Last week you only got one newsletter, so this week three are coming at you. Today we have an amazing science experiment, a video game about Black trans liberation, the Ukrainian tourist industry’s response to the war, and of course, some cats. But first, let’s celebrate the achievements of young people last week.
A bunch of Black kids chasing some cops, including the police chief, into Whole Foods and then yelling “Suck my dick” is top tier behavior and that’s that!!
That clip is, of course, from the Kai Cenat gathering in Union Square last Friday. I was surprised at some of the reactions to this event. A lot of people were commenting that it shouldn’t have been “allowed,” or that Cenat should have gotten a permit. Does anyone really think Kai Cenat could have gotten a permit to do anything anywhere in NYC? Also, how fucked up is it to just serenely tell a Black man that the NYPD is in charge of who gets to gather in public but if he asks nicely it will be fine? I’ve dealt with the permitting process in NYC enough to know the only way Cenat maybe could have gotten a permit is if he paired up with some big corporations who paid lobbyist types to deal with the bureaucracy and ensure the police could bill a few hundred thousand in overtime to stand around and do nothing. At least this way they had to put in some effort.
Even more infuriating was watching Police Chief Jeff Madrey’s press conference, which was, like all police press conferences, total bullshit. Cops love to spin seamless narratives that emphasize their heroics and bravery, and Chief Maddrey’s timeline was all about escalating violence and the police stepping in to ensure public safety when things got out of hand. Except it’s pretty clear the cops totally overreacted by calling a level 4 response around 3 pm, just as the gathering was starting. At that point, the crowd was completely peaceful, if slightly rowdy.
Calling a level 4 response because there are too many Black kids in the park is fucked up. Just for reference, the NYPD only called a level 2 response when there were three school shootings in the space of an hour.
Police cause violence and when you call all the police in the city into one place, well then you are going to have a riot. At 3:00 the chief hadn’t even been chased into Whole Foods yet! I guess he took that really personally because later on he decided it was a good use of his time to wade into this supposedly violent and dangerous crowd and yell at Cenat’s bodyguard before some other cops pulled him off.
Those press conferences make me crazy. Madrey claimed his officers “showed restraint” when we saw a cop smash a kid into a car. He also claimed they gave the crowd multiple opportunities to leave when there is video of armed men on horses pushing kids back into the square, and video of kids attempting to leave and being chased and beaten by cops. And do you know what the first question a reporter asked was? They asked if any officers had been injured!!!! JEHOOZYPHAT!!!! WHAT?
If you watch the press conference and then read any subsequently published stories, like this one in the NYT, you can see that all the reporter did was type up what the cops said and present it as fact. Absolute disgrace.
Time for cats!
Cats in Pants
Penny thinks the only safe place to receive affection is in the bathroom. He disdains being petted anywhere else, but if I go near the door to the loo, he will get in there at top speed and look at me expectantly. Can I pet him then? No.
What I must do is sit on the seat. When I have done that, he will lie down just out of reach so I have to lean way over to touch him, and then allow me to scratch his one safe spot, which is his forehead. Occasionally I can get in a few strokes along his back before my human back starts to give or some other boundary is crossed and he sprints away.
But what if all this time he’s been expecting me to pull my pants down??? Now that I’ve discovered the satisfied and relaxed cats of the Cats in Pants community, I realize I might doing this all wrong. Apparently, if you wear the right kind of downstairs clothing and spend enough time in the loo, you can create a kind of cat paradise between your legs. (Ahem.) Am I the last to know??? I’ll try not to post too many but they are hilarious.
I can’t, they are so good. You can browse more on reddit, in the aptly named r/catsinpants. (“The real reason you should bring your phone to the toilet.”) My favorites were Soup, the kittens, and this guy.
Good Science!
Fact: Any project that lists “an egg, some clear tape, a pair of pantyhose, a flashlight, some ice cubes and a small wire or twist tie” as the necessary materials is going to rule. And this totally does, even though eggs kind of freak me out. These guys only made a bloody inside out egg!!!!!!! Some fancy restaurant probably charges $100 for one of these but now you can do it at home.
Directions in English are here.
Blacktransea.com
BLACKTRANSSEA is a 2021 online artwork by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. Like some of Brathwaite-Shirley’s other work, it masquerades as a choose-your-own-adventure game while delivering a radical experience that centers Black trans reality, history, and a possible future. While a lot of artists who find technology inherently dehumanizing, I love that Brathwaite-Shirley uses it to insist on the humanity that others seek to erase, writing “I use technology to imagine our lives in environments that centre our bodies… those living, those who have passed, and those who have been forgotten.” And don’t worry if you are white or cis—there’s a storyline in there for us. You’ll know it when you see it. ↓
Virtual Museum of War Memory
A Kyiv tourism site has partnered with the Close War project to create virtual walkthroughs of the devastation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The VR Museum of War Memory tells us, “We are recording the destruction to remember and show our descendants the price we are fighting for freedom and independence.”
The sites include villages and cities, a factory, a museum, and a strip of highway where cars streak past the carcasses of Russian tanks. As with BLACKTRANSSEA, I can’t know the Ukrainian experience. But I’m grateful to learn more about it.
No links today, you’ve probably clicked enough. See you Wednesday! Please subscribe!