#EDITION Juno Publishing

[cafesulsul]

juno kekoa for tulle beginning | prev | next

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Do you have a list of good sex ed books to read?

BOY DO I

please bear in mind that some of these books are a little old (10+ years) by research standards now, and that even the newer ones are all flawed in some way. the thing about research on human beings, and especially research on something as nebulous and huge as sex, is that people are Always going to miss something or fail to account for every possible experience, and that's just something that we have to accept in good faith. I think all of these books have something interesting to say, but that doesn't mean any of them are the only book you'll ever need.

related to that: it's been A While since I've read some of these so sorry if anything in them has aged poorly (I don't THINK SO but like, I was not as discerning a reader when I was 19) but I am still including them as books that have been important to my personal journey as a sex educator.

additionally, a caveat that very few of these books are, like, instructional sex ed books in the sense of like "here's how the penis works, here's where the clit is, etc." those books exist and they're great but they're also not very interesting to me; my studies on sex are much more in the social aspect (shout out to my sociology degree) and the way people learn to think about sex and societal factors that shape those trends. these books reflect that. I would genuinely love to have the time to check out some 101 books to see how they fare, but alas - sex ed is not my day job and I don't have the time to dedicate to that, so it happens slowly when it happens at all. I've been meaning to read Dr. Gunter's Vagina Bible since it came out in 2019, for fucks sake.

and finally an acknowledgement that this is a fairly white list, which has as much to do with biases with academia and publishing as my own unchecked biases especially early in my academic career and the limitations of my university library.

ANYWAY here's some books about sex that have been influential/informative to me in one way or another:

The Trouble With Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life (Michael Warner, 1999)

Virginity Lost: An Intimate Portrait of First Sexual Experiences (Laura M. Carpenter, 2005)

Virgin: The Untouched History (Hanne Blank, 2007)

Sex Goes to School: Girls and Sex Education Before the 1960s (Susan K. Freeman, 2008)

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (Mary Roach, 2008)

Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution (Revised Edition) (Susan Stryker, 2008)

The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women (Jessica Valenti, 2009)

Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex (Amy T. Schalet, 2011)

Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (Hanne Blank, 2012)

Rewriting the Rules: An Integrative Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships (Meg-John Barker, 2013)

The Sex Myth: The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Realities (Rachel Hills, 2015)

Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Tranform Your Sex Life (Emily Nagoski, 2015)

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men (Jane Ward, 2015)

Too Hot to Handle: A Global History of Sex Education (Jonathan Zimmerman, 2015)

American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus (Lisa Wade, 2017)

Histories of the Transgender Child (Jules Gill-Peterson, 2018)

Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights (Juno Mac and Molly Smith, 2018)

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen, 2020)

Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press (Kim Gallon, 2020)

A Curious History of Sex (Kate Lister, 2020)

Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity (Peggy Orenstein, 2020)

Black Women, Black Love: America's War on Africa American Marriage (Dianne M. Stewart, 2020)

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality (Jane Ward, 2020)

Hurts So Good: The Science and Pleasure of Pain on Purpose (Leigh Cowart, 2021)

Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs (Ina Park, 2021)

The Right to Sex: Feminist in the Twenty-First Century (Amia Srinivasan, 2021)

Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (Eric C. Wat, 2021)

Superfreaks: Kink, Pleasure, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Arielle Greenberg, 2023)

[vole-mon-amour]

Losing it, besties.

The way Phil loves Jamie. Me too, Phil. Me too.

Why am I not really surprised? Probably bc of the way he flirts with Brett. That pic of him almost kissing Brett. Not failing at it now, is he? lol

A nod toward some very particular part of the fandom. He's so self-aware (he's also a dork).

He already mentioned it before, but I love reading things like this nonetheless.

Kudos for asking this way, implying that Roy and Jamie are in love, and for Phil probably not even blinking before answering with a more or less straight expression on his face.

For the record, I shortened the answer, but overall, I like watching how much Phil loves both Brett and Juno. They're great actors and it seems like they're nice irl, too.

And "Jamie wants to be with Keelay", but then also all those words about Roy and Jamie. Make up your mind, please.

S-season 4 when? ;_; I'm still amazed by what Jason managed to create. Wow, just wow.

(in Phil's voice) Gosh. Heavens.

Me too, Phil. Me too. ;_;

Kudos to the interviewer for being a part of the fandom tbh, but also being a grown up that recognizes fun and the love for fiction, being it books or fanfiction. Because ultimately, I think, most of published books are originally someone's original characters and imagined world. Fanfiction for a small or non-existed fandom. And some published books were originally fanfiction that got edited and published as original work.

So yeah, I hope they do hold their private meetings and write more fanfiction. Post it, Phil. Then say that you did without saying anything else and let all the fanfiction writers lose their minds, me included. I think that would be fun.

x

[leighcest]

hey guys just a few juno/rookieclaire reminders!

1. I am a real human with feelings so plz be nice

2. I. AM. A. MINOR. if you so choose, BLOCK ME!

3. Again I'm in no where an editing/writing god so please treat me with respect, it's common sense to not bash writers/editors/artists.

4. Juno/June is NOT my real legal name for the reason that creeps try to figure out everything about me !!!!! Please don't do that !!!!!! That's icky !!!!!

4.5 um just because my legal name isn't June doesn't mean u shouldnt call me it... please call me june or Juno or junimo or whatever idc

5. Do not sell/publish my work to AI. Do not make my fics into chat bots (I should have covered that already). Do not post my work as your own.

6. If you somehow find my personal/main blog dont reupload it 🙁. thats our secret guys!

thank you to all my mooties who have treated me with respect ^_^.

[lacyscabinet]

What about the book? Are you still writing 🤭🩷?

I WAS LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT THIS WITH JUNO THE OTHER DAY.

IT WILL BE PUBLISHED AT SOME POINT I PROMISEEEEE. I'm currently editing it and fixing some stuff but it'll be out in 2025, sometime around March would be ideal but idkkkkkkkk

[hyeokay]

୨✦ ⠂JUNO'S RULES ⠂✦୧

╴╴╴╴╴⊹˚⠀before you follow ꒦₊˚ get 2 know me!

ᴗ  ✿ᴗ) ⠀general ⠀｡ﾟ.⠀1. minors (17 & below) do not interact. note: i put age ratings and content warnings per post but it is for general guidelines only. as i have mentioned before, some of my posts are sfw, but for the safety of minors, do not follow or interact with my account. ⠀｡ﾟ.⠀2. no translation or re-publishing of my work or claiming it as your own. ⠀｡ﾟ.⠀3. do not repost any original images uploaded on my account. note: while some of my images are either partially ai-generated, edited by me, or pulled from other sources, it is discouraged to lift images from this account.

rules! 💗✦﹒ᵔᴗᵔ

⠀. ⁺ . who i currently write for:

haechan⠀karina⠀jeno note: this list remains flexible.

⠀. ⁺ . who i will not write for:

idols under 19 years old⠀male reader⠀idol x idol⠀

⠀. ⁺ . kinks that i write for:

dom/sub⠀ sadomasochism⠀ role play⠀ objectification⠀ breeding kink⠀ voyeurism⠀ breath play⠀ humiliation⠀ impact play⠀ orgasm control⠀ overstimulation⠀ use of toys⠀ power play⠀ dacryphilia⠀ dumification⠀ nipple play⠀ cnc⠀ dubcon⠀ perversion⠀ corruption

⠀. ⁺ . kinks that i do not write for:

age play⠀dd/lg⠀feet and armpits⠀scat⠀vomit ⠀stepcest

requests! + anons! 𓂋🌸⠀

｡ﾟ.⠀1. requests, headcannons, hard/soft hours, drabbles etc. are always open, but if it goes unanswered its because i might be busy or unable to follow through. i will delete asks depending on the content. ⠀｡ﾟ.⠀2. anons are welcome! make sure to use a code at the end of your asks such as emojis, symbols, nicknames etc. taken anons: [ null ]

[atlanticcanada]

David Myles, The Trews, Kellie Loder among winners at East Coast Music Awards

The first group of winners at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards have been announced.

Singer-songwriter David Myles, who had four nominations, won album of the year and solo recording of the year for "It's Only A Little Loneliness."

Adam Baldwin's "Lighthouse in Little Lorraine" was recognized as song of the year.

Newfoundland and Labrador's Kellie Loder was named songwriter of the year as well as fans' choice entertainer of the year.

St. John's duo Fortunate Ones won folk recording of the year for "That Was You and Me."

The Trews of Antigonish, N.S., took home rock recording of the year for "Wanderer," while Juno Award winners The East Pointers won group recording of the year with "House of Dreams."

The East Pointers led the pack with six nominations along with rapper Classified, whose name wasn't called Thursday night but is up for more awards this weekend.

Other winners of the night included Zamani Folade as African Canadian artist of the year; Natalie MacMaster for director's special achievement; Lisa LeBlanc's "Chiac Disco" for francophone recording; Nicole Ariana's "Master of Denial" for fan's choice video; Jah'Mila's "Roots Girl" for global music recording; Morgan Toney as Indigenous artist of the year; and City Natives' "The People of the Dawn" for rap/hip-hop recording.

The year's ECMA festival is scheduled to run until Sunday, when the remaining awards are set to be presented.

The ECMAs have also announced that the 2024 edition of the festival will be held in Charlottetown.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/LlF9MwS

[horribleprotagonist]

Here it is!

E1: I Love This Part - Tillie Walden

Ace Of Spades - Farida Àbiké Íyímídé

E2: We Are Okay - Nina Lacour

The Importance Of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde

E3: Night Sky With Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong

Pride Display Books!

• All Boys Aren't Blue - George M Johnson

• I Wish You All The Best - Mason Deaver

• Melissa - Alex Gino (previously published and shown in Heartstopper as George)

• My Magic Family - Lotte Jeffs and Sharon Davey

• The Kingdom Of Sand - Andrew Holleran

• Beyond The Gender Binary - Alok Vaid-Menom

• Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning Of Sex - Angela Chen

• Bi: Bisexual, Pansexual, Fluid And Nonbinary Youth - Ritch C. Savin-Williams

• My Shadow Is Pink - Scott Stuart

• 100 Queer Poems anthology edited by Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan

Library Background Pride Books

• Leah On The Offbeat - Becky Albertalli

• The Prom (Penguin edition) - Sandra Mitchell, Matthew Sklar, Bob Martin, and Chad Reguilin

• Nate Plus One - Kevin Van Whye

• Birdgirl - Mya-Rose Craig

• This Place Is Still Beautiful - XiXi Tian

• Princess Ever After - Connie Glynn

• Girl Woman Other - Bernadine Evaristo

• When You Call My Name - Tucker Shaw

Book Lovers - Emily Henry

E4: Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Awakening (English classics edition) - Kate Chopin

The Outsider - Albert Camus

We Are Okay - Nina Lacour

E6: Birthday - Meredith Russo

Around The World In Eighty Days - Jules Verne

From the Shakespeare And Company bookstore, (incomplete list)

• The Swimming Pool Library - Alan Hollinghurst

• The Catcher In The Rye - JD Sallinger

• Heartstopper volumes 1 - 4 - Alice Oseman

• Radio Silence - Alice Oseman

• This Winter - Alice Oseman

• Nick and Charlie - Alice Oseman

• Pax - Sara Pennypacker

• How To Be Parisian Wherever You Are - Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas

• Pandora - Susan Stokes-Chapman

• Loveless - Alice Oseman

• The Color Storm - Damien Dibbens

• The Story Of Art Without Men - Katy Hessel

• Rossetti: His Life And Works (Penguin Modern Classics edition) - Evelyn Waugh

• The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle

• Better Living Through Criticism: How To Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, And Truth - A.O Scott

• Bold Ventures, Thirteen Tales of Architectural Tragedy - Charlotte Van den Broeck

• Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History's Masterpieces - Ruth Millington, Illustrated by Dina Razin

• Fierce Love - Dr. Jacqui Lewis

Crush - Richard Silken

E7: Boy Erased - Garrard Conley

All Boys Aren't Blue - George M Johnson

Bookstore Background Books!

• Loveless - Alice Oseman

• This Book Is Gay - Juno Dawson

• Juliet Takes A Breath - Gabby Rivera

• The Beauty Of Everyday Things - Soetsu Yanagi

• Nate Plus One - Kevin Van Whye

We Have Always Been Here - Samra Habib

E8: Summer Bird Blue - Akemi Dawn Bowman

Books From Isaac's Room (an incomplete list)

• Vadim - Donald James

• Dune - Frank Herbert

• Birthday - Meredith Russo

• How To Own The Room: Women And The Art Of Brilliant Speaking - Viv Groskop

• Boy Erased - Garrard Conley

• All Boys Aren't Blue - George M Johnson

• Ace Of Spades - Farida Àbiké Íyímídé

• This Winter - Alice Oseman

• Save Yourself - Cameron Esposito

• Consumed - Henry Wallop

• The Final Detail - Harlan Coben

• No Safe Place - Richard North Patterson

• The Darkling Spy - Edward Wilson

• Book Lovers - Emily Henry

so I went peak autism and made a list of every book of note I could identify in heartstopper season 2, whether it's read by isaac or seen in the background of a shot if anyone is interested in knowing what Isaac's reading 👀

[booksnunicorns]

Aurores Boréale, Tome 1 : Changement de Marée —  Freya Barker

Quel impact cela aurait-il si tout devenait brusquement noir ? Pour Mia, un trajet en métro bondé change toute sa vie. Se retirer dans une région désertique l’aide à faire face à un monde soudain trop bruyant, trop turbulent. Confinée en toute sécurité dans un petit chalet sur le lac, elle n’est pas préparée au voisin qui emménage de l’autre côté de la baie. Une blessure rédhibitoire pour sa carrière a définitivement mis Jared sur la touche. Sa réputation comme « Le Fonceur » ne survivra pas aux responsabilités imprévues qui l’attendent. Loin des yeux du public, il s’adapte à sa nouvelle réalité, sous l’observation silencieuse de l’ermite intrigante de l’autre côté du lac.

De Freya Barker publié en Mai chez Juno Publishing [ Amazon ] 308 pages

Une jolie histoire toute douce, une romance entre un ancien sportif d'une quarantaine d'années et d'une nana vivant en ermite car agoraphobe. Deux personnalités qui ne devraient rien avoir en commun ou se rencontrer et pourtant...

J'ai passé globalement un joli moment de lecture avec la première partie, on va dire pendant la mise en place de la romance et de la rencontre. On alterne les points de vue entre Mia et Jared, découvrant dès le début des situations assez coquines... j'ai failli arrêter ma lecture car je ne voulais pas de trucs superficiels, et ce ne fut pas le cas. L'autrice prend le temps de construire leur histoire et propose deux personnages avec un âge et une carrière derrière eux.

La deuxième partie, je me suis ennuyée... pas de gros rebonds, ni de vrai enjeu et j'ai ainsi un peu perdu de l'intérêt car ça manquait de saveur de leurs premiers échanges. C'est souvent le plus compliqué dans une romance contemporaine : essayer d'être crédible et réaliste, d'offrir de jolis moments tout en faisant en sorte que le rythme nous tienne jusqu'au bout. Peut-être qu'avec moins de chapitre, j'aurais eu moins ce sentiment.

Maintenant, si vous aimez les trucs doux, que vous cherchez des personnages avec du vécu, un petit peu de sport et un cadre idyllique, Changement de Marée peut vraiment être cette touche de frais qui nous manque en romance contemporaine.

[gatheringbones]

queer romance and sexuality recommendations:

the art of giving and receiving: the wheel of consent by betty martin

leatherfolk: radical sex, people, politics, and practice, edited by mark thompson

gay spirit/gay soul/gay body edited by mark thompson

fierce femmes and notorious liars by kai cheng thom

confessions of the fox by jordy rosenberg

s/he by minnie bruce pratt

the faggots and their friends in between revolutions, by larry mitchell

bushfire/afterglow edited by karen barber

best lesbian erotica volumes 1-13 published by cleis press

the beggar of love by lee lynch

sometimes she lets me: best butch femme erotica edited by tristan taormino

why are faggots so afraid of other faggots?: flaming challenges to masculinity, objectification, and the desire to conform, edited by mattilda bernstein sycamore

queer sex by juno roche

we too: essays on sex work and survival, edited by natalie west

cruising: an intimate history of a radical pastime, by alex espinoza

blood, marriage, wine & glitter, by s. bear bergman

[thisismysecondrodeo]

"This Means the World To Me" Part 10 (Final)

wc: 1.1k

Story Page | Story Tag

AN: Short and sweet ending, but don't worry there's also an epilogue I'm posting right away (SPOILER: Skip the epilogue if you don't like babies)

You and Jason attended the Ted Lasso wrap party looking “disgustingly in love” as Juno said immediately upon seeing the two of you. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to the cast knowing this may be the last time all of them were together. Jason was surprisingly tight-lipped about the future of Ted Lasso, even with you. As a fan, you hoped for more Ted Lasso, but as the person literally stealing him away for your own show you were excited to get back to New York. 

“So,” Juno started and you could tell from the glint in her and Hannah’s eyes they were being incredibly michevious. “Please tell me that going back to New York also means wedding bells?”

You scoffed, “It hasn’t been that long, and we’re both going to be busy…”

“Excuses, excuses,” Hannah dismissed with a wave, “Honestly I thought I’d see a ring right now, at the end of the wrap party.”

“Oh that would be so fun,” Juno clapped. 

“What would be fun,” Jason joined the group, rubbing a circle on your back affectionately. 

“You making an honest woman out of this one,” Hannah pointed at you and Jason smiled. 

“You think she’d take me up on it?” Your eyes shot to Jason, trying to read if he could possibly be kidding, but as playful as he said it he was genuine. He met your eyes and just quirked an eyebrow at you. You sipped your drink instead of answering, but when Hannah and Juno weren’t looking you pulled Jason’s hand to your lips and kissed his ring finger. You knew he knew what you meant. That you were in this no matter what, ring or no ring. 

The wrap party ended with tears and well wishes, and as you stepped out after the last goodbye you got a call from your Mom. You and Jason made surprised eye contact as the two of you walked back home and he gestured that you should answer it. 

“Hi, uh, mom,” you sounded more flustered than you intended. 

“Hey. How are you?”

“Uh, good, yeah.”

“I was just calling to tell you I’m excited for you to be back stateside.”

“Oh. Yeah.” You weren’t at your most eloquent but you were caught off guard. 

Your mom sighed. “I know things have been weird. But I miss you and I’m proud of you.”

You stopped walking and Jason got worried but you held your hand up to gesture it was okay. You were just shocked that it was almost an apology. 

“Thanks. Really. You’re still coming to visit, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course. Tell Jason I said hello.” 

You hung up and laughed. “Well,” Jason asked reaching for your hand again. 

“My mother says hello.”

“Fuck yeah,” Jason gave you an exaggerated fist bump and you giggled as you unlocked the door. 

-

Working on your show was the hardest and most rewarding job you’d ever had. Added to that the edits on your short story collection and getting it published, rebuilding your relationship with your family who now not only called frequently, but loved Jason—of course, you didn’t understand how anyone couldn’t—it was all driving you a little crazy. Jason was there every step of the way. After the blowout and I love you’s you could tell he paid close attention to how overwhelmed you were getting and tried to step in where he could. You hoped he knew how appreciated he was, and you did your best to return the favor. 

After nearly a year of writing and production, you were taking a well needed off day. Willa was visiting and so far you’d been shopping, gotten your nails done, and gossiped to your heart’s content over happy hour drinks. Jason also had the day off to spend with the kids and you had already received several selfies the kids had taken themselves to send you, and Willa cooed over them with you every time. You and Willa were just about to pick a place for dinner when you got a call from the script supervisor. You didn’t want to answer on your off day but you all were about to use up the largest chunk of your budget on an elaborate wedding in the 5th episode and there wasn’t much wiggle room for reshoots. 

“Hey, Y/N, I know its your off day, but we just got some props delivered and I want to make sure it aligns with your vision in the script. Could you come by? Just for a minute?”

You looked at Willa, silently asking if she minded, and she shook her head no, so you agreed. 

“Sure, I can swing by, don’t worry about it.” 

“Dinner after I give you a tour of the set,” you asked Willa as you hung up.

“Sounds good,” Willa chirruped. 

-

You and Willa laughed as you walked onto set but you cut yourself off mid laugh when you saw the wedding set… filled with people. Your people.

Jason walked towards you in a sharp black suit and tears were already springing to your eyes. He took both of your hands in his, also looking a little misty. 

“Hi beautiful.”

“Jason, what are you…?”

“I love you. Very much. My kids love you very much,” he gestured to the two of them sitting with your niece and nephew, grinning harder than you’d ever seen them and you blew them kisses. “You are brilliant, you are funny, and you are my partner in all things. And, selfishly, I want you to be my partner in all things forever.” 

You nodded, already too overcome with emotion to use your words. 

“This show has been our lives. It's part of the reason we met and fell in love. It only felt right that this would be the place for us to make this thing,” he gestured between the two of you and you laughed, wiping tears from your cheeks, “permanent.” 

You looked around the room at your family and his. At Juno, Hannah, Brett, and Brendan. At Sasha and the kids and Willa. At the set for this show you and Jason had poured everything into. All of this the result of the life the two of you had built together. 

Jason lifted a hand to your face, wiping more tears, “What do you say?”

“I’m not dressed for this.” Everyone laughed and Willa held up a bag from your shopping trip early. Of course she had bought the cute white dress you had been looking at when you weren’t looking. God, she was a good friend. “And we’re not even engaged.”

“Oh silly me,” Jason smirked getting down on one knee and retrieving a delicate gold engagement ring from his lapel pocket. “Y/N, if you would do me the honor of being my wife…well, that would mean the world to me.”

✨Taglist✨: @tedlassostan

[tarotwitchy]

Hello there! 😌 Thanks for stopping by. I'm quite hesitant to make a masterlist of all things in this blog since I only have a handful of content. However, I'd like to make things accessible to anyone who wants to visit my blog for information. Also, I am hoping that this would motivate me to publish more content.

So, this post will provide everything you need to know about my content and services.

✨{tarot reading service}✨

PAID READING SERVICES

(This service is always open, and 100% confidential.)

FREE READING SERVICES

(Please click this one first before sending me any inquiries; and please check my bio if my free readings are available, or not.)

☕️ BUY ME A COFFEE! ☕️

{astrological content}

ASTRO NOTES:

astro notes; pt. 1

astro notes; pt. 2: Child-Parent Synastry

astro notes; pt. 3

astro notes; pt. 4: Asteroid Pandora

astro notes; pt. 5: NSFW version

astro notes; pt. 6: Asteroid Juno

ASTRO ASPECTS SERIES:

astro aspects series: Sun Edition; pt. 1

astro aspects series: Sun Edition; pt. 2

astro aspects series: Moon Edition; pt. 1

ASTRO PLACEMENTS:

Placements that make you jealous & possessive

Placements that make you oblivious about people's crushes and affections toward you

Placements that make someone highly artistic

Placements that give bad bitch energy

Placements that make you intimidating to your admirers or potential suitors

Placements that make someone hard to forget

Placements that indicate one being a strategist

Placements that indicates a person being obsessive with power and money

Placements that make someone a sweetheart, or being really well-liked

MISCELLANEOUS ASTROLOGY/TOPICS:

The signs as things from your nightmares

The signs as K-12 songs

How to tell if your thoughts are genuine, or you're just deceiving yourself

{pick-a-card readings}

FUTURE SPOUSE:

Future Spouse: When Will You Meet Them?

Future Spouse: Your Sexual Dynamics With Them (18+)

Future Spouse: What is something you should know about them?

Future Spouse: Channeled Messages (18+)

ALL ABOUT THE SELF:

How do other people see you?

Your Dark Side: How You Understand It, and How People Perceive It

What is your Secret Power?

CHAKRA EDITION:

Root Chakra: How can you gain Safety and Security in this Life?

GENERAL TOPICS:

What's in store for you a week from now?

What do you need to know to surpass your current challenges?

PREVIOUS TAROT GAMES:

witchy's free reading game • one

witchy's free reading game • two

Copyright © 2019-2024 by TarotWitchy

[stubbornjerk]

Why people keep telling you to block them if you support Pholo (Penumbra Edition)

Or: why jitterbug-juno really deactivated

I love when people categorize this as fandom wank. Really makes you feel like you’re putting the onus on either side of the conversation.

I’m making this post not because I want to stir up spoiled milk, but because I want it out there that this wasn’t a purity culture war.

The TL;DR version of this is that fans of color tried to tell Rab (prev. jitterbug-juno) not to post her Omegaverse (or A/B/O) fic. And instead of taking the L, she posted it on Ao3 and deactivated.

But, if you want context, well, buckle in. CW for mentions of racism and transphobia.

What did jitterbug-juno do?

Before I get into this I do want it out there that I will not be linking Rab’s fic, but I will show you this screenshot of the summary of it.

[ID: It is a screenshot of a fic, “As You Are” by Pholo.

Summary: Peter can hide his scent glands behind cologne; makeup; concealer pads. He can quash his heats with suppressants. He can divert the urge to nest and fawn.

But he can’t feign another gender’s subvocals. He lacks the anatomical capacity. Mag taught him to distract from his silence with fast, flashy words. For longer heists he relies on social convention. Traumatic mutism is uncommon, but remarked upon by enough war vets and soap operas to be widely recognized. Peter’s marks assume he’s been harmed long before they assume he’s a closeted omega. It would take quite the backwater brute to ask why he doesn’t murmur or chuff or growl.

On the 'Blanche there are the usual furtive glances. Juno makes clear to Peter that should he ever want “to talk about what happened,” he’ll be there to listen. The gesture annoys Peter more than comforts him.

‘Nothing happened,’ he wants to scream. ‘There’s nothing to talk about!’

There are 14 comments, 85 kudos, and 11 bookmarks /end]

You decide what you’re doing with that information, but honestly, I’d rather you don’t give it anymore engagement than it deserves.

There was a period earlier this June (yes, even though it’s only the 10th, at time of writing) when Rab was posting snippets of the aforementioned fic on her blog and tagging it appropriately, putting it in the attention of pretty much the entire Penumbra fandom.

What’s Omegaverse or a/b/o and why is everyone so against Rab for it

If you know what Omegaverse is, I don’t have to tell you why it’s controversial. If you don’t know what Omegaverse is, well, Fanlore said it best:

a kink trope wherein some or all people have defined biological roles based on a hierarchical system, with the terms originating from animal behaviour research. There may be werewolf, knotting, or other animalistic elements involved, or the characters may be otherwise purely human.

The term is generally written with slashes (a/b/o). Many fans, particularly ones from Australia and New Zealand, are uncomfortable seeing the term without slashes because it is also an Australian slur for aboriginal people.

I won’t get into the history or the heaps and tons of other discourses (mostly about fictional male pregnancy, homophobia, transphobia, sexual assault, etc.)  that go on within that. We’re here specifically on Rab v. Penumbra fans of color and we’re staying there.

Anyone who’s been in Penumbra enough to realize that everyone draws the Junoverse characters in a certain way knows that a) Juno is black, b) Nureyev is Asian, and c) as a fan you have to be aware of what you’re subjecting or saying about either of them because of the political repercussions that come with it.

And despite that, Rab proceeded to write Peter Nureyev, a gender nonconforming gay Asian male character that is widely headcanon’d as trans, into a fic using a kink trope that relies heavily on animal behavior.

Unlike most people new to fandom, Rab is aware of what Omegaverse is and is very much white. She is (and if she isn’t, should be) aware of the racist undertones that writing him in would get.

I couldn’t get a screenshot of what snippets Rab was sending out into the ether, seeing as a majority of my friends would rather not have seen any at all (I have all of the usual tags blocked so I wouldn’t have seen it either way), but needless to say, Rab got attention for it. Both positive and negative.

Anne (@hopeless-eccentric) even posted a satirical fic, in the odds that Rab was just writing this thing to be “the first” to write Omegaverse fic in the Penumbra tags.

But, I’m assuming more than one fan of color came into Rab’s inbox and messaged her about it, but someone I know (who would like to remain anonymous) was gracious enough to take a screenshot before he sent his in and let me use it for this post:

[ID: A message to jitterbug-juno about to be sent by a sender whose name is censored with a black bar. His messages says:

“as someone who is a person of color i think the nature of the fic you are writing right now is extremely racist and attributing animal characteristics to lgbt people of color is not at all appropriate, especially when you are someone who is white. i have to ask you to not publish this fic and to reflect as to why you would want to write this in the first place, these tropes are extremely harmful and”

There are 33 characters left to write into the message. /end]

I can’t speak for whoever else sent asks about the fic she was writing. If anyone was actually not-so-gentle with her, well, minorities don’t really owe it to you to be gentle about what they can tell is bigotry-tinged behavior.

But, the message was clear: this is different from your garden variety, lily white straight male character m/m kink fantasy. This is an actual queer Asian character that a lot of queer Asian people feel attached do. Do not post the fic.

What happened next: the beginning of the end

The next morning, I woke up to most of my friends being frustrated by this post on Rab’s account:

[ID: Dated 5 June, a post by jitterbug-juno:

“Gonna leave the fandom for a while. Wishing you all well.”

The tags say the following: not sure if i’ll be back, thank you so much to everybody who’s read my fics, and who’s sent asks or engaged with my art or any of that, you’re amazing and I’m sending love /end]

That... was not what fans of color wanted, but it was definitely an action they took. Some celebrated, as they were very much wary of Rab for having caused much of the same category of drama in fandoms like Voltron: Legendary Defenders and Warrior Cats. This also meant that she was probably not going to post the fic either.

Some, myself included, were relatively pissed, as they’d wanted even just the measly bit of accountability. An apology or an acknowledgement of having been called out in private and that they’ll take time to consider why. But instead we got Rab leaving in the face of fans of color telling her not to post her Omegaverse fic.

Well. The next day...

[ID: Dated 6 June. A post by jitterbug-juno titled, “Well... that was short-lived”

“I gave the situation a lot of thought yesterday. The reaction to my omegaverse previews made me figure I should leave the fandom. It seemed like the safest option.

But you know what?

Hell.

I don’t want to leave. The fic discusses the tropes of omegaverse and I spoke to several POC on Twitter, and I’m going to post it with plenty of tags so people can avoid it if they wish. I’m not going to be chased out of this space.

Thank you to everyone who sent messages yesterday. I shouldn’t have made that post about leaving. It was really reactionary. I’m okay and I appreciate your support so much.

(bolded on the post) To those who are angry and uncomfortable with me: Please block me. If you’re going to talk about this fic on Tumblr and Twitter– and this may sound odd– PLEASE NAME ME as Jitterbug-juno or Pholo. Don’t vague me. That way people who don’t want to see this discourse can add my name to their block lists.“ /end]

That certainly was short-lived, she wasn’t kidding.

This got a lot of outrage. Again, the fic is up on Ao3 and she has not taken it down. A lot of POC were pissed and I didn’t see a single fan of color actively support what she was doing, at least, not in my friend group. Everyone started making those posts to block them if you liked the fic or Rab’s content in general, in accordance to what Rab wanted.

Perseus (@mraudiodrama) noticed/pointed out that Rab deleted the part where she said she spoke to several POC about releasing her fic, as well as the part where she said she refused to be chased out of the fandom. This was an incredibly pointed detail to edit out, according to some.

[ID: A screenshot of jitterbug-juno's last post taken 11:00PM. Much of it is the same except the following bolded words are removed: "The fic discusses the tropes of omegaverse and I spoke to several POC on Twitter, and I’m going to post it with plenty of tags so people can avoid it if they wish. I’m not going to be chased out of this space." /end]

That same day, Rab deleted her blog. I actually caught this one on tape, believe it or not.

[ID: A screen recording taken at 12:01 PM of someone scrolling down jitterbug-juno's account. The posts and asks about Omegaverse and her post about leaving and coming back are conspicuously absent. /end]

Initially, I thought she deleted all mentions of it. I wanted to see firsthand if the rumors about her deleting portions of it were true. If she added things where she was saying that she wanted to write it because she was autistic and wanted Nureyev to be autistic too, regardless of the numerous QPOC telling her not to do it.

Instead, it turned out, she deleted her blog.

And now, we're here. The fic is still up. Her blog is down. Rab's public Twitter account @nataclinn is quiet about this. Her @cushfuddled Twitter account is on private after her run-in with the Warrior Cats fandom, according to a friend. And her Tumblr @cushfuddled account has nothing but memes.

Again, I didn't make this post to stir up drama. I wasn't even obsessively making this post as a call-out because she isn't in the fandom anymore. I just want it out there that this isn't a purity culture thing that got out of hand in a fandom as niche as Penumbra. This was a case of someone being called out and failing to acknowledge it before running away. And I want all that out of the way before I say:

If you are on Rab's side of this debacle, I, a queer person of color, want nothing to do with you either.

[boredout305]

Kid Congo Powers Interview

Kid Congo Powers was a founding member of the Gun Club. He also played with The Cramps and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Powers currently fronts Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds and recently completed a memoir, Some New Kind of Kick.

           The following interview focuses on Some New Kind of Kick. In the book Powers recounts growing up in La Puente—a working-class, largely Latino city in Los Angeles County—in the 1960s, as well as his familial, professional and personal relationships. He describes the LA glam-rock scene (Powers was a frequenter of Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco), the interim period between glam and punk embodied by the Capitol Records swap meet, as well as LA’s first-wave, late-1970s punk scene.

           Well written, edited and awash with amazing photos, Some New Kind of Kick will appeal to fans of underground music as well as those interested in 1960-1980s Los Angeles (think Claude Bessy and Mike Davis). The book will be available from In the Red Records, their first venture into book publishing, soon.

Interview by Ryan Leach   

Kid Congo with the Pink Monkey Birds.

Ryan: Some New Kind of Kick reminded me of the New York Night Train oral histories you had compiled about 15 years ago. Was that the genesis of your book?

Kid: That was the genesis. You pinpointed it. Those pieces were done with Jonathan Toubin. It was a very early podcast. Jonathan wanted to do an audio version of my story for his website, New York Night Train. We did that back in the early 2000s. After we had completed those I left New York and moved to Washington D.C. I thought, “I have the outline for a book here.” Jonathan had created a discography and a timeline. I figured, “It’ll be great and really easy. We’ll just fill in some of the blanks and it’ll be done.” Here we are 15 years later.

Ryan: It was well worth it. It reads well. And I love the photographs. The photo of you as a kid with Frankenstein is amazing.

Kid: I’m glad you liked it. You’re the first person not involved in it that I’ve spoken with.  

Ryan: As someone from Los Angeles I enjoyed reading about your father’s life and work as a union welder in the 1960s. My grandfather was a union truck driver and my father is a cabinetmaker. My dad’s cousins worked at the General Motors Van Nuys Assembly plant. In a way you captured an old industrial blue-collar working class that’s nowhere near as robust as it once was in Los Angeles. It reminded of Mike Davis’ writings on the subject.

Kid: I haven’t lived in LA for so long that I didn’t realize it doesn’t exist anymore. I felt the times. It was a reflection on my experiences and my family’s experiences. It was very working class. My dad was proud to be a union member. It served him very well. He and my mother were set up for the rest of their lives. I grew up with a sense that he earned an honest living. My parents always told me not to be embarrassed by what you did for work. People would ask me, “What’s your book about? What’s the thrust of it?” As I was writing it, I was like, “I don’t know. I’ll find out when it’s done.” What you mentioned was an aspect of that.

           When I started the book and all throughout the writing I had gone to different writers’ workshops. We’d review each other’s work. It was a bunch of people who didn’t know me, didn’t know about music—at least the music I make. I just wanted to see if there was a story there. People were relating to what I was writing, which gave me the confidence to keep going.

Ryan: Some New Kind of Kick is different from Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s autobiography, Go Tell the Mountain. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think of Pierce’s work as I read yours. Was Go Tell the Mountain on your mind as you were writing?

Kid: When I was writing about Jeffrey—it was my version of the story. It was about my relationship with him. I wasn’t thinking about his autobiography much at all. His autobiography is very different than mine. Nevertheless, there are some similarities. But his book flew off into flights of prose and fantasy. I tried to stay away from the stories that were already out there. The thing that’s interesting about Jeffrey is that everyone has a completely different story to tell about him. Everyone’s relationship with him was different.

Ryan: It’s a spectrum that’s completely filled in.

Kid: Exactly. One of the most significant relationships I’ve had in my life was with Jeffrey. Meeting him changed my life. It was an enduring relationship. It was important for me to tell my story of Jeffrey.

Ryan: The early part of your book covers growing up in La Puente and having older sisters who caught the El Monte Legion Stadium scene—groups like Thee Midniters. You told me years ago that you and Jeffrey were thinking about those days during the writing and recording of Mother Juno (1987).

Kid: That’s definitely true. Growing up in that area is another thing Jeffrey and I bonded over. We were music hounds at a young age. We talked a lot about La Puente, El Monte and San Gabriel Valley’s culture. We were able to pinpoint sounds we heard growing up there—music playing out of cars and oldies mixed in with Jimi Hendrix and Santana. That was the sound of San Gabriel Valley. It wasn’t all lowrider music. We were drawn to that mix of things. I remember “Yellow Eyes” off Mother Juno was our tribute to the San Gabriel Valley sound.

Ryan: You describe the Capitol Records Swap Meet in Some New Kind of Kick. In the pre-punk/Back Door Man days that was an important meet-up spot whose significance remains underappreciated.

Kid: The Capitol Records Swap Meet was a once-a-month event and hangout. It was a congregation of record collectors and music fans. You’d see the same people there over and over again. It was a community. Somehow everyone who was a diehard music fan knew about it. You could find bootlegs there. It went from glam to more of a Back Door Man-influenced vibe which was the harder-edged Detroit stuff—The Stooges and the MC5. You went there looking for oddities and rare records. I was barely a record collector back then. It’s where I discovered a lot of music. You had to be a pretty dedicated music fan to get up at 6 AM to go there, especially if you were a teenager.

Ryan: I enjoyed reading about your experiences as a young gay man in the 1970s. You’d frequent Rodney’s English Disco; I didn’t know you were so close to The Screamers. While not downplaying the prejudices gay men faced in the 1970s, it seemed fortuitous that these places and people existed for you in that post-Stonewall period.

Kid: Yeah. I was obviously drawn to The Screamers for a variety of reasons. It was a funny time. People didn’t really discuss being gay. People knew we were gay. I knew you were gay; you knew I was gay. But the fact that we never openly discussed it was very strange. Part of that was protection. It also had to do with the punk ethos of labels being taboo. I don’t think that The Screamers were very politicized back then and neither was I. We were just going wild. I was super young and still discovering things. I had that glam-rock door to go through. It was much more of a fantasy world than anything based in reality. But it allowed queerness. It struck a chord with me and it was a tribe. However, I did discover later on that glam rock was more of a pose than a sexual revolution.

           With some people in the punk scene like The Screamers and Gorilla Rose—they came from a background in drag and cabaret. I didn’t even know that when I met them. I found it out later on. They were already very experienced. They had an amazing camp aesthetic. I learned a lot about films and music through them. They were so advanced. It was all very serendipitous. I think my whole life has been serendipitous, floating from one thing to another.  

Ryan: You were in West Berlin when the Berlin Wall was breached in November 1989. “Here’s another historical event. I’m sure Kid Congo is on the scene.”

Kid: I know! The FBI must have a dossier on me. I was in New York on 9/11 too.

Ryan: A person who appears frequently in your book is your cousin Theresa who was tragically murdered. I take it her death remains a cold case.

Kid: Cold case. Her death changed my entire life. It was all very innocent before she died. That stopped everything. It was a real source of trauma. All progress up until that point went on hold until I got jolted out of it. I eventually decided to experience everything I could because life is short. That trauma fueled a lot of bad things, a lot of self-destructive impulses. It was my main demon that chased me throughout my early adult life. It was good to write about it. It’s still there and that’s probably because her murder remains unsolved. I have no resolution with it. I was hoping the book would give me some closure. We’ll see if it does.

Ryan: Theresa was an important person in your life that you wanted people to know about. You champion her.

Kid: I wanted to pay tribute to her. She changed my life. I had her confidence. I was at a crossroads at that point in my life, dealing with my sexuality. I wanted people to know about Theresa beyond my family. My editor Chris Campion really pulled that one out of me. It was a story that I told, but he said, “There’s so much more to this.” I replied, “No! Don’t make me do it.” I had a lot of stories, but it was great having Chris there to pull them together to create one big story. My original concept for the book was a coming-of-age story. Although it still is, I was originally going to stop before I even joined the Gun Club (in 1979). It was probably because I didn’t want to look at some of the things that happened afterwards. It was very good for my music. Every time I got uncomfortable, I’d go, “Oh, I’ve got to make a record and go on tour for a year and not think about this.” A lot of it was too scary to even think about. But the more I did it, the less scary it became and the more a story emerged. I had a very different book in mind than the one I completed. I’m glad I was pushed in that direction and that I was willing to be pushed. I wanted to tell these stories, but it was difficult.

Ryan: Of course, there are lighter parts in your book. There are wonderful, infamous characters like Bradly Field who make appearances.

Kid: Bradly Field was also a queer punker. He was the partner of Kristian Hoffman of The Mumps. I met Kristian in Los Angeles. We all knew Lance Loud of The Mumps because he had starred in An American Life (1973) which was the first reality TV show. It aired on PBS. I was a fan of The Mumps. Bradly came out to LA with Kristian for an elongated stay during a Mumps recording session. Of course, Bradly and I hit it off when we met. Bradly was a drummer—he played a single drum and a cracked symbol—in Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Bradly was a real character. He was kind of a Peter Lorre, misanthropic miscreant. Bradly was charming while abrasively horrible at the same time. We were friends and I always remained on Bradly’s good side so there was never a problem.

           Bradly had invited me and some punkers to New York. He said that if we ever made it out there that we could stay with him. He probably had no idea we’d show up a month later. Bradly Field was an important person for me to know—an unashamedly gay, crazy person. He was a madman. I had very little interest in living a typical life. That includes a typical gay life. Bradly was just a great gay artist I met in New York when I was super young. He was also the tour manager of The Cramps at one point. You can imagine what that was like. Out of Lux and Ivy’s perverse nature they unleashed him on people.

Ryan: He was the right guy to have in your corner if the club didn’t pay you.  

Kid: Exactly. Who was going to say “no” to Bradly?

Ryan: You mention an early Gun Club track called “Body and Soul” that I’m unfamiliar with. I know you have a rehearsal tape of the original Creeping Ritual/Gun Club lineup (Kid Congo Powers, Don Snowden, Brad Dunning and Jeffrey Lee Pierce). Are any of these unreleased tracks on that tape?

Kid: No. Although I do have tapes, there’s no Creeping Ritual material on them. I spoke with Brad (Dunning) and he has tapes too. We both agreed that they’re unlistenable. They’re so terrible. Nevertheless, I’m going to have them digitized and I’ll take another listen to them. “Body and Soul” is an early Creeping Ritual song. At the time we thought, “Oh, this sounds like a Mink DeVille song.” At least in our minds it did. To the best of my ability I did record an approximation of “Body and Soul” on the Congo Norvell record Abnormals Anonymous (1997). I sort of reimagined it. That song was the beginning of things for me with Jeffrey. It wasn’t a clear path when we started The Gun Club. We didn’t say, “Oh, we’re going to be a blues-mixed-with-punk band.” It was a lot of toying around. It had to do with finding a style. Jeffrey had a lot of ideas. We also had musical limitations to consider. We were trying to turn it into something cohesive. There was a lot of reggae influence at the beginning. Jeffrey was a visionary who wanted to make the Gun Club work. Of course, to us he was a really advanced musician. We thought (bassist) Don Snowden was the greatest too. What’s funny is that I saw Don in Valencia, Spain, where he lives now. He came to one of our (Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds) shows a few years ago. He said, “Oh, I didn’t know how to play!”

Ryan: “I knew scales.”

Kid: Exactly. It was all perception. But we were ambitious and tenacious. We were certain we could make something really good out of what we had. That was it. We knew we had good taste in music. That was enough for us to continue on.

Ryan: I knew about The Cramps’ struggles with IRS Records and Miles Copeland. However, it took on a new meaning reading your book. Joining The Cramps started with a real high for you, recording Psychedelic Jungle (1981), and then stagnation occurred due to contractual conflicts.

Kid: There was excitement, success and activity for about a year or two. And then absolutely nothing. As I discuss in my book—and you can ask anyone who was in The Cramps—communication was not a big priority for Lux and Ivy. I was left to my own devices for a while. We were building, building, building and then it stopped. I wasn’t privy to what was going on. I knew they were depressed about it. The mood shifted. It was great recording Psychedelic Jungle and touring the world. The crowds were great everywhere we went. It was at that point that I started getting heavy into drugs. The time off left me with a lot of time to get into trouble. It was my first taste of any kind of success or notoriety. I’m not embarrassed to say that I fell into that trip: “Oh, you know who I am and I have all these musician friends now.” It was the gilded ‘80s. Things were quite decadent then. There was a lot of hard drug use. It wasn’t highly frowned upon to abuse those types of drugs in our circle. What was the reputation of The Gun Club? The drunkest, drug-addled band around. So there was a lot of support to go in that direction. Who knew it was going to go so downhill? We weren’t paying attention to consequences. Consequences be damned. So the drugs sapped a lot of energy out of it too.

           I recorded the one studio album (Psychedelic Jungle) with The Cramps and a live album (Smell of Female). The live record was good and fun, but it was a means to an end. It was recorded to get out of a contract. The Cramps were always going to do it their way. Lux and Ivy weren’t going to follow anyone’s rules. I don’t know why people expected them to. To this day, I wonder why people want more. I mean, they gave you everything. People ask me, “When is Ivy going to play again?” I tell them, “She’s done enough. She paid her dues. The music was great.”

Ryan: I think after 30-something years of touring, she’s earned her union card.

Kid: Exactly. She’s done her union work.

Ryan: In your book you discuss West Berlin in the late 1980s. That was a strange period of extreme highs and lows. During that time you were playing with the Bad Seeds, working with people like Wim Wenders (in Wings of Desire) and witnessed the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the GDR. Nevertheless, it was a very dark period marred by substance abuse. Luckily, you came out of it unscathed. As you recount, some people didn’t.

Kid: It was a period of extremes. In my mind, for years, I rewrote that scene. I would say, “Berlin was great”—and it was, that part was true—and then I’d read interviews with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey and they’d say, “Oh, the Tender Prey (1988) period was just the worst. It’s hard to even talk about it.” And I was like, “It was great! What are you talking about?” Then when I started writing about it, I was like, “Oh, fuck! It really wasn’t the best time.” I had been so focused on the good things and not the bad things. Prior to writing my book, I really hadn’t thought about how incredibly dark it was. That was a good thing for me to work out. Some very bad things happened to people around me. But while that was happening, it was a real peak for me as a musician. Some of the greatest work I was involved with was being done then. And yet I still chose to self-destruct. It was a case of right place, right time. But it was not necessarily what I thought it was.  

Ryan: Digressing back a bit, when we would chat years back I would ask you where you were at with this project. You seemed to be warming up to it as time went on. And I finally found a copy of the group’s album in Sydney, Australia, a year ago. I’m talking about Fur Bible (1985).

Kid: Oh, you got it?

Ryan: I did.

Kid: In Australia?

Ryan: Yes. It was part of my carry-on luggage.

Kid: I’m sure I can pinpoint the person who sold it to you.

Ryan: Are you coming around to that material now? I like the record.

Kid: Oh, yeah. I hated it for so long. People would say to me, “Oh, the Fur Bible record is great.” I’d respond, “No. It can’t possibly be great. I’m not going to listen to it again, so don’t even try me.” Eventually, I did listen to it and I thought, “Oh, this is pretty good.” I came around to it. I like it.

Ryan: You’ve made the transition!

Kid: I feel warmly about it. I like all of the people involved with it. That was kind of a bad time too. It was that post-Gun Club period. I felt like I had tried something unsuccessful with Fur Bible. I had a little bit of shame about that. Everything else I had been involved with had been successful, in my eyes. People liked everything else and people didn’t really like Fur Bible. It was a sleeper.

Ryan: It is.  

Kid: There’s nothing wrong with it. It was the first time I had put my voice on a record and it just irritated the hell out of me. It was a first step for me.

Ryan: You close your book with a heartfelt tribute to Jeffrey Lee Pierce. You wonder how your life would’ve turned out had you not met Jeffrey outside of that Pere Ubu show in 1979. Excluding family, I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone who’s had that sort of impact on my life.

Kid: As I was getting near the end of the book I was trying to figure out what it was about. A lot of it was about Jeffrey. Everything that moved me into becoming a musician and the life I lived after that was because of him. It was all because he said, “Here’s a guitar. You’re going to learn how to play it.” He had that confidence that I could do it. It was a mentorship. He would say, “You’re going to do this and you’re going to be great at it.” I was like, “Okay.” Jeffrey was the closest thing I had to a brother. We could have our arguments and disagreements, but in the end it didn’t matter. What mattered was our bond. Writing it down made it all clearer to me. His death sent me into a tailspin. I was entering the unknown. Jeffrey was like a cord that I had been hanging onto for so long and it was gone. I was more interested in writing about my relationship with him than about the music of the Gun Club. A lot of people loved Jeffrey. But there were others who said they loved him with disclaimers. I wanted to write something about Jeffrey without the disclaimers. That seemed like an important task—to honor him in a truthful manner.

Ryan: I’m glad that you did that. Jeffrey has his detractors, but they all seem to say something along the lines of “the guy still had the most indefatigable spirit and drive of any person I’ve ever known.”

Kid: That’s what drove everyone crazy!

Ryan: This book took you 15 years to finish. Completing it has to feel cathartic.  

Kid: I don’t know. Maybe it will when I see the printed book. When I was living in New York there was no time for reflection. I started it after I left New York, but it was at such a slow pace. It was done piecemeal. I wanted to give up at times. I had a lot of self-doubt. And like I said, I’d just go on tour for a year and take a long break. The pandemic made me finally put it to bed. I couldn’t jump up and go away on tour anymore. It feels great to have it done. When I read it through after the final edit I was actually shocked. I was moved by it. It was a feeling of accomplishment. It’s a different feeling than what you get with music. Looking at it as one story has been an eye-opener for me. I thought to myself, “How did I do all of that?”

           I see the book as the story of a music fan. I think most musicians start out as fans. Why would you do it otherwise? I never stopped being a fan. All of the opportunities that came my way were because I was a fan.

[booksnunicorns]