Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
Woke up around two with a ratrunner blasting down Kingsway at what sounded like a hunnert miles an hour. And there were bangers in there too.
I can’t find a recording of “Bob Dylan’s New Years’ Day” … so I guess I’ll have to make one.
Yesterday I made borscht and fresh whole wheat rolls and fed Paul lunch. Today I’m supposed to walk in Trout Lake Park for a New Year’s Day celebration but the rain is going to be rude, so I may wear rain gear and boots. If I can be arsed to move.
Here’s the first song of the year!
Bob Dylan’s New Year’s Day. Wrote this mostly on the subway on the way home from Dowker’s place, having spent New Year’s Eve there. This will be many years ago now, before 1985 most likely.
The song. Which I recorded on New Years Day, even if I made the blog post a week ago.
The lyrics:
Oh I am a mote in a weary eye that only longs for sleep
I have asked my journeying questions and they don’t now seem that deep
At least I asked, I’m proud of that, and the memories I keep
Though they’ve lost the weight to wound me now, the power to make me weep
Bob Dylan is your bible and you’re ready with a quote
You do not listen for the echo of a sweet or sour note
Poet, sage or prophet, desert voice or vote
On this New Years Day he seems to me another wind driven mote
Peace is available upon demand but the price tag seems so high
Thought I’d something I could trade for it when the limit was the sky
Our grownup occupations have tripped us, you and I
And reality’s a leg hold trap, we’ll get free when we die
We’re all conscripts every one of us, but we act like we’re volunteers
Meant to be here somehow, and joking back our fears
We speak our lines with conviction that deepens with the years
As we take our cues and pay our dues, playacting with our peers
O my Muse is a jukebox, and she plays what I select
Background noise for the girls and boys who want to act and not direct
I look around, hoping someone nods, and the words had some effect
When you quote Bob Dylan one more time, the answers all connect.
Today I’d like you to consider the work of âpihtawikosisân, aka Chelsea Vowel, whose resources on Indigenous Issues 101 is located here.
I like her tone, I’ve bought one of her books (Indigenous Writes) and I think she is awesome for being a driving force behind Métis in Space.
Kind of a gross day yesterday. Jeff and I got takeout breakfast and watched WW84, which was an enjoyable piece of fluff with lots of narrative holes, tropes and clichés.
I think it’s possible I wrote something new; no lyrics yet.
5135 words on ‘The Best Roommate in the World” and a couple of hundred words on a background interview with one of the city managers after the transition.
Tried following up with the doctor about the EEG, office was closed, I’ll try again today. Also wished the cultural competence reader a happy new year.
Mary, Tish, Alexander.
Today: More brown bread rolls (Jeff said he kept smelling them but they were GONE TO TOM AND PEGGY’S TO BE ET), more letters, more practicing.
Did you know that the US is the only UN member that voted against the notion of Food being a human right? There were abstentions. But the US voted against it. Think about American Exceptionalism in that light.
I made brown dinner rolls for Tom and Peggy and delivered them still warm. They were having turkey soup, so good call on my part. I should feel warmed myself but since I got home I just can’t stop crying. I think I’ll just stay in bed and try to find something as mindless as possible to do.
Not so much as a peep out of Planet Bachelor. This paragraph deleted, and there was much rejoicing. I’ve written him a letter, now I have to figure out what I did with the last stamps. Can you believe it? I bought 48 stamps a month ago and they are all gone.
I practiced for an hour this morning, including working up a mandolin accompaniment for “I Guess I Never Felt This Way,” which the kids helped me write while we were living in Montreal. Jesus, such a long time ago now. I wouldn’t trade my troubles then for now, that’s for damned sure.
Visibility outside has crashed from 3 k to less than 200 metres. A FOGGY MORN IN BURNABY.
Time to figure out what the MIT is for today… the Most Important Thing. I’m thinking letters… I have so MANY to ANSWER. Yup.
I’m not happy with my major project for next year, but honestly, if I just record one tiny little thing per day, that will still technically work, and it’s not supposed to be fun, it’s assembling my entire life’s work in one year, so yeah, it’s work. Not everyone gets the chance to do something like that, and most women throughout history couldn’t even read.
The other daily post, that is really really going to be a grind, but 2021 is going to be the year of ‘real content or die tryin’. I’ve posted all the Throwback Thursday pictures for all of November and December 2021 so progress, yay.
Just as an aside, a suicide bomber blew up a substantial chunk of Nashville on Christmas day, but the fucking media is spavining itself coming up with ANY CONSTRUCTION BUT ‘ SUICIDE BOMBER ‘ because that’s reserved for BROWN PEOPLE.
The racism of this society is heinous bullshit.
I don’t know if I will, but I hope to.
Part III Lord of the Rings today, unless Jeff bails. A rewatch every two years is too soon.
I want to make flower buns. I did make flower buns. I want to eat flower buns. They are baking. I didn’t set the timer, I’ll yoink ’em out in 15-20
Time for a huge mug of tea while I contemplate what to say to all my letter writers when not too much is happening. I stayed up all night and slept late and I haven’t eaten anything but bread dough and I still haven’t had the tea and it’s hours later.
Note to Jessie, to be conveyed through mOm:
It may surprise you to learn that in the view of this member of your chosen family, you are still formed for usefulness despite your trials. You are a living image of quiet perseverance; I find your continued assertion of your will and mind quite motivating.
Apart from eat too much and watch Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) yesterday…. not much. OH…. I made veggie pizza for Jeff but apparently I made it wrong. I didn’t actually make it any different than I do Called Paul but it was too early in the morning.
Mike came by (we talked outside in the back yard for a while) and dropped off an oculus headset AND BABY YODA MASKS I am so happy.
ALSO we got a DELIVERY yesterday. I DIDN’T KNOW that couriers were working Christmas.
also merry christmas
Jim and Jan and Barry and a different Jan!!! I have letters from all of them to answer write now. SO of course I don’t want to.
so Slider is okay with being called a demiboy, genderqueer, non-binary
I have no idea who’s responsible for this work of genius, but imagine if THIS was the dude coming down your mfing chimney!!! Ludwig Göransson’s theme song for the Mandalorian is now crossfading with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer….
Unca Barry’s first letter came. I haven’t finished it as I intend to savour it but I was snorting with laughter by the second para.
Paul showed up and I drove us to Deer Lake Park where we did our normal circuit at a very good rate of knots, since there was no place to sit down, har har, because there was ice and snow on everything. Nearly wiped out on the walkway surface FARTHEST from where an extraction by ambulance could happen, as I’m grimly muttering I AM NOT FALLING DOWN AND BREAKING MY SHOULDER AGAIN.
My psychological feathers are back in place now that I’ve heard from mOm about the latest HOTM update I sent her. It’s a piece of fluff but that’s what we need these days, and I do love those characters.
Today: More posting for 2021, more writing, run dishwasher, practice, go for a walk, find the other dryer ball, Expanse 5:4, flower rolls. Amazing, I crossed that off the list already and it isn’t even noon…
later A THOUSAND BLESSINGS ON THE HEAD OF CINDY who BROUGHT BAKING and IT IS GOOD
a little laundry, a little cooking, a little takeout, shovelling an inch of slopping snow in my Oodie….
and now SAMOSAS FOR BREAKFAST YEAH YEAH YEAH.
It’s really weird to be doing it, but I’m trying to just forget about my blog unless I have something to say, and I’m tired of how whiny it’s gotten, and I feel guilty when I forget to post and my mother goes back to check three times…. this way I know there will be fresh content every day, plus this big project thingee. SO LOOKING FORWARD TO RECORDING AGAIN. I’ll be doing stuff at home too.
Made flower rolls yesterday; tea’s fresh brewed and the last three kebabs are in the oven since I decided I want meat for breakfast. Started a load of laundry. Only slept six hours, may nap later. No letters, I’m taking a solstice break.
Paul delivered the Oodies to Planet Bachelor, thank you Paul.
Happy Solstice for those who celebrate, Blessed Yule!
The great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter will continue invisible; MST country is about to get smacked with a weather system that will keep things ugly for a day or two but in the meantime it’s overcast…. we may get snow but I’m betting not. Just in case I should wander out to the garage and get the salt.
Not one but two people put Martin Shkreli, Backpfeifengesicht EXTRAORDINAIRE in my twitter feed this morning. Of course I commented….
