Cruel Compendium #82 🧛🏼
Artist's Way fall, loving well, and vampire binging.
Howdy!
Listen to the newest CSBC podcast ep: Design a creative routine that works. I talk about the life-changing magic of creative routines and how to create your own; encourage you to create your art NOW and not later; and actually say the sentence, “I need to be almost sexually attracted to my notebooks.”
Last week, I wrote about Fall Repotting Day, and how I’m planting some new seeds.
This Saturday, I did one more home chore I’ve put off for a very long time. I drilled a hole in my ceiling, inserted a toggle wing, and hung up my disco ball planter filled with a newly potted string of pearls. I had everything I needed to do this sitting around for years. Yet another task I put off for subconscious reasons I will never understand, done within a half hour!
Be sure to click “View entire message” at the end of this email so you can read the whole post in your browser. On to the links!
The curious case of the dog and the abortion pills by Debbie Nathan
A glimpse into the witch hunts that could swiftly launch into action if Trump is elected.
Reminder that you can get abortion pills by mail in every state at PlanCPills.org, and that the WHO says this medication is so safe to use that medical oversight is not needed.
Because the Comstock Act is federal law and the U.S. Postal Service is part of the executive branch, Trump, if he won the upcoming election, could issue an executive order reviving Comstock as early as the first day of his second term. Separately, his attorney general could authorize going after pills in the mail.
“I have absolutely no doubt that under a Trump administration the Postal Service would be required to enforce the Comstock laws against misoprostol and mifepristone,” said Lane, the cyber-privacy expert.
And if Comstock is revived, anyone caught sending abortion pills, even domestically produced brands not currently banned by the FDA, could be charged with a felony. With the pills officially defined as contraband, sniffer dogs could be trained to smell them on their own.
The Gaza we leave behind by Mosab Abu Toha
A wrenching portrait of what is lost when multiple generations experience displacement and the loss of a place to call home, over and over again.
Whenever I visit friends in the United States, I see portraits of parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents on the wall, and my heart stings. Why haven’t I inherited such treasures? Was it because Hasan lived and died in a refugee camp? If he saved the documents and photographs that could answer my questions about him, would they still exist now, after all that Gaza has endured?
The return of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Ryu Spaeth
I read and listened to a lot of content surrounding Coates’ new book, The Message, about Coates’ travels to three places of conflict: Dakar, Senegal; Columbia, South Carolina; and Israel and Palestine. This New York article is a must-read. Coates’ interview on the What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast is also well worth your time. Also, don’t miss Ann Friedman’s dispatch on the book and journalists’ collective breakup with “neutrality.”
That it was complicated, he now understood, was “horseshit.” “Complicated” was how people had described slavery and then segregation. “It’s complicated,” he said, “when you want to take something from somebody.”
In which my students face their creative fears by
On voicing your creative fears, then rejecting them.
14 years of illustrating Modern Love. Visuals by David B. Torch, visuals and text by Brian Rea
10 rules for loving and being loved well by
Books lately:
I devoured this book in 48 hours. I love this film, and was looking for something spooky to read, and it truly delivered. It’s the first of a trilogy, and I’m eagerly awaiting my library hold on the second edition.
An expedition of women enter Area X and discover mysterious creatures and biology that can’t be explained by science as we know it. Soon, they find that whatever is growing inside Area X also grows inside them.
A man in New York City has spent the last ten years working on the Rental Stranger app, from which you can hire someone to play any character you’d like: a wedding date, a long-lost brother, a funeral guest. In the role he’s played the longest, he’s the father of a growing young girl who’s beginning to suspect her father who comes home just once a week from his “truck driving job” isn’t all he says he is. His changing relationships start getting in the way of the careful distance he keeps from everyone around him, and his stoicism begins to unravel.
Bits and bobs about freelance writing.
I interviewed about the first 10 years of her freelance journalism career on
podcast! She shared so much wisdom about running a business (she has three), hiring your own team as a freelancer, and living and working abroad. Don’t miss Yan’s 10 lessons in 10 years of freelancing.My newest clip in Voices magazine:
The massive growth of the Texas Wine Trail in Hill Country, just outside of Austin. Did you know Texas is the fifth-highest wine producing state in the U.S.?
- in
Loved this Creator Spotlight deep-dive into
’s ten years of writing , and how she's already replaced half of her salary at Buffalo News in the six months since she's finally gone paid!- ’s enraging quest to chase down $5,000 in late fees.
The cost to hire an employee is $4K on average. JUST GIVE PEOPLE THE MEAGER RAISE THEY WANT FOR GOD'S SAKE.
An affordable course from the Institute for Freelance Journalists to level up your freelance business.
Journalism job openings from Rebecca Aguilar.
Tracked list of media job losses in 2024.
Please submit your questions on life, love, and creativity for the next installment of Dear Jilla! Read my advice on embracing your cringe.
Causes I care about and actions for change.
Hurricane Helene relief:
Buncombe County resource list
GoFundMe’s list of fundraisers
Shop local with NC brands who need your support
Get all the information you need to vote at Vote411.org. Head to ballotready.org to know what’s on your ballot. Make a voting plan, and text five friends to ask them to vote with you!
See where candidates stand on the issues you care about at IssueVoter.org.
Solid list of what Austin is voting on from Axios Austin.
Palestinian journalist Ruwaida Kamal Amer on living through one year of terror in Gaza.
Excellent list of resources and reads on Palestinian liberation from Nicole Cardoza (CSBC podcast guest), who also details how she survives the hate and death threats lobbed her way when she brings light to these issues. She actively rejects giving in to rage.
Visit ceasefiretoday.com for helpful links to email/call your Congress members, sign petitions, find a protest near you, and more.
🔪 I watched Anatomy of a Fall and it was so interesting to see a how a court case movie is done outside the US. Also, I’ll never hear “P.I.M.P” by 50 Cent again without thinking of this film, so watch at your own risk.
🕰️ I saw Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in We Live in Time and discovered my beloved niche genre (which my other favorite movie About Time fits neatly into): Romantic dramas that show the ups and downs of life across decades.
🐔 OMFG have you seen Andrew Garfield on Chicken Shop Date?!?
🧛🏽 Otherwise I’ve just been obsessively rewatching all of What We Do in the Shadows. First ep of the final season dropped last night!
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has a greeting card shop on Etsy! Her newsletter, , is a forever favorite.📰 Zine-o-matic — get zines delivered every month.
🖼️ A challenge to look at one piece of art for 10 minutes
👚 Indyx, a wardrobe-cataloging app. Will I ever find the patience to do this with my closet?
🎃 The Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is one of the best NYC events of the year. In a past life, I judged the parade! One of my greatest joys and privileges.
🦄 Pink Pony Plankton is everything
🪲 Did you know there are crushed up bugs in a lot of candy we eat? Sorry!
🐌 When your friend asks if they can post you in the photo dump
🌀 6-year-old me hearing Enya in my mom’s car for the first time
🏋🏼♀️ What you clicked on most in the last Compendium: Why I’m so glad I’ve been lifting weights in my 30s by Casey Johnston — CSBC podcast guest!
Support for the week ahead from your higher self.
What can I release alongside this week’s waning moon?
Four of Swords
Rest, relaxation
More spiritual reading:
on the Ten of Wands
Gorgeous disco ball + musings. Thx for doing all of this so that we can read it!
Thank you so much for the mention, Jillian! I am OBSESSED with the disco ball planter and must make my own immediately.