Soft Landing

The Bear, hang gliding as a form of resistance, Baby's first protest, and this heat better end soon.

Azul felawan,

Here we are, and I want to tread lightly, because of this damn heat. I haven’t seen a Jehovah’s Witness shooting the shit at New Farm park in a couple of days, so you know the heat &humidity is serious AF down here.

Let me confess something y’all. I cry easily when it comes to tv and books.

Most recently, your girl was super teary when it came to The Bear. I caught on late to the show and binged season 1 and 2 over 5 days and let me tell you, I don’t give a damn about Carmy and Claire or Sydney and Marcus, for me the real love story is Richie aka Cousin falling in love with himself. Richie for me is everything as a character.

I just think after two full seasons of this grown ass man struggling with the grief of losing his best friend to suicide, searching for his place not only at the restaurant but also in life, and feeling like a burden to everyone around him, a certain sense of healing came from seeing him scream-sing and smile along to his girl TSwift in the car after a rewarding day of work and soul-searching.

When it comes to Richie’s self-love story, or him scream-singing Taylor in the car, I am here for it. He was giving me hope that maybe salvation is possible, a little re-jigging, it’s not like you’re required to fill any forms or send any requests but instead kind of just let yourself into a new mindset and community that’s just allows space to be gentle.

I think redefining masculinity, to allow men to work past the gender binary as a divisive and false and distracting tool would be nice. We all know that colonial approaches to gender have routinely devalued the feminine in Indigenous belief systems and matrilineal societies. These systems that constrict our societies are built upon such insane beliefs that fail to actually account for the wide range of human experience that lends to the balance of our communities. Let a mf feel. Let a bitch emote.

Speaking of letting people emote, last month it was:

Baby’s First Protest

We took our human down one of the annual “Invasion Day” rally events in Australia, which have been held for decades held in opposition to the official annual “Australia Day” celebrations which mark the British colonization of the continent on 26 January 1788. Imagine. A day celebrating the start of colonialism. For the Australian ruling class, Australia Day is used to celebrate nationalism and militarism and snags. (snags are "sausages" by rest of the world, brethren). This tribe is so funny and so insincere. This is an opportunity to remind everyone that pay attention to the advice that “decolonization is not a metaphor” (Tuck and Yang 2012).

I’m just a visitor here in this country, y’all made that clear, but if Australia’s First Peoples have repeatedly expressed opinions about the appropriateness of that date I for one, just think you should just simply change the date and eat your meat and drink your drinks on another date.

It’s not like y’all got your independence on that day. lmao.

If anything you should be celebrating on October 9, 1942 (Statute of Westminster Adoption Act Day) when your British overlords gave you permission to govern yourselves. Why so hell bent on January 26?

It’s like smart ideas try to catch you but you are faster.

I continue to both giggle and cry as genocides continues.

Sharing is Caring

Palestinian politician and poet Tawfeeq Ziad poem, Ounadikom “I Call to You All” performed by Lebanese singer #Ahmad Kaabour, who often turned Palestinian poetry into music. This specific song was composed in 1975 and released in 1976.

In other brief flashes of the resistance, I want to share with everyone an event I only just found out about, the “Night of the Gliders” when on November 25, 1987, Khaled Akar and Melod Najah, associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—General Command, took flight from southern Lebanon, hang gliding into occupied Palestine, catching the Israeli Northern Command and the Nahal Brigade off-guard.

They hang glided over the damn wall.

Literally bodies suspended weightlessly by the breeze, bypassing all these damn arbitrary walls. Audre Lorde instills in us that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house, this death-making equipment can still be a small part of the toolkit to reaffirm life; we’ll soar over it. We’ll plow through it. We’ll tunnel under it. We’ll blockade what builds more of it.

This is the presentfuture of all walls.

Book of The Afternoon

As most of you know, I’m pretty deep in PhD research land and when I get overwhelmed with all the stupid words and the theorists and post-colonial lens and tautological allegations I pick up something illustrated. Recently I’ve been shuffling through Visual Impact, which is an exploration of how art and design have driven major social and political change in the 21st century. I really do believe in extraordinary power of art to effect, impact, and/or promote social and political change. Highly recommend to anyone interested in that intersection of art x politics.

*shoutout to Vivienne Westwood who was an absolute thug when it came to eco-warrior vibes on climate change long before it was on the global agenda.

On that note time to spread my cards and see what is in store this month.

Also wanted to share my little Baci fortune, “when the soul is ready, the things are too.” Although we all know that Ferrero Rocher is the best chocolate ever and I'm tired of pretending it's not. How are you going to hate a chocolate that is wrapped with a love note or gold foil - I am interested in both some tenderness and extravaganza flair.

Disclaimer- I’ve eaten enough chocolate to know that both Baci and Ferrero Rocher are mid at best, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

All my love. See you next time.

Wided

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