flor de toloache

New to me mariachi band Flor de Toloache performed on KEXP just a few months ago. How I missed this I do not know but please enjoi.

white sands

One of the places I went on my trip was White Sands National Monument. I'd never heard of it (or maybe I had, vaguely, without thinking much about it). A friend drove us and his dog out there for a day trip. 40 minutes or so from Las Cruces, through the Organ Mountains, past a border patrol stop (I'm still WTF about that whole situation) and into acres and acres of cream-colored gypsum sand. You can walk on it, the dog rolled delightedly in it, you can even picnic and overnight in it. It is beautiful and eerie and sometimes Highway 70, which leads to it, is closed for nearby US military missile testing. This mysterious beauty and occasional state-sanctioned violence is a perfect microcosm of our conflicted world.

gallivantin

I spent about 10 days on holiday in the southwestern US. Getting away from work, home, the regular reg nature of things was exactly what I needed. I drove hundreds of miles through very unfamiliar landscapes, seeing new places and old friends. I wandered mountainous cities and read a Claire DeWitt detective novel and ate Hatch chilis a few different ways and wiggled my toes in cream-colored gypsum sand and came home on a train, exchanging the trials of airports and TSA for special brownies, spectacular West Coast views, naps, and the dining car.
What a treat.

new missy

New music from Missy Elliott. You know she's my girl. I wasn't sure about Sum1 and visually I didn't care for her part of the video but damn can she sing. The video is fly and sly and fresh too. You could write a master's thesis on her visual imagery. You could = maybe I should.

where u been

Gosh amighty, I been away for awhile, apparently.
Family in town last week.
Pedicures have been had.
Thrift shopping and early-Thanksgiving also done and had.
Folks are traveling but I'm not, yet anyway.
*
I've been reading up a storm and that is traveling in a way, isn't it?
*
The Kurt Cobain biography by Charles Cross.
Arresting. An obituary for a person, a soul, an ethos, a city.
Dervla Murphy's trek across Madagascar.
I marvel at her daughter's wry long-suffering.
*
And laughing along with and marveling at the lo-fi, clever artistry of this Literal MSPaint joint.

teh hype

I managed to get my hands on the September British Vogue.
Interested in how Meghan Markle aka Duchess of Sussex performs as editor.
It's glossy, for sure. I haven't had time yet to settle in with it. (Although a cursory scan of the features includes a lot of the samo-samo whey-faces. Hmph.)
*
For context, I do buy most of the September fashion magazines. It's the biggest issue and for me, the best deal. I look at them year after year, sometimes cutting out intriguing designs.
I added Bust to the mix this year. Loving its strong feminist messaging.

inside/outside

On the inside, I rage and seethe and plot multitudes of revenge.
Yet I am praised at work for "being professional."
Among friends I am known for "having it together."
*
To those closest to me, who knows?
Sometimes I rage and sometimes I simmer and sometimes, many times, I disassociate and feel nothing at all.
*
When I partially shaved my head last summer, my outside finally matched my inside.