A reading tomorrow, a smut fest the day after, and other announcements...
Hi everyone,
I hope this message finds you in a warm sunny spot with a nice breeze. This is a rare two-in-one-month newsletter, except that this dispatch is mostly an events notice & linkshare. Since I last messaged, the VENUS SATURN SQUARE zine became a physical reality:::
TOMORROW [thurs apr 25], Alex Smith's ARKDUST release reading at Square One Coffee is still on. Starts at 7pm. The entire METROPOLARITY crew will be on hand to read, which is about as rare as a planetary eclipse these days (it's usually two or three of the four of us) >>>
Then FRIDAY & SATURDAY [apr 26-27] i'll be vending at the Philly stop of Hot Bits Film Fest, basically a two-day queer xxx/erotic/porn film fest alongside live performers, vendors, archives, etc, & ALL volunteer run!! Rumor has it Samuel Delany will even be there on Friday for like an hour to hang out. I'm excited. If you were on the fence, come be in the freak energy. I say this as an introvert.
@ LIGHTBOX FILM CENTER
International House Philadelphia
3701 Chestnut St, 19104
(215) 387-5125
TICKETS
$12 General Public in advance (+$3 at the door)
$9 Trans Women & PoC in advance (+$3 at the door)
$20 / $14 Both Nights
ACCSESSIBILITY: There will be reserved seating for folks with disabilities. Lightbox Film Center is fully wheelchair accessible. All films are subtitled in English and an ASL translator will be present for speaking portions. Bathrooms at the venue are gender neutral. Please contact us as soon as possible if you need any additional assistance.
Alllso, we (metropolarity) were supposed to have a mid-May reading at Penn Book Center in recognition of its closing, but apparently it's turned into a reading and conversation between Alex and Delany(!!). Worlds finally collide?(!!) I guess Alex passed Chip his ARKDUST book at some recent event, and Chip got on his facebook later like "Smith's writing is lively, economic and colorful. I'm pleasantly surprised."
Meanwhile, if you know any trans women of color writing poetry, Jamie Berrout's Trans Women Writers Collective is looking to pay $100 for contributors to her own radical trans poetry endeavor.
I'll be adding some ~new~ sticker designs to the DHD webshop later tonight (if you're quick, you can peep my instagram stories for a look), which will join some new buttons I made for the hot bits vending.
I'm still plotting on a birthday reading venue for start of June.
I got my driver's license yesterday at 35 years old – shout out to Philly kids everywhere.
And I'm still in the middle of situating an audio recording set-up so I can make audio versions of all my most recent stories, which btw are now online in full at cyborgmemoirs.com >>>
HEAT DEATH OF WESTERN HUMAN ARROGANCE
So that's my pertinent news. Now here are some things I've read recently and had thoughts about, if you're not ready to leave yet >>>
Juliana Huxtable shared this article on twitter by Sara Tatyana Bernstein about Payless shutting down..
My perception of the store changed around the same time that I evolved into a sarcastic thrift store alterna-teen. In the ’90s, my peers and I wore used clothes as a rebellious middle finger to shallow consumerism, but thrift stores and Payless were how I discovered shopping just for fun. Before that, I got school clothes once a year and a couple new things for birthdays and holidays. We used layaway a lot. New shoes were an even rarer event — except for Payless, which kept getting cheaper.
A profile article by Lee Fang at the Intercept about this defense contractor tech company, Anduril and the new-era founder POS types behind it
The pair bonded over an interest in reshaping defense contracting using the incentives and structures of the tech startup scene. Stephens had previously worked at Palantir, the secretive data-crunching company backed by Thiel, which is known for its work on behalf of spy agencies and the military. (Both Palantir and Anduril are references to the classic fantasy trilogy “Lord of the Rings”; Anduril is the unbreakable sword used by one of the series’s protagonists.)
Carolyn Lazard shared this essay they wrote for triple canopy magazine, called The World Is Unknown, and as with other essays they've written, i believe it to be word magic.
“I’ve come to understand that the enemy of health is neither pharmaceuticals nor snake oil, but dogma. The body is too unwieldy to fit within the schema of authoritative interpretation.” An essay on belief, biomedicine, and the pursuit of alternative modes of care.
This NY Times article on the motherfucking Pinkertons, who even to my colonially Catholic school educated ass learned about as fearsome thugs and enemies to labor organizers and unions (and there's that scene from wild west-set Deadwood where hardass gangsterass Swearengen is like oh fuck this dude is bringing in the Pinkertons???)
Listening to Paz Larach pitch the agency’s future — all of it rendered in the gauzy language of consulting — I was struck by its relative simplicity, which belied, in part, just how far most companies and governments are from accepting the reality of climate change. Even if Pinkerton’s core competency still lies in tactical response, the means of preparation are not exactly the province of big data: Put food in a warehouse, aggregate news, consult the latest open-source modeling. Pinkerton doesn’t even see this strategy as climate-related, per se. The company doesn’t have a dedicated climate division, nor climate experts; from its perspective, that would be redundant. Pinkerton sells safety, or its pretense, in the face of catastrophe, and the only real differences between the catastrophes of this century and the 19th, on some level, will be rate and severity. As Jack Zahran, the president of Pinkerton, put it to me, Pinkerton is a 150-year-old start-up, still pitching the same basic vision: You aren’t prepared enough, and the government is too clumsy to save you.
An MIT news article about an ingestable capsule that can be controlled wirelessly had me in my All That's Left cyborg feels... It really does feel dangerous, sort of, to write dystopian fiction. Or it did. As a believer in and wielder of word magic, it certainly matters what you summon to this realm. Some things, however, were already beyond my influence...
The device can also carry sensors that monitor the gastric environment and relay information via a wireless signal. In previous work, the researchers designed sensors that can detect vital signs such as heart rate and breathing rate. In this paper, they demonstrated that the capsule could be used to monitor temperature and relay that information directly to a smartphone within arm’s length.
Finally, I wanted to share the website of Philly Power Research...
a group of volunteer researchers - including teachers, librarians, journalists, advocates, and activists - investigating the powerful organizations and individuals shaping Philadelphia. We believe that participatory research - where all people are engaged in asking questions about the power structure and seeking solutions to the issues they face in their communities - is a key component of a vibrant local movement for just social change. We partner with groups organizing for justice and equity at the ballot box and in the streets. We aim to continue to build and support a strong action research community in Philadelphia.
...who have sussed out the money trails behind clandestine 'progressive' city policy groups like Philadelphia 3.0.
Phew ok everyone. See you soon? See you next time?
Is there anything you wished I talked more or less about? I'd be interested to know.
I'm unclenching my jaw. Hope you are too.
Monk
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