on this day

poppyseed rugelach from crixa cakes

iced chai tea

walking in the sun

lace museum

fleet foxes

britney spears

writing about fashion & poetry for kate durbin & becca klaver's upcoming "seam ripper" issue for delirious hem

the well of loneliness by radclyffe hall

hey ladies

Christine Vi-Van Nguyen reads from 'Blood and Jasmine When I Dreamed Her' from birds of lace on Vimeo.

Rhani Lee Remedes reads a short story at 'The Birdwisher' release party from birds of lace on Vimeo.

rhani lee remedes & christine vi-van nguyen's readings from the birdwisher release party last year. posting these videos is stirring up fond memories of how lovely this night was- cupcakes, warmth, excellent poems & stories, excitement and real live sisterhood. which we all know is powerful.

rhani, margaret and i drove down to los angeles (from sf) for this event. in the car rhani napped like a baby in the backseat while margaret and i listened to music up front. we stayed at my pal devon's apartment, had lunch w/my mama (who met us in l.a. to pick up my sweet dog), and on our way out of l.a. swam in the freezing pacific ocean and sang her some funny songs. it was three days before my birthday and perfectly wonderful.

don't forget to love yourselves

Anna Joy Springer, Daniela Sea and Julianna Snapper read from 'The Birdwisher' from birds of lace on Vimeo.

FINALLY, the entire reading/performance of Anna Joy Springer's The Birdwisher from the release party last March in Los Angeles. Daniela Sea & Julianna Snapper take on roles as characters from the book, and Anna Joy sings a devastating song (which appears as text in the book on pages 73-74) at the 12 minute mark.

i love that dear margaret & rhani are visible in the background throughout.

xo

meek's cutoff

i can't wait for this film to come out

nutritious

this steady diet of kylie minogue & edith wharton is doing wonders for my poems.

thank you todd haynes

get outta my way

pinata nail

vicious, red

here, let anna joy springer read you a story while tara jane oneil & rachel carns play spooky sounds

sit down

emily dickinson's place setting in judy chicago's "the dinner party" made me cry. the first time i saw it in person (at the brooklyn museum) i was also listening to boys for pele on my headphones, wet-eyed & awe-ful.

jane eyre

the new jane eyre is fucking wonderful. of course i couldn't help but think of wide sargasso sea- the mad wife in this version got so little time & energy- but i suppose this is jane's story, here, not her's. all those shots of wide, expansive green land made me ache.

snapology

merry widow

a poem/play i wrote called "merry widow" appears in the new issue of action, yes, which also contains an excellent essay by c. exigua author jackie wang.

to do

0. get home from work

1. make yourself a mojito

2. run a hot bath, spiced w/cardamom-scented bath oil

3. get in & commence reading the woman who gave birth to rabbits by emma donoghue

4. soak in the washed-away remnants of your superblood brought on by the supermoon

5. feel soft, and feel warm

6. your little dog lays nearby and you feel safe

finally time for my date w/dickinson

please oh please let it be true

a time travel research grant for my book would be greatly appreciated. any time travel benefactors out there?

in my greatest fantasies i'd go fetch emily d. with afore-mentioned time machine and bring her here.

lose your body

Last Address from Ira Sachs on Vimeo.

Last Address: Remebering NYC Artists Who Died of AIDS

a short film by Ira Sachs
visit the film's website here

ladies who pull rings out of air

during birthday breakfast last week i reminded margaret that i had an antique emerald ring of hers, which she'd randomly plopped on my finger some months ago, insisting i borrow it. then the stone fell out- which i caught, thankfully- so it'd just been sitting in a drawer for ages, waiting to have the stone re-set. as i reminded her of all this she yanked a different antique emerald ring out of her picnic-basket purse and insisted i wear this new one now in the mean time.

downton abbey

feed me

ride sally ride

return

chocolate, mj, granola pancakes, grits, coffee, cupcakes, pizza, pie, mojitos, beignets, lemonade, massage, love, pineapple, candles, bath, nap, good news, purple, new glitter, half-lashes, xmas lights, nicki minaj, sly, house porn

C. Exigua

brand new from birds of lace:


C. Exigua is a collection of three short stories by Jackie Wang (www.serbianballerinasdancewithmachineguns.com). Topics covered include runaway tongues, dirt/crumb revolutions, childhood memories, vomitous faces, disgusting shows of romance (see: vomitous faces), and all the varied complications and wondrous connections amongst such things. Original illustrations for the cover & within by Caroline Bren. 32 pages, $5. Purchase here.

queenie

i can't get enough of polly jean these days, and most always. let england shake is phenomenal; come april i will be a' watchin' these songs live myself, bringing my brain down into the mortal earth with sound. i love the movement from her white chalk -era emily d./victorian spinster witch whites into this leater-bound, undone-corseted english beauty/hag look, so perfectly in sync with the melodies & stories she propels from her body.

3

paintings for 3 women by bodhi wind

all and everyone

"With each body of work, with each album, or with each song, actually, one has to find the right voice with which to deliver the song at its best.

Now, with this new record, it was very, very difficult to find what voice to deliver such words with, because obviously these words have a great deal of weight. They have very strong narratives. They're very much action-on-the-ground storytelling, the witness to the action on the ground.

I needed to find a voice that didn't add more weight to the weight that was already there, and it took a lot of experimentation to find the voice. To begin with, I tried approaching singing it with what I would call my full voice, which is a 41-year-old adult woman voice and it destroyed the words. It was far too strong, much too weighty, because the words already have that.

So gradually, through a process of elimination and mistakes, I finally came across the voice that you're hearing, which you're rightly describing as a very high, very simple voice. It was - I was looking for something that was almost characterless, that could just be the narrator of the story, almost disembodied from the action, just relaying what they can see happening, and that voice had to be very, very simple, very pure, very high, to inhabit almost a characterless place within the scene."

-Polly Jean Harvey (full interview here)

this way

we were

we were here is a really important, heavy & inspiring film about SF and its queer community during the onset of the AIDS epidemic. i saw it tonight and got big knotty lumps in my throat as i listened to people tell their stories, and the story of their community and how it rose to/beyond the call of duty. how the lesbian community stepped in to nurse and care for their sick brothers, how a florist donated to people flowers so that they could bury their friends with beauty & respect. the film will be getting limited release in more cities this year- you can click the link above for more information. it is playing all week at the castro theater in SF.

how does a community come together when not in the throes of a terrifying epidemic? how could we love each other this well now? i think of all that loss- of how there are still very many people in this world experiencing loss at this level on a daily basis- and feel frozen. there is a questions of, how much grief can you accept into yourself and remain forward-moving? the answer is, a surprising lot. i don't know the exact answer.

one of my best friends elizabeth and i trade these pants back and forth as our weights ebb and flow; it is sisterhood of the traveling pants, the non-fiction version. i am about to send them back to her so they can get some nyc love. i've had them since i was nineteen years old and they are well-loved and soft, with holes in the knees now.