April 27, 2025

That which is awesome!

I was working on a more political essay (o tempora, o mores, o. m.g.),but it is the weekend (improbably my weekend, is now the weekend), and I am inclined to briefly dip into celebratory content.

I was having a conversation with a colleague about how absolutely terrible I am at self-promotion, but if you end up enjoying this essay, or have enjoyed other recent work, could you share it with a friend or consider subscribing?

In the vein of “how cool is this?”, I first offer Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ripping it up on the piano with the Boston Pops about six months ago, performing one of my favorite pieces of music. Ray Flynn could never…

Getting to share this virtuoso non-professional performance with my musician partner and watching him slowly become fixated by her spot-on but also uniquely syncopated playing was a joy in itself.

And how about the absolutely beautiful typicity of this on-the-street crisp tasting from days gone by, full of skeptical cockneys. “And now they have the most extraordinary flavors…” (This announcer walked so Aimee Lou Wood could run.)

We went to Chicago Art Expo yesterday. The knit locker room (complete with life size knit shower, lockers, urinals and benches) was amazing and the sculptures by young Vietnamese artist Vy Trinh were very personally resonant, but this work of Native Futurism originally from 2008 was my favorite:

It was nice to see a huge number of black artists represented, and lots of very gloriously weird people in attendance.

The trees are flowering and budding, our bathroom is clean (even the baseboards), and S. made a new kind of salad with broccoli slaw:

We are listening to India Arie on our super second-hand speakers (parenthetically speaking, every time we listen to “Acoustic Soul”I am reminded she once chased my old roommate into the street in front of their College bookstore because she thought she was shoplifting 😂.)

“Strength, Courage and Wisdom” is such a cut.

The work of refusal is not over, but even glancingly competent authoritarian government requires some level of competence, and between Sorority Recording Secretary Barbie and the rest of this particularly garbage season cast of “The Apprentice: White House,” this group just doesn’t have it.

As a woman I follow on Bluesky recently posted, “I am still baking bread.”

We have to. There is no imagining a better world, or surviving in this one, without dreaming and without small pleasures.

The ramps are pickled and salted, the stovetop is clean and I have gathered more trash to collage:

As H.P. would say “onward.”