“Snow describes a pattern on a series of roofs, there’s no one around. // Lewis comes in. Marie says we’ve got to have Talking Heads dance music.” – Bernadette Mayer, ‘Midwinter’s Day’
This is it for 2025! Thanks for reading this year! I’ll be back Friday, January 2nd. Happy winter holidays to all of you, may you be with family and friends, and may you do some good reflecting and find renewal during these next two weeks. I certainly plan on it.
Some closing podcasts:
- On The Line Break, Bob and I did about 15 minutes of year in review. Then we get into some poems—Bob reading “December’s Ruler” by Afrizar Malza (translated from the Indonesian by Daniel Owen), and me reading “Logging Time” by Aase Berg (translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson). Apple | Spotty
- On the Lazy & Entitled Podcast, Brendan and I do some year-end stuff! What were our goals with this podcast, and how has the first year gone? How do we feel about our art this year? Find out, if you like. Apple | Spotify
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
A book that, as I started it, I had a bunch of “I really love this, but maybe reading it at the end of every year is a lot of pressure around December.” It’s 119 pages of relatively dense poetry, some prose poetry. While I like it a lot, do I love it enough to read it every year? Then, I read it, and was so moved by the last two sections that I was like “YES READ THIS EVERY YEAR.” Idk. I might start alternating it with Ross Gay’s Be Holding—the idea of finishing the year on a book-length poem is appealing, and that book has a winter holiday spirit, I’d say. Still, it’s not the one we’re talking about today. We’re talking, of course, about Midwinter’s Day by Bernadette Mayer.
Midwinter’s Day by Bernadette Mayer: the more you read a dense poem, the more it reveals itself to you. This is my third time reading this, and I did find myself recalling various lines. Sometimes clapping like a seal at favorites (“there is something about America that’s unthinkable, Bernadette! You’re so lucky you died before Operation Midway Blitz!”). Part of why I love this so much is the project of it—domestic poems, making art out of the routine. More and more, I feel like that is the goal. Ambition is for sociopaths. Find the beauty in the every day. Plus, I’m a house husband. There’s a few pages, I wanna say in section four, where she puts the kids (ages three and one maybe?) down for a nap and looks outside and describes what she sees and reflects on how the younger one will be mad when she wakes up because Mom left the bed and I was like “damn, yeah, I’ve been here, too.” There’s also that part, where Bernadette is making spaghetti and the kids are yapping and she keeps having all these flashbacks or thinking about random shit she knows and then stanza after stanza starts with one kid or another asking for something, then Bernadette zoning out again. Is that ADHD? Or is it just parenting? Is unleashing the part of your brain that wants to give into ADHD thinking the trick to parenting young children? Who knows, dude. Not me.
Still, losing yourself in the minutiae of parenting is better than joining ICE/CPB, or developing AI, or doing a comedy set for the 9/11 Bros, or pouring your life savings into prop bets on NFL games, or working in a Congressional office, or being a billionaire- and empire-worshipping sellout like Noam Chomsky, or sexting anti-vaxxers. Spend time with your kids and partner and friends, cook good food, make and/or listen to music, write and/or read books. Much better than being in the C Suite anywhere. At one point, Bernadette says “I think I’ll have a beer.” I think I’ll go smoke a joint.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? Look, this was served to me by the YouTube algo, and I gotta be honest: I’m always in the mood for Santana. Here’s Jinsung Lee playing a fingerstyle “Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile).”
- ICE came back to Chicago and Greg Bovino wished Little Village a “Merry Christmass” (reporting by Mack Leiderman, Melody Mercado, and Charles Thrush in Block Club). The things I feel and want to say are not fit to print. I will say “I told you so” to all those people a few weeks ago who were like “ICE is leaving!” They’re never leaving. Maybe support a Little Village business if you can? Here’s La Villita Holiday Gift Guide by South Side Weekly staff.
- In Immigration Protest Cases, Feds Keep Striking Out by Dave Byrnes in South Side Weekly
- Here’s Tiffany Walden and Tonia Hill in The Triibe about Bovino’s return and abductions resuming on the south side. Here’s Shawn Mulcahy in Chicago Reader on Bovino’s return. Hey, he’s already pissing people off, too: Police Watchdogs Seek Hearing On Police’s Interactions With Feds After Bovino Thanks Officers by Molly DeVore in Block Club, Mayor Brandon Johnson calls Bovino a ‘liar,’ says Chicago police did not assist immigration agents by Tiffany Walden in The Triibe, and again from Tiffany: Evanston mayor confronts Bovino, community raises funds for detained Chicago street vendor
- Where does your alderperson stand on ICE? We checked all 50. by Grace Del Vecchio, Sophia Kalakailo and Jerrel Floyd in City Bureau
- Oh, I did find an ICE agent that I actually think is doing good work right now. Here’s Jacob Sisneros in Long Beach Post on the story of Isaiah Hodgson.
- Bonus sixth and seventh art links because of how bleak all of those are: Fred Hampton Jr. keeps the revolution alive in Chicago’s music scene by Joshua Eferighe in Chicago Reader and Drawing Inspiration From Mentors, This Undocumented Artist Is Rekindling Her Passion by Katrina Pham in Borderless Magazine
What’re you still doing here? Don’t you know that Micah and Brendan have a show?
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this year. Hey, I know it often sucks, this time of year. A lot of people are off work or school, and you’re not. Your store maybe closes Christmas Day, maybe. It sucks. You deserve better. Become a Socialist agitator in the new year.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris