Intro
I biked around the neighborhood Friday morning and realized there are three different shops offering tarot readings along a little stretch of Florida Ave. The most physically distant is about a quarter mile from here, and the closest is a half block away. There’s also a new bar that has tarot Tuesdays a couple of blocks from here. Weird how this little stretch of neighborhood has solidified into a cool little hodgepodge of quirkiness. I was telling friends Friday night that I want to get readings from all the local shops. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone read my tarot before.
And that’s as exciting as it got, which I suppose is a good thing considering the world continues along its own execrable path. At least if I turn away from the screens, the world immediately surrounding me continues to burble up weirdness and hope.
Here’s a look back at some stuff that caught my attention this week.
Art & Illustration
Books & Reading
- Cozy Mystery releases for June
- Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for July 1, 2022
- Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for June 2022 – a round-up of speculative fiction by indie and small press authors
- Five Books invites experts (and the expert-adjacent) to recommend 5 books on a topic.
Cartoons & Comics
- Bizarro by Wayno (and sometimes Dan Piraro)
- Incidental Comics by Grant Snider
- The Nib by various
- Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
- Sarah’s Scribbles by Sarah Andersen
- Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
- This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow – Legitimacy Crisis
- You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld
Cartoon/Comics Blogging
Columns & Essays
“For almost a decade, I told everyone I encountered – students, cousins, baristas at the coffee shop I frequented – that they should do the same. “Follow your passion,” I counseled. “You can figure out the employment stuff later.”
“It wasn’t until I began to research this widely accepted career advice that I understood how problematic – and rooted in privilege – it really was.”
- Latest from Pew Research Center – Americans’ Complex Views on Gender Identity and Transgender Issues
Horoscope
- Free Will Astrology – Week of June 30th, 2022
Humor
- Miss Cellania – long-running comedy blog
Movies
Music
News
I assume you already have your preferred news source(s). Here are sites I use to supplement my news diet.
- Wonkette – I love the cursing and share their love of Molly Ivins. PS. Wonkette isn’t always about ‘the news’. Robyn Pennacchia takes down Vanity Fair’s lame attempt at fashion history. Vanity Fair Declares Most Oppressive Look Of The Last Century Totally Feminist
“At no point does the article actually explain how it was that Christian Dior supposedly “pioneered 75 years of feminist fashion” or even try to make that argument, outside of the headline — which is good because that would be an extremely difficult case to make.”
- Popular Information – independent investigative journalism.
- WikiNews – Wikipedia has a news page. It can be kind of hit or miss, but I always use it when I’m following a breaking news story.
Politics
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”
Scholarly Article of the Week
- “Drafting the Inhuman: Conjectures on Capitalism and Organic Necrocracy” by Reza Negarestani
- “Why Do People Use Facebook?” Nadkarni, Ashwini, and Stefan G. Hofmann. “Why do people use Facebook?.” Personality and individual differences 52, no. 3 (2012): 243-249.
“FB use is primarily determined by two basic social needs: (1) need to belong and (2) need for self-presentation.”
Spirituality/Personal Growth
- What’s your attachment style?
TV
- Last week I watched The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks. Not super in-depth, but explains why they had a falling-out in the mid-1990s.
- I use justwatch.com to see where shows are streaming.
Writing & Creativity
- Substantial round-up of writing advice by Maria Korolov at Metastellar.
Coda
