From this morning’s walk…

Closeup of magenta/pink zinnia blooms.

Birthday balloon in lower left corner, bobbing in front of post office doors.

Gray silk sundress on mannequin form with plant leaf screen in front of it.

Closeup of the back of a white t-shirt with “supreme” written and a screen shot of a person of unknown sex kissing a woman sitting in a wheelchair. Both are naked.

Back of a gray and white fine plaid men’s shirt on a bust mannequin in a fine tailoring shop.

Green plaid woman’s halter top and pants on a translucent mannequin bust form, lit from behind. Reflections of trees overlaid.

July 26, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

And therein lies a huge problem for today’s Republican Party. A recent poll of young voters shows they care deeply about gun violence, economic inequality, LGBTQ+ rights, and climate change. All of those issues are only becoming more prominent.

July 26, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Former vice president Mike Pence, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, today unveiled his economic proposal. It calls for eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency and the Biden administration’s incentives designed to address climate change.

The Woman I Want/To Be :: Essays On Attention Paid

> I have read more than a few books written by women about the experience of being woman. Caliban and the Witch, by Silvia Federici; Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo; Catcalling by Soho Lee; Girlhood by Melissa Febos; The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir; Down Girl, by Kate Manne; Radical Homemakers, by Shannon Hayes.

The Woman I Want/To Be :: Essays On Attention Paid

> I have been photographing women’s clothing displays in shop widows for years. I am in love with womanhood. I am in love with womanhood in two ways. First, and dominantly, I am in love with womanhood in the way you would expect my male lizard brain to be. I am in love with womanhood as a receptive place where my sexual longings can come to repose.

About Barbie. Not sorry I went to see but mixed feelings. Funny and touching in places. Well crafted, acted and directed. Critique of patriarchy (and matriarchy), not satisfying. And the discovery Barbie made on her hero’s journey? She’d rather be in the complex real world, grow old, die? Hmmmm.

From today’s walk…

Wooden shipping pallet, top boards running from top to bottom and painted blue between horizontal connecting boards beneath.

Intersection of roofs of metal structure with sky and power wires at top of frame.

Rectangular concrete slab with drainage basin in the upper left corner surrounded by asphalt paving. Rectangle rotated to the right in the rectangular frame.

Oval shaped sticker with simplified graphic lemon at the center and graphic drink can images of multiple colors and at a variety of angles encircling it.

Red embroidered red halter top on an armless and headless mannequin form with blue gray pants.

Sidewalk sign with the words “BARBIES DONT CRY OVER KENS.”

From yesterday’s walk…

Sign on the sidewalk outside a shop with the words “NAKED CARAMELS ON SALE!”

Girls metal lunch box/purse with female Disney characters on it. In a shop window.

Light pink/orange trumpet type blossom. Closeup.

Woman’s light blue blouse open down the front, tied together at the bust line. Yellow seersucker pants. Displayed on an armless and headless mannequin form in a shop window.

Orange sundress with large abstract floral print topped with a large brimmed straw hat. Reflection of sky and building overlaid.

Selfie, man in a car with gray t-shirt, beard stubble, heavy framed blue glasses, pink knit cap.

Today is Barbie day… I am wearing as much pink as I have in my closet.

Barbie movie poster.

Man with pink pussy hat in a car.

Man and woman standing in front of Barbie sign and balloons.

“… no one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or more disdainful, than a man anxious about his own virility.”

— The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir a.co/gl8cTQL

Becoming a woman: The gender theories of Simone de Beauvoir - Rewriting The Rules

One is not born, but rather one becomes, a woman.

—Simone de Beauvoir

Here she is arguing, from autobiographical experience and from the available evidence at the time, that the things associated with womenhood (such as being passive, concerned with appearance, childlike and in need of protection, and wanting to care for others) are imposed upon women by society rather than being innate characteristics they are born with.

From this morning’s walk…

Thistle and lily blossoms in various stages of bloom and decay.

Red turk’s cap lilies and purple thistle blossoms.

Yellow vase with carp etched into the sides in a shop window.

Metal table and chairs outside a drinking establishment with two glasses with partially finished drinks inside.

Metal chairs stacked inside a ramen noodle shop.

Sitting here waiting for the end of Open Studios. Been a good day. Decent number of visitors. A couple of sales with another possible. And this photo which I’ve been thinking all afternoon I should take and finally did…

I discovered this morning that one can have multiple links in their Instagram profile. When did that change?! Probably years ago. That’s how long I have been largely absent from the platform.

Day two of Beacon Open Studios begins at noon! If you are in the area come visit! I am #9 on the map.

From this morning’s walk…

Glass storage jars filled with candy, macaroni, lentils, popcorn, in a shop window.

Close up of a tropical plant leaf with center vein running from top to bottom and secondary veins fanning off at a 45 degree angle.

Closeup of trumpet shaped pink and green flower.

Brown, black and blue plaid dress on a mannequin in a shop window.

Partially finished men’s plaid dress jacket in a tailor shop window.

Ring of violently churning water on the surface of a creek.

Red, white, blue, yellow, green plastic six pack carriers in a shop window.

White hydrangea flower and torso mannequin with beaded white dress on it in a shop window.

July 22, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

The Florida Board of Education approved new state social studies standards on Wednesday, including standards for African American history, civics and government, American history, and economics. Critics immediately called out the middle school instruction in African American history that includes “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” (p. 6). They noted that describing enslavement as offering personal benefits to enslaved people is outrageous.

Open Studios day one coming to a conclusion. Among my visitors was @Parag!Thanks for coming! First time either one of us has met an M.b member in the flesh.

I believe there is a dimension of the universe dedicated to pet hair. The nature of this dimension is to act as a repository for pet hair such that, whenever you vacuum up the pet hair, minutes later a fresh supply appears. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

Humanity is a beautiful mosaic. As long as another’s way of being in the world doesn’t cause physical or psychological damage to those around them, all ways of being should be tolerated. We should aim to educate as broadly as possible in the variety of ways one can be. Children in particular, at appropriate ages, with appropriate guidance, should be allowed and encouraged to inhabit a multitude of ways of being, as they work out what their way of being will be.

BOS has arrived! If you are in or near the Hudson Valley, come visit!

Julie Byrne: The Greater Wings Album Review | Pitchfork

Six years later, the itinerant Buffalo, New York, singer-songwriter incorporates harp, synth, and piano alongside her nimbly fingerpicked guitar and dusky vocals; the broader palette and cosmic scope—she invokes “distant galaxies” in the first verse—feel like a logical progression of her astral folk.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

To understand what it feels like to be in someone else’s shoes, read accounts of it by talented authors who’ve had that experience or have done the work it takes to write an honest and empathetic portrayal of it. And write about it yourself. Nothing lets you walk a mile in another’s shoes quite the way imagining and writing about it does.

Literature and Empathy :: Essays On Attention Paid

We spend our lifetimes steeping in cultural cosmologies1 that become gated communities of belief where anything outside the gates is foreign, even dangerous. Some of us have expansive cultural cosmologies with highly permeable membranes around them. Some of us have tightly limiting cosmologies with hard exoskeleton membranes and little permeability. The majority of us are somewhere between. Literature is often the way hard, permeable exoskeletons are avoided or softened.

Accordion book display installation for Open Studios this weekend…