So much happening for the shortest month

Lauren Denitzio -

Just as I suspected, this newsletter is getting increasingly hard to write now that projects outside of my own home are a reality again. At least, in a socially distanced, scaled-down version. I'm still here and have some nice things planned for y'all this month and beyond, but I'm sorry I've missed a few weeks here and there lately. It's not for lack of trying.

Part of what has been keeping me busy is finishing up work to show at Silver Sprocket in San Francisco starting this Saturday, February 5. There will be a reception starting at 6pm. I'm also going to play a Worriers acoustic solo set, and Maggie Gently will be playing as well. It costs zero dollars, so please come hang out if that feels safe for you. I'm looking forward to a nice gathering with masks and seeing the top half of a lot of faces.

I haven't had the opportunity to show my work in any sort of gallery setting in quite a while, which seems to be par for the course for many artists the past couple of years. I'm excited to share new drawings and paintings, and I'll have prints and zines available at the shop for about a month. I've worked with Silver Sprocket in one way or another for a long time - they're a great radical indie publisher and comics shop - and I'm glad we got to make this happen even if it's not connected to a full-band Worriers gig anymore.

The full band tour with Brian Fallon and Hurry starts February 15 in Atlanta, GA and hits lots of cities between there and Boston. If you haven't grabbed a ticket yet, please do so now! Then we're back on the road in April with Jawbreaker.

Things I want to make time for soon

The thing I keep wanting to say about the Sex and the City reboot

While I don't personally have the brain space or willingness to go in-depth on the nonbinary representation in the new Sex and the City show, this article by James Factora on Them really gets into it. If you haven't watched the show, which I kinda don't even recommend, there's a nonbinary character named Che played by Sara Ramirez aka Callie from Grey's Anatomy. Their character and plotline has been a trainwreck and I can't look away.

The show's attempt to create a relationship between Che and Miranda is I guess commendable, as many fans of the show just want Miranda to be queer, but it fails in the way that many queer people I know would watch their interactions and respond "Nope! Wrong! That wouldn't happen. Why?!"

For all the missteps and weirdly loud sex, the show misses the most obvious point of conflict between a pretty traditional Miranda and the show's beacon of queer nonbinary alternative-ness. An episode closes with Miranda flying off to surprise Che at a show out of state when they haven't had "the talk" yet. This is the point where I think surely this will backfire. This is clearly the part where Miranda shows up only to find Che on a date with someone else because they're certainly not monogamous and why would Miranda have assumed otherwise? They're going to lean into this stereotype and at least use it as an excuse to talk about that part of queer culture, right? But the show never even follows up on this plotline, so we have to assume that the trip went well.

How did that trip possibly go well?! The closest we get to processing is a vague conversation about redefining gender roles in a romantic relationship.

You know I'm looking for queer joy anywhere I can, but this was not it. There was so much potential for this show to finally platform queer relationships and I almost wish they hadn't tried.

Anyone else find new queer content worth watching recently?

To continue my own search, I'm going to listen to the latest episode of the Move Better Feel Great episode with Daniel Sea on my drive to San Francisco today. The episode is titled "Friendship, acting, and queerness." Sign me up. Speaking of my drive to SF today, I'm going to be late! See you all next week with a Valentine's Day-related reflection.