Motley Kamuka

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers reminds me of 2 songs from my childhood. Barracuda by Heart and Don't Go For That by Hall and Oates. They are both songs about people pressuring them to write hits a certain kind of way. Through their integrity they wrote songs that were hits, but not by using the corporate formula being pushed on them. The idea that someone wrote this book and I have it in my hand goes against the "you don't have to do anything" message. I like the message, even if it's confounded. No message is free from counter examples. What I like is the quality of empathy, caring and honoring of one's truth, authenticity of her characters. There's a real kindness in the imaginary communities she creates. 

The genderless pronouns and sibling instead of brother or sister for a monk for Sibling Dex in A Psalm for the Wild-Built is going to take some getting used to. In a way the gender construct has some information to the degree that people cling or reject it, and to get a blank feels weird. I mean I want a post-gender world where gender doesn't matter.  The book uses "they" instead of him or her or she or him. And that makes me think of plural, like there are more people around instead of a monk of some moon in the future where there are gods we don't recognize.  Sex of course is a biological thing and that marks biological female and male, but that doesn't mandate anything about femininity and masculinity which are social constructs. If men work they can drink and punch walls. Women can be dependent and express feelings. Those are social ideas of being.  Transgender experience is puzzling, and really might be the last prejudice to overcome. I don't think we...

The Ranking top to bottom, best to not as easy to watch. DS9: Deep Space Nine (176): I can't help but think this one is the closest to Shakespeare. STD: Discovery (42): The new series completes the set of representation, now we need Hispanic and Asian captains. Putting gays and non-binary has been wonderful in the show. Tig Notaro is a great move. Now that we've checked those boxes we can get to the story telling. I see people online who dislike it. I found it quite compelling. Time travel, alternate universes, immediate travel, environmental tragedy, it's really pushed the limits of Star Trek. Just like some lame TOS show that was cutting edge at the time, this one will be appreciated. STV: Voyager (172): This was the one that made me fall in love with the ethos. Beautiful actresses don't hurt. The rewatch reviews on Tor.com are interesting, detailed, and have comments. STE: Enterprise (98): Great continuation, too short lived. STP: Picard (10 episodes so far): Kind o...

My cover isn't the one on the wikipedia page . This album came out in 1955. My mother was 8. Ruby is painting today and I put this on to start her out. This is probably one of my top jazz CDs played. Along with Kind of Blue, Sunday at the Vanguard , and my collection of Billie Holiday with Lester Young (Pres), and my Monk collection, Coltrane collection and my Parker collection, Armstrong's hot five and seven, and Ella. I never really listened to Harry Edison  on Trumpet (1915-1999), who is Sweets. Lester Young  (1909-1959) is the real star here, I think. "Charlie [Parker] was shy of hipster elaborations. He added nothing to the vocabulary, as did Lester Young, one of the great hip verbalists." Russell, Ross (1973). Bird Lives: The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker . "While growing up in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, he worked from the age of five to make money for the family." (Wikipedia) "In September 1944, Young and Jo ...

The question isn't yes or no, but how to be honest. There's an article in the NY Times . It provoked in me the question, do we lets these avaricious capitalist harm our society, or do we regulate it communism style? Of course those aren't all the choices, but that is what is being chosen in this moment.  How can we make people do the right thing? Government is a terrible blunt weapon. Capitalism is a terribly selfish and harmful weapon.  The fantasy growing up for me was that if we can just educate people enough. But that's not an opinion that is popular enough and the education isn't effective enough. I'm a wreck of a person, more akin to a baseball player who doesn't get on base most of the time. Tepid democratic capitalism will regulate it eventually, and the capitalists will throw up their arms. From my perspective, the Chinese government regulating and taking over the social media industry just feels wrong. It is possible for the America tech giants to ...

When we first meet 7 of 9 in season 4 Someone complained on Reddit that season 3 was boring but I enjoyed the exploration of culture.  Two episodes on season 5 have stood out for me. Of course the queen Borg stealing 7 back was fun. But the one on Bliss was quite evocative. And episode 16 The Disease is also great. There are some great episodes. I've been powering through them because they're leaving Netflix at the end of the month. Voyager was the Star Trek that I connected the most with. I watched TOS as a kid. I watched NG as an adolescent. I caught a few episodes of DS9 and learned to love it later. But I watched Voyager as an adult, every week, every episode. And yet my memory isn't that great. It does ruin quite a few episodes, that done hold up to rewatching as well. It hits me a different way, now that I've watched them all, continue to watch them all, and have read many novels.  I was reading the other day they didn't include the Kess breaking up with Neeli...

  Been reading The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn . So far in the first chapter she outlines his life, and the development of his political ideas. Heinlein (1907-1988) was introduced to me by my father. I've read a lot of his books, but I was thinking about trying to read more of them.