060: Two words - sh*t sandwich
First, Tha NEWS.
Lots going on right now. It's a shit world out there. Two things in that regard:
Friend of the program Dextra Hoffman has gotten to the point in the medical/disability/job situation that eviction is likely imminant, and so she's gathering funds to go live with some peeps in Texas (not exactly super for politics, but neither is Kentucky, and at least this way there will be people with knowledge on the situation.) Any help you can send would go straight to getting moved. Even if you don't use the GoFundMe, she gives other options toward the end.
Partner and business associate Elle has had a medical emergency and has been in the hospital for a bit over a week. Between that and the general difficulty of the summer, the coffers are running a little low in the HOORF! Podcast fund, and we're in danger of losing our main podcast hosting (etc), so if you could hop over here and donate using the Buy Me a Coffee link (or just go straight there using this), that would rule. This is a genuine plea. If we can't cover costs, we can't keep doing the show, and even then we don't know if we can keep doing it, given the amount of work that goes into it for a disabled two-person team. If we've helped you, or entertained you, or even infuriated you enough to keep listening, huck a few bucks over, even (and especially, right now) if it's only a one-time thing. Help us stay afloat while we figure out what's going on.
With those out of the way, some personal tidbits. Unfortunately, not a lot going on around here. I'm waiting for responses from several outlets on some of the 22 CARDS poems, all of which said they'd have gotten back to me last month. This is another frustrating thing about the traditional publishing world. Hurry up and wait. Every time.
Which leads nicely to my next point! I'm working on finally getting an ebook version of THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT. It's been six months, so it's probably time to get that up. I don't expect it will do tremendous numbers, as the paperback has barely tipped into the double digits, but you never know. Maybe I'll actually pay for some ads or something. Har har har. But maybe...?
Second, INTERLUDE.
I'm always running from something
I push it back, but it keeps on coming
And being clever never got me very far
Because it's all in my head
"You're too sensitive," they said
I said, "Okay, but let's discuss this at the hospital"
~ Florence + the Machine, "Free"
Third, CONSUMPTION.
The Tron: Ares score/soundtrack is out, and it's the first Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have done billed as Nine Inch Nails. Trent said somewhere that Disney were actually the ones that requested they use the NIN name, which is interesting. I'm still pissed at Disney for everything else that they are, but that seems neat. The trend of Wendy Carlos to Daft Punk to NIN is pretty intersting, and I'm honestly not sure who they'd be able to get for the next one and have the same sort of cultural cache. CHVRCHES maybe? Dunno.
I have not, as of yet, started my 22 CARDS playlist. To contrast this, I've been writing the dang thing, so there's that.
Stardew Valley is one of the free games on PS Plus this month, and so I'm getting cozy again. On this playthrough my lesbian farmer ass is trying to woo Emily, with her blue hair and general witchy (but not got) vibes. She seems neat. If you've never played Stardew Valley, I really suggest you pick it up for whatever format you game in--it's been ported to pretty much everything now. One person made that entire game. And it's chill as hell. It's a pity farming isn't actually that easy.
I forgot to mention it, but last month we went to see Rifftrax Live: Timecop. I don't think I saw Timecop when it originally came out, nor any time later, despite loving me some Jean Claude Van Damme. And the Rifftrax guys made an already pretty competent braindead action flick that much better. Anyway. If you're a movie nerd and somehow haven't heard of Rifftrax or Mystery Science Theatre 3000, you should check it out. I usually tell people to start with The Beginning of the End or the actual movie (which has solid '50s flick This Island Earth as its film.)
Fourth, HUSTLE.
The new hotness is THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT, which you can get here. It’s a serial poem based in Philip K. Dick, JG Ballard, 20th Century cyberpunk, Jack Spicer, and, well, me.
confessions from a drainage ditch was released in late 2023 through Amazon, and is available in ebook and paperback formats. If you haven't picked it up, it's a great introduction to my more concrete and mainstream work.
There’s my chapbook, A Void and Cloudless Sky. By being a subscriber to this newsletter, you're also entitled to a free PDF version, which you can get here. If you want a hard copy, it’s available here.
If you're liking this whole project and want to support it directly, here is my Patreon. There are lots of little benefits you can get there, from poems written to your specifications to subscriber-only limited-edition chapbooks.
Finally, THE OUTRO.
In addition to the stuff mentioned at the top, here in Chicagoland it's been... a time. Most of the ICE action you may have heard about has been out in the suburbs, where they're literally grabbing street vendors off the corner and disappearing them. They murdered a man (Silverio Villegas Gonzales was his name) in the middle of the streeth in Franklin Park for literally no reason. The Broadview naval station that they're using as "processing" (what a vile term) has been the site of numerous protests, and last week they shot a reverend in the face with pepper balls, gassed the crowd, maced a woman after having already shoved her full-force into the ground, literally picked up and threw Kat Abughazaleh (who is running for my district's seat in the House of Representatives), pulled a loaded pistol on the crowd, and assaulted the mayor of Evanston. Just this morning they put more barricade around the front of the building.
So if you've heard we "won" against Trump, that's just his sending in the National Guard (which he keeps threatening to do, still.) ICE is still doing their shit, grabbing day workers from home improvement store parking lots, grabbing people leaving their own fucking immigration hearings, arresting any politicians who show up for accountability reasons. It's still bad.
It's hard to find the energy to keep doing our silly emails and easy to feel defeated. But you don't have to make big gestures to help. Find your range of influence and work in that. Donate to (vetted!) organizations. Handle community messaging. Meet your neighbors. Bake for your friends. Read a book by a queer author. Write or call your reps and get on their asses. There's so much you can do that isn't the highly visible work of liberation. You know what the biggest thing is? Just being with and helping others. That's the antidote to fascism. Like the Star Wars sequels taught us: they win by making us feel like we're alone. We're not alone. You're not alone. Go borrow a cup of sugar. Really. Unclog that gutter the city is ignoring. Do something outside yourself, no matter how small, in service of others. We'll get through this.
See you soon.