Category Archives: Meta

About “Contemporary Contempt”

Sabbatical

What does it mean to take a sabbatical when you’re self-employed?

I suspect the meaning is amorphous and will alternate between clarity and obfuscation both in the moment and with hindsight.

Regardless, a sabbatical is what I’m embarking upon for the foreseeable future.

What that means for this blog isn’t much. After all, my posts have become irregular and will likely remain so, with perhaps a shift in focus and longer moments of digital silence. But what else is new?

This post is mostly for myself. To mark the moment I’ve chosen to pin the beginning of this break from paid work, the transition to domestic concerns and volunteer commitments. And hopefully, with time, sincere reflection that casts light on a potential path toward what will come after. Many possibilities swirl, but I’ve given myself permission not to attempt serious exploration or ordering of them quite yet. What lies immediately ahead requires more of myself than I suspect I’ve ever given over, and I want to be present with that experience before I cast my mind into the uncertain future.

Is that vague enough?

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Hiatus 2016

Due to more pressing concerns, I will be unable to keep up with this blog for a few months.

I expect to return to what had become a (roughly) semi-monthly publication schedule in January, if not sooner.

Until then, be well and read widely.

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October 10, 2016 · 5:20 PM

Introducing “Why Can’t I Eat My Dog?”

Culturally curious?

Ask an anthropologist!

WCIEMD power puff

Pose your most indignant questions about arbitrary taboos and other confusing social phenomena to:

Why Can’t I Eat My Dog?
an advice column for the culturally curious

Answers to your questions may be featured in my monthly Serious Rachel newsletter, and on this very blog whenever I feel like it.

Thanks for writing in!

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Filed under Animals, Check This Out!, Meta, Why Can't I Eat My Dog?

Poetic Interlude: Special Announcement

I’m thrilled to announce that my first published poem, “Tract Home Take Down” has found a home in the debut issue of Angels Flight • literary west, a new magazine dedicated to celebrating the complex realities of Los Angeles and the artists who live and work here.

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Filed under Contemporary, Meta, Nostalgia, Power, Racism, Wordplay

Arbitrary Meditation: 5 Years of Contempt

Monday marked 5 years since this blog’s “Hello, World” post.

My impulse to comment upon this anniversary was followed by a feeling that such comment is a conditioned response to the cultural tendency to endow certain numbers with significance, especially when related to anniversaries.

Numbers ending in 5 or 0 are somehow more worth noting than those ending in, say, 2 or 8. This is, of course, due in part to our reliance on a base 10 number system, but there must be more to it than that.

We want to remember, but only at intervals. To remember more often becomes burdensome, unremarkable, and produces diminishing returns of significance.

So today I embrace my cultural predilection to marvel that five years have passed since taking this project live. Five years of fluctuating productivity and cultural inquiry and complaining and hoping for a more equitable society. Five years of holding on to the spark that flung me into academic bliss.

We’ll see if this blog has five more years in it, and what those years might contain.

Thank you for reading.

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