twenty-six hundred

 

Dear Rollers,

Well, here we are again; another hundred days!  I had a few lessons in skating over these last100 days, and we learned a thing kind of like this, under another name.  When I say learned, I mean that I am working on it, and sometimes it comes out not too bad.  Summer is a good time to take a lesson in skating- here is a nearby place you can get lessons, and here is another.

If you feel grumpy and hot and don't want to see any other humans, well then, get yourself one of these (in one of many spiffing colors) and roll around your house and driveway in splendid isolation.  That's where I'll be.

you tangle my emotions

 

Tom Petty's boots.*

Dear Radio Dodo Listener,

Ooooh!  Today's song is so good!  If you have been tuning in for a while, you will see that Tom Petty is often played here; because I love his descriptions of how we feel.  And that is that.  But there is also, the fact that my favorite Petty songs are sung by women.  "Don't Come Around Here No More," is made more, made larger by Rhiannon Giddens.  You'll hear it.  It isn't an opinion, it is a fact.  There is also, as further evidence, Lucinda Williams singing "Changed the Locks."  These versions are peerless.

*  I wonder, too, as I imagine you do, what would it be like if we put our feet in those boots?  How would we walk and where to?  I think about this with the artifacts of other people too; Judy Garland's ruby slippers, Johnny Cash's big black Manuel Cueva's suits, Linda Ronstadt's cub scout uniform, the fantasy of inhabiting those people and places.  I know I'd want to wear these things into the Seven 11, and I would want to smoke heroin, and I wouldn't take any guff wearing these duds, not even from my relatives.

the power

 

   More raised fists.

Dear Comrades,

I have your song for today, and I have a lot of other suggestions, too, but I know you are weary, so let me make my points in bullet form:

Be radical.

Subvert.

Resist.

Speak up.

Don't worry too much about how, because it needs doing in every single possible way.  This is, I hope, The Day.  The day that we will look back on, in our memoirs, recollections, and histories, and we see that this was the day it began in earnest.  These past few months are the days leading up to the overthrow of our oppressive and murderous leaders.  Think forward to the victory; the Universal Basic Income, the housing, the healthcare, the social services, the open borders, the freedom of science, art, and education; the field of daisies that all this will be, must be.

just my way of saying: it's not all bad??

 

Dear Ones,

I have been sulking on The Situation; forgive my absence.  If I don't want to poison others with my desultory feelings of doom, what can I do but stay out of sight and earshot?  A question to be considered, but not to be answered right now, right here.  There are things going on all over, even as fascism continues to roll over us; it is  a slow march down into a deeper hell.

This little mouse is filled with lavender- I made a whole mess of them many years ago and this one was all moth eaten!  Yes, I made them to put in drawers and 'repel' moths!  This one was sitting on the bookshelf.  I decided to repair it with some really lovely sock yarn that I got for free from the wonderful Fiber & Fringe.  The wool it is made of was a from a coat I had made even longer ago, and the tail & ears are of the silk that lined the coat.

Additionally, the lavender was still very strong smelling, as it fell out continually as I repaired the holes, and you know what else?  This repaired one is so beautiful!

directions

 

Dear At the Crossroads,

Today, I offer you direction: 

listen to this;  (also here, at 11:25).

watch this;  (where?  Hopefully someplace that is easy for you to get to).

read this.  (ditto).

Yes, all are essential, but if you must take only one, let it be the song of the day.  If you cannot read the book, take instead this wisdom from it:

"To reckon by achievements was to make a concession to the prevailing system of the world; it was a departure from the austere, disinterested, exacting standards that Lady Slane and her kindred recognised."

it's a sky blue sky

 

Threadbare/Fadenschein, Helena Hafemann.

Dear Y'All,

Did you know there was such a thing as a Horrible Mean Bad Woman?*  (I found it on the internet, of course; just like Woolworth's, it has everything!)  It's like a Feminist Killjoy but even more transgressive.  It's right up my alley.

My feeling right now is this:  ah, I see you have something there; a little crusted piece of societal expectation?  Why, I'd be delighted to smash it for you!  It's no trouble at all.  

Here is a song we can whistle while we smash; won't you join me?

*I found it on the internet, of course; just like Woolworth's, it has everything; you should try it!

Mr. Fox

 

Dear Reader,

I know you have heard enough from me on the topic of What to Read; especially right now, at the onset of whatever it is that 'Summer Reading" season is.  (Lot of is, in that sentence....)  And for me, it just happened to fall here, this great book.  It happened to fall because I was at my online used book place and the Robot Overlords that run it suggested this book- now, let me clear: they suggest books to me every time I go there.  Mr. Fox is the very first time I have taken their advice:  why?  Two things: the author was not an Old White Man, and the cover was just exactly what I want in a cover.  In other words, I judged this book by its cover and I found it very good!

The cover is a treat, and I send along an image of it, so you can appreciate it, even if you end up with a different edition.  Look at the pale celadon!  The paper-doll type figures!  What could be nicer than that?  But, but, I don't want you to read it because of its cover, and I want you to read it because it is so good, so imaginative, so multivalent.  And no, I don't want to tell you anything about it, because, isn't that why we open a book?  To find a surprise?

However, I am willing to go out on a limb: anyone with a summer reading quota would be delighted with this book:  Give it to all your friends & lovers, your book club pals & your sisters and your cousins and your aunts.

As for me, well, I am going to make a start on the books I hadn't read that are mentioned in Mr. Fox, in my usual non-robotic meta method for finding new titles:

Transformations

From the Beast to the Blonde

The Woman in White

Tess of the d'Ubervilles

Thérèse Raquin

Madame Bovary

In addition to that weighty and academic list, I think I will add Bluebeard's Egg, and White is for Witching, but don't expect a review too soon; I expect to take my sweet time reading all of that.