Philly 🇵🇸 🍎

Having several very bad days, so posting 'Today's art' has been hit and miss, and likely to be for some time. Sorry, everyone.

Today’s art: the song ‘My Silver Lining’ by the Swedish indie folk duo First Aid Kit.

‘I hear a voice calling
Calling out for me
These shackles I’ve made in an attempt to be free
Be it be reason, be it for love
I won’t take the easy road’

Today’s art: 2 very long, exhausting days (but learned a huge amount!), so a re-post.

Close-up photo of street paving. There’s a mixture of asphalt and small stones in a brick-like pattern. Between the ‘bricks’, vibrant, bright green moss is growing.

Today’s art: this photo taken by my partner, with a gorgeous, luscious, vibrant moss green. I love his artistic creativity!

Image of the Jelling stones in the town of Jelling in Denmark. These large stones date to the 10th century and have runes and artwork carved on them. In the image, the larger of the two, on the right, has a stylised image of Christ, carved in the Viking style of art that uses ribbon-like motifs. The smaller, on the left, has a series of runes than run up the stone from bottom to top.

Today's art: The Jelling stones in Denmark. The larger has a stylised image of Christ using a ribbon-like design motif. Raised by Harald Blátönn (Bluetooth) in memory of his parents, King Gorm & Thyra, it celebrates Harald converting the Danes to Christianity. The smaller is carved with runestones.

Cover of the novel 'THe Dragonfly Sea', with the title written prominently in white lettering across the middle of the book. The author's name is in a small white box in blue text in the bottom left corner. The cover is the colours of the sea, from deep green at the bottom (presumably sea plants), to dark blue to lighter blue to an aqua / light blue-green colour at the top. In Jackson Pollack style, it looks as if some has splashed a bit of brightly coloured paint in different colours across the cover.

Today's art: final day of a month of Black, LGBTQ+, early career, etc., authors - 'The Dragonfly Sea', by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Described as a lyrical story of love & loss, with a travel & adventure story that is much more, this book seems to be a work of introspective character development.

Cover of the memoir 'She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders', the title written in red and the subtitle slightly smaller in black, across the middle of the cover.The image shows the bottom half of a slim person, wearing jeans and heavy black boots. Their waist is bare, with just a very small part of a black crop top seen above it. This edition has a new foreword by the author, and across the top it says that the book is a national bestseller.

Today's art: The trans memoir 'She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders', by Jennifer Finney Boylan.

Starbucks workers' union escalates strike on Black Friday () -The Starbucks workers' union said on Friday it is escalating an indefinite strike to more than 120 stores and 85 cities, ​demanding higher pay and staffing levels at the coffee chain. The walkout,...

Starbucks employees escalated their strike on Black Friday, expanding to 120 stores and 85 cities.

Their CEO took home $96 million while refusing to negotiate a living wage for workers.

Boycott Starbucks. Stand with the employees.

Support local independent coffee shops:

Cover of 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me', the title being written on the back of the pink shirt worn by the titular character. Above this is the author's name Mariko Tamaki on a banner design on the shirt, and below on a similar banner is the illustrator's name Rosemary Valero-O'Connell. Laura has her back to the viewer. She has a light brown, wavy pixie cut and is white. We can see a little of her girlfriend over Laura's right shoulder. The girlfriend is mixed race Asian and white, with long, slightly wavy, black hair, and we can see one of her dark eyes. She has her hands on the back of Laura's neck and shoulder. There is a power line and some palm trees in the background behind the girlfriend.

Today's art: The graphic novel 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me', by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, about an on-again, off-again teen lesbian relationship.

Libraries - and librarians - are wonderful! So glad you're renewing your card!

The 75th anniversary edition of 'Black Boy'. The title and author's name are in bold, white Times New Roman capitals across the top of the cover, title above author's name. The image is a close up photo of one side of a Black boy's face. His hair is short and the eye shown is black. The image has a yellow tint down one side, blue in the middle and red on the other side.

Today's art: The memoir 'Black Boy', published in 1945 and about racism, by Richard Wright. The book describes Wright's life growing up in Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee because he moved to Chicago.

I love Sherlock Holmes, so I very much hope so!

That's great to know! I'm very much looking forward to it. Hopefully, I'll be a fan, too, afterwards!

Cover of the novella 'The Tea Master and the Detective'. The title is in black, bold letters at the top of the cover, slightly off-centre, with the author's name below in much smaller lettering. There's a thin Asian woman with her dark hair up and an elaborate hairdo. She's wearing pale pink, blue and white clothing that looks like a robe or kimono with a white collared shirt with a light grey cross pattern under it. She's leaning against a large, round window through which the viewer can see a small mechanical spider at woman's elbow and a large, distant submarine that looks like it's floating in a sea of peach, pink, pale yellow and black with white stars at the top. There are also a couple of small adult bodies floating as well.

Today's art: The award winning sci-fi novella 'The Tea Master and the Detective', by Aliette de Bodard, described to me as a Sherlockian, Asian space opera. Got this for my birthday, and I can't wait to finish the current books I'm reading to begin this one!

The cover of the graphic memoir 'Gender Queer'. The top half shows a drawing of a young white man with short, brown hair and hairy legs standing up to his calves in water and against a mustard yellow background with a few clouds. He's holding his rolled up trousers up above his knees. He's looking down into the water. The bottom half shows an upside down drawing of a shirtless person with long, brown hair and clean-shaven legs - presumably the same person - also standing in water. The pool or lake they're in is in a forested mountain area and they sky is blue. Here, the person is wearing mustard yellow swim trunks or shorts and nothing else. Their arms are stretched out partway to their sides, they're smiling and they look freer.

Today's art: The 2019 graphic memoir 'Gender Queer: A Memoir', exploring gender identity and sexuality, by Maia Kobabe.

I will be the first to admit I couldn’t understand why anyone would oppose Assisted Dying… and then I became disabled and had it “offered” to me.

It’s not compassionate when there’s coercion.

It’s not dignified when it’s offered in lieu of care.

Listen to disabled people.

Cover of the book 'The Marrow Thieves'. The title is at the bottom of the image, in yellow capital letters, with the author's name above it in white capitals. Against a navy blue background with white flecks in it, there's a picture on the left side of the cover of half the face of a indigenous person - perhaps male because he seems to have slight upper-lip facial hair - with long, straight, black hair, dark eyes, and a white streak of paint down the cheek. Down the right side of the cover are 5 circles in white or gold, all of which indicate nomination for or winner of an award.

Today's art: The dystopian novel 'The Marrow Thieves', by Cherie Dimaline. A novel with Indigenous Canadian protagonists, about global warming, dreaming and madness.

Cover of the novel 'Man o'War. The image is of a young man mostly underwater in what looks like a pool, with only his mouth and head above the water and wearing a white t-shirt. The left side is blue and purple, the right peachy-pink and skin coloured and white. There's a label on the cover stating this is a Stonewall Honor Book.

Today's art: The coming-of-age novel 'Man o'War', about an Arab American trans swimmer growing up in a small town in Ohio, by Cory McCarthy.

Cover of 'Darius the Great Is Not OK', written in bold, plain capital letters in the middle. The first three words are white, the last three light blue. The words are set against a washed-out red background at the top, while about two-thirds of the way down, this changes to a brown and black view of the town with a few blue roofs where Darius stays in Iran. We can see Darius and another man in grey and black from behind as they look out at the town from a rooftop, one wearing a dark denim jacket, the other in a lighter-coloured hoodie.

Today's art: The award-winning novel 'Darius the great Is Not OK', by Adib Khorram, about an Iranian-American teenage boy who travels to Iran when his maternal grandfather gets very ill.

Cover of the book 'Being Jazz', the title of which is written in large, white bold, simple letters across the middle, and the subtitle in small, white, letters that look handwritten below. These are superimposed on a photo of Jazz wearing a pair of cutoff denim shorts and a pinkish-red, thin top that seems to have two layers: the bottom is a strappy, fitted tank top and the top is long-sleeved, lacy, floral-patterned and see-through. Jazz herself is photographed against a plain grey background. She has light brown skin and waist-length, ever-so-slightly wavy dark brown hair. She's smiling broadly and her hair is partially covering one side of her face. Her name, as the author, is at the very top in simple capital letters the same colour as her top.

Today's art: The Memoir 'Being Jazz: My Life As a (Transgender) Teen', by Jazz Jennings. She wrote the book when she was 15, and it's seems to be a good resource for other trans children and teens, reminding them they're not alone.

This looks delicious and will be trying this recipe out. One child isn't a bit fan of corn, so we'll see!

Cover of the novel 'Flamer'. Against a white background, there's a drawing of a boy with dark, curly hair and wearing white t-shirt is holding up his right hand. He has 3 fingers up with his thumb and little finger down, in a Boy Scout salute. He's wearing fabric bracelet on this wrist. The boy is in amongst large red, orange and yellow flames, and the title is in bold, white capitals that simulate flames. The author's name is in smaller black, bold capitals below the title.

Today's art: The graphic novel 'Flamer', by Mike Curato, which deals with toxic masculinity, homophobia, suicide ideation and struggles of identity.

Today's art: The award-winning sci-fi novel 'The Fifth Season', by N.K. Jemisin. My son has recommended this post-apocalyptic tale, the first novel in the Broken Earth series, about catastrophic climate change and much, much more.

Cover of the YA novel 'Out of Darkness'. The title is in 'informal', capital letters bear the top. We can see the profile of a Mexican American girl's head on the left and a Black boy's head on the right. She has black eyes and long, black hair braided in pigtails starting near her ears. He has short, black hair, dark skin and black eyes. They're looking intensely into each other's eyes. The background is mostly deep red with dark grey at the bottom and what looks like a black pillar of smoke between them. The book won an award from the American Library Association.

Today's art: The historical YA novel 'Out of Darkness', by Ashley Hope Perez. Set in 1937 Texas, the novels tells the story of a Mexican girl attracted to a Black boy. It deals with racism, classism, segregation, love, family and those living on the margins of society.

Cover of the book 'There Are Rivers in the Sky', by Elif Shafak. The cover is mainly royal blue and cream. There is a large, blue teardrop shape in the centre of the cover, with the title at the top of this in capital gold letters, and the author's name in larger, white capital letters at the bottom. The teardrop is enclosed in an wide, oval outline in blue with small, white, daisy-like flowers against the blue. There's also what looks like gold rain inside the oval, as well as a quote by Ian McEwan: 'A unique and powerful voice in world literature'. Outside the oval are other designs in blue and white - floral and geometric patterns, tendrils, etc.

Today's art: 'There Are Rivers in the Sky', by Elif Shafak. Got this book for my birthday, and very much looking forward to reading it!

In these busiest shopping weeks of the year, with everyone under horrible pressure over money, job security etc, try to be nice to retail staff (who likely have unreasonable sales targets from HQ to make up for a lousy retail year). Far too many stressed customers will behave appallingly right now.

I’m reading ‘Maus: A Survivor’s Tale’, by Art Spiegelman. In it, a man interviews his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew during WWII. I’ve just come to the part where the father is taken to Auschwitz & his expensive gold watch is confiscated. @teamlabouruk.bsky.social you should read it.

Cover of Chloe Gong's novel 'Coldwire'. The author's name is in large, capital, neon fuchsia letters and the title in large, capital, neon aquamarine letters across most of the cover. The background is of a high-rise cityscape at night with what looks like neon aquamarine water streaks at the bottom. The tagline 'Everybody wants to rule the world' is visible, as is the information that Gong is a NYTimes bestselling author.

Today's art: The dystopian novel 'Coldwire' by Chloe Gong.

I told it to my partner and his response was that it's probably more appreciated by language nerds! He implied, but stopped short of saying, like me. And please thank your friend for me.

This is better than most jokes in Christmas crackers!