[antiquatedfuture]

Tonight! Our very own Sara Renberg is having her going-away show!

[dykings]

This is happening tonight and I have every feeling.

[dykings]

albums I have engaged with seriously 2k16 part 3

R.E.M. - New Adventures in Hi-Fi / Monster

I love R.E.M. so much but somehow I’d never listened to New Adventures in Hi-Fi.  They didn’t tour for it and there weren’t a lot of clear singles, and I was ... a child... so I just didn’t ever buy it!  Anyway, it was great to actually dig into it for the first time this year, and it was like I’d been saving it for myself for 20 years.  It’s so cohesive, in terms of songwriting and style.  I’ve heard it described as a mixture of Automatic for the People and Monster, which... what a great mix!!  I also revisited Monster, which is a weird-ass record that gets a bad rap for not being Automatic for the People, and also for sort of being a “grungey sell-out” record, but it’s also super fucked up and lyrically really fascinating, with lots of explorations of identity and fame.  I’m a bigger fan of it now than when I was 10.  Though I still hate “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?”  IT IS FAR, FAR TOO SLOW.

Nas - Illmatic

IN THE 90s I was not really exposed to anything outside of top 40 hip hop, nor did I have any real interest in seeking it out.  LUCKILY I am older and I get to fix that.  I love language and I love meter and I love rhymes and I love wordplay and I love stories so like, what the fuck was I doing, not listening to hip hop my entire life.   Anyway, this album is obviously a masterpiece.  Nas’s use of internal rhyme is great, and it never feels forced or shoehorned in.  The jazz-soul samples!!! His dad playing trumpet!   ALSO HE MADE THIS WHEN HE WAS 20.  CAN YOU BELIEVE.

A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders

Smart and playful and bouncey and perfect.  I really appreciate listening to someone’s intellect spool out, and I love how the interaction between Phife and Q-Tip keeps things from being either too heady OR too silly.  Also I love the robot lady tour guide on Midnight Marauders, and how that really extends the range of the album.   

[dykings]

albums i have engaged with seriously 2k16 pt 2

Electrelane - The Power Out

THE RANGE of this record is really great.  The choral accompaniment on “The Valleys” is gorgeous.  Also I feel like Verity Susman’s vocals are incredible, and she does REALLY INTERESTING THINGS with her high range that I am jealous of.

Mirah - Changing Light

I missed this when it came out a few years ago.  I am a long time fan of Mirah! I think this record really balances the maturity of its orchestration with intimacy.  A treat!  

Edith Frost - Calling Over Time / Wonder Wonder

HOLY JEEZ, EDITH FROST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I met a real nice person at the Portland Zine Symposium who gave me a list of female folkish people from the ‘90s to check out, and Edith Frost was on that list.  SHE HITS ALL OF MY BUTTONS.  Great lyrics, open arrangements, a minimalism that creates something interesting.  WOW OH WOW.  the discovery of the year.  Check out Temporary Loan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3-91YuCtYU

[dykings]

albums I have engaged with seriously 2k16 pt 1

 I have been bad at tumblr this year (just like I’m bad at listening to new music)!  But, here is my annual year end list of the albums I listened to obsessively.  (Expect this in a few parts this week!)

Katie the Pest -  Other Cities, Other Girls

(https://katiethepest.bandcamp.com/)

A friend of mine rec’d this to me.  Dreamy indie rock from Long Beach.  It moves in and out of English and French & the lyrics are great.   Was recorded in ‘07 but not released until ‘14.  An absolute gem.

Hamilton Original Cast Recording

does anything need to be said here?

Roger Miller - The Best of Roger Miller

I found this best of album for $3, which is a real treat considering how much I love him.  There were a couple of songs on this record that I haven’t heard -- mostly ones that he hadn’t written -- and “South” is the Roger Miller-iest song to ever be written by someone who isn’t Roger Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhj3SIPNV0

Chicago - Chicago Transit Authority / Chicago II

Early Chicago is jazz and rock and rangey and experimental and political and ... so good.  The first record has one song that’s literally 7 minutes of guitar noise which cracks me up, and also has two songs that sample people shouting “The whole world is watching” outside of the DNC in 1968 and it makes me shiver every time.  The record overall is a little uneven.  Chicago II, on the other hand, is solid front to back, with several song suites, killer horns, and mostly restrained use of Peter Cetera (who as you know from their ‘80s output, is the worst).  Terry Karr’s guitar is so incredible.  Ugh.  everything Terry Karr.  

[byakuya-mioda]

if exploring your gender is ‘becoming a trend’ then i’m glad it’s replacing the ‘being confused and miserable with no context or vocabulary for what you’re going through’ trend

[queerlittlecreature-deactivated]

there is honestly zero things wrong with people exploring their gender

[poison-liker]

official ranking of every turtle emoji on emojipedia

a beautiful friend. a wonderful smile. i will protect this perfect tortoise with my life. thank you.

just a cool and good turtle, going about its business. keep doing you, turtle.

simple, minimalistic, well executed. a solid turt.

a unique perspective on the humble turtle. it takes guts to break the mould like this. bravest turtle on the list.

a cool stylistic approach, but kinda lacking in personality.

the shading is really badly done, but the fundamentals are quite solid. an adequate turtle.

this is just the twitter one but less friend looking.

“turtles… they’re sort of weird and blobby, right?” - apple emoji designer, 2016

the style is very good. extremely well rendered. but unfortunately, this turt’s fuck ugly. look at its face. this turt is no friend of mine.

fisher price.

utterly disgusting.

[dykings]

I love turtles.

[dln-085]

The only good news of 2016

[lovemusiclifexx]

[dontbotherfiguringitout]

One thing I always bring up that straight writers obviously don’t understand but every gay person ever can attest to is that queer people stick together. Like, every queer person knows like 15 other ones and those 15 know even more. 

Like, having only One in your story completely misses the point of how we organize and stay safe, in addition to completely missing the point on being progressive (ie, having A Single Gay in your story isn’t special anymore and hasn’t been for decades now)

It is a fundamental misunderstanding of how marginalized people act bc straight people are allowed to be solitary and they don’t understand any other way of Being

[susanthejournal]

BEING GOOD / Sara Renberg

I was good, and then, by being myself, I was not good. I grew into badness by the accident of growth. By hiding the badness, I appeared to be good. Appearing to be good is almost as good as being good, although it doesn’t feel good. But why should you feel good if you’re bad? Do you deserve it? Then I put aside the idea of deserving, and stopped hiding the badness, which felt good but also bad, because now everyone knew I was bad, or some people knew. Other people I had to tell, because they couldn’t see by just looking at me. Over and over—oh, I’d say, I’m bad, actually, and the shift in their faces. It grew more comfortable as time went on. I was just bad, and I wrote my name on everything I saw. This table—mine. This sidewalk—mine. This t-shirt. I could make anything mine, and by doing so, making it bad. I made it all worse, and it felt great. I ate ice cream all afternoon. I rarely wore pants. I let the bamboo take over the yard. I let my cat come and go as she pleased. I played loud music and wasted electricity. I worked on Sundays. I purchased pre-cut fruit. I was never going to have a baby or be loved but I could do whatever I wanted, for however long, and the good world outside me spun and spun, making more goodness each day. ⁂ Sara Renberg is a poet/musician/lesbian based in Portland, Oregon. Her poetry has been featured in such places as Two Serious Ladies and Poor Claudia Phenome. Her music can be found on Antiquated Future Records.

[dykings]

I’ve got a poem in SUSAN / the journal!

[java-finch]

soviet union’s views on marriage in the 60s were more progressive than i thought

[pataphysicist]

[tha--snazzle]

Here's a thing you can do for Prince

Be a little weirder, be a little more you. Wear yr hair that one way nobody else likes. Shave – or skip it – if it makes you feel free. Tell the joke when it strikes you, sing with your headphones on the train, compliment a stranger – the way you’d want to be complimented if someone found they were suddenly in love with you.

The most purple thing we can do is to be wholly ourselves, even if doing that thing is a little scarier or a little harder.

[unbornwhiskeyy]

in addition to @riverofwater‘s gorgeous post i’d like to suggest you shake your body like a horny pony would, for prince

[tha--snazzle]

AH YES this is the only thing i regret failing to mention. please shake your body like a horny pony would.

[elanormcinerney]

Niina Pollari | Dead Horse  what it means for our body to have a face

[dykings]

a song based on dead horse

[antiquatedfuture]

The folks behind the ever-popular How to Talk to Your Cat zine series are back again. And this time they have accessories.

[thethemefrom90210-deactivated20]

[dykings]

earlier I was in a Walgreens when Uncle Kracker’s “Follow Me” came on and I had a flashback to being a teenager at Catholic Heart Work Camp and there was a musician there, playing a set at night either before or after mass, and he did a cover of “Follow Me” except he changed the lyric from “I don’t care about the ring you wear” to “I don’t care about the shoes you wear” and I guess I salute a person who hears a song about pining for a married lady and thinks “this would be a great song for Jesus if....”