MJ

A massive achievement, and I’m so grateful for all the work involved.

I’m in an upzoned area and I’m just so, SO relieved. Massive achievement.

Seeing her perform “I Wanna Be a Rockette” dressed like a space rocket remains a highlight of the shows I’ve been to. Just the perfect amount of stupid.

If you live in California, stop what you’re doing and take 2 minutes to call Newsom’s office in support of SB79. Building more housing near transit is good.

I keep yelling “I didn’t start studying fascism because I wanted to be relevant!” into the void.

Hey be nice, they just found out we lost the war :(

it's bad!

I know it’s not a hot take, but the Phone lipsync might be my favorite from the US. Whenever I’m looking for my phone I pat my body down the same way she did 🫣

It's not exactly the same, but it's *so cool* when a toddler learns what an owl is for the first time—like, how incredible that suddenly this whole new being now exists in their world! I've tried to cultivate a similar impulse of joy for others' discoveries, even if they're never as rad as owls.

a black bear is swimming in the ocean with its head out of the water . Alt: Godzilla collapsing into the ocean after learning a massive loser has been rewarded with positions of academic prestige.

Haha, yea, that would be so bad if I ever heard that, aha.

Sometimes I feel real stupid for experiencing any academic impostor syndrome while guys like this are out there.

Druthers Haver @6thgrade4ever CHOTINER: So how many tacos did you eat? ME: About four, I think. CHOTINER: Ok. On Instagram-- ME: Or six, maybe. CHOTINER: Yeah. Do you think some people might call that a lot? ME: Well, that's why I got the small chips. CHOTINER: Right. It's about discipline. ME: Exactly. 12:02 PM · Apr 11, 2019

The "Tacos Chotiner" tweet remains undefeated

But also I spent most of my life as an evangelical tortured by any perceived incoherence in my beliefs and thus furiously searching for either resolution or something coherent to replace them, so, it could just be a me problem. Casual paranormal belief gets me, too. (Sorry if that’s rude, Mr. Ghost)

For some reason I get stuck on how most astrology folk I know make (extensive!) scientific and metaphysical claims while pretending they aren’t/it’s not that serious. Like, the defensive gap between rhetoric and practice is weird. I get its appeal as an aesthetic stucturation of one’s life, but…

fighting tears

Hmm, pues, esto cambia un poco la trayectoria de mi disertación jaja.

Absolutely spineless. All the most horrific histories are filled with men like you—cowards who could have averted violence but chose instead to let profound evil tighten its grip on the country, exposing countless vulnerable populations to even greater suffering. We are begging you to do something.

The wartime poetry of Denise Levertov really helped me with this impulse—how denying/ignoring the very real beauty of the world does nothing to improve the material conditions of those suffering and cuts one off from a sustaining resource in the long struggle. Thanks for this :)

Literally the album I have playing on my turntable at the moment. Immaculate.

If you’re staying near the E or B line, or on Santa Monica or Sunset (great E-W bus lines) or Vermont (N-S) you just might make it! I’m pretty close to not needing my car more than once a week… but also I don’t get to go to many of my favorite places much anymore lol. Welcome to the city! Eat a lot.

A note with a poem written by a 7-year-old that says: “I am sorry, how about you? I am sorry, I know what I did do. I did not act correct, but it very hard to be perfect.”

My mother found an old “apology” poem I gave her when I was 7. This was about as repentant as I could be at that age. Truly, it very hard to be perfect. 😮‍💨

A small, white Maltese-Yorkie sits on a white chair while wearing a frog onesie. There is a vase of multicolored flowers behind him.

The primordial enemy, Kiko. We wonder if, when we leave them alone together, he calls us horrible things and then gaslights everyone so that Soleah looks like the monster. More plausibly, she’s just emotionally toxic.

A shepherd mix looks up at the camera, with her ears flopping back. She is waiting for squirrels.

Her name is Soleah, and she is a perfect dog but a horrible person. Her hatred for our tiny, ancient, deaf and blind Maltese-Yorkie could fuel a small country.

Gravesite of Lenard Mennes Mennes invented the tags we all place annually upon our license plates, and his story is told frankly and in full upon his headstone.

Why scroll at a coffee shop when you could scroll at the grave of the man responsible for license plate tags? www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave...

Thank you for this!

Eliade argues these (+ more) elements to be constitutive of religion through history, even present in a debased way within the unconscious of "secular" humans. Loved the over-dramatic conclusion, likening secularization to a second fall, the loss of another garden where one could encounter God. 2/2

A mid-size Australian Cattle Dog and Shepherd mix pokes her head above the back of the couch, with her two paws on either side of her mouth. She is perfect.

Just joining the chorus:

Also upvoting Museum of Jurassic Technology. It’s a straight shot from USC on the metro.

Which part of town? That narrows it down quite a bit. I’m always a big advocate of a winding (3-6hr) food and coffee crawl from Chinatown > Bunker Hill > Old Bank District > Little Tokyo > Arts District.

Otherwise, Dan Sung Sa in Korea Town is my fave place to bring out of town guests (go early).