kitten

Nurture in Nature

RELATIONSHIPS
Obama’s nighttime playlist is all kinds of sexy
New episode of Livin’ and Lovin’ in NYC: sex in long-term relationships
Why it’s important and a-okay to not be a badass all the time – especially when you’re looking for love
Esther Perel: the secret to desire in a long-term relationship
Which way the toilet paper should go

BEING BETTER
What actually makes us happy
What it really means to hold space for someone
How toxic systems work to keep you in them (workplaces and relationships)
Time: various thoughts (by mwah)

FOOD PORN
Feed your eyes (and your belly)
Bay area nom noms (recipes and more)
How to make rasberry cordial from Anne of Green Gables
Nashville women and the recipes that tell their stories

GOOD NEWS
The decline of war
Iconic punk label dischord just uploaded entire archive to bandcamp
Why Americans are the weirdest people in the world
Cooperation in nature

CUTE SET
Dog rescues hummingbird, hummingbird becomes live-in Tinkerbell
Goat and donkey best friends
Cat and barn owl
Kitten learns how to clean from momma cat

Image credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
(Pro-tip: email subscribers click title for cute pic of Barack and Michelle Obama)

Wednesday Relief

“Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”  ― Abigail Adams

COMEDY
Janelle James will make you LAUGHCRYLAUGH
Straight from ComicCon: Justin Roilan, the voice of both Rick and Morty, reads a Georgian court transcript with his characters’ voices. The result is HILARIOUS. (headphones or else NSFW)
Chris Fleming’s Youtube Channel
Consensus, from David Mitchell’s Soapbox
PARIS, by John Early and Kate Berlant has me rolling

COMMENTARY
An analysis of Bill Clinton’s First Gentleman speech
Posthumously: Pat Conroy on the Anatomy of a Divorce (his own)
The Gospel of Consumption

CUTE
Munchkin meowing
Dog puts himself to bed

Image credit
(Hot tip: If you’re getting this via email, click the title to see images.)

Furtive Friday

POLITIK
Since when do rednecks like cops?
In a Manner That Must Shame God Himself: Kurt Vonnegut on the 1972 Republican Convention in Harper’s Magazine,* November 1972.
Rihanna WORK parody, re: Donald Trump JERK

*It’s behind a paywall—I know—but I swear, it’s the best $6.99 you’ll spend this year. 

ZANIES AND SLACKS
Livin and Lovin in NYC* discusses CRUISING
Cameron Esposito promises no lesbians die in Take My Wife
A map of the lands of human sexuality

*Those in the know are quite aware of this badass podcast started in 2015 by yours truly and the one and only Victator, aka Victoria Davis. We’ve even been featured in the Village Voice, Savage Love, WNYC, and Thrillist. Gale Mayness is ably holding forth as the new cohost, and if you’ve never listened, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. 

ART BECAUSE LIFE
On Diane Arbus and her life as an artist
Natural history illustrations from the 1500s
Beer can artwork

BARDS AND TROUBADORS
The Tallest Man On Earth, The Wild Hunt full album
Quantic y Anita Tijoux

PURE FUN
Shaquille O’Neal in drag lip-syncing to Beyoncé
James Corden and Michelle Obama in carpool karaoke with Missy Elliott

THE CUTE SET
An owl rides a toy horse
Kitten emerges from pillows

Image credit.

LJ Algorithm

What is the LJ Algorithm? 
Hard to define, more difficult to hold onto, the LJ Algorithm is the engine behind this newsletter / blogroll / whatever of links and anecdotes from around the web.

ART BECAUSE LIFE
Women of the Iowa Railroad: April 1943
The Work of Annu Palakunnathu Matthew: Indian American artist and photographer
Detroit 1982, by Robert Monaghan

LITERATURE MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING
W.H. Auden’s Syllabus
Fuck the Straight Line: How Story Rebels Against Expectation
The Creative Process, by James Baldwin

NEWS AND SHIT
Stephen Colbert Hijacked the RNC Stage
More Than 1,000 Attend Black Lives Matter Police Cook-Out in Wichita, Kansas
Women Were Included in the Civil Rights Act as a Joke

THE CUTE SET
Puppies Livestream
Kitten Gets So Excited He Jumps Up and Down

BONUS MISC.
101 Ways to Say Died

Image credit: Laura Jean Moore, New Jersey Beach, digital photograph, 2048 × 1152, 2015.