Nick's LIFESTYLE Newsletter

Full House - the Minnesota in fall reboot.

THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION

Hello again everyone. It's been a few weeks. Some of the weirdest weeks we have known. Heartbreaking weeks. A time when I cheer the center-right like it is the best possible thing. It's been weird having people ask "what's new?" I'M STUCK IN MY HOUSE IN A PANDEMIC AND THE WORLD IS CRUMBLING. You? BIG TIME NEWS: We recently opened up the Lavely Foundation to provide wayward artists with quiet places to be amazing and create the future. We secured our first artist in residency and it has been a joy being able to provide the most minuscule amount of help in the creative process.

• I don't know too much about this guy and I'm not a fan of his style of music, but I thought this was just classy as fuck. A message from Tyler.
• More proof that librarians are amazing, of course: LIBRARY TAKEOUT. In my favorite timeline, Godo is a librarian and made this.
• Watched the documentary "Too Funny to Fail" about the Dana Carvey Show, which blew my mind when I watched it during the original run. Even if you were not a fan, it is amazing to see the long list of alumni from that show. Here is a clip: Too Funny to Fail: A Very Special Home Improvement

THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.

4 THINGS THIS WEEK:

ITEM THE FIRST:

LOVE (WITH CONSENT): I was recommended a comic called Sunstone to read a few weeks ago and BOY DID I. Stay with me here. The premise is two women exploring a BDSM relationship, where they are both coming to terms with the role it plays in their lives, how to execute on it, their sexuality and everything in between.

Yes, this is erotic. Yes, this is for adults. The writing is just top notch, along with the artwork. I never really felt like it was exploitative or doing things for the male gaze. It is one of the better things I've ever read about relationships in general, regardless of any of the BDSM content. I was hard to put it down and I spent hours reading it. Probably my book(s) of the year, AFTER MINDY'S LATEST OF COURSE.

A link to all of the graphic novels, provided by the author (FOR FREE PEOPLE): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nneuv3k9es6k6ms/AAB5iscpij79U8j4826GcCMga?dl=0. I then went and bought them all BECAUSE IT IS SO GOOD.

ITEM THE SECOND:

CHICKENIZATION: I was listening to Cory Doctorow on the Techdirt podcast and he taught me a new thing: "Chickenization." It is a monopsony term based on how the poultry market is run in America. Follow the previous link to hear more discussion, but basically there are 3 major poutry processors in the country and they are divided geographically, so a farmer has basically 1 company to sell to, which gives the company power to dictate all the terms to the seller. They specify the specs of the coop, light bulbs used, timing of the bulbs, vets to use, medicines to prescribe and install cameras and sensors to ensure everything is being followed. They only tell the farmers what the price for the birds is when they are brought to market. They pay them only enough to break even with all the demands they make of them. All the farmers are bound to NDAs as part of this too, so they can't speak out.

That combined with the the passage of Prop 22 combined with the increasing amount of automation makes me very worried about the future of labor in this country. Working at TR for 18 years now I have seen almost the entire technology department being outsourced along with many of the attorney-editors (yep, most of the US legal books for the dominant publisher in the country are written by people in Hyderabad). Customer Service is down to 1/3rd of what it was when I started due to IVR (robot/voice customer service). I've been the sole survivor of a few re-orgs. I just don't know how a middle class survives. When the gap between wealth and poverty is extreme as it is now, historically, terrible things happen.

ITEM THE THIRD:

THE SLOW MOTION COUP WILL BE TELEVISED: Doing dishes and listening to a podcast is generally an enjoyable experience. Listening to Meltzer talk about AEW or Tom Vasel talk board games makes dishes go faster. THEN TODAY HAPPENED. I was listening to On the Media, one of my favorites, and they had an interview with Rick Perlstein, author of Reganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980. Brooke and him were talking about the history of trying to suppress the vote, how a party of minority positions keeps power and how to reconcile when people are in completely different realities. It was a terrifying conversation and well worth listening to.

Excerpt:

RICK PERLSTEIN Yeah. I mean, as we have this conversation, there's an enormous debate going on left about when protesters should go on to the streets to call attention to the election rhetoric and actions that the Republican Party is carrying out. Because if we do, the people on the right who have been primed to believe that the Democrats are about to steal the election in conspiracy with the deep state might see this as the opening toxin of the civil war. Are we going to live on our feet or die on our knees? Is a classic question that subjects of tyrannies have had to ask for centuries. Now Americans begin to have to ask that. And we have very few emotional, intellectual political resources to draw on. And just once again, in joining, there is no red America, there is no blue America. We only have the United States. America doesn't seem to be doing the trick.

BROOKE GLADSTONE You are scaring the crap out of me more than I've already been scared. The militias that we've been following say that everything they do will be defensive.

RICK PERLSTEIN That's also what the Confederate troops who fired at Fort Sumter did, too. They were defending themselves against the John Browns of the world, the senator Charles Sumners, the guy who was beaten within an inch of his life for telling the truth about the slave south being a rapeocracy. Do we tell the truth or do we evade the truth?

ITEM THE FOURTH:

WHEN YOU HAVE TO ASK IF YOU ARE THE ASSHOLE, YOU PROBABLY ARE: Pre-election I was on quite a tear about people getting out to vote. I've always had this feeling that you need to be an informed citizen. BLAME STARSHIP TROOPERS. America is unlike many other countries in that it does not really ask too much of you. Citizenship is mostly automatic and there is no compulsory service, military or otherwise. I've often thought that it should be, so people can experience different perspectives, cultures, ethnicity, etc. Even better if you ship them to poor countries to do humanitarian work. I think the least you can do is pay a small amount of attention to the country, vote every 4 years (even better if more), just give a damn about the country you "love."

This came up when Melonie was telling me about some of her friends were not planning to vote. IT BLEW MY MIND. I just can't even understand. I don't have kids. I never will. There is 0 reason for me to not be a selfish twat and drive my Cobra GT, throw bottles out the side and smoke while I'm doing it, but I don't. I drive a Prius, eat a small amount of meat and compost. I'm trying to make the world just a little better for the people around me and more equitable for your children AND YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO LOOK AT A VOTING INFORMATION SITE AND DECIDE WHAT CANDIDATES SHARE YOUR VISION OF THE FUTURE?!?! I feel like such a schmuck sometimes doing all of these things when I should be like LOL IDGAF. Am I idiot for wanting the world to be better in the future that I will have no part or legacy in or am I the asshole for being enraged by people not putting in a little effort? Yes. I know the answer.

THE HOPE SPOT:

Tied into Item the Second, I read about a charity in Vancouver that is experimenting with UBI (Universal Basic Income) and is starting to publish the results of the impact of giving cash to people in need. I think we are going to see a lot more of these pilots in the near future with my man Andrew Yang leading the charge in the states. He has started a pilot program in Hudson, New York to provide $500 a month to 25 people for 5 years to see what happens. I'm very excited to see the results. (SEE ALSO, ITEM THE FOURTH).

GRATITUDES:

While I think she would be VERY ANGRY AT ME for posting the video, LIFESTYLE AWARD WINNING AUTHOR MINDY MEJIA did an amazing job of re-learning the flute to play us the CLASSIC FLUTE SONG from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, The Inner Light. I'm glad I have friends that do silly things for everyone's amusement. TREK THE BEST TREK MINDY!

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark "ok to print"):

none

FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EARHOLES THIS WEEK:

Dessa - "Tyranny" Of all the Doomtree memeber, Dessa is my least favorite. I've been very bored with her music over the past few years but she kills it in this song. It's a quick 2 minute song all about the current (past?) regime.

I think your dog whistle broke

Cause we can all hear it:

Post a white power clip claim you missed what they were cheering

Hearing’s fine, so you must be hard of spirit, running interference

You can read the lyrics, complete with her annotations here.

EVERY TIME IT HAPPENS WE ARE TOLD A LINE HAS BEEN CROSSED.

BUT NOTHING IS EVER DONE.

IS THE LINE MOVING AGAIN OR IS THIS TIME FINALLY TOO FAR?

ASK ME IN 2030.

THAT IS ALL.