Sidetracks - August 24, 2023

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

KJ

1. Marvel's VFX artists move toward unionization, petitioning the studio to allow them representation by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). The actual vote is coming soon (as of time of writing), and I hope it works out for them!

2. CN: Death, depression, grief. Melissa Navia, who plays the wonderful Erika Ortegas on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, writes about filming the second season while dealing with the unexpected loss of her husband.

3. I recently learned about The Great 78 Project, an effort by the Internet Archive to collect and preserve 78 RPM records, which were the standard recorded sound format during the first half of the 20th century, but were superseded by 33s and 45s starting in the 1950s. Now they're facing a lawsuit from most of the major recording studios accusing IA of "pirating music". Sigh.

4. I haven't yet watched the second season of Good Omens yet (though I plan to), but I've been hearing that the subtitles were very inaccurate when the episodes were initially released. Why? Because Neil Gaiman is on strike with the rest of the WGA, and was therefore unable to review the subtitles in advance.

Renay

5. Jenny wrote an incredible analysis of small town witchy romances. I would like to state for the record as a product of a 99.99% white, very small town (our population never broke 700 my entire childhood), that I wholeheartedly agree with her thesis. Jenny starts with this banger and it just gets better from there:

In precisely zero of the books I read for this column does a normie actually cause harm to a witch. In precisely zero of them does a normie wish to cause harm to a witch. Yet the witch characters maintain—and the text supports them—that they might at any moment be subject to violence if their magic is discovered.

6. This article about how BookTok isn't moving as many books anymore amused me because not anywhere in it did the author mention rising cost of living and corporate price gouging. It doesn't mention the restart of student loan payments. They apparently sorted authors by whether or not they were a "BookTok author"? How does that even work? What's the criteria for an author being a "BookTok author"? They're looking at 180 authors and extrapolating a lot, because BookTok (which I participate in as a viewer) is massive and if they're only looking at 180 authors....that's certainly a choice.

7. I recently played Stray, which I liked although it was very dark and bittersweet. The ending was more ambiguous than I like in games I invest hours into and am hopeful for a follow up game in the future. The ending set up so many possibilities! For a change of pace, I searched up other cat-based games and came across the trailer for Little Kitty Big City which looks as far away from Stray as possible but with the same theme of "lost cat in a city". You get to wear hats.

8. In The Irony in the ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ by Jamelle Bouie unlocked a part of my brain. I originally wanted to read this article because the artist/song in the title has taken over my timeline and I will read whatever Bouie writes about the intersections of race/class. During my history degree, I remember learning about the Readjusters in passing (all of my courses, even the graduate level classes I took because I ran out of interesting undergrad options, moved very fast) but never did a deeper dive. As always, Bouie is incredible at drawing the connections between our past and present and he cites work from others that I inevitably add to my reading list. (h/t to Diana for the gift link!)

9. American readers, remember to reach out to your Republican reps about KOSA. From someone on Bluesky: "If you've got a Republican for a representative, contact them and explain that the ID requirements would be an undue burden and expense for small businesses." Framing your concerns to align with their values is important!

10. This roundtable with organizers from several states (including Arkansas!) was great. I've worked with Kwami Abdul-Bey in the past and he's so good at breaking really complicated, bureaucratic processes down. It was also nice to see this:

I want to say straight up that we designed a flier that we distributed, over 250,000 of them, all across the state, and I based that 100 percent on messaging from Arkansas: The messaging that, ‘corrupt politicians and special interests are trying to trick voters into giving up their power, giving away their rights,’ that was from Arkansas. So I’d like to thank you.

11. If you're looking to help/help further in the Maui fires, I collected several from someone who asked locals/on-the-ground organizers for recs although I didn't save their post because Bluesky doesn't have bookmarks so thank you mystery person: Maui Aloha: The Peopleʻs Response; ‘Āina Momona; Kākoʻo Maui; Maui Strong Fund

12. I've been back on Tumblr and it's been so nice as compared to the trash fire of Twitter and the newness/sporadicalness of Bluesky/Mastodon. The main thing I missed? I forgot how pro-train it was and how I could find so much pro-train content and read all about trains. I love trains and trains discourse. Also, it has the best animal content outside of TikTok. Although the animal content on TikTok sometimes edges toward weirdness. Like this video, which I cannot watch at this time because I know I will have a crying laughter breakdown because I do EVERY TIME. Spoiler: it is not THAT funny but something about the sound/photo combo does something to my brain. Anyway, if you are also on Tumblr let's be pals (you don't have to like trains).

13. One of my favorite artist discoveries this year was Ephraim Bugumba. This is the first song I heard by him and I still love it so much. It's so chill and relaxing.

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