyes in the morning. I sprinkle drops over my head and body in recognition and gratitude for giving life to all in the past, present, and the potential possibilities; if only we as forgetful humans would remember to be givers-of-care rather than takers-of-care.

I ask permission before I drink water. Water gives me the language and responsibility to carry the message of life. Water is not a noun, but a loving, moving, growing, cleansing, and powerful living being. So I drink this cup of stars called Water while thinking, speaking, and wanting all things to live fully, rather than purely exist within the lonely world where too many of us have found ourselves—an anthropocentric world that has disconnected us from the Being of Water and caused us to take so much for granted.

About Tiokasin