Scream club

London calling... hello from a crumbly but charming Victorian flat with a busted dishwasher, no a/c (but a cool breeze through the windows), and nothing on the walls just yet.

It's been a tumultuous yet ultimately rewarding month for me, but all my little fears and petty grievances feel small (are small) in contrast with everything else going on. Sorry for taking a few weeks off there instead of just one, but if you're a sentient being—and I do believe you are—I imagine you've got plenty of other stuff going on and hardly even noticed.

So. Let's get back to it, shall we?

This week's shiny objects:

1. Hard times to be a person trying to practice compassion and/or critical thinking most days, but I promise you're not alone. In Texas, a club has formed, loosely, for the sole purpose of regularly gathering on a bridge and screaming in unison. Just screaming. That's it, that's the whole thing: pure catharsis, side by side. They've taken their cue from similar happenings in Georgia, Illinois, Puerto Rico, Washington State, and probably other places. It's not that far from where I live in Austin. I wish I could join them in person. I'm certainly with them in spirit.
2. Also into screaming: our queen mother of ethereal rage, Florence Welch. In case you missed the news, she has new music coming out on Halloween. Turns out we can, in fact, have at least one nice thing right now.
3. Here's a great thinker pointing toward a solid example being set as we speak. And, of course, there's this.
4. That's a whole lot of heavy, so how about some light: Solnit on solar and how bright the future could actually someday be.
5. Brighter still: this public transit queen, aka "Bus Aunty." Best believe I'm on the lookout from this day forward like it's my full-time job. Will report back immediately if I'm blessed enough to meet her!
6. Remember a few weeks back when I shared those mesmerizing photos of what sound might see if it had the gift of vision? Well, here's what it might look like from the outside in, thanks to these representations by Welsh singer Margaret Watts Hughes and her Eidophone, the visual sound recorder she invented more than a century ago.
7. I'll write some other time about the tiny moments of connection I've found these past few days as I've wandered this new neighborhood mostly on my own, looking to build community for myself during a vulnerable time. Mostly, it involves the smallest gestures of kindness—people going out of their way just for a few seconds to cut me a break, show me how something works, lend me some morsel of comfort, or make sure I'm okay. The word community gets thrown around a lot these days, and I'm telling you—I'm screaming it from deep inside my heart—that it doesn't have to be difficult or daunting. It can just be small, sweet shit like this. All of it matters. Every little thing.

Love y'all. Hold fast. See you sweethearts next week.

"Embrace diversity. Unite—or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed by those who see you as prey."

—Octavia Butler

21 September 2025

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