Gina Harris's Blog, page 85
December 31, 2018
Resolved for you: Everybody selfie!
I am going to suggest a New Year's resolution for everyone: Do your own #365feministselfie in 2019.
Technology problems derailed my second time around. Although I finally got many pictures uploaded, posting them all at once did not really seem helpful. However, for both my first completed attempt and my second attempt I never actually started on January 1st, tracking a calendar year. That's what I'm going to do now, and you can do it with me.
If the point before was to be visible - facing yourself and the world - that is needed now more than ever. There are many forces working to diminish individuals now. That is especially true for women. There is pressure on us to smile and look good. Seeing yourself at first is a reminder that you are not meeting those expectations.
Here is the way that it transforms: when you do start looking at yourself every day, it is easier to like yourself. The beauty standards are stupid and superficial, ignoring so much that is wonderful, and the double standard where attractiveness is more important for women is ridiculous, and you are a good person so it is good to see you.
(Maybe if you are not a good person it can inspire you to change.)
I have to admit that I think some pretty painful things are coming up for me in 2019. I hope there are good things too, but there are going to be things that hurt. There will be days I won't have a smile, and days I will want to hide from the world.
That's what makes this important. It is not just that I am a person, and one who is fat and aging, but also that I have pains and imperfections and heartaches along with the joys and abilities. None of those things diminish my worth; they are an integral part of my humanity. By committing to do this I am committing not to hide from any of it.
It's important to take the daily selfies, and it's important to post them. I post on Twitter and Facebook, but Instagram would be a perfectly logical place to post, as would Tumblr. I can totally see creating a blog for it (Blogger is easy to use), especially if you decide to post weekly instead of daily. I don't recommend posting less frequently than weekly, as it quickly becomes a pain and drags on momentum.
Do use the hash tag, because then it connects you to something bigger. You are an individual, and your selfies show you as that individual, but you are also a part of the human family, a part of the world. Remember and celebrate that.
Men among my readers, of course you should do it, and of course you should use the same hash tag. Perhaps this will help you to embrace feminism as well as yourself, and we should all be feminists.
I am including some of my old posts on the topic, and some posts that have influenced me.
Do it.
I'll be looking for your pictures.
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-year-of-selfies.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2018/07/when-selfies-stick.html
http://www.shakesville.com/2018/01/365feministselfie.html
http://www.vivalafeminista.com/2013/12/365feministselfie-are-you-in.html
Technology problems derailed my second time around. Although I finally got many pictures uploaded, posting them all at once did not really seem helpful. However, for both my first completed attempt and my second attempt I never actually started on January 1st, tracking a calendar year. That's what I'm going to do now, and you can do it with me.
If the point before was to be visible - facing yourself and the world - that is needed now more than ever. There are many forces working to diminish individuals now. That is especially true for women. There is pressure on us to smile and look good. Seeing yourself at first is a reminder that you are not meeting those expectations.
Here is the way that it transforms: when you do start looking at yourself every day, it is easier to like yourself. The beauty standards are stupid and superficial, ignoring so much that is wonderful, and the double standard where attractiveness is more important for women is ridiculous, and you are a good person so it is good to see you.
(Maybe if you are not a good person it can inspire you to change.)
I have to admit that I think some pretty painful things are coming up for me in 2019. I hope there are good things too, but there are going to be things that hurt. There will be days I won't have a smile, and days I will want to hide from the world.
That's what makes this important. It is not just that I am a person, and one who is fat and aging, but also that I have pains and imperfections and heartaches along with the joys and abilities. None of those things diminish my worth; they are an integral part of my humanity. By committing to do this I am committing not to hide from any of it.
It's important to take the daily selfies, and it's important to post them. I post on Twitter and Facebook, but Instagram would be a perfectly logical place to post, as would Tumblr. I can totally see creating a blog for it (Blogger is easy to use), especially if you decide to post weekly instead of daily. I don't recommend posting less frequently than weekly, as it quickly becomes a pain and drags on momentum.
Do use the hash tag, because then it connects you to something bigger. You are an individual, and your selfies show you as that individual, but you are also a part of the human family, a part of the world. Remember and celebrate that.
Men among my readers, of course you should do it, and of course you should use the same hash tag. Perhaps this will help you to embrace feminism as well as yourself, and we should all be feminists.
I am including some of my old posts on the topic, and some posts that have influenced me.
Do it.
I'll be looking for your pictures.
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-year-of-selfies.html
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2018/07/when-selfies-stick.html
http://www.shakesville.com/2018/01/365feministselfie.html
http://www.vivalafeminista.com/2013/12/365feministselfie-are-you-in.html
December 28, 2018
Band Reviews: Null 'N' Void and Sly Antics
I'm getting in two fairly new bands with not many releases today.
Null 'N' Void is a three piece alternative band from Newcastle with a strong grunge vibe. They currently only have one self-titled song, but that song reminds me of Pearl Jam.
I prefer it when I have a little more to go on, but they will probably be fine.
https://www.facebook.com/NullNVoid18/
https://nullnvoid1.bandcamp.com/track/nnv
https://twitter.com/NullNVoid8
Sly Antics
Head South and West for about two hours to get to Manchester for another alternative band, Sly Antics. With four tracks, it is easier to get a grasp on this band.
There is some pretty aggressive guitar, but that doesn't override the strong sense of funk, especially on "Motion". The intro to "Lights Go Down" encourages head pounding, but the body of the song is a sort of hard blues (which feels very Manchester-appropriate).
The band likes to say their sound is like "being slapped in the face with a box of stale cereal", but I think they sound pretty fresh.
http://slyantics.com/
https://www.facebook.com/slyantics
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt_m0y2G2dDKCIV4DqBQHsA
https://twitter.com/slyantics
Null 'N' Void is a three piece alternative band from Newcastle with a strong grunge vibe. They currently only have one self-titled song, but that song reminds me of Pearl Jam.
I prefer it when I have a little more to go on, but they will probably be fine.
https://www.facebook.com/NullNVoid18/
https://nullnvoid1.bandcamp.com/track/nnv
https://twitter.com/NullNVoid8
Sly Antics
Head South and West for about two hours to get to Manchester for another alternative band, Sly Antics. With four tracks, it is easier to get a grasp on this band.
There is some pretty aggressive guitar, but that doesn't override the strong sense of funk, especially on "Motion". The intro to "Lights Go Down" encourages head pounding, but the body of the song is a sort of hard blues (which feels very Manchester-appropriate).
The band likes to say their sound is like "being slapped in the face with a box of stale cereal", but I think they sound pretty fresh.
http://slyantics.com/
https://www.facebook.com/slyantics
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt_m0y2G2dDKCIV4DqBQHsA
https://twitter.com/slyantics
December 27, 2018
Band Review: Intaferon
Back at the end of 2014, I read Lori Majewski's Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs that Defined the 1980s. The chapters were primarily done in interview form with band members who had done significant songs, ending with five related themes or types of bands. That could mean five songs about nuclear war or five bands with two men and one woman, with some connections being more tenuous than others.
The book was primarily a fun reminder of a good times and good music, but there were a few pauses. Some bands were much more active than I'd realized, or I remembered the names of bands but knew nothing about their catalogs. There were even a few bands that I'd never heard of, which seems wrong given the way I'd devoured Star Hits back in the day. Of these, the band with the lowest output was Intaferon.
You'd think with two men named Simon and high cheekbones that I would have heard someone exclaiming over them at some point. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were active in 1983 and 1984, and things really started kicking off in 1985.
Their music has had a life beyond that. "Get Out of London" (the song referenced in the book) may be from 1983, but it was used in The Wild Thornberrys Movie in 2002 and in a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie the year before that. "Steamhammer Sam" was used in Max Headroom. It seems unlikely that the former band members were doing that much promotion to get into media; was it just the power of their electronic drum beats?
It is possible that the men's hearts weren't in it so much. Simon Fellowes became a novelist, and Simon Gillham became a philosophy lecturer after doing his doctoral work on Nietzsche (they sure sound like New Wave artists). At the same time, they have both released more music on their own.
I don't know how 80s-ish their later music sounds, but it does seem possible that I will eventually find out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intaferon
The book was primarily a fun reminder of a good times and good music, but there were a few pauses. Some bands were much more active than I'd realized, or I remembered the names of bands but knew nothing about their catalogs. There were even a few bands that I'd never heard of, which seems wrong given the way I'd devoured Star Hits back in the day. Of these, the band with the lowest output was Intaferon.
You'd think with two men named Simon and high cheekbones that I would have heard someone exclaiming over them at some point. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were active in 1983 and 1984, and things really started kicking off in 1985.
Their music has had a life beyond that. "Get Out of London" (the song referenced in the book) may be from 1983, but it was used in The Wild Thornberrys Movie in 2002 and in a Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie the year before that. "Steamhammer Sam" was used in Max Headroom. It seems unlikely that the former band members were doing that much promotion to get into media; was it just the power of their electronic drum beats?
It is possible that the men's hearts weren't in it so much. Simon Fellowes became a novelist, and Simon Gillham became a philosophy lecturer after doing his doctoral work on Nietzsche (they sure sound like New Wave artists). At the same time, they have both released more music on their own.
I don't know how 80s-ish their later music sounds, but it does seem possible that I will eventually find out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intaferon
December 25, 2018
Christmas break
I am taking a couple of days off from blogging. There will definitely be music reviews this week, and maybe a post Wednesday.
December 21, 2018
Band Review: Tony Cuic
The downside of reviewing Tony Cuic or TC Originals is that there will be broken links and suspended accounts, which can be very frustrating. I had to do some searching, but all of these links are good, at least for now.
Getting past that, though, you have rock in the vein of a dad having fun, and that's okay.
I think the beat on "Lying to Me" is really strong, though it may not be his best song overall. Listening can be done easily on Soundcloud, but I advise skipping the two screaming tracks, which bothered my dog. At the same time, I do not doubt that he had fun.
https://soundcloud.com/tonestar69
https://www.reverbnation.com/tonycuic
https://www.youtube.com/user/TonyCuic
https://twitter.com/originals_c
Getting past that, though, you have rock in the vein of a dad having fun, and that's okay.
I think the beat on "Lying to Me" is really strong, though it may not be his best song overall. Listening can be done easily on Soundcloud, but I advise skipping the two screaming tracks, which bothered my dog. At the same time, I do not doubt that he had fun.
https://soundcloud.com/tonestar69
https://www.reverbnation.com/tonycuic
https://www.youtube.com/user/TonyCuic
https://twitter.com/originals_c
December 20, 2018
Band Review: Hocket
I have been meaning to write about Hocket for a long time, possibly the entire five years that they have been around.
They originally ended up on my review list after being recommended by TV writer Aaron Fullerton. Over time they fell prey to my own disorganization about getting to bands from both the recommendations list and the following list, then to me being discouraged by the size of their output, and finally to my not liking them very much once I started to listen.
I understand what they are going for better now. "Hocket" is a music noun, referring to a spasm or interruption in the music, and the effect of that. Really it is more intellectual music, and music to think about, rather than to enjoy. I am sure some people do enjoy it.
To be clear, I think they are doing what they are doing well, even if I do not particularly value it. There are still no regrets about finally checking them out.
http://www.hocket.org/
https://www.facebook.com/HOCKETensemble
https://www.youtube.com/user/hocketensemble
https://soundcloud.com/hocket
https://twitter.com/HOCKETensemble
They originally ended up on my review list after being recommended by TV writer Aaron Fullerton. Over time they fell prey to my own disorganization about getting to bands from both the recommendations list and the following list, then to me being discouraged by the size of their output, and finally to my not liking them very much once I started to listen.
I understand what they are going for better now. "Hocket" is a music noun, referring to a spasm or interruption in the music, and the effect of that. Really it is more intellectual music, and music to think about, rather than to enjoy. I am sure some people do enjoy it.
To be clear, I think they are doing what they are doing well, even if I do not particularly value it. There are still no regrets about finally checking them out.
http://www.hocket.org/
https://www.facebook.com/HOCKETensemble
https://www.youtube.com/user/hocketensemble
https://soundcloud.com/hocket
https://twitter.com/HOCKETensemble
Another late night post
I have been posting very late recently.
I have also given my mother some really good days. Not good enough to help her know that she is at home, but where there is contented engagement. That takes enough time that I end up posting very late.
I have been wondering if that is worth the effort. There are always plenty of other things to do, and one thing about posting later is that fewer people read the posts. I have never really done this for the page hits, but there is still something satisfying about seeing bigger numbers there.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to give it up.
However, last night I helped a friend working on something, and it was helped by being able to refer back to previous posts I had written. I hadn't written them with her in mind, or anyone, really, but they were relevant, and having been put out there once they could be recalled.
I don't know if that is enough of a reason to keep going, but it's at least one reason why I will feel good about what I have done either way.
Of course, it is also really three blogs with daily posting between them, so I could always drop just a part, but all of the parts are important to me.
However, I do kind of have some ideas for Christmas week and New Year's week, and I certainly want to at least get to my 600th band review, because with a little effort it can be a live performance with some personal significance. Anyway, at least two more weeks.
Then we will see about the new year.
I have also given my mother some really good days. Not good enough to help her know that she is at home, but where there is contented engagement. That takes enough time that I end up posting very late.
I have been wondering if that is worth the effort. There are always plenty of other things to do, and one thing about posting later is that fewer people read the posts. I have never really done this for the page hits, but there is still something satisfying about seeing bigger numbers there.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to give it up.
However, last night I helped a friend working on something, and it was helped by being able to refer back to previous posts I had written. I hadn't written them with her in mind, or anyone, really, but they were relevant, and having been put out there once they could be recalled.
I don't know if that is enough of a reason to keep going, but it's at least one reason why I will feel good about what I have done either way.
Of course, it is also really three blogs with daily posting between them, so I could always drop just a part, but all of the parts are important to me.
However, I do kind of have some ideas for Christmas week and New Year's week, and I certainly want to at least get to my 600th band review, because with a little effort it can be a live performance with some personal significance. Anyway, at least two more weeks.
Then we will see about the new year.
December 18, 2018
Reading integration
I started observing Native American Heritage Month 2010. At the time I would include one book that focused more on Latin America, because there are indigenous people there too. Some of the reading selections did not seem to fit right. I dropped that practice a while ago, and then I discovered there was a month for Hispanic Heritage too.
I don't know if it is a coincidence that the two months come so close together (September and November). Given their proximity, though, and my issues with mission creep, it was almost inevitable that they would start overlapping each other.
There were other factors. The source that I was using to find relevant children's books for September ended up having a lot of books, including a lot of YA. There was a book with November content that was available online for free for two weeks in October. It was not one I was likely to find in the library, so I had to start that reading early. Obviously, all of the books and how they went for their specific months will be covered eventually in different posts. Today is more about how they went together.
There is overlap between reading about indigenous people with a legacy of Spanish colonization and English colonization. There are differences too, but there are a lot of things that end up correlating and giving added depth. It is good to have these particular reading lists running into each other.
It is also notable, though, how much Black history coincides with these other two.
That is probably more so because so much of my reading focused on Cuba this year. Many slaves were brought to the Caribbean, but it went beyond that. Jews at different times fled to Cuba, and were invited to the Dominican Republic. Many people from Asia settled in Cuba. The Castro sisters who formed the band Anacaona had Chinese as well as indigenous ancestry.
It works other ways too. Russia had an exchange program with Cuba. The Russians mostly left when the Soviet Union fell, but there were Cubans in Russia who stayed. My most amazing transplant story is still that Japanese Samurai guarded silver shipments in Mexico, but there is a lot of really cool mixing that was happening all the time.
I still strongly believe in the value of focusing on specific experiences, but together they inform a broader picture. That picture is more complex and more beautiful, but it is also one that many people refuse to see, believing hard in a world much more segregated and monochromatic.
Looking back, I think one reason I stopped looking at Latin American history in November is that I understood the point of the different heritage months as a means of remembering that the history of the United States goes far beyond the white men that tend to get mentioned in the history books. Therefore, Hispanic Heritage Month would be about the Braceros program and the histories of Texas and New Mexico, and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month would be about Hawaii and Chinese immigrants building the railroad; that basically those months were for me to better understand the role of people of color in the United States.
Without having given up on that, it feels much broader now, but also more integrated. And yes, that integration is a scheduling issue, but it is also an issue of seeing more now that I have been at this for a while. Ah yes, a similar thing happened there.
And I love that. One reason I never wanted to do any post-graduate work in history is that generally that involves more and more specialization. It was always the big picture of history that was most interesting to me. I wanted to know about people and their ways. They keep making the same mistakes, but then they do these really beautiful things too. That never gets old for me.
I have read arguments against "diversity" because often that word ends up meaning looking for one person of color who is the best fit to throw in with a bunch of white people (or one woman to throw in with a bunch of men), and pay lip service to representation. Then, when that person voices any difference of opinion they face recrimination and it can get really ugly. I have seen it happen. There were usually good intentions, but not a realistic examination of what actual inclusion would mean.
If we will really look at each other, and listen, we can do better than that. That definitely involves talking to people and paying attention to their experiences now, but also, there are much worse things to do than reading books.
I don't know if it is a coincidence that the two months come so close together (September and November). Given their proximity, though, and my issues with mission creep, it was almost inevitable that they would start overlapping each other.
There were other factors. The source that I was using to find relevant children's books for September ended up having a lot of books, including a lot of YA. There was a book with November content that was available online for free for two weeks in October. It was not one I was likely to find in the library, so I had to start that reading early. Obviously, all of the books and how they went for their specific months will be covered eventually in different posts. Today is more about how they went together.
There is overlap between reading about indigenous people with a legacy of Spanish colonization and English colonization. There are differences too, but there are a lot of things that end up correlating and giving added depth. It is good to have these particular reading lists running into each other.
It is also notable, though, how much Black history coincides with these other two.
That is probably more so because so much of my reading focused on Cuba this year. Many slaves were brought to the Caribbean, but it went beyond that. Jews at different times fled to Cuba, and were invited to the Dominican Republic. Many people from Asia settled in Cuba. The Castro sisters who formed the band Anacaona had Chinese as well as indigenous ancestry.
It works other ways too. Russia had an exchange program with Cuba. The Russians mostly left when the Soviet Union fell, but there were Cubans in Russia who stayed. My most amazing transplant story is still that Japanese Samurai guarded silver shipments in Mexico, but there is a lot of really cool mixing that was happening all the time.
I still strongly believe in the value of focusing on specific experiences, but together they inform a broader picture. That picture is more complex and more beautiful, but it is also one that many people refuse to see, believing hard in a world much more segregated and monochromatic.
Looking back, I think one reason I stopped looking at Latin American history in November is that I understood the point of the different heritage months as a means of remembering that the history of the United States goes far beyond the white men that tend to get mentioned in the history books. Therefore, Hispanic Heritage Month would be about the Braceros program and the histories of Texas and New Mexico, and Asian Pacific American Heritage Month would be about Hawaii and Chinese immigrants building the railroad; that basically those months were for me to better understand the role of people of color in the United States.
Without having given up on that, it feels much broader now, but also more integrated. And yes, that integration is a scheduling issue, but it is also an issue of seeing more now that I have been at this for a while. Ah yes, a similar thing happened there.
And I love that. One reason I never wanted to do any post-graduate work in history is that generally that involves more and more specialization. It was always the big picture of history that was most interesting to me. I wanted to know about people and their ways. They keep making the same mistakes, but then they do these really beautiful things too. That never gets old for me.
I have read arguments against "diversity" because often that word ends up meaning looking for one person of color who is the best fit to throw in with a bunch of white people (or one woman to throw in with a bunch of men), and pay lip service to representation. Then, when that person voices any difference of opinion they face recrimination and it can get really ugly. I have seen it happen. There were usually good intentions, but not a realistic examination of what actual inclusion would mean.
If we will really look at each other, and listen, we can do better than that. That definitely involves talking to people and paying attention to their experiences now, but also, there are much worse things to do than reading books.
Reading lists - current status
I mentioned that I am working on six reading lists now.
They include the post-election one, which I have been working on since January 2017. Technically I guess it was post-inauguration. It does keep expanding, but once I realized that it was going to become so unwieldy I started letting other lists in around it. I finished a couple of books on it in October, and I will get back to it soon. It might currently include 31 finished main books, plus another 19 supplemental books and papers, plus another 20 books or research topics.
(My being this way is well-established.)
The newest list is related to death and grief. It started with two books from a subset of books I have always meant to get to, and three more were added while I was reading the first one. I think if you are following along, it is pretty clear why that would be a topic where I would feel a need for some preparation. Honestly, the first one was very helpful, or I think it will turn out to be so, but maybe not in the way that you would expect. I will write more about that in time.
The most encouraging of those lists was my gardening list. You may recall that I had one last year:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-gardening-reading-list.html
As I was wrapping up my small gardening attempts for this year (just some pumpkins and tomatoes) I thought I should get some reading done to see if there was any fall prep I should do. Of course even after I read those twelve books last year, I had more to read.
The first pleasant surprise was that really there seemed to be only four gardening books left that I needed to read. I did add one in that I had thought of as more of a biology book than a gardening book, and I did gain two additional titles to read from this reading, but really, it was only two more. So much of the frustration of reading is that it keeps requiring more reading, but that may not be a permanent problem. There may be a point where I reach enough knowledge on a topic, at least for a while.Go me!
That went along well with another thing that was going on: a growing desire to get ahead of some of my other reading.
I get new books to read so often that it feels like I will never catch up. Possibly I think of that more as I approach a new awareness month and try to select out of many options.
I don't know if I have ever written about this before, but I will periodically scroll through all of my To-Read books on Goodreads (currently 1466). It's really more compelling than soothing, but it feels like a relief when I finish. I suspect doing this periodically is one reason that titles can easily come to mind when it is a good time for me to read them.
In addition, I love organizing via spreadsheet. Tangible organization may be kind of a pipe dream for me, but I find lists comforting.
I'd had a list of books for my education make-up reading - along with a few other things I needed to get to - back before the hard drive crash. That spreadsheet may be the data that I miss the most. There was more in there than books, but there were books there. When I say there was a subset of books I've always meant to get to, that subset existed in that sheet, and then I recreated it on a sheet of paper, along with some other stuff.
Anyway, I did not try to recreate the education make-up list (yet), but I did go through and create columns of books that would work for the different awareness months, as well as capturing lists that had kind of existed mentally for sports, autism, music theory, music history, and drawing. (The drawing one had been written out before.)
I have also spent some time going through those columns and seeing which items were available through the Washington County library system, which were available through Inter-Library Loan, and color-coded them accordingly. If certain adjectives are coming to mind to describe these practices and the person who does them, I will not say you are wrong. I am okay with my being this way, but I get that it can seem weird and sad.
I did this after May, so I didn't start pulling from the first four columns until September, with my first National Hispanic Heritage Month. That is not quite done yet even as I have started working on Native American Heritage Month. I am not going to finish either of those columns this year, I can tell you that. The way they blend together is interesting, and I will write more about that tomorrow.
I really do think that I can read all of the Asian Pacific Heritage Month ones this year. Black History Month is a bit harder. Having been at it longer, my list is much larger. In fact there were several that I did not add to the column because perhaps they could also fit under another topic, but they are still there on Goodreads. (And, realistically, there are other mental lists that have still not been captured, but I am sure they will be at some future date.) However, I still believe I can do a lot, and I can do it in a more organized matter, and I can make progress.
This is truly an area where it's about the journey, no matter how much I care about the milestones. I am sometimes impatient to have knowledge, but there are a lot of good books, and a lot of interesting things out there, and that can keep me entertained for a long time.
As long as we are on the subject, I shall make a confession: When setting my reading challenge for the year, I entered 220, but in my head, it was really 240. Then I hit 220 early (now at 247), so now I kind of really want it to be 260, though I am not setting higher and higher goals like last year, which ended up being 321 out of 300, even after I raised it a few times. It is only a mental 260! (FYI, lots of comic books last year. Still a fair amount of comics and children's books this year.)
And as always, hey, friend me on Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/gmharris
They include the post-election one, which I have been working on since January 2017. Technically I guess it was post-inauguration. It does keep expanding, but once I realized that it was going to become so unwieldy I started letting other lists in around it. I finished a couple of books on it in October, and I will get back to it soon. It might currently include 31 finished main books, plus another 19 supplemental books and papers, plus another 20 books or research topics.
(My being this way is well-established.)
The newest list is related to death and grief. It started with two books from a subset of books I have always meant to get to, and three more were added while I was reading the first one. I think if you are following along, it is pretty clear why that would be a topic where I would feel a need for some preparation. Honestly, the first one was very helpful, or I think it will turn out to be so, but maybe not in the way that you would expect. I will write more about that in time.
The most encouraging of those lists was my gardening list. You may recall that I had one last year:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-gardening-reading-list.html
As I was wrapping up my small gardening attempts for this year (just some pumpkins and tomatoes) I thought I should get some reading done to see if there was any fall prep I should do. Of course even after I read those twelve books last year, I had more to read.
The first pleasant surprise was that really there seemed to be only four gardening books left that I needed to read. I did add one in that I had thought of as more of a biology book than a gardening book, and I did gain two additional titles to read from this reading, but really, it was only two more. So much of the frustration of reading is that it keeps requiring more reading, but that may not be a permanent problem. There may be a point where I reach enough knowledge on a topic, at least for a while.Go me!
That went along well with another thing that was going on: a growing desire to get ahead of some of my other reading.
I get new books to read so often that it feels like I will never catch up. Possibly I think of that more as I approach a new awareness month and try to select out of many options.
I don't know if I have ever written about this before, but I will periodically scroll through all of my To-Read books on Goodreads (currently 1466). It's really more compelling than soothing, but it feels like a relief when I finish. I suspect doing this periodically is one reason that titles can easily come to mind when it is a good time for me to read them.
In addition, I love organizing via spreadsheet. Tangible organization may be kind of a pipe dream for me, but I find lists comforting.
I'd had a list of books for my education make-up reading - along with a few other things I needed to get to - back before the hard drive crash. That spreadsheet may be the data that I miss the most. There was more in there than books, but there were books there. When I say there was a subset of books I've always meant to get to, that subset existed in that sheet, and then I recreated it on a sheet of paper, along with some other stuff.
Anyway, I did not try to recreate the education make-up list (yet), but I did go through and create columns of books that would work for the different awareness months, as well as capturing lists that had kind of existed mentally for sports, autism, music theory, music history, and drawing. (The drawing one had been written out before.)
I have also spent some time going through those columns and seeing which items were available through the Washington County library system, which were available through Inter-Library Loan, and color-coded them accordingly. If certain adjectives are coming to mind to describe these practices and the person who does them, I will not say you are wrong. I am okay with my being this way, but I get that it can seem weird and sad.
I did this after May, so I didn't start pulling from the first four columns until September, with my first National Hispanic Heritage Month. That is not quite done yet even as I have started working on Native American Heritage Month. I am not going to finish either of those columns this year, I can tell you that. The way they blend together is interesting, and I will write more about that tomorrow.
I really do think that I can read all of the Asian Pacific Heritage Month ones this year. Black History Month is a bit harder. Having been at it longer, my list is much larger. In fact there were several that I did not add to the column because perhaps they could also fit under another topic, but they are still there on Goodreads. (And, realistically, there are other mental lists that have still not been captured, but I am sure they will be at some future date.) However, I still believe I can do a lot, and I can do it in a more organized matter, and I can make progress.
This is truly an area where it's about the journey, no matter how much I care about the milestones. I am sometimes impatient to have knowledge, but there are a lot of good books, and a lot of interesting things out there, and that can keep me entertained for a long time.
As long as we are on the subject, I shall make a confession: When setting my reading challenge for the year, I entered 220, but in my head, it was really 240. Then I hit 220 early (now at 247), so now I kind of really want it to be 260, though I am not setting higher and higher goals like last year, which ended up being 321 out of 300, even after I raised it a few times. It is only a mental 260! (FYI, lots of comic books last year. Still a fair amount of comics and children's books this year.)
And as always, hey, friend me on Goodreads!
https://www.goodreads.com/gmharris
December 14, 2018
Band Review: Dr. Zwig
Dr. Zwig (Adam Zwig on Spotify) is a musician and psychotherapist.
When listening to the music, it is not obvious that you are listening to a psychotherapist. That is probably a good thing; it would not be ideal for the first impression to be that this musician better be capable of doing something else. However, it is clear from posts that the psychological training and experience have influenced Dr. Zwig's feelings and beliefs about music, knowing that it can be more than entertainment.
Generally here it works better as entertainment. Listening feels fine, but not transcendent. It is adult contemporary that leans toward country, and pretty mellow overall. The one song that really feels different is "Who Killed Michael Vaughn", which clearly is about war and the shared responsibility that makes no one responsible. It is also painfully awkward, like Bob Dylan on "We Are the World".
But Dr. Zwig is doubtless a better musician than most psychotherapists.
https://drzwig.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DrZwig
https://www.youtube.com/user/adamzwig
https://twitter.com/Dr_Zwig
When listening to the music, it is not obvious that you are listening to a psychotherapist. That is probably a good thing; it would not be ideal for the first impression to be that this musician better be capable of doing something else. However, it is clear from posts that the psychological training and experience have influenced Dr. Zwig's feelings and beliefs about music, knowing that it can be more than entertainment.
Generally here it works better as entertainment. Listening feels fine, but not transcendent. It is adult contemporary that leans toward country, and pretty mellow overall. The one song that really feels different is "Who Killed Michael Vaughn", which clearly is about war and the shared responsibility that makes no one responsible. It is also painfully awkward, like Bob Dylan on "We Are the World".
But Dr. Zwig is doubtless a better musician than most psychotherapists.
https://drzwig.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DrZwig
https://www.youtube.com/user/adamzwig
https://twitter.com/Dr_Zwig
