Things I didn't really think would work

To get caught up on where I am now, I should go back to where I was in February, when I quit my job.

I was miserable, but I had this whole list of things that I had been meaning to look into, where maybe there was a way out. I just never had time to get to them. 

Suddenly, I did.

Part of what allowed me to feel okay about quitting was that I would have my saved vacation pay, my tax refund, and my cashed out 401K. That buffer allowed me to look into some long shots.

For example, I did not think it was likely that I would get a MacArthur Foundation grant, but such a thing could really free me up to accomplish some good.

The process is impenetrable.

The identities of the people who can nominate are hidden. There is no formal application process where you could submit. The right person has to be aware of you, and you have no idea whom the right person is.

https://www.macfound.org/programs/awards/fellows/faq 

We limit our consideration only to individuals who have been nominated by someone from our constantly changing pool of invited external nominators. Applications or unsolicited nominations are not accepted, and any materials sent with unsolicited nominations will not be returned.

Connections are important in a lot of different areas, and they tend to be something I don't have. This was not going to happen. 

I was still glad I looked into it, because it made some other references make sense.

Most of the unrealistic things I looked into were jobs that I was not likely to get. 

Even though I have done other things, the only thing I got called back on was call center work. That was a last resort, but what would be some first resorts?

The most unrealistic of these was advice columnist. I believed that was something that I could both enjoy and do well, but how does one get into that line of work?

The best way would be to go back in time to when I was in school, and write advice columns for the school paper (this includes college, but high school wouldn't hurt). It's not the only way, because if you get some kind of fame somewhere else, or connections in newspaper work, it can still happen, but that one also seemed out of reach.

On the plus side, I read a sampling of current advice columns and the answers mostly seemed to be pretty reasonable and compassionate. It's not a tragedy that I am not doing that. 

Now, "data entry" was not a dream job, but something that I thought I could do and there are some great sounding ads. 

Don't believe the hype. They are mainly call center jobs; that is how you get the data to enter. There are also some where you can fill out marketing surveys for pay, but the "can earn up to" in those ads is doing some pretty heavy lifting, not to mention the amount of junk and frustration that will come with those surveys.

I didn't worry too much about these dead ends; I had more realistic things to try. However, there were to other things that required a little more effort and led to significantly more frustration, and they will get their own post.

Movies for APAHM 2024

Continuing with the theme of categories running together and boundaries being crossed, one potential issue with these lists is that they include material that is not specifically American. 

For example, Minari is about Korean immigrants. A Taxi Driver is set in Korea, though contact with the outside world is a key component. In writing about the heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, does it count if it is about the heritage that they had before their coming to the United States?

That's not to say that there is not value in reading about other countries and watching films from them. However, in deciding that the various heritage months have value, I frequently think about whether I am making good use of them.

Because when we are looking at the Pacific Islanders, it wasn't really that they came to America, was it? It's more like we forcefully came to them. Then it becomes more of an indigenous issue, reminding me of the overlap between Native American Heritage and Hispanic Heritage.

For now, I am still catching up on things that have been on my reading and watch lists for years, so I am just going with it. Maybe after that I will have a more sophisticated general analysis. Maybe I will do specific breakdowns, like books about Chinese American immigrants and the building of the railways and in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, but also with books about China for that.

For extra fun, at least two of the movies I still haven't watched are about Asian immigrants in England. 

It will take me at least one other round to get through the current list, and I expect it will be a good experience regardless. Reviewing this last round, I am getting all emotional about how some of these movies made me feel.

Movies set in other countries:

The King of Masks (1996, China)

In a film where gender is clearly so important, I am kind of amazed at how the reviews I read for this ignored Master Liang. That seems like a real oversight, especially when so much of the crux of this is Wang accepting Doggie as someone he can pass his art down to, even though he was sure he could not and would not because she was a girl.

Shall We Dansu (1996, Japan) 

For July I am doing daily dances (there will be a post about that) and I just posted the final number from this movie -- which I adore -- Sunday. It has such a good heart. I love dance, yes, but I also love films and media that find affection for people, as flawed as we are. This movie excels.

Shaolin Soccer (2001, Hong Kong)

If sometimes you watch a kung fu movie and you like the action but then some of the wire work and effects make it kind of ridiculous, well, move that into soccer, and you have this film. Strictly for fun.

A Simple Life (2011, Hong Kong)

It's such a quiet movie that it is kind of hard to explain what happens. A servant to a well-to-do family has a stroke. They have cared about her, but as one of the sons cares for her, the dynamics change and it is touching.

He Named Me Malala (2015, Pakistan and England)

Sometimes I am not sure if I should count Middle East with Far East, but I did watch this documentary. While I was familiar with the general story, this did a good job of explaining more, and going over the danger.

A Taxi Driver (2017, Korea)

This one made a strong impression on me, because I had no idea that South Korea had that kind of oppression and suppression; that's supposed to be on the North Korean side. With some of the policy issues now, it makes more sense. 

I remember thinking at the time how you simply cannot take democracy for granted. While that was not unclear before, there have been numerous examples since. 

One emotional part of the movie was that the real journalist expressed his sadness at not being able to find the driver. The film showed an imagined ending that was relatively happy, but I was afraid that it meant he was caught and killed after the reporter left. 

No, but he was traumatized, and that probably did shorten his life. Better than one might hope, but still with some sadness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taxi_Driver

Very much about the immigrant experience:

Picture Bride (1995)

Brides finding that their husbands to be were much older than expected was a familiar story, but this does a good job of humanizing everyone and providing an outcome that feels good, even with a lot of pain along the way.

Minari (2020)

A Best Picture nominee, I felt this alternated a lot between slow and weird. Ultimately the need to save each other does prevail, and then other things fall into place.

Documentaries:

Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks (2019) 

There were a lot of things here that I had never thought of, like an interplay between martial arts and break dancing, and then cross influences. As they went over the history and showed the footage it made sense, but they are connections I would not have made on my own.

Taky Kimura: The Heart of the Dragon (2020)

Between this and the previous title, I feel like I know a lot more about Bruce Lee than I had. His name carries a lot of weight, but it does not necessarily come with a lot of details. It becomes easier to feel the loss.

Waterman (2021)

A good look at Duke Kahanamoku and his legacy, which goes far beyond Hawaii. 

No easy categorization:

Stuber (2019)

Really very much an "American" film, but Dave Bautista has Filipino (and Greek) ancestry, and Kumail Nanjiani was born in Pakistan. 

There were times when I felt they overshot "funny", exactly the way a typical comedy (that I would normally not bother seeing) did, but it had enjoyable moments and good character growth. 

As it is, for Nanjiani I preferred The Lovebirds (2020) and I really enjoy Bautista as Drax, though I have not specifically seen either of the two main Guardians movies, so that was from Avengers: Infinity War and the Christmas special. 

It's okay.

The Farewell (2019)

This one pretty much gutted me. I think it will come up more at some point when I need to write about grief. It really got me about carrying the burden for someone, and it almost feels like the most important part of any kind of martial arts is the yelling. 

Getting into difficult parent-child dynamics:

I am going to spend more time on this topic, so I am not going to write about the individual films now. I did write something already about the last one:

Bao (2018, short)

Turning Red (2022)

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-everything-bagel.html 

(Hey! A reference to hating my job from two years ago! I hung in there for a while.)

Getting into YA: 

I am just mentioning these here because they are movies that I watched, but thematically they are going to make more sense somewhere else. I will get to that soon.

To All the Boys: PS I Still Love You (2020)

To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021)

Hanging in there

Things are kind of a lot, aren't they?

I certainly have my moments of wanting to scream. I also wonder about the best use of my time, which would probably not be screaming. A week ago I wrote about things one could do, which made me want to start a project, but what and how?

One of the things I think about is just having the blog go full election headquarters and try and help that way, but would it really do that much? I don't have a huge audience, and I suspect most readers already agree with the points I could make.

There are a lot of questions.

I am pretty sure of the following things, for now:

• I will keep writing about my reading on Fridays and posting about travel on Saturdays.
• I will keep posting daily songs and wishing people happy birthdays (unless they are set up so I can't write on their wall). 

It would be easy for some of those things to seem trivial; does it even really matter? However, my reading choices, and appreciating travel and music and people... it is important to still have joy and laughter and appreciation. I will keep up with that.

For other social media use, I am using it less.

In the past when I would log on at the beginning of the day, I would leave Twitter and Facebook open. There is a lot more aggravation on there now. I will log on in the morning, and that is how I will continue to post birthday wishes and songs and blog posts, but then I will exit. Most likely I will get on about three times a day, check for updates, and log back off.

Because people are important, in addition to scanning what other people are up to when I am on, I am also going to go through my friends, looking up a few names per day to see how they are doing. 

Being on less, I may not see what you post, but I should eventually be caught up with everyone. If sometimes that leads to exchanging messages and getting together, great. If sometimes I see someone says something appalling and I communicate about that, it won't be the first time. Will there be some soft deletions? Maybe. Sometimes people show a really nasty side. 

I mention that because it can be really easy to keep scrolling through the doom and get overcome with anger or despair. It may be better for your mental health to limit your exposure. However, then you can lose connection that matters or miss information that would help. That is not just me.

Think about what good and bad you are getting, and be intentional about that. Remember, Facebook and Twitter both have mute options (a 30 day mute on Facebook), and settings where you can keep other people from posting or replying, and blocks. If someone you love is stressing you out, that can be hard, but even if you end up deciding to deal with the stress, you will feel better for having consciously made that decision.

To make sure I can keep up with everyone, I made a spreadsheet, and I have spent time writing in my journal about what my goals are, and how to keep up. The majority of my decisions and goals do seem to involve journal writing and spreadsheets, so that is the path that makes sense for me. There is something that will work for you.

I will probably try posting more interesting articles too, in the hopes that it does something helpful for others on there. 

(I will say, Twitter keeps getting worse, where I may give in and start calling it "X" just to draw a distinction. Facebook changes are more subtle, but they are there.)

For other real world interactions, I have not started a project, but I did help for a couple of hours at Portland Pride this weekend.

I used to really enjoy volunteering at things. At some point after I was caring for my mother full-time, it felt like I couldn't anymore. It didn't feel like I had the physical or the mental energy. Even though that responsibility has eased, my old levels of energy haven't come back. 

However, a friend said I could help with her booth, at the level I wanted to for the amount of time that I wanted. That lack of pressure really helped. 

So, I was able to do two hours, without feeling guilt. None of the other volunteer shifts I did were ever that short. I may get back to some of the others eventually, but this was a soft re-entry made possible by someone kind.

We can help each other.

I am aware that in my blogging update, I did not mention two of the days.

For Sundays, there is still a lot to be said about dominator culture. I believe I am going to keep saying it for a while.

I only know about Tuesday posts for the next few weeks.

When I quit my job, I mentioned how there were all these things that I wanted to check into but I had never had time. I am going to take a few posts to report on that.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/volunteering-as-crutch-for-socially.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-next-thing.html

  

Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month 2024 Overview

I have written before about the difficulty with titles, so for now I am calling it this and I will have the post titles show APAHM 2024, but they will not start with that.

I did a little blogging in 2023 specific to children's books and books that related to the death of Vincent Chin, but I have not done a full post on May reading since 2021. 

Most of the books to write about were read after that last post, but there is one book from 2019 that relates to the complication.

The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

I am not going to write a lot about it at this time, but there was an issue where I kept remembering it by the name of another book that I intended to read, but had not yet at that time.

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

I realized (and this was taking shape more in 2022, due to some other books) that on my Asian-American heritage reading list, I had a lot of books about complicated relationships with parents. I had in mind that I would get the others read and see what I thought about those.

Then (still in 2022), I read some other books where people without Asian heritage also had complicated relationships with their parents.

I mean, the ratio of books that I intended to read on that topic still seemed to skew to more with Asian-American protagonists, but maybe families and growing up are just hard.

The other thing that's interesting there is that The Best We Could Do is a graphic novel. It fits the first category, but graphic novels are another category.

Most of the categories get blurred.

I have read a surprising amount of young adult books that relate to Asian American heritage, and there have been a few movies, but there are also three movies that are also young adult (and all from a book series, which is why I watched all three of them). 

At the end of the writing, I want to do a spotlight on George Takei, because he seems like a good bridge from Asian American heritage to Pride month reading. His work will include a children's book, a graphic novel, and at least one movie, fitting three other categories. However, his work also focuses on internment, which comes up in other children's and YA books.

There is a graphic novel as well as regular prose books about the refugee experience.

All of which is to say that this section of blogging may not be well organized. Or, maybe it will be well-organized, but the organization method may not be apparent.

Regardless, over the next few weeks you may find references to 11 children's books, 6 young adult books, 15 graphic novels, 17 movies, 6 books about refugees, 4 books about internment, at least 5 books about complicated parental relationships, and 13 books that don't fit any of those categories.

Maybe.

I am not positive on those numbers.

Request: If you have found my writing helpful or enjoyable, please consider making a donation at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/sultryglebe

How we move forward

One of the many reading lists I am working on is a long post-election one that I started right after Trump's inauguration in 2017.

I wanted to get it done before the 2020 election. For the initial list of ten books that was realistic, but it kept expanding.

Currently, there are 2 books left after reading 92, but some of them split on into other lists, focused more on economics or specific forms of oppression. 

I can definitely get those other two in before November. I am not going to start writing about that list quite yet (and when it goes from a reading month to a reading decade, how does that affect the reporting?), but one of those books seems relevant for what I want to try and explain now.

Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke

Having served through multiple administrations, trying to prevent terrorism and respond to it when it could not be prevented, Clarke's account tied together many things I kind of remembered or partly understood, by providing individual and overall context.

There is one clear lesson: Democrats govern better. 

That's not just better economies, though that has been consistently true. It has also been true for national security.

Clarke never states that; I think he would deny it if you tried to attribute it to him. He does not seem to be liberal himself. However, the evidence is clear.

There are reasons that make a lot of sense for that, certainly relating to capitalism, corporate favor, and wealthy backgrounds, but I am sure the kinds of strategies and strategists that have been employed over the years has a huge effect. 

In general, Democrats are more likely to look at the overall picture and work for the greater good. In addition, embracing intelligence and reason -- instead of preferring cronyism --is a huge help.

For those who like to say the two parties are the same, here are a few questions:

• Do you believe Hillary Clinton would have appointed Supreme Court Justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade? (Even with lower court judges, it would be a huge difference.)
  
• Do you believe she would have imposed things like the "Muslim Travel Ban"?
• Do you believe she would have dismantled the existing pandemic preparedness plan prior to COVID hitting? 

And you know, there is still that focus on capitalism as the answer to everything, so in terms of lifting mask mandates and things too soon, that could totally have come up, but you would still see a huge difference.

Continuing to play... 

• Do you believe Al Gore would have ignored intelligence advice warning of 9-11 because it did not fit his goals?
• Do you believe he would have lied about weapons of mass destruction so he could invade Iraq?
• Do you believe he would have squandered the budget surpluses achieved under Clinton on tax cuts for the rich?

I am sure he would have handled the response to Hurricane Katrina better. With his concerns about the environment, he might even have worked to strengthen the levees before. 

I believe those are significant differences and that we can find others. 

Those who consider themselves "progressive" will often excoriate Dems for not being progressive enough. They have a point. They don't like the idea of incrementalism, where progress takes too long. I get that.

I also think it's worth noting that progress takes considerably longer if you keep sending in a wrecking crew, overwhelming the group that is not completely against progress with cleaning up carnage.

Do we have to keep doing that?

Allow me to mention dominator culture again. It is easy to look at people who are reluctant to come down on corporations or cut military spending, and we should put pressure on them. 

That pressure does not need to be driven by hate and contempt. People who are not radical enough for you do not need to be your enemies. When there are so many people actively promoting hate or working as chaos agents, surely we can appreciate people who are not doing that.

We can write letters and create petitions and hold protests and boycotts and campaign and education and run for local offices and become delegates and all sorts of things without deciding that burning everything down is the answer.

There are people who won't survive the fire. Those should be the people you are most interested in helping.

I can only assume that there is a visceral satisfaction in creating clever nicknames and shouting people down. I have strong doubts about it helping.

It takes longer to organize and to collaborate and it takes some humility to give credit where credit is due and find working ground, but if you want good things done that's the way you do it.

Destruction is easier and faster. I am perfectly aware. But it's not right.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/04/dont-ask-dont-tell-1994-2011.html

Request: If you have found my writing helpful or enjoyable, please consider making a donation at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/sultryglebe
 

Spotlight on Alice Wong

Fairly recently, I saw a tweet about a new book, The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide, by Steven W. Thrasher, and that it featured Alice Wong:

https://x.com/SFdirewolf 

https://www.instagram.com/disability_visibility/

Twitter is great for parasocial relationships (though it was better before the ownership changed). Without having met someone -- sometimes not even having interacted -- you can develop respect and affection for people. 

If I remember correctly, I first started following Alice because of another book she edited that featured some people I had met and admired, along with many others I did not know.

Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

It is exactly what the title says, but that doesn't convey the variety and beauty of experiences. 

There are different types of disabilities, different issues with them, and writers of different genders and races and sexual orientations. Within a relatively small amount of pages it contains much.

The Viral Underclass was from 2022. The post I saw was probably a re-post of something older, but it was new to me. I finished reading it June 21st of this year. While it is a very good book with important information. I am also fine with not finding it sooner. There are some other things that I have read since its original publication date that enhanced my understanding of it now.

Similarly, Disability Visibility came out in 2020, and I read it in 2022. However, that was fine because that meant I had already read Emily Ladau's Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally. That did not come out until 2021, but I felt like it gave me a good foundation.

I mention that because disability and accessibility are important topics, and you need to start somewhere. If you feel like you are getting a late start, don't worry about that so much; just begin!

Which is a long way of saying that when I was reading The Viral Underclass, it occurred to me that it would make sense to do an spotlight on Alice Wong. I had already read three books edited or written by her.

(Then, after Tuesday's post, I moved it up on the schedule because it felt more urgent.)

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire

This was the most recently released and read, but works well as a follow-up to Disability Visibility. 

Once more, there is some wonderful writing. I was loving the book just from the first two segments.

One of the really amazing things is how few common contributors are between the two books. The level of representation achieved requires serious effort. It helps create a vision for how we can be different and better... which brings me to the other book:

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life

I actually read this one when it came out, in 2022.

Speaking of that vision, I remember finding that here, but being surprised by it. What seemed to start by casting aspersions on intersectionality was really about how visible disabilities can become defining and confining, automatically creating expectations. Maybe people expected to write about disabilities would rather be writing romances or mysteries or ghost stories. It wasn't the path expected, but it was effective. 

Year of the Tiger had an account of the author's life, but there was also art and recipes and a crossword puzzle. The review described it as an impressionistic scrapbook, as opposed to a memoir. Yes, that makes sense. It did not have to stay within the confines of what was expected.

Alice Wong does good things, with creativity, humor, and connection, while continuing to attempt to help others.

https://linktr.ee/disability_visibility

Request: If you have found my writing helpful or enjoyable, please consider making a donation at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/sultryglebe

No one left behind

I am finally getting back to why it is important to make sure that we consider accessibility with all of our other issues. That includes protest planning (as mentioned fairly recently), but really, it is for everything.

I don't like that it has to be said at all because of the first reason, that it is simply the right thing to do. 

This is a sentiment that I have seen a lot, but as far as I know the first time was in 2017 with discussions about the Affordable Care Act (and people trying to strip it down and repeal it).

https://x.com/LaurenEMorrill/status/819714138213642241 

From Lauren E. Morrill:

My biggest problem in these ACA debates? I don't know how to explain to you why you should care about other people. 

I am going to go ahead and explain the self-interest part, and it's valid, but there's a limit to how far self-interest will get us.

Regardless, one reason to make sure that accessibility is accounted for is that many of these accommodations benefit others. For example, curb cuts exist because of people using wheelchairs, but benefit people pushing strollers and hand trucks and rolling totes. 

Many products that have been designed to assist with specific disabilities have ended up becoming very popular because they make things easier for people who are holding a child with one hand trying to do something that usually takes two hands, or that are just busy.

Perhaps one reason for that is because the borders of what would be defined as disability or not are often blurry.

This is partly due to the ground that it covers, but also the entry points.

When we think about the Americans with Disabilities Act, your first thought will probably be people in wheelchairs. Perhaps you will also include other mobility devices like scooters, and walking aids like crutches, cans, and walking casts. There are similarities and differences in their needs.  

That is also true of how those disabilities came about. 

Some could be there temporarily, due to injury or surgery. There are also episodic conditions that change. We had a family friend with multiple sclerosis who sometimes needed a wheelchair, and sometimes didn't.

There is a wide variety of congenital issues. I have had friends with cerebral palsy who have used crutches and wheelchairs (and sometimes nothing) because there were movements that were difficult. With other conditions, like brittle bone disease or Ehlers Danlos disease, various movements might not be difficult on their own but have a risk of injury.

That is just mobility, not taking into account issues with hearing, vision, mood disorders, or facial differences. Adding those areas would still not cover everything. I just read Say Hello by Carly Findlay, who has ichthyosis. She used the term "facial difference", and that is accurate, but there is also pain associated with it, and different versions that can have different severity levels.

Personally, it is weird for me to think of my diabetes as a disability. I have written about that, but there are also reasons that it gets classified as a disability. I need to be able to have access to food, mainly just meaning regular meal intervals, but the ability to rectify it if my blood sugar plunges. I would be unsuitable for some long shift factory jobs. I have also taken medications where I needed to be careful with my sun exposure. 

When we talk about disability, we are talking about a lot of things. That is part of why it is so important.

First of all -- and this relates to self-interest -- you not having a disability now does not mean that you never will. 

If you are born white, that is probably not going to change. Your gender and sexual orientation are probably not going to change (though understanding of them may shift), but you may have choices to make about how open to be and if there is gender affirmation care needed.

You could become disabled at any time. Then, even when there are changes you would expect with that, there would be others that you had not been able to predict at all, including in how you are treated.

There is not even time to go over all of the possibilities, but let me make a few points.

Many people have recently had to deal with new issues due to long COVID. The more often you get it, the more your odds of post-infection issues increase. (Which would be a great reason to take precautions like masking!) 

That alone should be a reason to want to be supportive. In addition, much of what we have learned about long COVID -- which is still pretty new -- has come from people who have it connecting with each other, describing their symptoms and what has alleviated those symptoms, and sharing experiences. They have been able to build up a body of knowledge that is then available for medical professionals, if they will listen.

It makes sense to listen to them, but also, it logically follows that with so much variety of condition and experience, we should be listening to people and trusting them to tell us the story of their own lives. 

We have a tendency to not be great about that with all types of marginalization, but disability is an area where there can be many more unknowns.

In that listening, we can create a better world for everyone. That listening has to happen first.  

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/11/affect-access-and-acceptance.html  

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/09/identity-crisis.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/01/deferred-disability.html

Request: If you have found my writing helpful or enjoyable, please consider making a donation at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/sultryglebe
 

Black Country: Black Music Month 2024

It started with an article in Marie Claire:

https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/country-music-black-women-roundtable/ 

I had been thinking about Black people in country music since Country Carter was released and "Fast Car" won a Grammy. This article gave me several examples of people to listen to and a book to read. 

The initial article didn't quite give me 30 days of music. I did some other searches, but this article was a great starting place. There were two important things about it.

First of all there was the mention of DeFord Bailey as the earliest Grand Ole Opry star. My previous knowledge only went back as far as Charley Pride, decades later.

It also ended up pointing me to Alice Randall's book, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future.

That gave me a lot more knowledge. If I had read it sooner, it might have changed some of the songs I picked, but I am okay with the songs I picked.

If I have one regret, I suppose it was using "Old Town Road" in February. It made sense at the time, but I had not known that this was going to happen. I don't like repeating, but it felt like "Old Town Road" was so significant that it needed to be included again.

I am including release dates, and ended up going in chronological order.

Well, there are several in the same years; I did not check specific release dates in that case. Regardless, you may notice that the numbers of songs go up between "Old Town Road" and "TEXAS HOLD 'EM". 

That is partly because the Marie Claire article was focusing on what is current, and most of my listening pool came from there. It does also seem like there may be some barriers being removed. I hope so. Country music isn't my thing, but diversity, equity, and inclusion is. Representation is important to me, as is ending erasure. 

Many of these influences did not get enough recognition, or they were recognized but then erased. 

One of the worst things from Randall's book was about DeFord Bailey. Relocating to Nashville, she was told at least twice -- by white men -- that the reason he faded into obscurity was that he got too lazy to write new songs.

Talking to a Black politician, Bailey had written a jingle for him later, and was still doing things in the community. Did that community work specifically get him shunned, or was laziness just the easiest explanation to put on it? It isn't always possible to piece everything together, but there are reasons to be skeptical of white people blaming a lack of success on Black pathology.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/06/final-thoughts-black-history-month-2024.html

About those barriers... one thing I admire about Beyoncé is that she seems to be very thoughtful and deliberate about what she does. As I looked up these various artists, a lot of them were getting recent plays on songs off of Cowboy Carter where they played a role. 

She didn't only use Black artists -- there are appearances by Dolly Parter, Willie Nelson, and Miley Cyrus -- but they are all also really famous. I suspect it was a pretty big boost for people like Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts, and Tiera Kennedy.

I remember reading in Legends, Icons, & Rebels (from the Robbie Robertson spotlight) that Patsy Cline made a point of mentoring other women coming up in country, most notably Loretta Lynn. There is a little homage to Cline on Cowboy Carter, but there may be a bigger one in working to raise the profile of other artists.

For additional reading on Black Country artists, My Black Country may be your best bet, but here are some other articles I used:

https://www.tennessean.com/in-depth/entertainment/2021/09/23/black-country-singers-kane-brown-mickey-guyton-jimmie-allen-future/8156120002/ 

https://www.billboard.com/music/country/black-pioneers-country-music-grand-ole-opry-9433530/ 

https://briefly.co.za/facts-lifehacks/top/165926-top-black-country-singers/

https://www.wideopencountry.com/6-african-american-country-singers/

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/02/fast-car-discourse.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/03/daily-songs-february.html 

And -- of course -- the songs: 

6/1 “Muscle Shoals Blues” by DeFord Bailey (~ 1932)
6/2 “Bad Case of the Blues” by Linda Martell  (1970)
6/3 “Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone” by Charley Pride  (1970)
6/4 “Fairytale” by The Pointer Sisters  (1975)
6/5 “Green Eyes (Cryin' Those Blue Tears)” by Dona Mason with Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass (1987)
6/6 “You Do My Heart Good” by Cleve Francis (1992)
6/7 “Movin' On” by Po' Girl (2004)
6/8 “Country Girl” by Rissi Palmer (2007)
6/9 “My Heart” by Lizz Wright (2012)
6/10 “Wagon Wheel” by Darius Rucker (2013)
6/11 “What Ifs” by Kane Brown ft. Lauren Alaina (2016)
6/12 “Moonlight” by Rhiannon Giddens (2018)
6/13 “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus (2019)
6/14 “Good Times Roll” by Jimmie Allen & Nelly (2020)
6/15 “Nobody's More Country” by Blanco Brown (2021)
6/16 “Stand For Myself” by Yola (2021)
6/17 “Good Love” by Shy Carter (2021)
6/18 “Raised Right” by Reyna Roberts (2021)
6/19 “Wild Turkey” by Amythyst Kiah (2021)
6/20 “Nightflyer” by Allison Russell (2021)
6/21 “Tall Boy” by Shaboozey (2022)
6/22 “Highways” by Denitia (2022)
6/23 “Praise the Lord” by Breland ft. Thomas Rhett (2022)
6/24 “Alabama Nights” by Tiera Kennedy (2022)
6/25 “Something to Dance To” by Willie Jones (2023)
6/26 “Nothing Compares To You” by Mickey Guyton ft. Kane Brown (2023)
6/27 “Love You A Little Bit” by Tanner Adell (2023)
6/28 “Blank Page” by The War and Treaty (2023)
6/29 “Bigger Than The Song” by Brittney Spencer (2024)
6/30 “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé

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We still have power

That was the last thing I wrote in my 2023 journal (which I kept going until my birthday before starting a new one). There was some severe weather was expected. 

The power lines on our section of the grid are underground, which really helps protect them from fallen trees and things. I remember one time the power being out all of the nine miles between Jones Farm and 170th. Crossing that last street, everything was light and bright. 

Because of that, I was not worried about this particular storm, until a friend of Julie's insisted that we needed to be worried. This storm was going to be really bad.

Of course, he was on a different section of the grid.

It was, in fact, a really bad storm. We know people who had to go to hotels because of the loss of heat, or because a tree took out their roof (and car). 

Driving around a few days later, we were amazed at all of the downed trees and damage. A lot of it is still there. What fell across roads and onto houses was cleaned up, but if it just went down an embankment or across a ditch and snagged with other trees and branches, it's still there.

For that night -- without knowing what would happen, just where we were so far -- that phrase has stuck with me.

We still have power.

In writing about protest, one thing I have written about is the difficulty of exerting power, especially with increased concentration of wealth. I remember years ago trying to figure out how one could possibly exert any economic pressure on the Koch brothers. I did not come up with much.

We still have power.

To exercise it, we need to understand it.

The continued flow of electricity to my neighborhood was made possible by protective action, not by a show of force.

You can try building stronger and stronger power lines, but there are limits to how practical that gets. 

You can try cutting down all the trees surrounding them, but you lose the environmental and cooling and aesthetic benefits.

A show of brute force is only going to make the world uglier.

If we are going to do anything good, we are going to do it by taking care of each other. We will do it by caring about each other.

We will protect the most vulnerable against the most powerful.

We will care more about doing right than being right.

We will care more about being kind than being vindicated.

I'm not saying it's easy, but I am sure it's the only way.

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