I've Tried To Start A Number of Posts...

 as well as creeping back into some of my other activities now that care-giving has settled into a pattern, however momentary and my digestion isn't waking me up in the small hours.(Even tackled a little work on my pandemic WIP, but not like before. But things don't seem good enough when i think about putting them out there.

And then, my cat died.(Rather like when my mom needed extra help with transferring, I sort of pictured both of them would be complicated events with a great deal of heavy decisions.  Instead, everything changed abruptly.) In some ways, that was better, but the adjustments I might have imagined in my head haven't helped that much.

300th Post Is About Books...

Jameela Green Ruins Everything-


Your Driver Is Waiting
Getting a bit outside of my comfort zone this week, reading comic novels from women  from  Muslim backgrounds- I didn't really intend to read both books together, but, once I had, I thought it would make an excellent 300th Bohemian Crip post.
 Jameela Green opens the book as a writer in the beginning of a spiritual crisis, following a disappointing book launch(with a polished high school frenemy in attendance)She inadvertently creates a situation where she got the young naive imam at her mosque in troubleand put him in the crosshairs of radicalized splinter cells of DICK, the aptly-named terrorist organization, that, strangely, loves a good wedding.
Jameela promises God service to her community in exchange for a big launch for her novel, but gets her imam in trouble and has to go to Syria to straighten things out. Never thought I'd read something from a Muslim writer that would conjure up words like "wacky" or "zany", but that goes to prove that even people who aren't offended at the thought of wokeness or cultural pluralism do have to guard against stereotypes. Maybe even more so after being patient and diligent about reading "The Kite Runner" and the like

 The stakes are much higher for Damani, the Driver in " Your Driver Is Waiting".  She, like her unnamed, strife-ridden metropolis, is hanging on by a thread, though she still tries to keep a sense of humor, as well as an eye out for pretty-but-clueless Social Justice Warrior Jolene. This book is darker than the other, but the observations about her passengers and stuff can be both trenchant and comical.

Not What I expected to post this week, but...

 the book post isn't ready yet.

Disabled Woman’s Elegy

I hope the Earth
Appreciates my body

As I never could, and few others,

Ever tried.

It will accept my nourishment

Slowly and quietly,

And not decline to take it,

Because I “have enough problems.”

In that last act,

I’ll be like

Everyone else.

Despite my lack of assets,

And probably livestreamed funeral,

Flesh is flesh,

And minerals are minerals.

There will be proof that I was here,

That does not fit in a social-service file.

In a dark way,

That makes me smile.

I will not pass as quietly as my cat.

I complain too much for that!

Even if  I had a quiet soul,

I don’t have her self-control.

Maybe it’s easier when

Jumping around fulfills your potential.

Bohemian Crip Watches Movies: The Sound of Metal

 

It’s a rare film that could rest in an actor’s eyes, especially a male actor like Riz Ahmed, but Sound of Metaldoes just that, while reminding your Bohemian Crip that, as much as she may be down with solidarity across conditions, she actually relies on her hearing quite a lot.  This makes the silent patches feel rather long, even if the cinematography was pretty beautiful throughout.  It can be quite emotional watching a character process not-hearing, though I did wonder how that feels to a deaf audience. We watch as a recovering-addict drummer in a heavy metal band faces the loss of his hearing…it’s almost as if we watch it happen, though we don’t, of course.

I wondered if a lot of what I saw was real, although we all know that even those “ Based On A True Story” sometimes cheat quite a bunch so they can freeze-frame on a high note.  My googling didn’t find a real deaf heavy metal drummer, but I did hope that people who are new to hearing loss would have the community and support featured in the midpoint of this film.(I’ve always felt some envy of the deaf community’s common language and ability to build a culture, at least in theory.(Maybe the film idealizes, though and wrote it how they wish it would be—all writers, especially with disabilities, have done it.

Like I said, apart from some silent bits making your correspondent restless, this is a rare touching film that doesn’t manhandle the heartstrings. I would recommend it overall, if you want something to think about as you’re watching.  The characters stay with you, especially the lead and his girlfriend Lulu, especially during the scene where they break up.