According to a memo last week, the Trump administration is pushing to redefine gender as strictly binary- male or female- based on designation made at birth. If adopted, this narrow and egregiously flawed definition would erase the identities of millions of transgender and nonconforming people across the country and significantly roll back protections as granted by Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in any programs that receive federal assistance. This isn’t Trump’s first attack on transgender citizens. In March, Trump introduced a policy that would…
It’s a little hard to believe that another Thanksgiving is behind us and that there are only five more games left in the regular season of football. We’re officially full-swing into the holidays now, kicked off with the melee of Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday. Spend baby spend. You know the routine. My long Thanksgiving weekend was okay. I spent most of Thanksgiving Day on the couch, happily watching football and occasionally catnapping. I’ve been working a lot of hours lately. My body is…
Since the inauguration, I’ve been experiencing an uncharacteristic inertia. A malaise has insinuated itself into my psyche, and my days are often void of the requisite energy to write or practice. As such, my productivity has tanked to a troubling low. This feels different than depression. Still, I’m not exactly sure what’s up. I’m curious if other artists are experiencing this too. Reality has flipped on its ear. Every fucking day is weirder than the one before it. Lying is the new norm. Corruption and…
Over the past year, there has been a 20% increase in hate crimes in major metropolitan areas across the United States. These incidents – ranging from malicious harassment and property damage to direct violence – are motivated by biases against the victims based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity and disability. Many believe, and rightfully so, that this spike is in direct relation to the rancorous 2016 presidential election. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has hit close to home as members of the Seattle…
Things are rather heavy these days. There's a pall draping our collective psyche. I can see and feel it everywhere: on social media, in the weary faces of both loved ones and strangers, in the low vibration that moans just beneath the surface of everything. We’re despondent still over a looming Trump presidency and all – known and unknown – that it brings. We’re grieving so many things, including the demise of the country we thought we knew. We’re awash in ambiguity and it hurts.…
OK, so the other night I was sitting at my dining room table, working on something. I was using a magic marker. I’m talking a big-ass, old-school Marks-A-Lot with the gnarly fumes. I was working away and started to get a little lightheaded from the vapors. Things went a little dippy, a little flippy and a whole lot otherworldly. The edges blurred for a second. There was a pop of light, and then God was sitting right there in front of me, in my own dining…