New Co-op Living

I just moved into a new co-op in DC, kind of blindly assuming that all co-ops are pretty much the same, and knowing only tidbits about this new space I was about to inhabit. I've been here for less than a day now and it's already been a challenge in so many ways... There are six kids, one of whom is mentally challenged. I awoke this morning at 7am to screaming children and slamming doors. . . I'm not sure how to address that. Some of the people seem standoffish, but then again so do I. Some of the people are really gentle and centered, though, and I think I will pretty much depend hugely upon them for the first few weeks.

The common spaces are huge and the dumpstered food is plentiful! The house is beautiful and my room is massive, though un-air-conditioned. The age range of house members is wide, and I'm definitely one of the younger ones, the kids and dogs excluded, which is weird since I'm 21. There is no uniform dietary intake -- that is to say, not everyone is vegan or even vegetarian, though I believe house dinners are all vegan (we'll see). In spite of all the awesomeness, though, I feel very unsettled, constantly on edge, not really knowing where I'm going just yet, but I'm sensing that I'm going to learn a great deal from this time here. Much more than I'd be learning from living in a single room in some craigslist apartment anyway... This is a difficult summer for me in a number of ways, so hopefully I'll come out of this experience with some tools to better understand the world.

Silver Lining: I bought a guitar in new jersey and I believe this will punctuate my summer. I'm going to be one of them self-taught guitar players, because I don't have the patience or money for guitar lessons. Woot.

Animal [Rights] Dissertations

An actual fucking list of ALL ANIMAL-RELATED DISSERTATIONS RECENTLY WRITTEN! Beautiful. Too bad I don't have access to most of them, but it's still very helpful and frankly kind of moving to see the huge body of literature that is growing around animal issues.

Animal Rights in Academia

Very interesting dissertation on the 5 most prominent animal rights organizations in the U.S. and the ways in which they frame their campaigns/goals. Written in 2008 by Carrie P. Freeman.

(Marilyn Frye comes to mind again)

Sympathy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings —
I know why the caged bird sings!

"Interruption" by Brenna Sahatjian

I've just stumbled upon a gem! I've listened to the Climate Composition that Evan Greer gave out when he came to play here but I guess i kept missing the last track entitled "Interruption" by Brenna Sahatjian. I know what you're thinking. Obscure song references are boring and self-indulgent. But seriously, the minor melody and bittersweet voice of the singer really makes this an interesting song, i think, and if you're a person hiding in the shadows of oppression and trying to forge your way into something better then maybe you'd get a kick out of this too. It's always great to realize that you're not alone in your resistance, that we're all in this punky goodness together.

The last four lines -- which are much more meaningful when properly contextualized in the entire song -- are as follows:

Excuse me I was talking or living or dreaming or just being
too bright for the gray malaise of these modern days
To each interruption we'd answer with eruptions
of the lava that bubbles underneath the mundane.

She writes/sings about how we all resist the mundane through our daydreams, but how interruptions bring us back to our banal monotony, keep luring us into our cages. But there's lava bubbling up under that mundane, so it's okay. We can make it through the gray malaise :)

Sooooo good. I'm so grateful for music, for words, for poetry, for communication. And oh god this unread blog is turning into a stereotypical quasi-journalish radical space. Woe is me.

love yo'self

Snatched from a good vegan friend's blog whose been through some tough times. Here's to you, Nicole.

Exploitation and Resistance: The Story of Tilikum

Exploitation and Resistance: The Story of Tilikum