gratitudes, writing publicly when there's little evidence of an audience, mercury 13, esther rose, threat to courtmarshal mark kelley
yesterday i was grateful for a safe drive to the cemetery and the mercury 13 documentary...
today i am looking forward to yoga with maryanne and virtual salon...
i have been thinking about why this blog?... i have had many blogs... they all go relatively unnoticed... they all slow down and stop due to lack of attention... what is the purpose of writing every day in a place where people can see it when there is little response?... is anyone there?... does anyone care?... there is evidence that some people read me... in the analytics... i got one email a while back from a reader... i wrote back to them enthusiastically... they never replied... was i too enthusiastic?... is their a dating coy that is the protocol for these situations?...
i recently moved over to bear blog, though i have been toying with it for a year or two... i love the simplicity... i love how easy it is to compose and publish posts with images and links, etc... just simple markdown syntax... that it is super easy to post is meaning... for the time being... that i am posting almost daily...
resisting the temptation to see if anyone has responded to or given evidence of reading my posts is impossible... i don't like the need i seem to have for an audience... i might as well be writing in a private journal... i write differently here than in a private journal... i self censor some things...
we watched the mercury 13 documentary on netflix last night... i read about it on feminine moments, a queer feminist art blog out of denmark... a remarkable story of 13 women who were training in tandem with the mercury 7... the men who would ultimately go on to be astronauts... the women went through all the testing requirements to become an astronaut until it began to look like they were every bit as good candidates for space as the men... nasa shut down the program when they became aware of it (it had been privately funded until it reached the point of needing to train at one of the space centers)... women did eventually get to go to space... one of the mercury 13 did get to space in 2021... i cried at the end of the documentary when the mercury 13 were acknowledged as the pioneers that paved the way for the women that followed them... i always cry during stories of perseverance through to eventual recognition... here is a link to the documentary on netflix... i highly recommend... be prepared for some issues with the music tracks making the dialogue hard to hear... it settles down after a while...
as i think about the mercury 13, i also think about the two crime-espionage tv series we are watching... the last frontier on apple tv and absentia on apple tv also... they both feature strong rogue women as the central characters... latter day dirty harrys in feminine form... centering women as capable, accomplished individuals is good... still, they are women playing patriarchal games... is that a good thing?...
i have found some new music to love... esther rose... want...
With bolder, at times brasher arrangements, she edges away from the solitude of her earlier efforts towards a full band sound, making for a wildly satisfying record. You can hear the change teased on the stellar opening title track that begins with an acoustic guitar building like a wave to a fuller sound complete with backing vocals. But it’s on “Had To,” the third track – with the instruments layering nicely on top of each other – where the change is the clearest. By the time you get to “New Bad,” toward the end of the record – a track that begins like a standard indie pop song before diving into shoegaze with buzzing, swirling guitars – she has completely conquered any preconceived notions of what to expect from an Esther Rose album.
scenes from the shit show... hegseth threatens to call mark kelly back to active duty to be court marshalled... he will not be silenced...
In a conversation with MS NOW’s Rachel Maddow, Kelly was less formal: “I’ve had a missile blow up next to my airplane,” he told her. “I’ve been…nearly shot down multiple times. I’ve flown a rocket ship into space four times, built by the lowest bidder, and my wife Gabby Giffords, meeting with her constituents, shot in the head. Six people killed around her. A horrific thing. She spent six months in the hospital. We know what political violence is, and we know what causes it, too…. The statements that Donald Trump made… incite others…. He should be careful with his words. But I’m not going to be silenced here…. I’m going to show up for work every day, support the Constitution, do my job, hold this administration accountable, hold this president accountable when he is out of line. That’s the responsibility of every U.S. senator and every member of Congress. He’s not going to silence us.”