#these r some very old drawings mixed with newer ones

[theyamjam]

SHES CONKED UP &EVIL REMEMBER THAT!!!!!!

[tehuti88-art]

10/20/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Drawtober: Ghostly Ballroom/Free Draw Friday." Drawlloween theme, Oct. 20: "Mutant Mart."

...

This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Lance Corporal Battleship Gray (BG) Rat. He's a radio operator and not a hugely important character, but maybe I'll find more use for him, as one of the original unit. He's rather unintentionally bigoted though harmless, and constantly wired up; I almost drew him with a cigarette as he's always smoking. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

Regarding his design, he's missing an incisor though it's hard to tell here. And usually to be found with a cigarette.

TUMBLR EDIT: This is how Battleship Gray, or BG, is described in the old character list for the circa-2000 reboot:

BATTLESHIP GRAY: LC; along with Doomsday, in charge of repairing things that are broken. While D-Day is more mentally oriented and experimental, "BG" (as everyone calls him) is more hands on and tends to get more done. Tends to smoke or chew on things when no cigarettes are available. Usually to be found with his hands all oily. Develops an attraction toward Hilda, to the consternation of the other Rats. Laid back and casual, rarely to be found raising his voice, but can be nervous sometimes. (Newer Trench Rat.) Current storyline

Firstly, BG is now actually one of the very first Trench Rats, being a member of the original unit that was trapped in Germany before the First Battalion arrived to rescue them. Secondly, eh, hell no is he "laid back and casual"; he's rather a loudmouth, especially when nervous, which is often. He's constantly wired like he's on caffeine, though chain smoking is his thing. He's a rather stereotypical Italian American with lots of Big Opinions and a passionate temper, and it's rather ironic that he's stereotypical, because he frequently stereotypes everyone else. The moment Jewish Trench Rat Drake drops into their ditch to bring them back to HQ, the cliches start. BG is almost never hostile or spiteful with his bigotry--for example, he never engages in the same sort of commentary as the Nazis when he talks to Drake--rather, he's the type to say something like, "I hear all you guys are great with money, yeah?" And he's not picky--he makes such comments about the Irish (Turquoise), mixed race (Copper), Blacks (Amaranth), French (Papillon), British (Bradford), women (Skye), Russians (Boris), Roma (Didrika), basically, if they're from some group he doesn't belong to, they're fair game for casual racism or misogyny.

There's ONE big, and rather odd, exception: BG despises Germany, Germans, and anything related. Can't stand them, and thinks nothing of letting the entire world know. This leads to a running gag regarding his interactions with Doomsday Rat, after D-Day is liberated from Nazi custody. When he first returns, D-Day no longer remembers English, speaking only German; he needs to be "deprogrammed" in a sense to remember how to be American. Even afterward, whenever he gets exceptionally frustrated, he'll lapse into ranting in German. Whenever this happens, despite the two of them being members of the same original unit, BG's frustration goes through the roof as well and he always ends up yelling, "Speak English! Like an American! SPEAK ENGLISH!!"

BG's attitude problem regarding Germans inevitably brings trouble whenever the Trench Rats have to interact with German allies and...sort-of allies. More than once they experience run-ins with Wehrmacht members Ratdog and Klemper; despite Ratdog's personally motivated mission to kill Trench Rats, he also has a sense of honor, and won't shoot anyone who's seriously injured, unarmed, or on a peace mission. Klemper, however, has a temper much similar to BG's, and can't speak English, and is frequently himself wired on meth, so of course he and BG usually end up with firearms aimed at each other, screaming expletives. Considering that both sides are often on the same mission (Ratdog and Klemper decide to start subtly undermining the Nazis' Final Solution efforts whenever they get the chance), this leads to all sorts of complications.

There are two other plot points I mentioned in the old character bio that still stand. BG is the Trench Rats' radio operator, in charge of keeping them in communication with others (especially the British), and as a result is often responsible for fixing broken electronics or at least jury-rigging things until they can be properly maintained. I imagine this could be another source of conflict with D-Day, who as the chief engineer is REALLY the one in charge of fixing things; he probably mutters quite a few Teutonic cuss words under his breath while fixing whatever BG temporarily patched up.

Then there is Hilda. I believe Hilda originally came about as a mere prop of an unfinished adult scene (I know it's weird, but this adult stuff has helped play a big role in character and plot development, including leading directly into this current reboot), but she probably still stands as a character, albeit a minor one who needs some development. I just looked up her character bio and it is COMPLETELY different from what I remember, likely does not still stand, but here it is:

HILDA: Big-boned, "matronly" woman rescued by the Trench Rats before her city is bombed. Ends up residing in the refugee compound, but storms her way into HQ a lot--no one is brave enough to take her on. Short tempered, explosive, and verbally abusive, but also helps care for the Rats after the influenza strikes. Object of Battleship Gray's affection; he seems to have a thing for larger women. Current storyline

Yeah, uh...I honestly don't remember all of that.

As things now stand she's just comic relief, and might remain so, though there's room for change. Hilda is (currently) a maid in someone's household, the stereotypical tall, broad, matronly, harsh-voiced German type; she easily intimidates the Trench Rats who first come in contact with her. Including BG. Yet BG also finds her weirdly appealing, and Hilda finds BG weirdly adorable. She's the one German who doesn't trigger his rage reflex and that's largely because he's terrified of her and that's what he finds attractive. Hilda, meanwhile, talks to him like he's a child and it's just a really weird, fetishy relationship but hey, it works out for them. *shrugs*

This is pretty much all I have about BG at the moment--nothing big or dramatic, no extensive plot importance just yet. This leaves plenty of potential to develop him (and Hilda?) to add more to the story...or maybe they could remain simple comic relief. I have yet to decide.

[Battleship Gray Rat 2023 [‎Friday, ‎October ‎20, ‎2023, ‏‎2:00:30 AM]]

[TUMBLR NOTE, I had to fudge the posting time on this one to 2:01AM due to Tumblr's dumb new entry format change. I have two entries from 2:00AM, I posted them in the proper order, but the one with the earlier entry number posted second...you figure it out, I'm tired of trying to figure out new Tumblr.]

[doomedandstoned]

Chatting with Austin’s Shitbag

~Doomed & Stoned Interviews~

By Shawn Gibson

In his never ending quest to find the filthiest bands from around the world, Shawn Gibson brings us face-to-face, virtually speaking, with frontman Keith Young from Austin, Texas trio SHITBAG. The band dishes out a harsh blend of crust, grindcore, hardcore, and sludge, a sound you may already be acquanted with if you've heard their new EP Burden on Transylvanian Recordings. (Editor)

SHITBAG - BURDEN by SHITBAG

So why are you a Shitbag? What's the name all about?

I guess when I came up with the name, the thought was that Shitbag was a person I didn't want to be and I lived in fear of becoming. It's a catchy two syllable band name. (laughs)

Oh very catchy!

Half of it's just taking the piss right?

Oh yeah.

People think it's great or they think it's really fucking stupid.

I love the name Shitbag. It grabs your attention. It is so fitting for your style of music, the sludge-grind duo.

Definitely. The idea was to get a very dirty sound from the start. The name stuck with me. You can tell from some of our earlier releases to hone the sound but you can see that it's falling into place. I think we were zeroing in on the sound on the album we put out last year.

Which was 'Furnace,' right?

Correct.

Your latest release 'Burden' is out now.

Yes, that's now through Transylvanian Records.

Awesome, they are a good label! I have definitely heard of them and have some of their artists' music. So is 'Burden' your third release?

I guess it's our fourth, if you count the first EP. We don't really push that one out anymore.

Furnace by Shitbag

'Furnace' is a really good album! I think I bought all your digital albums on Bandcamp.

Oh, thank you.

I definitely fell in love with the sound! "Emasculator" is a great sludge song from the record Can you tell me a little about that one?

It is about castration. The riff was a fun thing I kind of threw out there. I told Eli our drummer this is in 4/4 and he said" it is absolutely not, I can try to play along to it anyways." As usual, he did. the different pieces kind of fell into place. The bass guitar always stuck out to me on that one. The speed of the song and the mix we got on those recordings allows the bass to shine through I think. Also, I think that might be one of my favorite vocal performances off of Furnace as well.

Who all is in the band and what roles do they have?

So I play guitar and vocals. Eli Deitz plays drums and Eric Prescott plays bass.

I would say 'Burden' sounds heavier than 'Furnace.' Can you tell me about your guitars and the set up you use for writing and recording?

Oh, sure!

What are you using to get that Shitbag sound?

So first off I think it's worth noting that we recorded Burden at a different location and we had more power at our fingertips. The guitars definitely did get beefed up. For the first two releases I had been playing a Randall RH 150 with a Randall 150 amp head. It gets this really nasty distortion right out of the box, you don't need a distortion pedal, which is pretty convenient. It wasn't reliable at high volumes. That was becoming a problem more and more playing alongside Eric, as he was playing an "O-R something" Orange head and also running that through an HM2 and some fuzz stuff in front of it, as well. He gets a very loud, snarling bass tone.

He's covering the low end, but there's an intersection where the guitars and bass compete when we are playing live. So I needed something that I could crank up just to keep up. The Randall wasn't cutting it. May of last year I purchased a Sunn Coliseum 880. That was great but I needed to beef up my cabinet setup. Before I had been playing out of a Laney 4x12 with two different Celestion speakers and an old Marshall 2x15. The Celestion speakers are just not cut out for running something like a Coliseum880. At 4 ohms I think it's already at 230 watts.

Oh, wow!

That is when I moved up to a Worshipper 4x12. It's an Intown establishment, and some good friends of mine run it. They got me a new cabinet in 8 to 12 weeks. Kinda crazy to think about from what I heard from Dillon at Worshipper they had good business during the pandemic.

That is great! I love to hear that everyone's keeping up the practicing at home.

Yeah, It definitely has a silver lining. I got a 4x 12 and I'm trying to remember what speakers are in it. My technical knowledge of that stuff is a little limited, I'll be honest. I went with Dillon's recommendation. I told him what I was using currently, this is what I want out of it. I already have a 2x15 cabinet so I don't need a whole shit ton of low end power coming out of the 4x12. He kind of went with something that had the right profile and could handle 320 watts. After that was the matter of finding a distortion pedal, because Sunn Coliseums don't really have a built in distortion the way a Randall does. For a while I was a really great distortion pedal that does all kinds of great stuff the Earthquaker device's grey channel.

It has six different clipping presets, clipping diodes, and you can do just about everything from straight up gain to kind of a fuzzy effect to full-on Moss clipping diode, which does the whole balls to the wall heavy metal thing. Great diversity on that pedal but it wasn't quite hitting the right spots. I went to a Boss HM2 and was very reluctant to do so because I know everyone does those. I ran that with a Graph equalizer like I would any distortion pedal. I made it not sound like I'm playing in tuned riffs. That's my equipment set up and how it evolved from Furnace to Burden.

Awesome, thank you. Something that attracted me to Shitbag's music is the sludge is the jelly and the grind is the peanut butter that makes this great Shitbag sandwich. There are moments in your music that it is as thick as swamp mud, then the next it's firing out like bullets out of an AR-15!

Hell, yeah!

Cordycep by Shitbag

With that being said you have a song like "New Day" that's grind as fuck, clocking in at a minute long, just blasting through! Then you have songs like "Rogue Furnace" that's right up the sludge/doom alley clocking in at 15-minutes, 20-seconds. Shitbag has a really great balance between different styles in your music.

Well, thank you!

What bands influenced Shitbag's music?

Yeah, so I think the time I was getting into sludge and doom in my college days and I came across Primitive Man.

Oh, yeah!

I grew up listening to death metal and shit like that.

Me too!

The way they threw that together with just oppressive doom sound. It was something I had never heard before. I instantly heard that and said"this is the future." I don't want to shit on anything but Black Sabbath has been around 50 years and that sound has been around 50 years.

Newer and current bands are still using that sound, yeah.

Maybe I shouldn't disparage it, right? Even the stuff I'm drawing influence from is 30 years old now. Maybe I shouldn't say it that way. I think it's a matter of pervasiveness rather than how old something is. There are a lot of bands in the sludge/doom canon that are like, "Black Sabbath, hell yeah!"

You can find lots of music that was coming out of the death and grindcore scene in the '80s, '90s, and 2000s that had very slow, lurching oppressive moods. To me, it's not so much a matter of the notes that are being played or the rhythms, it's the atmosphere. So yes Primitive Man, God Flesh, they are a big one. I'm a big fan of Assuck, Dystopia, and Grief. Then a lot of older death metal shit, too. Napalm Death, Eric and Eli loved Entombed. Full Of Hell is tight as shit, too!

Yes they are! By chance have you heard of Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire?

Oh yeah, yeah.

I thought you might, being they were before Primitive Man. Great shit, as well!

Every band of theirs that the members of Primitive Man have been in that I have checked out, I have been very much into.

Vermin Womb, Many Blessings...

John put out an album with a death metal band called Black Curse last year that I thought was fucking phenominal!

I'll have to check that out! I like just about everything across the board, personally.

You are mentioning that we're striking this blend, we are not even playing the same genre through the whole EP. It's kind of like there's moments where it's one thing then there's moments where it's another. I think the more important thing is that it sounds like a cohesive thing. I hope we manage to do that.

You do! Shitbag has it's own sound that is unique to you guys!

Well, thank you!

I stumbled upon Shitbag's music on Bandcamp on Fathers Day. I saw the song title "Fathers and Sons" off of Burden and thought, "That's no coincidence -- I need to check this band out!" I was wondering if you can tell me a little about that track?

The song is about grappling with father and son relationships that are, I don't want to say estranged but you know trying at times. That was something that was a really big deal for me over the past year and a half, cause my mother passed away at the end of 2019.

I am sorry to hear that!

Thank you. When you have a death in the family like that, there is a lot of time for reflection that comes about. That's where the concept came about. I would not say that it's entirely autobiographical, there is definitely some exaggeration in there. We had the music for the song written and we couldn't figure what to write the lyrics about. I was just spitballing ideas and concepts to Eli. That was the one he said, "Yeah, I'm not really a fan of this draught but this is the concept to go with. Keep going with this."

Historically, I think I have been a weak lyricist. I would not call myself good by any means. We definitely made that part of the writing more collaborative process. Like the music has always been with us. We ironed out the words with each other so it felt a lot better. We came out with something more polished.

I understand completely.

A little graciousness opens yourself up. I think it's true with lyrics, as well. You probably don't have people say that to you very often, I imagine. I think it's especially true with lyrics when you're trying to make something that's personal and vulnerable. Having someone say, "Hey I would word that differently!" YOU MOTHERFUCKER!

Exactly. (laughs)

Take a step back from the initial knee-jerk response and just let it sit. You can really go places with that. I think lyrics are different just because people are not accustomed to making themselves vulnerable in that way.

What bands from Austin and surrounding areas that are heavy and you love to see them play or play with?

Let's see... Zyclops, really fucking great! There's bands like Glassing, Inhalants, Portrayal Of Guilt.

Yep, familiar with them.

There's a band called Godshell, they are new. I saw them play at a house show in North Austin in a living room full of people younger than myself. A crowd that was young enough to make me feel old. They played an outstanding fucking show! Those guys are rad live! There's also Metal Abortion, who is a pretty fun noise core band that Shitbag has played with a couple times. They put on a hell of a show and they have some crazy fucking records, too!

We have had the pleasure of playing many great shows with Desist on account of Shitbag and Desist being the two "Austin sludge" bands. Lucas is an outstanding vocalist and an even better human being. I don't know if Desist has been active through the pandemic but word is they have shit in the works. Another band forming a major constellation in the Austin shit-verse is the crusty blackened thrash outfit Vacha. Every show we've played with them was a fucking barn buner. I have nothing but love for all those dudes! Special shout out to Carlos for his God-like endurance behind the kit.

What makes Shitbag laugh? What's funny to you guys?

Oh, man. Eli and I have decided that a good way to get around when I bring a riff and don't know the time signature, is that we count everything in one. There 's no more time signature.That's a fairly recent joke. There are times at practice instead of playing a Shitbag riff with the distortion and everything balls out, I will go to the clean channel and push on the wah pedal and play with a funky staccato thing.

Hell yeah!

I think everyone else finds it annoying.

I have always enjoyed when the one guy in the band during practice either gets funky or jazzy, one of the two.

There is also something that Eli does that is fucking histarical. He never warns me he's going to do it. We will be in the middle of a song in the intense parts of the song he slips in the ba-dum tiss like a joke was told. When he nails it it's really a special thing.

Well, Keith that is all I have for you. Thank you again for your time!

Thank you very much, Shawn! The cassettes are available through Transylvania Recordings and Bandcamp. They are up for pre-order. I am not sure when those pre-orders will be in. There are some delays.

Several bands and labels having a tough time with vinyl getting pressed and shipping, too.

If you order the cassette you will get it eventually. I hope there is new music to announce in the near future.

We hope so, too!

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

[webslnger]

          so i wrote a drabble for ben dying to start off peter’s bio,  but just in case u haven’t read it,  here it is as a post.     scroll over the links for some flavor text  !     trigger warning for gun violence  &  death.

         Your name is Peter Benjamin Parker.     You live with your Aunt May &.   Uncle Ben.     You are in 4th grade &.   you are 9 years old ─   though you were usually quick to remind Aunt May that you were 9 years &.   183 days old,  but who was counting anyways  ?     You were going to a mall with your Uncle Ben,  a new line of Iron Man toys had become available,  &.   you just couldn’t wait for your birthday.     After all,  Iron Man was your idol,  you would always proudly announce in school that you knew everything about the multibillionaire cool guy Tony Stark ─   &.   you could always prove that claim too.     Your walls were plastered in posters of Iron Man,  you had more t - shirts than you could count,  for almost every single non-Iron-Man themed toy you owned,  you had at least three Iron Man action figures.     Of course when you found out there was going to be a Tony Stark figurine with that iconic red &.  gold suit that could fire blue pellets to mimic his awesome Repulsor Rays,   you begged your aunt &.   uncle to take you to the strip mall plaza four blocks away.     Aunt May had things to do,  she was a working woman &.   as much as she loved you,  she couldn’t drop everything to take you so you could buy a toy,  no matter how much you claimed you would die without it.     But  !     Uncle Ben,  being the kind man that he was,  was more than happy to indulge your childish whims.

So he took you to the mall.

        People always said you were a talkative kid,  once you got going about something you would never stop.     You had once gotten a mark on your report card because,  though you were an excellent student,  you simply talked too much  &.   would often distract your less attentive peers.     You would entrance them with stories about superheroes,  recounting the thrilling stories of Iron Man’s conquests with vivid detail,   often including your own metahuman characters into the mix.     After all,   who would know  ?     Though as a 3rd grader, your story - telling skills had been somewhat lacking,  that didn’t stop your tales from being more exciting than Christopher Columbus  (  ugh  ).     When you got called down to the principal’s office for causing such a disturbance with your endless yapping,  Uncle Ben took one look at your puffy red eyes &.   tear - stained cheeks &.   rather than yell at you,  he began to laugh.     Now,  from time to time,  he would call you Motormouth,  &.   during the ride to the mall you were certainly living up to your title.         Being a young boy,  you assumed that whatever May &.   Ben were watching on TV would be an old person show.     Something like golf or The History Channel,  something boring like that ─   but sometimes you would be lucky enough to catch the news with your two guardians,  &.   although you didn’t care much for this “ Paul Ittix ” guy &.   his relation to the president,  you did get to catch glimpses of the exciting life of Tony Stark.     Of course,  Uncle Ben was always in the room with you,  but that never stopped you from talking about the most recent Iron Man story with so much passion that you would think Ben had never even heard the name before.     When you ran out of things to talk about,  you would make up your own stories,  imagining what life as Iron Man was like  :   fighting bad guys,  getting to meet other superheroes,  having enough money to buy all the ice cream in the world  !     It sounded like paradise to your little 9 year old sensibilities.     Through all your blabbering,  Ben listened patiently,  offering “ oohs ” &.   “ ahhs ” when appropriate,  nodding sagely with occasional interjections of “ really ? ” to further stoke the flames of your impassioned rant about Tony Stark.     He only ever breaks your pacing when the car is parked,  gently ruffling your hair  &.   laughing as you swat away his hand with your smaller ones.

“ We’re here,  you can stop now Petey. ”

        But then again,  what kind of kid didn’t like malls  ?     A weird one,  you bet.     The strip mall was such a magical place,  just a collection of buildings made specifically to buy anything  &.   everything  (  as far as your young mind was concerned anyways  ).     While you found that the Subway wedged in between a SuperCuts  &.   a dilapidated East - Asian grocery was palatable,  your real heart &.  soul could be found in the tiny little toy store at the very end of the parking lot.     It was nothing to look at,  really,  cramped &.  overcrowded with random doodads &.  gizmos.     The newer toys were always stocked in the shelves up front as to draw attention, but they rarely did.     Most people would fly to the Toys-R-Us a short ways away to get their newly minted Iron Man merch,  but you had learned early from May &.   Ben that the greatest things came from unexpected places.     You weren’t the only kid who loved superheroes  (  although you were wholly convinced that you loved them the most  )  so you knew that such a new &.   exciting toy would have flown off the shelves ages before you were able to get there.     This tiny corner store was the best shot you had at getting what you needed when you needed it.         Your pudgy face smushes up against the glass as your eyes scour the front of the shop to try &.   find the Iron Man toy.     Upon finding that they were not on display, you dash inside without so much as waiting for Ben to lock the car door.     A pleasant jingle echoes through the store as you enter,  followed soon after by your exasperated uncle.     The weathered face behind the tall counter smiles down at you as you come rushing inside,  Mr. Stacy knew you two very well.     He was often the one who had to listen to your poor guardians complain about their aching wallets every single time they came to buy you another trinket or plaything.     He would always laugh good-naturedly &.   offer a discount,  which both May &.   Ben would refuse.     You offer the owner a friendly wave  &.   a beaming smile before hurriedly spouting off an explanation for your visit this time.     Ben pats your shoulder &.   hushes you,  though Mr. Stacy doesn’t seem to mind.     He gestures to the back of the store &.   your face lights up like a tree on Christmas morning.

“ They just came in,  they should still be in the boxes.  ”

        Your little legs trip over nearly everything as you dash to the back of the store &.   to a storage closet tucked away into the far corner.     There was a lock,  of course,  but Mr. Stacy had taught you a trick.     You grip the doorknob tightly,  twist,  &.   shove as hard as you can.     The lock comes loose  &.   the door swings open, revealing boxes lined up against the walls.     Unable to handle your excitement,  you dive in,  tearing up the cardboard &.   even going as far as to chew through the bitter packing tape to access the contents within.     Your opening of the boxes is  .  .  .   somewhat rabid,  &.   the noise of tearing cardboard drowns out the jingle of the bells announcing that someone has arrived inside the shop.     You wouldn’t have cared anyways as your labor comes to fruition,  lifting a colorfully packaged action figure over your head like a trophy.     It’s everything you’d imagined it would be  !     Shiny &.   new &.   somewhat inaccurate in its depiction of your hero  (  though you would only notice six years later that this doll made Tony Stark seem a little wild - eyed ).         There’s a moment where a tiny voice in your head tells you to slow down &.   wait until Uncle Ben actually pays Mr. Stacy for the toy,  but you only listen to it when you cut your finger on a thin edge of the plastic.     You hardly notice the tiny trickle of blood,  instead dashing out of the storage closet &.   racing back towards the counter.     The sooner the transaction was over,  the sooner you could head home &.   have May open the darn thing for you.     You can see the top of your Uncle’s head over some of the lower shelves,  &.   you wave to catch his attention ─   but he doesn’t notice.     You furrow your brows &.   get closer,  continuing to wave to try &.   get the man’s attention.     When all else fails,  you take in a deep breath  &.   yell for your uncle.

BANG.

        The first shot makes your ears ring &.   your world seems to be moving much slower than you remember,  or maybe it’s just because you’re having trouble processing what’s happening around you.     There’s a lot of yelling going on,  Uncle Ben seems to be wrestling with a man you’ve never met before.     You can’t quite make out his face past all the grime &.   dirt but you’re certain that he’s not someone that your family knows.     They’re holding something,  the both of them,  it reminds you of how Harry  &.   Curt were fighting over that toy truck during free time.     Uncle Ben &.   Aunt may had told you that sharing is caring,  though,  so that didn’t make any sense at all.     Mr. Stacy seems to be distressed too,  he’d holding a phone &.   yelling into it,  even from this distance you can see his hands shaking.     Some dust flutters down from the plaster ceiling &.   into your face,  so you drop the toy you had been holding to rub at your eyes.     The plastic clatters against the yellowed linoleum.     Then another shot reverberates through the tiny shop,  scaring you to attention.         Your eyes meet Ben’s but something is wrong,  his face is contorted in an emotion you can’t quite recognize &.   then you realize he isn’t really looking at you.     Rather,  he seems to be looking past you.     Where  ?     You’re not really sure.     But it scares you.     The man who had been wrestling with Uncle Ben before suddenly seems uncomfortable,  frightened.     Ben’s gaze starts to get lower &.   lower,  &.   you realize he’s falling.     The man curses,  turning  &.   sprinting through the doors without a second thought,  &.   as the bells ring,  everything starts to move at a normal pace.         Terror suddenly grips your tiny heart &.   you burst into tears at the chaos that had just ensued.     Instinctively you run towards your uncle,  seeking comfort in his warm hugs  &.   that gentle,  familiar voice telling you that everything would be okay.     Wailing,  you stop by Ben,  who was still laying on the floor.     Your shoes splash in something but you can’t be bothered to look,  you’re too busy kneeling by your uncle,  pulling on his shirt &.   begging him to take you home.     You’re scared,  you want to go to Aunt May,  you want to sit there &.   watch Back to the Future with her &.   Uncle Ben,  this was scary &.  you didn’t like it anymore.         When Ben doesn’t respond,  you manage to stop your torrential downpour of tears for long enough to see that he’s closed his eyes.     For a moment your dismay is put to the side by annoyance &.   you shake your uncle,  convinced that he was playing dead or maybe he was asleep.     Perhaps this was some kind of elaborate prank &.   he would wake up any minute now to tell you that this was just a big joke because you couldn’t wait to get your stupid toy.     You shake him harder,  &.   this time you make sure to say that this was a stupid joke &.   that it wasn’t funny.     Ben still doesn’t respond.     So you do the same thing again :   shake,  reprimand,  wait.     Then again.     &.   again.      &.   again.         About the sixth time around you begin to get more desperate,  no longer shaking gently or prodding,  you begin to try &.   jostle the man as much as possible.     You resort to using your tiny fists to pound uselessly at his chest,  once again starting to sob as Ben remains silent despite your best efforts.     Heaving &.  short of breath,  you lay your head against his chest,  &.   you realize how exhausted you are.     Your sweat even made his shirt feel damp &.  somewhat sticky against your cheek.     You sniffle &.   sob hoarsely,  fingers clutching onto your uncle like a lifeline as you rest your head against him.     You can hear something inside of his chest,  a faint ba - thump that seemed distant,  a weak noise that seemed to be struggling to make itself known to the world.     You think about those lazy Sunday mornings where you would lay on top of Uncle Ben &.   the both of you would take a nap in the warm sun under May’s watchful eye.     You remember falling asleep to the strong pulsing rhythm of his beating heart &.   your grip on your uncle tightens.         Over where you had been standing,  exposed wiring crackles &.   pops loudly &.   a few sparks flutter down just far enough for you to catch it in your periphery.     You flinch at the noise,  it was somewhat alarming but the shock of it had passed quickly enough.     You listen hard for the faint beat of Ben’s chest again  .  .  .     Ever - so - slightly you lift your gaze &.   catch a glimpse of the toy you were supposed to come here to buy today.     It’s laying forgotten in the aisle, in the midst of little chunks of plaster.     The light illuminating the glimmering new plastic flickers ominously &.   you wonder what would have happened if you could have just waited for your birthday.

You can’t hear anything.

[immersedinm]

In support of their recent EP release Wild Rivers is currently burning up the highways and byways of the states. Most recently, they were sweeping throughout the south, and Atlanta was fortunate they made a stop at Eddie’s Attic last Thursday evening. Having played the venue before, they seemed relaxed prior to the show as they were spotted happily chatting to excited ticket holders of the sold out show.

A few weeks ago, I shared their tune “Howling” before realizing they might make the long trek to Atlanta. I simply knew it was a winner. When I heard they were making Atlanta a part of their tour, they were kind enough to answer a few questions to help us get to know them a little better.

Wild Rivers is a Toronto based band with seamless guitar, steady percussion and stunning vocal harmonies, all fused together with earnest songwriting. The group began with Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein, and they were voted Toronto’s best new artist in 2015. Since then, they added Ben Labenski (drums), and Andrew Oliver (bass, guitar). Although at their performance in Atlanta, the drummer was someone else (did not catch his name) filling in for Ben. He was talented, but not sure if he was a permanent change or filling in.

1. How did you all meet? What is the story behind the name, Wild Rivers?

Devan Glover-

“A few of us met in college, and through mutual friends. A music career was something we’d all dreamed of pursuing, so after graduation we started to take it more seriously, and that summer we got into the studio to record our first album. We all got together to work out arrangements for the songs, and have been playing together ever since. It all kind of developed from there.” 

“As for the name, honestly it came from hours and hours of playing word association in the car. On long drives, we’d spitball combinations of words that we liked, writing down the ones that sounded cool and resonated in some way. “Wild Rivers” was in the running, and one day we stumbled upon a poem by Gregory Orr that we related to, titled The River (see it here). Thematically, The River resonated with us because it’s about taking a plunge into the unknown. At the time, this was exactly what we were doing, diving into a new career path and experiencing the uncertainty that comes with graduating college and having to figure your life out. The poem mentioned ‘Wild Rivers’ a lot, so that’s how we settled on the name.”

2. When I listen to your music, I feel like it has the roots of folk/rock/country music I have grown up with all my life living in the American south, but you breathe a freshness to it which makes it unique. Who are your musical influences and how does that impact your sound?  

Devan–

“We all grew up listening to lots of classic singer/songwriter, folk and rock music –  James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, The Beatles. We draw a lot of inspiration from artists in that era – particularly when it comes to songs with a heavy lyrical focus and lots of vocal harmony. We also look to a lot of current folk/rock artists for inspiration – The Lumineers, Bahamas, Half Moon Run to name a few – but individually, our musical tastes span across many genres. I think this works to our advantage, because it allows us to incorporate certain aspects of different genres into our own music, and hopefully create something unique. When you think about it, the best bands have never been bound to a certain genre. Fleetwood Mac has songs ranging from country to pop to folk to rock. John Mayer started as a singer/songwriter, went on to put out a country blues album, and is now sampling hip hop beats in his newer music. We try to operate under the mentality that the best song always wins, no matter if it necessarily “fits” within a certain genre.”

  3. This isn’t your first big tour, what do you look forward to the most this time around? What have you learned about being on the road and staying fresh for each show?

Khalid Yassein-

“We’ve never been to the West Coast, so that’s going to be a huge highlight. We’ve had a lot of people asking for us to come out so it’ll be cool to finally play some shows out there! We’re planning on doing lots of hiking and exploring on days off. We’ve gotten a lot better at managing our sleep and exercising  when we’re on tour. We’re also always looking for healthy food and it’s fun to find new little spots. We’ve been at it long enough now that we know what works and what’s not sustainable. It’s all about balance.” 

  4. What is your songwriting style or music making process? Does the music follow the lyrics or the other way around? Is it collaborative writing or do one or two of you develop a song and then bring it to the band to complete?

Khalid-

“We go about it a lot of ways. On our first record, I  wrote a lot of the songs, almost always with music first and then building lyrics and ideas on that. Devan and I co-wrote a few on that album, which is cool because Devan is mostly lyrics first. On our new EP we co-wrote a lot with each other, as well as with a few songwriters out of Nashville which was a pretty awesome experience. You get a new feel when you step out of your comfort zone with new writing situations, it’s fun! “

  5. When y’all are on the road, what other bands are you listening to?

Khalid-

“We love all kinds of music. A lot of old classics, today we were going through the Beatles discography start to finish. Right now we’re into a rapper called Noname out of Chicago who’s incredible. And in the Americana world we’re really into new records from Rayland Baxter and Ruston Kelly. We like to mix it up for long drives.”  

They gave me a few new sounds and if you know me, you know I have already tapped into them on Spotify.

Wild Rivers at Eddie’s Attic

As we were waiting for Wild Rivers to begin, Eddie’s Attic filled up quickly with a buzz of excitement. It was a sold out show, with very little standing room. I enjoyed chatting it up with people who were there. Two pretty girls were standing behind me, and I couldn’t help overhear their strategy to try and find two empty seats. I made every effort to help them, but it wasn’t possible that night. When I explained about my blog and why I was there, they asked if the band members were friendly and nice. I explained that they were incredibly open and made an effort to answer my questions as well as chat with me before the show. Some bands don’t do that! The girls were big fans trekking miles and miles to see Wild Rivers on a Thursday night, and they actually breathed a sigh of relief to hear the band was genuine.

Certainly talent, creativity, and presence helps, but sometimes it is the extra effort to chat with fans that can make all the difference. Wild Rivers seemed polished and practiced, with no stumbles or fumbles that I could tell. They were hitting all the right notes and truly fantastic.

Wild Rivers-L-R  Khalid Yassein, Devan Glover, and Andrew Oliver

  I really tried to capture Khalid’s dreamy sincere eyes, but I didn’t bring my obnoxious lenses. Others were swooning along side me…It is a forceful combo of crazy smooth talent + good looks. He has something to say and expresses moods and emotions in a way that connects.

Wild Rivers had quiet solo moments with an acoustic guitar, as well as powerful full band, hand-clap inspiring tunes. They mixed up their songs nicely and at moments, I wished I could stand up and sway to the ever changing tempos, but didn’t want to block the view of others.

Andrew’s guitar added a depth to the songs and gave them an edge, which without, would have left them lacking. The drum and guitar complete their sound and help them to expand the possibilities.

  Some bands chat between songs and some bands don’t. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. In this case Khalid did most of the talking and it worked well. You could hear a pin drop. He gave some background to his songwriting and the premise for the lyrics. I felt the purpose behind the music, which only made me appreciate it more.

Devan has an incredible voice which puts this band on another level. I kind of expected sweet chirping blue birds to land on her outstretched hands at times. Yep, the range and control was enviable and jaw dropping. She made it seem so effortless. And yes, a woman from the audience yelled out at the end of one song, “You’ve got some pipes girl!” after she belted out a deeper tone.

  I captured a snippet of Wild Rivers performing their latest hit, “I Won’t Be Back”, from their recent EP release titled, Eighty Eight.

  I was able to nab the set list after the show, and the guy sitting next to me was reminded, and jumped up to get another one for his wife (who is also from Toronto!). She is holding it as her friends gather around. They were my pick for super fans (pictured at the foot of my blog homepage) and all went home smiling!

Here is my set list up close. Note-there is a new tune on the list, “Moving Target”. Listening, I could hear the continued growth of this band and recognize the influences of the multiple genres they described in the questions above. 

They have a host of shows from here till the first of December. Don’t miss them while they are still playing intimate venues. Check out if they are coming near you by clicking here. Wild Rivers Shows

As summer begins to loosen up its grip on us all, it was nice to begin fall with a show which proved to be really tremendous.

Wild Rivers-Interview and Photos From Their Recent Atlanta Show In support of their recent EP release Wild Rivers is currently burning up the highways and byways of the states.

[kwispayne]

The Top 10 Albums Of The Decade (2010-2019)

I got requests to pull a decade list together, so this is my attempt. This wasn't as easy as I thought, as opinions do change, but I'd like to think this is the best. Also, it is a stark realization that I really love the modern British rock scene. Go figure.

So here are some rules:

1. I may have changed my opinion from previous lists. Sometimes things stick...sometimes they don’t.

2. I didn’t hear every album this decade. But I am open to recommendations.

3. This is all personal opinion. And my tastes are odd.

10. Enter Shikari - The Mindsweep

Year Of Release: 2015

Genres: Post Hardcore, Electronica, Electronicore, Pop Rock, Experimental Rock, Alternative Rock, Mathcore

Country of origin: England

As I have said in the past, Enter Shikari are in my opinion a part of the best of the British rock scene at the moment. While their follow up The Spark did see the band experiment even further down the pop and electronic circles, this was very much the best of both worlds. This album very much holds everything great about this band. It's heavy, screamy, poppy and experimental enough. But the epicness of this album really is what grabs my attention. With the use of atmospheric strings and a production which makes the sound almost symphonic, it still makes the hairs on my neck stand to attention. Musically speaking it is the bands strongest effort, and definitely Rou Reynolds best vocal performances. While their debut is still a classic, this album is the bands masterpiece.

9. Black Peaks - Statues

Year Of Release: 2016

Genres: Post Hardcore, Post Metal, Progressive Metal, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Math Rock, Sludge Metal, Hard Rock

Country of origin: England

While their latest album All That Divides is a fantastic album, nothing will beat the staying and natural power of their debut. This band came out of nowhere, and I remember within the first few minutes of listening to the opening track, I knew this band was special. I remember the first time I had heard this album, I tested myself to see if I could find one track on it which I disliked. And there isn't one. This album is bone crushingly heavy and just complex enough to not hinder it from the material at large. But the biggest draw for attention is Will Gardner's vocals. I remember going to see this band live in Belfast not shortly after the release, and being just blown away by the power and determination of this band (Will at one point had to sit down from screaming so much). Definitely the best debut album from any band this decade.

8. Devin Townsend Project - Sky Blue

Year Of Release: 2014

Genres: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Pop, Electronica, Post Metal, Experimental Metal, Alternative Metal, Art Rock

Country of origin: Canada

Looking back at the body of work Devin made around this time and later, this is definitly the album that stands out the most to myself. When it was released, it was more of a bonus disk which followed the newer Ziltoid project. But, surprisingly it contained his most focused and honest work. A personal concept album dealing with death and loss, Devin  put down the inward telescope, and held a hand with his audience, to know that he was there with them going through their loss (I'm not sure if he lost someone at the time himself, if he didn't, then this album is mostly a brilliant act of kindness). Also this is what I feel to be his poppiest release, and I love when he pushes forward the pop element of his sound. And as usual, the music and production is first class.

7. Everything Everything - A Fever Dream

Year Of Release: 2017

Genres: Pop Rock, Pop, Art Rock, Electronic, Progressive Rock, Experimental Rock, Indie Pop

Country of origin: England

These album was prophetic at the time, but it still stings. But I am afraid the uncomfortable nature of this album is still lingering in our political and general atmospheres. The band did release an ep of songs after this which were good, but overall I think this album is the band's greatest pop achievement (they will appear again later on in this list). One of the criticisms thrown at this album at the time was the cleaner production, but I think it bodes well to the bands sound. One of the slight criticisms would be the lack of complexity, but overall I think the material outshines what the band used to be and I am looking forward to listening to whatever they have planned next.

6. Idles - Joy As An Act Of Resistance

Year of release: 2018

Genres: Punk, Hardcore Punk, Experimental Rock, Noise Rock, Art Rock, Post Punk. Comedy

Country of origin: England

This album is just packed full of tunes. How could I not leave it out? Ok, it is a little bit more than that. The album itself is  one of the most positive messages out there to deal with the modern world we live in. And it's also really funny at times. This album is very much like a drug that I would recommend to get rid of sadness. But then there are sad and somber moments on it too. But then again, we all need a bit of sadness in our lives. Positive punk! What should be an oxymoron is now a cure for all ails. I really hope at some point I can see this band live, and I will be shouting along each word of this album back at the band.

5.Jamie Lenman - Devolver

Year of release: 2017

Genres: Post Hardcore, Punk, Pop Rock, Pop, Indie Rock

Country of origin: England

Like the Idles album, this album is just a collection of brilliant tunes. But, with a twist. Now after having made this album, Jamie did release a covers album this year which was a nostalgic look at his past, but this album is also a nostalgic look at his past too and in my opinion is the greatest piece of work he has released. I still put this album on and I'm still blown away by the production. The guitar tone on this album is heavy as hell, and the riffs and songwriting on the project are all killer.  Jamie is another example of one of the best creative artists coming out of England. A  singer songwriter who is able to really rock and kick ass.

4. Everything Everything - Get To Heaven

Year of release: 2015

Genres: Art Rock, Art Pop, Experimental Rock, Electronica, Indie Rock, Pop Rock, Pop, Progressive Rock, Math Rock

Country of origin: England

Yes. They are on the top 10 list. This band is just this good. Now, come on. Look at this cover. This is kick ass. But the cover itself is a bit of a distraction, because underneath the oddness of the opening visual, the album itself opens a dangerous and complicated world. A world that 4 years ago were living in, and now has become deformed. This album was able to get a top 40 UK hit while detailing the trail of an Islamist terrorist. I don't think any modern band have the balls or even the talent to pull this off. But luckily this album exists to dispel and exert this fears. Musically complex, raw at times and even a bit odd at times, this is the band's finest work, as it mixes the best parts of their pop and experimental sounds.

3. Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience

Year of release: 2013

Genres: Pop, Neo Soul, Soul, Symphonic Rock, R&B, Experimental Rock, Hip Hop

Country of origin: USA

Ok. Let me explain this one. I have always kind of had a soft sound for lil old Justin. But his albums always lacked I found. Or were too long. Or too overblown. And on this project, it is all the problems I just mentioned. This is the oddest pop album ever. Pretty much most songs on this album are close to or over the 8 minute mark, they go on weird experimental jams, at times the song is finished, and Justin is not ready to finish it like a child desperate for attention. But what he wants to tell the audience is so good, he just has to get it out there. And his presentation is just beautiful. Epic soaring strings, heartfelt lyrics, great beats and fantastic musicianship throughout. Justin has always been great at getting multi layered vocals (possibly from his boyband times) on tape and his range on this is superb. The joy that comes from this album is intoxicating. Also, when this album came out, I was put in the middle of a rather uncomfortable situation, and this album really got me through it all. Also, one of my all time favorite albums is Songs In The Key Of Life, and I feel this is a big tribute to that album.

2. David Bowie - Blackstar

Year of release: 2016

Genres: Art Rock, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Jazz, Post Rock, Adult Contemporary, Electronic, Art Pop

Country of origin – England

This one still hurts. The last masterpiece created by one the greatest artists that ever lived. And while it deals with dark subject matters and musically it is rather odd, there is a twisted sense of joy behind it all. As if Bowie knew this was the end and he wanted to make sure his audience was kept well looked after. But this album is still miles ahead of his modern contemporaries. I can't see any artist able to make something so experimental, but yet so accessible at the same time. This album emotionally connected to me because I heard it the day I found out he died. And instead of losing someone, it felt as if I was meeting them for the first time. In an eternal loop. And this is why this album has still stuck with me all these years. In his long and lustrous career it is his greatest work and it is the greatest swan song ever created.

1. Anathema - Weather Systems

Year of release: 2012

Genres: Progressive Rock, Symphonic Rock, Pop Rock, Experimental Rock, New Prog, Art Rock

Country of origin: England

So here we have it. The best album of the decade. Now let me explain. When this album came out, I was dealing with the death of a family member and dealing with other challenges...and this album was the biggest help. This is one of those albums were it is so open ended, you can take it to mean whatever you imagine. Personally I think the album deals with death, but it could also be interpreted as a look into how people deal with personal changes. Musically this album is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. The raw emotion of Vince Cavanagh's vocals underlayed by the beauty of Lee Douglas' crooning, the orchestral back gushes forward and slams straight into your chest. They did follow this album with 2 great releases, and before this album they had 2 great releases, but personally I believe this to be the bands strongest work, and one of the greatest albums ever made.

[caveartfair]

What George Bellows’s Boxing Paintings Reveal about Toxic Masculinity

George Bellows, Club Night, 1907. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

When Floyd Mayweather faced off in a boxing match against Conor McGregor in the summer of 2017, the event was preceded by the usual melees of trash talk. Mayweather, the undefeated, African-American boxer, repeatedly called McGregor a “bitch” while belittling the white, Irish MMA fighter’s earning power. McGregor parried with such racist taunts as “dance for me, boy,” and characterized black boxers as “dancing monkeys.”

These exchanges might remind us that although it can easily escalate into violent action, what we today call “toxic masculinity” occurs largely in language, and less often in images. Yes, there are unsolicited dick pics and photos of frat boys in blackface, but far more frequently, toxic masculinity is something vocalized or telegraphed in tweets, texts, DMs, and comment sections. Still, it may be that images can tell us things about the phenomenon that mere words and events cannot.

Take, for instance, an iconic 20th-century image of boxing, Both Members of This Club (1909), by George Bellows. Bellows’s best-known works are esteemed for the unembroidered realism with which they depict scenes of boxing in the backrooms of bars like Sharkey’s in New York City, just after the turn of the 20th century. Oddly enough, Bellows produced only six boxing paintings in his lifetime (along with numerous lithographs and drawings), yet he became famous for them. Each caused something of a sensation—in part for the low-life, louche subject matter, and for the artist’s bravura handling of it.

BETWEEN ROUNDS, 1916. George Bellows Edward T. Pollack Fine Arts

A black man lunges at a faltering white fighter in Both Members, the title of which refers to the fact that professional bouts were illegal in the city at the time, but a loophole in the law allowed athletic clubs to hold fights. The painting’s original title, A Nigger and a White Man, points to the racist overtones of the scene: A black boxer would not have been allowed in as a regular member of this athletic club; he would have been provided a temporary membership for the night.

If one of the current hallmarks of toxic masculinity is racist posturing—particularly in a violent context—Bellows’s picture, though over a century old, can nevertheless serve as a useful guide to how it plays out. While mixed-race events would not have been acceptable during the period, the bar-turned-boxing-club in the painting becomes a sort of safe space in which to present the racist spectacle of a “white hope” trying to knock out a black interloper. In our era, when a black-on-white match raises no eyebrows, it is the pre-fight spectacle—in a boxing match or an MMA fight—that becomes the safe space for racist posturing. The banter isn’t real, it’s just part of the show, right?

By extension, we might then consider what other informal spaces we have created in order to, as it were, protect racist speech or acts: some frat parties, for example, or, in certain places, Halloween. We might wonder what types of comments Both Members might provoke on social media; that thought experiment highlights the fact that comment sections, with their semi-anonymity, can also become safe zones for racist or misogynistic speech.

George Bellows, Both Members of This Club, 1909. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

Not that there is obvious misogyny in Both Members, yet its absence is equally telling. If you look at the audience in that painting or in Bellows’s other boxing works, like Stag at Sharkey’s (1909) and Club Night (1907), you’ll find a congregation of raucous, cheering, hollering, intoxicated men, but—as the title Stag at Sharkey’s indicates—no women. It would have been unseemly for women to congregate in a working-class bar, especially during a mixed-race sporting event. (There were, however, a few women who boxed as entertainment back then.) Could it be that exclusively male gatherings open another safe space—in this case, for misogynistic posturing? We see this possibility tacitly acknowledged by the toxic male occupying the White House when he dismisses his own misogynistic rants as mere “locker-room talk.”

Today, of course, women often attend boxing matches. What Bellows’s work suggests is that female participation (or lack thereof) might well determine the relative level of toxicity of the event. This may be why such sports like football—which has virtually no female participation—and competitive boxing (as opposed to boxing classes for fitness)—which has very limited female participation—seem to have such notable domestic violence problems associated with them (Mayweather has five convictions for domestic battery and assault). Contrast these with the few newer sports where women excel—both financially and physically—alongside men, such as competitive fitness (Crossfit), triathlon, and some action sports like mountain biking, all of which contribute greatly to female empowerment and equality.

These more equitable sports make it difficult to argue that competition alone contributes to expressions of toxic masculinity. Many people compete, men and women, though only a small percentage act out in offensive ways. In fact, competition ought to instill qualities that are the opposite of toxic: respect, camaraderie, and the ethical behavior towards an opponent that we term “sportsmanship.” Most importantly, competition teaches you to be disciplined in the face of fear, and as my repeated use of the word “safe” here is meant to intimate, toxic masculinity is driven largely by fear and a craven sense of weakness.

George Wesley Bellows, Dempsey and Firpo, 1923–24. Photo by John R. Glembin. Courtesy of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Yet Bellows knew little about the rules or conduct of boxing, despite the fact that he had been an athlete as a young man, playing semi-pro baseball. “I don’t know anything about boxing,” he once said. “I am just painting two men trying to kill each other.” It’s a sentiment that leads us to ask: Why choose to depict such a subject? The answer is that violence—and, by extension, bad or questionable behavior generally—is fascinating for many people, even its victims.

All of the four boxing paintings that focus on the fight proper (as opposed to the two canvases that treat the pre-fight ceremony) make the audience’s reaction a central theme. They, like us, are captivated by the violence in the ring. However, the fact that some in that audience, drunk and unrestrained, mimic the savagery they’re watching should not lead us to imagine that the spectacle of violence in itself triggers bullying, misogyny, or racism, since only a minuscule percentage of the audience for violent sport engages in such things. The takeaway should be the act of paying attention itself.

Bellows was a realist: His aim was to look at what was then frequently overlooked in society—brutality; life below the media radar, as in the backrooms of bars—and to portray these things as honestly as possible. Only when we examine difficult subjects frankly can we begin to understand them. When considering the newly named—though not new—phenomenon of toxic masculinity, we would do well to follow his lead.

from Artsy News

[universalpronouns-blog]

The Linguistic Lie Behind Singular "They"

Originally Posted at http://lettersfromhoquessing.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-linguistic-lie-behind-singular-they.html?m=1 Reposted Here Without Permission. No Infringement is Intended. Letters from Hoquessing By Claudio R. Salvucci and the grace of a loving God Monday, May 22, 2017 The Linguistic Lie Behind Singular "They" Recently I watched a confrontation between a student and University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson, who publicly took a stand against non-binary gender pronouns last year. The student kept stridently insisting Dr. Peterson was morally obligated to use the plural pronoun "they", claiming repeatedly and with absolute confidence that it was historically attested in English and went all the way back to Shakespeare. Beyond the shocking rudeness with which this claim was asserted, it seemed a rather bizarre assertion to make, and I wondered where it came from. After a bit of digging, I was led, very unfortunately, to what seems to be the source of the claim: the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 2015. Here's the problem. The ADS's statement is shot through with an improper and apparently politically motivated conflation of two historically and grammatically distinct usages of singular "they": 1) an old, often contested but stubbornly enduring usage that was always restricted to a particular context--that I will continue to call "singular they" proper 2) a very new misapplication of the pronoun as an alternative to individuals who refuse to identify with either of the two biological sexes, that I will call "non-binary they" Note well: I am not asserting that the ADS is unaware of the distinction. Their statements show that they are quite aware of it. What I am asserting, rather, is that the ADS and some of its members are deliberately obfuscating that distinction to advance a political agenda. The statement the ADS released in 2016 mentions the non-binary aspect of singular "they" multiple times, and indeed that new definition is the entire focus of their decision. Some illustrative statements can be seen in the passages below (emphases mine): • "They was recognized by the society for its emerging use as a pronoun to refer to a known person, often as a conscious choice by a person rejecting the traditional gender binary of he and she." • "While editors have increasingly moved to accepting singular they when used in a generic fashion, voters in the Word of the Year proceedings singled out its newer usage as an identifier for someone who may identify as “non-binary” in gender terms." • “In the past year, new expressions of gender identity have generated a deal of discussion, and singular they has become a particularly significant element of that conversation,” Zimmer said. In a purely descriptive sense, acknowledging the existence of this new usage is certainly well within the purview and mission of the ADS. The issue is not that non-binary "they" was discussed or even voted Word of the Year, but rather that the organization defended and promoted it with misleading statements. For example: “While many novel gender-neutral pronouns have been proposed, they has the advantage of already being part of the language.” Has "they" been part of the English language? Yes. Indisputably. But here's the catch: it has never been part of the language in the way that gender activists imply. Historically, singular "they" occurred when an unspecified individual from a mixed sex group was being referred to, such as: "Each one of you needs to pick up their stuff". An editor who does not want to use a circumlocution has a couple of choices in such sentences: either use singular "their", or use the (binary!) construction "his or her". Although not every editor acknowledges the grammatical correctness of singular "they", practically speaking these are the two common options. In my own work, I have found that the clunkiness of "his or her" has tended to tip the scales in favor of "they", particularly when multiple pronouns are required. How did a plural pronoun find itself continually intruding in this position, with a singular subject? I have not consulted any research on this, but I suspect that common speech has tended to support it because of the implicit plurality of the subject as one of a group and also because the plurality of genders of the referents. This is just a hypothesis; I may well be wrong. But whatever its origins and theoretical underpinnings, its usage over the centuries is crystal clear. Singular "they" has only ever appeared in a very limited set of cases, which have themselves been strongly contested by grammarians. Outside these cases, it is dead wrong. There is absolutely no historical justification for grammatically barbaric sentences such as these, culled from an actual news story: "In Britain, 20-year-old Maria Munir made headlines when they came out as non-binary", and "In the US, an Oregon circuit court went much further, ruling in June that Portland resident Jamie Shupe could change their legal gender to non-binary." Obviously, gender/sexual identification is the underlying driving issue here, so we need to look at the way English has handled this issue in the past. Cases of uncertain or intermediate sexual identity, of course, are nothing new, and have been known and discussed since antiquity. The practice has generally been in those cases to simply assign a sexually ambiguous person to the closest of two of the three established genders: masculine or feminine. This assignment could draw from widely different observational parameters, from a mere glance to a medical examination. However, in all cases, the judgment was always made on the same assumed basis. A person's biological sex, as nearly as that could be ascertained, determined their grammatical gender. To illustrate how forcefully this principle held, we can look at a couple of lectures (here and here) given by Dr. Hay Graham in 1835 at the Westminster School of Medicine on individuals of doubtful sex. Watch the pronouns Dr. Graham uses. Of Maria Pateca: "…she became a man. He afterwards married, but remained beardless." Of Germain Marie: "when she was fifteen years old...she suddenly found herself furnished with the parts of generation of a man...Cardinal Lenoncourt, after the necessary examination…ordered him to assume the habits of his sex." And "Jean Pierre was a woman from the waist upwards, and a man from the waist downwards; and in the centre was a woman on the right side and a man on the left; yet, in point of fact, he was neither one nor the other." Marie Derrier's sex was likewise unable to be agreed upon by medical experts: "Hufeland and Mursinna pronounced this individual a girl; Stark and Marteus, on the contrary, considered it a boy." The two last cases mentioned—Jean Pierre and Marie Derrier—are precisely where we should expect to see the singular "they" of supposedly longstanding English precedent. But of course, we don't. And it's obvious why we don't. Graham could not have said "*Stark and Marteus, on the contrary, considered them a boy" because that construction would have been flagrantly ungrammatical in natural language. And still is. If Graham gives us any justification for any non-binary pronoun, that would be "it"—and if that one seems jarringly cold and insulting, remember that we use it more commonly than you might realize at first. We are quite used to asking an expectant mother with absolutely no qualms whatsoever: "Do you know yet if it's a boy or a girl?" A co-worker may be complaining about being cut off in traffic, and you might mischievously inquire about the driver, "Was it a man or a woman?" I have not reviewed the literature for pronoun use, but I have little reason to suspect that Graham's usage is anomalous. He sometimes presents us with a jarring switch between masculine and feminine pronouns following a medical event or diagnosis, and he sometimes gives us a constant pronoun throughout. But beyond the neuter "it", which for obvious reasons is employed for human beings only in quite limited circumstances, there is no gender outside of "he" and "she" to speak of, even in the most difficult cases of sexual identification. Not "they", not anything else. As long as the sex of a person was known or was clarified from a previously indistinct or incorrect state, the language has always demanded that the corresponding binary gender—masculine or feminine—be applied. To be sure, in common social circles this application involves a practical, on-the-fly judgment that has worked in the favor of the gender activists: English speakers naturally find it insulting, demeaning, and rude to misgender people and call a man "she" or a woman "he". And since we do not, thank goodness, subject everyone we meet to a thorough anatomical and genetic panel, it has always been easiest to simply extend strangers the benefit of the doubt when visible markers tilted one way or the other. But it is foolish in the extreme to confuse that pragmatic application for a general underlying rule. No one's personal opinion, preference, or mindset has ever had anything to do with the assignment of gender in English. Biological sex dictates grammatical gender. Period. That is simply how English works. So it's quite deceiving for the ADS to defend the current neologism with a statement so misleading as: "The use of singular they builds on centuries of usage, appearing in the work of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen." Note what that sentence does not say. It does not say that singular they was used for centuries in a non-binary sense. It admits that it merely "builds on" centuries of usage. Again, the ADS knows full well that non-binary "they" is a new coinage, explicitly acknowledged not only in the text of the statement but also by linguist and columnist Ben Zimmer, chair of the ADS's new words committee, in an interview with Business Insider: "It moves beyond the traditional binary of 'he' and 'she'," Zimmer told Business Insider. "It feels like an opening up of the language, allowing for a greater possibility of what these pronouns can refer to." So here's my question. If non-binary "they" is indeed a newly invented term, then what exactly is the purpose of mentioning "centuries of usage" in the first place? Are we explaining its appearance, or trying to justify its appearance? Are we describing language as it exists, or are we actively trying to make it something else? Of course, language is not permanently fixed, and semantic categories can expand. But linguists have typically been preoccupied with watching words naturally expand to new semantic categories. They have not been typically been encouraging them, artificially, into those categories. And that for a good reason. Attempts to coerce linguistic change do not have a very good track record of achieving what they aim at. University of Illinois Professor of English and linguistics Dennis Baron has compiled an extremely useful list in his "The Words that Failed: a chronology of early nonbinary pronouns". What is immediately striking about these pronouns is their lack of consistency. There are over a hundred cited: strange invented combinations from academic and lay proposals, and a few obscure dialect variants. They are a thorough mishmash in terms of derivation, construction, and overall form. Baron is absolutely right to call these "words that failed" and contrast them with the comparatively successful singular "they"—and his thought process, linked on the ADS-L listserv in December of 2015, likely influenced the ultimate ADS decision. But in another article "The politics of He. Literally", Baron strangely argues as follows: Today, the literal politics of generic he is settled. As the second-wave feminist slogan puts it, “A woman’s place is in the House, and in the Senate.” And in the White House, as well. And the gender politics of the form is settled as well: all the major grammars, dictionaries, and style guides warn against generic he not because it’s bad grammar (which it is), but because it’s sexist (which it also is). The authorities don’t like the coordinate his or her, either: it’s wordy and awkward. The only options left are singular they or an invented pronoun. None of the 120 pronouns coined so far over the past couple of centuries has managed to catch on. And despite the fact that there are a few purists left who still object to it, it looks like singular they will win by default: it’s a centuries-old option for English speakers and writers, and it shows no sign of going away. Many of the style guides accept singular they; the others will just have to get over it if they want to maintain their credibility." If you'll permit me to roll my eyes at the cheesy triumphalist progressivism that brackets this paragraph, I can address the essentials of his argument. Baron's logic behind preferring an existing pronoun to an invented one like thon is certainly understandable. It is a sound theoretical instinct, and if I were lobbying for a new pronoun I'd make the same case myself. But here we see the same sloppy conflation that underpins the ADS statement: singular "they" is indeed a centuries old option, but absolutely not for the use he is advocating. And is it really any easier to force a pronoun into grammatically forbidden territory than to invent a whole new one? Baron characterizes the acceptance of "they" as so inevitable it will destroy the credibility of those who oppose it. Which "they" does he mean here? Singular, non-binary, both? We are left to guess—but while I may heartily agree that the prevailing winds are in favor the former and have set my editorial sails accordingly, I am utterly unable to imagine the latter doing anything but floating ignominiously in the doldrums of the Great Linguistic Garbage Patch. After all, Baron's own research shows that a desired expansion of the word "one"—advocated by quotes he collected from 1868, 1884, and 1888—failed just as badly as "thon" and the rest, despite a history of use much more solid than non-binary "they". In a slide presentation, Baron gives two disadvantages to singular "they": first that it "drives the sticklers nuts", and second that "People aren’t so comfortable using singular they for specific, named, individuals, especially when the referent is in the same syntactic unit as the pronoun". Aren't so comfortable??? For goodness' sake, that's admitting the entire point right there! People aren't comfortable with it because they know it isn't natural to the grammar they speak. The activists are blithely minimizing the objections of millions of Anglophones and are trying to impose an invented construction onto a public that does not want it or need it. The sticklers in this controversy are the gender activists, who have invented their own phony grammar for completely non-linguistic reasons and think they should be allowed to cram it down everyone else's throats without so much of a whimper of dissent. To object to their linguistic Jacobinism is not some prissy grammatical fetish—it is defending the good sense of the common folk against the insufferably imperious diktats of the Academy. So here's the bottom line. I cannot stand here in 2017, in the middle of the veritable graveyard of failed pronouns that Baron has so helpfully uncovered, and place the mantle of inevitability on a completely unnatural coinage invented by radical gender activists and obsequiously ratified by irresponsible academics and publishers. I am only one editor, but I will happily throw my lot in with Dr. Peterson on this. I will never ever acknowledge non-binary "they" as anything other than atrociously ungrammatical English. Period. But more importantly, the English-speaking world at large will never acknowledge it either. This linguistic hijacking is doomed to eventual failure because it is founded on fallacy, and there's not a stitch any activist can do to change that. Punto, e basta. In the meantime, since it seems fashionably stylish to make demands on academics, I am calling on the American Dialect Society do three things. First: retract its grossly misleading conflation of singular "they" and non-binary "they", and specify clearly that the latter has no grammatical precedent in the English language and is an entirely new coinage on par with many other failed prescriptivist proposals of the past. Second: publicly correct the false claims made by gender activists on the historicity of non-binary "they". Third: clarify more forcefully to parties outside and inside the society that the ADS only offers its Word of the Year in a descriptive sense, and that it is in no way a prescriptive ratification, approval, endorsement, or advocacy of the words in question. Realistically, though, I am not expecting any of this to happen. Because we all know the climate of American academia is such that the "Social Justice Warriors" (there's a phrase for 2017) would then show up at the ADS's doors and dish out the same bullying treatment that they gave to Dr. Peterson. And given the plainly telegraphed views of some of those involved, I am not hopeful for any result besides continued capitulation to the hubris of the social engineers and their Babelian fantasies of piercing heaven with a tower of invented pronouns.

[thisdaynews]

Can the Republican Party Save One of Its Last Latina Congresswomen?

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/can-the-republican-party-save-one-of-its-last-latina-congresswomen/

Can the Republican Party Save One of Its Last Latina Congresswomen?

JHB near Cathlamet, WA on November 8, 2019. | Chona Kasinger for POLITICO Magazine

Rishika Dugyala is a digital producer at POLITICO.

Melanie Zanona is a congressional reporter at POLITICO.

VANCOUVER, Wash. — One of the last Republican congresswomen of color sat pensively, notepad out, coffee half-finished, thinking about how to avoid a political minefield.

It was a Friday in early November, the back end of Congress’ Veterans Day recess, and Jaime Herrera Beutler was huddled in a conference room at the Vancouver Clinic, the largest private clinic in that part of southwest Washington state. She had gathered a dozen health care professionals — doctors, licensed midwives, state health department officials and others — for a roundtable to discuss why so many women of color and their babies were dying.

This subject is personal for Herrera Beutler. Her oldest child, Abigail, was born without kidneys in 2013 and survived thanks to a transplant from her father. News clips of Abigail’s birth are framed on the congresswoman’s Washington, D.C., office wall, notched next to a Bible verse (Psalm 46:5: “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.”). Herrera Beutler leaned on her extended family and friends to get through Abigail’s four-month stay in the intensive care unit, but she knows many families don’t have the same resources. So, she posed this question to the group of experts: Would extending Medicaid to cover a full year after delivery significantly help more women?

Their unanimous answer: Yes. Seventy percent of new moms will have at least one health complication within a year of giving birth, but most women lose Medicaid coverage after 60 days, leaving them without access to affordable care.

Herrera Beutler nodded in agreement, but she was also concerned about the politics. “How am I going to talk about this? Extending Medicaid,” Herrera Beutler thought out loud, knowing that for her party any proposal that sounds like it promotes Obamacare would be considered heretical. “We are notexpandingMedicaid, we are justextendingit.”

Then she added sarcastically, “I’ll just go do that.”

The resounding laughter from her audience masked a very real bind for the five-term lawmaker. Moderate and publicity-deflecting by nature, Herrera Beutler is an outlier in a party dominated by a president whose combative style and divisive policies have alienated Hispanics and suburban women. For that very reason, Herrera Beutler’s profile — female, Hispanic and one of a dwindling number of Republican representatives from the West Coast — makes her a precious asset for the GOP, which has seen its female ranks in the House slashed by almost half since 2011. She is such a rare specimen within her caucus that party leadership has essentially given her permissionto diverge where necessary from the party line. That explains why, less than a week after the roundtable, Herrera Beutler co-sponsored The Helping MOMS Act, a bipartisan bill that would encourage states to extend coverage for new moms by increasing the share of Medicaid funding paid for by the federal government. The Trump administration is receptive, she said, adding with understatement, it will be “a little bit of a road.”

As she gears up for another reelection battle, Herrera Beutler is confronting the political challenges of being a kind of Republican who doesn’t always match neatly with her party. She’s facing the same opponent — and two other Democratic hopefuls — who came within 5 percentage points of unseating her in 2018. And Democrats, who note with relish that her margin of victory has shrunk by roughly 18 points over the past two cycles, have already established a ground game in her district. The Cook Political Report rates the district as likely Republican for 2020, but some consider her race the most competitive west of Texas.

Republicans say they are committed to protecting her; conservative groups dedicated to electing women and the National Republican Congressional Committee are rallying around her already. There is also pressure for her to take a more prominent role in party messaging, which would raise her profile and could draw more women of color into the party at a time when suburban educated women are fleeing the GOP in droves.

But as the daily war machine hits overdrive with the impeachment proceedings, Herrera Beutler is wary of what message she is expected to deliver. Yes, she voted against the impeachment inquiry in October, but she is far from an unquestioning supporter of President Donald Trump. In fact, she is open about the fact she wrote in former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s name on her ballot in 2016. And yes, she subscribes to the party’s beliefs on Obamacare repeal and a barrier on the southern border. But she voted against the GOP’s health care bill to replace much of Obamacare, which would have left millions uncovered. And she was one of 13 Republicans who rebuked Trump for his national wall emergency, saying it set a “dangerous” precedent to circumvent Congress. Matt Gaetz, she is not.

Herrera Beutler’s district, a mix of rural and urban communities nestled between Seattle and Portland, went for Trump by almost 8 points in 2016. Since then, there’s been an influx of newer and younger families and with it a rising disapproval of Trump in parts — though not all — of the 85 percent white district. Herrera Beutler says she is “open to supporting” Trump out of deference to voters’ preferences. But she is reluctant to do anything that might risk damaging a brand she has built over the past decade as the kind of bipartisan deal-maker that has almost been expunged from the GOP since Trump took office. Accordingly, the congresswoman scheduled policy-only events during her early November recess — addressing issues like veterans benefits, timber revenue and maternal mortality.

“My goal is not to be (Trump’s) foil, but it’s not to be his loyal servant,” Herrera Beutler told POLITICO Magazine. “To the degree that he is serving the people I represent, I’m there, I’m with him. To the degree that there’s a problem, I’ll oppose him.”

When Herrera Beutler was first electedto Congress in 2010, she rode a conservative tea party wave that swept the GOP back to power in the House. She was one of a near record 24 Republican women.

Even in a sea of fresh faces, Herrera Beutler was seen as a rising star because she ticked so many boxes for the party: young, Latina, from a key district on the West Coast. The party was eager to build its diversity and shore up its support among Hispanics, a key demographic that was growing disenchanted with the GOP’s hard-line immigration policies. A few months after being sworn-in, the 32-year-old was named to MSNBC’s “10 Hispanic politicians to watch” list.

Herrera Beutler, who was born in California to a white mother and a Mexican American father, already had experience navigating the political world. She served in the Washington state Legislature for four years after working as a senior aide on Capitol Hill for Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), now her colleague and mentor.

Yet despite a profile that could have easily put her on the inside track in Washington, Herrera Beutler chose not to seek the limelight — or a leadership path. She has mostly avoided the national media and cable TV interviews, even though her candid demeanor and memorable sound bites —like recently comparing Democrats’ impeachment inquiry to a “goat rodeo” —make her one of the more quotable lawmakers.

Unlike McMorris Rodgers, who served on the GOP leadership team, Herrera Beutler says she doesn’t like the idea of having to always be a team player or stick to talking points. And she takes more pleasure in bridge building than in the bomb throwing that has defined many of the Republicans in her freshman class, like Mick Mulvaney and Mike Pompeo, who both serve in the Trump administration.

“My class had a ton of opportunity to do national media. … Everybody wanted to hear from us,” she said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine in her Capitol Hill office. “And I specifically made the decision: That’s not my route here.”

Being a partisan foot soldier foreitherparty, she says, damages your credibility. “She’s not interested in throwing fits and making scenes,” said Caleb Heimlich, chairman of the Washington state GOP. Herrera Beutler has instead kept a laserlike focus on the constituents in her southwest Washington district — or “the bosses at home,” as she likes to call them.

Her colleagues describe Herrera Beutler as a workhorse who would rather project the image of a “hometown girl” than a “Washington insider.” Herrera Beutler talks about how she played basketball at Prairie High School, showed her horse at the county fair and spent weekends fishing with her family at Battle Ground Lake. All three of her children were born while she was in office, and she has routinely brought her children into the Capitol.

“My whole family’s involved in this. I’m not going to leave my babies on the other coast,” she said. “I had to nurse my newest on the floor this year. Was not trying to make waves, but it was a long vote series in the middle of the night.”

Herrera Beutler has shown an occasional independent streak in the Republican Conference, voting with Trump 82 percent of the time, which — in this loyalty-above-all climate — puts her at the bottom of the pack. For the most part, Herrera Beutler has had a long leash from Republican leadership and her constituents to do as she sees fit.

“It’s OK to disagree,” said Representative Tom Emmer, chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm. The Minnesotan emphasized that Herrera Beutler knows her district better than anyone. “And I think that’s why she has been successful,” added Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the chairwoman of the GOP conference.

But that hyper-local strategy is on a potentially fatal collision course with the president’s chest-thumping brand of tribal politics. With Trump at the top of the ticket next year, national politics — and a bitter fight over impeachment —are threatening to consume congressional races up and down the ballot.

There were already signs of that in the midterm elections. Herrera Beutler defeated her Democratic challenger Carolyn Long by her slimmest margin of victory to date. And she blames it, at least in part, on how tough it has been to keep her brand separate from the president’s.

Herrera Beutler survived the suburban revolt over Trump in 2018 that put House Democrats back in power after eight years, but it decimated the ranks of GOP women. In Herrera Beutler’s district, an influx of young families has fueled suburban growth and increased the volume of anti-Trump criticism. Even for a legislator who has broken with the president on notable occasions and who has prioritized health care, there is a growing sense of guilt by association.

“Wow, I’m the enemy?” Herrera Beutler lamented to a group of female reporters at a recent lunch in Washington, D.C. “I didn’t even vote for him for crying out loud.”

Republican women, especially those of color, say they often feel more pressure than their male colleagues to serve as a voice for their entire community or answer for Trump. Herrera Beutler bears that burden especially as the only GOP congresswoman of color, though she does have some company in Republican resident commissioners Jenniffer González-Colón of Puerto Rico and Amata Radewagen of American Samoa, both of whom are nonvoting members.

“The standards were a lot higher” for Republican women, recalled former Representative Mia Love of Utah, an African American Republican who narrowly lost reelection last year. “You always have to rise to the occasion. It’s infuriating.”

The GOP is acutely aware it has a major woman and diversity problem, one that is getting worse by the day. An onslaught of key retirements this year — from Representative Susan Brooks, the NRCC’s recruitment chief, to Texas Representative Will Hurd, the House’s only black Republican — has left advocates reeling.

Outside GOP groups like Winning for Women, which hosted the lunch for female reporters, are pouring more resources into electing and recruiting more women and encouraging candidates to speak to local problems. It’s the strategy Democrats used to win the House in 2018, and it’s the strategy these conservative groups hope will increase the number of the GOP’s female members in 2020. Showcasing Herrera Beutler helps the GOP’s campaign arm recruit other Republican women who are wary ofrunning for office.

“Often, women have questions about, ‘How do you manage this?’ I use Jaime as a role model and hold her up,” Brooks said. “Jaime is a role model, whether she’s in leadership or not.”

Being a role model is one thing. Being asked to become a spokeswoman is another. “I get it a lot now,” Herrera Beutler said. She acknowledged that there could be an opening for her to become a bigger voice for the party on issues like health care. But, she added, “I’m not going to be an attack dog.”

Representing a district three time zonesfrom the Capitol has made it easier at times for Herrera Beutler to keep her focus local. She points to her bipartisan work on the bread-and-butter issues: Helping salmon (key to the health of the fishing industry) and hydropower dams coexist. Saving a couple of hundred thousand forestry-related jobs under President Barack Obama. Co-founding the congressional Maternity Care Caucus and, now, working to address child care deserts.

Still, national politics has a way of affecting hometown priorities. As far from Washington, D.C., as Herrera Beutler’s district may feel and as independent-minded as its residents may be, impeachment is a topic people can’t let go. It’s frustrating for the congresswoman, who believes the inquiry is diverting resources and attention that could be turned toward passing legislation. She has hedged on her own stance, voting against the inquiry after calling for a formal vote and now saying she’ll withhold judgment until the process concludes. But House GOP leaders are expecting few, if any, defections.

Carolyn Long hasn’t made impeachment or Trump the main thrust of her campaign against Herrera Beutler, but outside groups are doing that for her. After diplomat Gordon Sondland testified in the Ukraine investigation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent an email noting, “Rep. Herrera Beutler wouldn’t comment on the bombshell news, instead mounting the age-old defense of the dog ate her homework saying she hadn’t reviewed the testimony because it was too many pages to read.”

Unlike in 2018, when Democrats were trying to flip three Washington congressional districts, all the fundraising and advertising resources are concentrated here. The DCCC was on the ground as early as this summer, having placed Herrera Beutler on its“2020 Retirement Watch List” just months after the close midterm election. Democratic operatives have been painting Herrera Beutler as absent in the district — because of her preference for telephone-only town halls — and caving to Trump when it really matters.

It’s too early for race-specific polling. But a few weeks before the formal House vote on opening an impeachment inquiry in October, a Democratic pollster found 44 percent of likely general election district voters supported impeachment — 43 percent opposed and 13 percent were unsure. Also ahead of the vote, Public Policy Polling conducted research for the liberal think tank Northwest Progressive Institute: 59 percent of voters in southwest Washington and the Olympic Peninsula supported impeachment, versus 38 percent who opposed it. That region includes most of Herrera Beutler’s district, plus five other counties.

In third-quarter fundraising, Long raked in more than $597,000 to Herrera Beutler’s roughly $454,000. Most contributions — on both sides — came from within the state. The congresswoman isn’t struggling, though: Overall, Herrera Beutler has raised $1,113,404 with almost $764,000 cash on hand. The two women have a history of bringing in big money. In 2018, they raised more than $6.5 million combined. With national groups already getting involved, the 2020 money total is likely to be much higher.

Kelly Dittmar, a researcher with the Center for American Women in Politics, said staying out of the fray will become almost impossible as the race grows more competitive.

“If Democrats can find a way to paint Jaime as a ‘Trump Republican,’ they will. Just as Republicans will paint the Democratic opponents as ‘Pelosi liberals,’” Dittmar said. In this district, neither side thinks those top-ticket ties will be particularly helpful.

Despite the creeping nationalization, Herrera Beutler isn’t as worried about being unfairly boxed in with Trump as she was in the midterms. The suburbs might be pulling away, but Heimlich, the state GOP chairman, said he sees a rising conservatism among blue-collar working communities along the coast. “I’m the right fit for this district,” Herrera Beutler said of the Democrats’ campaign against her. “And I’m a woman of color with young children. Like what? What is your beef with me anyway? Because this is exactly what you say you want in these districts.”

House Democratic strategists are aware of the messaging problems inherent in taking on Herrera Beutler. It doesn’t need to be personal, it doesn’t need to be “icky politics,” one strategist said, acknowledging that fighting to replace one moderate woman with another one doesn’t bring out people’s killer instincts. “It’s hard to push as hard as we would do for … [a] generic, white Republican male.”

But if Democrats aren’t eager to highlight Herrera Beutler’s demographic profile, Republicans aren’t rushing to do it either. The congresswoman doesn’t shy from talking about giving birth to her kids while in office, bringing her newborn onto the House floor to nurse during votes or being Hispanic. That doesn’t mean it’s part of the campaign push by national operatives, who are much more keen to focus on her record.

“This gets to the much deeper debate of, if you want to preserve the very limited representation of women of color, does that necessitate that you do more?” Dittmar said. The Republican Party “has said many times they’re not playing identity politics.”

Emmer, the NRCC chief, said this “is a very important district to us” because of Herrera Beutler’s background. The NRCC is going to fight hard to protect “one of the shining stars in our conference,” he added.

On Herrera Beutler’s part, she’s working on talking about her time on the Hill. She’s experimenting with social media. In one video on Facebook, she stands near the House Intelligence Committee meeting room, explaining that much of the impeachment inquiry has happened behind closed doors. In another video, she’s standing outside, the Capitol in the background, explaining why she voted against the inquiry.

“You feel a bit like a total dork, you’re sitting there, like, filming yourself,” she told POLITICO Magazine. “But what I’m finding is people follow that because they know you’re actually doing it and it’s authentic. And that’s all they care about.”

On her last day of her November visit home — a cold and rainy, typically Washington morning — Herrera Beutler arrived in the outdoor seating area for the district’s pre-Veterans Day parade. It was a Saturday, so she brought her family. She had baby Isana, 6 months, in a carrier; Abigail, 6, and Ethan, 3, holding on to either hand; and her husband, Daniel, in tow with the bags. A few folks stopped by to say hello or hand one of her kids a goody. Halfway through the event, Herrera Beutler stepped away. Time for a video. Angling her phone so she could get Isana and the parade street in the shot, Herrera Beutler began:

“May we never take for granted what makes the United States so exceptional, and there’s no better day to remember our rights and our freedoms than Veterans Day,” she said. When she finished, she handed the phone back to her staff with instructions to post the clip on the upcoming Monday. Then, surveying her family, she decided not to go to any other events after the parade. “I don’t think the kids are going to make it.”

They had a long flight back to D.C. the next day.

“You are joining a live telephone town hallmeeting with Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler,” a male staffer said. “Please press star three to get into the question queue.”

Herrera Beutler and her team kept repeating that line during the roughly one-hour telephone town hall. It was 8:30 on a Thursday night in Washington, D.C., and 5:30 in Washington state. During these town halls, of which she has done 30,Herrera Beutler says people are often driving home from work or giving their kids baths or keeping one ear on the phone as they do some menial task. Her opponents deride these telephone town halls as impersonal conference calls that indicate she’s scared of actually facing the voters.

Herrera Beutler swats that criticism away. Telephone calls, she said, just work better. One call can reach 4,000 people at a time, across suburban and rural areas. And people are more comfortable asking questions over the phone, Herrera Beutler said, since some of the face-to-face town halls she used to hold were — in the words of one constituent — like “The Jerry Springer Show.”

This call came on Nov. 14, one day after the first public impeachment hearings. It was Herrera Beutler’s first town hall with the general public since she had voted against the inquiry. After summarizing the legislation she passed and events she held while home, the lawmaker confronted the issue she knew was coming.

No one is above the law, she said, including the president. She hasn’t really supported Trump’s foreign policy, and it’s important for military aid to go to Ukraine. However, she said, this inquiry is very one-sided — far from the bipartisan effort launched against Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton — with House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff deciding what information is leaked and who can be called on to testify.

“Let me put it in context,” she said. “Say you give one lawyer unrestricted access to the members of the jury for a month before the trial begins. That’s called tainting the jury, which no court of law in our country would allow.”

Susan from Onalaska was going to ask about health care but changed her mind. She had been following Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, who has been critical of the president’s defense, and needed Herrera Beutler to clarify a few points: Aren’t Democrats following rules Republicans enacted in 2015? Aren’t depositions always taken in secret? Isn’t Trump’s ask of Ukraine an abuse of power?

“Let me take a whack at this,” Herrera Beutler said before ticking off a quick list of answers: The rules were never used for an investigation into a president, Obama’s counsel had been present for secret depositions, and it’s only a crime if Trump withheld money under the threat of coercion for a leg up in 2020.

Fran from Vancouver had a different view, asking how to persuade Democrats to “get on with the business of running the country.” Actually, Herrera Beutler said, rank-and-file Republicans and Democrats are equally frustrated. No one wants to have to tell voters that they’ve been working a lot, but not accomplishing a lot.

The congresswoman perked up when residents asked about endangered salmon fisheries (“Oh, my goodness, yes!”), reducing homelessness and her position against creating a light-rail system (a rapid-bus transit system would be easier to upgrade). For the most part, district voters appreciate that she hasn’t been a leading, divisive GOP voice. Earlier, Fran thanked her: “I feel like you look at everything from as many views as you can and as fair as you can.”

“I try not to be rude and condescending and provoking,” Herrera Beutler saidon the call. “I think that’s one way to earn some goodwill on the other side. … If you spend all your time sowing discord, that’s what you’re going to reap.”

But again, this is an era of national politics coloring local contests, especially for those rising through the ranks. As party operatives encourage Herrera Beutler to take a more public role, she’s trying to figure out whether a path for her to do that — the way she wants to do it — even exists.

“If I’m going to enter into this, I want to have something positive to bring that would be more unifying for people,” she told POLITICO Magazine. “I don’t know if there’s a role or not.”

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