SHORT:
I had a migraine for the first time yesterday and just had to watch a movie about Columbine for homework, so it’s safe to say I’m feeling absolutely buoyant and full of love/light right now!
MEDIUM:
When I’m feeling low, I think back to when I led an all-girls collegiate a cappella group, and remember that anyone can do anything.
Nothing builds mental and spiritual muscle like organizing a trip to “mix and mingle” with The MIT Logarhythms as 2 girls in the back of your Zipcar argue about which freshmen “tend to go flat” on your mash-up of Zedd’s “Clarity” and Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body”.
If you live in NY, buy tickets to my 54 Below Show HERE.
Come see me do a showcase at New York Comedy Club HERE.
Come do comedy at my weekly open mic HERE.
Buy me a coffee HERE.
LONG:
Grad school’s back in session. I went to Staples and got so many pen(n)s that people are calling me Kips Bay (gut-busting quip that doesn’t quite work about Kips Bay being the UPenn’s extension campus).
Whenever I’m away from the classroom, I forget that most men in academia are lesbians.
The other morning, I made a joke in front of a soft-butch-chunky-sweater-vermont-lettuce-farmer-man-dyke (who has probably never actually farmed lettuce but you know what I mean) and was met with a slow, meaningful nod instead of a laugh — devastating! (S)he always has hxr feet planted firmly on the ground and seems so unfazed by the general horrors of life. I am going to keep trying to make hxr laugh until I’m successful or (s)he cancels me (reverse Tár).
I wish I had the spirit of a lesbian lettuce sweater academic who spends the day peacefully reading about the praxis of The Polar Express, Proust, and Pokemon; alas I’m the polar opposite. I’m a skittish school rat who scampers around, huffing and pudding about “how I want to do everything but don’t have time for any of it” — someone lay a trap so I can eat some cheese and relax for eternity!
^I know it’s bad to call a Jew like myself a “little rat”, but remember, sometimes bad = good and good = bad and anything can be subversive if you think hard enough and then pass out from over-thinking it. Or maybe it’s subversive to NOT overthink it? It’s one of those.
The worst part about returning to school is hearing the undergraduate children refer to each other as beautiful humans (oxymoron). I’ve been trying to tune it out and keep my eye on the prize: writing at least one sentence that doesn’t make me humiliated to be alive before graduation arrives.
^I’m zero for sixteen in this newsletter!
To make myself sound intellectual for one second (not that it matters! not that I care!), I saw a phenomenal documentary this week: All The Beauty And The Bloodshed. Check it out. And watch it at the movie theater if you can. The photos are stunning on the big screen (no homo*).
*film bro
Alright, I’m tired.
C U Next Tuesday.
Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s not – it’s a lot like when people slip on ice. If this is your first time reading, check out the archives.
Sincerely,
Reid Pope
Venmo: @rpope-venmo-26
Donate to The Audre Lorde Project
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