Five Things: June 22

Welcome to Five Things! This series will share whatever I’ve been enjoying lately – books, movies, songs, activities, etc. Frequency is TBD, but I'm leaning toward sending it every two weeks. Enjoy!

Olivia Miles’s ball handling

I recently attended my first professional basketball game and have thoroughly enjoyed cheering for the home team, the Minnesota Lynx. I know very little about basketball, but I was so engrossed watching world class athletes at work on the court. They made the sport look so easy, and that’s especially true of Olivia Miles. I gasped every time she shook off her defenders to sink the ball into the hoop, and the way she manages the ball with one hand is magic. Watching her (and the rest of the team) has turned me into a bona fide basketball fan.

Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

I’ve had this collection of essays on my bookshelf for several years and finally read it on a recent trip to Missouri. Topics include the importance of creating webs of collective care, building equitable practices for emotional and care labor so this work doesn't always fall to femmes, and sharing a history of disabled organizing and community in Toronto. It’s a great introduction to disability justice and building a more caring future. The essays in Part III were my favorite; they wrestle extensively with mental illness, suicidality, and the idea of being “crazy.” This book came out in 2018 and mentions how the world felt apocalyptic during Trump’s first presidency; I am curious to read Leah's latest works and see how the arrival of COVID-19 and a second Trump presidency affect their writing.

“The Oil Slick” by Frightened Rabbit

Some friends with excellent musical taste helped me build my grief playlist when Avery died; this was a recommendation from one of them. The song speaks so much to my emotional experience that it’s shot to the top of my On Repeat. Over a catchy melody, the lyrics perfectly capture what it feels like to miss somebody and not be able to express the depth of how much they meant to you:

I went looking for a song for you
Something soft and patient to reflect its muse
I took a walk with my brightest thoughts
But the weather soon turned and they all ran off

The tone shifts at the end though, with the final lyrics proclaiming that all is not lost:

There is light, but there's a tunnel to crawl through
There is love, but its misery loves you
Still got hope, so I think we'll be fine
In these disastrous times, disastrous times

This song is really meeting me where I’m at. Please do yourself a favor and check it out.

How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind by Clancy Martin

Clancy Martin is a philosophy professor who specializes in suicide. He has also survived over ten suicide attempts, numerous psychiatric hospitalizations, and severe alcoholism. This book tells Clancy’s story, explores philosophy and literature about suicide, and shares a variety of reasons why the reader should keep living.

Since I first picked this book up in 2023, How Not to Kill Yourself has had an enormous positive impact on my mental health. I recommended it to Avery as well and we talked frequently about how great it was; their death prompted a much-needed reread.

Please note: this book does not glamorize suicide (in fact, I think it's quite life-affirming), but the writing is frank. I would not recommend reading it if you’re sensitive to descriptions of suicide methods and discussions of deaths by suicide.

reblog playlist (my version, anyway)

Spotify recommended this playlist to me when I was browsing an artist’s page, and I saved it as quickly as I could. It's made up of the indie sleaze and dream pop songs that were popular on my corner of Tumblr when I was a kid. Finding these songs and copying them to my mp3 player and mix CDs helped me survive my teenage years, and it’s a pleasure to revisit them.

For the non-Spotify users, a few of my favorite tracks:

Songs I loved back then

1. “Do I Wanna Know?” – Arctic Monkeys
2. “Electric Feel” – MGMT
3. “Cough Syrup” – Young the Giant
4. “I Wanna Get Better” – Bleachers

Songs new to me

1. “Everything is Embarrassing” – Sky Ferreira
2. “Electric Love” – BØRNS
3. “Oblivion” – Grimes
4. “Half Mast” – Empire of the Sun

(Note: I realized when adding the above link that Spotify's algorithms mean the version of "reblog" I listen to is attuned to my listening habits. Therefore, it's not the same as the public playlist and will also be different from whatever Spotify shows you if you're logged in. Whatever you may see, I hope you like the vibes and the nostalgia blast.)