#1500

Since we last checked in with the world beyond the art-porn-iverse, a lot of super shitty shit has shit everywhere in the bed.

There have been not one (Harvey), not two (Irma), but three (Maria) catastrophic hurricanes. (Nothing at at all to do with climate change. That’s just a dumb librull conspiracy theory.)

Mexico has suffered two major earthquakes. (EDIT: A third–6.1 magnitude–hit while I was composing this.)

The U.S. ‘President’ and Kim Jong-Un, the dictator of N. Korea–continue an idiotic battle of insults which could very well end up having very real and potentially nuclear consequences. (John Oliver scooped every other media source by delivering one of the most clear-eyed and thoughtful analyses of the state of things inside N. Korea.)

45 promised to rescind protection for so-called Dreamers–children of parents who entered the country illegally but who have grown up in the country more or less as citizens. (Honestly, there’s been so much back and forth on this that I don’t know where it stands now. However, unconscionable deportation efforts continue apace.)

Speaking of Dreamers, one of the activist networks I’m engaged with sent a document around advising folks how to react/respond. It was interesting because it included a reminder that while marijuana may be legal in certain jurisdictions, it is still very much illegal at the Federal level. This was–once more–a potent reminder that decriminalization/legalization efforts haven’t really achieved their goals if folks of color and other minorities are still being penalized for possession and use.

That being said: if you are a fellow Weedian, remain vigilante. @tanyadakin posted about her experience with a massive undercover sting in Philadelphia. Rumblings I’m hearing are that this is going to be become the new normal under Sessions DoJ watch. Please be careful out there.

But let’s end with something I don’t usually do–accentuate the positive.

A nazi got knocked the fuck out in Seattle. There’s video. It’s delightful.

Also–on a more personal note: I’ve seen the aurora borealis once, five years back. It was stunning the first time. But September is early in the season so you don’t expect more than a few swirls and curlicues. I noticed–almost by accident–that the Aurora forecast for the evening of Sept. 7th was a 5 (the scale runs from 0 to 8). I’ve never been in Iceland when there was a 5. My BFF and I decided to go on a tour and well, OMFG!!! It started as soon as we got of the bus… just streaks here and there and then for 25 minutes the entire sky was alight with shimmeringly undulating waves of dancing light. The guides were stunned and kept saying they get way brighter than this but they are NEVER this active. I stood turning in circles (you had to, there was too much to take in from a stationary vantage) in a lava field for the better part of an hour.

How wonderful was the experience? Put it this way, I was one of the the fifteen hundred some folks who sat with Marina Abramovic when she did her The Artist is Present performance. It was 100x better than that. (I also learned that in extremely desolate and uninhabited climes, you can hear the northern lights. Needless to say hearing this has become a new item on my bucket list.)