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Saturday Song: Music for the Resistance

This year is going to require a lot of resistance and rebellion. Even if Chitler hadn’t been elected in America, there’s severe inequality, relentless right wing movements, and various bigotries that need good people to stand against.

Music is a necessity in these times. We need songs we can march to. Songs that get our blood pumping. Songs that fire us up. Songs that sustain us. Songs that tell us to get the fuck up and keep fighting when it seems hopeless. So let’s collect those songs here.

I’ll start with one my friend Ingrid posted. It’s pretty damn perfect. Continue reading “Saturday Song: Music for the Resistance”

Saturday Song: Music for the Resistance

The Traditional New Year’s Singsong with Something New, Plus Some Plucky Determination

For decades now, my tradition on New Year’s Day is to listen to U2’s song of the same name. It gets the blood nicely pumping.

After the garbage fire that was 2016, I’m not in a celebratory mood. I am, however, in a determined one. And since I mean to begin as I’ll go on, I’m aiming for some gender parity. I’ve chosen Mary Win to join my New Year’s Day beginning songs. It’s hopeful without being sappy, and we could use some hope.

Today, this is my guiding phrase: “Start as you mean to go on.” Continue reading “The Traditional New Year’s Singsong with Something New, Plus Some Plucky Determination”

The Traditional New Year’s Singsong with Something New, Plus Some Plucky Determination

Thank You, George Michael

And fuck you, 2016.

It tried and failed to get Carrie Fisher, so this terrible year took George Michael from us instead.

Faith was one of the first albums I ever owned. I didn’t understand a lot of things back then, but I vaguely understood that George wasn’t actually singing most of these songs to women. It’s hard to put into words, but I feel somehow that people like him were the reason I didn’t end up homophobic. His struggles with love and loss and faith resonated. They didn’t need a hetero context to be valid or true.

And his music, his voice, everything about him was so incredibly beautiful. He was one of those singers who, even long after I’d lost my taste for pop music, I could still listen to with reverence. Continue reading “Thank You, George Michael”

Thank You, George Michael

Saturday Songs: Midwinter Shenanigans Playlist

Happy Newtonmas Eve, my lovelies! Merry Solstice! Happy all the holidays, in fact!

For your listening pleasure, I’ve been putting together a Midwinter Shenanigans playlist (although it’s the Midsummer Shenanigans Playlist for all you folks in the Southern Hemisphere). It’s full of some non-religious tunes, unusual takes on classic faves, and things that are just darned beautiful. Continue reading “Saturday Songs: Midwinter Shenanigans Playlist”

Saturday Songs: Midwinter Shenanigans Playlist

Sunday Song: For Niki

Niki Massey is gone. She was one of the best of us. I don’t know if she ever knew that, or believed us when we told her. I wish I had one last minute with her. I wish I had a minute to tell her how good and brave and brilliant and beautiful she was, and how much better the world was for having her in it.

I wish she could see the outpouring of love on her Facebook wall. I wish she could hear all of the words from the people she’s touched.

She was kind, and fierce, and she never stopped trying no matter how much circumstances made her despair. She was always there for people. She always had the sharpest insight, and the right words, and the biggest heart of us all.

And now she is gone. And the world will never be the same. There’s a great big gaping hole where she should be.

Niki. I love you, and I miss you, and I am ferociously glad I had the privilege of knowing you. I’m so glad we were colleagues. And I know I’m not the only one who will be fighting for the things you wanted to change. If I have to burn down the world to change it for you, I will. You deserve nothing less.

Niki loved VNV Nation. I remember how thrilled I was to find out. We didn’t really get a chance to geek out over them. I don’t know what her favorite song was. But this reminds me of her.

Rest in power.

Image shows Niki Massey, a beautiful black woman with shoulder-length locs, wearing a black felt hat. She is pulling her glasses down and winking at the camera without smiling.
Niki Massey. Image from her Facebook wall.

If you want to share memories of her to be preserved in a post on my blog, please go to my Facebook page.

My love and deepest sympathy to her chosen family and friends.

Continue reading “Sunday Song: For Niki”

Sunday Song: For Niki

Monday Musical Interlude: A UFO!!!

It’s Labor Day in the United States, and I don’t feel like laboring much. The unions fought for my right to be a lazy bum on weekends, damn it. I’ll not dishonor their struggles by putting my nose to the grindstone! Besides, we saw a UFO at Mount Rainier and I want to show you it!

Image shows a ridge and forested mountains. The sun is shining in the sky. There is a bright, greenish orb of light floating on top of one of the ridges.
See it? See that greeny glow just over the ridge, there? It’s totally a UFO. Definitely not lens flare. I don’t care what anybody says.

Here it is, coming in for a landing!

In the same scene a second later, the orb is touching the ridge line.
I’m sure they come with a message of peace and prosperity for Earth or something. I shoulda listened when the Uranchia enthusiast at our bookstore talked our ears off about it daily for hours. Then I’d know what they’re here for.

BECAUSE IT’S TOTALLY NOT LENS FLARE. LET ME HAVE MY DELUSIONS, OKAY?!

Here is a nice set of close-ups so you can see it is definitely a UFO coming in for a landing. Continue reading “Monday Musical Interlude: A UFO!!!”

Monday Musical Interlude: A UFO!!!

Saturday Song: PRIDE

It’s Pride month. This June, we saw one of the most horrific hate crimes ever perpetrated against the LGBTQ community in the United States.

We won’t let hate defeat love.

So let’s make a playlist of Pride songs, indomitable songs; songs that celebrate queerness. Share your favorites from musicians who have come out. Share the songs that helped you navigate an often-hostile hetero world. Share the songs that you have danced to, or loved to, or cried to. Continue reading “Saturday Song: PRIDE”

Saturday Song: PRIDE

Sunday Song: High School Anthem

Sorry, loves. It’s been a weekend full of job applications and then it got really hot and Misha and I were hanging out down by the creek working on an ACE post that took forever because almost every single fact per sentence was wrong. And then Aunty Flow showed up. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if stress hadn’t caused this to be the most painful tussle with my uterus for several months. Then a dear friend came by to feed me and watch Miss Fisher while I made solid progress on sorting Mount St. Helens photos. We’re now more than halfway there!

So we’ll have our Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education up tomorrow sometime. And it’s just after 9pm on the west coast of North America, so there’s still time for a Sunday Song, damn it!

For this week’s theme, I’m going old school, as in high school. I think nearly everybody’s got that one song that pretty much sums up a portion of your high school career. It’s one that brings back the memories every time you hear it. For me, that song is Slaughter’s “Up All Night.” I’d go to bed at like three in the morning, drag myself up at seven to get to school, and then repeat. I have no idea how I survived. But I loved my late nights, and on weekends, I’d be up until dawn, just like the song says. Continue reading “Sunday Song: High School Anthem”

Sunday Song: High School Anthem