Good Luck, Babe! š
I canāt stop watching Chappell Roan reaction videos on YouTube.
Listening to āGood Luck, Babe!ā makes my chest swell in ways I canāt quite name (not yet, anyway, but maybe somedayāweāll see) and watching other people listen to the song for the first timeāespecially if itās the first thing theyāre hearing by herālights me up in similar ways. If someone doesnāt seem engaged enough, I click off and find another video. If someone is too harsh in their critique, I click off and find another video. But more often than not, I watch one after another until Iām sleepy and content, drifting off with the bridge stuck in my head.
The last few weeks have been strange and stressful, and these videos have been a boon in a sea of anxiety and grief. Two back-to-back death anniversaries always hit me hard this time of year, and recent losses have capitalized on that grief to make moving through the day feel like swimming in soup. It doesnāt help that itās extraordinarily hot and unseasonably humid, nor that my surgery recovery continues to be slow-going.
So when someone hollers at the top of their lungs over Chappell belting, āI told you so,ā it soothes me. Their joy amplifies my joy until thereās a continuous feedback loop between me and them, even though the video might be weeks or months old and Iāve never seen or heard of this person until this moment. And when voice coaches react, I learn so much, which makes the whole thing even better.
Maybe this is my new ASMR. Maybe I just really miss going to concerts and feeding off of other peopleās energy. Maybe itās bothā¦
Pre-Order Publish Her Anthology: Dear Body Today!
My essay āFat Is a Descriptive Wordā will be published in Publish Her Anthology: Dear Body, slated for release later this year! š
Dear Body features work from 30 authors exploring what it means to them to live in their bodies. Publish Her Press will put 100 percent of the proceeds from anthology sales toward program grants and publishing services for underrepresented women authors.
āFor a woman, writing publicly about her body is an act of courage in a society that commodifies, objectifies, and violates her body throughout her lifeāuntil it is ignored and rendered invisible in her elder years. Writing about her body is an act of self-respect, and one of the most radical things a woman can do is respect her body. ā¦
One of the most radical things a human can do is view their body as more than a collection of functions in service to their ego, to see it as a vessel for their soulāour shapeless, ethereal, ever-evolving soul. The soul doesnāt care if we win or lose in the traditional sense, it only cares that we live a life that is true to us. ā¦
The essays in this anthology shatter generations of shame carried among women by tenderly and triumphantly speaking to the unique yet shared experience of being a soul in the form of a female body. From eating disorders and injuries to childbirth and menstruation, these stories are a homecoming.ā
āDr. Rachel Allyn, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and author of The Pleasure Is all Yours
Mark Your Calendars for Denver Zine Fest!
Iām tabling at Denver Zine Fest 2024 with brand new zines debuting at the show and print versions of some of my digital zines!
If youāre in the Denver area, swing by Globeville Events Center at 4496 Grant Street on Saturday, September 21st between 11 a.m. MT and 5 p.m. MT to check out my offerings and support the other vendors!
This event is run by Denver Zine Library volunteers! For more info, follow the fest on Instagram and visit the Denver Zine Library Linktree.
Stephanie Cooke Wants to Be the Comics Industryās Ms. Frizzle
Comics writer and editor Stephanie Cooke gave me my first freelance writing gig and throughout her career, sheās advocated for creator equity and industry transparency. In addition to creating Creator Resource, where comics professionals can report their earnings and experiences with publishers so others have concrete numbers available when negotiating contracts, she is also a member of the member-driven Cartoonist Cooperative, which seeks to protect comics industry laborers internationally.
Cooke loves making comics and believes in the power of storytelling, but has significant reservations about how severely the industry exploits its workers.
Candy Is Dandy Gets Scholarly About Sweets
Itās hard for me to pick a favorite candy bar, though my go-to answer whenever someone asks is Reeseās Fast Break. I love the salty peanut butter, sweet nougat, and snappy chocolate coating. I loved (and lost) Reeseās Ultimate Peanut Butter Lovers Cups, too, and Iām also a big fan of an Abba-Zaba (although these are harder to eat now that I have fillings). Generally, I donāt have much of a sweet tooth, but when I get a craving, it isnāt satisfied until I get my teeth around something sweet. However, when I chat with Candy Is Dandy podcast co-host Daniel Zafran, who has a big sweet tooth, I canāt help but get caught up in his almost academic reverence for understanding, deconstructing, tasting, and rating various types of candy.
āThe longer we do this, and the more I think about it, my mom is obsessed with chocolate, and my grandma was beyond obsessed with chocolate because her dad owned a candy store in New York in the 1930s, I guess, something like that,ā he tells me over Zoom. āSo she was always constantly eating the candy out of that store. But towards the end of her life, when she was living with my parents, she would just take a 1lb bag of Hershey's Kisses into her room and just sit there and eat it. And it definitely got passed down through the generations.ā
Candy Is Dandy occupies a unique space in food podcasts because itās the onlyāas far as Zafran and his co-hosts are awareāpodcast that focuses exclusively on candy.
Hereās what you may have missed:
Game Thoughts: My Little Scythe Is a Family-Friendly Take on the Scythe Engine: My Little Scythe from Stonemaier Games boasts an impressive action economy and unique mechanics for a truly family-friendly experience.
Game Thoughts: Rolling Hills: Make Sushi, Make Friends: A simplistic sim game with beautiful food design and sweet character quests.
For my Debut at Rascal News, I wrote about intimacy at and away from the table and how ritualizing TTRPG sessions through physical ephemera helps me limit character bleed with my partners.
If you missed my Fat Liberation Month takeover of the Nonbinarian Book Bike Instagram, check it out!
During the Paris Olympics, I interviewed The Other Olympians author Michael Waters about the complex history of trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes who have competed in the Olympic Games for the Nonbinarian Book Bike.
Before it debuted on multiple best sellers lists, I interviewed The Pairing author Casey McQuiston about their best book to date, romance tropes, and more for the Nonbinarian Book Bike. (Grab your copy of the book for 15% off with code PRIDE24 throughout August at Bookshop.org.)
More than 100 journalists have called for the US to impose an immediate arms embargo on Israel. The Nation has details.
I watched the Dragon Age: The Veilguard release trailer multiple times with my jaw on the floor. It even made me cry. The game comes out October 31 and I. Canāt. Wait!
The Wholesome Games Showcase is live on Steam until Wednesday, August 21, and it features a ton of free demos including one for Tiny Bookshop, which I loved.
Iām absolutely loving all of the coverage The Challenge is getting for Season 40, āBattle of the Erasā! That includes this piece by Jonathan Abrahams for The New York Times: How āThe Challengeā Made Reality TV a Real Career
Hamnah Shahid wrote a brilliant piece about reimagining TTRPGs without the inclusion of the military industrial complex for Rascal News: TTRPGs are part of the war machineābut they donāt have to be
August Owens Grimm reflected on social expectations for bathing suits, thirst traps, and book promotion for the NAAFA Community Voices Blog: Who Gets to Wear the Speedo?
For Fat Liberation Month, NAAFA released a video compilation of 15 fat community activists, leaders, and creators reflecting on what the fat community means to them.
For the NAAFA Community Voices Blog, J Aprileo charted their course to receiving top surgery as a superfat person facing weight discrimination from multiple medical professionals: Seeking Superfat Top Surgery
For TIME, Emma Copley Eisenberg wrote about weight discrimination in fertility medicine: I Was Told I Was Too Fat to Freeze My Eggs
Weāve been traversing to and from the vet for annual visits recently and Scampi spent a fair amount of time looking like an influencer/model under the sun while she hung out in the car. Look at those eyes!
Thank you for visiting The Verbal Thing Comes and Goes! If you like what you read, please consider sharing and/or leaving a tip! āØ
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