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I’ve been thinking a lot about antiwar music, specifically songs coming out of the Iraq War period. One track that I keep coming back to is Le Tigre’s “New Kicks” off their 2004 album This Island. It’s quite a galvanizing song, sampling protest chants and soundbites from the likes of Amy Goodman, Al Sharpton, and Susan Sarandon, all speaking out against the Iraq War. What deeply bothers me,…
Whenever I'm on a plane, I think of Jesse. I think of being hunched over my tray table in my window seat uncontrollably crying for hours on end with Me Porto Bonito and Everybody’s Gotta Live on repeat—the two songs I managed to download to my phone before takeoff, just a short time after I had learned he’d died. I think of tremendous loss. I think our final moments together, eating lunch in…
Last night’s snoozefest of a Super Bowl’s sole saving grace was its halftime show, starring the one and only Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka rapper, singer, genius artist and producer Bad Bunny. And jesús cristo, what a halftime show it was, a flagrant declaration of culture, history, resistance, and endurance. A real-life wedding took place. Bad Bunny was served a shot from Toñita herself.…
Watching Eddington is akin to staring at your reflection in a carnival mirror for two hours and twenty-five minutes; it's wacky, exaggerated, and distorted—and you are the source from which it springs. For all the movie's hyperbole, it rings disturbingly true. While so much has happened in the U.S. over the last five years, Eddington is a jocular, jolting reminder that nothing’s progressed; we’ve…
Scribbled on the front in red marker were the barest of instructions: scatter in full sun. Or was it scatter in fall sun? I could not decipher the handwriting for the life of me, but after a little googling, “full” seemed the safest bet. Full sun and cold weather—not fall cold, but early spring. Poppy seeds like a bit of frost, but only before they germinate. Spring it was. And so, on a cold…
On one hand, I don’t like regrets; I have very few. On the other, I fucking hate living in fear. My worst decisions, my most shameful moments, have been motivated by panic, distress, and worry. I refuse to alter my life before I’m ready because time might be running out. Of course with this mindset comes a significant chance of actually being out of time, a risk that weighs heavily on me. But I…
I swear people able to see the good in their periods must have an easier time at it than me. They must not throw up or pass out or bleed heavily enough to fling blood across the floor reminiscent of an axe murder scene. They must not have erratic cycles, never sure if their next period will start in 20 days or 35 days, never knowing if it'll last 4 days or 10 days. Or maybe they do—maybe when it…
Last night, Senator Cory Booker completed his record-breaking 25-hour “stand” against Trump. The Guardian declared it “a primal scream of resistance”. I’m sorry, were we watching the same speech? Resistance how? Recounting stories and declaiming end-of-times warnings to an echo chamber, with nothing on the line? Booker didn’t do anything, let alone #resist. He delivered an aesthetic showstopper,…
Since deserting the ceasefire deal ten days ago to resume its genocidal campaign and takeover of Palestinian land, Israel has killed 896 Palestinians, bringing the death toll to 50,251, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. That’s 896 men, women, and children—nearly 2 percent of the total murdered since October 7, 2023—killed within a span of ten days, amid the most inhumane of conditions created…
Spring is springing, for which I am eternally grateful. I enjoy taking walks around my neighborhood, spotting the occasional one-off bunch of flowers or bright green blades of grass shooting up from the cold ground. While above, trees are starting to bud, their naked branches tinged with color and texture promising happier, longer, warmer days ahead. And completing my early spring explorations is…
