Vera Blossom! Distractions I’ve been enjoying!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. Thank you so so much to everyone for all of the Chicago & Minneapolis venue recommendations. I have now sent emails to various venues and expect to hear back in a quick 10 to 955 business days.

In the meantime, can we talk about this month’s interview with Vera Blossom? This one has everything: Bathhouses, pigeons, Shrek, Las Vegas, monsters, magic spells, slime, “the psychic mucus of femininity,” Pokémon role-play, gay ghosts who demand better bread, etc etc.

And of course, we discuss Vera’s new book, How to Fuck Like a Girl, available now. You can also get a taste of the vibe via her free newsletter.

Photo: Vera sitting at a dining room table wearing a "promote transsexuality" Willie Norris shirt and holding a copy of her book upside-down. 

Next week, we’ll be sharing a Gender Conceal episode featuring Palestinian activist Yaffa. It’s a little shorter than usual, so I was thinking about tossing some kind of AMA into the feed as well — I guess if you have any questions that could possibly be answered on da pod, let me know in the replies??

Okay, now that business is taken care of, I’m going to make a list of Distractions I’ve Been Enjoying. I realize that we can’t distract our way out of fascism, but no worries, I’m actually distracting myself from Basic Life Anxieties (work, taxes, interpersonal relationships) so this is allowed, I’ve decided.

Photo: A white cat with black eye patch markings, looking alert. 

• Fostering a cat. My friend is out of town for a month for <redacted emergency> and I volunteered to hang out with her cat until she returns. This cat has zero teeth and is kind of a dumdum (e.g., he cannot understand the concept of “cat tunnel” and keeps trying to climb over it??) and needless to say I am totally obsessed.

• Signal Hill. My friends created a new “audio magazine” — essentially a collection of beautifully sound-designed stories and experiments — and the first “issue” is out now! Finally, something new to listen to! You can learn more via this beautiful website or simply download everything in your podcast app of choice.

• Severance. You’re already watching this show. You know it’s mysterious and important and beautifully shot in various shades of blue. But can we take a moment to appreciate that this show is inventing brand new polyamory configurations, the likes of which the average Lex user cannot dream?
  
  (Also: I’m proposing that we use the framework of this show to establish a vocabulary for actor vs character queerness. For example: John Turturro and Christopher Walken are innie gay. Tramell Tillman is outie gay. Jen Tullock is an unsevered queer and btw also lores us. This is a flawless plan that will surely never cause discourse.)

• Queer line dancing. Imagine a hobby that allows you to get out of the house and move your body and hang out with other queer people without necessarily having to Have Conversations. Now imagine that minor queer celebrities are there and also you get to wear cowboy boots.

• My new cowboy boots. I got them for $25 from a thrift/witch store in Olympia. They bring me so much joy and also weird blisters. East Coast girlies are buying their cowboy boots online for like $200 and this will never be me. So yes, when I say I’m distracted by my new cowboy boots, I mean I’m distracted by feeling morally superior to very very sweet Connecticut femmes who aren’t from an agricultural area. I’m not proud of it but it’s important to be honest.

Photo: Extremely basic brown cowboy boots in front of a Bum Lung poster

• Looking for Tom Bumbles. I’m actually not enjoying this one. Where did all the Oregon Bark treats go? Do not make me order them online, just put them back in any store, I beg.

• The Traitors. I’ve never watched this show before, and I’m only on episode six of the current season, so no spoilers(!). However, I am loooooving these celebrities talking to each other like furbies! I celebrate my beautiful late-in-life lesbians and also Dylan, the People's Bottom!

Photo: Screenshot of Dylan Efron laying in a shallow pool of water with his ass very up in the air, staring directly into the camera with a "yes I know what I'm doing in this pose" expression. The Instagram carousel arrows are in the screenshot because I'm lazy. 

I've been watching this show exclusively from like 11:30pm-1am, which is not great for my wellbeing but is also very good for my wellbeing, if you know what I mean. Nobody in that castle has ever had a problem, and neither have I.

What are your distractions???? Let me know! Meanwhile, here’s a little bit of Links & Stuff. Links Jr., if you will.

• Leonard Peltier is finally free! Here’s a reminder of who he is and why he’s important. Also this video made me tear up.

• Speaking of tearing up, I loved Reo Eveleth’s essay about why clay makes them emotional. (I also really enjoyed these exhibit photos they linked to.)

• This fundraiser to reunite a Palestinian medical student with his family is VERY close to its goal and every dollar helps.

• Tuck’s Creature Corner: Speaking of cat, here are very smart cats!

That’s it for this week. Here’s your Weekly Rhubarb with her new pal.

Photo: Ruby siting on the ground and pointedly looking to the left. Behind her, another cat sits on the couch and looks pointedly to the right.

Xo,

Yr resident gender detective