You may have noticed a mini hiatus on the newsletter—it wasn’t intentional! I was working on a piece that grew longer and longer, and Jozef suggested that it should probably be reworked into a series of posts. You’ll have to be patient though… We’re going to work on those essays together in June so they can go live in July, while Jo is super busy with other things.

Beyond that, we’ve also been very busy Not Writing. I’ve had tons of different work-related things going on, which I don’t feel like getting into. We’ve been outside a lot, gardening and working on yard projects. Honestly, gardening is the most gratifying work I do these days; I have a hard time with the dirt and germs of it all, but I’m even getting more comfortable with that. Still, I value a consistent writing practice, so I’m going to focus on finding a balance of All The Things that functions for my life.

Anyway. Here’s what brought us pleasure in May!

~ Emory

Emory

Everything publishes on Vanishing Points is fucking phenomenal, and this past month was no exception. “A Little Ghost-Clock” was a beautiful meditation on the role pets play in our lives—and how we experience their deaths. “I’m Not Sad a Cop Died,” an essay on the indictment of Rodney Hinton, Jr., is such an effective piece on the need to end policing in the US. And “who deserves to die,” about the assassination of two Israeli embassy officials, was a vital interrogation of the mainstream cultural response to their deaths versus the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 600+ days.

It’s telling that one of his recommended Substacks is another one of my favorite publications: ’s How To Cure a Ghost. Fariha has also published so many incredible pieces in the past month. I highly, highly, highly recommend reading their poem “Birthright” and their essay “On Letting (Your Own) Art Revive You,” a thoughtful examination of Frida Kahlo’s life and how Fariha connects to her legacy:

I felt like everything I had built around me was collapsing. Yet, I also found myself with a new love, in a city that sustains me, and something was simultaneously transforming inside of me.

I was letting go. In other words, I was moving through a spiritual death.

Beyond Substack, I’ve been reading Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven aloud to Jo on and off for the past couple months, and every time I open the book, I’m struck by the beautiful prose and emotionally resonant story. It’s funny… When I read the book as part of a Feminist Dystopias class in undergrad, I was by and large afraid of “the apocalypse.” Reading it now, I find it comforting—the world as we know it may end, with much violence to be sure, but there will also be art and beauty and love.

Jozef

We’re apparently on an apocalypse literature kick currently—I listened to ¾ of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower while painting our nursery before my loan was up at the library. I also read a couple essays out of the anthology NO! Against Adult Supremacy Vol. 1, which I got in print at our local radical bookstore. It’s copyright free, which means you can read it online via The Anarchist Library.

While preparing to start teaching this summer, I read two papers from Cultural Studies of Science Education: “Science education against the rise of fascist and authoritarian movements: towards the development of a pedagogy for democracy” and “Confronting repressive ideologies with critical pedagogy in science classrooms”. Everybody say “thank you open access publishers!”

Emory

I’ve already seen season one of Hacks before, but I’m rewatching it while Jozef and A watch it for the first time as our current Sunday evening show. Jean Smart is so fucking fantastic—in everything, but especially in Hacks. And I have a soft spot for Paul W. Downs (as a showrunner, yes, but also as the harried Jimmy). Like most things I rewatch with others, I spend more time watching them watch the show, and I love that they’ve been enjoying it so far.

Jozef

We watched My Old Ass because we love Aubrey Plaza and that would have been enough for us to enjoy it. But when I tell you I sobbed at the end, like cried and cried for at least 10 minutes, I mean it. (Emory’s Note: I also cried.) I don’t know what it is about a time-travel trauma narrative, but they get me every time (see also: when I cried at work listening to Before the Coffee Gets Cold while doing DNA extractions and the first time I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once and when Emory and I saw All of Us Strangers in theaters but that time literally everyone was crying). We also started the second season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which we watch asynchronously with our Real Housewives of Salt Lake City-obsessed friend, C, and our ex-Mormon friend, S. It’s the perfect show for a loooong debrief after every episode and a great excuse to catch up with each other, too.

Emory

Lorde’s “Man of the Year” has been my favorite listen since it came out. I started listening to Lorde when I was in middle school, and I’ve been so grateful to have an artist whose career has grown as I’ve grown. And let’s face it, Pure Heroine is still a great album—I’ve never cringed listening to an older Lorde song. I can’t wait for Virgin to come out at the end of next month.

Jozef

Our housemate Z has been doing the heavy lifting on music recently. She’s in what she calls her “bud light lime: music for cigarettes” and “railroad songs” eras. Think Gen X dad music meets Riot grrrl meets Americana.

Emory

Our housemate Z introduced us to the game Ecologies, and I’m obsessed. Have I won? No! But I will eventually, especially if I try playing it sober at some point. The artwork on the cards (vintage Victorian-era illustrations) is beautiful, and the premise—building ecosystems by constructing food webs—is charming.

Like I said before, we’ve been busy outside! We’ve done a few nature walks lately, which I love because I get to gather entries for iNaturalist. We’ve also been doing a lot in the gardens—the community garden and our own yard. Jo started building a raised bed in our backyard yesterday, and I mostly supervised while smoking but also did some construction assistance (like I said, I’m getting braver with my projects). We walk down to the community garden on days when it doesn’t rain so we can water the plants. We also help deal with brown rot on the cherry trees, removing any fruit that shows signs of rot to help mitigate the fungal spread.

I’ve also been playing around with pastels. I typically strive for accuracy and precision when I draw, so I wanted to find a medium that would help me experiment with a looser hand and more abstract work. It’s been a lot of fun so far. I mostly draw birds and flowers, though I occasionally get more abstract than that and just have fun with some shapes.

Jozef

My biggest accomplishment this month was painting our nursery! The paint has been sitting in the house since we moved in September but I had to take a break from paint projects because I gave myself tennis elbow from all the other rooms. I’m so happy with how it turned out.

I finished two quilts, one that was in collaboration with Emory and two other trans quilters and one that was commissioned from a quilt auction I did for my chorus.

I’ve also been going to our local yoga studio, gardening, steam cleaning all our rugs, building raised beds, and walking and hiking way more now that the weather is warming up. We also went to the art museum with our friend when he was visiting.

Emory

After really long days/weeks, Jo and I sometimes get Five Guys for dinner. I’m not sure there’s anything more satisfying than getting stoned and eating some junk food. It’s a rare treat, which makes it even better.

We had a friend visit us over MDW, and we stopped by a local ice cream shop for a sweet treat. I branched out from my typical mint chip and had their house chocolate, which was so smooth and yummy.

Jozef

The best thing I had to eat this month was our friend’s homemade muhammara, which he brought with him on the 8-hour bus ride to us. I ate it daily for a week.