I always smile at strangers. I have RBF, so I smile... A lot. Unless I want to seem unapproachable. But anyhooo... Have you only just discovered Wet Leg? I really dig them. Also, Hard Candy was one of my favorite movies of Paige's. I hope you will be writing about your week in the wilderness.... See ya soon!!!! Love and miss you and that firecracker of a wife of yours!!! ❤️
I love that pic of you & John Waters, both leaning in at the same angle, as if about to divulge something brilliantly weird. Dressing like a sketchy car salesman is the best -- maybe the only -- way to meet John Waters.
Thanks for the Wet Leg song. I marched in the Pride parade with my nephew on Saturday (with only a little coughing) and I’m still a bucket of goo today -- that song & Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups are the only things keeping me going on my chaise lounge.
loved this thank you! and also your previous recommendation of The Beths album "Expert in a Dying Field"- I've been playing it on a loop and it's given me a lot of joy. This newsletter made me want to watch the movie "Nine Days" again, which definitely has its heavier moments, but also moments of joy and delight that are so profound and moving. (also worth watching just to see Winston Duke passionately recite part of Whitman's "Song of Myself"- so beautiful)
I watched Nine Days last night and loved it, especially the ending. Like The Man from Earth, it uses a small budget to tell an intriguing story with a fine cast. Thank you for introducing me to it!
I'm curious about the Lavalle book. Big Sandy (where both U.S. Senator Jon Tester and my pal Jeff Ament, founding member of Pearl Jam, hail from) is right next door to the Rocky Boy's Chippewa-Cree Reservation. In the early 1900s the region was a hotbed of "what are we gonna do about all these Indians?" My people's version of the Trail of Tears (most tribes have one) originated with the Cree Deportation Act of 1896, which rolled out of Fort Assiniboine just up the highway from Big Sandy, when the "Buffalo Soldiers" – the all-Black 10th Cavalry, under "Black Jack" Pershing – rounded up as many of us as they could catch and drove us to Canada; first via rail cars, then on foot. All this led to the reservation's establishment in 1916. When I do my talks, I tell people that in simplest terms, one might say my Little Shell Tribe is comprised of the diaspora of people who didn't fit on that reservation though we are closely related. Does the book touch on any of that particular history?
Rocky Boy is mentioned with respect by one of the colonizers, and there is a Métis character, but he is a minor one. I was going to mention him, but his inclusion felt like an afterthought, even though the writer knows the history of the Métis. The main character is a Black woman. Any time "homesteading" is mentioned, she makes us aware that the land was taken and not just waiting to be colonized. The colonizers are the enemy of the story, but I would not say that Native Americans are heavily represented. LaValle wrote it after visiting Big Sandy and learning how many "lone women" took up the offer to colonize these lands. Making their freedom by taking that of others, because the government made that the only option, to divide and keep control.
Let me apologize for Premier Ford, my fearless leader up here. He does have a solution, though: He'll plough up the protected land around Toronto (the Green Belt) and build more subdivisions courtesy of his developer buddies, so we can all move out there and leave Toronto (the Big Smoke) to the poor people. But it's joy you want? Hey, I would buy a car from you, electric or not.
That’s always their answer, to either make the city unaffordable to anyone but the rich or abandon it. It can’t possible be livable and affordable! Why be rich if you have to share it? The misery of others is what makes it taste good.
What a bouquet of lovely things you've shared with us today. I'm LOVING Gay's essays on delight - the wonderful thing about delight is that it's contagious. Like fear, faith etc... Sorry to hear about your air. Extra important to celebrate the beautiful things as we move forwards into climate chaos... Your Substack is one of them!
Thank you, Satya! The air has improved, and I went for a long bike ride yesterday. I have Gay’s book coming, and I look forward to reading it, and his next one, Inciting Joy.
I always smile at strangers. I have RBF, so I smile... A lot. Unless I want to seem unapproachable. But anyhooo... Have you only just discovered Wet Leg? I really dig them. Also, Hard Candy was one of my favorite movies of Paige's. I hope you will be writing about your week in the wilderness.... See ya soon!!!! Love and miss you and that firecracker of a wife of yours!!! ❤️
I love that pic of you & John Waters, both leaning in at the same angle, as if about to divulge something brilliantly weird. Dressing like a sketchy car salesman is the best -- maybe the only -- way to meet John Waters.
Thanks for the Wet Leg song. I marched in the Pride parade with my nephew on Saturday (with only a little coughing) and I’m still a bucket of goo today -- that song & Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups are the only things keeping me going on my chaise lounge.
Oh, and Happy Birthday! 🎂
loved this thank you! and also your previous recommendation of The Beths album "Expert in a Dying Field"- I've been playing it on a loop and it's given me a lot of joy. This newsletter made me want to watch the movie "Nine Days" again, which definitely has its heavier moments, but also moments of joy and delight that are so profound and moving. (also worth watching just to see Winston Duke passionately recite part of Whitman's "Song of Myself"- so beautiful)
I watched Nine Days last night and loved it, especially the ending. Like The Man from Earth, it uses a small budget to tell an intriguing story with a fine cast. Thank you for introducing me to it!
I'm so glad you were able to see it! The ending really is amazing. I'll have to check out The Man from Earth- I've never seen that one.
Thank you, and I will watch Nine Days soon. It sounds wonderful.
I'm curious about the Lavalle book. Big Sandy (where both U.S. Senator Jon Tester and my pal Jeff Ament, founding member of Pearl Jam, hail from) is right next door to the Rocky Boy's Chippewa-Cree Reservation. In the early 1900s the region was a hotbed of "what are we gonna do about all these Indians?" My people's version of the Trail of Tears (most tribes have one) originated with the Cree Deportation Act of 1896, which rolled out of Fort Assiniboine just up the highway from Big Sandy, when the "Buffalo Soldiers" – the all-Black 10th Cavalry, under "Black Jack" Pershing – rounded up as many of us as they could catch and drove us to Canada; first via rail cars, then on foot. All this led to the reservation's establishment in 1916. When I do my talks, I tell people that in simplest terms, one might say my Little Shell Tribe is comprised of the diaspora of people who didn't fit on that reservation though we are closely related. Does the book touch on any of that particular history?
Rocky Boy is mentioned with respect by one of the colonizers, and there is a Métis character, but he is a minor one. I was going to mention him, but his inclusion felt like an afterthought, even though the writer knows the history of the Métis. The main character is a Black woman. Any time "homesteading" is mentioned, she makes us aware that the land was taken and not just waiting to be colonized. The colonizers are the enemy of the story, but I would not say that Native Americans are heavily represented. LaValle wrote it after visiting Big Sandy and learning how many "lone women" took up the offer to colonize these lands. Making their freedom by taking that of others, because the government made that the only option, to divide and keep control.
Let me apologize for Premier Ford, my fearless leader up here. He does have a solution, though: He'll plough up the protected land around Toronto (the Green Belt) and build more subdivisions courtesy of his developer buddies, so we can all move out there and leave Toronto (the Big Smoke) to the poor people. But it's joy you want? Hey, I would buy a car from you, electric or not.
That’s always their answer, to either make the city unaffordable to anyone but the rich or abandon it. It can’t possible be livable and affordable! Why be rich if you have to share it? The misery of others is what makes it taste good.
What a bouquet of lovely things you've shared with us today. I'm LOVING Gay's essays on delight - the wonderful thing about delight is that it's contagious. Like fear, faith etc... Sorry to hear about your air. Extra important to celebrate the beautiful things as we move forwards into climate chaos... Your Substack is one of them!
Thank you, Satya! The air has improved, and I went for a long bike ride yesterday. I have Gay’s book coming, and I look forward to reading it, and his next one, Inciting Joy.
Oooh another one for my long list of wanted books. Glad it cleared up!