Liberated Negative Space o’ the Day: Wait, what?

Wait. What?

Goethe Month: Strong-feathered with freshly sharpened points

The arrows of Love are various: some scratch us,
And our hearts suffer for years from their slow poison.
But others, strong-feathered with freshly sharpened points,
Pierce to the marrow, and quickly inflame the blood.

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Roman Elegies.)

William Blake Month: Bow of burning gold

Photographed by Philiberte de Flaugergues, c. 1920s.

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

(William Blake, “Jerusalem.”)

Oh, hey — it’s William Blake month starting now.

Woman Warrior (nsfw)

Topless archery: it is a thing.

A friend was given the news last night that she has breast cancer. They are moving quickly on it, I’m hoping for the best possible outcome. But I have known her a long time, not only do I consider her a friend in her own right but she is the mother of three of my dearest friendohs and the soon-to-be mother-in-law of a fourth dear one, so I’ve been constantly returning to this issue in my mind, the worry that they will not be able merely to isolate the cancer and remove it, the concern that the surgeon will advocate taking the entire breast, doing a masectomy to make sure the cancer does not return.

So it has had me thinking even more about girls and our bodies. I mean, I already was lazily toying with these notions, but now I am more consistently revisiting ideas about femininity, and breasts, and the image of the Amazonian, or Lady Macbeth’s “unsex me” speech. Why is it that breasts are so bound up in our vision of womanhood? I guess because they feed us? Because we have them and men don’t? I have no anwers and no keys into the doors of deeper thoughts, I’m still pretty preoccupied with my friend’s health. But I plan to come back to these thoughts later. For now I will I guess just collect some topless archery pictures while I ruminate on this stuff. You know. For science.

Music Moment: The Ditty Bops

The sassy molassy through which I had to go to get this video to be my own and get WMB off my back from site to site to site where I was trying to store it for embedding was absolutely ridiculous. I cannot even go in to it. (The worst part is that Amanda and Abby would love for you to easily watch it. It is only their label and its parents making things difficult.)

Please enjoy this awesome video for “Wishful Thinking,” off of the lovely ladies’ first self-titled LP, and check out their official website to buy merchandise, download media, and more!

When you’re standing in a puddle with wet feet
And your head is sore from pounding drops of sleet
When the cold and lonely hours put your heart to the test
Maybe I’ll be the one that you like best

If the sky can open its eyes
And cry from up above
Let’s shed some tears of joy
And fall in love

They got married last October. Happy almost one-year anniversary!