Yum & Yuk

An interview with Rebecca Solnit in The Believer. ("A lot of people think of political activism as some grim duty, and I think we do have an obligation to be citizens—to be informed and engaged—but it’s not just duty. Public life enlarges you, gives you purpose and context, saves you from drowning in the purely personal, as so many Americans seem to. I still think that walking down the middle of the street with several thousand people who share your deepest beliefs is one of the best ways to take a walk. I’ve also learned by firsthand experience and eyewitnessing that popular power matters—to recognize the power of citizens and grassroots efforts and not be so depressingly, disempoweringly focused on the power of the elected and elite, as so many Americans are. Alone, we’re powerless in many ways that we’re powerful together, and that power is one of the great pleasures and purposes of life we hardly have language for in this culture.")

Everything about this tiny house for one in Carrboro, NC makes my heart skip a beat.

Image: source.

"The Fresh Start program at Rikers Island gives participating inmates classes in parenting and cooking."

Listening to: World Cafe 20th Anniversary Concert (feat. Feist, Dawes, Mumford & Sons and Lucinda Williams), and, of course, Wild Flag.

"The moment we are living in is full of the groans and shrieks of a culture at sea with questions of love, sex, disease, and desire, how do we differentiate them and do we need to. The sirens we hear, women, homosexuals, and all the pioneers of our time, are calling for a culture big enough to contain or embrace or encompass the shapes and needs of all our bodily destinies. It demands an extravagant poetry." - Eileen Myles