Issue #8 Sometimes madness is wisdom
Dear Internet,
I'll start out with the tiresome, "Can you BELIEVE it's August?" because while it is a predictable rhetoric, it's also very true. Next week I'm going to be 44 1/6; it's soon to be cord weather; Cherrios are coming out with pumpkin spice cereal. Welcome to fall.
I keep going on that I want to be the Samuel Pepys of my generation and TheExHusband quips I never divulge current climes and I need to change that. This is me changing that.
Twenty years on the internet and I still marvel that me (in Connecticut) can Skype with TEH (in Kentucky) while we watch the Olympics (in Rio) together. (Fun fact: TEH and I met on the internet 20 years ago on IRC.) We marveled the opening ceremonies reminded us of Eurovision except with less gaudy attire and no dance routines.
NBC continues to be fuck twats on the reasoning of their tape delay and the commentators remain racist, and finally the International Olympic Committee laughably and foolishly attempt to ban gifs (as seen on the right, good luck with that one. Also, Bless you, Tumblr.).
Fuck Brexit.
Donald Trump continues to be a racist, misogynistic, xenophobe and if Hilz doesn't win, Canada or Scotland look like good places to settle. #imwithher
Dickens put the smack down when he said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…"
Yeah, pretty much. (Fun fact: I'm a cousin of Dickens. Truly.)
That's enough of current news. On with the show.
This week's theme is Midnight in Paris, which is made complicated by blurry relationship I have with Allen. I'm also a recent (within the last decade) fan of his films and sometimes it's tough to negotiate that shifting line. This film overrides the complications of the man, so I choose to willfully forget the politics and surround myself in all things Jazz Age.
While the cast is pretty amazing, what draws me to it is the premise and the period it reinvents. I love, love, LOVE the Fitzgeralds (see up / right), and Hemingway, and the Jazz Age, and everything Allen wraps up into a shimmied bow. (Check out Cat Valente's Speak Easy, which is an inventive retelling of Zelda + Scott. First read through I gave the book three stars but after some simmering, I'll have to re-read it where I think I'll more than likely bump it up to four.)
Not much new to report on EPbaB other than I updated the landing page. No new blog pieces have been written. Everyday I think about updating EPbaB but my online presence is being scrutinized by the consultancy that hired me so for now it is Facebook and TinyLetter. I will throw you a bone: After the consultancy hired me they opted to do an online check after they extended the offer. A few days later, I got a phone call from my new manager who found my online presence, even my personal site, was not indicative of what a digital archivist should look like. They asked me to change or remove my picture, again off my personal site, remove some content on the about me page, and questioned my commitment to ethics. Me. Having issues with ethics! Oh. That's funny. They inferred if I didn't listen to them rattle off SAA's Code of Ethics and verbally agree or disagree with those statements, they would rescind my offer. So I did and I've been regretting it ever since.
There is more to the story which someday I will make public but just not now.
No new content over at lisarabey.com but I will hastily add that's more about time than lack of content to create. I mentioned over there about the ever growing list of topics which keeps getting longer. It then dawned on me the topics were ones I would have normally reserve for EPbaB but came to the bright idea I could condense, edit, and pitch those pieces to (mostly) paying websites.
I have been keeping an eye on how my after work time is spent but in the evenings I roughly have a few hours, if I'm generous, of me time to write. I have a commute home that could last up to an hour, dinner, dog stuff, prep for next day stuff, and a standing Skype date with TEH at 8:30PM EST. Excuses, excuses, but I'm getting better.
Books / Movies / TV
I've started listening to The Night Circus but if Jim Dale was not narrating it, I would have ditched this long ago. To be honest, I have no idea if I am going to finish it.
Like most of the planet, I've mainlined Stranger Things and I'm chewing on it since it ended - yay second season! Right now as the Olympics are in full swing, regular TV is on its downtime so I'm trying to wean away from TV and do more.
One can dream.
Curated Love
The best gift ever! Norway is giving Finland a mountain for its birthday [The Guardian]
I will live forever! [NY Times]
If you musically came of age in the late '80s / early '90s, John Peel was responsible for that [Open Culture]
Remember when Yahoo! was a thing? [NY Times]
Wanting to lose weight is financially expensive [The Billfold]
I know I look young but I don't think I could ever pass for a high schooler even in my early 30s [The Atlantic]
First umbrella users were publicly shamed? [Atlas Obscura]
As I read this, I was thinking of how writing conjured for me and I think that answer is going to surprise me [Catapult]
If you're not in the librarian world, a massive threat to our profession is happening in the UK where they want to cut services to be run by volunteers with no training or close branches down completely [The Guardian]
I posted this article on the concept of "otherkin" and asked for opinions which ranged from "u do u" to "you've got to be fucking kidding me." I try desperately to let others live for their own sake but I'm finding it hard to wrap around the concept of identifying as a cloud and having body dysmorphia because of it. [Broadly]
I like to wrap my language up with different isms from different time periods, mainly because it's fun, but I think because I'm always using out of mode isms, I never really think of them having a sell by date [Aeon]
The woman behind the Suicide Squad [NPR]
Much of my struggles with my class identity on being white trash are nearly identical
I love this essay on the struggle with the death of a parent and I hope one day I can do my father the same service
I laughed when I read this because it encapsulated all the experiences TEH and I have discussed on sharing a bed [HuffPo]
"...self care 'is not self-indulgence - it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.'" [Baffler]
Many of my friends are definitely in the "toddler grandma" fashion camp [The Establishment]
TBH, I never really got why Pet Sounds is touted as the father of contemporary rock, and maybe I never will [MTV]
William Blake was an etcher, artist, poet, and all around good guy. His take on the American Revolution is exquisite [Quirk Books]
Thinks I've never thought of: How the world is run by "defaults" [ProPublica]
Until next week! xoxo,
lisa You can find me across the internet as @byshieldmaiden or
you can like my facebook page, A Most Unreliable Narrator.
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