This Dresséd Plot

I am greatly fond of parklets and other schemes that focus on streets as connections for humans rather than vehicles. So Michael Rakowitz’s (p)LOT: Proposition 1 installations spoke to me as soon as I heard about them. However, it also triggered a cascade of other, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. The current reality of most domestic vehicles …

Load of Balls

In one of many controversies surrounding the current men's football World Cup, the BBC chose to show the opening ceremony as additional content rather than as a primary broadcast. Gary Lineker's defence of the decision seems more than reasonable to me. But then my perspective is somewhat different from those who are complaining. My hobbies …

Different But the Same

I am currently helping to design a Vampire LARP set in the early medieval period; part of this is obviously considering how to handle issues of race. Which set me to thinking that the classical perception of race that lingered into the medieval period is in some ways better than the way the United Kingdom …

Capitol Punishment by K.D. McQuain

Following the life of a young gay man, this novel provides an engaging, if sometimes bleak, perspective on being homosexual in the US from the post-civil rights hope of the 1970’s to the new puritanism of the 1980’s. Fired from his job and cast out of his parent’s home for finally responding to years of …

Happy Burpday.

The United Kingdom's National Health Service was launched seventy-four years ago tomorrow. Nearly three-quarters of a century of free-at-point-of-service healthcare. Which is something worth celebrating. I have many reasons to be grateful to the NHS. But rather than talk about their excellent endeavours to fix things that had gone wrong, I decided to celebrate them …

Sharp Spear, Crystal Mirror: Martial Arts in Women’s Lives by Stephanie T. Hoppe

Focused primarily on the specifics of martial arts practice but also showing how those experiences pervade other areas, Hoppe provides female perspectives on what is stereotypically a very male world. Hoppe interviews a broad range of female martial artists, seeking similarities and differences in how martial arts have shaped their lives and how their experiences …

Being Glad

As many of you have probably also found, things have not been effortless here recently which betimes was a bit of a drag on the old noggin. So, it seemed like a moment to share something that brings me a small joy in case it sparked a joy in you also. Today, I have mainly …

Don’t Period Shame

Menstruation is not shameful. In an ideal world, I could end the post there. In an ideal world, even that would be somewhat trite. However, it isn't. Bodily fluids can be messy and seem icky. But that doesn't make them shameful. Having a runny nose can be messy. Having a cough can be icky. But …

Will You Enjoy This Post Before You’ve Read It?

One of the online communities I'm in is engaged in the discussion of the difference between preference for the familiar and prejudice. Instinctively, we recognise there is a difference but where it lies can be much harder to pin down. For me, the starting point is pre-emptive denigration. We all have preferences, both general and …

Green Joy

The Green Party Conference was last weekend, marked—among other things—by the first speech of Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey as new Co-leaders of the Party. As the last forever years show, pretty speeches don't necessarily result in progress, but I found this one inspiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzuf9Ikv6eg I love the clear enthusiasm to learn the lessons of …