E questa stagione appartiene al cancro.
The ranger calms my nervous, stallion heart

I am drawn between the veils
i slip into this soft earth again and again

finding my way through
dragon sickness and spoiled leaf


I. live from @thequietestrevolution

Tales from the umber wise
Tell me about sharks and sleeper cells
this bloodpool season;

How the mayor made her
gasp like never before;

lotus night serum,
O'Henry peaches

insisting 
on glass and proper light design and—

<<If you don't have fun,
you'll never make it.>>

Meet me 
and the books 
in Big Sur.


II. i am lovable

big titty times
shield my heart,
shake a bone.

Swim for your life,
lonely sailor.

Love found a cricket,
surrendered her back outside;
May fresh air 
find you, my love.

I am lovable
I am lovable
I am lovable

button button, who’s got the button:

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sonic bullion [playlist]

To those who dislike or disrespect the Bee Gees, the way is shut. It was made by the disco-dancing lovergals who Live, and the disco-dancing lovergals keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.

Otherwise, I was scouring my kitchen in the wake of the cyclospora news and found that cranking the Bee Gees while doing it is an excellent remedy:

[Qobuz]

[YouTube sampler]

Hopefully Kyle Gordon’s “Mr. Jambo” gets to Qobuz soon:

did I say ‘white supremacy’? I beg your pardon, I was mistaken. I meant ‘white narcissism’,

and other lessons I learned this season. Have you noticed the liars getting caught out and shit actually happening to them? For real consequences?

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Elsewhere. Of course now is when the infamous Doomsday trailer came out, tidings of future winter. For context: tacky salaries, regurgitated fame, the failure of the white exec to let Blade live. Good thing we have time to plan, I suppose.

But the current box office biggie is The Odyssey, the one about a man returning home after divine delay. Apt for this time of year. Have you been able to get any of those 70mm IMAX tickets? Bless you, were those earrings really the statement you wanted to make? Have you, by chance, read Emily Wilson’s translation? So beautiful, transports me right back to the Bronze Age and gives me the distinct impression I walked those sands before. The wizards say that next year will feel like the Bronze Age collapse, the conditions are similar. What will this look like?

I am praying your gut is healthy and you have plentiful fresh air. Until next time—

Stay wavy, neighbor

Love always, Kate

Storms so strong they had to tap retired Tom Skilling at his condo.

Heya neighbors,

Roomies are in vogue here at casa carasiella these days, I just finished Emily Henry’s roomie romance Funny Story, and the final season of Jersey Shore Family Vacation is currently airing Thursday nights on MTV. (I’ll be shocked if they don’t come back for Jersey Shore Geriatric or Jersey Shore Active Adult or something in nine years. And as an OG viewer who has been going down the shore with these folks for 17 years at this point, warts and terror and all, you bet I’ll be tuning in.)

So of a Jerzday, my honey and I like to kick up our heels and play Jersey Shore bingo, also known as JERZ-O. Our game inspired this poem:

Vincel behavior • costumes • product
placement • pasta • mass confusion
wine • leopard print

Meatballs • pizza • Paola

An Ange no-show • shots • Ronnie
spiraling (... upward?) 
Deena falls down • DREN • JERZO #1

and a missed Madonna Mia...

Elsewhere today, I learned what Dawn dish spray tastes like. Accidents happen.

Elsewhere elsewhere, White Sox are in first place in the division.

Elsewhere elsewhere elsewhere, are you watching Spider-Noir? B&W or true hue?

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Stay wavy neighbors

Love to my neighbors dealing with these storms and love to you. Keep fuckin swinging and have fun doin it please and thank you.

Love, Kate

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I made this hummingbird cake and its nectar was so so good.

Unfortunately my tumtum was going kablooey. For a minute there, I couldn’t even sing my gut was so outta whack. Was it a bug? pollenfog? the ongoing energy churn? all of the above?

Baby, I’m still alive. I’ll have to make the cake again soon. Makes you hum it’s so good.1

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sonic bullion

Gemini season 2026 music time capsule for your listening pleasure: [Qobuz]

Otherwise, I’m listening to Yacht Rock and the latest from our good white bat, Karl Casey. And, of course, that latest Megan snippet. All that wifey shit is dead, put that shit to bed. What are you listening to now and this summer? New stuff? Old gold?

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peetypurrs

happy birthday, my sweet son

readalonging on the porch

can’t even feel the humidity under this tree here with my book before the rain drops.

nel bosco sacro

I have been reading all I can find on the goddess, Angizia, honored in the Apennines and revered by the Marsi for her healing—magic, herbal remedies, curing snakebites with snakecharms. Some myths allege she was one of Aeëtes’ three daughters, with Circe and Medea.

This month, I asked the tarot what June is about (Mythic Tarot Queen of Swords), what archetype we should embody for success (X-Men Tarot, Charles Xavier aka IX of Cups), and what powers this month offers us (Batman The Animated Series Cartes à Jouer, Catwoman Queen of Spades & Penguin 8 of Hearts). The myth they offered me was that of the huntress Atalanta.

If piqued, read more this way:

dianara

June 2026

Queen of Swords is June herself. Nine of Cups, aka Charles Xavier, is the archetype we can embody for great success this month. Queen of Spades and Eight of Hearts, aka Catwoman and the Penguin, ar…

Read more

2 months ago · Kate Carasiella

Stay wavy, neighbor

As a sage mentor once reminded me, Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Keep swinging,

- Kate

Originally recited by the famous twins, Tweedles Dee & Dum. How fitting.

"The sun was shining on the sea,
      Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
      The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
      The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
      Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
      After the day was done —
"It's very rude of him," she said,
      "To come and spoil the fun."

The sea was wet as wet could be,
      The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
      No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead —
      There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
      Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
      Such quantities of sand:
If this were only cleared away,'
      They said, it would be grand!'

If seven maids with seven mops
      Swept it for half a year,
Do you suppose,' the Walrus said,
      That they could get it clear?'
I doubt it,' said the Carpenter,
      And shed a bitter tear.

O Oysters, come and walk with us!'
      The Walrus did beseech.
A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
      Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
      To give a hand to each.'

 The eldest Oyster looked at him,
      But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
      And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
      To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
      All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
      Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
      They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
      And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
      And more, and more, and more —
All hopping through the frothy waves,
      And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
      Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
      Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
      And waited in a row.

The time has come,' the Walrus said,
      To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
      Of cabbages — and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
      And whether pigs have wings.'

But wait a bit,' the Oysters cried,
      Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
      And all of us are fat!'
No hurry!' said the Carpenter.
      They thanked him much for that.

A loaf of bread,' the Walrus said,
      Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
      Are very good indeed —
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
      We can begin to feed.'

 But not on us!' the Oysters cried,
      Turning a little blue.
After such kindness, that would be
      A dismal thing to do!'
The night is fine,' the Walrus said.
      Do you admire the view?

It was so kind of you to come!
      And you are very nice!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
      Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf —
      I've had to ask you twice!'

It seems a shame,' the Walrus said,
      To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
      And made them trot so quick!'
The Carpenter said nothing but
      The butter's spread too thick!'

 I weep for you,' the Walrus said:
      I deeply sympathize.'
With sobs and tears he sorted out
      Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
      Before his streaming eyes.

O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
      You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
      But answer came there none —
And this was scarcely odd, because
      They'd eaten every one."

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stay wavy, neighbors

keep swinging. i love you.

— Kate

post script

I know it’s Disney, but I do love the voice acting in this segment. It’s so good it’s hard not to mimic the music of it.

yellow smiley butterfly at heart • can you say, farfalle? • Farfalle! • Her little sing voice • bubble wand • Watermark on repeat • Gaea’s own tree • wry look grandmother rabbit • O, you think so, hmm? • branches and roots • Mamma? • Are we Mother Nature? • Yes, we are all Mother Nature. • Orange cat-napping •  and the reclusive wolf smiles • thunk, swish • I am a little tyke again • thunk, swish • Can I make this one? • thunk, swish • Can I make this one? • spared runt basil finds home • at the silver maple’s throne • brutal Plato holds the shovel • weathered Gnome-Gnome the watering can • I am home • I am home • I am home. • Let’s paint • fairy door • pop • pop • pop • pop • Towering lilacscent • pine all year • honeysuckle knocking my window • by the bed • bees and I • buzz unafraid • the moon hits homers night after night • only two games out • spiral pink glitter • full flower • May strikes • you and yorn • rites written in blood • Made my own letterhead • on a bed of daisies • my sword, hand-delivered • To the Parasite Who Would Rather See a Family Hungry • greedrot facing death • Death collects all the same, rotter • Gads, pollenfog • weighs you down • lungs too heavy to sing • thanks to the easing harpist • walking gently you and I • salt lamp orange juice • eat away the slimy dread cast • my tongue will sit well again

A birthday coffee

Thank Gaia, Thank Maia I was born in her season.

The bull sits with me.
I cannot fathom this honor.
Nevermind why, a waste. 
Clear-eyed, tells me, Go,
Now, Outside, Listen—these trees 
Everysong to fill your breath for wings.
Only then may you begin.

An eviction kitty-corner. 
A family. I wonder, 
the child and the pit— 
where are you
loose, now?

The times for slow dress
of the fearful child’s care, 
fai con calma, bambina,
There is a safe hand to hold
in the wake— 

Meet me at the riverbank,
where sellouts rush away,
misery-led to exile’s drain. 

Meet me in the field,
neighbors and the green,
The baby armed with the bat
She waves to me.

Meet me at breakfast,
beside the mother's touch I cut
from my hair, my crown.
My own remedies, now.

Meet me at the boil,
Honey • lemon • cinnamon • paprika • turmeric • thyme
Hot brew, throatsoothe.

Meet me at the inkwell,
I seek the diet and habitat of a pit adder,
I seek the cure for a wendigo; bear fat.
Burning a hole in my pocket
tipped in their blood—
Ma plume est mon épée.
I will not lay down.

Meet me at the question
as a child
I sowed at night, afraid to rest—

And then what?

footnotes

Thank you for the birthday and poetry inspiration, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake, and Outlander season 8.

Un caffé

discman

(Qobuz) Here’s this Taurus season’s musical time capsule for your listening pleasure. And for the big love project you’re working on, may I recommend some chocolatey pink noise?

station note, elsewhere

aka I cannot stop writing these damn golf essays. channelsurfer is where I yap about tv/movies, one of my earliest true loves.

If you like watching television and/or enjoy critiques of men’s pro golf, here are the two followups to my original golf essay, dumpster fire, if you take a notion:

channel surfer

Full Swing

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAYYYYY… Last weekend the 90th Masters Tournament concluded with Rory McIlroy figuratively putting the green jacket on himself, going back to back after last year’s grand slam win…

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4 months ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Kate Carasiella

channel surfer

Major Cult

It’s Masters week and pro golf’s #1 fan and patron despot announced this AM more genocide at his whim to keep you up at night, every night, for the rest of your life. Debate is rigorous among mental health professionals evaluating POTUS’ inhumanity and rabidity…

Read more

4 months ago · 2 likes · Kate Carasiella

Woe betide the predasite simps and sycophants at the upcoming corruption of the Cadillac Doral. I’ll be watching.

Please send me any aid funds or fundraising drives or calls for support that need amplifying, and I’ll be happy to add them to the Generosity of Spirit page.

Have courage, neighbor. We’re all in this together.

Happy Birthday to me and all the Taureans out there, including my birthday twins Angel Reese, Rudolph Valentino, Willie Mays, Orson Welles, George Clooney, e il mio fratello Luigi Mangione.

This year I am grateful I can provide a warm, happy home to my children who can sleepsafe here. I am grateful for the wind chimes and the big, knowing tree. I am grateful for our libraries we share and make ourselves. I am grateful for laughter—flowing presence and shocking interruptions. I am grateful for the respite. I am grateful for the will to fight and the will to refuse. I am grateful for our robust health. I am grateful for the nourishment of our souls. I am grateful for my life of living dreams. I am grateful for my own love.

Here we go again.

Your true and loving bard,
Kate

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poetry diaries:

[CW mentions: murder, SA, cannibals]

I. 
She supported him through med school and he dumped her
the final year of residency. She paid for everything. After,

She shot and killed him. 
A rare case of justice,

Freed: 
from the cell in months, forever from the leech.

••

II. offa my chest now
these men. no man worth the trouble. on the way out. much quieter once / they’re gone. Brother, the lack stuck you: / remorseless simp for predasites, the nicest guys you know, you claim. Cower, / cower. Cower alone. Time for rest. No more lying down / beside an amateur druggist and expert betrayer whose wife cannot sleep / safe in her own bed. Banishment, yes banish men / from Her home. Our deep. Bear instead, if you must. I sleep safe with mine 
all these years. / May no merciful cave find men. Our home where No man belongs.  

Otherwise you shoot / his ass in the chest and watch that motherfucker bloom. / A good compost is found in man. 

I remember how naive I was / about all the cannibals. My sister warned me, 
I was driving / I squealed, Whaaaa-No wayyyy-I feel sorry for them believing— it's true. Late the fool, I wised up: / How delectable they find us. Disposable. Soul / renunciation; taints their tongues forever; immune from satisfaction. / When there is plenty food for us all.

He can't handle a fucking dish. / He pisses in empty bottles, hoards / hides em for mommy to find. / He wants you hairless. / He won’t even lick your wound. / Brags about suffocating you / farts while you give him portal. / 
He is Expendable, gal. / Come sit by me.

•••

III. 
I asked the book,
What to do for money?
She answered, <<diffamare>>

Oooh, where do I begin?

She insisted I write 
the sacred host
<<ostia>>, unleavened
bread reserved for adoration,
communion.

I ask, slander who? 
Bang!, she says: 
<<ro • Man • tic>>

••••

IV. 
Reset, the sun exalts.
Blood on my seat, unexpected
Forgive my bleedthrough,

It was therapy, after all, 
like a river to the sea. Now, 

The only settling left
for a neighbor
is the SCORE.

sonic bullion

Aries Season 2026 playlist in a bottle (Qobuz), featuring appearances by Set It Off, the Bee Gees, Sade (of course), Yuzo Koshiro and the Streets of Rage official game soundtrack, and more.

My sister, the one who warned me about the cannibals, buzzed me recently to say Suzanne Vega may be my longlost mother. This is one of my favorite songs ever and it’s been following me on the radio lately, so here’s to you, Sister, and you, companion-reader:

Remember it from Untamed Heart with our beloveds Marisa Tomei and Rosie Perez, and a young, foxy Christian Slater emulating my superduperbeloved River Phoenix?? I was hooked on this movie as a kid: the fantasy of a hot recluse deeply attuned to you and protective over you without being transactional? A man who knows well enough to fear his woman? He doesn’t make sense, I don’t make sense, together we make sense. Yes, please! Unfortunately I was a very easy mark for rescue tales, the sweetheart stalker, sentimentality, codependency and trauma bonding, and immature men. I am still unapologetically unsentimental.

This reminds me, I need to watch The Thing Called Love and Pump Up The Volume.

Anywho, Salute, Jim’s Coffee Shop & Bakery in fair Minneapolis.

station notes: on bardic barding & barderie

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Generosity of spirit

Please visit this page to find a living list of funds, folks, and neighbors who can use our support, for those of us with resources to share. Please send me funds or folks to add to this list as you see fit, please and thank you!

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Thank you all so much—dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, neighbors, and the generous supporters. You could spend your precious life anywhere, and you choose to visit here. I am honored by your companionship and grateful you’re out there, too, dancing your sing.

SEVEN OF PENTACLES

[Aries season]

This is from the Mythic Tarot deck, by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene, illustrated by Tricia Newell. From the deck my aunt handed me more than 20 years ago, the Seven of Pentacles emerged, drawing our attention for Aries o’clock:

Mythic Tarot is inspired by Greek mythology. This card depicts Crete’s All-Shining Queen Pasiphaë making master craftsman Daedalus an offer he couldn’t refuse: build me a wooden wheelie cow so I can have sex with this sacred bull, please and thank you. This request came after her husband and his patron, King Minos, refused to sacrifice thee white bull to Poseidon and instead offered up a dupe. Pissed of Poseidon, in turn, cursed the witch-queen with lust for the bull. Daedalus did build the contraption for their child, Asterion, to be conceived and later, he built the Minotaur’s cage—the labyrinth.

The moment of time we’re asked to notice, however, is the offer. An enticement, an initiation between the rock and the hard place from vying powers that be.

Further reading on Witch-Queen Pasiphaë, the Minotaur and the labyrinth, and Daedalus’ craftmanship and messy-messes, if you take a notion.

Here are my notes and impressions on the card:

I’ll add:

• Plenty of Taurus season foreshadowing; the minotaur is a Taurean myth after all. Ask your Taurus pals about their labyrinth. We all get one standard issue.

• Public figures and clout dealers’ machinations in the shadow-halls of power; even if you don’t recognize them yet, Know they are there, let them emerge from the mists. Don’t jump. Consider. Fai con calma.

• Note the Cretan bull-dancers in the background of the card. Acrobatic momentum rituals, one’s palace is the site of ritual ceremony, demonstrations with or against nature, for hierarchy. Did these rituals actually take place or was this a game of metaphorical, celestial tag, à la Orion and the Pleiades? Ritual bull-leaping exists today in Southwest France, known as course landaise, the angel’s jump, the jump with feet tied together.1

  A deep-rooted tension between the wildness of the bull and the need to master it also appears to underlie the most famous Minoan institution involving bulls: bull-leaping. - Jeremy McInerney, Penn Museum

Until next time,

Stay wavy, neighbor. We’re all in this together.

Love, Kate

she’s a rainbow

Happy Birthday, Angel

of windowshattering verve
her power like dawn, she calls shining.

Angel, ask me
every question.
I promise attention, answers
they may not be good, just true
Love, I won't hold back—

She flies, bringing home
old branches, brimming cups
of last year's oak 
leaves, locks of hair, our nest
learning magick
sounding it out;
we are born 
wands and bridges.

You were born
just yesterday, again tomorrow
between ides and clover, you are
loud as the stars' command.
killer hugs&cannon-armed, 
favoring red and music, always
—Dolcemente, brave one. 

Here is the fountain:
Our love finds
     no death
     no fear
     no fear of death
We listen close
We listen, too, 
each others' hearts.

umbrella

inspired, in part, by Danny Casolaro and this blood moon eclipse

the light the cave the sphinx the moon
the blood her tides her horns the moon

the jets, steaming, saltgrit eclipsing
holding us now, holding us under
witness the breakneck desire 
of so many cowards 
fireyearning to humiliate themselves.

Figuring in the fog
When there is no figuring
a waterfall.
Where mirages fail—

—here remains our eternal child,
bright rebel of the campaign
who follows snakes, turns rocks
churning maggots, threading the leads
an obscure operation
without promise save death.

Here, we join anyway.
We meet the odyssey 
with our whole
full life

Please visit the page above to see funds, folks, and neighbors who can use our support, for those of us with resources to share. This is a living list, if you have campaigns you’d like me to share here, please drop me a line and it would be my honor to add them.

My warmest, deepest gratitude to you, dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, neighbors, and the generous supporters who have bought your gal a cuppa coffee. It is my pleasure to be of service.

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I2I [sonic bullion]

Here’s a sampler of the ongoing musical time capsule for Pisces Season 2026. For my fellow qobuz neighbors, here’s the playlist. If only I could add the woodpeckers busily bayonetting the tree trunks in my neighborhood.

What songs are hitting you hard right now, or attracting peculiar notice for you these soupy days?

The little rainbow has Powerline on repeat:

For my part, I’m losing myself in Rosie Gaines’ discography. Thank you forever, Rosie Gaines.

Elsewhere, Bridgerton is helping smoothe out my brain to counter the exponential ripples from The Octopus’ parasitic soul vampirism and desperate war against the people.

courage or die, neighbor

Love you love you, please take care of yourself, we need you. Stay wavy, stay curious

Love, Kate

Dear friends and neighbors,

Have you ever tried to braid a whirlwind’s hair? A hurricane’s?

To my artist friends, neighbors, colleagues: I’d love to commission the following illustration from you, please and thank you: a framed portrait of Toad, of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad, wearing a bonnet with a word bubble that says, “Blah”.

During Aquariusseason, swimming in the blood of horrors and valentines, came the mercury cazimi and a whole lot of family karaoke to my doorstep. And for the first time I can remember, I felt too sad to sing. (Now that it’s Piscestime, that won’t last.)

Elsewhere the angel asked, Mommy? What’s a cycle? The best questions.

I hope that if this poem finds you, it brings you pleasure:

Explaining cycles to our child,
who asked
Who i discover
likes this music, Chet Baker, 
She Was Too Good to Me.

Funk in the deep freeze
So cold, trees
exploding in the forecast; 
Gramsci at Davos; 
Lushious Massacr at home; 

bovine on the menu
I’m out for blood.

I recall
the unopened jar
my love notes
creased with care, 
a kiss awaiting
your craving touch

But doomscrolls and shiny bait
athwart abounding 
Are we stagnant?
Relief grief relief grief

psyche up in knots
psyche up in knots
psyche up in knots
nerves of trembling glass

Songmedicine
The messenger shines
breakthrough 
in the heart of soul

Yet, ashamed I am
too sad to sing.
Too stubborn for silence.

Generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much—dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, neighbors, and the generous supporters who have bought your gal a cuppa coffee. It is my pleasure to be of service.

Coffee tip jar

Here are funds, folks, and neighbors that can use our support, for those of us with resources to share:

• The Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Northern Illinois Food Bank

• Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD) donation page

• Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) donation page

• The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund is raising money to help detained immigrant-neighbors pay their bond so they can be released while their case is pending.

• Supporting La Villita’s local businesses and restaurants where you will eat some of the best food you’ll ever have in your life.

• Belmont Cragin United supports Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood with events like Whistlemania, mutual aid, and restaurant crawls.

• Operation Save Our Lanes - SKYWAY BOWL is America’s only Black-owned United States Bowling Congress certified professional league bowling facility. We are raising money to provide a means for us to expand our operations our and spread awareness about the sport of bowling in our community on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

• The Sameer Project, a donations based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians.

• lifeline4gaza.com is a collaborative open-source database tracking the progress of nearly 1000 family campaigns and on-the-ground initiatives in Gaza, Palestine—all which are urgently in need of our collective support and commitment. On the site, you will see the most stagnant campaigns show up at the top (by default). This compiles the last 5 days of donations, which can be sorted and viewed in multiple ways: URGENCY , CUMULATIVE and DONATIONS. Each fundraiser is tracked in real-time (with different currency rate calculations taken into account by converting to USD)

• The Hind Rajab Foundation, devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and achieving justice for all the victims of the Gaza genocide. In October, the HRF named the Israeli battalion, company, and commanders responsible for killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab; the HRF has submitted a 120 pages Article 15 filing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. May everyone live the lives they deserve.

• Animal Friends Shelter is a safe Gazan haven for stray & abandoned cats. Our mission is to provide love, care, & shelter to these furry friends until they find their forever homes.

Jump (For My Love)

Here’s my musical time capsule for Aquariusseason 2026 [qobuz]. Still cannot recommend the platform enough for streaming music, if you like.

courage or die, neighbor

Love you love you, please take care of yourself, we need you. Stay wavy, stay curious

Love, Kate

The WM Phoenix Open, aka Waste Management, aka Wasted Management is widely touted as “the wildest party in golf”, the “Greatest Show on Grass”, a frat party rather than a traditional, quiet tournament (but do those even exist anymore? The [British] Open might be closest…), taking place on or abouts Super Bowl weekend. Thank god it’s not on Groundhog Day.

A long way from the game’s origins during the Song Dynasty, with the Romans’ paganica, and with the Scottish gentlemen…

Known for its raucous atmosphere, especially at the notorious 16th hole (sponsored by Oakley), ‘The People’s Open’ features rowdies booing, BABABOOOEEYYY-ing, binge-drinking, and blowharding at TPC Scottsdale, unofficially inaugurating the new season of PGA Tour golf.

Now what the hell am I doing talking about golf?1

⛳ Welp, the golf course and its environs are familiar turf to me. Chicagoland is a bustling and historical golf hub—the first official 18-hole course, the Chicago Golf Club, was established in 1892—and my forefathers have been known to carry bags of sticks in their trunks of one kind or another.2

In my middle-class, middlewest, suburban childhood, traces of my fathers could be found in the stacks of spent scorecards on the kitchen counter or in the cookie cabinet next to the pecan sandies, long phone calls negotiating the fellas into twosomes, foursomes, zoosomes; shoe polish and two-tone Footjoys, and tournament golf playing on the weekends.3 In them days, the soundtrack mixed a still-quiet golf clap, the dulcet tones of Jim Nantz and Verne Lundquist, whispers, and posh accents announcing legends like Nick Faldo, Fred Couples, John Daly, Bernhard Langer, Ernie Els, Payne Stewart (RIP)…

… And then, of course, Tiger Woods eclipsed them all. Thrilling to watch Tiger smoke the bastards like that damned Phil Mickelson, to witness his climb to utter dominance and complete mastery.4 Yes, it felt great watching a Black man rout the competition, particularly in a sport with such a racist history. If Tiger was playing, it was his game to lose. Everyone else was playing for second place. His excellence transcended the PGA, but the professional golf machine absolutely depended on Tiger for its own legitimacy. Of course, Woods’ legacy didn’t escape the dumpster fire either.

I’m the first-born daughter of a golf diehard, inexplicable anglophile, and inveterate company man who always championed the upper echelons and management as being in a woefully misunderstood, underdog position. Downtrodden, even. O! how I bridled at those drudging, opining monologues that inevitably got around to the insidious, nincompoop talking point—the government ought to be run like a business! O! How I reveled in shredding him (and from an early age) as, more or less, a class traitor of dubious morals.5 When he wasn’t at the office or out on the course, that is.6

My dad’s philosophy of life is/was to treat it like a game. In his book, you’re a fool if you expect any good in life, and the only smart play is to bank all the dough you can before you die. Grin through all shiteousness enough, hopefully, to line your coffin thick. Though for a miser, enough does not exist. Perhaps you can take it with you! I digress!

I learned early enough that if I wanted to spend time with him, it had to be while doing something productive like his errands, or taking an interest in his interests. One of my mother’s early refrains told the woe of a golf widow. Over the years that shifted into gratitude for her status, get that man out of my house.

To be fair, we shared loves of music and the Chicago Bulls—shooting hoops in the backyard a few golden evenings—and giggling over Three Stooges reruns. I recognized early that I liked playing sports, though I was discouraged from joining any sort of group or team. Elsewhere, I was hooked on professional wrestling, an interest my parents roundly disdained and I ultimately took underground.

But. There was something about watching golf with him, a game he had languishing time for.

Back at the Ponderosa on Sundays after his own dawn tee time, Dad would assemble his paperwork for the coming week, snacks (a big bag of Cheddar O-Ke-Doke), his ashtray, and turn on the golf. So long as I kept quiet and until I asked too many questions, my intrusion was tolerated. Often enough I was shagged out of the room for being too much, and from the simmering resentment in the air I knew he preferred to watch alone.7

But these stolen moments when my presence was allowed near his great love, I observed the quiet buzzing of those gathered into the flattened aspect of the pastoral, trying to understand how this notoriously boring game could capture his attention and his passion so completely (perhaps it was father-specific illness where they truss you up in cleats and slacks after you turn 35); recognizing the implicit, tawdry clues of the monied and their manners unspooling in many shades of green.8

Golf epitomizes the tame world. … an Eezy-wipe lawn where nothing of life, dirty and glorious, remains. Golf turns outdoors into indoors, a prefab mat of stultified grass, processed, pesticided, herbicided, the pseudo-green of formica sterility. Here, the grass is not singing. The wind cannot blow through it. ...

Worldwide, golf is an arch act of enclosure, a commons fenced and subdued for the wealthy, trampling serf and seedling. The enemy of wildness, it is a demonstration of the absolute dominion of man over wild nature.

— JAY GRIFFITHS, Wild: An Elemental Journey

Too often, a jaunt through a poisoned plot of stolen land. I would add here that that coveted cut-grass scent so many golfers enjoy is a distress signal from the grass, shrieking in pain. To hell with grass lawns!!

As with wrestling, I was curious about the performance and rituals of these gussied up men in drag. The golfers walked for hours over hill and dale, strategizing with their caddies holding the bag, restraining (or not) their passion to win and dominate. The tableau almost gave the impression of adventuring; certainly they were battling. I glimpsed what I now recognize as eroticism in some of their play, an electric joy, somehow, alongside their staid appearances. Very different from wrestling’s operatic passion.9

It is of games the most mysterious, the least earthbound, the one wherein the wall between us and the supernatural is rubbed thinnest.

— JOHN UPDIKE, Pulitzer Prize winner, avid golfer, noted misogynist

Above all, golf is a mental game.10 In the old days, I wished the golfers would throw clubs or get into screaming matches; bring some bombast, some heat. Like pro wrestling! I should’ve been careful what I wished for. Visualization is essential, but the trick seems to be relaxation. All of a sudden within that context, golf seems a very intimate window into the player’s psyche: do they actually like play? if they shank it or hit into the water, are they gonna freak out and miss the cut? Which way will their spiral open? Can their ego withstand the pressure? What is their relationship with oblivion?

Jinkx Monsoon won the much-vaunted season 5 crown of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the title Queen of All Queens by using her erotic power and her philosophy, Water off a duck’s back.

By contrast, as much as my dad golfed, it rarely seemed like he enjoyed the game. The social elements, sure—planning, gossip, practicing, even. He’d come home and recount the round to us (“I stunk!”), I’d learn there were thrown clubs, broken clubs, I’d learn the virtue of a hearty breakfast beforehand, grown men shitting in the rough (and by the green!), rants and drama, gambling, and rigid perfectionism taking precedence over the notion of play. The hi-lo dichotomy amused me, like Caddyshack. I don’t even know how much dad enjoyed being outside, so much as he enjoyed riding his cart (with baggy) over hypercontrolled, hypermanicured vistas, criticizing others. The game itself was a fixation that, more often than not, resulted in a letdown. I wondered about my dad’s capacity for joy. At least he was trying?

As a kid, I had fun playing mini golf. I was good at it. Once I grew up and tried it, I found I liked playing golf-golf, too, every once in a blue moon.11 I like play. I like hitting the hell out of the ball. I don’t pay or gamble. I don’t care how I score. The only concern I give others is basic human courtesy, otherwise I try my best to forget everyone else. Attention changes the alchemy, yknow? I caddie for myself, carrying my own tang of guilt because, well, golf is costly.12 Environmentally, morally, materially.13

Yet. I enjoy the meditative quality of following this little ball, imagining pathways and arcs in the sky, and surrendering control over the outcome as your surroundings swallow you up into their heartbeat calls and songs—the dancing prairie grasses, the breeze, the birds and the critters welcome you in and unleash their symphony—the sounds of melting into nothingness. You are Gaea. Then humans echo with their thwicks and plunks; the guy on the next tee yowls, running from wasps thirsting after his sugary beverage…

At the same time, manners and caste with their mix of elegance and absurdity and cruelty have always held my fascination. Whether it was on the screen, or my aunts reading and encouraging me to read folks like Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, the Brontës, and P.G. Wodehouse; Princess Diana, her escape from the royal family, and then her death (murder); my own life experiences particularly in da burbz, they all fed the deep, numinous pull within me to attend.1415 Golf is a perfect microcosm of this, rank with byzantine baloney, ripe for dissecting.

TL; DR: Consider this one of my windows into the ongoing wars: the centuries-old class war and the culture wars that the ruling class loves to deploy against us. Bogeys, birdies, albatrosses indeed, all well within my bardic jurisdiction. I have this knowledge, now what shall I do with it?

⛳ Remember when I said I should’ve been careful what I wished for? about golf becoming more like professional wrestling? Well, the world has gone and gotten itself in a big, damn schmozz… In addition to mainstream golf culture’s preexisting flaws, it’s now completely, undeniably Trumpwrapped. MAG[A]-tied, if you will. Dear leader loves his golf. I wonder, did he golf today?

Not only does he love to play pretend golf, it’s part of his business portfolio. Shortly after his second presidential term started, Trump called a meeting between enemies-to-partners golf tours, the PGA and LIV Golf in order to finalize their stalled merger. The New York Times summed it up:

That divide led the tour and the wealth fund in June 2023 to announce half-baked plans to combine in some form. But those efforts have been stymied by, among other things, angst over regulatory review, player frustration and the future of LIV Golf itself.

The “PGA” stands for and encompasses many things, so for clarity’s sake: The Professional Golfers’ Association of America, PGA of America, is a golf organization founded in 1916 in Frisco, Texas, with the goal of expanding the game and upholding standards. In 1968, the PGA Tour, a nonprofit, spun off from PGA of America to organize events for PGA players. Plus you have the USGA, the U.S. Golf Association, which is a separate entity that runs the U.S. Open that is on the tour but not owned by the PGA. They’re an even bigger governing body. So in this piece going forward, when I refer to the PGA, I’m referring to their tour and association the whole kit and kaboodle.

I’ve reached «golf» semantic satiety, have you?

Then you have LIV Golf, conceived by Greg Norman’s Thirst for Revenge and bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to allegedly sportwash their human rights record and credible claims of state corruption.16 The long and short of it is, two-time major tournament champion golfer Greg Norman, aka The Shark—who famously never won the Masters—has had a dream of world tour golf since 1994. In his view, King Arnold Palmer and the PGA’s monopolistic ways thwarted this dream. Fast forward 20 years, Norman teamed up with the Saudis and formed LIV Golf. LIV promised golfers fatter purses of guaranteed money—similar to what Ted Turner’s WCW promised talent willing to jump ship from the WWF during professional wrestling’s Monday Night Wars in the ‘90s—and shorter rounds (the “LIV” of LIV Golf stands for 54 holes). Here’s a brief history of golf’s great schism.

“Ultimately, hopefully, the two tours are going to merge. That’ll be good. I’m involved in that too,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One while traveling to a LIV Golf event at his golf club in Doral, Florida. “But hopefully we’re going to get the two tours to merge. You have the PGA Tour and the LIV Tour. And I think having them merge would be a great thing.”

Enter Trump to put his hands all over it during that February 2025 meeting. He is, after all, an event partner with LIV, hosting events at his golf courses and raking in plenty with his sports diplomacy.1718 Sports columnist Sally Jenkins put it like this:

Take your average pigsty, trample it into ooze with the feet of dozens of pork-chasers until it’s such a slimy mire that no clean shoe can gain purchase, wreath it in a clammy fog constituted by the greedy breath of zombie opportunists with dead dull cash-staring eyes, and there you have the “reunification” of golf.

… The PGA Tour players don’t need this. They merely want it because they are addicted to $20 million purses and are afraid those are unsustainable, even with their recent infusion of $1.5 billion from American businessmen.

A regular mudball. Aside: that first line reads in my head to the tune of “The Candy Man Can”.

A year on now, LIV is changing its format from 54 holes to 72 holes, pissing off its players, and reportedly withering on the vine. Meanwhile, the PGA is rolling along with more money, a new schedule, and new leadership. PGA golfers who went to LIV have been welcomed back (the grass is greener, I suppose), holding a signature event at Trump National Doral in Miami... Now united in holy mergerimony, the PGA, LIV, Trump, and the Saudis may bathe together in their mutual fund of corruption and hypocrisy. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. Providing value for the shareholders and whatnot.

As we know, Trump has the uncanny ability to expose the depths of covert evil and raise them all to center stage. Perhaps it’s his 29º Leo Ascendant shining that light to a critical, karmic degree. And I suppose in the end that might be helpful, even if unintentionally.

It’s not as if golf hasn’t been the site of corruption or politics before now. It’s not as if the Zionist genocide and apartheid against Palestine was not happening before Trump. It certainly was. Roving paramilitary gangs have been terrorizing the people of this land for centuries before he was born, it just has a new name now. Abolish ICE. Corporations and colonizers, aka empire, have been extracting and exploiting human life energy for profit longer than he has. Or his daddy. The obsession with whiteness has been a plague on humanity since the pale Neanderthal ventured from the caves, long before Trump used it as a cudgel. And come to find out, the demonic, cannibalistic, global elite human trafficking pedophile ring all the conspiracy theorists warned us about existed before he became a member.

But (allegedly) Trump is a member. He’s a driving force. He is an infernal apotheosis of these hateful, demonic abuses of power against the people. Trump, and therefore the Trumpian Age of Fascism, is deeply embedded in professional golf and golf culture. Golfers hate it if you mention politics anywhere near their beloved escape, but that’s a tough tiddlywink, now isn’t it? Their claim to privilege—to exclude politics from their escapism—ain’t cuttin it. Golf may have an air of exclusivity, but it’s not immune from context or morality.

Moving in these circles, aspiring to them or even being proximal with them exacts a price. The professional golf circuit is financially and philosophically tied up with the global elite. It is a stage for geopolitics. A front? To what extent does golf facilitate global corruption? To what extent is professional golf complicit?

It’s uncanny: here we are again, another golf season begun, the latest Bad Bunny concert in the books (aka the Super Bowl), I Giochi Olimpici invernali sono tornati, all amid the current, brutal horrors.

Business as usual, except it’s definitely not. But the enduring routine and tradition of sports and in this case, the PGA Tour, gives the veneer of normalcy. One thing about golf, it’s where business happens. ⛳

⛳ With that, we return to the fire. Waste Management is consistently the highest-attended outing of the season. The 500,000+ attendees at ‘The People’s Open’ are loud, they’re proud, they chug beer and then shower you with on 16, they’re screaming Bababooeyyyy!!!!!!! during your backswing and fucking up your concentration; it’s the Coliseum for fratbro golf culture. Once February rolls around and I hear their barking and braying on the tv set, I know pro golf is back.

• Day 1 antics. Mind you, these tourneys are four days, Thor’s Day through Sunday. Here’s a Saturday tradition.

• Oh no, it’s started raining again: A retrospective of the 16th hole

• Double fistin-U-S-A!!!!

• Some golfers like it rowdy, but these ones aren’t down to clown.

• Check out the comments from local emergency responders on this reddit thread.

Waste Management has it’s Caddyshack-esque hijinks. Unfortunately, it’s not a comedy starring Second City players, written by Harold Ramis and Brian Doyle Murray. It’s reality and as we know, reality is typically uglier than fiction.

Trump is an infernal apotheosis of evil empire, Waste Management is a shitshow of golf culture, and elite golf is a clubhouse for fascism variants like MAGA and crypto-nazis come to rut and enjoy their escape from politics (and sobriety), aka from the realities and consequences of their moral choices (or lack thereof).

Updike once wrote in Golf Digest, “Somehow, it is hard to dislike a man once you have played a round of golf with him.” I have to part company with old johnny here, that’s a buncha claptrap if you ask me, but did you? No, and neither did he. But I would venture that most golfers would disagree with this sentiment, idealistic as it is. Have you heard golfers talk about the clowns they get grouped up with out there?19

⛳ Now what kind of hypocrite am I, dumping on golf generally and Waste Management specifically as a drunken sleazefest while tuning into the very same tournament from home?

Please, lemme know your theories:

Leave a comment

Is this a vice? My parents used to scold me for watching pro wrestling, but I never felt as morally and ethically confused/compromised watching that as I have watching golf.20

There’s something truly satisfying watching the balletic movements. Is it truly the old biddy’s boring disease? Suburb Syndrome? Is it the pandemic? Has COVID addled my brain? Perhaps. In 2023, Full Swing came out and filled the void that Bravo left behind in my television watching. (The whole Sandoval/Ariana drama was like an overdose, I went cold turkey.) I recognized the fellas, I know how these golfmen love their drama and gossip, and there was that same voyeurism and critique of the monied in a way not too far off from the Real Housewives.

Is it ancestral? My forefathers on the other side of the veil calling through my blood for me to watch, to share in this ancient game with them? Is this a product of familial estrangement? The ghost I haven’t given up yet? My honey watches, but that doesn’t mean I have to. But I have. I have even looked forward to it. idk anymore, but. I HAVE WATCHED ALONE. Well, if by “alone” I mean with my cat who just so happens to loves the ambient tourney sounds for his nappings…

I have no good, clear answer, just one big compelling mélange, or onion. Mélange onion, now that’s a great fake recipe name.

As a hypocrite living in this world, I know there is no ethical consumption. At the same time, there are some prices I’m not willing to pay. Truths I’m not willing to look past. Experiences and groups and privilege I’m glad to be excluded from or reject. Topics, like pro golf, I want to scrutinize.

So here we are, with all this knowledge What am I watching for?

First of all, power dynamics and protest. As we’ve established, the golf course is a political site, a geopolitical site, and the people are at the gates.

Recently, our good Scot neighbors, friends, and family have been decorating Trump’s Turnberry golf course, reminding the Dontator that, among other things (like Thee Red Flag of his ghastly close association/human trafficking business rivalry with Jeffrey Epstein), Gaza is not for sale. Like many golfers I personally know, Trump cares more about the damage to his property than his damage to the people.

• “‘Scotland is already great.’ Protesters troll Trump on his golfing trip” NPR | July 26, 2025

• “Trump labels pro-Palestine protesters accused of vandalising Turnberry as ‘terrorists’” - The Guardian | March 31, 2025

• “The families of 9/11 victims and survivors held a news conference on Thursday to protest Saudi-funded LIV Golf Series at the Trump National Doral Golf Club.” WPLG Local 10 News | October 27, 2022

⛳ Last year’s golf season ended on a sour note with the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York. It’s a tribal event where Team USA and Team Europe face off every other year. In 2025, Team Europe beat Team USA on the latter’s home turf and well deserved, if you ask me.

Trump was there, the first sitting president to ever attend a Ryder Cup, and the place was surging with pigs, adding to the chaos. He was all over the thing, shaking hands with U.S. captain Keegan Bradley at the first hole, drawing cheers from the fans in attendance. A fittingly gross start.

Then the tournament began and the American fans went on to embarrass themselves with hostile taunting and jingoistic jeers. Sky News called it “the most abusive Ryder Cup in almost a century of matches.” Fans were insulting the European golfers’ families and spewing homophobic slurs at them, and to top it off, actively interfering with play. Justin Thomas, world number 12, was distracted by taking a page out of Payne Stewart’s book trying to get the Americans to pipe down so his Team Europe opponents could get off a shot. The Guardian and The Telegraph’s Oliver Brown referred to the Americans’ behavior as a reflection of Trump.

Rory McIlroy in particular, world number 2 golfer and Northern Irishman, was fuming—the fans reserved their strongest abuse for him, even the emcee chanted “FUCK YOU, RORY!”, and then some American rowdies threw a drink at his wife.

Keegan Bradley made sure to take up for it, though, calling the fans’ behavior passionate. He’s 18th in the world ranking, somehow, though I always forget that when I watch him play. Meh. He was honored that Trump wanted him to pick himself as a playing captain, not done since Arnold Palmer in 1963. Had his leadership been stronger, the fans may have been distracted by Team USA’s golf prowess enough to quit hating so hard. Captain Keeg certainly earned this loss.

Next year, the Ryder Cup will be at Adare Manor in County Limerick, Ireland. If I were them ugly Americans, I’d be watching my step. Folks around the world are weary, and both patience and tolerance are finite. Just ask J.D. Vance, currently competing in the brown-nosing, shit-heel-boot-licking, couch-fucking triathlon at Milan Cortina. Not for any medals, just for the love of the game.

So that was the sour taste left in pro golf’s mouth at the end of last season. Distinctly American ugliness and boorishness and hateration, which has been steadily growing into the new normal over the past, oh, 7+ years or so, coinciding with a certain dictator’s dictatorship. And as much as the golf elitists doth protest this isn’t us, we aren’t like this, we’re classy! Not when you lay down with these fleabags. That fantasy is over.

From day one I was rooting for Team USA to lose and before day one was done, I had tuned out. In the spirit of the American fans’ vulgarity I say, that shit was so disgusting it was unwatchable. The visceral tension swept through my body watching golfworld go gaga for a fucking fascist, acting like this shit was all great, much less normal.

I look upon the Royal and Ancient game as being a powerful game, as being a powerful force that influences the best things in humanity… I trust that the effect of this match will be to influence a cordial, friendly and peaceful feeling throughout the whole civilised world.

— SAMUEL RYDER, founder of the Ryder Cup

I was done. Until the foul stench of Waste Management emanated from its winter hibernation last weekend. They got my ass with morbid curiosity. From the shitshow of the Ryder Cup into the landfill of Waste Management, what fresh hell would emerge? Could it get sleazier?

Rory didn’t play Waste Management this year, but he is currently in the news for being mentioned in the Epstein files. Apparently, Jeffrey Epstein’s pilot, Larry Visoski, mocked Rory to Epstein’s accountant, Rick Kahn, over email for overpaying on a private plane.

Global elite problems.

For a world number 2, Rory’s struggles persist. He was a prominent loyalist to the PGA during the golf civil war (even, allegedly, getting into marriage trouble along the way), only for Commissioner Jay Monahan to turn around and merge with LIV. He finally won the Masters last year (after almost blowing it in a playoff with the veteran Justin Rose who was killing it) and got his grand slam.21 I say “finally” because that was the discourse at the time. Rory’s an excellent golfer and the talk was that he had to win the Masters and “get his” grand slam, otherwise, was he really that good? It was so annoying.

As far as public evidence of his politics, Rory’s something of a flip-flopper. He’s one of the few golfers who has criticized Trump, but that didn’t last long before they became golfing buddies. He’s also said he thinks Elon Musk is “the smartest man in the world.” Barf! These are some of Rory’s sponsors.

Brooks Koepka, the PGA prodigal son, did play but missed the cut. He’s back from LIV, where he defected for more money after saying PGA golfers who went to LIV were sell-outs. His 2023 PGA Championship win lended perceived legitimacy to LIV, the first LIV golfer to win a major. Following his wife Jena’s miscarriage, Koepka returned to the PGA, but he had to pay a pretty penny for his privilege: he’s ineligible for PGA Tour equity bonuses until 2030, and has to make a $5 million charitable donation at the PGA Tour’s request. Here’s a list of Koepka’s sponsors.

The Justins didn’t play the dumpster this year: Justin Thomas is rehabbing from disc surgery. I wonder if he’s also seeing a sports psychologist? I hope so. He’s currently world-12 golfer, but when I watch him it always seems like he’s fighting for his life. Justin Rose, fresh off his win at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines where he broke Tiger’s 72-hole scoring record AND IS WORLD NUMBER 3, THANKYOUVERYMUCH, doesn’t play the People’s Open. Chic.

My Irish grandfathers may be spinning in the earth over my attention to this English golfer born in South Africa.22 Traitor! But I’ve been watching Justin Rose play for like 20 years and there’s something to that. He’s won a major (2013 U.S. Open) and a gold medal (2016 Rio de Janeiro). I appreciate that this veteran (a spry 40-something) takes his time out there and is killing these fools. I appreciate how he rejected LIV’s offers when others like Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, dusty boy Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia didn’t, and his game has only gotten better since. Man plays the long game! During the pandemic, he helped create the Rose Ladies golf series to support women’s golf and over the years he’s championed many golf sustainability initiatives. Of course nowadaze, he’s investing in golf AI tools. 😵‍💫 Here are Rose’s sponsors.

Justin Rose got into it with none other than top-MAGA golfer, Bryson DeChambeau, at the Ryder Cup last fall. Even the caddies got in on the fight. DeChambeau’s rep has evolved over the year from golf’s mad scientist and math prodigy to golf’s MAGA jackhole. It’s unclear who he really is beneath the studied caricature he’s fashioned for himself—a troll, rather than a golfer. He’s very much a vibe match for WM. It was poetic, then, that he could not play Waste Management this year because he’s still with LIV. And apparently, he’s none too pleased with it over there these days. He’s an excellent heel (scripted and off-the-cuff) and a good little fascist for dear leader. BOO! HISS!

That leaves us with World #1 golfer, Scottie Scheffler. Mr. Golden Tee Himself couldn’t save Team USA from imploding at the Ryder Cup. Scheffler is a typically calm juggernaut of a player (if he’s within five of the leader, it’s probably game over for everyone else), who wants to focus on the game rather than the spectacle. The opposite of Bryson DeChambeau. He maintains his privacy and claims entitlement as to what he will and won’t speak about, hoping that his game will speak for him. Though, he is open about his Christianity and how his priorities revolve around glorifying god.

As top golfer, is that entitlement to distance tenable? He’s the face of golf, so he gets to caddie a lot of its baggage. And add more, it seems. At the Ryder Cup, he admitted that he and Trump talk on the phone after his wins and that he thinks Trump, “is kind of funny…,” and “That was one of the things I noticed a lot with the little bit of time I spent with him is [Trump] treats everybody the same and treats people with the utmost respect.”

What an absolute crock of shit. Cognitive dissonance! Enabling a predator! Not very Christian, rather inhumane, if you ask me. He spewed this shit back in September 2025. Would he say the same now? At a human level, I’d like to think not but I won’t hold my breath.

Scheffler’s no stranger to state violence either, even if it was relatively mild. On his way into Valhalla at the 2024 PGA Championship, he was forcibly arrested after some cops gave him conflicting instructions around an active accident scene, then one of the cops jumped on his car and later claimed that Scheffler was driving into him. Very typical cop behavior.

His game certainly suffered afterward, understandably so. All charges were dropped and afterward, he opted to appease and praise the cops. “Police officers have a difficult job and I hold them in high regard." I get appeasing the aggressor in the immediate aftermath, but time has borne out that Scottie’s comfortably aligned with the fascists. Here are his sponsors.

I know, it’s shooting fish in a barrel pointing out how easy-going pro golf is with fascism, how willing these golfers are to look past and be at home with pure, demonic evil. How willing they are to befriend it. But I think it bears highlighting and repeating. Mélange onion.

⛳ So how did it all end? Well, Hideki Matsuyama lost to Chris Gotterup in a playoff. Crowd noise and a security guy dropping a chair during his backswing caused him to launch the ball into the water. The people spoke, I guess.

Here’s the WM sponsor list. I wonder how many of these are current boycott targets? Until next time, Arizona.

Golf's ultimate moral instruction directs us to find within ourselves a pivotal center of enjoyment: relax into a rhythm that fits the hills and swales, and play the shot at hand -- not the last one, or the next one, but the one at your feet, in the poison ivy, where you put it.

— JOHN UPDIKE

19th Hole

We’re about two months out from Augusta. You may remember Augusta National as the home to The Masters, one of the four majors, the PGA Tour’s crown jewels. You might also remember its notoriously and grotesquely racist and misogynist history. link, link 2, link zoo. Augusta opened for play in 1932.

• 1990 first Black member admitted. Previously, all members were white men and all the caddies were Black men. Lee Elder was the first Black man to play the Masters at Augusta in 1975.

• 2012 first female members admitted. They were allowed to compete on the course in 2019 in the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament.

• Even Jeffrey Epstein and Steve Bannon couldn’t get their buddy a membership to the ultra-exclusive Augusta.

• To be clear, it wasn’t until 1961 that the PGA of America removed its “Caucasian-only clause” from the bylaws so that all players could participate in the tournaments. Thank you to heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis for helping kick the PGA into gear towards integration.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This week is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the first signature PGA event of the year. Pebble Beach is a perennial favorite venue for golf’s faithful and according to LINKS Magazine, they are the seventh-most eco-friendly course in the country. Rory will be returning to play with great hullabaloo, along with celebrity guest stars like Travis Kelce, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), and Condoleezza Rice. Barf!

We made it back to the clubhouse!

Thank you for taking this sidewinding detour with me that was about as long as a round of golf. Please have a lemonade, careful of the wasps.

As a present for your companionship, dear reader, please enjoy the above photograph of my peetyboy Jupiter, our sweet orange who will YOWL LIKE THE DICKENS if he cannot lay up on that sofa and rest with the tournament on the set.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go make falafel and take a hot shower.

Stay wavy, stay curious, neighbor

Your very own foolbard,

Kate

tin cup tip cup

post script

At least with pro wrestling, there’s no highfalutin pretension or claim to the moral high ground. Too, pro wrestlers put their bodies on the line with much higher stakes, if you ask me. Plus, you probably won’t hear this out on the tour or the course—

[video courtesy @MPHproject on twitter]

Though, the censors remain hard at work to appease dear leader and the shareholders. But they can’t stop all of us.

Abolish ICE. Free Palestine. Courage or die.

acknowledgements

Thank you to my honey for your support, your love, your generosity of spirit, and your knowledgeable conversation during the crafting of this piece and of my barderie.

Have you read The Wind in the Willows? I was asked once by a man who dueled with swans to read it and decide whether I found the story barbaric or well-intentioned. instead, i’m wondering about well-intentioned barbarism, whether they’re separable…

I’m reading the book aloud to myself so it’s taking a little longer, but the pleasure is extra plush; I am struck by Grahame’s gorgeous writing, the hilarity, and all the neighboring portals inside of it, madness next to brilliance next to courage next to faint-heartedness next to idyllic pastoral beauty next to…

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bardic & sonic bullion

a bell sounding
one of my favorites
life's singing

one of my favorite things
about being human

a singing metal
who is not a knife
we made to share
telling each other, 'Now'

Transcriptions and poems read aloud, for your pleasure:

i.

I like touching

dangerous things

corrosives, 
scrubbing barehand

scalp itching

worrying till bald,
perforated, pocked

compelled 
by the sucking urge
become the husk

Or—

risk             delay
exposure • gratification • moisturize
woo the armor of my FLESH

ii.

our love is
a sturdy love

Roses' resilience—

iii.

Being ruthless works

Ruthless as the sun

a long day spent
burrowing
the wisdom of moss

iv.

another version: 

the lover who threatened
to burn my books,
I torched.
the last cinder of you
blown away lonely
From me forever.

a lost library 
at the end of the fuse.

another—
he realized, caught himself
a spark interrupting the grave
he built worship
with that fire, a hearth
's devotion to carry
all the heartpieces
bound and unbound

no ordinary love

Here’s the latest time capsule playlist for Capricorn season 2025-2026 [qobuz]

Generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much—dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, neighbors, and the generous supporters who have bought your gal a cuppa coffee. I am honored to be at your service.

Coffee tip jar

Here are funds, folks, and neighbors that can use our support, for those of us with resources to share:

• The Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Northern Illinois Food Bank

• The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund is raising money to help detained immigrant-neighbors pay their bond so they can be released while their case is pending.

• Supporting La Villita’s local businesses and restaurants where you will eat some of the best food you’ll ever have in your life.

• Belmont Cragin United supports Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood with events like Whistlemania, mutual aid, and restaurant crawls.

• Operation Save Our Lanes - SKYWAY BOWL is America’s only Black-owned United States Bowling Congress certified professional league bowling facility. We are raising money to provide a means for us to expand our operations our and spread awareness about the sport of bowling in our community on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

• The Sameer Project, a donations based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians.

• lifeline4gaza.com is a collaborative open-source database tracking the progress of nearly 1000 family campaigns and on-the-ground initiatives in Gaza, Palestine—all which are urgently in need of our collective support and commitment. On the site, you will see the most stagnant campaigns show up at the top (by default). This compiles the last 5 days of donations, which can be sorted and viewed in multiple ways: URGENCY , CUMULATIVE and DONATIONS. Each fundraiser is tracked in real-time (with different currency rate calculations taken into account by converting to USD)

• The Hind Rajab Foundation, devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and achieving justice for all the victims of the Gaza genocide. In October, the HRF named the Israeli battalion, company, and commanders responsible for killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab; the HRF has submitted a 120 pages Article 15 filing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. May everyone live the lives they deserve.

• Animal Friends Shelter is a safe Gazan haven for stray & abandoned cats. Our mission is to provide love, care, & shelter to these furry friends until they find their forever homes.

Ring out the false, ring in the true

Stay wavy, stay curious, all is full of love

— Kate

Hiya folks and welcome! Since last month I’ve been going through the recurring «what am I even doing?» «Who the hell am I to even?» cycle, so last month’s poem remains in drafts, biding her time.

Part of what’s been eating me is my continued attention to power dynamics and how those translate into family abuse cycles, and how to break those chains, and how to find one’s way to personal sovereignty. These themes keep recurring in my poetry—am I supposed to write what I know? is this boring now? did I finally get it? Is this just my newly-recognized OCTs (obsessive-compulsive tendencies, shy of full-blown disorder) looping me over and over this well-tread ground again and again?—or am I (as I desire), still curious, learning new things and sharing them in the hopes that they’ll spark discovery/curiosity in you? Like rings inside a growing tree.

I’ve also felt exceedingly annoyed with myself.1

All that is to say, we’re back. I’m grateful to be here, and that you are here with me. I hope you feel cozy and at home, wherever you find yourself.

my tongue is lethal
my mind tangled reins, 

chariot unbridled, all fire.

Old limits • Old contempt • stunting muckthistles—portal-jamming, vicious • blot the lock lonely, rejecting • love for counting and the damages • of binary thinking • my self a moving target • eager to land, to find • looking looking looking • all this static, all this mess • the loveproof heart • resisting—

succumb to still waters 
all i must do is lay down 
my maul. Can I?
I didn't even know I had it,
my own fist, all this time, keeping
love at bay. 

Lay down, please

When my lover turns
to me, says— 
I feel the snow.

Fear’s schemes
troubling my heart
damming channels—

—I changed my mind.
I ain't going out like that.
Palms open to the heart proof
Ope,

Took me
All this time
to recognize my own cruel hand in this.
A goose supreme. 
But, I made it.

Burning cold,
This luteal moon.

A matchstick for a key
revolution’s undying flicker

How i get there, boh,
ma, my aim knows wherefore: 

When the envelope of my heart opens
(I made it)
A waterfall

sonic bullion

Diary playlist [qobuz] aka time capsule for this tinsel stallion time of year.

I picked up a copy of The Ventures Christmas Album at the library’s used book sale a couple months ago and boy, it swings! I also picked up Christmas in Vienna featuring Plácido Domingo, Diana Ross, and José Carreras, and Italian Christmas Music I plan on blasting asap.

Growing up, my mom had a whole boxfull of great Christmas music tapes, including the old Billboard classics and a country Christmas tape I loved and am still trying to find 30+ years later.

Nowadaze I really enjoy Christmas jazz but my favorite Christmas album remains A Christmas Gift For You (except eat shit forever, Phil), not only because my favorite Christmas song is on there, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (thank you forever, Darlene Love).

What are your favorite holiday albums and jamz? Please share your gems below.

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Elsewhere, I really love listening to relaxing typing videos—and clacking away on my mechanical keybort—so I finally made my own contribution to the genre. This was a lotttt of fun to create:

ASMR o’clock - A day in the life of a bard, writing up poetry and tales from my journeys. join me, let’s buddy up and create our art together, to the dulcet, relaxing ambience of clacky typing, clicking around, writing down ideas, shufflin papers and notes. (no speaking till end credits)

Want to collaborate on art and mischief in real life? 💕

Generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much—dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, neighbors, and the generous supporters who have bought your gal a cuppa coffee. I am honored to be at your service.

Coffee tip jar

Here are funds and folks that can use our support, for those of us with resources to share:

• The Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Northern Illinois Food Bank

• The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund is raising money to help detained immigrant-neighbors pay their bond so they can be released while their case is pending. As of publication, every dollar we give is doubled—up to $20,000. Deadline of 11:59 PM CST on Dec. 31 | Block Club Chicago

• Supporting La Villita’s local businesses and restaurants where you will eat some of the best food you’ll ever have in your life.

• Belmont Cragin United supports Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighborhood with events like Whistlemania, mutual aid, and restaurant crawls.

• Operation Save Our Lanes - SKYWAY BOWL is America’s only Black-owned United States Bowling Congress certified professional league bowling facility. We are raising money to provide a means for us to expand our operations our and spread awareness about the sport of bowling in our community on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

• The Sameer Project, a donations based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians.

• lifeline4gaza.com is a collaborative open-source database tracking the progress of nearly 1000 family campaigns and on-the-ground initiatives in Gaza, Palestine—all which are urgently in need of our collective support and commitment. On the site, you will see the most stagnant campaigns show up at the top (by default). This compiles the last 5 days of donations, which can be sorted and viewed in multiple ways: URGENCY , CUMULATIVE and DONATIONS. Each fundraiser is tracked in real-time (with different currency rate calculations taken into account by converting to USD)

• The Hind Rajab Foundation, devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and achieving justice for all the victims of the Gaza genocide. In October, the HRF named the Israeli battalion, company, and commanders responsible for killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab; the HRF has submitted a 120 pages Article 15 filing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. May everyone live the lives they deserve.

• Animal Friends Shelter is a safe Gazan haven for stray & abandoned cats. Our mission is to provide love, care, & shelter to these furry friends until they find their forever homes.

• The Little Miss Flint Clean Water Fund

Fischia il vento… eppur bisogna ardir

And remember!

«ormai sicura è già la dura sorte
del fascista vile traditor»

We’re all in this together, neighbors. We keep coming.

Stay wavy and warm,

- Kate

Share bardic bullion

Chicago, the land

First of all, I love you. Thank you for being home. Thank you for being my neighbor.

I don’t know what I’m even doing anymore. I spend as much time as I can archiving ICE’s terror campaign in our neighborhoods and communities, for fear of a web wipe. I’m keep a whistle on me, weather eye on the horizon. I am hungry to do more. I’m an angry neighbor, angry that my neighbors and our children are being harassed, abducted, traumatized, teargassed by fascist nazi pigs.

Like so many of us, I refuse to sit idly by, cowering, silent in my house. We’re fighting. It’s the Chicago way.

I put the ICIRR’s number into my phone in case I see any ICE thugs in the neighborhood. Here are some other resources I’ve compiled so far from the community:

• ICIRR Know Your Rights cards: bit.ly/ICIRRCards

• OCAD website & mutual aid to help our neighbors and families in Chicagoland who have been targeted by ICE

• Crowd-sourced map of ICE activity: https://iceout.org/en/

• Local journalists verifying video of ICE activity (see comment here): https://callforvideos.formstack.com/forms/chicagojournalists

• Tracking ICE behavior beyond Chicago: r/EyesOnIce

• This post discusses a text reporting system of verified sightings: https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1o55j14/eyes_on_ice/

• Wonder if that helicopter may be ICE? Check out this guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/s/CtApq3EWAi

Here’s S.A.L.U.T.E. [Suspicious Activity Reporting Method]:

• Size (number and description of people and vehicles)

• Activity (what the people are doing; what is suspicious)

• Location (location of people or activity)

• Unit (what unit they belong to; any markings or insignia)

• Time (date and time you observed the activity or behavior)

• Equipment (describe the equipment you saw)

We’re all in this together.

teeveehead

Great British Bake Off: I’m such a scoundrel because i sit up there watching this show, knowing full well that Prue and Paul could mop the floor with me culinarily IRL, and yet. And yet, oftentimes I find myself questioning their judgments and tastes with respect to flavor and texture, cackling away.

John Candy: I Like Me: So I cried during the trailer and cried repeatedly during the documentary itself. John Candy’s grand heart, grand attunement, grand comedy; I still remember when he died. I felt the world lost something vital like a heart. That crack in my heart remains tender. God, I miss you, John Candy. Thanks for everything, thank you for your generosity of spirit.

I am like so many of us who grew up in the glow of John Candy’s grand, warm humor and love. I wished he was my uncle from the city, come down to jack up the toilets, smoke cigars, understand me and protect me. And in some ways, he was. Growing up, I believed that Chicago was the center of the world. This was the ‘90s, when so many movies and tv shows were filmed and based here, the Bulls roamed and His Airness Michael Jordan held court. It was spectacular magic. And John Candy was one of the greatest magicians. A decade-plus later my mentor, Robin, explained his writing theory bioformalism which, more or less, means that wherever you are from is the center of the world, so write from that.

I feel especially fortunate that John Candy’s center and mine were the same from time to time, that our paths crossed, that we share some of the same fabric, that in life and afterward his grand joy and humor are always near.

When I see his face, I really miss him.

- B I L L M U R R A Y

weather report

Pluto in Aquarius is transiting my natal third house of writing, neighbors, siblings. Transformative power in communities and local connections, also menacing authority in communities.

Elsewhere, it is not lost on me that Aquarius is the sign of insanity and of su*cide.

sonic bullion

Thank you for sharing your voice and your soul. Thank you for changing our lives for the better. a tribute to D’Angelo:

Generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much—dear visitors, readers, subscribers, recommenders, and the generous supporters who have bought your gal a cuppa coffee. I am honored to be at your service.

Buy me a coffee

Here are funds and folks that can use our support:

• First a call to readers: if you have West Bank-based funds, support groups, aid initiatives, please send to me so I can include them here. The Zionist entity is storming there, and our Palestinian neighbors and folks could use our support in their fight.

• The Sameer Project, a donations based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians.

• lifeline4gaza.com is a collaborative open-source database tracking the progress of nearly 1000 family campaigns and on-the-ground initiatives in Gaza, Palestine—all which are urgently in need of our collective support and commitment. On the site, you will see the most stagnant campaigns show up at the top (by default). This compiles the last 5 days of donations, which can be sorted and viewed in multiple ways: URGENCY , CUMULATIVE and DONATIONS. Each fundraiser is tracked in real-time (with different currency rate calculations taken into account by converting to USD)

• The Hind Rajab Foundation, devoted to breaking the cycle of Israeli impunity and achieving justice for all the victims of the Gaza genocide. In October, the HRF named the Israeli battalion, company, and commanders responsible for killing of six-year-old Hind Rajab; the HRF has submitted a 120 pages Article 15 filing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. May everyone live the lives they deserve.

• Animal Friends Shelter is a safe Gazan haven for stray & abandoned cats. Our mission is to provide love, care, & shelter to these furry friends until they find their forever homes

• The Little Miss Flint Clean Water Fund

• Operation Save Our Lanes - SKYWAY BOWL is America’s only Black-owned United States Bowling Congress certified professional league bowling facility. We are raising money to provide a means for us to expand our operations our and spread awareness about the sport of bowling in our community on Chicagos Southeast Side.

Dal fiume al mare, Palestina Libera.

Stay wavy. Love,

Kate

’25 dream just a dreamdream

The dwindling of the critic • floofy pocky • sweaters, not sweating • folks abandoning, hunkering ready • skeletons in the yard, summer be damned!

The last pool day, the lifeguard dressed all in black
sweatshirted&slickered-down blonde, 
pacing, the red clock counting down...

Tonight, as the angel wishes, I become the fairy • speaking magic, Always keep chocolate in the house. You never know, • our bedtime story, Fox in Socks • 
Her wishes, my pleasure. How many do I get to serve? May I forever? • Green apples&acorns, magnolia&lotus • blossoms, you are beautiful • you are cute&wonderful • your blossoming, my honor to witness. • The real magic 
like breathing

Smoking pretend cigarettes, 
Misunderstandings about who wants to dance;
This is the way the dowels point
	—why? I don’t know yet, 
Ready for invitation, the dancers’ 
feet vibrating, yearning,
like burning seeds.

‘25 facing the question

Reputations prowling, Orcus' high beams • cast over the middle of heaven • When you live by the sword, you die by it • eclipse, oh shit, we are discovered • & The Punisher of Broken Oaths visits—

It is often the nicest people 
you know who
are the most sinister.
&The trickster honors the truth 
more than most.

Meanwhile, I never learned 
clip the candlewicks &now i feel stupid.
Cowed to the point of banal ranting:
everything is carcinogenic!!!! i can't even light a fucking candle?!? i've had it 
with the goddamn pop-ups!!!! every single site is nigh unreadable!!! I swear to god— 
Keep swinging, though, bitch. 

Seeing through the smoke, counting
blessings alone now. 
Still&despite, I keep score too much,
I notice. New pencil callus,
Talking to the trees

am i capacious enough for the love 
i desire?  
enough to go beyond yearning? 
i convinced myself with an obsessive ecstatic music
i committed to every note of possession
I wanted love 
terrible deep enough to snuff me out.
Now i know better. 

I am love. &I always was.

Forever a student, please, teach me:
what makes a passion?
thine kiss enough to eat me alive?
A welcome tongue
sealing invitation?
A knowing tongue
sparking, courting, searching me 
the pleasure of learning me over and over again.
Kindling • wrinkling • dimpling • tears?
I am listening.

Underneath all, I never gave up 
dreaming you—a river
recognizing me no matter
the rush or the oh-so-many swamps.
With you, never running stale,
a picnic & the green seed
I carried all this way&all this time
my loving pocket

Maybe now I'll learn 
how big I truly am,
entangled lightning. 

It is a privilege 
To dance here and now.

[sonic bullion] waves & what the nets drug in

here’s the accompanying musical time capsule for your listening pleasure:

• Qobuz

• YouTube [an abbreviated version]

generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much, dear readers, subscribers, and recommenders! (!!!!!!)
I am honored to be at your service.

Buy me a coffee

Here are funds and folks that can use our support:

• Wasem and his family

• lifeline4gaza.com is a collaborative open-source database tracking the progress of nearly 1000 family campaigns and on-the-ground initiatives in Gaza, Palestine—all which are urgently in need of our collective support and commitment. On the site, you will see the most stagnant campaigns show up at the top (by default). This compiles the last 5 days of donations, which can be sorted and viewed in multiple ways: URGENCY , CUMULATIVE and DONATIONS. Each fundraiser is tracked in real-time (with different currency rate calculations taken into account by converting to USD)

• The Hind Rajab Foundation

• Animal Friends Shelter

• The Little Miss Flint Clean Water Fund

• Operation Save Our Lanes

Dal fiume al mare, Palestina Libera.

Stay wavy. Love,

Kate

On the roof
On the roof
On the roof
Watching this river of blood

Peak summer, smoky weight 
pressing us, worse than abyssal ocean
fathoms, turning on us.
folks are already hunkering down.
A knotty time. 

Stanching won’t cut it.
Stemming neither. More blood 
to come. Calling, 
blood from the stone
the burning death of royalty 
Nets dragging, into the healing star.
Bloodletting, rebooted. Turning hearts
stone into squealing hogs.

... Interlude: Traverse City, jewel case Supernova
<<move your body>>
<<rest your body>>
     —Your Future Self calling . . .

... On the live, the girlies talking,
—I love the girlies talking—
trading love-horror stories:
the witch who secreted his blood 
under her floors, sobbing
she clawed escape.
How did you end up getting away?, 
asked the lady in Glendale.
Shapeshifters rise,
Shapeshifters converge. . .

... a toast, celebrity whiskey, a cigar • choking my heart awake • did the star bespell me? • this is what I get
my problematic billionaire • I was warned,
the Botánica on my timeline: 
never accept food and drink, it's a binding • In dreams, 
I have no desire to suspect 
only rest, please, just rest. Just let me fucking rest. 

fear clutching my heart: 
our home our children, 
i've let them down. literally sleeping on the job.
and have i done enough to keep us? can i keep us safe? when have I ever done enough? will i ever be enough? is my heart enough to keep us? All the children ours 
and I fail them 
every day, here I am, failing,
going down fighting—
Is my love enough?— 

Fortunately, therapy comes after: 
Wake up, honey. 
What a laugh, to doubt
is to prove steadfast.
As if the mother of my heart
did not teach me how to cleanse. 
As if I am not steadfast keeping her
teachings. my heart sighs relief, 
bold again. Purring sovereignty.

A knotty time. 

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

— D Y L A N T H O M A S

sonic bullion

folks, qobuz! a joyful experiment so far, on the fast track to going platinum in my house. The music quality is great and I was able to easily and quickly transfer over all of my playlists. Well worth signing up for a free trial if the spirit moves you.1

Speaking of which, here is the my playlist/time capsule accompaniment for the Sweety Coraggiosa diaries, for your listening pleasure.

generosity of spirit

Thank you all so much, dear readers, subscribers, and even recommenders! (!!!!!!) I am honored to be at your service.

Buy me a coffee

Here are funds and folks that can use our support:

• Mohammed Al-Masry and his family in Gaza

• The Hind Rajab Foundation

• Animal Friends Shelter

• Mahmoud in Gaza

• Jehad’s Family In Gaza

• Operation Save Our Lanes

• The Little Miss Flint Clean Water Fund

Stay Wavy. Love,

Kate

As a kid, I spent a lot of time watching television. I loved Inside the Actors’ Studio and especially the Proust-Bernard Pivot-James Lipton Questionnaire that closed out the show.

The Moon Lists’ prompts feel akin to that. I love their prompts, their experimental twist on diaries and journaling, and I love answering questions. So for fun here’s my turn at their latest, July Prompts for a Heat Wave: Act II, The Rolling Boil:

compassion for self and others • my writing • feeling at home in my body

A revolutionary astrologer I love explaining the Neptune and Saturn retrogrades in Aries beginning this month: «No violence. Let's be easy, be cool… pull back… don’t be self-righteous… all aggressors will immediately be vilified. from you at the pta meeting to invading countries.» • aka mind your business • aka battle fatigue 

• Silence as a complete response.

• The linens and cottons cooling my skin. You all were completely right, billowing is the way through summer.

• my honey insisting, “Rest that brain.”

• also, Uranus’ ingress • transiting through Gemini, my 7th house1 of relationships, business partners, and open enemies for seven years • lightning bolts • warning: no reckless yapping • my Gemini stellium: Mercury at 5º (a Leo degree) and out of bounds2, Moon at 8º (a Scorpio degree) and also out of bounds3, and Jupiter at 10º (a Capricorn degree). Jupiter is my chart ruler, I am a Sagittarius rising.

blues. pool blues, linen blues, baby blues • I typically go for hot colors (especially pinks and corals) • but I’m experimenting with the ‘80s own Color Me Beautiful color analysis • leading me to suspect I am a summer • I’ve been delving (uncomfortably) in the realm of the cool tones. • Then again, I have blue and green veins… am I a neutral? • There are some kinks to work out.

purchasing artwork from Mamie Gillian and Barbara Raidl, aka Kinaloon, at the French Market! • Along with their stunning art, both of these artists were unbelievably kind to me as I fumbled around with too much in my hands. • one of my favorite things about going to farmers’ markets (beyond forcing myself to leave the house) is learning about artists in the community. • Thank you, Mamie Gillian4 and Barbara Raidl ❤️‍🔥

hiding in a quiet cave • or • Bring a lot of my yapping out of drafts and into the timeline • when i feel the urge to speak I refer to the THINK5 chart • and then I think better of it • is it really necessary for me to say this? • does it matter? • my voice and i are still figuring it out.

not necessarily all together, but: frozen black grapes • my honey’s chicken salad • a cold peanut butter and jam sandwich and some popcorn

perhaps an iced coffee

Health anxiety • it’s living in COVID times—even though they say it’s over, it’s not • and living in a eugenicssociety without stable health care • and can you even trust doctors anymore? they don’t look you in the face, they laugh at your concerns, they defer to the AI model, they defer to pharmaceutical sales and marketing • it’s aging, which is an honor, but also an endless stream of curious bodily happenings, what is that tenderness? that pinch? • and how many plastic bottles could you pull out of my brain? • and please don’t get me started on parental health anxiety—

I literally burnt the roof of my mouth on a delectable chicken finger this afternoon before going to the library • getting to the place where I *don’t* offer unsolicited advice is a major milestone (thank you therapy self-work and also experimenting with human design), so thankfully I can’t think of an instance offhand • my most recent hot take, however, is that there are two kinds of Chicagoland suburbians; Burbfolk, if you will: there are those who love the City of Chicago (I am in this group, born and raised in Chicagoland), and there are those who love to drag the city. That second group (here comes the heat) is mostly peopled with former Chicagoans who defected to the burbz.

Stay wavy ❤️‍🔥

Love, Kate

after “The Song of Amergin” • I am aranciata soda, the taste of summer • I am ice, summer and winter • I am the raven on your shoulder • i am the brain drain giving way, determined, into generation into joy • i am the recommendation, a pixie for your lashes • i am the edits, deep into the wedding scene • i am the astrology of death, the head injury mapped into her birth chart • i am wondering, could this be avoided? • i am the reminder, «chop wood, carry water» • I am Gaia filling the void green • I am packing • I leave again • I rejoice in her jewels, her tongue • «plumsy» and «wormaids» • I am the prayer card falling from the visor • I am the lip-plumping goodness and the mirror • I am her namesake • i am the freckle • I am the sultry air refusing to storm, stewing the chaos of too many cooks, threatening your sleep • i am the quiet camp morning after • I find Taliesin once more • I am the hike, unraveled • I find Taliesin once more • What is this frenzy? • Why are you all talking at once? • What but fear? • Would it kill you to remember your wallet? your keys? • Would it kill you to get out of my way? • Who but the wife asking him, «Then, why are you telling me what to do?» • I am the sphinx in the cave of desire, on the roof before the sage • I am the repose the following day • at home, alone, bliss • I am the song of the river eddying me

• • • •

• •  • • 

cratered from impact, our only natural satellite • only place beyond earth where we have stepped foot • even if staged, our steps tickled with her magic dust • who else but the Moon? • explaining condensation; it’s the humidity’ll getcha • Mommy, can you clean this up? • Who else? • the film of beading water • Who else, but Midsummer?

what if it’s right to want what I want? • Revolutionary!

i need to learn the wolf’s language • Reading the dog-training manual • The Story of the Lost Child • Quilting • An Immense World • and of course, Mr. Putter & Tabby at storytime

before and after the river • and the lake • in praise of Kwik Trip, my nouveau White Hen •  my indulgences: chasing good time, gas station cappuccino after noon • malts and mother meltdowns • what can I say? it’s vacation • and then I realized, watching you • putter and poke the flame • our last campfire • Drunking drunkenness drunkerie • I’ve watched your dance for years • Thank you for showing me how to build a fire • like swimming, bettering my chances of survival

the necessary resurgence of the guillotine • the people’s tool, whistling • it’s Mars in Virgo, we gotta organize, folks. • parties won’t save us • «No conteste nada no firme nada» • racial terror, starring sharks and gators • you were such a shit yesterday • all the yesterdays since you were born • you expect me to come to your birthday party today? • serving denaturalization and day old meat • Video from Associated Press showing American contractors as they cheer after shooting Palestinians desperate for food. “Hell yeah boy” • “American contractors” aka mercenaries • puzzling crickets and mold from the ruling class • the ill forecast, the flood carrying camp, the mystic, our children away • “budget cuts” • the net is cut • frayed into legend

today, a mentor mused we are all living in the past, time flows from that future back to us • waves from the future complete • her takeaway? Hallelujah • long-distance tantra • my high school crush debuted in my dreams • 20 years later • hanging a suit nice and tall; no chin, though • requiring my attention • being of service, I let my towel fall • I no longer desired • my shapely allure his cross to bear • tired, pressing on, drying myself off, worrying where the children are, are they hungry? are they ready for their nap? are their blankets soft enough? are their sheets cool enough? drink something

and now, pressing sugar into lemon oil • baby learns to muddle • learning the differences between fleur de sel, sel gris • makes sense. lessons during oceantime

erratum

there’s weasels at this ball • flagrant monocles, furry suits, squeakin • a symbol of breakdown

i was born just in time, the last summer of the ‘80s • if i had the chance I would • not go back there to live, to relive • the old mistakes and crises I survived once already • the present holds advantage • hope • building something

from the archives

June-July diaries out of the past for the curious:

• ‘24 my closed fist

• ‘23 Consequences

• ‘22 My baby loves a soak

• ‘21 la mère n’oublie jamais

• ‘20 aqueous transmission: chariots of fire

• ‘19 FISHING IN THE DARK

mixtape

Cancer radio waves; ‘25 time capsule, for your listening pleasure:

coffee break

I’m one of those people who could and has drank coffee all day long. I attribute this to my upbringing, my blood; my Italian relatives who took an endless cup with sweets and sauce after dinner, and my beloved aunt who always had a pot brewing. Because you never know. The taste, the scent of coffee grinding, brewing, steeping are all soothing to me. Even decaf! Coffee is a loving anchor for me.

If you love coffee like I do, please drop your favorite spots and roasters in the comments. I love learning about and supporting coffee emporiums everywhere.

Recently, I tootled to the U.P., the Queen City, and had delicious coffee from these fine folks:

• Contrast Coffee

• Dead River Coffee Roasters

• Lagniappe. Please do yourself a favor and order yourself the hot beignets with the chicory coffee.

Snowbound Books on 3rd Street is an excellent place to bring your coffee and spend hours and good money on fantastic books.

If you’d like to materially support my writing and me (thank you!) but aren’t ready for a paid subscription, please consider—

buying me a cuppa coffee

Thank you, kind soul! and cheers <3

community and collective care

• Mahmoud Basem and his family in Gaza. Mahmoud is 20 years old, a university student. His home was bombed by the Israeli occupying forces, destroying his belongings including his laptop and clothes, and his family has been displaced several times. Along with his sister and brothers, Mahmoud is caring for his mother who is ill and his nieces and nephews. Tasneem is suffering through a skin condition due to life in the tent and Ibrahim suffered a mouth injury after an Israeli missile strike while he was searching for water for his family. Mahmoud and his family need food, water, formula and diapers, clothing, and our support.

• Abood & Lucy. Abood is a young man and student in Gaza, Palestine. He and his family, including his beloved cat Lucy, need support for food, water, medical supplies, and continuing education.

• The Sameer Project, a donation-based aid initiative for Gaza led by Palestinians, working to supply emergency shelter and aid to displaced families in Gaza.

• Animal Friends Shelter is a safe Gazan haven for stray & abandoned cats. Our mission is to provide love, care, & shelter to these furry friends until they find their forever homes

• Dr. Mohammed Hamad in Beit Hanoun, Gaza, Palestine. He has been arrested by the Zionist occupying force, and they destroyed his house. “My family and I have been displaced 10 times, fleeing bombing and killing, and each time I have lost everything I own. Now I have no money to buy food or drink. I am now trying to evacuate my family from the Gaza Strip. This is my story, not a figment of my imagination; it is the harsh reality of life in the Gaza Strip.”

• The Little Miss Flint Clean Water Fund. Mari Copeny has been fighting the good fight to provide clean water and water filtration systems to the good people of Flint, Michigan, in their community’s ongoing clean water crisis. No child should be saddled with such responsibility, yet she’s taken on the fight anyway. (Shame on power for a) creating this crisis and b) not fixing it immediately. Everyone deserves clean water.) Copeny has many projects serving her community, including Operation Snack to provide food to local kids.

• The Hind Rajab Foundation. The Hind Rajab Foundation is devoted to ending Israeli impunity and achieving justice for Hind Rajab and all the victims of the Gaza Genocide… Our core mission is to actively pursue legal action against those responsible for these atrocities, including perpetrators, accomplices, and inciters of violence against Palestinians. Through offensive litigation, we aim to hold these actors accountable in both international and national courts, challenging the culture of impunity that has allowed such crimes to persist.

• Tiny Chef of The Tiny Chef Show, which was unceremoniously and wrongly cancelled (shame on you Nickelodeon and your corporate mergers!! Cmon!), but can live on with our support

Thank you all

Thank you readers and subscribers (!!!), for spending your time and attention here. Without you, my writing would be incomplete.

I pray ease and joy and love find you each day, along with whimsy and wonder.

Stay wavy. Love,

Kate

p.s. I have not used affiliate links in this piece.

Hot off the griddle, Auntie Pancake’s poetry and moon are out of bounds and in Gemini.

Subscribe now

It's quieter in my head so far.
plucked your eye out • climbed up that hill to rest.

Who am I with complete rest? Correct • sleep cycles? • avoiding the truth? • my eyes, burned weary • Been dreaming of Grandma’s house • and her son called begging, • Save my life. 

fresh from the vortex of devotion, soul oriented toward obsession, quest is consummation • when the smoke finally clears • my lungs, filler up • like John, I am a word slut, gimme that fucking word search and ooh! the fun I'll have—

Enough Preamble. 

Yearning away • I wanna give Megan... pause • Next door, the shepherd • fixing your juicer.

Baby, what happened to you? • Happens to all of us, mutation’s painful • less so than nostalgia? • Honey, let the satire strike you • let the funny hit • too close to home.

When it’s false flags • close to home, • soldiers, spies dragged up 
     category is: diplomatic realness
     category is: left their hoods at the cleaners, so masks'll have to do 
     category is: secret police & genocidaire 
don't worry, shitbirds, we recognize you anyway. • blink, chicken! blink!

obedience is most dangerous, most violent.

People, let's commotion. • <<comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.>> • 
that nonviolence'll get you killed.

Grandma said, I’ll smash you! • Scotch on her rocker, Naples in her blood • Dal fiume al mare, Palestina sarà libera. • I sit, I swim in all the rivers my mothers gave me, give me, keep me • alive again and again and again • morning

when the baby is in her Nirvana era, led herself there to drink the blooms • what else is there but singing • singing with her • The heart of joy.

watching the mothers take down mirrors • portals, you know • who knows who watches • who is outside • now we know 

before the ingress • the tide • my last question: what were those birds about • that crow flying • bumped his head in my window—twice!—looking for • my orange cat watching • gold eyes sweet honey mischief • slitted like a snake, 
takes after his mother.

My last look: scissors and color flying, douse me • i'm going for rogue.

Buy me a coffee

mixtape

Gemini saison ‘25 time capsule, for your listening pleasure:

This beautiful spring shelf mushroom print featured in the mixtape cover art is by amazing artist Gabi Guerra, and used here with her permission. Thank you, Gabi 💕 Please check out her wonders and shop at malahoraart.com

from the archives

May-June diaries out of the past for your reading and listening pleasure:

• ‘24 yellow moon, natural consequences

• ‘23 a pity to stay the same

• ‘22 Engaging Glamorous

• ‘21 im baby the botanist

• ‘20 Real Hot Girl skit (after Megan Thee Stallion)

• ‘19 GONNA WARM MY BONES

meanwhile

Royal star Fomalhaut • 2025 Finals • Mad Max interviews • I really miss MJ. • Carême and Stick • ReLiving Single, a joyous ritual • Reveling in the memories of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson • A gal who truly gets it. • Rest in merciful, loving peace, Parnia Abbasi, and too many others.

Side Quests

Yes, you should protest Trump's ICE raids

President Donald Trump is deploying the Marines to shoot and intimidate anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, and plans to send more violent ICE enforcement “tactical” units to five other sanctuary cit…

Read more

a year ago · 8 likes · 2 comments · Side Quests

& a recipe

Thank you to my family, who shared with me their friend’s 1:1:4 for homemade lemonade:

• 1 c lemon juice

• 1 c simple syrup

• 4 c water

Add fruit and herbs as you like; it’s gonna be a scorcher ;)

Stay wavy, love,

-Kate

Hiya! As a teeveehead 35+ years strong, I’m finally getting brave enough to get in front of the camera and experiment.

Coming soon: i’ll be posting «the lost tapes» aka my monthly poetry diaries from this past spring that didn’t make it to substack, along with some new ones and other assorted humdingers.

In the meantime, here’s a great soundtrack for reading this post (or working, or doing anything at all. It’s lovely):

credit: @dream.surfer

Here’s what I’m reading these days:
[no affiliate links below]

• The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani. I don’t read much YA nor murder mysteries, but this book snapped me up!

• The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic by Christina Oakley Harrington. Thank you to my friend for the lovely gift, directly from the London occult shop! A lovely surprise that has been lots of fun to cross-reference with my folk magic books and gardening/botany tomes.

• The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante. The final installment of the Neapolitan Novels. When I tell you these books have me in the best chokehold… I technically haven’t started this one yet since I’m reading with a beloved and we haven’t discussed book three yet, but I keep eyeing it, ready to be demolished all over again, as it eyes me. I love these books and Elena Ferrante’s writing.

• Audre & Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams. Just started, also YA (perhaps it’s the time of year, Gemini being the teens of the zodiac). I’ve been eager to read Tia Williams’ novel and plan on devoting my afternoon to it while the family fishes.

From the community. Here are some of my favorite substacks:

bitches gotta eat!

judge mathis recaps + milf-on-milf romance

By samantha irby

I adore Samantha Irby. I remember when her blog was on Blogger! I love her taste, her humor, her mind. Thank you, Sam!

I will read anything Bolu Babalola writes. Period. Thank you, Bolu! I do have Sweet Heat preordered and you can too!

Diva Star dot Nymphish

In the height of recession pop, this late 20s barista poet ponders: can't a poet be a popstar too?!

Nymphish’s Active Imagination is not to be missed. I marvel at her effusive fountain of creation, her visions; I love her poetry. Thank you, Nymphish!

Side Quests

Journalist of over 20 years, writing on a broad variety of subjects: Finance and economics, media, culture, music, fashion, politics. Takes and weekly curated reads. Before this: Finance and economics editor at WSJ, Marketplace, Guardian. Hi.

I've been reading Heidi Moore’s writing and posts for many years now. I came for the lovely economics journalism, and I am here to stay with her speaking truth to power WRT Israel’s apartheid and genocide of Palestinians, anti-fascism, late-stage capitalism, and Western imperialism. Merci, Heidi!

Ken Klippenstein

No-nonsense reporting on the U.S. national security state and politics.

For excellent independent reporting and journalism and breaking news, I read Ken Klippenstein. He isn’t beholden to corporate propaganda and will publish actual news the people have a right to read and know about. Thank you, Ken!

MOON LISTS

Prompts + experiments in thinking differently.

By The Moon Lists

Another long-time follow from the pre-Substack times. Moon’s recurring inspiration is always reassuring. Thank you, Moon Lists!

DISCOURSTED

fashion news you missed, the internet discourse you can't escape, and the politics woven into both.

By Louis Pisano

Louis Pisano’s DISCOURSTED is taking me by storm. I cannot get enough of the fashion, the culture, and again, the speaking truth to power. Merci, Louis!

Gaza’s Substack

My personal Substack

By Gaza Poets Society

I am so thankful Gaza Poets Society exists, I am honored to read their works. May Gazan artists, Gazans, and Gazan art flourish forever. Thank you, Gaza Poets Society, and thank you, Palestine! Dal fiume al mare, la Palestina sarà libera.

MALA HORA

sketchbook club, mixtapes, art history

By Gabi Guerra

One of my brand new favorite subscriptions. I love Gabi’s art—she’s having a studio sale right now! check her stories here—and her storytelling. Gabi’s multidimensional and archival artistry serves endless inspiration and beauty.

I have a soft place in my heart for her gouache painting of Trivigno, a magical village in Potenza, Italy, that some of her ancestors and mine called home:

And did I mention she makes fantabulous mixtapes, too? Thank you, Gabi!

Gaza & Palestine:

• The Freedom Flotilla is en route to Gaza to break the Israeli siege. According to the Jerusalem Post, Israel plans to seize the ship Madleen and arrest the activists on board.

• “As Palestinians starve an hour’s drive away in Gaza, here in Israel, everyone went to the beach” | Paul Kearns for The Irish Times

• Israel plans to expand its genocide in Gaza, while facing a genocide case for war crimes against civilians at the International Court of Justice, per Yedioth Ahronoth.

• Thank god, Bisan Owda is still alive.

May Palestine and Palestinians be blessed and protected always. May the genocide end now and may all the genocidaires and their accomplices be held to exacting account.

I hope you’re finding joy right now. I pray your air is clear and fresh (and you’re not obsessively checking AirNow.gov), your home is cozy and steady, and your spirit is at ease.

Stay wavy, love,

-Kate

hahaha. the joys of being dual-minded in a dual season. I am grateful for the Ghost experiment and what it has to offer: a decentralized newsletter platform. Also doesn’t host certain buffoonery that Substack does. But!

TL;DR: I am back to posting here regularly, my recurring poetry and radio shows and some new inspirations in the hopper. I am grateful for the community here on Substack already; To my subscribers—thank you!!! I deeply appreciate your time and attention and support, and your patience while I experiment.

FYI & for those who are interested in making a newsletter and/or already have one, here are some my trials and errors from my experience with Ghost dot org:

Ghost is not as user friendly: my podcast and playlist links weren’t working in the newsletter deploys, which is no good since sound is such an integral part of my diaries and creations. I like to use a variety of media and Ghost’s capacities and flexibilities were not that great. The navigation for readers and subscribers was also disappointing, unfortunately.

More important than that, is that Ghost does not currently offer the vibrant community living and growing here. I repeat myself, but: I am so grateful for my communion with folks here. I read and subscribe to many substacks, follow many folks here (and more and more by the week). There are many beloveds and lovely artists and journalists here I love supporting their work and being among them. In a future post I look forward to highlighting my favorites and sharing them with you.

Who knows, perhaps I’ll switch again in the future. I am fleetfooted, after all. But for now, I am glad to be back. Love you!

For your listening pleasure, I leave you with my ongoing Gemini season time capsule (2019-present):

Stay wavy, beloved.

-Kate