the immaculate mailing list - hackysack footwear, mass innoculation, sk8ing
welcome
welcome to this iteration of the immaculate mailing list! so excited/thrilled/over the moon to have you here! this dispatch is a bit of a mishmash of topics, but aren’t they all? as always, if you disagree with anything or want clarification on anything i said, or want to give me unwavering support- just click reply and tell me all about it!
joys of movement
i got some in-line skates! it’s been ages (~15 years) since i’ve rolled around on a pair, and i am very grateful the same feeling exists now. back in my young teen years, i loved to skate. some of my favorite physical sensations are tied to moving on wheels! here is a short list:
favorite physical memories
- learning to do a spine transfer on my skates
- dropping in on a half pipe
- riding a bike down an empty street late at night
this year, i’m trying to chase some of those feelings again! i obviously have a very different body than i did when i was 13, and frankly, breaking an arm would be much much worse now, but hey, i just gotta adapt! anyways, if you’re in chicago and are interested in rolling around on bikes/blades/boards during the warm season, hit me up!! i love moving at a variety of speeds.
my theory involving the son of the drummer from led zepplin, hacky sack, and a niche pair of footwear
okay, so this probably does not come as a surprise to anyone, but along with skating, i used to be super into playing hackysack (i still keep one in my bag, just in case). also, one of my most prevalent traits is buying products to fill a specific need that often isn’t that important. the intersection of these two thoughts comes in the purchase of a pair of adidas rod lavers when i was 15. i had read on a hackysack forum that these shoes were fantastic for footbag (there was even a modification involving an exacto knife to improve the toe area, hmu if you need tips). luckily, the adidas store at the tanger outlet mall had one pair in stock, in my size! i jumped on them. they were great shoes for playing hackysack, the folks on the forum did not steer me wrong.
okay, next foundational concept: my hometown has a fair every summer (it’s not labeled as such, but it functions as the county fair). typically a week long, and every evening there’s either some sort of demolition derby (hell yeah), race, or a concert. i worked at this fair while i was in high school! just a little summer gig, cleaning up and just being around to take care of whatever tasks came up. sometimes this involved building the stages, sometimes this was mucking the horse barn. it was a crapshoot (this was the first job i quit after they didn’t give me an earned raise lol (my brother never got to quit, as he was fired for an incident involving a bottle rocket and some fire fighters)). anyways, one of the perks was sometime getting backstage passes to the shows. in 2006, when i was very much a classic rock fan (writing papers and speeches for school on led zepplin and alice cooper), classic band FOREIGNER played the fair. you may know them for the dozen or so classic rock radio hits, like “cold as ice”, “i wanna know what love is (and i want you to show me)”, “hot blooded”, etc etc. anyways, during this particular tour, jason bonham was playing drums for them. those of you who’ve been following along might piece together that jason bonham is the son of jon bonham, drummer of musical pirates led zepplin. needless to say, i was thrilled at the prospect of meeting him and seeing him play, as in those days, i very much enjoyed getting the led out.
so the night of the show happens, i go backstage with my mom, my brother, and an assortment of people i’ve never met and haven’t ever considered as entities until just now. we go to the trailer the foreigner boys are hanging out in, and they all come out and stand at a distance on their little stoop, taking great care to not actually interact with anyone. given that they were on a platform roughly four feet in the air, it was pretty easy to see their choice of footwear, and this is where this all comes together- jason bonham, drummer of foreigner and son of jon bonham, drummer of led zepplin, was wearing the exact same pair of adidas rod lavers that i was, proving once and for all that he was (and certainly still is) a man who loves to kick bags of sand.
vexxing vaccines
what an abominable rollout we’re all experiencing! both in terms of accessing vaccines and public messaging about what getting vaccinated means for us in the long term. there seems to be a general sense that the vaccine is the silver bullet that will end the pandemic (i think the biden administration is talking about “back to normal-ish” by july 4th??). i don’t think it’s as simple as that- we just haven’t had time to see long term efficacy yet, for a variety of different populations, including kids and people who are immunocompromised. we also don’t know yet how long the effects of the vaccine will last, if we’ll need boosters, or anything else (this is definitely NOT me advocating against getting vaccinated- please do so as soon as you are able to!). it’s frankly incredible we got a vaccine as quickly as we did, but that speed also means we are still learning about the long game (again- this isn’t reason to not get vaxed). i think clear messaging around this is really important, otherwise it leads to an over promise//under deliver situation (or at least a perceived over promise//under deliver situation, which is maybe just as bad). as more people are getting the shots, we’re seeing a sense that this is all gonna wrap up by summer, despite case numbers climbing around the US. we’re up to 70k cases a day, from the 40-50k cases we were at just a month or two ago. please, please- get the vaccine, and continue to follow the precautions we know to be effective, like wearing your mask with people outside your household, avoiding crowds (especially indoors), and washing your hands.
a podcast recommendation
following up to the preparedness section in the last issue, here’s a podcast about just that! it’s called “live like the world is dying”, and hosted by margaret killjoy. it addresses the topic of preparedness, not from the typical bunker prepper standpoint, but from a community centered, we’re-all-in-this-together, we-keep-us-safe standpoint, which is the only way i believe in. it’s a real enjoyable listen, and has lots of interesting episode! you can find it on all the different podcast services, or here.
one last little tidbit
wouldn’t it be nice to have more control over the notifications we get? given how common it is for folks to send multiple really short texts as opposed to one long text (this is not me taking issue with that- i love the evolution of communication and language usage!!), i do wish i could set my phone only to buzz on the first one, and then maybe again a minute later if more are still coming. now it’s either no notification, or 10 in a row if the groupchat is hopping or someone is messaging stream of consciousness style, using a new line as punctuation. i just want to know that some is messaging me, not that i have received 16 new messages in the last 60 seconds. a boy can dream!!
things i’ve read recently
inclusion on the list is not endorsement of ideas within
- BYP100 is dead - ngwagwa
- small family farms aren’t the answer - chris newman
- the art of the ‘clean version’ - priska neely
- plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity - erin brockovich
- sabotage as environmental activism - r.h. lossin
- a brief introduction to disaster preparedness - lee navy
- there’s a better way to parent: less yelling, less praise - joe pinsker
- signals of disorder: sowing anarchy in the metropolis - a.g. schwarz
- dear fuck-up: how do i make my husband love my fat sister - brandy jensen
- vaccine passports won’t get us out of the pandemic - saskia popescu and alexandra phelan
- how to make moss graffiti - wikihow staff
- what might mushroom hunters teach the doctors of tomorrow? - anna harris
- the gift of ecological humility - leah penniman
- stranding of ever given in suez canal was forseen by many - michael safi
- the #1400challenge: how to turn stimulus checks into collective power - inhabit
albums i’ve been listening too:
- crushed - nerftoss
- dookie - green day
- insomniac - green day
- sowiesoso - cluster
- what i said about the pinecone - really big pinecone
- bluesmith - jimmy smith
- hypnic jerks - spirit of the beehive
- the glow pt. 2 - the microphones
- auto - wendy eisenberg
- nightmare logic - power trip
- look - devata daun
- l’s - hype williams
- decomposer - the matches
- zero time - toronto’s expanding head band
- this conversation is ending starting now - knapsack
- destruction by definition - the suicide machines
- the mix up - beastie boys
- the pearl - brian eno, harold budd
- who we are - we are the union
- dsu - alex g
- inner song - kelly lee owens
- everything that will happen will happen today - david byrne, brian eno
- aporia - sufjan stevens
- as i was - susan (la)
- gyrate - pylon
- paris 1919 - john cale
- world of echo - arthur russell
- the in sound from way out - perry and kingsley
- pang - caroline polachek
- flowers for vases/descanos - hayley williams
- nobody is listening - zayn
- post - bjork
- crush on me - sir babygirl
- i’m your empress of - empress of
- we will always love you - the avalanches
- africa - pharoah sanders
- doku-en-kai - toe
- late night tales - four tet
- iowa dream - arthur russell
- work & non work - broadcast
- paul’s boutique - beastie boys
- silent shout - the knife
- bark your head off, dog - hop along
- spiderland - slint
- dots and loops - stereolab
- keep it like a secret - built to spill
- everybody loves the sunshine - roy ayers ubiquity
- the campfire headphase - boards of canada
- sketches of spain - miles davis
- lanquidity - sun ra & his arkestra
- let my children hear music - charles mingus
- strangers from the universe - thinking fellers union local 282
- sahara - mccoy tyner
- someone new - helena deland
- pastel moods - oscar peterson
- the killing of eugene peeps - bastien kebs
- keyboard fantasies - beverly glenn-copeland
- suite for max brown - jeff parker
- today’s active lifestyles - polvo
wrapping up
longtime readers might remember me chatting about digital gardens vs streams. i’m running into that same frustration with this serialized newsletter- i find my myself wishing i could easily point or link to sections or articles i included in past editions. i have the basic format for a webpage to do just that, but i haven’t really had the time or energy to build it out. hopefully once i graduate in may, i’ll have some more time to put in to that! there are a lot of running themes i find myself talking about, and i’d like to tie the individual pieces together. it seems like a smoother way to share!!
stay safe, y’all